RAIN COMES TO TEXAS

Three weeks ago, when I returned from vacation, I moved all my cactus and succulents under cover. Temperatures were at 100º or close to every day. Even cactus don't like our afternoon Texas heat.

A little morning sun suits them just fine and that place happens to be on the patio. Some of the other plants in the front, where there is no shade, I covered with shade cloth.

At this time of year I certainly envy those who have filtered sun through their live oak trees. There is little of that here. Of course we expect such heat in August. What we don't expect is for it to be followed by a week of endless rain amounting to over 12" in some places. Over a 4 day period my garden had nearly 11" Now we are drowning. Rainy day visitors are showing up. Some of them are welcome others are not.

Of course we all expect rain lilies after a rain event and sure enough they arrived within days. I have lots of the white ones, and the pink ones, Zephyranthes labufarosa series, looking a little bedraggled after this last rain. This is a hybrid of Z. grandiflora and does not produce seeds.

 Today a new one appeared in the garden. This yellow rain lily with a burnt orange center is Texas copper lily, Habranthus tubispathus var. texensis. Where did it come from, I wonder?

I think it is so much more striking than the pale yellow Zephyranthes

I only have one clump of pink rain lilies but they have been outstanding this year, blooming 4 times over the last few weeks.
But an even bigger surprise today as I found a another of my daylilies blooming. This one behind the pool hiding among the bent stems of cone flowers.

There are other day lilies blooming too.

But by far the biggest surprise this year is the arrival of a Mexican red bird of paradise, Caesalpinia pulcherrima. The seedling appeared last year and I was not sure of its identity so left it. It disappeared over the winter but began to grow again. When a flower bud began to develop I felt pretty sure that it was a bird of paradise. Today it opened its first flower. The sad thing is that it is growing in a narrow strip alongside the pool. I can't afford for it to get much bigger.

It is in good company with the gomphrenas growing alongside. They too have grown enormously with all the rain.

All the blooms are making for a very colorful August garden.

MY FAVORITE ROCK GARDEN

We made a return visit to Holehird Gardens this summer. We were staying at a B&B in Troutbeck village, Cumbria, and were delighted to find that the gardens were only a 3 mile walk.

Holehird Gardens is the home of the Lakeland Horticultural Society.  The 10 acre site is leased from the Holehird Trust and managed by a group of volunteers who do all the planning and development of the garden, each member having their own area to garden. As well as opening the garden to visitors, for a suggested donation of £4, they run education classes. They also hold the National Plant Collection of Astilbe, ( meadowsweet) Meconopsis, (Himalayan poppy), Daboecia, (heather) and Polystichum( sword fern). None of these are plants that I could ever grow in my garden but I do share a love of rock gardens and trough gardens.

Entry through the original walled garden

The original gardens were built in the late 19C but were derelict by 1945. In 1969 he LHS was formed to restore the gardens. Situated about 500' above sea level on a sloping site above Lake Windermere, the area receives around 70' rain a year.
The first part of the garden is contained within the original walled garden. We entered the garden through the gate revealing a low dry stone wall, planted with alpines.

Plants are well labelled although for me it is of little help because these plants would not enjoy our hot humid summers. Still, for those who live in the milder English climate it is a good education tool. Troughs look very good in a separate display area and raised above the ground not only for drainage but so that the plants can be more easily enjoyed. The backdrop of the low drystone wall above which is a grassy area with dispay beds is perfect.

Further along the wall, steps lead up to a grassy area with island beds.

At the end of the gravel walkway is a patio with seating area under a large prunus.

A collection of miniature hostas in a 'theatre'

Along the far wall is a wide herbaceous border.

I really would like to go through that door. But it says LHS MEMBERS ONLY. But I think I might be disappointed to find that it was the inside of a building built on the back side of the wall. I imagine they store their equipment in there.

At eh ed f this border we went out through a gate and turned left to visit the first of the greenhouses.

The tufa greenhouse is built into the hillside for protection from cold. It is the only one I have ever come across during many garden visits. The tufa is mounded up high so that it creates a bank of stonework bring the plants to eye level. At the far end is a water feature and pool.

A planter hewn from solid rock.

The rock garden with a backdrop of ornamental shrubs, including acers and conifers for winter interest. A bench, with thoughtful placement, to enable the visitor to enjoy the plantings and views.

Hi David! I am so lucky that he enjoys garden visits as much as I do. Well, almost!

We left the garden by the fell gate, walking across the field until we reached the road. Crossing the road we picked up the path back to Troutbeck village. My head was full of wonderful ideas for new garden troughs and rock garden planting.

P IS FOR...............

PERSIMMON
The native Texas persimmon, Diospyros texana, grows wild in my garden. A small tree with exfoliating bark which exposes a pink white and grey patterned trunk, it grows to about 10' It is a favorite source of fruit for wildlife producing small green fruits which ripen to black in the month of August.

