HALF AN HOUR IN THE GARDEN

Yes, I am still laid up. How long this is going on for is becoming somewhat irritating. On the other hand it is too hot to spend more that an hour out there, which I did early this morning.
I felt a desperate need to run the hose over the sunken garden which has no irrigation. It is looking quite good considering our long spell of triple digit days and no rain. Even the most drought tolerant of plants can struggle under such conditions.  But the tough flowering native cosmos, Gomphrena 'Fireworks' and 'Strawberry fields' Pride of Barbadosn and the green of the Euphorbia are the best for this season.

When we had the late frost this spring and the nurseries were caught out and I was lucky enough to be at Lowes when they were having a "frost sale" Honestly, they were giving plants away for 50c and I couldn't resist buying some plants I would never normally buy-the pelargonium for instance. But it has fared well even in the south-facing garden although a mullein has seeded there and is trying to take over. What to do!

In the herb garden it is the grasses that speak the loudest.

I have moved some of my poly, roughed- up and painted boxes (think of a new word for them) so they get some afternoon shade.

I did the same with the hose in the front garden especially around the grasses which will green up almost instantly when they get water, and was thrilled to find the native poinsettia, Euphorbia cyanthophora,sometimes known as Fire on the Mountain. It would be fun to have both this one and Snow on the Mountain,  Euphorbia marginata,  growing next to each other. Both share the same season of flowering. How easy it is to love some of the Euphorbias and not others.

 These plants were given to me by my friend, Shirley Fox, who gardens south of here in San Antonio, Rock-oak-deer They were pass-a-longs last year when we had the Fling in Austin. Did they survive or seed here? I am not sure. But, I noticed the other day that she had posted something about hers blooming which made me wander over to the spot where I had planted them. What a lovely surprise.

Always a faithful, fall-is-coming, plant, and right on cue for September, October bloom, is the Velvet leaf senna, Senna lindheimeriana. It is a particularly good plant for the front courtyard as it just pops up in the gravel and always looks good. I probably give it just a little too much freedom but with all that August heat and lack of rain I welcome it.

While I was taking the photograph a bee was busy collecting pollen. I'm not positive of his identity so would welcome knowing if he is a wood bee or bumble bee.

Just look at those pollen sacs.

It shows how important it is to have plants flowering even during this heat. These bees need to collect pollen if they and their larvae are to make it through the winter. Ah! Yes. winter.

RAIN, RAIN AND EVEN MORE RAIN

The problem with rain in Texas is that more often than not it doesn't know when to start, and then often when it does it doesn't know when to stop.
After an endlessly hot, dry summer, and very little in the way of rain since May 4th, it began to rain this past week. The result of a slow moving frontal boundary sitting right on top of south central Texas. First ½" in the rain gauge. That's not enough we shout, so a little more, up to 1"now, then 2½" and now it just won't stop. It has been raining throughout the night and coming down at a pretty constant pace. It has brought some good things with it of course. The oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida, were the first arrivals pushing their naked heads up through the soil.

Along with the native white rain lilies, Cooperia pedunculata. As hard as I try I can never get them to form a clump like the hybrid variety, despite collecting their seeds and planting together.  When you see them blooming along the roadsides they are similarly spaced out instead of clumping. They just seem to pop up in all the unexpected places, especially  the pathways of my vegetable garden.

Almost overnight the gayfeather Liatris spicata, began to bloom.

In profusion but not as profusely as in prior years. Usually the flowers develop all the way down the stem but lack fo rainfall seems to have reduced the numbers of flowers.

They are a rather weedy plant, their seeds popping up everywhere. They form a large  bulb which is easily dug up in the winter and relocated. This year I have a clump flowering in the granite area out front but others planted in the rocky hillside have failed to produce any flowers. So far no deer have munched the flower heads.

What color goes well with purple? For me it has to be the yellow of the Lindheimer senna, Senna lindheimeriana. Their favorite spot is in the wet weather creek.

But also out in the granite areas. I am spreading their seed onto the hillside which we cleared this spring. This plant is just too easy to grow. It seeds itself, it stays green through the heat and drought and no bugs eat it. And no deer browsing either.

I hope the water lilies are enjoying the day.

There is no outside gardening to be done today, just inside seed cleaning in preparation for the fall planting.
Thank you Laura of Wills Family Acres for the seeds of native Eryngo, Eryngium leavenworhtii. I shall be planting them directly in the ground as they need winter cooling.

and rudbeckia from my own garden.

Will they be the same as the ones that showed up this past year? I hope so.

The rain is a blessing and will make fall planting a lot easier but I think I would like a break now.

TO LOVE TEXAS YOU NEED TO KNOW TEXAS

This is never more true than when it comes to gardening. I have lived and gardened in many places around this great country and gardening here is a whole other country, and it's not England!

For one thing, we can garden year round, our best seasons being spring and fall. It's that period from June to October when the heat of summer takes its toll on all our plants that makes us wonder, "Is it worth it?"  How are you are feeling about your garden right now, after these endless 100+° days with a lot more to come? Did someone say 107° tomorrow? And, no rain.

My return from a 4 week vacation was just in time. I have spent the last week both with hose and pruners in hand giving the ground some much needed water and cutting back lots of dead vegetation. Strange how when you leave for 4 weeks there is more than 4 weeks of work to catch up on. That 'Month of Sundays' that my mother used to go on about will not be enough.

