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Saturday, April 9, 2011

OH, CRUEL WIND

My neighbor brought over some iris for me to have in the house. She said the wind had just knocked them over and there was no point leaving them outside.

The weather man was not wrong in his prediction of strong winds today and a high in the low 90s. How is it he is only wrong when he says we will have rain? Will my garden ever see rain again?

It just amazes me how I can go out in the early morning and photograph my garden in the still air under a cloudy sky and within a few hours the sun is out once again and a fierce wind is blowing. By afternoon very petal on my poppies was blasted off and the garden was littered with rose petals. I probably wouldn't mind if I wasn't a gardener. Grumble, grumble, grumble. We walked around Lady Bird Lake this morning and the wind made the walk bearable.

These knockout roses in the foreground, photographed early this morning, have also lost most of their petals.

There will be no sweet smell of chocolate, (from the chocolate daisy), on the air tomorrow morning.


Two plants that seem to stand up quite nicely to the wind are the Hinckley's yellow columbine, Aquilegia chrysantha var. Hinckleyana. and the Gulf coast penstemon, Penstemon tenuis. In this corner of the garden a battle rages between these two plants and the heart leaf skullcap, Scutellaria ovata. I know who would win here if I didn't have a plan to take charge in a few weeks.

Salvia greggii survives a windy day. It has sheltered the pink evening primroses growing beneath. If given plenty of space for themselves the pink primrose grows low, but will compete to any height if necessary.
So what does the weather man say? Another day in the 90s tomorrow with a cold front that may bring us some rain. I know that front will bring more wind but if it brings rain this time I shall be ecstatic. Of course a Texas cold front means down to the 80s. Still way above our April average of high seventies. We shall see.

13 comments:

  1. Your garden is magnificent!! Evening primrose took over an entire bed in my garden but yours seem better behaved. We had high winds here several days ago that tore most of the petals off my Yoshino cherry tree. Grr....! hopefully, you get some rain soon. :o)

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  2. Oh, yes..please let it rain! No messurable rain here in Wimberley, since October. The winds do nothing but beat things up and dry things out.

    But then, my daughter in North Dakota, got 5 inches of snow, yesterday. Crazy...!

    Guess we just have to take what we get.

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  3. Your garden is amazing, I can't believe you haven't had any rain. We're praying for rain here in West Texas too. Dry winds for days and wildfire alerts galore.

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  4. Your second picture is simply delightful. I don't think your garden even needs any rain. It only requires your touch.

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  5. Your garden is lovely! Here in Ohio the only flowers blooming are spring bulbs. It's nice to see someone else's garden in bloom! Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Your garden is gorgeous! I need to get some columbine for my garden. Yours is beautiful. I know what you mean about the winds - I hate it! And your frogs in the last post - adorable!

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  7. I am right there with you, Jenny. I found myself getting annoyed by the wind yesterday as I was working in the garden. We have rose and Four-Nerve daisy petals strewn across the yard. The zucchini leaves have been blown around and smashed up and look pretty mangled ... *sigh*.

    And I find myself asking the same question, "Will we ever get rain again?" I heard we may be in for a thunderstorm tonight and probably damaging hail. Go figure! I heard that yesterday, however, and things have probably changed since then ...

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  8. Oh my gosh- the wind- no joke- we run around laying everything down so it doesn't blown down and hurt itself or another plant on the way down. The wind has been insane as of late. Your garden is incredible. That second shot it out of a magazine- oh wait- you were in one!!! =) beautiful. Yes, bundle up for that "cold" front hahaha. I am hoping weatherman is right about the rain though.
    k

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  9. The pool shot is incredible, as are the others. At least we are between your summer heat / humidity and California's cold, so that is fine...but no rain. We both need that! I assume you have a drip irrigation system?

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  10. Jenny, I just saw Jean's post on her visit to your garden and commented how envious I was that she'd gotten to see it. Now I'm even more envious, having seen it from your perspective!

    The wind is howling around the corners of my corner of Katy and shattered poppies are everywhere. Even those with blooms left are the very definition of manky. I've started the pulling process.

    I'm thinking rainy thoughts for Austin and Katy!

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  11. Your garden is looking great.

    I forgot to give you seeds at the last blogger get together. I had Eryngo, Basket Flower and Marsh Fleabaneseeds. If there is still time this year I will mail them to you if you want. I havn't seen any of my Basket Flower or Eryngo up yet so there might still be time.

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  12. Strong winds are the worst, but at least it looks like you don't have to worry about tall trees coming down on you, right?

    Also, I hadn't seen the pool before -- beautiful! When I first saw your garden I thought you had a relatively small area. Now it seems like there are "rooms" everywhere! =)

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  13. I can so relate - the other day the strong winds knocked every petal off one of my clematis. I'm also beginning to think we'll never get any rain. I feel like I'm living in Austin again! :-)

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