SNAPDRAGON VINE BOUNTY

Several years ago, while visiting the former house of fellow garden blogger, Pam Penick of Digging, my eye was drawn to the snapdragon vine, Maurandya antirrhiniflora,  growing on her dovecote. The following year I bought a 4" pot of the vine which I trained up a trellis near the patio. The vine never grew well and the flowers were very small, probably due to lack of water, and this year I pulled it out.

Then at the nursery one day I spotted a snapdragon vine with much larger flowers. The tag said Snapdragon vine 'giant purple'. I snapped it up and planted it in a pot in front of another trellis.

Its flowers were indeed much larger but I had no idea for the bonus I was going to receive with this plant. A common buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia,  came into the garden and was busy flitting around this area. I couldn't get a photo of her because she wouldn't sit still. But I did a little research and learnt that this plant is a host to the larva of the buckeye. So that's what she was up to. Sometime later I spotted a minute caterpillar on one of the leaves.

I have been watching closely for days and this morning counted 5. Three are at the top of the plant which is looking a little ragged.

I shall be watching carefully for the chrysalis to appear and then there will be 5 little buckeyes in the garden and maybe no plant left if they all get busy!

SHOULD I BE DISAPPOINTED?

Two years ago I bought another Texas clematis, Clematis pitcheri, at the Wildflower Center Sale. It performed poorly last year but sprang back to life this spring following the winter rain. A week ago it began to bloom.

The unopened bloom looked like a little Chinese lantern. The color a little disappointing but then maybe it would color-up in time.

It didn't. As someone who loves everything in nature I find myself rather disappointed by the underperformance of this flower.

YOU CAN'T BEAT A TEXAS MORNING FOR SURPRISES

This is a typical Texas spring morning. It is 7am and this coolness on the air will last approximately 2 hours if we are lucky. I walk outside with my camera to capture the early morning light on the patio, put my camera down, then shout out in delight.

I can see this mass of white where no white was last night. The Echinopsis has flowered again, this time with all the flowers opening in unison.

What could me more beautiful. A closer encounter brings a faint waft of perfume. It will be but a brief flowering. By tonight the blooms will have faded and will hang down from their wilted stalks.

Not so pretty a sight came when I walked to the potting shed. I caught another sight of something that wasn't there last night. A dead baby opossum on the top of one of the beds.

I don't think that he was casually walking through the garden and upped and died. I think he fell from the sky, dropped by an owl during the night. This is the second time I have found a dead animal in the veg. garden. The last time it was a rat. He has a wound on his side which reinforces my belief.
Just another hum-drum day in a Texas garden!

THE QUEEN"S DIAMOND JUBILEE

Celebrations are underway in Great Britain and many Commonwealth countries to mark the  Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the second's ascension to the throne. She ascended on February 6th 1952 following the death of her father George VI. Her coronation took place June 2nd 1953.

Only one monarch before her celebrated a diamond jubilee and that was Queen Victoria on June 20th 1897.
Floral tributes have been many.

Waddeston Manor Gardens courtesy fo the Daily Telegraph.

Charmaine's Florist, Southsea courtesy of the  Daily Telegraph

St James' Park, courtesy of the Daily Telgraph.

At the Chelsea flower show this rose named Rosa 'Queen's Jubilee Rose' won a Gold Medal for Peter Beale's Roses. The rose took ten years to develop.

There will be many celebrations going on in towns all over the country. Champagne corks will pop and Pimms will be drunk at many of the street and private parties. The celebration will be similar to that of the coronation on June 2nd 1953. I was one of 2 million children who received a coronation mug and drank her cocoa in it every night! On the day itself we went to my grandparent's house to watch the coronation on TV. We didn't have a TV at the time! There was such excitement although for an 8 year old the ceremony was rather long.
I certainly hope I will be able to catch some of the celebrations on TV.

SMALL PLANTS FOR THE SUNKEN GARDEN

Small plants that have a mounding neat form are few and far between. I am constantly on the hunt for such plants to put in the sunken garden.

The chocolate daisy, Berlandiera lyrata, has been blooming for months. I have seen this plant at the WFC growing to a height of 4' whereas this one tends to stay low, although it does sprawl a little. Cut back it will regrow and bloom again.

But my absolute favorites are the skullcaps; the common pink form seen here and the purple, Scutellaria wrightii. Both seed themselves in the cracks with regularity. The purple ones tend to vary quite a bit in their color from deep purple to ones with white throats.

Lantana is not exactly a small plant any more than the wine cup. Both have been cut back hard after they became unruly. Neither seem to mind this brutal treatment and always recover to put on another great display.

The little Dahlberg daisy is another well mannered plant. It has airy foliage above which bloom tiny yellow flowers.

The native Blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum,  is sharing a spot with several newly growing blue-eyed grass and a Zexmenia.

Damianita has a place here too and is blooming for the second time this year.

Here's the Zexmenia, cut back down to the ground 2 weeks ago and coming back to delight with those tiny yellow flowers. The A. desmettiana is spending the summer in the ground.

Narrow leaf zinnias, Zinnia linearis, is an absolute must to have. It will bloom on through the fall and seeds saved for next year are the bonus.

TheThere is always room for a grass or two and ruby crystal grass, Melinus nerviglumis. It will bloom again later in the year.
If you have any ideas for plants that would do well living between the pavers I would love to hear from you.