The areas above are my sunken garden and vegetable garden. All the plants you see are self sown. This is a particularly good year for the narrow leaf zinnias-I'll never know why because we had several very cold nights this winter. But one of the reasons the plants in these areas do so well in the summer heat is the cool root run they enjoy under thick paving stones. They survived a whole month without water. Mulch is one thing but solid stone is quite another.

Gomphrena 'Fireworks' can also take the cold and heat. It seems to be one of the hardiest of the gomphrenas with the plants surviving winter cold to burst with their 4th of July display just in time for the celebrations. They can be a bit weedy but I'm not going to complain about that. I just cut them back and back they come. They may benefit from some water from the vegetable beds but other than that they get no additional water.

There's not much going on in the vegetable beds right now so I am leaving the Lindheimer senna, Senna lindheimeriana and orange cosmos, Cosmos sulphureus, which seeded there, until fall vegetable planting time.
The blanket flowers just keep on flowering and that is just fine with me and the goldfinches. I particularly like the darker colored ones that appear.

And this surprise yellow one.

But that aside one thing you have to know about summer in Texas is that it is more than worthwhile helping your plants get through the heat because they are sure to give you a fine display during our much anticipated fall. And if you don't want to spend too much on water then collect every drop you can. A bucket in the shower, a bucket under the AC fall out, wash your vegetables into a bowl and water your plants with it. There are lots of times we just let water run down the drain when it could be collected for the garden.

PLANTS THAT PLANT THEMSELVES

Mine is a garden of self-seeding plants. Not all plant place themselves in places that I would choose, but many do.
In a corner of my front courtyard garden a tree senna, Senna corymbosa, has grown. It couldn't be more perfect. A place for birds to sit before and after visiting the bird bath. It has always been a difficult corner because no sun reaches the corner so the tree has grown out rather than up and there is heavier growth and flowering on the front side.

And the Lindheimer senna, Senna lindheimeriana,  seen here outside the garden walls.

and plenty have seeded inside the front courtyard too.

They are two of my native plants whose flowering brings light into the garden in September.
Native blackfoot daisies, Melanpodium leucanthum are never happier than in the poor gravel of the English garden.

And rock rose, Pavonia lasiopetala,would just like to take over other places in the English garden, if I let it.

 I think I need to encourage it to spread its wings and grow outside with the the zexmenia, Wedelia hispida.

This very fine stemmed and leaved plant is greenthread, Thelesperma filifolium.

 

Zexmenia and thelosperma growing together

I'll be saving seeds from the gomphrena 'strawberry fields' for next year. It has put on an amazing show covering the gravel in one area of the English garden. Last year I had one plant here.

Another gomphrena that has reseeded is Gomphrena globosa 'fireworks' I cut this plant back to the ground a few weeks ago.

And once again the pathways in the vegetable garden are filled with flowery weeds!

I guess I will never change.

SENNA

There is no better sign that cooler days are on the way than the flowering of the senna that grow in my garden. The first is the Lindheimer senna, Senna Lindheimeriana, also known as known as velvet leaf senna. This Texas native is named after the man sometimes called the father of Texas botany, Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer (1801-1879).

A perennial, growing mainly on the Edwards plateau it requires no additional water or fertilizer other than which nature provides. That is a bonus this year because after 2 months with no rain the first of the senna started to bloom this week. Other Texas natives are withering and turning brown but the senna will bloom.

The second member of the senna family is Cassia corymbosa, sometimes called flowery senna.

Both these sennas freely seed themselves but this one chose the perfect place seeding itself in a difficult corner of the garden where there is no sun most of the year. I am delighted that it has chosen to flower this year.

Although this tree is not long-lived it produces replacements plants aplenty.

OH! THE COLORS OF A SOUTHERN FALL

It has been a wonderful week where night temperatures dipped below 70° and day time highs barely touched the 90s. But summer isn't done with us yet as warmer temperatures are promised next week.

Cooler night time temperatures return color to the garden, with new blooms opening on the Salvia greggii. It isn't called Autumn sage for no reason. Clouds of pink and white gaura are a magnet for the bees.

Lindheimer senna, Senna lindheimeriana brings splashes of yellow to the landscape and the hanging pods assure us of an annual display. This is one plant the deer never touch so it is a great plant to have outside the walls. It has, however, found its way inside the walls adding a splash of late summer color to a mainly green landscape.

Sometimes I think a plant is about to die because the foliage has yellowed but then rain brings a fresh infusion and cooler nights bring back the green color to the leaves. It is almost the opposite of what happens in the spring when leaves are yellow because of the cold. This always happens on the hollies and columbines.

In the sunken garden flowering blackfoot daisies Melampodium leucanthum, have been growing quietly from seeds of the previous winter. They seem comfortable growing among the pink crystal grass, Melinus nerviglumis. Soon it will be their turn to fill the garden with pink seedheads.

This wouldn't be a Texas garden without the yellow blooms on the zexmenia, Wedelia hispida. Yes, it may like to take over the garden but when one grows in the perfect spot it is so worthwhile. Here paired with artichoke agave, Agave parryi 'truncata'
Did you experience a garden surprise this week? I had three. The first was the bloom of Lycoris radiata. 

Then the first flower on my pale pavonia, pale rock rose, Pavonia hastata, a passalong seedling from Diana at Sharing Nature's Garden. Although not a native it will be welcome unless it proves to be invasive. How could Rock Rose not love another member of the mallow family.

And two days ago this monster moth on the mail box. A giant female silk moth, Antheraea polyphemus. What a beauty she is and a first for my garden despite being found in all the states from Canada to Mexico. She has a short life and her only job is to find a mate.

We may never give us the fall color as found in the northern climates but we welcome the explosion of color in our Southern fall.