Welcome! As "Annie in Austin" I blog about gardening in Austin, TX with occasional looks back at our former gardens in Illinois. My husband Philo & I also make videos - some use garden images as background for my original songs, some capture Austin events & sometimes we share videos of birds in our garden.
Come talk about gardens, movies, music, genealogy and Austin at the Transplantable Rose and listen to my original songs on YouTube. For an overview read Three Gardens, Twenty Years. Unless noted, these words and photos are my copyrighted work.
This year, our tenth in Texas, we decided to spend a small, quiet Christmas in Austin instead of making the 1200 mile drive to Chicago. Now the bubble lights and the tree are turned on
The pumpkin pie and cornbread cool on the table while the turkey roasts in the oven
In this quiet time before the others arrive for dinner, I go out to the garden and look for evergreens to make a simple centerpiece for the dining room table. Holly and ivy are traditional greens, but this is Texas, not Olde England! My Holly will be Burford holly and the Ivy is Fig ivy. A snip of magnolia, a small branch from a Meyer's Lemon, some rosemary in bloom, a few unfrozen wands and leaves of lavender and cuttings of dwarf Greek myrtle make the base. The roses looked pretty good from ten feet away, but up close only five are undamaged enough by cold to use: one large flower from the pink climber, a bud of 'Belinda's Dream', a medium-sized bloom of 'Julia Child' and one bud & one bloom from the 'Champagne' minirose.
Happy Christmas from Philo and Annie ~ May your days be merry and bright!
This post is a few minutes late for December 15th, the date chosen by May Dreams Carol for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. It's no longer Autumn in Austin! These photos were taken this morning - it was about 35°F and very windy so many pictures are blurry. When I went to the grocery store even my car flashed a warning about the weather. Tonight we're expecting a very hard freeze - some of what we see here may be just a memory by tomorrow.
'Julia Child' rose still had buds as well as blooms
Those Antirrhinum majus, Yellow snapdragons were planted before last ChristmasThe baskets were recently planted with pansies - one of our winter annuals. I bought small plants without flowers - this one just started bloomingA couple of flowers linger on Camellia sasanqua 'Shishi Gashira' Creeping phlox sublata bloomed in spring and had a light rebloom this fall. Both plants of Rosa 'Mutabilis' had buds and blooms todayRosa 'Belinda's Dream' had one full-blown rose and a handful of buds Three plants of Osmanthus fragrans/Sweet olive were in bloom, but it was too cold and windy to catch the lovely scent. There were flowers on both plants of the Rosa ‘Champagne’ mini rose Bulbine frutescens 'Yellow' has not only lived but spread and increased in the front bed and is still making buds Both plants of Asclepias curassavica, tropical milkweed have flowers - no sign of the confused Monarch caterpillar that was here in early December Blooming but not pictured: Gaura lindheimerii, unknown tall rose-pink variety; Impatiens walleriana/bedding impatiens; Pelargoniums/bedding geraniums; trailing white Lantana; Lobularia maritime/Sweet alyssum; both kinds of Scutellaria/Skullcap; Salvia leucantha/Mexican Bush Sage.
That's it for the outside plants - we can celebrate another successful Bloom Day! Inside on the windowsill there's color from Thanksgiving cactus, coral geranium, florist's cyclamen, mother-of-thousands and the Amaryllis that was my grab bag prize from the Divas of the Dirt party on Saturday. The Meyer's Lemon has one open flower and a couple of buds.What can we celebrate next? There are many possibilities for December 16th:
Classic composer Beethoven's Birthday; novelist Jane Austen's birthday; the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party; Anthropologist Margaret Mead's birthday; Playwright/composer Noel Coward's birthday; the birthday of Science fiction writers Arthur C Clarke and Phillip K Dick, and the first day of las posadas, recreating Joseph & Mary's search for shelter in Bethlehem.
Should I drink tea while listening to Beethoven and reading Pride & Prejudice? That would be relaxing but this is a busy time of year. ABBA composer Benny Andersson turns 62 tomorrow and the DVD of Mamma Miais set to release. I can celebrate his birthday and make some Christmas progress at the same time by turning up the 'Mamma Mia' soundtrack as my soundtrack for cookie baking, package wrapping and adding the final touches to the Christmas tree.
