We have reached the end of August with the last day of the month upon us. Last weekend, we had a cool, rainy pleasant three days. The road I live on was a slush of mud, washouts and ruts, but plants sure did like the rain.

Last weekend was the Georgia Pollinator Count, but it rained both days and I did not see any pollinators. I rarely see honey bees, but there are lots of wasps and single bee pollinators busy in the flowers.

There was a very stinky smell around one of my outbuildings and my son thought something had died so he was hunting it to remove. Instead he found four small rattlesnakes, he called me to come outside and we found several little snake skins and one huge Mama snake skin. Apparently there is a group of them living in the concrete block floor of another nearby small outbuilding. 

Over the next two days, he killed four small rattlesnakes, they were about 15 inches long, but the mother is still out there. Now, I am afraid to walk outside, off of the carport concrete floor at night. We saw three other small rattlesnakes but they escaped into the tunnels of the concrete block floor. The unpleasant smell is still in that area so I’m assuming there are many more under there.

Fall will arrive in approximately three weeks, maybe cooler weather will also arrive. Late summer flowers are starting to bloom. Confederate Rose bushes are forming buds at the end off the branches, check the buds occasionally for small worms that will eat holes in them causing the buds to drop off. 

Late-blooming gingers are flowering now, Pinecone lilies already have the red pine cones coming up through lower foliage. Butterfly gingers are still blooming and will continue as long as they receive adequate rain. The tall orange-flowering gingers should be blooming soon.

Morning glory vines are covering everything they can climb, small-flowering red trumpet vines are a mass of tiny little red trumpet flowers. Hummingbirds love these vines and can often be seen feeding as they hover above the little red trumpets.

After the abundant rain, spider lilies will soon be shooting up their brilliant red blooms. Gold or yellow spider lilies bloom two to three weeks later.

In a few weeks, sasanqua camellias will be blooming and japonica camellias will follow when they accumulate enough chill-hours or in December. Some daylily species are reblooming, check for propagations on the scapes of your daylilies, you will see small plants growing if your plants produced any. 

When the scape dries up and no longer feeds the propagations they can be pulled off of the scape, placed in shallow water and rooted. If the plants are small or puny, you can cut a few inches off the scape and leave it attached to the baby plant to continue feeding the baby while it grows roots.

Althea bushes are booming continuously in a variety of beautiful colors and usually have a different colored throat. Cuttings can be taken now from altheia bushes, Confederate roses and angel’s trumpets, they will root through the fall and can be carried over until spring in a water bucket or they can be planted in the dirt, if we have a very cold winter they could be killed if planted outside.

I am out of space, and topics to discuss. See you next week.

Susan Grooms lives and gardens in Lowndes County.