A surprisingly Pleasant, Rainy GBBD for July, 2013

This post was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog.  

Rain is a big deal here, and it rained today! I watched through the kitchen window as the rain ran down the chain into the barrel and then stood on the front porch listening to the welcome sound. Instead of dust we had raindrops. Instead of the 104°F of Saturday afternoon, temperatures on Monday afternoon never broke 80°F.
 
The chance to make a Garden Blogger Bloom Day post featuring petals and leaves dampened by raindrops doesn't come along very often! I caught a few photos, mostly of plants near the house, and mostly of flowers with petals that hadn't disintegrated to mush in the rain.

There are two more rain chains directing water into the very important, long back wall border. This very desirable morning-sun, afternoon-shade spot is jammed full with Blue Plumbago, Tropical Milkweed, a Meyer's Lemon, a Satsuma orange, 'Carmen' peppers, a climbing rose, Grandma's phlox, Blue Butterfly Clerodendron, Pink cuphea, Burgundy oxalis, black Ophiopogon, Coreopsis 'Crème Brulee', three passalong daylilies and more, in the rain. 

 
Some years ago a couple of bulbs of Amarcrinum were given positions in this special, long border - the fragrant pink flowers appeared in the last post and even more flower stalks are up now. Here is  x Amarcrinum 'Fred Howard' in the rain. 

Over by the garden gate the Cenizo/Texas Sage had popped into bloom

Across from the Cenizo a daylily that had bloomed a while ago is surprising me. It appears that the developing bloom stalk stalled and shut down when we started seeing temperatures over 100°F. Now the stalk has extended and the buds are swelling, long after the other flowers faded. Here is Hemerocallis 'Devonshire' in the rain.


Behind the daylily are a Firecracker plant and a creamy white Salvia greggii. Let's take a closer look. 

The daylily, Firecracker plant and salvia have all been here for years, but on the other side of the daylily is a more recent addition, Asclepias currasivica 'Silky Gold'. This all-yellow selection of tropical milkweed seems to be settling in well and it sure does look pretty in the rain. 

Closer to the back fence a young 'Catawba' crepe myrtle bows down with the weight of water-logged blossoms. This tree is only shrub-sized right now, but it has the potential to transform this part of the garden as it grows into a tree.



Blasting afternoon sun combined with deep morning shade and a very dry winter is not the recipe for happy Phlox, but some handwatering and compost helped this Fanick's phlox in the pink entrance garden survive to make a few flowers. I was afraid I had lost this plant so am very happy to take a photo of it in the rain. 

There are a couple of beds in the garden that usually bloom with red, white & blue flowers around  Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Those beds did not deliver this year, but a large patio container is displaying patriotic colors today. Here's a white Datura AKA Angel's Trumpet, with blue-violet petunias, white hummingbird sage and red hummingbird sage, in the rain.


So far my rain gauge has measured a little over 2" - there's been much more in some parts of Central Texas and much less in other parts of Austin. You may be tired of reading that little phrase, "In the Rain", but I'm sure not tired of saying it.

Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and keeps the links for all who want to be part of this pleasant tradition. This is her July post.


If I can get a complete list of what's in bloom along with the botanical names, it will appear at Annie's Addendum.  
(That list is now up, with a few more photos)
This post was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog. 

Successful Shopping Saturday at the Natural Gardener

Can you believe that Philo & I went to the Natural Gardener yesterday and came home without one single plant or bulb? Here's how it started - around 2006 I planted a rooted cutting of a passalong corkscrew willow into a big patio container, placing it under the metal trough that directs rainwater off the roof and tucking in a few starts of umbrella plant. The rain fell, the tree grew and the Cyperis alternifolia thrived so I added an amarcrinum bulb filched from one of the borders and some passalong Agapanthus from Pam/Digging. Eventually the combination was so successful we could barely squeeze past the pot to cross the patio.
Then came the summer of 2009 - and the willow died. (Don't worry - I have another rooted cutting and MSS of Zanthan Gardens has one, too.) I'll miss the willow but was glad to have a chance to get rid of that huge pot! I dollied it out to an empty corner of the vegetable plot - soon it will be upended and the Umbrella Plants, Amarcrinum and Agapanthus will be separated to find new homes somewhere else in the garden.

