TIMOTHY DALY: Summer blooming plants color the landscape

The spring landscape is saturated with flowering shrubs, and we are entering the summer months. The summer also has many colorful plants that tolerate our heat and humidity. Among the many shrubs that provide summer interest are hydrangeas, crape myrtles, chaste trees, clethra, and many others.

Hydrangeas thrive in the heat of summer. The big-leafed hydrangeas produce big, blue, mop-headed flowers. The large mounds of foliage support multitudes of blossoms. The flowers are generally blue in our acid soils. But if you lime the soil, the flowers will turn pink or purple.