Revival and Survival

Another two-and-one-half inches of rain fell in NW Austin over the weekend, barely budging the lake levels but giving a good drenching to yards and gardens. A few pepper plants make buds in the vegetable plot and a few radish seeds have sprouted, but I didn't plant a fall crop of tomatoes, just left a couple of survivors in the ground. There's enough sun for them in early spring before the leaves come out on the pecan, but it's too shady now. Philo and I are working on a post about lawn equipment we're testing but thunderstorms are in the forecast and we need a dry spell to proceed. Until then we'll enjoy what has revived and rebounded The Passion flower in the Secret Garden revived and traveled 12-feet from the trellis to open blooms where the variegated privet background could make it look even gaudier.

Some plants endured the normal heat and drought of previous years but didn't survive this year- our twisted willow is no more.

The Sweet Lavender died not from lack of water but from girdled roots going round and round in heavy clay soil

A solid band of Lambs Ears is now a solid band of empty dirt. My guess is that they died from baking in afternoon sun rather than lack of water.

Here's the reason I think so - the Lambs Ears survived in open shade near the outer edges of the pecan tree's canopy

The given-up-for-dead clematis by the back door was only resting! This photo could be in better focus, but it's the first time my camera ever captured the variations in color that these flowers display as they open, expand, and fade. Is this clematis dark red, red-violet or purple? Yes.

On the patio a mysterious little plant bought in early June has finally shown what it can do. The smudged and faded name on the pot appeared to say 'Duranta Blue' skullcap. Assuming it was either a variation on our native scutellarias or one of the fancy new hybrids, I nearly killed it by giving it full sun, then luckily figured out it needed a larger container in part shade. Eventually I found the ID online - not 'Duranta Blue', but Scutellaria indica 'Dorota Blue', a groundcover for part shade. Dorota is Dorothy in Polish - I knew a few Dorothys back in Illinois and am quite taken with the name.

Dorota is not showy - but in closeup the blue of her flowers is intense.

Robin/Get Grounded recently showed us her garden and wondered what survived for other Austin gardeners. In the back all the cupheas lived and so did the hummingbird sage. The roses looked crummy but didn't die. The peach tree is on its last legs but the crepe myrtles are fine. The front central garden lost a few salvias, but most of the dreadful-looking salvias endured, along with Rosa mutabilis, Yellow Bulbine, Phlox sublata, Flame Acanthus, a lilac-colored lantana from Robin, Black foot Daisies and gaura. In other beds the Iris look ratty but live on. So far the monarda and Lycoris are no-shows, but the rest of the bed looks wonderful right now - partly from rain and partly because the Divas of the Dirt were here.
I'm totally in love with my Mutabilis rose! If I ever get cute little business cards this photo is going on them.

In the area along the back wall of the house the Meyer's Lemon has grown and held onto a few lemons. Next to the lemon the Brugmansia - Yellow Angel's Trumpet is putting on quite a show. Morning sun rather than afternoon sun makes all the difference.

The same morning sun, reflective white wall and afternoon shade encouraged the dwarf pomegranate to produce 2 fruits! The standard tree in the Secret Garden has yet to make one.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, November 2008

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.

The complete list (including botanical names) of what's in bloom at Circus~Circus this month will be posted at my Annie's Addendum blog.
To visit Bloom Day all over the world, go to Carol's Bloom Day roundup at May Dreams Gardens.

Passion Playing

Since my passionvine does not look like the photos of Passiflora 'Incense' from other sites like Tom Spencer's, it was apparently mismarked when I bought it a few years ago. I've been scrolling through a bunch of sites and think it may be either 'Amethyst' or 'Lavender Lady'... apparently they look quite similar, but 'Amethyst' can set fruit if pollinated by another passionflower.

Did you know there's an entire Passiflora Forum at GardenWeb? That forum sent me off to other sites. The sites don't agree with one another, of course, and only some of the photos look like each other. Before I started forum-hopping I'd taken closeups to see if any readers knew the name, while playing with the camera to see how it photographed the blues and purples.


I may have gone a little overboard with this! All photos were taken in afternoon so they're a bit washed out. All were cropped and reformatted for size, but that's all - no brightening, contrast, color balance, or sharpening. I took the photo above while the flower was still attached to the vine.

Then I popped off the flower and poked the stem into the passionvine to show the bud, leaf and flower.

Hmmm, let's see how it looks over here in the shade with the Buddleja lindleyana...

To me the color of the petals looks purple, with guard filaments that look blue. Let's put it in sun next to a true blue flower - the Blue Butterfly Pea. That blue makes the passionflower tendrils look deep violet, I think.


Okay, let's go back in the shade - will it still look blue next to Salvia guaranitica?

Now for dark purple contrast - the 'Black Prince' buddleya davidia. Oh, dear, the flower has been handled and dropped so many times by now!

A final portrait in the shade with light blue Plumbago auriculata. I love the way these flowers look together... maybe some plumbago needs to grow near the passionvine.

Total immersion in purple passion works for me! I hope you enjoyed it too. Maybe I should just call this one 'Probably Lavender Lady'. Pam from Digging commented that she just bought an 'Incense' - I'll bet hers will match the label.

High Wire Act

[More 'Incense' passionflowers opened on Monday afternoon. Check the previous post - Aw, Nuts - to see why the photos didn't get up until now.]

The strands of the passion vine [planted at the far right of the bed], and of the Dolichos lablab/Hyacinth vine [planted at the far left of the border] had both outgrown the fence by August, so Philo helped me tie some twine for them to grow on. The twine reaches from a board about 5-feet high at the fence across to branches at the nine-foot level on a nearby magenta crepe myrtle.



Unless you look closely, you might think a hyacinth bean is producing passionflowers - the vines and foliage have become intertwined, but only the passionflower is blooming. I hope the bean catches up so that these two rather odd flowers will be open at the same time, resembling gaudily dressed performers twirling from the high wire at Circus~Circus.