May 2018 Garden Scrapbook

It’s already July. The temperature is around 100°F every day, the world is a mess and good friends are in the hospital and/or rehab. So what can I do?
I can’t march but I can be registered to vote. I can send contributions to the food bank and Beto and RAICES. I can make phone calls to people in rehab. I can work on my songs. And I can still put up garden photos once in awhile. Here are a few from May.

A yellow warbler stopped by on May 3^rd. Some of the little birds like to hop around the bottom of the birdbath fountain… maybe they feel safer there? They sometimes sip from the side of the stone.

Tiny leaves appeared on the over-wintered Musical Notes clerodendron/Clerodendrum incisa on May 10^th. Every spring I watch and wait and wonder if this will be the year it stays dormant and doesn’t wake up. That will no doubt happen some spring but it’s alive this year!

By May 11^th both the pomegranate and the pineapple guava were in bloom. When they flower together the secret garden is gorgeous and gaudy. Unfortunately they never do make any fruit (the orchardist equivalent of All Hat and No Cattle?) but what lovely hats.

A couple of days later the fragrant double Mock Orange was in bloom. A decade ago I carried a tiny rooted piece from my parents’ home in Illinois here to my Texas garden. Their house belongs to other people now but I have this sweet memory.

I had an Oak Leaf Hydrangea in Illinois 20 years ago and am glad I tried it here. The shrub does well in partial shade but that comes with a side effect in my yard. The pecan trees create shade but they also drop vast amounts of spent pollen tassels on everything under their canopy.

Most of the daylilies had flowers but the number of stalks and blooms was half of what they can do in a good year. 'Best of Friends’ is pleasing even with fewer stalks and flowers.

Before snapping this photo I should have groomed the daylily by removing the spent flower. This is ‘Echo Canyon’ and it’s a spider daylily.

 Did you watch or read about any of the Royal Wedding? Some articles mentioned the components of Meghan Markle’s bouquet as being myrtle. My dwarf Greek myrtle had quarter-sized flowers in bloom that day. I think the myrtle grown in England is slightly different but this variety can survive in Austin, it’s fragrant and pretty and bouquet-worthy!

 The original division of this Shasta daisy came from a dear friend fifteen years ago. 

Last year I noticed a small shrubby plant that had popped up in a border. It looked vaguely familiar so I let it grow until fall. After it went dormant I chopped it down to 12 inches. The plant woke up, made leaves and by May 28^th a few flowers had opened. So far it looks like an American Beautyberry/ Callicarpa americana but I’m not sure yet. Will this gift from the birds be a good gift or a bad surprise? 

This post May 2018 Garden Scrapbook was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog

Bloom Day & Genealogy

WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE??
Maybe you recognized that line as a riff on the recent family history series "Who Do You Think You Are?" It was fun to see Twitter-friend Megan Smolenyak on the show, helping celebrities find out answers to mysteries of their family's past. My time and brain cells have been devoted more to genealogy than to gardening lately - and until last night's blessed 2-inches of rain fell, the gardening mostly consisted of watering.
Somehow old records suddenly appeared, solving some puzzles while sprinkling new question marks all over the charts.

Some of the findings are fun: A previously unknown great-grand-aunt appeared out of thin air on the Zoelle branch! Researching this name has produced such variations as Zolle, Zolla, Zoller, Zello, Seller & Colley.

Some of the findings are disturbing: so many death certificates had forms of tuberculosis as the cause of death that I started reading about its effects on Chicago in the late 1800's-early 1900's. Now I'm feeling emotionally overwhelmed with sympathy for my poor immigrant ancestors, many of them born before TB was recognized as infectious rather than an inherited tendency. Logic and reason remind me this happened so long ago that they'd all be dead by now... even without consumption to carry them off...how is it possible to mourn for and with people you never knew?


Enough of Family Trees for now! It's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, begun by May Dreams Carol. Even in that relationship genealogy comes into play... I first found Carol in a web search- not through her garden blog, but at her Grandmother's Diary.



In other months my GBBD posts may feature plants that will only grow where winters are comparatively mild - Texas mountain laurel, Carolina jessamine, White ginger or bluebonnets.But sometimes a vignette like this one looks quite similar to some place 1200 miles away and a dozen years ago.


This little reblooming daylily, a recross of 'Stella d'Oro' called 'Vi's Apricot', used to flower in Illinois -
But it bloomed in July rather than May, and never at the feet of a 'Meyer's Improved' lemon tree!
Tomato blossoms are beautiful no matter where or when they bloom.

Calibrachoa and green beans are pretty universal, aren't they?

The so-called Ditch Lily (Hemerocallis fulva) really did grow in roadside drainage ditches in Illinois. It was so common that I didn't bother to bring a piece with me to Texas. It's been nearly 11 years since I saw one blooming but thanks to Good and Evil Lori this Wisconsin-born orange daylily opened flowers today.
And thanks to the inspiration of MSS of Zanthan Gardens, the daylilies opened with a cloud of 'Royal Wedding' sweet peas above them

In Illinois the yellow rose would have been 'Graham Thomas' instead of 'Julia Child', the pine was a dwarf Mugho Pine instead of an Italian Stone Pine and the pale purple bells of Mexican Oregano would never survive winter, but the vine in the background would be the same -a Clematis 'Ramona' eventually shows up in all my gardens, no matter where we live.

