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!

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.

September Restart

It's so easy to not write, to not take photographs, to not enter this summer's losses on the semi-permanent record of a blog. There seemed little point in joining Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I wrote nothing full of facts and numbers like the posts by MSS of Zanthan Gardens, no posts rejoicing that drip irrigation kept most of the garden alive like the vacationing Rock Rose, no celebrations of serene stock tank lilies and stately agaves like Pam/Digging, no struggles with enormous water harvesting projects like Bob of Draco, nor dramatic storm photos like Nature Sharing Diana or hopeful words about fall vegetable gardening like Renee & Iris & Katina or contest-winning photos like East Side Patch.

II loved Julie and Julia (the photo of the wonderful Meryl Streep is from @JulieandJulia on Twitter) but said not a word. A week slips past, and another - the neglected inside of the house gets attention, closets are rearranged, the Diva website is caught up, a book or two read, music put in written form, stuff tossed out. We hope for a shower to christen the rainbarrel. We're painting and shopping and hanging curtains and cooking as old movies play on Netflix.

Writing a blog post takes too long while jumping on Twitter takes 10 minutes, a simpler but more limited connection to other gardeners. Then a post by Linda from Central Texas Garden made me laugh as she led a cheer for the heat, calling for just a few more days over 100°F so we can beat the record and hearing Linda's voice as I read made me want to speak. I took the camera out on Monday, planning to ease back in via Cindy's Through the Garden Gate. I missed that deadline, but Cindy didn't make it either! From the gate you can see what gets hand-watered - small trees, shrubs, plants that make flowers, fruit, seeds and nectar for bees and birds and butterflies. And what only gets the 'slop-over water' - the nearly dead grass away from the edges. Looking around the garden I've realized that most of the lambs ears are dead, the abutilon is gone, most of the callibrachoa croaked, as well as some of the sedums, some of the salvias and the native Texas betony, too.From the other side of the triangle bed we can see that some Salvia coccinea are green and even the picky Blackfoot daisies look happy In the same bed we don't see several Ex-lavenders, Ex-snapdragons, missing Balloon flowers and even native Ex-scutellarias. All the lavenders in the ground died but the very old 'Provence' lavender in the clay pot and cuttings from it in the hypertufa trough live and even bloom. A small 'Catawba' crepe myrtle is okay, the 'Mutabilis' rose isn't blooming but isn't dead, and the lived-over Jatropha integerrima/Spicy Jatropha is doing fine, with daily visits from hummingbirds.

Afternoon shade provided by the house wall wasn't enough to help the clematis but it let the blue Plumbago and Mother-of-Thousands thrive. Do you see that seedling mixed in with the pecan debris? It's one of hundreds of invasive ligustrums sprouting in the beds and paths. I don't have any ligustrums, but they grow in all the yards surrounding mine. Native plants die while invasive ligustrum, Chinese tallow, nandina and Chinaberry stay green. The greenest spot on the lawn is under the birdbath - water is essential for the Chickadees for the black crested titmouse who shows up every day and for the bees, wasps and all the other creatures who come here to drink Keeping the birds alive keeps me from giving up. I give water to the red house finches, water to the giant native sunflower and to the shrubs that make berries. I try to keep the hummingbird favorites alive. Shouldn't the cardinals, blue jays, gold finches, wrens, doves, grackles, hummingbirds and starlings recognize me as their friend by now? But no - they still only let me photograph them through the window. You'd think the squirrels would be grateful, too... but they'd rather toss pecan shells down on my head. Survived August...check. Now the tiny tips of the Oxblood Lilies are poking up again, giving me hope we'll survive September.