The tree is dioecious, meaning that male and female are separate individuals. So this is a female tree. I have another female tree behind the potting shed. It seeded there a few years ago.

Exposed bark

Imagine my surprise when, walking out through the gate, I saw a fox up in the tree. I backed off, and watched him for 10 minutes as he pawed at the branches to reach the fruit. The branches may be strong but they are not very wide. Foxes are clearly very nimble.

PAPAYA
Last fall I was surprised to find three papaya plants growing in the compost bins. I shouldn't have been, because I must have put thousands of seeds in there and as my compost never gets really hot it is inevitable that seeds will survive.  Being the gardener that I am, unfortunately, I had to save them, potting them up and keeping them in the greenhouse over the winter.

They have done amazingly well this summer growing to about 5' and now sporting flowers. I now needed to do some research. Not that I was hoping to actually grow some fruit but purely for my own education.
Native to South America but now grown in many tropical areas, the plant resembles a small palm tree in growth, losing the lower leaves and leaving a bare trunk. Trees are either male, female or bisexual. I think the first one I have is a female so unless it has both male and female flowers there will be no chance of fertilization. I am not sure about the other tree or the 5 that have popped up in the ground. They only germinated this spring so have some catching up to do. They love the heat and they are certainly getting that this summer. They are in full sun against a very hot south facing wall.

Given the right conditions they will fruit successfully in a pot. I photographed this one below earlier this year in Bagan, Mayanmar. Judging by the multitude of flowers I think this particular one must be bisexual. But Bagan is in the desert so not quite the Central Texas climate.

Potted papaya, Bagan, Myanmar

Same plant with fruit

Even if the plant fails to fruit I will try to winter it over in the house as a nice house plant. As to those 5 other ones in the ground......you know how hard it is going to be for me to just pull them out, unless they are all males.
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PLUMERIA

A  gift of 3 bare stems 2 years ago, from garden blogger Austin Agrodolce,  who wrote about her own plumeria here in 2012. They, too, were passalongs and I passed along one of my plants to someone else. All are white and quite divine.

The rootless stem began to send out leaves when it was sitting in my laundry room. I potted it up but the first year it failed to bloom. This year it has bloomed non-stop for several months with new leaves and fruit buds forming all the time. It has a delightful fragrance. I feel like I am in tropical heaven.

PLUMBAGO

Plumbago auriculata

Plumbago auriculata, may be native to South Africa but it certainly loves Texas. A deciduous shrub, which usually dies back to the ground every winter, did not do so this year. I did cut it back a little but it really has become rampant this year. It is heat tolerant but prefers some afternoon shade.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is a creeping form of the plant with a darker blue flower and hugging the ground. I am glad that it has now taken over from the blue mistflower which was very untidy. This may, however, be a bad sign if it spreads unwanted into other plants. It has been slow to spread for me and is deciduous in winter, but makes up for that at the hottest time of the year when it greets every day with fresh self-cleaning flowers.

Ceratostigma plumbagoides

POMEGRANATE.
I used to have the most prolific pomegranate tree. In 2009 there were more than 150 fruits. It had been a mild winter followed by a rainy summer. It was a bountiful harvest but also that wet summer spelled doom for the tree as a fungus developed in the main trunk. We eventually pulled it out.
With no other place to plant another tree we eventually planted one outside the walls. Deer browse and there is no water. This year there are 5 pomegranates. They look rather small but I'm hoping they will provide us with a few arils for our breakfast cereal and salad. Pomegranates are always expensive so every one will be worth its weight in gold!

WHITE OUT

Drive along any street in Austin this week and you are sure to see magnificent displays of Texas sage, Leucophylum frutescens. Almost all will hold purple flowers and they will be blooming in response to the rain we had just over a week ago. This is the one growing outside my wall. It receives only the rain sent from the sky and yet an almost immediate response. Known sometimes as the barometer bush, cenizo, rain sage or Texas lilac it is guaranteed to flower, like many plants, after a prolonged dry spell followed by rain.
When I stood by the plant yesterday all I could hear was the hum of bees. It was covered.

But it is rare to see a white blooming Texas sage. The cultivar, White Cloud, with its pale foliage and trusses of white flowers is growing in my front garden.

The plant is so gorgeous I can't take my eyes off it. Just think of it. 16 days over 100º and the rest hovering in the high 90s. Such beauty.

I didn't see another one as I drove several miles of roads today. Clearly not as popular as the purple variety.
Every gardener should have the Texas sage, whichever variety, but must also learn how to prune for effectiveness. It is a big plant and needs selective pruning to keep it looking its best. And by that I don't mean shearing. Pity the poor plants that have been hedge sheared-and there are plenty of them around.

