This has been a great summer so far. My yard seems quite happy with the amount of rain we've had. The summer bloomers continue to do their thing. The Purple Magic crape myrtle was the first of the three in this area to bloom this year. It did so in mid-June, which means it's been sporting purple flowers for a month now.

The Plum Magic crape myrtle has tripled in size since I planted it in 2015. It has also been blooming for a month.

The Crimson Red crape myrtle is getting a late start, but is now starting to bloom.

Speaking of benefiting from the rain this summer, the Vitex Shoal Creek has tripled in size since I planted it in April 2016. This plant should get pretty large and bloom in blue each spring.

The one remaining Super Blue Lavender still shows a few blooms. It bloomed earlier this spring. When it finished blooming, I cut the spent flowers off hoping it would bloom again, which it did ! This sounds like something I should pay attention to.

I tried to zoom in on a moth on one of the flowers, which was a lot harder than it sounds. But the picture turned ok given the circumstances.

I had two projects on the agenda for today. In one of my first Yard Adventure undertakings, I planted an Eleanor Tabor Indian Hawthorn shrub directly in front of the house in March 2012 where it did ok, but not great. I moved it to the mailbox area in April 2016 thinking more sun would be beneficial. That idea, which looked good on paper, didn't work at all in practice, (it dropped most of its leaves shortly afterward). It's looked pretty sad ever since.

My reason for wanting to move the hawthorn at this point stems from the nearby Pampas Grass plant which is doing extremely well this year and has slowly been encroaching on the hawthorn's space. So the plan for today was to move it once again before it gets smothered. I broke out the shovel and pulled it out of the ground.

According to the tag that came with the hawthorn, it likes sun. When directly in front of the house didn't work, I moved it to the mailbox. That location, even though it is in full sun, didn't work either for unknown reasons. So now I don't know what to think. I decided to put it next to the Leyland Cypress and Reeves Spireas by the front walk where I had the small relocated azalea. This area gets sunlight, (although not full-sun all day long), and is large enough to give it some room. After a little bit of effort, the hawthorn now has another new address. Everything I do with this plant is a guess at this point. So I'm going to cross my fingers and see what happens.

I tried to center the hawthorn evenly in between the Leyland Cypress and Reeves Spireas. There should be enough room in this location for everyone.

With the Eleanor Tabor Indian Hawthorn relocated, this meant I had to find yet another home for the small azalea. Since I hacked all of the azaleas next to the driveway this past spring, a decent gap has developed in between two of them large enough to fit this small shrub. This will be the fourth, and hopefully last location for this little guy.

This is the azalea that I originally found on the other side of the yard completely surrounded by English Ivy. I've moved it twice previously with no ill effects. It has continued to bloom beautifully each year, but hasn't really grown at all. So we'll see what happens now.

My mind likes the idea of the small azalea being next to all the other azaleas along the driveway. And if my previous experiences are accurate, this shrub is pretty stout and should survive another relocation.