Garden Bloggers Bloom Day July 2012

My neighborhood has been very lucky! 

Over the past 9 days we've had a series of storms with time in between for the rain to sink in - six precious inches of rain as of last night. That's enough to make a real difference after last year's heat and drought. 

We'll probably heat up again soon, but for now, the trees have had a deep, quenching drink. If you are living in one of the places that needs rain now, I wish & hope that it comes to you soon. 

Every day we see hummingbirds sipping from this salvia. Years ago I bought two colors of the reseeding annual Salvia coccinea (the standard red Hummingbird Sage) and the lovely Salvia coccinea 'Coral Nymph'.
Seedlings sprouted in following springs - some light coral, some red and some white. I love the white version and have let it reseed all along the edge of the patio. 

 Last year this dark coral version appeared in a patio pot & the hummingbirds were crazy for it. Instead of being annual, the plant died back to a stub in winter then quickly regrew to make hummingbirds happy again. 

The Crocosmia is back! There were few flowers in 2010, no flowers and few leaves last year. I wondered whether the small stand had died out but here it is, blooming again with Purple Heart/Setcreasia

We always grow a few vegetables every year but had not tried cucumbers in Texas until this spring. A few seeds of Sweet Marketmore from the Natural Gardener turned into rambling vines with huge leaves, yellow flowers and edible cucumbers. I like to watch them grow but don't eat them - Philo has had 9 or 10 so far and says they're delicious. I have a feeling this is beginners' luck because the squirrels haven't seen them growing before... might be a different story if we try again next year!

One stalk of an Amarcrinum 'Fred Howard' opened flowers about 10 days ago which was appreciated but not unusual. The a few days ago this second stalk came up on the same clump - totally unprecedented.

My friend Ellen gave me a passalong plant of Blue Butterfly Clerodendron a few years ago. In 2010 I bought another and then cloned a few more. Right now there are 4 plants in my garden, one in bloom, one with only leaves and two plants in bud. These buds are near the Amarcrinum, making big promises.

Tropical milkweed has lived over in some places and seeded in others. This seedling near the back door had a caterpillar on it. We see more Queen butterflies than Monarchs here so I'm not sure but there appear to be only two sets of filaments so it may be a Monarch caterpillar.

 

It's dropping blossoms now but on Saturday the Cenizo was gorgeous!

 Early last summer every pepper plant in the garden collapsed and died. In July I found a few new plants for sale, planted them in containers and got a few peppers. I used containers again this spring and we've had a small, steady supply of small peppers for weeks. The 'Cubanelle' and 'Carmen' are sweet but the 'Mariachi' can be pretty hot.

More than 50 years ago my grandmother grew a white garden phlox in Chicago. She divided it and gave pieces to her children, who divided it and gave pieces to their children. I gave some to my son and it's grown well for him. My dear son brought a piece to me last spring and I struggled to keep Grandma's Phlox going through last summer. Here it is, small and way shorter than in Illinois but every bloom is precious to me.

The red Turkscap is having a very good year... twice the height it was last year and covered in red flowers. These blooms were at eye level ... you may also have heard them called Wax Mallow or Malvaviscus.

You can see more of the tropical Milkweed in the background but what's in front is not really a flower. It's a developing Meyer's Improved Lemon, on the tree that froze back to a leafless, stubby framework in February 2011. I don't know if the dozen or so lemons can make it all the way to fall & maturity, but it is certainly a novelty having little lemons hang overhead when you walk down the sidewalk.

The finches were probably relieved to see seedlings of the cosmos sprout up - much later than in other years. We've seen both housefinches and goldfinches hanging on the plants like ornaments, trying to get the seeds.  

My attempts to divide and clone this plant have failed so far but I'll try again. It's a hybrid Skullcap called 'Dorota Blue', supposed to be a useful groundcover in some places but a pampered pet here. I really like the color. 

