Happy Father’s Day to all fathers. We are entering the last full week of June, bugs are multiplying as fast as weeds are growing. The recent rains have everything growing well.

Mosquitoes are laying eggs in water that has collected, even in small amounts. The hotter the temperature, the faster the larvae develop, into blood thirsty, disease-causing pests.

Out here in the country, we have two kinds, at least. The big ones, that you can feel land on you and the little dark-colored ones, that you cannot feel until after they have fed and left and the itching starts.

Beautiful flowers are coming out all across the landscape. Mimosa trees have been a bright pink spot and they give off a lovely fruity fragrance. Southern magnolias are blooming with their big white lovely flowers with the faint lemon scent. 

I saw the first shrub of elderberries blooming on the side of the road. Gardinias are pretty with all the pure white flowers against the dark evergreen foliage. The wonderful fragrance of gardenias is world renowned and they are often grown in greenhouses or a conservatory where they will not survive outside. 

 Daylilies show their bright colorful faces in beds all around our town and country side. The big balls of beautiful blue, lilac and white flowers on a tall leaf-less stem (scape) are Nile lilies, Agapanthus, and grow from bulbs. 

Bright red annual salvia is a top performer in this hot weather. It is usually paired with another color for good contrast. Caladiums are waking up and pushing up beautiful, bright colorful leaves that are as attention-getting as flowers.

Althea shrubs are covered in pretty flowers, they like the rain and can produce lovely Camellia-like doubles and very pretty single flowers. They are available in colors of white, purple, lilac, pink and shades of all of these colors. They usually have a different colored throat for an interesting bicolor effect.

Hibiscus shrubs with the large dinner-plate flowers are blooming heavily. Their flowers are available in a wide range of colors; white, yellow, red, pink, orange and many shades of each color. Some are double-flowered with different looking blooms; a small ruffled umbrella-like group of petals hangs from the bloom of some species.

Many perennials are blooming; purple coneflowers, geraniums, crinums, rain lilies, encore azaleas, petunias, beebalm, a.k.a. bergamont, with their round flower formed by a group of funnel-shaped smaller individual petals. It is a pollinator and medical herb and greatly favored by hummingbird.

Cannas are blooming beautifully if you can get ahead of the number one canna pest, the canna leaf roller worm. The worm binds the leaf with silk-like thread, the worm lives in the funnel formed by not allowing the leaf to unfurl, it eats the tender newly forming leaves and the flower buds. 

If you notice this problem, spray any insecticide or sprinkle Sevin dust down the funnel formed by the new foliage as soon as you can see the least opening. You can also spray the whole bed before the moths lay their eggs.

Angel trumpets, Burgmansia, are magnificent now with dozens and dozens of big beautiful trumpets forming along their branches. They will flower in wave after wave all summer and fall. 

Angel trumpet flowers hang down, devils trumpet, Datura, flowers face up. Datura is an annual, Brugmansia is a perennial in our zone. Both are considered toxic due to their mind-altering properties. And people have died from overindulgence. The landscape is a source of great beauty and inspiration, but we must respect the dangers inherent in the natural world.

See you next week.

Susan Grooms lives and gardens in Lowndes County.