Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, July 2010

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, like Tax Day, falls on the 15th of the month. Carol of May Dreams Gardens may not haul me off to the pokey if I don't pay up in petals, but a skipped GBBD means no Permanent Record of what-happened-when in the garden.

{Most photos enlarge when clicked.}

Unlike the sweltering summer of 2009, this July hasn't topped 100°F yet and there has been real rain. We love looking out at the garden and birdbath fountain from the breakfast room.

The 'Little Gem' Magnolia has a few flowers, orange cosmos and self-seeded sunflowers add bright colors to the center of the back garden and a blue/purple haze near the yellow chair contrasts with the shockingly green grass.

Those purple, white and blue colors come from a 'Catawba' crepe myrtle, Mealy-blue sage, 'Miss Tilly' balloon flowers, a division of the 'Blue River II' hibiscus and 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia.
Behind the euphorbia is Salvia vanhouttei, of doubtful hardiness, but at $2 for a starter plant that's already shrub-size, worth growing because the hummingbirds love it.

It looks like this now... a little ragged but still intense in color - and you can see that it seems designed for hummingbird bills!

Ten days ago I caught the partially opened buds - part of a Red, White & Blue post that never happened.
In the smaller triangle the starter plants of 'Black Pearl' pepper are settling in, with white, yellow and orange Portulaca around it. This year I added some stubbier Flowering Purslane to the reseeded and more delicate Moss Rose types. White Zinnia linearis also reseeds, adding daisy shapes to the scene.


In the larger triangle bed it was a surprise to see that the Hemercallis fulva (AKA Ditch daylily, a passlaong from Lori) sent up a scape loaded with buds. It bloomed in May - what is going on? At the left on the obelisk you can see leaves of the Blue Butterfly Pea winding upward in preparation for an appearance at the August GBBD.
Perennials are wonderful, but Green Bones that add mass and form along with bloom give solid satisfaction - here is the 'Little Gem' magnolia framed by white semi-dwarf 'Acoma' crepe myrtles, my neighbor's common pink crepe and a froth of evergreen Abelia at mid-level.
Along the bed to the left the Cenizo/Purple Sage is in full bloom - some people say the blooms are a promise of rain, but others say it's a response to rain. Another nickname for this plant is "Barometer Bush".

Near the back door the blue Plumbagos have rebounded from last winter's freezeback, blooming blue with a self-seeded tropical Milkweed and the purple oxalis which has decided to rebloom rather than go dormant.

A few feet away the first blooms have opened on Amarcrinum 'Fred Howard' - pink and fragrant.

On the patio the Blue Butterfly Clerodendron looks a little smug after being the subject of its own post last week.


Around the corner in the Secret Garden green prevails, with color coming from a tall crepe myrtle showering watermelon-pink petals from high overhead, a few coral-pink canna buds at the 3-foot level and this pink false indigo down close to the ground.



There's a new pink flower in the Pink Entrance Garden - John Fanick's phlox. The passalong phlox that came from my Illinois grandmother is barely alive and not blooming but this Texas Superstar was selected to do well here.

Another passalong from Illinois seems to like Texas just fine - it's a small, reblooming daylily bought at Mileager Nurseries of Wisconsin in the mid-1990's as 'Pinocchio'. Every summer it has an initial flush of bloom, rests and regroups, makes a smaller number of scapes, rests a little longer, then pops a few more. Those are more 'Miss Tilly' balloon flowers in the background.
By next week a list of everything in bloom today with botanical names will go up at Annie's Addendum...

but next up will be the TOMATO REPORT, a long overdue post with a new song.


Have fun checking out a world of garden blogs in bloom right here.


JULY 22, 2010
The complete list of blooms with botanical names and a few more photos is now up at Annie's Addendum

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, September 15, 2009

The Cenizo/Leucophyllum frutescens (also known as Barometer Bush) did not lie this time!

A genuine rain started with gentle soaking drops on Friday morning - turning into a downpour that temporarily flooded the Secret Garden on Saturday By Sunday afternoon the torrents had become a mist again, leaving just over six-and-one-half inches to refresh the plants and calm down the gardener. Other plants may respond to the rain in a few days, but the first batch looks quite patriotic! Oxblood Lilies/Rhodophiala bifida add red to the garden - after MSS of Zanthan gave these symbols of old Austin to me a couple of years ago I planted them in small clumps front and back, not taking any chances on one location. Here's her definitive post on them. They're up in five different places so far, with two patches still question marks. I think these definitely qualify as what May Dreams Carol calls a Blogalong-Passalong!
White comes from the Hibiscus moscheutos 'Blue River II'. This flower is not fully formed - maybe it was too dry when the bud developed? I can see some buds left so there are more chances to have the dinner-plate size flowers this plant can produce

White also comes from Garlic Chives/Allium tuberosum - complete with decorative bee:
More garlic chives with an interesting insect I'd never noticed before - it took some time, but I found similar insects on What's That Bug that were identified as being Soldier Flies in the genus Odontomyia
We've had the Blues all summer - the blue Plumbago auriculata didn't seem to mind the heat & drought since it got those precious last drops squeezed out whenever the hose was rolled up and because it's sheltered from afternoon sun by the house wall.