With the pot gone I could try a new idea for the space. Some normal rains have returned to Austin. I set a garden tote under the trough and watched what happened, finding out that even a light rain - say 1/4 of an inch - was enough to fill the 10 gallon tote to overflowing. Our house is small and the patio is essential space. We drove to the Natural Gardener yesterday and came home with a rainbarrel that could catch that runoff & save the rainwater for the patio plants while looking good in our Outdoor Living Room. This house was made without the usual gutter-and-downspout design, but I think the shape of this Cascata Rainbarrel will work!
Can I make May Dreams Carol jealous with my hoe story? I'd admired the Diamond hoe used by my Divas of the Dirt friend Mindy to cut off grass and weeds at ground level. Here's the hoe at work during the Divas' February project.

In September the Divas had redone my parkway - replacing mostly dead turf with waterwise plants. Then the rains arrived, sprouting a million seeds of upturned annual ryegrass. To avoid sitting in the street to weed, I need a Diamond Hoe, too!
The hoes were out of stock last time I visited the store - but this one was waiting for me yesterday...

We bought one more non-plant addition to the garden yesterday - it wouldn't fit inside, but two ingenious guys at the Natural Gardener figured out how to attach it to the car roof.

I've looked at these trellises a dozen times, knowing exactly the spot along the NE fence where we could put on someday.

Someday was Yesterday.

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.

Sparkler

The red rose, white Pentas, white salvia and Salvia 'Black& Blue' barely constitute a floral sparkler let alone the explosion of color I was hoping to gather for a photo. Real fireworks, legal or otherwise, can be heard around Austin on every Fourth of July. I like fireworks, but have always felt tense as bottle rockets flew over dried-out roofs in our usual hot, dry summers. They'll be very hard to light this year!

It's still pouring in Texas, and I wonder whether this photo of a puddle in the secret garden might be considered garden porn by those of you who need rain so badly. [Lilac and peony photos fit this category for me!] If you're in a drought area, may gentle, slow soaking rains fall on your gardens soon, allowing the waterlogged places [like Oklahoma City, which had 20 straight days of rain] to dry out a little.

MSS of Zanthan Gardens has concentrated on tomatoes lately and Pam/Digging has been away from her blog for a while. Well, while Pam is busy and you're missing her fabulous photos, my photos might look better ! Here are a few from my garden this week - some have rain and mist, others were taken in sun. When the rain stopped and the sun came out, I covered myself in mosquito spray and went out to weed and prune.

This unnamed oriental lily bloomed in a deck container for a few years, was planted in the ground in 2005, and is somehow living and blooming in our heavy clay soil. There have been a few flowers each year, but there were 10 buds this June - and they're huge, measuring 8-inches across when fully open.

In closeup this lily has little 'bumps' but no spots like the Stargazers. One flower in a vase puts out so much fragrance it can be overpowering inside the house.

The 'City of Portland' canna loves the moisture and keeps blooming. There's a little coral color blended into the brick of our house. This color sets off a war when something in the magenta/pink range is planted near the brick, but growing the cannas near the wall looks okay to me - what do you think?

Another Canna goes by several names, including 'Praetoria' and 'Bengal Tiger', and has striped foliage and orange flowers. I planted it in three places in my garden, liking how it looks near this 'Acoma' crepe myrtle and a self-seeded tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, with Perovskia/Russian sage at the base .

The Zephranthes 'Labuffarosea' rainlilies opened a few flowers, but their numbers are down from last year. I don't think they like being waterlogged - some of the bulbs may have rotted underground.

Last year two Snail Vines, Phaseolous caracalla, ran rampant in my garden. One took over the garden arch and smothered the Coral Honeysuckle, leading me to evict it. The other one covered the metal obelisk so densely that the structure was invisible, but I liked the flowers, so let it finish the season.

Once free of the annual snail vine, the Coral honeysuckle did well, and has taken over the arch. It's been showing off those flowers nonstop since March, framing the garden and attracting hummingbirds.

I planted seeds for Moonvine, Ipomoea alba, and Blue Pea Vine, Clitoria ternatea, at the base of the obelisk a couple of months ago - actually planting them twice, since the first seeds never sprouted. The second set of seeds sprouted and are twining up the metal bars, but are not yet blooming. I like the way the obelisk looks this year, and am not in a big hurry for the flowers. The birds seem delighted with the exposed framework - a hummingbird likes to perch on the crossbar in between sips at the Buddleja, honeysuckle and Salvias and it's also a favorite hangout for the wrens.

I hope you're all having a safe and happy holiday, with some sparkle in your evening.