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Look out the front door and see the butterfly garden awakened by rain (photos enlarge when clicked)
The native Gregg's Mist Flower looked as if it would die in August but it's full of bees and Queens in October. The Blackfoot daisies should show up if you click.
Walk to the flower bed at the end of the porch and see the white Salvia greggii reblooming... did you guess that those emerging leaves are narcissus? Even while summer lingers the garden is thinking of spring.
As you cross the driveway, notice the usually sedate Salvia leucantha is throwing a party under the garage overhang
The Pink Entrance Garden really is pink now - 'Belinda's Dream' rose, 'Champagne' minirose, pink gaura, rosy ice plant, pink skullcap, lavender pink angelonia and white lantana rejoice that they lived through summer 2009
Next to the garden gate a tall white abelia hangs blossoms, its clusters full instead of sparse. In quantity they are lightly fragrant.
Walk through the gate and look left - after sulking through the summer, the Salvia madrensis swallowed the rain, had a growth spurt and quickly made buds. But those flowers weren't open for GBBD - the rascals tried to fool me by staying close until the 17th. I fooled them by being late.
The two triangle beds and the long borders don't look too bad at a distance, and some flowers can stand a close-up...but this month we're not displaying our bedraggled and raggedyfoliage in any medium-close photos.
The walk to the door is pretty interesting right now - the Meyer's lemon has some wicked thorns and the 7-foot yellow brugmansia blocks the sidewalk while dropping little green spiders on anyone approaching the back door. The clematis still has a few unopened buds.
Blue goes with everything - Mistflower goes with Black & Blue salvia and a pink butterfly bush passalong from Lori likes the Salvia guaranitica hanging over its shoulder.
Above left, more Salvia 'Black & Blue' works with Yellow bulbine in the front butterfly bed while at right the Blue Butterfly Flower/Clerodendrum ugandense cavorts with Mexican Mint Marigold in the larger triangle bed in the back yard.The two flowers below earned closeups: Pineapple sage/Salvia elegans and Scutellaria 'Dorota Blue' - one of the Skullcaps. Any "Gossip Girl" fans out there? I just learned the show has a character named Dorota
The 'Julia Child' rose looks good once again - and so do the clematis flowers. If you're interested in the botanical names check back at Annie's Addendum - eventually the full list with botanical names will appear.As the finale here are two little white lookalike flowers, both having a very good October.
Please go to Carol's blog to see the other gardeners taking part in GBBD for October."GBBD for October 2009, Late but Flowery" was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog
Lovely garden and such a contrast to my 43 degrees and pouring rain today.
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat to see all these blooms. I love reading the bloom day posts of the Austin garden bloggers this month. So much happiness and so much bloom after such an awful summer!
ReplyDeleteAnd your garden never fails to impress with all the variety there.
Your garden seems quite lively after the rain Annie. My garden looks quite sad now. We had our first frost last night.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to see all these lovely blooms and butterflies, Annie! We had a frost last night, so most everything in my garden is wilted.
ReplyDeleteI'd write more, but I just read your last post and left a comment there. What a great tour of so many National Parks!
I'm so glad to see your garden recovering so nicely Annie! Many things look like they were just just waiting for that rain so they could bounce back. I've got bulbs coming up too...dutch iris in particular.
ReplyDeleteAnnie, Who would know that you all had suffered the worst drought this summer/fall! Everything looks lush. it's all lovely! I have a few spots of color still...blues from the asters, red from the salvia....Seeing your garden brings home the reality that we will have a frost soon. After all I don't live in in your hardiness zone! have a great week. gail
ReplyDeleteThings are looking pretty good there, all things considering! I really love Blackfoot Daisy. Years ago I accidently found that if you plant it near a wall it'll develop a beautiful cascade over it. And your roses are looking good too. Normally ours would too at this time of year but we've had too much rain and too little sun. Congrats on making it through your tough summer.
ReplyDeleteLovely to see everything recovered and enjoying the fall.
ReplyDeleteYour porch is just lovely, especially seen "through" the brug. And that salvia leucantha (I think I butchered the spelling there, sorry) looks like it must ALWAYS throw a party, with that wild grape-Kool-Aid-on-acid coloring. I love it!
ReplyDeleteWow! Lots and lots of flowers--not that I'm surprised because you seemed to have so much blooming even in the worst of this summer.
ReplyDeleteThe rain has just transformed Austin. I just feel so happy (and sense your happiness in this post) that our poor long-suffering gardens have gone wild with the rain and flowered for all they are worth after being stifled for so long.