Watering the rainlilies doesn't work - they are not fooled by a hose! But real rain brought them out of hiding. This pink rainlily came from Plant Delights nursery, but in the front yard I saw buds emerging from native white rainlilies and native yellow Copper lilies - maybe I can catch them in flower, too.

Thanks for visiting the Transplantable Rose ~ I wish you enough rain and enough sun to make your garden happy and many friends to enjoy it with you!

For the complete list of what is in bloom and a few more photos, go to my Annie's Addendum blog.

To see a roundup of gardeners who have joined in for the July 2012 edition of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, the invention of May Dreams Carol, go here to Carol's blog.

At-Ten-Ten-Ten-tion Must Be Paid

Attention has been paid to the design of the garden. Once that Mystery Tree in the last post was identified as a probable Mulberry, it was no longer allowed to overwhelm the new border and it was not transplanted into a pot and nurtured. According to MSS of Zanthan Gardens her almost identical Mulberry sapling has survived several winters and bounced back after being cut down over and over. This kind of weedy tree might be fine on a few acres or a farm - I've read that the berries are great favorites of pigs - but there is no room for it on our small suburban lot!


I dug deep, and think all the roots came out.
MSS gave me Bluebonnet seeds last month and I planted some of them in the now-empty space. In Austin we sow these seeds in fall and then hope the little sprouts make it through cold weather, attacks by pillbugs and constant uprooting by squirrels as they dig holes for pecans.

You can't help but pay attention to the squirrels - they're rampaging everywhere in their fall frenzy - breaking branches while tearing pecan husks from the pecan trees and dropping fragments of husk on every surface. The constant leaping and running and chasing is hard on other trees, too - young Loquat #2 lost several of its lower branches. I guess the squirrels aren't burying all the nuts but are eating a lot of them. This leads to poor judgment by the Tree Rat as to how large a bough is needed to support their weight
The squirrels didn't kill the Culinary Sage - it died not long after the prolonged drenching from Tropical Storm Hermine. It was interesting to see which plants gave up after 12-inches of rain. Although the Silver Pony foot doubled in size, many of the grey-leaved plants including MoonshineYarrow/Achillea, Lavender plants and most of the Lambs Ears died quickly after the storms. Some salvias, most of the Shasta Daisies, some coneflowers and most portulaca are gone, too. For now those blank spots have been planted with more of the bluebonnet seeds from MSS.

Blooming blue already is that Scutellaria 'Dorota Blue' from last year. It barely survived winter freezes and I kept in into a large pot under the overhang all summer, hoping the part shade could keep the sun from killing it. That overhang also kept the skullcap from being pounded by rain. Now the fall show has begun. The leaves show stress from the past year but the flowers are abundant and beautiful.

That last post about the mystery tree made me neglect some autumn beauties. One plant responded to the rain with an astonishing display - the first blooms ever from red spider lily/Lycoris bulbs, another gift from MSS. What can I say? She is a gardening angel!

The first bud was a surprise - so lovely on its ownThen 6 flower heads rose up and began to open in the center of verbena, Gregg's Mistflower, Black & Blue Salvia, Blackfoot Daisies, Rosa Mutabilis and Bengal Tiger canna leaves They opened over a period of several days, and it was really a smashing combination.
I can't help but pay attention to flowers that smell wonderful when I walk out on the patio. A few days ago one of the heads of White Ginger/Hedychium coronarium was perfect.
The fragrance of Sweet Olive is a sure sign of fall in my garden. My three shrubs didn't seem to mind the rain and are covered in tiny fragrant flowers. If other plants in my garden die, I might take a while to decide whether to replant them. But if I lost Osmanthus/Sweet Olive, I'd be scouring the nurseries for a replacement without a moment's hesitation. I don't want to be without it.

