Garden Bloggers Bloom Day August 2011

My original intention was to ignore May Dreams Garden's GBBD for this month - here in Austin we've had 62 days over 100 degrees F - just a few days from the record. Rain is just a memory and the few plants with flowers seemed to be the same ones that appeared in July - so what was the point? But then on Saturday a Texas Star Hibiscus that I'd been babying along rewarded me with one bright red flower

I stubbornly held out... then this morning I noticed an open flower on a Stapelia gigantea plant that I'd moved to a semi-sunny spot on the patio. I took the pot to the patio table for a closer look - not just one flower but with 2 more budsI couldn't ignore this! My current herd of Stapelia plants descend from one given to me by my Aunt Phyllis over 20 years ago. "Herd" may not be the official collective noun for Stapelia, but doesn't it seem appropriate for members of the Milk-weed family? Stapelias are container plants here - our winters will kill them if they're left outside. Carrion flower is another name - the meaty scent draws flies.

The Blue Butterfly clerodendron bloomed for July GBBD - but the BLUE is a transient characteristic now, rather than a permanent attribute. Look how bleached the blooms become in this intense sun: The little annual native Zinnia linearis (or if you prefer, Zinnia angustifolia) have been in bloom only because I handwater them. The grass is not so lucky.I also water a container of 'Sun Gold' tomatoes - soaking it well every day. The runoff seeps into the ground, ending up in the roots of the native Sunflower just below the container, keeping the flowers and seedheads in production for the finches.
A similar relationship has developed under this not-quite-established 'Zuni' crepe myrtle, put in last winter with hopes it will someday shade the breakfast room windows. I planted a 'Mexico Midget' tomato under the young tree so watering one waters both.

Keeping the Sunflower and Crepe Myrtle alive means keeping the tiny tomato plants alive & keeping the tomatoes alive means I get a small handful of little tomatoes a couple of times a week. They're very tart and go especially well in tuna salad. The heat means I refill birdbaths and saucers at least once - usually twice- a day. I've been diligent about watering other plants with flowers that are not just decorative, but are important to wildlife. The bees need flowers like the tiny pink & lilac blooms on this Cuphea
Usually my assorted collection of tubular red and blue Salvias keep blooming most of the summer, but this year some Salvias have bailed and others refuse to bloom at all. Some extra water coaxed the Mexican Honeysuckle into taking up the slack as a nectar source for the hummingbirds.
If you think things have gone to the birds around here, you're right! The lawn is toast, the vegetable garden abandoned, and even the cooking sage may have croaked, but I won't give up trying to keep my friends with wings alive.
For a complete list of what's in bloom with botanical names go to my Annie's Addendum blog. To see the GBBD posts of other gardeners go to May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day September 2010

A week ago Tropical Storm Hermine dumped 12" of rain in my neighborhood in less than one day, filling the rain gauge over & over, and making a garden tub left on the patio overflow. We were mighty nervous and we were very lucky - our lot has a very slight slope but that was enough to channel the water away from the house so it didn't come inside. Within a 10-mile radius dozens of houses were ruined, their owners now moved in with relatives, not knowing what the future holds. For other Central Texans, the loss was greater, as the floodwaters that came with Hermine also swept away people. You can read some words of Austinites as the flood happened in this compilation by KXAN here.


With that devastation in mind I'd better not complain about losing a few plants to Ms Hermine's pounding and immersion! Any early September rain brings on the Oxblood Lilies, also known as Schoolhouse Lilies/Rhodophiala bifidia, blooming when the children traditionally returned to school. They may not be native, but they sure are Austin.


MSS of Zanthan Gardens is the Oxblood Lily Queen of Austin - she kindly shared bulbs with me in 2006 and every year their appearance reminds me of her generosity.When the Oxblood-Schoolhouse lilies bloom with Persian Shield, it reminds me that I once would have been hesitant about my garden wearing purple with red. But my old lady garden doesn't care much about fashion rules.

The rain brought the blooms, but a week of temperatures over 90°F fried them quickly - only a few still look fresh.


Salvia greggii is rebounding, and Salvia farinacea looks okay, but the usually beautiful Salvia guaranitica & Salvia 'Black & Blue' look so ragged and pitiful that I'm considering cutting them to the ground to start over. Their cousin Salvia vanhouttei, however, is very happy. I poked this $2 starter plant in the ground in late spring and it's now a sprawling 6-foot X 5-foot semi-shrub with many, many dark ruby flowers. The hummingbirds like it.


Another favorite is the 'Provence' lavender, still blooming in the big clay pot near the patio and fountain, with a pot of Evolvolus 'Blue Daze' nearby and a tomato plant in a container, proving the gardener hasn't learned anything from the past few years, but still hopes for tomatoes. Remember the cute little net bags in my tomato post? Critters gnawed the plant, taking tomato, bag & entire stem away with them.