The Bloom Day posts from all over the world can be found here.
Update late Wednesday night: Low was 29°F on Tuesday morning. All roses, pansies, phlox, gaura, scuttelaria look okay; milkweed & impatiens mostly frozen and lantana looks bad. Mexican oregano had a few flowers and some open on lower part of cupheas, but top bronzed with cold. Beethoven & tea lost out to coffee & Mamma Mia while baking Crispy, salted, White chocolate oatmeal cookies recommended by Vertie via Twitter. HThe Christmas tree is decorated and I'm done baking for now - a high of 72°F is predicted for tomorrow along with more leaf-cleanup. Sure hope to get a chance to visit your blogs soon.
Even though the Brugmansia went from still-in-bloom last Thursday afternoon To crisped and frostbitten by Monday afternoon
Even though the Blue Butterfly Flower Clerodendrum is also crispy brown today Even though the Loquat is no longer blooming and the hoped-for fruit may have been hit with cold and we'll have another year of no loquat fruit Even though we're now using the big comforter instead of the light blankets, and the berries on the Burford Holly are a wintery-Christmasy red . Even though the cannas that backed up the Julia Child rose are no longer green as in this photo from last Thursday
...it still feels like autumn to me. After all, that Julia Child rose is still blooming and holding onto her foliage (in answer to Jean, the bloom is good, but she does get blackspot and has fewer leaves than she should) After all, the temperatures are in the sixties and the leaves are falling and swirling around the patio, needing to be swept so we can use the barbecue,
After all, it took a long time to rake and sweep this pile, go over it with the mulching mower and empty the bag over and over into the wire leaf enclosure After all, there seems to be an endless supply of unfallen leaves that will need raking - even if the projected cold front arrives After all, the pomegranate tree is still glowing golden in the Secret Garden After all, the pink rose near the Brugmansia is still blooming And a rather dimwitted Monarch thought there was still time to raise a new generation (Renee - as you wrote in your Statesman blog, this is not a good idea, is it!) Oops - someone should get out the ladder and cut those pods of moonflower vine seeds to save for next spring But the ladder is already in the living room, surrounded by ornaments and decorations boxes, placed next to the Christmas tree so I can reach the top branches.
Being organized for Christmas gets complicated where December acts like autumn.
The unplanted bulbs and falling leaves will keep for another day! Last year I wrote a Christmas song for Roots In Austin, using my power as the author to break up the character Caroline's romance shortly before a Christmas season began. That may not have been kind of me, but the breakup let Caroline sing a holiday song as the approach of Christmas reminded her of what's been lost rather than what she expected. The song was recently finished and I think it will work well for her lovelorn situation in the play. But undertones in the lyrics told me they had deeper meanings, for other situations. Over this long Thanksgiving weekend Philo and I added photos and turned the song into a video for our Station Kaefka on YouTube. So far the reception for our latest musical child has been very kind - thank you to all who have already watched it. To the rest of you - get out your handkerchiefs!
"Can I Recover Christmas" music & lyrics copyrighted. If the screen won't play, try this Link to YouTube.
Although "Can I Recover Christmas?" wasn't ready last year, another of our copyrighted songs was finished by the beginning of December 2007. It's a happy song about the lovely annual tradition of Spinning Under the Tree of Lights at Zilker Park in Austin. This year the tree will be lit at 6 PM on Sunday December 7th, with the rest of the Trail of Lights festival beginning on Sunday December 14th, running nightly through December 23rd. The Trail hours are 7 PM to 10 PM. A few days ago I had a conversation with Laura Esparza from the Cultural Affairs Division of the Austin Parks Department. Laura told me that the Trail of Lights festival will be more environmentally friendly this year. The change over to LED lights is in progress and food service now emphasizes recycling. She also noted that the power for the lights comes from wind farms. I loved the tree and like having another reason to think Austin is cool! You can go to the Austin Parks Department if you'd like to find out more about Spinning under the Tree, or Walking the Trail of Lights. Now here's an encore of our Spinning Under the Tree song to get you in the mood. Either click the screen or try this link to YouTube.