That weather seems more November than October, Tabor!
ReplyDeleteThe photos are cropped and the angles calculated, Carol! Most of it looks like a mess, but it's amazing to see what lived.
The rain made a difference -still in drought but the plants take what they can get and run with it! Well, Lisa at Greenbow, the good thing is you can now forget the garden and do other stuff!
Hi Prairie Rose - hope you got the tender plants inside in time... thanks for reading both posts.
One advantage of my scattershot approach is that lots can die before there are too many blank spots! Dutch iris are so elegant, Leslie...had no luck with them in the past but do like them.
Some of the plants doubled in size since the first good rains last month, Gail - others immediately rotted! You mentioned that happening in your own garden with natives that want perfect drainage. We on clay can't offer plants perfect anything, can we?
Have to show Philo the blue lichen in your post!
These are the first Blackfoot Daisies to live for me, Jean - if they don't live through winter I'll have to replant them because I've fallen in love with them, too. One of my friends pointed out they have a pleasant fragrance, too. Hope you get some autumn sun!
It sure is different out there, isn't it Bonnie? And the wildlife is acting pretty bouncy, too!
An eight-foot tower of bells does dress up a back stoop, doesn't it Blackswamp Kim? You had Salvia leucantha right (AKA Mexican Bush Sage). It barely registers in summer - a rather somber clump of dull green- then wham - in bloom and covered in bees.
Except for the Dorota skullcap & pink butterfly bush in containers, and the Blackfoot daisies planted last winter, MSS of Zanthan Gardens, the plants are the same ones that bloomed last fall. Guess this garden cast and I are stuck with each other!
Thanks for the comments,
Annie
Everything is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you have Autumn in Austin Annie as this looks like another Spring to me. ;-) It's good to see that your garden has got a new lease on life after that dreadful Summer.
ReplyDeleteBTW I like your gorgeous Zinnia linnearis!
It all looks so lovely and so many flowers. What a difference a month makes. Wasn't it beautiful the way all the butterflies suddenly woke up with the weekend sunshine and warmth? The garden was alive.
ReplyDeleteAfter your terribly difficult summer, you Austinites deserve one heck of a good autumn. When I read about your Mexican bush sage having a party, I thought it's always having a fiesta wherever it goes. Happy bloom day my friend.~~Dee
ReplyDeleteI'm too sleepy (after a boring business meeting) to write an interesting comment, Annie, but just want to tell you how happy I am that you've had some good rain down there. Your garden has perked up beautifully and is looking very happy.
ReplyDeleteThe back door is very welcoming with that gorgeous Clematis and the Brug....except for the little green spiders dropping from above :)
You have so many lovely Salvias!
Enjoy those autumn temps and your "born again" garden :)
Annie, I've never seen that Julia Child rose before. It's quite gorgeous. This October is our due reward isn't it? What glorious weather we are getting to enjoy for a change, and the plants are rejoicing with us. My Clarendon Ugadense is also blooming - it actually grew a LOT over the awful summer. I think I'm going to like it!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a lovely array for bloom day! I like them all but that Salvia madrensis and Julia Child are totally new to me. And what fun that bulbs are sneaking in among the fall flowers! Great pictures, too.
ReplyDeleteThat Julia Child looks way better than other images I have seen. I do love Julia; maybe I need to get this.
ReplyDeleteGarden is gorgeous; I am quite jealous, especially of those butterflies. I only get white and yellow ones and monarchs.
Wow! You have a gorgeous October garden. I'm so glad that after a tough summer, that you're being rewarded now.
ReplyDeleteMy forsythia sage just started blooming here too - it's one of my favorite (and blooms before 'hidalgo', which if we have an early frost, gets zapped). I always thing of forsythia sage as my garden's 'fall' color!
Enjoyed your bloom day photos. As I was sitting at a hotel in Cape Girardeau yesterday watching the weather channel, they were showing photos of flooding in Austin. I thought of you and hope you were not flooded out. First drought, now floods? What next?
ReplyDeleteI know, don't ask. We might not want to know the answer to that question!
It looks beautiful, Annie. Like the others, I am so glad you Austin gardeners are getting a reprieve from that hideous drought.
ReplyDeleteAnnie, that Clematis by the front door is amazing! I know you're delighted by how well your garden has rebounded from the hellatious summer. I'm happy for you!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to see your garden has come back so stunningly. I am in lust of your Clematis. It is gorgeous. I walk through my gardens now and it is as if the summer never happened. I hope that kind of summer never happens again.
