hideous bed

Hanging onto hot color in the late summer garden

Even though we are well past Labor Day, summer hangs on like a blanket over Central Texas.  Days go by faster, but the heat hadn’t begun to wane until today.

After months without rain, my plants enjoyed an inch of the wet stuff this week – enough to rejuvenate the garden as we head into fall.

 The Pride of Barbados seems to mimic the sun with its hot orange blossoms reaching for the sky.

Jutting out like this, it seems alien-like.

Bursting with color, plants in the  front garden look like they are in a race to see who can grow the fastest, bloom the longest and be the brightest.  Hot time in the city…

Sometimes I am frustrated with the thryallis — it’s definitely a late summer bloomer and occasionally sleeps in after winter.  I think we’re spoiled with our vast array of three season plants.  I’m spoiled – a season and a half just doesn’t seem long enough!

Like its cousin, the red Turk’s cap, this Pam’s pink variety never disappoints in my garden.  In part shade with some morning sun, its delicate hats tip to me in the breeze.

More than 30 different species of Duranta grow in tropical climates.  Mine have been perennials most years, coming back in summer to bloom through the fall.  Only in very frigid winters have I lost them — two failed to come back after the winter of 3 days at 17 degrees.  I have the purple sapphire showers, the alba white and this lavender growing in my garden.

Another stunning tropical, this plumeria started blooming a few weeks ago.  Its scent is sweeter than the yellow flowering varieties I grow, but the color is amazing.

The candlestick tree (cassia alata) towering over other plants in the garden is just now starting to bloom.

The back shade garden brings some hot tropical colors to the party as well.  I have to replant Persian shield every spring, but I couldn’t garden without its color and texture.

While the Moy grande hibiscus is done with its plate-sized flowers, Lord Baltimore is still blooming strong beside the pool.

I know this is the result of my not pruning enough in the spring, but I am thrilled with the weeping form that my crape Myrtle has taken on in front of the cutting garden.

Only allowed on the vegetable garden fence, this cypress vine always perks me up when the veggie garden becomes a towering and crispy mess before the fall garden clean up.

This happy garden blog post brought to you from my favorite morning roost – particularly nice on this cool morning.  What’s blooming in your late summer / early fall garden today?

Dazzling color in the spring garden…

We all love the spring garden — the awakening of plants that herald the arrival of spring and provide a foreshadowing of more  to come.

As the sun shifts in the sky and the breezes begin to warm up, I’m enjoying some rejuvenating time in the garden.

I bought these sweet glass daffodils to bring a pop of color into the garden before the daffodils were ready to open up.

The ‘Kate Izzard’ irises are loaded up and several of them are opening every day.  You can tell that I should have divided them last fall, which I fully intended to do, but I seriously need to do that this fall.

Just gorgeous.

Even though traditional tulips aren’t in our Central Texas plant palette, these species tulips, cluisana ‘Lady Jane’ are sweet substitutes in my garden. 

This little patch of phlox disappears entirely in the head of summer, but I can count on it to emerge in spring with loads of little blooms.

My cemetery irises are also popping open all over the garden.  Our winter clearly made the irises happy.

Bluebonnets are covering my decomposed granite path, and even Kallie’s playground filled with pea gravel.  Fletcher enjoys a peaceful moment with them here.

While most of the buds on my monster wisteria were frozen in our last freeze, there are still some opening up and draping delicately from the fence.

And then there is the homestead verbena.  What a powerhouse.  In the cooler spring and fall, they thrive and liven up any spot in the garden.  They will shrivel and look poor in the heat of summer, but just shade your eyes and pretend not to see them until they return again in the fall.  Even though many of our bloomers start now and run through the fall, homestead verbena is well worth it’s little summer break.

Now that the threat of freezing is past (I have my fingers crossed as I type this), it’s time to fill in the rest of the garden with new and exciting plants that will herald the summer.

Bloom Day showcases late summer blooms in the garden…

Even though the thermometer hit 97 today, summer is beginning to wane here in Central Texas for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  Carol of May Dreams Gardens invites us to share what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month, so here’s a stroll through my landscape.

Some of the heat-loving perennials are on their second set of blooms this summer.  Plants like lantana, salvia, sage, are putting on a dog days show while the sun is still high in the sky.

I recently made a return trip to the Arbor Gate Nursery in Tomball to collect some of their wonderful garden art.  I came home with two ceramic fish and two blue/green glass ribbons to add to the one I bought on my original visit. Now I need to plant just the right things to create an appropriate vignette for them to “swim” around in.  But I had to put them in the garden somewhere until then, so here they are.

I also ordered some clever pieces online — these three faucet flowers are guaranteed to be ever-blooming varieties!

 The seem to feel right at home with the blooming Turk’s cap.

These monstrous salvias that are dwarfing the fully mature bright edge yucca are Amistad salvias that I transplanted last fall after they were under performing in another spot with too much sun. Here they get morning sun and evening sun and they seem to be thrilled with the switch.  Had I known they would get THAT happy, I’d have found them a spot further back in the bed!

One little surviving bat-faced cuphea.  I planted them amongst many other things that are deer resistant, hoping to hide them.  But alas, the deer are smarter than I am, and I almost never get to see an actual bloom before it becomes a snack.

This curve around the bend of the front bed is lined with society garlic – something the deer never eat!

These Salvia leucantha, or Mexican bush sage, love the hot, dry sun of late summer here in Central Texas.

 The society garlic border confetti lantana and one of my bird baths.

A few new additions to the front walkway bed this year, the foxtail ferns and zinnias have done well.  But the rock rose in the upper left corner has been rudely stripped of its pretty pink blooms by you-know-who.

The front bed, or the Hideous Bed, as we call it, is definitely not hideous.  These plants thrive in hot, dry conditions so they can take it here.  But last weekend’s rain did help them with an extra boost. Here you see thryallis, santolina, a variegated yucca and homestead verbena.

And a different angle that also includes damianita and a salvia greggii.

To the right of these photos is a swath of blackfoot daisies — they’re natives that grow in rocky outcroppings of the Hill Country.

Across the drive is another dry bed that enjoys a little shade.  Here is new gold lantana, salvia greggii, a sago palm, and in the pot — a variegated false agave.

Stunning liatris is a riot of lavender color. 

Large pots in the back by the pool have orange narrow-leaf zinnias and potato vine.

 …And homestead verbena.

The Duranta erecta (lavender color) is full of blooms – below – and fruit — above.  Though all parts of the plant are poisonous, so don’t be tempted to eat the fruit.

 I have 3 different colors of Duranta – this one, the deep purple ‘sapphire showers’ and a white one.

This pitcher sage came from a 4′ pot I bought at the semi-annual Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center sale.

Another shot of the Amistad salvias on steroids.

 One of my Turk’s caps — ‘Pam’s pink.’

 Some pots on the back patio that I rolled out into the rain for a drink.

Even though they are delicate and hard to see, I love adding Euphorbia ‘diamond frost’ into pots for filler.

And again, a supremely hardy lantana – cherry bandana — perky all the time.

Happy garden bloggers bloom day.  What’s blooming in your garden?

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