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.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH A BIRD HOUSE?

I keep asking myself, "What is wrong with my birdhouses?" This one I carted all the way back from England about 4 years ago. I saw a wren pecking at the entrance one time, but no one has made a nest in there. I thought it was perfect for my English garden.

Then this beautiful dovecote, also in the English garden. Austin gardeners will recognize this as once having been in Pam's former garden. I know birds made nests in there because I had to empty their old nests. No easy job because everything that went in through the small doors had to come out through the small doors. On the wall behind is the only birdhouse which has ever been inhabited. So what am I getting at?

This. It is not a birdhouse but a planter hanging on the front gate. Inside is a plant shared at one of our blogger meets. I thought it a perfect spot, being a plant that required no watering or sun.

They have moved so much furniture in there and reorganized my plants to the point where they are now starting to wilt. Not to mention that we will no longer be able to use the front gate. This all happened in 2 days. The question is, will they actually use the nest? You know those wrens. Make several nests and then bring her along to choose the one she would like to lay her eggs in. Will we be honored? Only time will tell.

When I was in Dallas at the weekend I went with my son and grandson to the new butterfly garden at Fair Park. There I learnt that shortly before the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis it becomes darker. Yesterday morning I saw changes. I left at 11am and when I came home at 4 pm the butterfly was out. I had missed the emergence.

It was hard to get a shot for all the fluttering. I wonder if it sipped from the sugar water I had left in the container. Now free to go and lay more eggs on the few parsley leaves they haven't eaten!

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH FROST DAMAGE

There will be no butterfly iris flowering in my garden this year. In place of the normally green stems and leaves is nothing but a brown mass of dead vegetation.

I have been looking at it for 2 weeks wondering what I should do. The answer came this morning when I heard Sheryl McLaughlin on the Sunday morning gardening program advising a lady to cut the foliage back down to about 3" So today's job is just that.

There is a problem though.

In the center is growing a healthy stand of Indian hawthorn, Raphiolepis indica. Over the years, as the girth of the iris has grown, the hawthorn has become thin and lanky on the side. Now I am not sure what to do. Over the next day or two I will have to decide whether to pull out everything and start again with a new planting or try to salvage what I have. If the former I will not be planting the iris again. It grows too quickly demanding removal every few years. I would like to find something which doesn't demand so much attention but will provide a green foundation planting. Nothing springs to mind right now other than pittosporum and Indian hawthorn. Suggestions anyone?