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.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for September 2008

On the 15th of each month fellow gardenblogger Carol of May Dreams Garden asks us to join Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I've posted photos on this blog, but a complete list with botanical names can be found at my other blog, Annie's Addendum.
It's mid-September in Austin, and while the days are still hot, there are fewer hours of baking sun on the plants and more hours of restful darkness as we move toward autumn. There may not be many restful hours for friends and family hit by monster Hurricane Ike in the Houston area (including Herself, Nancy and Cindy) and those washed out by the greatest recorded calender day rainfall ever for Chicago . You are in our thoughts, even as we rejoice and share the ways the earth speaks in flowers. Last year I walked the chicken path when MSS of Zanthan Gardens gave me some of her Oxblood lilies. Instead of following her lead and planting the Rhodophiala bifidia bulbs all in one place for a big display, I tucked a few bulbs into 6 small patches, in front, back and side gardens. Just a few of these Schoolhouse Lilies can brighten a small area like the fence at the entrance to the Secret Garden above.


The blue plumbago next to the back door has bloomed for months - now it's joined by the pale yellow Brugmansia, with a pink Cuphea barely visible at lower right.


The two tropical milkweeds had gone to seed, so a few weeks ago I chopped them back. They're blooming again, attracting aphids and milkweed bugs. I've seen Monarch butterflies checking out both plants but if there are any Monarch caterpillars they're hiding too well.


. The 'Julia Child' rose is finally looking good again - especially from a few feet away where the cut-out shapes on many leaves are less apparent. The damage hasn't stopped the buds and blooms and is probably done by leaf-cutting bees so I'll ignore it.


The Divas of the Dirt helped make this front garden in March. The Mutabilis rose, striped cannas, 'Black & Blue' salvia, Gregg's Mistflower, Flame Acanthus, white Gaura and yellow Bulbine strive to fill the footprint where an Arizona Ash once grew.


As you can see in this view from the other direction, the 'Mutabilis' doesn't really need any help, just some water and some time.

Here's a closer look at the Mistflower/Conoclinium greggii, 'Black & Blue' salvia and Bulbine frutescens. Mexican oregano is an herb in the kitchen, but looks like a small flowering shrub in the borders.... I planted two small plants in 2005 and then Pam/Digging gave me one for the Pink Entrance Garden in 2007. Until this summer I didn't want to cut them too much, so still used the dried Mexican oregano when cooking dishes like black beans. (Who was asking about what to cook with this herb? Was it Entangled?) The plants now have enough substance so that harvesting some won't leave a noticeable gap.


Did you notice those hot pink petals scattered around the light purple oregano flowers?
Our neighbors' enormous hot pink crepe myrtle sheds petals with every gust of wind. I'm not fond of the color, but the birds like the dense branches and it adds privacy in addition to the pink confetti.

You've seen the colors that I do love over and over in photos of the intense Blue Butterfly Pea/Clitoria ternatea and the delicately shaded Clerodendrum ugandense/Blue butterfly flower. They're not only blooming continuously, both plants are growing vigorously.

Some of the Salvia 'Nuevo Leon' died soon after the heavy rain three weeks ago, but this red-flowered native is less finicky about heavy clay. Both plants of the Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii have grown well and are covered in flowers, ready for a daily visit by a pair of hummingbirds.



Does your town have rules about when you can water your garden? We're allowed to hand water with a garden hose or watering can here in Austin but the use of sprinklers is regulated - my days are Wednesday and Saturday before 10 AM and after 7 PM.

On Saturday night I placed a 'bubbler' in the root zone of the 'Forest Pansy' redbud and turned on the kitchen timer. When the bell rang, I went out to turn off the water and had a lovely surprise!

It looked like June instead of September as a scattering of Lightning Bugs (or maybe you call them Fireflies) flitted around the front yard, grazing the box hedge and swooping over the 'Mutablis' rose. I caught one and took it inside, intending to get a closeup under the kitchen light. The beetle escaped and flew to the top of the wall.

I aimed high and snapped the photo to see what the camera could do - it's not a closeup, but it's a recognizable lightning bug.



