Congratulations Gardening Gone Wild Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the Flowering Tree Photo contest! I enjoyed clicking around the complete list at Gardening Gone Wild seeing flowering trees from other places. Who knew so many of us love redbuds?

For everyone who entered there was something special - renowned photographer-judge Rob Cardillo was kind enough to comment on every entry. The March 2009 photo that I entered wasn't taken for a contest or for the blog but to help me remember what the front yard looked like in spring. Rob's comment about the composition made me resolve to pay attention even for these kinds of "mapping shots", but some of his words made me laugh:

“I like the off centered redbud and how the house line works but this choice view might look even better on an overcast day.”

Frankly Rob, not only the photos but all life in Central Texas might look better if we had more overcast days!

Guest Posting New Song for Kiss My Aster

Many of you already know Amanda the zany gardener who writes a blog for Horticulture Magazine as Kiss My Aster. She's lots of fun both on the blog and on Twitter. Amanda recently invited me to premiere my new song on the Horticulture website and it was fun to be able to say "Yes".


Like Anna in "The King and I" doing her best to quell her fears by whistling a happy tune, I've tried to make it through this summer by writing a funny song and having Philo make it into a video.




Please check out Kiss My Aster's fun blog and " I Don't Want to Be in Texas In July" over at the Horticulture Mag Website.

Flowering Trees for Gardening Gone Wild

Some amazing photographers have entered this month's Picture This Photo Contest at Gardening Gone Wild. My photos are seldom amazing but it's worth taking them as documentation and as memories, no matter their artistic value. I'm entering this photo because it shows all three forms of our Redbuds/Cercis canadensis in bloom last spring. I named my garden Circus~Cercis because of these trees:
(Please click to enlarge)

At left near the Pink Garden a Texas Redbud is getting established, waving arms to its cousin the Texas Whitebud across the drive in the sunny native and adapted bed that now fills the footprint where a huge ash once grew. Between them, way back in the shadows at the far end of the house you can see the dark leaves and deep pink flowers of the 'Forest Pansy' redbud, planted in fall 2004.

We're in deep drought here in Central Texas, and have already racked up more than 30 days over 100°F with all of August and September yet to come. I've been watering the trees, but sometimes the ground stays so warm and the nights are so hot that even good-sized trees just give up the fight to stay alive. With a little luck the three redbuds will make it through to live and bloom again.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, July 2009

There isn't much to see here at Circus~Cercis this month - having flowers bloom is less of a goal than keeping a core of life in the garden, in the hope that rain and normal temperatures will return to Central Texas someday. I cannot bear to let you see the sunny front yard and it's too depressing to look closely in the back. Maybe we can peek between our fingers at a few bright spots...well actually most of the survivors aren't in bright spots, but are in semi-shade, like the orange crocosmia and purple setcreasia above.




In the filtered shade on the patio where the containers get water a fragrant yellow Plumeria blooms with a few red flowers produced by the Spicy Jatropha bought in South Austin last fall.

The two white 'Acoma' crepe myrtles carry on - providing a hideout for a green garden spider and some dappled shade for a white Echinacea. (Click on the photo to enlarge it.) The coneflower looks much better as a tiny blur in the background...up close the petals have brown edges.

Is anyone else still watering their tomatoes? If mine stopped setting fruit I'd let them go, but both 'Early Girl' and 'Juliet' keep making flowers and tiny tomatoes and such valor deserves a little water and a great deal of appreciation.

The volunteer pattypan squash has flowers, too, and the few squash it's produced have been delicious. Last night our dinner menu gave a nod to Bastille Day, with one pattypan squash sliced and sautéed with onion and green pepper, then added to some cubed chicken that had been poached with herbs. I filled a few crêpes with this mixture, topped them with a cheese and wine sauce and served them with salad that had a couple of tomatoes from the garden in it.

There's a list of everything with a flower at my Annie's Addendum blog. Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (AKA GBBD) is the invention of Carol at May Dreams Gardens. For links to the many gardeners worldwide who are part of GBBD, please go to Carol's Blog.