The Sun is Killing Me: July 2010

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Painted Bunting!

OMG! I just saw a Painted Bunting at the fountain in my back yard!! But he flew away before I could get a picture. Darnit! I'll be sure to keep my eye out for this guy from now on, maybe I can get his photo...

Friday, July 16, 2010

Bloom Day - July 15, 2010

I'm a day late for bloom day. Meh, it happens. Here we go:

Bessaria Elegens has bell-shaped flowers and reminds me of a spring-blooming bulb, but it blooms in the summer(this bulb is native to Texas and Mexico):

Pride of Barbados is always outstanding in July:

Abssynian Gladiola. And WOW does it ever have a strong scent in the evening!:

Tropical Milkweed. Queen and Monarch butterflies are always having parties on these:

Chocolate Flower. It really does smell like chocolate! I love to go outside in the morning as the scent is the strongest then:

Brazilian Petunia. This one is NOT invasive like the purple ones, but I find it does not over winter as well for me:

Gladiola 'Atomic' is just finishing up blooming:

Mexican Oregano and Texas bluebells:

Desert Willow bloom with Texas Sage in the background:

And some white rain lilies:

Zone What?

Seattle to Olympia is Gardening Hardiness Zone 8.

Zone 8: -12 to -7 C (10 to 20 F)

Austin is Gardening Hardiness Zone 8-9

Zone 8: -12 to -7 C (10 to 20 F)
Zone 9: -7 to -1 C (20 to 30 F)

The USDA map was updated this year - 2012. Some zones have shifted from the previous version.

See the current map here:

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Although both Austin and Seattle are in similiar zone hardiness, their climates could not be more different! Temps top out in the 80's in the summer in Seattle, where in Austin they can top 110 and stay in the 100's for months on end. The same plants that enjoy the Seattle maritime climate will fry in a second in the semi-desert that is Central Texas.

Learn about the heat zone map here:

http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm

Check out the AHS Heat Zone map here:

http://www.ahs.org/pdfs/05_heat_map.pdf

Past Garden Quotes of the Month

"The fair-weather gardener, who will do nothing except when the wind and weather and everything else are favorable, is never master of his craft."-- Henry Ellacombe
"The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession." -- Phyllis McGinley
"The way of cultivation is not easy. He who plants a garden plants happiness." --Chinese Proverb
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb
'Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.' - Albert Einstein
"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." ~Orson Scott Card
"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden." ~Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666
"A weed is but an unloved flower." ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
"Last night, there came a frost, which has done great damage to my garden.... It is sad that Nature will play such tricks on us poor mortals, inviting us with sunny smiles to confide in her, and then, when we are entirely within her power, striking us to the heart." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebookse
"Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination." ~Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden, 1897 (Thanks, Jessica)
"When one of my plants dies, I die a little inside, too." ~Linda Solegato
"In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death." ~Sam Llewelyn
"Plant carrots in January and you'll never have to eat carrots." ~Author Unknown