I handwatered the blue Salvia guaranitica and this Salvia 'Black & Blue" regularly to keep the flowers and their nectar coming - we see the hummingbirds every day and Salvias are their favorite
The Brugmansia should be a light yellow but looks almost white after being bleached and drenched, holding tattered petals over a small green garden spider
Near the brugmansia one of the Amarcrinum lilies sent up a fragrant stalk
In front more Oxblood lilies bloom along with slender white rainlilies, the pink rainlilies/Zephyranthes 'Labuffarosea' and some native yellow Habranthus tubispathus/Copper Lilies... I delayed this post trying to get photos of the pink & yellow & white rainlilies but none of the pictures came out...maybe next year!


The front yard looks pretty bad - until the Divas of the Dirt come and rescue it later this month you will see only close-ups!
This Evolvolus 'Blue Daze' in the Pink Entrance Garden got extra crispy a couple of times when I forgot to water the hanging basket. But a good drink uncurled the leaves and made it bloom again

The Duranta erecta/Blue Skyflower in the same bed might have produced more flowers with more sun, or it might fried up and had no flowers at all. These blooms are enough for me.

This little vignette in the front bed with the birdbath almost looks like a Northern Spring instead of September in Texas, doesn't it? The Blackfoot daisies/Melampodium leucanthum still count as daisies, and the unopened pink rainlily looks a little like a tulip if you squint your eyes, with lavender-colored Lantana filling in for rock cress or woodland phlox.

Move along to the back now - nothing else up here to see!
The weight of the 8-foot native sunflower made it fall over when the rain turned the soil soft. I couldn't ignore the roots pulled part way out of the ground - too many goldfinches love this big weedy flower full of seeds. I stood it up, used an extra metal shepherd's hook as a stake and stepped it in again around the base - hope it works.

Along the South fence the bulb bed is bright with Red Oxblood lilies
A midnight look at the Moonflower vine/Ipomoea alba - with the leaves invisible in the dark, it looks like a White flying saucer
And this may be the last GBBD of 2009 for the Blue Butterfly Pea/Clitoria ternatea


I'm grateful to Carol of May Dreams Garden, the inventor of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for giving us a chance to show off our flowers...and I'm grateful for rain, and soon I hope to be grateful to the Divas of the Dirt because my turn for 2009 is coming up. There's a lot to do before they come, so I'll catch up with blogs and blooming day posts in a week or so.
May your garden make you happy this month, too.

The Lilies of August

Open the back door and you'll see three plants that are thriving in spite of the weather - they do get water, but the real secret seems to be the house wall - this strip gets full sun in the morning but from early afternoon it's sheltered from the burning rays.
The blue Plumbago auriculata is almost as tall as I am and the Amarcrinum
'Fred Howard', a has finally settled in after a few years, making four flower-stalks on two plants. We call plants like this Crinum lilies, but they're really in the Amaryllis family.

The pink and blue combination was expected, but the pop of orange was added when seeds of Asclepias curassavica/tropical milkweed parachuted in from another part of the garden and made themselves at home.



There isn't enough orange in what's left of the vegetable garden. Last summer's level of heat and drought didn't stop the 'Juliet tomatoes from producing enough to chop up for fresh salsa, but this summer's heat has kept the Juliets down to only 2 or 3 ripe per day. Too bad - I really want to try Renee's fascinating method of drying Juliets inside your parked vehicle!



We had 1/7th of an inch of rain last week. This piddle of nature did nothing for the trees or shrubs or perennials, but some parts of the parched lawn sent out exploratory blades and the rainlilies? They went nuts! Above are Zephyranthes 'Labuffarosea' in a large container on the patio, under the spare boughs of a Pineapple Guava. Zephyranthes are also called lilies and are part of the extended lily family.

Below are 'Labuffarosea' in a container near the front steps, marooned in a sea of Silver Pony Foot/Dichondra argentea. (sideways photo upload courtesy of Blogspot). The original bulbs came from Plant Delights nursery in 2000. They have multiplied and I've given bulbs of this rainlily away to many fellow garden bloggers and to most of the Divas of the Dirt - hope all their rainlilies are blooming, too! So even though there has been a DROP of rain, most of the words in my recent song, 'Don't Want to Be in Texas in July' are still valid... except that it would be a lot harder to write lyrics that rhyme with "August".

Squirrels and Amarcrinum

It's not supposed to be over 100°F every day in June, but that's happening in Austin in 2009. The heat may be on, but these weirdly fragrant Amarcrinum still opened, probably because they were given one of the best sites in our yard, a smidge of the only border that offers morning sun with afternoon shade. You can grow almost anything with that exposure - even in Texas - but most of our lot gives us the reverse - shade in the morning turning to baking, parching, frying afternoon sun.

We woke this morning to the sound of little paws skittering madly across the roof, and all day long the trees have been full of chattering, sex-crazed squirrels. While on my way to the garden shed I startled this busy pair and was able to snap a photo because Kerri taught me that a blogger never leaves the house without a camera. The image is so clinical that I'm not sure whether to thank her or blame her for this post!