RETURN TO THE GARDEN

Today was my first chance to get back in the garden for 5 days. We had been busy giving our Canadian friends a taste of Texas life. We had an excellent tour of the State Capitol and the Bob Bullock State History Museum. We hiked around Lady Bird Lake, lunched at Whole Foods, sauntered down South Congress, took an evening cruise on the lake to watch the bats, took a picnic out to Westcave Preserve where Dave Barrett gave his wonderful tour of both the building and the grotto. On the way we hiked down to Hamilton Pool and later had dinner at Z Tejas.

Our friends really knew they were in Texas when this tarantula decided to join us for dinner on the patio. I must remember to wear my gloves in future.

I cut back the Salvia gregii a few weeks ago and the reward has been a flush of new flowers. Such a reliable and fuss free plant.

The blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum and the red ice plant were just waiting for the cooler weather to put on a show, although it really did feel more like summer today.

I had been wondering for a while what was going to show up at the end of this long stalk. I think it is a Maximillian sunflower, Helianthus maximiliani.
The rain has really brought on the plants but it has also caused the germination of thousands of seeds, many of them weeds. Today I boiled kettles of water and doused the weeds growing between the vegetable beds. It may save me having to use roundup. I also gave a few fire ant hills the same treatment.

A PERFECT DAY FOR VISITORS

We woke up this morning to the most perfect September day. With all the rain and cloud we have had this last week it is a welcome sight and the garden is sure to come alive with new blooms. Canadian friends arrive at lunch time and we plan to go out to the Wildflower Center this afternoon. To get in the spirit of the day I picked a bouquet of native plants for their room. The Texas sunflower, Helianthus praecox, mealy blue sage, Salvia farinacea, Mexican bush sage, Salvia leucantha and blanket flower, Gaillardia pulchella.

A HUMMINGBIRD'S DELIGHT

It may be the rain but I think it has more to do with the moderation in temperature. The Mexican bush sage, Salvia leucantha, is springing to life with new colorful blooms. I was beginning to worry that the hummingbirds were going to find little to feed on as they begin their huge migration down to the coast in preparation for crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Venezuela. Their numbers increase every day and the fighting and bickering and dive bombing with high pitched angry sounds almost makes it impossible to go out into the garden. One of their favorite plants is this salvia. It is one of my favorites too, especially the purple variety.

The second type has purple and white flowers but although the white may act as a marker the hummingbirds don't seem to be fussy.

My incredible crop of pomegranates continues to ripen. We have taken to having one for breakfast each morning. It is a lot easier than trying to get the juice from the fruit.

The blanket flowers are also flowering with more color. I think this one must be a cross between the native yellow and orange and the burgundy variety which I have grown from seed in the past.

I have a small area of native planting, in front of the house, which I have been nurturing for the past few years. Under a canopy of live oaks I have removed the invasive King Ranch bluestem and am encouraging lantana, Lindheimer senna, Gregg's mist flower, and this yellow daisy. I don't have an identity for it as yet but the deer do eat the plant and I wonder if these flowers will be there tomorrow.

RAIN STOPS GARDENING

Overnight we had nearly 2" of rain and it continues to rain this morning. It woke me up around 3:30am pounding on our metal roof. It is the third round of rain in just a few days and several plants have taken advantage of this.

A toadstool popped up in one of the succulent pots. Not so bad, but--

I'm not happy to see this one. Identified on ESP's blog as Euphorbia prostrata it is growing all over the place, especially in the granite but anywhere it can find a bare piece of ground.

Yesterday I filled a 5 gallon container and that was just from the granite pathway outside the vegetable garden. There will me more I am sure. I used my new cobrahead tool which did a great job. This plant produces a tap root which is fairly easy to pull.

The Texas cenizo, Leucophyllum, is flowering in response to earlier rainfall this week. I don't know what species this is as it was a seedling from a 'green cloud' which I moved round to the berm behind the pool. Too bad that this rain will have knocked off much of the bloom.

Everything is just dripping with rain. I'm off to see if there are any iris left at the Zilker sale.

SPRING ALL OVER AGAIN

It is amazing what a little rain and sub 100 degree temperatures will do for the garden. With blanket flowers in bloom again it almost looks like spring. 

 
Alyssum, Lobularia maritima, narrow leaf zinnias, Zinnia augustifolia and mealy blue sage, Salvia farinacea make a ground cover in the sunken garden.