ANTS UP TO NO GOOD

I worked outside this morning from sun up until 10am. Finally it was time to go in for a late breakfast. As I walked towards the back door I realized I was not the only one going in for breakfast. A trail of ants was heading from the potted plant I had just watered, right to the house and in through a small hole in the foundation. Yes, they would definitely find it dry in the wall space of the house. Like it or not many of us have colonies of ants living in our wall spaces.
So one again breakfast was delayed as I swept them all away and hosed down the area. Can I have my breakfast now please?
I have lots of ant stories the biggest and best one being the one from St Louis, which I will save until later because there was more ant news from the garden this morning.

Root aphids

If you have ever noticed small piles of sand and soil around the base of a plant it probably means one thing. The ants are farming root aphids down there. They particularly like several of my native plant species including blackfoot daisies, purple skullcaps and Gulf coast penstemon. The latter is one of their favorites. The sudden wilting and demise of these plants is often the result of root aphids even when ants are not present. They love the dry conditions and the last two months have been just that. Pull out the plant and you will likely find clusters of white root aphids.

Ants have a symbiotic relationship with the aphid. The aphid has a special gland called a trophobiotic organ which stores the honeydew that the ants use for food. So is it just chance that the ants find the aphids? Not on your life. They save eggs over the winter and in the spring carry them to the host plant. They truly are little farmers. And when one plant is dead they can move those aphids to another plant.

For the last couple of weeks I have been watching little piles of chopped mulch appearing around the base of the spider zinnias which were growing in one of my vegetable beds. Every day I hosed the root down hoping to deter both pests, to no avail. The demise of the plant continued. Was it aphids or was it something else. I examined the plant carefully when I pulled it out. One or two root aphids but nothing that would kill a plant. It turns out the ants had been stripping the outer layers of the plant at the soil line resulting in death. I remember this happening last year to the same plants.

Eggplant for dinner last night? Forget that idea. Ants have made holes in the eggplant. They are all over my beautiful eggplant plants, the one plant that has survived the brutal summer and was about to start giving me fruits.

Ants are pretty smart when it comes to farming. One of the greatest examples of this is the leaf cutter ant. Among the hierarchy in the colony, they gather, transport, chop and cultivate fungus on the leaves. They feed this fungus to their young. Each ant in the colony has a specific roll. From cutting the leaves and bringing them to the nest where smaller ants will cut the pieces even smaller  before they a chewed to create a medium for growing the fungus. There are leaf cutter ants in Texas but so far I have not seen them. By all accounts they can strip the leaves from a tree.
We saw an wonderful display of leaf cutters at the Montreal Botanic Garden. There in a giant indoor case the ants were cutting the leaves and moving them along the branches to the nests.

Leaf cutter ants at Montreal Botanic Garden

Chopped leaves ready to be used in the nesting boxes to grow fungus

 And so to the story of the St Louis ants. Occasionally when I would be in the living room I would get a faint whiff of a skunky smell. The room had large windows and double French doors leading out onto a low deck with overhead. Determined to source the smell, that no one else could smell, I got down on my hands and knees and sniffed the carpet. Then I spotted a tiny ant disappearing into a hole in the corner of the door. I went down into the basement ( unfinished) and found the spot directly underneath the door. There is a large beam on top of the poured basement supporting the floor above and insulated along the length of the plate. I pulled back the insulation and a vision of horror met my eyes. A colony of ants all the way along. They had found a nice cozy place to spend the St Louis winters as well as the steamy summers. Of course, as was always the case when something like this happened, and that included the house being struck by lightening,  David was away, so I was the one who had to deal with the spraying and the carnage. Well, I was a homemaker after all!
I won't even get onto the subject of fire ants.

THWARTING THE CRITTERS

Have you ever had this happen to you? I might have but a stop to it if I hadn't been away for several weeks. When I came home from vacation one year I found something had been having a fine old feast on my butternut squash. Just look at those teeth marks.

This year I decided to make their job a little more difficult and it paid off. I have quite a nice crop.

Early on in the season, just as the fruit were starting to develop, I covered them with the mesh bags I have been saving all year. They came from onions, grapefruit and even the green expandable bags with which they protect wine bottles. I left on vacation feeling comfortable that they were safe. I just wish we had had a little rain in our 5 week absence. However, most of them are just perfect for 2 people. Butternut squash risotto is the favorite but roasted is also a favorite. Halved, drizzled with  olive oil, sprinkled with salt, pepper and dried oregano and roasted in the oven until tender. Then, as a main course, topped with sautéed red onion, yellow bell pepper, left over barbecued corn and topped with parmesan cheese.

You can eat every scrap-even the skin. With a side salad it makes a great vegetarian meal.