Both the blue pea vine and the Moon vine got a late start this summer - I delayed planting them on the tall metal obelisk because the 'Cupani' Sweet peas didn't stop blooming until mid-June! The Blue Pea had already seeded itself from last year, and it grew fast and bloomed quickly. I had to soak and plant a couple of saved Moonflower seeds, and it took a lot longer to climb the tower, finally opening flowers this week.

You can usually tell if a moonflower bud will open that night by the way it looks in the afternoon.
I went out in the dark and tried out the new camera, testing its ability to capture the texture of the Moonflower petals.

How cool! The new camera lets me see in the dark.


Go to Carol's Bloom Day post and read the comments to find flowers in bloom all around the world.

Labor Day Red White and Blue

ED 2010 This post mentions problems with photos changing orientation & auto-rotating after being uploaded to Blogger. My flower photos kept being changed from horizontal to portrait and it drove me crazy! The problem was apparently with the camera settings. The facial recognition feature kept seeing flower faces as human faces, but it didn't like the proportion so kept 'fixing' them. There are more details in this post on my Annie's Addendum blog.


With plants still making new leaves, warm muggy nights and daytime weather just a few degrees under 100°F, it sure doesn't feel like autumn around Austin, but the calender says it's Labor Day Weekend, a short period of time set aside for relaxation. This year the holiday weekend is bookended by two national political conventions and threatened by two hurricanes, Gustav and Hanna. In Austin there are all sorts of events, including the Human Race 10 K , the Austin Triathlon and the 4th Annual Batfest. (Thanks to Austin Metblogs for keeping us informed.)

This weekend my Aunt Helen is celebrating her 98th birthday back in Chicago with our family. Helen no longer plays the piano - but until a few years ago was expected to provide the music when we sang Happy Birthday to her.

The family history we've gathered includes my aunt's memories of what it was like to be a school child at the end of World War One and she also told us about enormous family picnics on long-ago Labor Days.
Her phenomenal memory has made history alive for us.

Thoughts of celebrations, of people in danger, of national pride, of Katrina, of missing my family, of people living long lives and the importance of coming events tumbled around in my head, making me dizzy.

As usual, tumultuous thoughts send me outside, and I found myself looking around for some red, white and blue in the garden to signify the importance of this National Holiday.

Most of the other flowers have been in bloom for awhile, but the Oxblood Lilies, Rhodophiala bifidia, have been open just a few days - nothing is redder than an Oxblood/Schoolhouse Lily..

White will come from the 'Acoma' Crepe myrtles. They have no problem attracting pollinators, and the flowers go to seed faster than I can deadhead the branch tips. It's worth the effort to keep these fluffy flowers coming.


This Evolvolus 'Blue Daze' will keep blooming without deadheading, but it's in a hanging clay pot so needs a little water every day. The color is pretty but might be a little delicate to represent the blue in a flag.
The Blue Butterfly pea has a deeper color, seen here once again with the 'Fuji' Balloon Flower/Platycodon and the Blue Butterfly Flower/Clerodendrum ugandense . All three have been in bloom for weeks with many more buds developing.

Joining the crepe myrtle and white balloon flowers in representing the white stripes on the flag are these little Zinnea linnearis, which have been in bloom for months.


The flowers are pleasing, but the photo is making me see not white but red! What the heck is going on with Blogger? It uploads my photos, which have been formatted in the same way for years, and then chooses photos seemingly at random, rotating them 90º so the landscape photos are turned into portrait mode.


This keeps happening over and over. I've deleted photos, reformatted, deleted entire posts and started over with no good outcome. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a solution? Help! [Edited Sunday night - check out a possible fix at Annie's Addendum.]

What should be something both attractive and delicious for the red stripes on the flag - 'Cherry Belle' peppers - once again looks ridiculous when the photo has made a quarter-turn to stand on end instead of the right way.


