Summer's End

I planned to do more summer posts.  Plans don't always come to fruition and I'll offer no excuses.  

I'll post share photos of late summer's mood.  

The end of summer is when the last flowers, green foliage, berries, seed heads overlap with dimming sunlight.

Summer Flowering Trees & Shrubs

The beginning of June...spring's frenetic energy slows.  Leaves age from nearly translucent greens to opaque greens.  

Summer flowers open at a measured pace.

Wait.  I'm supposed to be writing about summer flowering trees and shrubs not haikus.

Well, summer flowering trees are few and far between in zone 7a.  But the trees and shrubs that flower at this time of year are widely grown.  Even if no one wanted to grow it.  I'm talking about rose of sharons that defiantly self sow.

Big and bold hydrangea flowers are seen from a distance.  No photos here.  I've written about them at length elsewhere. 

Then there's crape myrtle.  See it in the city, suburbs, country or strip malls.  Yet it never breaks loose from these confines to grow wild.  Huh.  

Oh, and crape myrtle's scented flowers remind me of my grandfather's aftershave.  Is that bad?  No. It's good.

Speaking of scents...sweet bay magnolia's and southern magnolia's showy flowers have a perfume I can't describe.  Surely, a perfumer has bottled this elusive scent or captured it in candle form.

Unlike spring flowering trees and shrubs, hydrangea, crape myrtle, sweet bay/southern magnolia and rose of sharons hang on until late August/September.  Magnolias sporadically bloom into autumn, depending on temperatures.  In zone 7a.

Enjoy the summer flowering trees and shrubs.  Make them the subject of your summer haiku.