foxtail fern

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?

Spring garden spruce up…

While the weather was cold and before it was planting season, I started a project at my house to add a chopped limestone edge and an Oklahoma flagstone cap to the beds along the front walk.  It turned out great and I was very happy with the result.

But then the nice weather came, and with it, clients.  Clients who wanted designs and hardscaping and landscaping and the items left unfinished on my project remained unfinished.  Until this week.

An unexpected opening for the crew found them at my house with 4-1/2 yards of great soil – Thunder Garden Soil from  Geo Growers.  That was worked into the front beds, which are now, in essence, raised beds.  Miscellaneous volunteer seeds – zinnias and salvias and other random plants were hoed out and given the boot.

I stood back and took stock of my bed and tried to view it as I would a client’s.  I’d been unhappy with it for a while.  So off  I went, three days in a row, to the nursery to load up every inch of my car with plants.

We filled the holes and created structure and contrast and texture (all the things I preach about!) These are the plants I added:

  • Foxtail ferns
  • Variegated agapanthus – these are way cool!
  • Persian shield
  • Sparkler Sedge
  • Purple pixie loropetalum
  • Mexican bush sage
  • Amistad salvia
  • Bat-faced cuphea
  • Blackfoot daisy
  • Mexican honeysuckle
  • Purple skullcap
  • Yellow zinnias
  • Skeletonleaf goldeneye
  • Sun coleus
  • Copper plant
  • Helianthus maxmilliani
  • Whale’s tongue agave
  • Miss Molly buddleia
  • Yellow bulbine
  • Hibiscus
  • Mexican bird of paradise

These didn’t all go into the walkway bed, I filled holes in other beds, too. I finally replaced my critically-wounded franzosini agave with a whale’s tongue.  It will never be the same, but it also won’t make 30 pups a month that have to be cut out and it won’t get 20 feet tall and it won’t freeze as easily.

I love the new plants and the new mulch that followed, but one of the things I’m most excited about is that they finally brought me moss rocks to put in the section of dry creek right by the front door.  After lots of — no, tilt it this way, no, bury that end, no turn it around, not this way, that way — I am happy with the placement of the rocks.  They add so much to the natural look of the entire area.

Though they are still small, the Persian shield and loropetalum will add a nice purple to the lime spikes of the sparkler sedge and the hot gold Cuban duranta that’s now just emerging from dormancy.

My new passalong bronze iris from Robin at Getting Grounded went into this bed along with some coleus to mirror the lime and purple on the other side.

These foxtail ferns (my first ever) will provide some structural contrast for the rock rose volunteer in the center that I babied over the winter.  The yellow zinnias will coordinate with the yellow skeletonleaf golden eye and the bright edge yucca further down the bed.

I can’t wait to see the brilliant purple Amistad savlias bloom next to the bright edge and the agapanthus.  (It’s still hard to envision it all since almost nothing is blooming quite yet.)

This vignette is at the end of the path – yellow columbine, golden grass, sun coleus, creeping jenny, a yellow lantana and hidden – a copper plant that will grow to become a nice tall bronze backdrop on the left.

This is just a little slice of the bed behind the pool.  The ginormous Maggie roses used to live here.  Now the center piece will be this Miss Molly buddleia, surrounded in front by a semi-circle of pure yellow bulbine.  On either side of the bed are phlox paniculata and lavender trailing lantana and Mexican oregano.

I moved the Amistad salvias from behind these bright edge yuccas last fall.  They just didn’t do well in this bed – I think it was too hot for them here.  The stock tank I painted holds an evergreen wisteria planted in the fall – check out the amazing bloom color here.  So now between the two I have three Mexican honeysuckles with their hot orange blooms to play off the purple, yellow and lime.  Love those combos.

So, now I wait, and water a lot by hand.  Bought a few new expandable hoses (yes, I love them and will do a post soon).  And I’m using rainwater from the tank, so that feels great.  I think there are probably 200-250 gallons in there and that’s going to go fast if it’s going to be 90 every day.

I’m happy with the result and enjoyed walking through the garden tonight with gin and tonic in hand, surveying all the new things and appreciating my garden.

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