lion’s tail

I’ve been amazed at the lack of a freeze this late in the season, but Facebook reminded me with a photo of brilliant variegated shell ginger that we only had our first freeze here at the house on January 4th last year.

 These Pam’s pink Turks caps start blooming late but keep on going.

 The cape honeysuckle are a bright burst on the increasingly grey days.

 Another late summer/early fall bloomer, Mexican bush sage is prolific.

 As are the Mexican mint marigolds.

 In the pots by the front door, these begonias are refreshed after some cooler temps and rain.

 And next to the begonias, these Mexican honeysuckles are about to bloom for the third time.

This Royal Queen, or Iochroma, is stunning.  Bar none, my favorite in the garden these days.  It’s a mid-fall bloomer, but oh-so-well-worth the wait.

In the granite and flagstone path out back, the sweet alyssum are perky as can be.

Even the neighboring pink skull cap is starting to bloom again.

I posted these on my FB profile last week – this abutilon is bursting with blooms.

Unruly, but showing deepening purple colors, indigo spires salvia is tough-as-nails.

The lion’s tails are still showing off — I’ve brought them in and arranged them in vases with other late bloomers.  You can see those arrangements here and here.  They include many of these blooms.

As I write this post, I realize that I’ve left a few of these bright blooms out of those arrangements, so I’m feeling inspired to make another arrangement today.

THIS is what I love about living in Austin, Texas.

Are you making bouquets from your garden?

While our nights are now close to freezing temps, we still haven’t hit the hard 32 here at our house yet.  My dad was here today and returned the vase from the bouquet of garden flowers I took them a few weeks ago.

Since it was a beautiful, sunny day here (60F) and there are still blooms in the garden, I refilled the vase and sent it back again – with flowers!

Today’s arrangement included lion’s tail, coneflowers, indigo spires salvia, celosia, rosemary and duranta seeds.

To see what other gardeners are putting in their vases, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

It’s been chilly here in Central Texas.  If you call 50s and 60s chilly, and we do.  All the potted tropicals and succulents are in the greenhouse with night time heaters running.

But the garden is still full of flowers – invigorated by lots of rain and cooler days.

I’m not spending time in the garden right now, so when I went to water the greenhouse plants this morning, I decided to bring some of these amazing flowers inside so I can enjoy them more.

I gathered Lion’s tail, celosia, indigo spires salvia and coneflowers and made a beautiful bouquet for my kitchen island.  There are many other blooms in the garden.

I might just bring in something else tomorrow.

After a great lunch at Jack Allen’s past the “Y” in Oak Hill, Jenny of Rock Rose, Pam of Digging, and Jenny of J Peterson Garden Design and I ventured over to visit our friend Kathy Cain at Vivero Growers Nursery. A few miles past the “Y” on Hwy. 290, Vivero is a plant lovers delight.

As part of Support your Independent Garden Center month, several Austin bloggers are posting about local nurseries every Wednesday in October. Today is also the last day that eight Austin bloggers, including me, are offering 8 exciting giveaways as part of this effort. Visit my previous post here to enter for a chance to win great prizes from participating nurseries.

Today I’m highlighting Vivero as my idependent nursery of the week. Kathy and her husband Mike run Vivero Growers Nursery. They sell retail and wholesale to the trade and, unlike some nurseries, they also grow much of their own stock.

The nursery is filled with little vignettes of plantings, pairing just the right things with each other for color, texture, contrast, size and overall WOW factor. This planter by the office door is a perfect example.

They had not one, but two different varieties of one of my favorite plants in stock — Leonotis leonurus, or Lion’s Tail. The beautiful plants grow tall stalks with bright orange blooms at intervals up the stalk. The almost-round blooms look remarkably like the tuft of fur at the end of a lion’s tail, hence the name. I posted about mine about 3 posts back here, if you want to see one close up.
All the plants were healthy specimens, clearly well-cared for. Everywhere I turned there was a sea of color.
Around every corner, I found some plant treasure — many new varieties of plants that I’d never seen before like salmon-colored salvias and pink and white Mexican bush sages. From trees to perennials to annuals and succulents, Vivero is one of my favorite local nurseries.

Click back to my previous post here to enter for a chance to win in the Support your independent nursery month giveaways. Contest ends at 11:59 tonight!