LITTLE POPS OF COLOR

I have often mentioned how red was my least favorite color among garden flowers. But there are beginning to be more and more times when I eat my own words, and that time is now. Sometimes red gives that little pop of color which just brings the whole garden to life.

Whereas spring in the front courtyard is mainly about the blues, whites and yellows, fall is mainly about the the varied greens of the grasses and other textured plants. The salvia, Salvia greggii, dormant all summer, spring into life. One of those straggly plants that every year I think of removing until now. Here, straggly looks better than bushy as their arching branches reach over the rocks.

In another corner of this garden the same is true of the firecracker fern. I have seen magnificent displays of this plant when grown in good soil but mine stays rather short and retiring until rain and cooler temperatures bring out the bloom.

Under the shade of the Lady Banks rose, dormant all summer, the shy and retiring Oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida, respond to a good soaking rain by sending up their naked blooms. And what a show they put on this year.

And in the back garden there are the annual strawberry gomphrena, Gomphrena globosa and spider zinnia, Zinnia tenuifolia, and they are red too. Although they usually reseed each year I still save save seeds just in case we have an unusually hard winter.

Another red flowering plant that will be moved into the garage for winter is the Japanes Lantern hibiscus, Hibiscus schizopetalus. It is certainly worthy of a home in the entry garden, if only for its exotic frilled bloom.

Look how deep the color is on the blanket flower, Gaillardia pulchella. Cooler nights are responsible for the depth of color. All flowers seem to take on more color during the fall.

Yes. Red is good.

THE SEPTEMBER GARDEN

When hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast, 200 miles away, it brought some much needed rain to Central Texas. Along with that we saw a significant drop in daytime temperatures but more importantly night time temperatures in the low 60s. Warm days and cool nights. For a few days it was like being in California. The plants showed an immediate response; the sickly yellow leaves greened up and the flowers colors brightened. It was glorious but not to last. Still, for those brief few days I enjoyed every moment in the garden.
Sometimes I think fall is better than spring. Everything in the garden has become more blousy. There is barely a scrap of earth or gravel to be seen.

I never know from one year to the next how this will look or which flowers will be present-except there will always be plenty of rock roses.

The Salvia leucantha I have been planning to move for years is still there. The hummingbirds are very adept at flying in through the window in the high wall that separates the gardens.

A week ago there was but one bloom on the butterfly pea, Clitoria ternatea. Now there are many. The blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum, continues to spread across the step.

Ruby crystal grass, Melinis nerviglumis, is flowering. There will be plenty of those again next year.

  Globe amaranth, Gomphrena haggeana, 'Strawberry fields' is everywhere.

As are the purple and pink varieties growing in the pathway of the vegetable garden.

The spider zinnia will eventually be evicted from its home in the vegetable bed but I will save the seeds for next year.

In the sunken garden it grew where the white California poppy once grew.

In the sunken garden there are gomhrena, pink and purple skullcaps, aura, mealy blue sage, white Salvia greggii, and an errant member of the cucumber family which came in on the compost.

As well as zexmenia, Wedelia texana,  chocolate daisy, Berlandiera lyrata,  and returning alyssum.

But the absolute show stoppers of the moment are the liatris in the front courtyard. Purple is definitely the color of the moment.

Last year I removed many of the bulbs and planted them outside the walls. It seems that every seed germinates but they are silent all summer until their bloom time in the fall.

Phlox paniculata John Fanick, After the first flowering I pruned it back and here it is again. Smells wonderful.

Trailing Snapdragon vine, Asarina procumbens is a native of Mexico but seems to do well here as an annual.

Tradescantia sillamontana with its cobweb leaves and pretty pink flowers, easily grown from cuttings.

In the spring I bought a hanging basket because it looked simply gorgeous. I repotted it into a larger basket with baby diapers in the bottom. It was an impulse buy. It has been watered all summer on a drip system twice a day, and received an occasional fertilize. I have cut it back completely about 3 times. It took a beating on one side during the hurricane but is recovering.

The mandevilla vine is into its second year. I cut it down and put it in the potting shed last winter. It dried out and went dormant but started to come back after a good spring soaking. I will try to keep it for another year.

It is wonderful to see so much color back in the garden and there is still the Philippine violet yet to bloom. Soon it will be fall and these icky-sticky days will be a thing of the past!