So does the light yellow daylily, Hemerocallis 'Happy Returns' - here with other old favorites blue larkspur, yarrow Achillea 'Moonshine', yellow snapdragons and Salvia farinacea. The main difference in this scene versus one in Illinois is that the rocks are free in Texas!

If I see a beloved plant from the past on the distressed/sale table there's a good chance I'll try to grow it here. This Oakleaf Hydrangea followed me home from Countryside Nursery last winter



But before anyone calls the Reality Police and tells them to stage an intervention, here is proof that I really do know where I am. This is Austin, Texas, where Salvia 'Black & Blue' grows like a weed

Where exotic fruits like Pineapple Guava are used as garden shrubs


And tender fruit trees like 'Wonderful' Pomegranate live through the winter and bloom

Where 'Celeste' figs grow uncovered and unprotected as landscape elements

Where a fragrant double yellow Oleander from Plant Delights
Combines with fragrant white Confederate jasmine

And a fragrant white 'Little Gem' magnolia to scent the air and make one feel like a superannuated Scarlet O'Hara

Austin is a place where odd lilies like Eucomis copy pineapples
A Justicia pretends to be a Shrimp

And Cuphea llaevea mimics a Bat's face

Where Pam's passalong Aloe can survive hail and cold in the shelter of a holly tree to bloom in the shade

Where wildflowers like Texas Paintbrush can be picked up at local nurseries to grow as container plants on the patio (last year's plants even seeded in the front lawn!)
And where the tender Rosa Mutabilis that I once sighed over in out-of-zone gardening books elbows out every other plant in the front border
Here's one more look at the 'Royal Wedding' Sweet peas, caught a few days ago as the sun came through their petals in early morning light. The seeds came from the Natural Gardener - a little gift when we bought our second rainbarrel last winter.


Happy Blooming Day! Celebrate by checking out the gardens linked to the GBBD post at May Dreams Gardens. Soon I'll get a list together of everything in bloom with botanical names at Annie's Addendum.

(The GBBD List is now up)

Finally Time for March 2010 GBBD

The Central Austin garden bloggers first called Spring when their redbuds and Texas Mountain Laurels began to bloom on March 11th.

Eleven days later the Texas redbud in my far NW Austin garden has poked out little pink tongues so I'm calling Spring here, too!
We've had frost warnings the last 2 nights, with the actual low temperature falling to 34°F/1.11ºC each morning.

Now it's time to once again take off the thermal covers from the Meyer's Lemon and the Mexican Lime and switch off the Christmas lights. The weather looks pretty good for the next week - are we done with freezes?
Are there flowers today? Yes! It's a week late but today I'll join Carol of May Dreams Garden for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

The Mexican Lime has buds and tiny new leaves that stayed safe under the thermal covering
The top branches of the Meyer's Lemon died and most of the leaves fell off, but it's pushing out new leaves and making blossoms, too.

At their feet Oxalis regnellii 'Atropurpurea' blooms happily after recent rain

The Texas Mountain Laurel is a little squashed from the sheet thrown over it last night

One yellow Lady Banks rose shows petals

The Spiraea on the back fence is in full bloom


The Carolina jessamine has passed its peak flowering time but still smells sweet
There are enough yellow flowers left to please the bees

Earlier yellow daffodils have wilted - my muse 'Thalia' takes her turn
Only one of the Pale Peach colored iris has opened but there are many buds

Most of the white 'cemetery' iris, a favorite Austin passalong, are already blooming

Blackfoot daisies are finally happy here, making flowers in the parkway bed
The Cherry sage/Salvia greggii blooms there, too

A single mutabilis Rosebud is ready for its closeup
And there's a hint that the most famous sign of spring in Texas, the Bluebonnet, is on the way

But even without open flowers the garden has been exciting to watch every day

Cedar Waxwings arrived a few weeks ago to strip berries from the evergreen hollies and act like kids in the birdbath fountain (23 seconds)





The song of the Mockingbird called Spring before anyone else was sure it would come (about 1 minute)


Pam/Digging holds Foliage Followup the day after GBBD - my foliage is appearing today not because it is spectacular... but because the leaves bear witness that these plants are alive

I've left the Shell Ginger outside in other years - but it spent this winter in the garage


I was sure the Amaryllis planted outside would be gone after 13°F/-10.5ºC , but MSS of Zanthan Gardens thought they could make it - she was right!

If my pomegranate is alive maybe that means Rock Rose Jenny's will be alright, too?

The Japanese Painted Fern disappeared during last year's heat and drought but it's appeared again, ready to face life in Texas for another year. I hope we humans can do it, too.