Up in the front of the house we have a Woodland Garden still in an early state of becoming. That's where I found all three colors next to each other - Pigeon Berry/Rivina humilis adds red from the berries and white from the tiny flowers to the small, deep blue blossoms of Ceratostigma plumbaginoides -or leadwort- an old favorite from Illinois that tolerates life in Texas.Here is one more look at the Schoolhouse Lilies as the sun moves down in early evening. The first flowers opened as the local kids returned to school last week. Philo and I rented a couple of movies for this weekend that suit the beginning of school in a twisted sort of way - Charlie Bartlett and Friday Night Lights... I have a feeling these movies will be fun to watch, but they'll also make us glad our school days are over.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for September

Do you remember July? Many of the plants seen on July's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day haven't forgotten it: A new stalk of Amarcrinum 'Fred Howard' suddenly shot up next to a pink cuphea full of bees. The pink gaura never stops, the balloon flowers keep opening as long as I pop off the old buds, and there are a few mini-roses, too.


The container plants like impatiens and this lantana-and evolvolus combo may not stop until Halloween. The blossoms continue on Oxalis, butterfly bush, orange cuphea and Batfaced cuphea, dianthus, Turkscap, Rock Rose/Pavonia, Salvia greggii and Zinnia linearis. One or two buds appear biweekly on the 'Little Gem' magnolias. The Russian sage plants all look ratty and the phlox does, too, but I'll count their few florets as blooms. When mealy bugs attacked the 'Black & Blue' salvia and the Salvia guaranitica I cut them down to ground level.



Do you remember August? September doesn't look much different here, still decorated with one open stalk of Hedychium coronarium/White Ginger, the delicate Cypress Vine, Coral Honeysuckle, Plumeria/Frangipani, Bengal Tiger canna, night-blooming jasmine and blue plumbago.




Looking out the back door I see the obelisk concealed beneath moon vines and blue pea vines. At right, nearer the fence, the Blue River II white hibiscus is balanced by the white 'Acoma' crepe myrtles at left. My neighbors on the left and at the back grow tall pink crepe myrtles which loom overhead. Something tall & yellow is missing - the native Sunflower is just a browned stalk now.




Once again the passionflowers have buds, with no new caterpillars in evidence. I hope they get the chance to open.




All the yellow trumpets turned white and fell from the Brugmansia/Angels Trumpet, leaving buds as promissory notes for next week. I feel a little guilty about this, since gardeners like Kate in Saskatchewan have already had to cover plants at night.

The most exciting September openers were a gift from MSS at Zanthan Gardens, the Oxblood lilies/Rhodophiala bifidia seen in the last post. I planted the bulbs in small clumps in six parts of the yard, and they've opened one after another [ perhaps in response to sun exposure?] then faded. This bouquet opened just in time.




Two large plants of Pineapple sage/Salvia elegans are barely budded, opening only one flower. I love the smell of the crushed leaves and have read they can be used in fruit salad, teas, and jelled desserts. Last winter knocked my plants back to the ground but in gentler years flowers also form in spring so they're here to greet the hummingbirds upon their return. I'm not sure if the salvia will open fully before our hummingbirds leave this fall.






The annual portulaca sulked during the rainy part of summer. It's a chunkier cousin to moss rose which never grew much, but I like that coral color.




This summer's odd weather also delayed the blooming of the tropical milkweed/Asclepias curassavica - I haven't seen any Monarch caterpillars as yet. Several generations of larvae grew on last year's plants and these flowers are ready if the Monarchs return.




Two of the three plants of Blue Skyflower/Duranta erecta finally deigned to bloom. The flowers on both are in the blue-purple range, but this one has white edges that reflect light in an interesting way - all I did to the photo was to resize it.



Oh - here's another new blossom. My friend Ellen, giver of the gorgeous grape-scented iris, also gave me a start of an unusual kind of Butterfly bush. We're pretty sure it's Buddleia lindleyana. Unlike butterfly bushes such as 'Black Prince'. this one is not upright but weeps, dangling long droopy flowers that don't start until late summer.




Okay, May Dreams Carol! Here's the final flower for September Bloom Day - I can't leave without posting this night photo with flash, celebrating the fragrant flowers on the Moon vine.