PRINCIPE BORGHESE TOMATO

We have been eating tomatoes at every meal. The crop this year has been early, undamaged by either hornworms or leaf footed bugs. That's a first.

Among the seed packets that we received last year at the Seattle Fling was a packet of Principe Borghese tomatoes. I usually grow some kind of Italian tomato for roasting and freezing and this seemed like a good substitute to try. The plants have done well and make large trusses of small fruits.

I made the first batch today for use in pastas during the winter. What is not to love about a roasted tomato; deliciously rich in flavor and these do not disappoint in the flavor department. I will say the skins are tougher than I would like but that maybe the result of the continuously hot weather we have had since they were put in the ground.

It suggests on the packet that these tomatoes are good for drying on the vine. I have my doubts that our climate is dry enough for such a treatment. For now I will roast and freeze.

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

For several weeks D has been working on topping the 5 Spanish Oaks which were lost in last year's drought. Today was the big day to take the trunks down. Despite my protestations that we should get someone in to do the job D was determined to do the job himself. He headed to HD to rent a big chainsaw.

By a process of tying the trunks he was able to bring them down with minimal damage to the surrounding plants.

I stood by with water, camera and phone in hand (in case of an accident).

So sad to lose such big trees and the wonderful shade in the Spanish Oak garden. I heard another chainsaw being used in one of the houses behind us. So many trees lost to last year's brutal summer.
I'm glad that HD provided such great safety gear as well as requiring insurance.
It was a tough mornings work in wicked heat. Well done D.

DITTANY OF CRETE

For many years I thought that I had Dittany of Crete, Oreganum dictamnus,  growing in my garden. I have given away many cuttings with the wrong name.

What I have here is Oreganum pulchellum. The same showy clusters of pink flowers but a different species of dittany.

 I only came to realize this when I was at the nursery one day and saw a 4" pot labeled Dittany of Crete, Oreganum dictamnus. The leaf was clearly different. This is O. pulchellum leaf.

This much fuzzier one O.dictamnus.

Flowering is about to begin on both plants and for both it will be long panicles of hop-like blooms. The plant makes a spectacular showing which is perfect for hanging over a wall. Although the two large plants of O.pulchella  are in the herb garden I took cuttings this year and planted them to hang over the low wall behind the vegetable garden.

The real Dittany of Crete is the front courtyard where, once established, it will require little in the way of water.

THE HAUL

No time for early morning gardening today. I skipped out of the house early on the way to our monthly garden bloggers' meeting in order to swing by a couple of garage sales. I'm forever on the lookout for garden related 'stuff.' Not much doing save a couple of books. The first a Field Guide to Texas Mushrooms. The second V. Sackville-West The Illustrated Garden Book.

 I was happy. But I was going to get a whole lot happier later on in the morning. We met at the lovely garden of one of our group, Suzie, who blogs at Vivaverde. I don't think any of us had any idea of what a treat this garden was going to be. You will have to let Suzie show you her garden as our custom is not to go with camera in hand on these visits.
On the way home I detoured to a garage sale which had advertised itself as having garden related items. By this time it was gone 12:30pm so I wasn't expecting to find very much of anything. Am I the only one interested in this kind of stuff? Well there was another lady there and she was hauling out a pile of bricks and pavers and I would have been doing the same thing if I had arrived before her! As it was there was plenty to satisfy me. I'm starting to get a bit nervous about how much whimsy I have in the garden but the tin bird house, in perfect condition, for 50c and those clay two balls for $1. I ask you, who could resist.
As to Texas Mushrooms. They do show up once in a while when we get rain and now I may even be able to identify them. A book on Sissinghurst? What's not to adore about this most visited garden in England. Vita's writing in the Guardian newspaper did more to transform the face of English gardening than anything. Here is an anthology of Vita's writings about her own garden.
Yes, it's been a heaven-sent day for a gardener. Now back to work.

DANGER IN THE GARDEN

Show me a gardener that hasn't had an accident in the garden. Danger abounds for every one of us and that includes the critters that live in our gardens.

Do you think this anole was stalking? Or was he just sunbathing on the roof of the bee house. See the solitary bee hovering in front of the wood. He was busy building his nest in one of these holes and was clearly bothered by the anole. He did eventually move inside.
There we two lizard rescues in the garden this week. The first came from a lizard caught up n the netting I was using to train the snapdragon vine. I just happened to be cleaning up there when I saw him. It took me 5 minutes of cutting to unentangle him. The netting was so tightened around his neck it took some careful work to extricate him. Then I removed the netting which just about destroyed the plant. It was looking less than healthy so it was no great loss. Later I went back to check on the spot where I had left the lizard; he was gone.

The second rescue was a near drowning of this blue tailed skink. I scooped him out of the air conditioning drain bucket into which he had mysteriously fallen. He was stunned enough that I could rush into the house to get the camera. A few minute later he scurried away under the AC. I see many skinks but never a blue one. He has the lines on his head only so possibly he is a juvenile.
Then it was my turn. Working under the Spanish bayonet yucca I felt a stab and then a trickle down my face. Scalps do bleed!
Two vultures were circling overhead and when one landed on the parapet wall above me I decided it was time to go inside and mop up.