The hummingbirds also like the Cypress Vine/Ipomoea quamoclit, a sticky-stemmed, seedy mess that sends out long winding vines in every direction. A hummer buzzed me this morning while I was taking photos so I know they're still around... but once the birds leave this vine will be leaving, too.

Maybe the yard is just gone to the birds? I've left the sunflower skeletons in place so the finches can clean the seedheads, but they certainly aren't decorative. Wrens and other little birds tear up everything planted in the baskets under the overhang. On the other hand, what could I get to grow in this basket that would look cuter than two Titmice?
I've read that Central Texas is home to both the Tufted Titmouse and the Black Crested Titmouse... supposedly there are crosses between these two birds, so I'm not sure what kind these are - the photo was taken through the window and screen.

An herb on the patio makes some weird looking flowers and seed heads. This is marjoram, one of my favorites.

I plant lots of yellow and orange but those flowers are over or dead now. The centers of zinnia linearis and Blackfoot daisies a few Asclepias & Cosmos flowers and one blooming stalk on a Plumeria can't complete with the reds & blues of September. Because I can't get the camera high enough for a closeup you also see the purple flowers of Cenizo/Barometer Bush responding to the rain, and the 'Acoma' crepe myrtles gone to seed.

White Hummingbird sage, Salvia coccinea, reseeds itself in the decomposed granite around the patio every summer. The plants stayed small until the rain came - now they're 3-feet tall.

The rain meant lots of buds on the Moonflower Vine/Ipomoea alba - at least one or two shimmery white flowers open every night.

In the morning the Moon flowers give up and the Blue Butterfly Pea/Clitoria ternatea takes the day shift.

The Blue pea throws long vines all over that triangle bed and it can get a stranglehold on the other plants. I left this one in place long enough to take a photo, then set the Blue Butterfly Clerodendron & Russelia/Firecracker Plant free.

Near the patio a $3 miniature 'Red Cascade' rose planted at the base of a bird tower has grown and is blooming... I really like the red and dark green with the Silver Ponyfoot Dichondra.


The blue Plumbago was frozen to the ground but you'd never know it now - just as in previous years it starts to block the sidewalk and stops the back door from closing ... I hack it back, it waits a week and starts climbing and spreading again. Thank heavens for easy plants in hard years. If you click to enlarge the photo you'll also see the seed pods - they love to hitch rides on pantlegs and cloth sandal straps.

The most unusual bloom this month was one I haven't seen in a couple of years - my Aunt Phyll's passalong Stapelia. I still haven't figured out what triggers the bloom but I enjoy their short-lived, stinky presence whenever they suddenly appear!

September 10th


September 12th


September 14th


September 15th


If you are more interested in vegetables than in ornamentals, there is Good news-Bad news. The bad news is that the ''Solar Fire and 'Early Girl' tomatoes were starting to make new leaves & buds when the rain hit... they turned to brown sticks within days of the deluge.

But the peppers? They responded to the rain like this:
For the monthly lists of every single thing that's in bloom with botanical names you can go to Annie's Addendum.

Please go to MAY DREAMS GARDENS to see all the posts that Carol has gathered into the Garden Blogger Bloom Day fold - a once-a-month, worldwide festival of what's in bloom. Brilliant idea!

Sometimes the Gift Outlives the Giver

I thought about my Aunt Phyl a few days ago. At the beginning of November the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos and the Feast of All Souls remind us of family members who have died and my aunt has been gone for many years. Remembering her now might be appropriate but the calender didn't bring her to mind - it was an unexpected bud on a plant.

Phyl loved clothes, parties, plays and gourmet cooking, but she was also a gardener. I can remember being a child in her flower border, watching as my aunt showed me how to squeeze the sides of the blossom to make Snapdragons talk. A few decades later, when impatiens was a newish, trendy annual, she showed me how to snap off a few flowering stems and arrange them on needlepin holders for a sunny table, telling me that way they'd look good while growing roots to make more plants for the garden. She handed out divisions of Siberian iris and Annabelle Hydrangea and Jack-n-the-Pulpit - all still growing in the gardens of my family back in Illinois.

Aunt Phyl gave me starter plants of another passalong back in the late 1980's. It grew as a houseplant in Illinois but has been a porch plant since I brought it to Texas. Here's that bud unfolded:

Its names are Starfish flower, Carrion flower, and Stapelia - possibly Stapelia gigantea. The thick stems look almost like a cactus but are relatively soft and have no spines.

I brought one plant with me and have started several more in the last 8 years. I lost a few to sudden cold snaps - this plant is happy outside in mild weather but the pots must be taken in and out of the garage when the temperatures approach freezing. This was the first flower in a couple of years - strange and spectacular, with long hairs all over the edges, and they emit a faint scent of meat to attract a pollinator - flies!

Once the flies showed up I realized that white shelf was a little too close to the door and the floral display moved down to the other end of the veranda.

It seems ironic that such an odd plant brings memories of my rather glamorous, well-groomed aunt - but it's the only passalong from her that made it to Texas. Maybe she'd be amused.