The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. Samuel Johnson, The Rambler
It's been a few months since I made a YouTube for y'all - and November is a month that could use a little comedy. This song fits pretty well with the others in my pipedream of a musical play, "Roots in Austin". It's a song that should be sung by a younger, hot, man-crazy blonde, but since no one else volunteered, once again you get old, not-hot Annie and a piano. Loralynn is the name of the character who sings this song. She's a girl who starts out focused on the scientist but soon becomes interested in the science.
Conversations with Vertie inspired me to write this Bug Geek Song - and both Vert and Iris helped with photos. I hope it cheers up your November weekend.
This copyrighted song, "My Austin Entomologist ~The Bug Geek Song" was composed and performed by "Annie in Austin" and the video was made by Philo in Austin. You can find more of our songs at YouTube Station Kaefka.
The developing Angel Trumpets/Brugmansia flowers seen in the last post opened fully and scented the air last night - determined to appear for November Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, a monthly listing of what's in bloom, begun by Carol of May Dreams garden and celebrated by gardeners all over the world.
I'd hoped the Camellia sasanqua 'Shishi Gashira', also in development in the last post, would last until December, or at least until Thanksgiving, but all the flowers are opening now!
'Julia Child' rose has a few open flowers and a dozen buds developing. Her stems look a little bare right now because she needed grooming before her closeup - quite a few blackspotted leaves had to be taken off and discarded - not composted.
The leaves on my pecans are mostly green but on the other side of the fence my neighbor's crepe myrtle has put on autumn red. It's a pleasant background now for the buttery yellow of the Julia Child Rose and the Mexican Mint Marigold/Tagetes lucida and white Zinnia linearis.
In the Pink Entrance bed that leads to the gate, this pink variety of Gaura lindheimerii still blooms nonstop, draped over the also nonstop Pink Skullcap/Scutellaria suffrutescens. In the same bed, a 'Belinda's Dream' rose overslept and missed Bloom Day - she's just getting around to making buds.
In the same bed one plant surprised me - only one of three Durantas survived last winter. It grew just a little in summer and made no flowers. With cooler temperatures this Duranta had a growth sprurt, producing three sprays of violet flowers.
In the Central Front Bed the birdbath is surrounded by flowers - the Mutabilis Rose, Yellow Bulbine, Gregg's Mistflower, 'Black & Blue' Salvia, lantana and a white gaura.
Another Mutabilis blooms in a container back on the patio. Moonflowers are done for the year - now photographing Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' is my obsession!
The unnamed climbing rose on the housewall inside the gate has one bud. See that bump? This rose is just a few feet away from the clematis with bumps. In a comment, Entangled suggested the clematis had thrips... maybe the rose does, too?
Around the other end of the house in the Secret Garden a "rose" blooms in a pot - well, it's called Confederate Rose, but the botanical name gives it away; Hibiscus mutabilis. Another name is Cotton Rose. This bloom is about 4 inches in width.
Frost may come soon but the insects found plenty of flowers in bloom today - I found bees on the Mexican Bush Sage/Salvia leucantha
and dozens of bees on the cupheas - here's a rather large bee on a pink and lavender Cuphea llaeva.
I have two Meyer's Lemon trees - the larger tree planted in the ground has no blossoms yet but the small tree in a container is covered in flowers - and the fragrant flowers are covered in bees!
The loquat flowers are scenting the patio this week - those lucky bees can fly a few feet from the lemon to the loquat, rolling in both pollens.
I think the Loquat must have nectar as well as pollen because butterflies like this Gulf Fritillary are attracted to it, too. ( Meems says it's a male Queen butterfly and of course she's right...the fritillary photo I'd taken was deleted for being out-of-focus, and I forgot to change the name when I changed photos. Thank you, Meems!)
If a Fritillary wants its host plant - it can fly around the corner to the fence in the Secret Garden, where a shy Passion Flower waits.
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