YOU'LL BE BACK TO THE GARDEN IN 45 DAYS

This is a play on the words spoken by the Peter Gibbs at the start of Gardeners' Question Time, only he says 'You'll be back to the garden in 45 minutes' As we left on our recent vacation I turned and looked at the garden and spoke similar words. It has been exactly 45 days since we left.

We have traveled 7500 miles but I am so glad to be home, even if my garden did have some unwelcoming surprises for me. Overgrowth, weeds, stock tanks down 18" dead plants. Whereas I would normally welcome the drizzle and colder temperatures that awaited us it certainly did not enhance the garden image. I began pulling out all manner of vegetation mostly from the overgrown vegetable garden. By the end of the week those beds should be clear and ready for new plantings. In the meantime I am enjoying the clashing colors of the gomphrena and spider zinnias.

I am hoping that the recent rain after an August without will bring back the plants in the sunken garden back into flower. For now I must be content with the zexmenia, Wedelia texana.

And the morning show of the chocolate daisy, Berlandiera lyrata.

Here is a surprise, a Hinckley columbine, Aquilegia chrysantha.

This tangle of pink gaura is a favorite of the bees.

I see liatris blooming along the roadsides and it's blooming in my garden too. A welcome flower in the fall garden.

and the Lindheimer senna, Senna lindhemeriana dotted around in the front courtyard.

I have yet to look forward to the first of the Oxblood lily blooms, the Copper canyon daisy and a host of yellow blooming daisies. Soon they will arrive.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY JULY 2014

I am pleased to be able to add my garden photographs to the July Garden Bloggers' Bloom day. We usually find ourselves on the road at this point in the summer but this year the future naming ceremony of our 6th grandchild is keeping us home.
Although the heat of summer is upon us and we have not been blessed with any rain for weeks, a few plants struggle to keep up with the conditions while others make their debut.
The Echinopsis is blooming for the third time this year and there are still more blooms appearing on the plant. They have been coming in two by two. They open during the night and are gone by lunch time but this one opened this week and deserved to be on bloom day.

I am lucky that these three blooms opened yesterday. They are a little tougher than the echinopsis and remain open for three days. I am not sure of the name so if anyone knows please share.

For the hardy water lilies, Nymphaea 'Colorado' heat means nothing as they bathe all day long. They are morning bloomers.

The skullcaps have been blooming all summer. Some have already been cut back to bring them back into bloom for the fall. Others will get a trim at the end of the month.

I cut back the chocolate daisy, Berlandiera lyrata,  a few weeks ago and it is back in bloom. Another morning bloomer.

I have no idea why this has been such a good year for the Texas clematis. The blooms may be tinier but they keep on coming.

Zinnias are popping up everywhere. One of my favorites is the spider zinnia, Zinnia tenuifolia 'Red Spider' It's seeds survive in the ground through the winter but they don't germinate until the ground has really warmed up.

The pale blue Plumbago auriculata, just now beginning to bloom. It will bloom until frost.

Of course Morning Glory always finds a place to grow. This one round by the water barrels.

And Blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum with its faintly almond fragrance.

Gaura still struggling to put out tiny blooms.

Finally the ever returning Ruellia pop up wherever a spot of color is needed.

I hope you are having a wonderful bloom day and if you are stop by Maydreams to share your blooms.

WHAT I DID TODAY

I was surprised....... by flower on the crinum lily, Crinum procerum 'splendens' in my water garden.

I emptied......... the three outside water tanks, filled the rain barrels in the garden and watered all the plants. It's going to rain this weekend!

I watered.... the flowers growing between the pavers in the potager.

I collected.....seeds from the red spider zinnia.

I potted up.......snapdragons and violas from their 6 packs into 4" pots. They will spend a couple of weeks in the greenhouse until they have made new roots, making them easier to transplant.

I noted.......that the wonderful, fragrant Felicia might need a trellis on which to twine next year.

I jumped over...... the narrow leaf zinnias growing in the pathways between the vegetable beds.

I decided........ that the Philippine violet was at the peak of its bloom.

I resolved ..... to  thin the baby pak choi for tomorrow evenings dinner.

I gave.... the Aloe marlothii a new pot.

It is so happy.

I realized....... that it is time to take lots of cuttings to save for next year.

I did a lot of other things too. Like tackling the fire ant problem and weeding and sowing but the fun bit is always just walking around with the camera.
What did you do today?