Behind, the tall spikes of Amaranth are starting to bloom. 

The hybrid musk rose Felicia, is blooming again with clusters of small pink and incredibly fragrant flowers. I took these photographs yesterday in the evening light.

This morning as the sun rose the sky it was a harbinger of  the day to come. "Red sky in the morning shepherds warning" and for once it really was. A steady rain brought us another 4/10" rain. I wonder if I have a crack in the rain gauge at the 4/10 mark!

A BEAUTIFUL SEPTEMBER DAY

There was a time long ago when I would have found a morning like this mornings rather dreary, but no more. A cloudy morning with a quick down pour is heaven on earth. It was a pleasure to go outside, camera in hand, and look at the refreshed garden.

In the dry creek rain lilies. Not where I would choose to have them but who cares.

Lantana and Lindheimer senna starting to bloom.

This native lantana, which has not bloomed all summer, is full of flowers.

It truly is beginning to feel like fall is just around the corner.

GOING XERISCAPE

This past weekend it was the cactus and succulent show and I was determined not to miss it. Before he headed up to Dallas for the holiday weekend we stopped in at Zilker. It was crowded and a little disorganized on the payment front. I think they need a bigger venue. With all the interest in xeriscape plants, after this long hot summer, it isn't surprising.

I only want plants that are really hardy so choosing plants that grow in west Texas is best for this garden.

This cactus, labeled Texas fishhook is really a Texas barrel cactus, Ferocactus hamatacanthus, but because of the conspicuous central hooked spine it is often referred to as the giant fishhook cactus. ( It hooked my shirt as soon as I picked it up). The bonus was that it had a flower bud.

I also purchased a clump of Agave victoriae-reginae. I say clump because there were at least 6 offsets growing around the base. Seven plants for the price of one. Me all over.

So off we went to Dallas and the plants stayed in the back of the truck. On Sunday morning D went out to the truck and came inside with the flowering fishhook. The delicate yellow flowers just look like satin and still look good on Tuesday.

This morning I separated the agaves, which was not an easy job. For now they are in pots.

I'm not sure what this plant is. I thought it was an ice plant of some kind but maybe it is portulaca. I took a tiny snip from a mother plant somewhere. It flowers after 1 o'clock and is spreading all over my sunken garden.

It really is rather nice.

A GIFT FROM THE RAIN

On Thursday we had a gift from the skies. 4/10" of rain fell during an evening thunderstorm. I love rain from a storm because it always carries a good dose of nitrogen. Just what the garden was waiting for.

Just what the oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida, were waiting for. I had noticed them just coming through the ground but the speed with which they sent forth this bloom was remarkable. The lilies were a gift from Zanthan gardens last year on September 18th. MSS just pulled them out of the ground when they were in flower and I brought them home and kept them in a vase of water until they finished flowering, then put them in the ground. The flowers this year may be a little smaller but I put that down to the move. I am just thrilled they made it. They are popping up all over town thanks to the rain this past week.

LASTING BLOOMS

I always end up having a lot of flowers growing in my vegetable beds. Mostly they just decide to seed there but sometimes they are put there by me, temporarily. I start many plants from seed and usually have to leave them for a period of time in the spring. So I put them in the ground next to a drip irrigation point, meaning to move them into a permanent bed when I get back. It sometimes doesn't happen. Now they become too big to move and that is where they have to stay for the rest of the year. Such is the case with this Gaillardia 'fanfare'. This variety has tubular flowers which flare at the end, similar to a trumpet. I still have lots of the common blanket flower in flower but this one has done the best. Good soil and water.

It isn't surprising that the Knock Out roses are so popular. They are incredibly easy to propagate. Last fall I took cuttings and stuck them in the ground in a sheltered spot.

By March, in 4" pots, they had produced their first bloom.

By early May I had potted them up into 3 gallon pots.

Now they are good sized plants producing many flowers. I certainly plan to try my hand at propagating the yellow Knockout I purchased in the spring.

A GIFT FROM THE BIRDS

There is no greater gift for the gardener than to discover a welcome native plant growing in the perfect place in the garden. Such is the case with this American beautyberry, Callicarpa americana.

 I espied this plant through the laundry room window long before berries were in evidence. A weed, I thought, but promptly forgot about it. I'm glad I did because recently I recognized it was a Beautyberry. A gift from the birds. I have planted two of these plants outside the garden walls where they rely on rainfall. So far all they have done is survive. No berries.