Celebrating August blooms,  I’m thanking Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this fun flower meme.   With sporadic rains and relatively mild temperatures this summer, there are fewer burnt-toast blossoms in Austin’s August.

My Mexican Orchid Tree, Bauhinia mexicana, has bloomed on and off all summer.

Elegant, snowy blossoms cool a shady spot on hot Texas afternoons. These flowers are  a favorite of Black Swallowtail Butterflies.

In stark contrast with the white Mexican Orchid, but also favored by butterflies, is the Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima.  Tropical-hot orange and yellow,

… these drama queens thrive in the heat.

Royal Sage, Salvia guaranitica, blooms stunningly in early and mid-spring, but not as commonly though summer.

This year though,  a smattering of midnight blue gorgeousness has graced the two royal specimens in my gardens.

With multiple flowers opening everyday, the Lemon Rose Mallow, Hibiscus calyphyllus dances through August.

Flouncing her petals open in the mornings, sashaying during afternoon breezes and bowing to heat at the end of the day, this mallow is a consummate performer.

The  blooms of Coral Vine, Antigonon leptopus, form on lacy loops along climbing tendrils.

I’ll replace its trellis next winter when this tropical, but hardy-for-the-Austin area herbaceous perennial freezes to the ground.

The trellis is a bit wonky, even for me.  The honeybees and I eagerly await the apex of Coral Vine’s blossoming period–soon, very soon!!

A close-up of a coral  Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii, flower,

…it belongs to a woody shrub native to Texas which produces a variety of colors.  I like this soft coral pink–it’s the best blooming salvia in my gardens this year.

The bright red Martha Gonzales Rose, Rosa ‘Martha Gonzales’, flowers throughout summer.

I wish mine received a little more sun–it would bloom even more.  This is a terrifically tough antique rose for Central Texas.

The Mexican Honeysuckle, Justicia spicigera, returned full-force after our hard winter.

It’s orange clusters await early fall visits by butterflies and the occasional hummingbird.

The shrub is covered in tubular goodness now and that’s likely to continue into the fall months.

This pairing of pink and blue is too sweet!

The creeping groundcover, Leadwort Plumbago, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, produces sky blue florets,

…which beautifully complement the small periscope blooms atop the stems of Pink Skullcap, Scutellaria suffrutescens.

And still screaming: Summer! Summer! Summer!–is the sunflower de jour.

Or rather, sunflower de l’ete.

While new flowers open daily,

…those spent blossoms that have gone to seed are providing yummy munchies for the local finches.

Happy finch!

Visit May Dreams Gardens for more blooming beauties this Bloggers’ Bloom Day.