Every year around this time the gardens start to give up a little. Once-verdant stretches of ostrich fern are brown and burned (despite my best efforts to keep them watered), the floral stalks of hosta plants are weighed down with pendulous seed-pods (which I am late in dead-heading), and the first thrust of blooms from the potted patio plants has declined.
Still, there is hope, and this is the time that a renewed fertilizer cycle and some judicious but drastic pruning can result in a second summer showing. I was reminded of that when this begonia began making its own efforts to that end. Here you can see it forming buds for new flowers after taking a couple of weeks of rest.
