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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

STILL LOTS OF COLOR



Despite the heat and lack of rain there is still plenty of color in the garden. The Rudbeckia are in full flower. The first one is Rudbeckia hirta "Prairie sun" sometimes referred to as Irish eyes because of its green center, The second one is Rudbeckia "goldsturm". Both grown from seed this year.
I thought it interesting that when I visited James David's garden ("seeds") along with the Bloggers Spring Fling, one of the first things he mentioned was that his garden was not a spring garden but a fall garden.  I have been to the garden before several times and it has always been in the fall. Spring is a wonderful time in Texas. You only have to pay a visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center during the spring months to see an enormous variety of Texas natives in bloom. In my garden too, spring plants abound although they are not all natives. Fall is also a wonderful time for the Texas garden but to enjoy these two seasons you have to be prepared for quite a bit of work. That means removing the larkspur, poppies, love in a mist and many others when they have set seed. Next come the salvias, cosmos, zinnias blanket flowers, lantana, zexmania, to name a few.  Right now, if we want to enjoy them in the fall then they need to be cut back quite hard. There is still time to sow seeds and move small re-seeders around. 
Over the last week the Salvia greggii, catmint, lantana have all been cut back and today I did some serious removal of an untidy collection of plants in the sunken garden.


It is actually looking quite tidy but not so colorful right now. The structure alone should hold it through the next couple of months.


A bluebonnet which has seeded in the veg. garden path must think it is spring again. I think it must have been late germinating because of the lack of rain.


Gomphrena will bloom throughout the summer and fall with a minimum of care. Its seeds can be saved from year to year although it is a hardy annual here.
And then there is the ever present Rock rose(Pavonia) to add a splash of pink to the gravel.

3 comments:

  1. You have lots of interesting plants in bloom. Right now, I have not more than four things in bloom. This is our ugliest time of year in my view, with everything dormant because of the heat. If we get rain at all during Monsoon, things will perk up, and then come back in full force in October. Are your weather patterns at all similar?
    aiyana

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  2. We do have plenty in flower and it really kills me to have to cut back the flowering plants but to make the fall garden its best that is what you have to do. We will be lucky if we get rain here. it is really hit or miss. I do think that Arizona gardens are carried through with the wonderful structure of plants. I love the desert landscape and the thrill of a cactus in bloom. I wait with eagerness in the spring for my lace cactus to bloom. We, in central Texas, are hanging in there like you for the cooler days of fall.
    Jenny

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  3. Wow, I'm so impressed that you have so many flowers blooming. Did the just set the rudbeckia seeds out in the yard, or did you start them indoors?

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