Yesterday was the last project of the year for we members of the Divas of the Dirt, our cooperative gardening group. I've known them since the first project of the 2001 garden season - so yesterday marked 10 years of Digging With The Divas. Most of the story will be on the blog eventually, but for the amusement of my fellow gardenbloggers in Austin, here's a photo of what we spent hours digging up yesterday:It's the alternately loved and despised Horseherb - a plant that came in near the top of the Austin gardenbloggers' Most Hated Weed List via Twitter last week, while at the same time it's sold in nurseries and recommended as a native ground cover by other Austin garden people.

There's something to pay attention to in the vegetable patch, too. Most of the tomato plants died soon after Hermine, but just a little liquid fertilizer on the pepper plants brought new fruit. We've enjoyed the sweet frying-type peppers for breakfast Peppers-and-Eggs, but these are a small, rather hot pepper called 'Garden Salsa'.
Philo roasted them, added garlic and turned them into a chunky hot sauce. Science fiction fans are having much fun with the fact that the all important decimal number 42 is rendered 10-10-10 in binary numbers. Philo considered naming his relish the Secret Sauce of the Universe, but instead called it "Thanks For All the Peppers ". There are a few more hours left of this day -think I'll keep my massively useful towel handy.

With the sapling mulberry gone, you can now see the amazing size of the Salvia vanhouttei in the new border. I raved last GBBD about the $2, 4" starter plant from Barton Springs Nursery that turned into a temporary shrub, but this plant needs more than photos - it needs attention for just a few seconds on video.

GBBD for October 2009, Late but Flowery

"GBBD for October 2009, Late but Flowery" was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog

Look out the front door and see the butterfly garden awakened by rain (photos enlarge when clicked)

The native Gregg's Mist Flower looked as if it would die in August but it's full of bees and Queens in October. The Blackfoot daisies should show up if you click.

Walk to the flower bed at the end of the porch and see the white Salvia greggii reblooming... did you guess that those emerging leaves are narcissus? Even while summer lingers the garden is thinking of spring.

As you cross the driveway, notice the usually sedate Salvia leucantha is throwing a party under the garage overhang
The Pink Entrance Garden really is pink now - 'Belinda's Dream' rose, 'Champagne' minirose, pink gaura, rosy ice plant, pink skullcap, lavender pink angelonia and white lantana rejoice that they lived through summer 2009


Next to the garden gate a tall white abelia hangs blossoms, its clusters full instead of sparse. In quantity they are lightly fragrant.
Walk through the gate and look left - after sulking through the summer, the Salvia madrensis swallowed the rain, had a growth spurt and quickly made buds. But those flowers weren't open for GBBD - the rascals tried to fool me by staying close until the 17th. I fooled them by being late. The two triangle beds and the long borders don't look too bad at a distance, and some flowers can stand a close-up...but this month we're not displaying our bedraggled and raggedyfoliage in any medium-close photos.

The walk to the door is pretty interesting right now - the Meyer's lemon has some wicked thorns and the 7-foot yellow brugmansia blocks the sidewalk while dropping little green spiders on anyone approaching the back door. The clematis still has a few unopened buds.
Blue goes with everything - Mistflower goes with Black & Blue salvia and a pink butterfly bush passalong from Lori likes the Salvia guaranitica hanging over its shoulder.
Above left, more Salvia 'Black & Blue' works with Yellow bulbine in the front butterfly bed while at right the Blue Butterfly Flower/Clerodendrum ugandense cavorts with Mexican Mint Marigold in the larger triangle bed in the back yard.

The two flowers below earned closeups: Pineapple sage/Salvia elegans and Scutellaria 'Dorota Blue' - one of the Skullcaps. Any "Gossip Girl" fans out there? I just learned the show has a character named Dorota
The 'Julia Child' rose looks good once again - and so do the clematis flowers. If you're interested in the botanical names check back at Annie's Addendum - eventually the full list with botanical names will appear.
As the finale here are two little white lookalike flowers, both having a very good October.
Please go to Carol's blog to see the other gardeners taking part in GBBD for October.


"GBBD for October 2009, Late but Flowery" was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog

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.