Saturday, October 15, 2011

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!

4 comments:

Nell Jean said...

So the rains came in time for Bloom Day. Lots of pretties.

Jane said...

Happy Bloom Day from Zone 5! I love the title of your blog. As essential as the sun is to our gardens, I do not believe I could make it in Texas.

The Texas Bluebells are very pretty. I also really like your photo of the asters... nice colors and composition.

HolleyGarden said...

Love all the blues/purples in your garden. Asters, passion flower, skullcap, bluebells, mistflower, torenia, etc. So nice. Love the cool shades. Happy GBBD!

scottweberpdx said...

Great post...love 'em all..especially the Mistflower...I must get some!