ReplyDeleteAnnie, I'm rejoicing at having survived the summer. I didn't think I would. Now that the near-perfect weather that Austin is famous for is here, I don't want to spend a minute of it inside!
ReplyDeleteThat Julia Child rose is amazing--as is the Clematis. Your garden is alive with color, and everything looks beautiful.
So nice to visit Austin and see sunshine in your garden Annie! It still looks like summer there - just the therapy I needed after our dreary, wet October. Your October blooms are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYour pictures include colors more likely in Spring! It's nice to see the salvias and other trumpet-shaped flowers to replace my fading fuschias. The rains are coming.
ReplyDeleteI'm having bloom envy. All of your flowers look wonderful. Beautiful colours of Salvia and what a cool Brugmansia ( a great way to deter visitors with those little spiders dropping out!).
ReplyDeleteI was hoping for some scabiosa blooms, but I guess they will come along in another bloom day post. The Scutellaria 'Dorota Blue' is lovely.
Hi Phillip - thanks for stopping!
ReplyDeleteIt feels so different from the last 2 years, Yolanda Elizabet hope we continue to climb out of the drought!
The butterflies seem to appear out of nowhere the second the mistflower starts blooming, Lancashire Rose - love seeing them!
Thanks, Dee of red Dirt- it's been so nice! The color of Salvia leucantha is so vibrant it should get lots of invitations ;-]
Thank you for writing, Kerri - your comments are always interesting!
When the drought was at its worst we saw few insects at all - no spider webs! It's better to have lots of life out there...even spider life!
This is the third summer for the Julia Child rose, Robin Get Grounded - she struggles sometimes but so far has bounced back each time when the weather eased. I was worried about the Clerodendrum this spring - it was so puny after winter and the March hailstorm. But it's great this fall!
I saw the Salvia madrensis on the blog of Pam in SC (her comment is below) back in fall 2007. When it showed up at the Natural Gardener it jumped in my cart. Watch out Linda/CTG - it would like your garden, too!
The lower leaves do get blackspot, EAL but the flowers usually open well, and they have a kind of simple and solid substance that works well with the foliage. Supposedly Julia herself chose it because it looked like good butter to her.
I never saw Queen butterflies and fritillaries until we moved here - all about the host plants, maybe?
Your photos of the Salvia clued me to this plant, Pam/SC! It's in full bloom now- ready to be the Fall Color for the next GBBD. In IL Pineapple sage was annual and usually froze before blooming. Now that's perennial!
Thanks, Healing Magic Hands - rain hit some areas much harder than others - we were soggy but not really flooded. Drought and flood is what we get. Yippee.
Had another .6 inches last weekend and hope for more. Thanks for the thoughts, Kathy - yards are good but lakes still way down.
I really thought the clematis was a gonner, Cindy from Katy. It surprised me, too! Hope we're all in a kinder weather period!
Hello Bob - good to see you. I bought that clematis in March 2001 off a sale rack and grew it in a large pot on a covered porch for 4 years. By the time we planted it at this house the roots were huge - think that's why it survived!
If I knew in 2001 it would be like this, would have lit out!
Summer seemed interminable, didn't it Morning glories in Round Rock? Glad you made it through!
What's making us happy is cooler nights, Garden Girl - so we can appreciate the sunshine in the day!
Some of that is probably plant choice, Weeping Sore - I can't resist anything light blue or violet or pale yellow or white...guess I'm partial to trumpet shapes, too! But the red & blue salvias and cupheas are more dominant if you are actually here. Hope you get the weather you wished for.
Hi Kate Smudges - you're here right before the November GBBD - and no scabiosa on that one, either. I hate to tell you this, but the original plant died in the heat and a small offset that I've been babying isn't blooming yet. But I like the plant so much may try again.
Thanks for the comments,
Annie
Is Blackfoot Daisy perennial? We grow Melampodium paludosum (yellow) here and it is an annual. It reseeds like crazy but well behaved.
ReplyDeleteYou have so many great blooms so late in the season.
Hi Nell Jean,
ReplyDeleteBlackfoot Daisy is perennial where it's happy. I've killed it several times! I'm not sure about the zone, but it needs really good drainage and lots of sun.
Annie
Good heavens you've got a lot blooming! I love the color of that vine on your front porch! And I wish my Brugmansia had that many blooms...the rain has really brought everything back to life! I can't wait to see your garden in person!
ReplyDelete