Bloom Day October 15th, 2011

Autumn has finally arrived in Austin! The temps are down into the 90's most days which is such a huge relief. And we received between 1-2 inches of rain earlier this week and that totally perked up the plants that made it through the hell that was summer this year.

I was able to get outside and trim up the front garden:



See that rose in the bottom left corner of the pic there? I swore I wouldn't plant anything this fall due to the drought, but the first knockout rose I had planted in early spring fried over the summer. I found a replacement on clearance at Lowes and decided to go ahead and take a chance and plant a new one. Hopefully it will make it this time.

This yellow knockout rose DID make it though the summer, however. I really can't believe it. It's blooming again since it rained the other day:



The rock penstemon is still blooming. This is one tough plant. It flowered all throughout the summer even though it dwells right up front in the hellstrip:



The wright's skullcap is blooming again. It was pretty crispy looking over the dead of summer, but it made it though and it's perking right up, now:



Texas bluebells are still blooming, although they are looking a bit scraggly at this point:



The lantana is looking great:



The batface cuphea are also looking stupendous:



Fall is yellowbells time. They are ginormous:



Speaking of ginormous, the purple passionflower has completely overtaken the side garden:



Normally, the gulf fritillary butterflies mow this vine down and keep it under control. Not this year. Awful drought = little to no butterflies, which equal 'eat the garden' passionflower vine. On the plus side, this vine does have gorgeous flowers:



The blue mistflower has spread pretty good as well:



There are few things that have come back to life now that weather has cooled down a bit that I had in pots in the shade. One is Torenia:



And another is Bishop of Landaff Dahlia:



These asters are newly potted and I think they look very pretty next to the succulents behind them:



The rains kicked the rainlilies into gear. Yellow rainlilies:



And last, but not least, the yellow paintbrush is blooming again:




That's it folks. Happy Autumn bloom day!