African Garden + Weather

Full Force Weather - a Minor Deluge

Squirrelhaven's new water feature.

Yesterday afternoon, it was beastly, unbearable hot. Then the heavens opened and poured down upon Squirrelhaven over 2 1/2 inches of rain in less than an hour. I can't recall the like, so I documented it. Pardon the inane commentary, but I was in a bit of a state of shock and I was talking to the kids. This kind of flooding has happened only once before in the 17 years I've lived here (remember the rains of September 2008?), but never this quickly.

There was so much water and then the street drain got clogged with debris blown off the trees, so the water ran up over the curb. All that water had retreated by evening. In addition to the wild wind, there was pea-sized hail.
This morning I surveyed the aftermath. I was right about the Peony 'Fen Yu Nu.'

It's really a shame, as the flower is a lovely single, Japanese type.
While the Phlox pilosa 'Eco Happy Traveler' looked pretty bad this morning,

it perked up once it dried off. I wish I could say the same about the jack-in-the-pulpits.

Fortunately, not all of them look like they've gone on a bender.
There was minor breakage

and hail damage, and the wind cleared out a bit of deadwood from the trees.

My major concern is for the Chionanthus virginicus.

It's a single-stemmed tree form, and it's still badly listing. At least it didn't break, so it will recover, albeit with a bit more character.