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October 15th, 2007
GBBD 200710: Oct 2007

Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.

October 15, 2007

I don’t think it’s rained in Austin since the last Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. After our glorious summer, we are having a hot dry fall, with temperatures well above average. My lawn is getting crispy. Just this last week, the highs dropped out of the 90s and the lows reached into the 60s. Lots of plants, even heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers, won’t bloom if the low temperatures are above 70F. The drop in temperature encouraged four new plants to bloom.

The summer squash…
summer squash

White mistflower (a gift from Pam/Digging)
white mistflower

Aster ericoides, a tiny native aster.
Aster ericoides

And Callisia repens, which has a flower so small that I can barely see it without my camera eye.

Another new flower blooming since last month is the elegant, red spider lily, Lycoris radiata (known in its native Japan as higanbana, literally equinox flower).
Lycoris radiata

Being dry and dusty, the garden looks ragged. The trees are just now starting to drop a leaf or two; except the pecans which are swathed in webworms, dressed up for All Hallow’s Eve. A few oxblood lily stragglers march on. The summer flowers are past their prime and I haven’t put in the winter annuals yet. This is not how I wanted the garden to look for Margaret’s visit (which begins tomorrow). But I’m sure it will be fun hitting the nurseries together and buying some new plants to liven things up.

  • Abelia grandiflora (only a few flowers)
  • Antigonon leptopus　(still going strong)
  • Asclepias curassavica (mostly gone to seed)
  • Cosmos sulphureus (some very short ones, only a foot tall)
  • Aster ericoides
  • Callisia repens
  • Curcubita pepo (straightneck summer squash)
  • Dolichos lablab
  • Duranta erecta
  • Eupatorium wrightii (white mistflower, Wright’s boneset)
  • Ipomoea quamoclit (cypress vine)
  • Lycoris radiata
  • Malvaviscus arboreus
  • Mirabilis jalapa pink
  • Nerium oleander ‘Turner’s Shari D.’ — full, gorgeous bloom
  • Oxalis triangularis
  • Plumbago auriculata
  • Podranea ricasoliana
  • Rhodophiala bifida
  • rose ‘Ducher’ (happy now that it’s in the sun)
  • Ruellia (Mexican petunia)
  • Tradescantia pallida/Setcreasia (purple heart)

by M Sinclair Stevens

7 Responses to post “GBBD 200710: Oct 2007”

  1. From Yolanda Elizabet:
    October 15th, 2007

    That’s quite a respectable list of blooms for this time of year. A pity about your lawn getting crispy, that can’t be fun.

    Many plants thrive under moderate conditions, too cold doesn’t work nor does too hot or too dry. Where I live it’s usually too wet and too dark as plants need lots of daylight. It’s always something, isn’t it? 😉

    It is. But your garden always looks lovely. You’ve created a little Eden. — mss

  2. From Pam/Digging:
    October 15th, 2007

    The webworm trees do look rather spooky just now. My garden is not full of flowers either, despite the fact that it’s October, darn it! The roses and salvias have been respectable, but most of them have had haircuts recently.

  3. From Annie in Austin:
    October 15th, 2007

    The webworms are bad enough – but the mealy bugs are even worse. I hate those darned things.

    Your squash blossom is truly lovely, M.

    How exciting to have Margaret coming to visit!

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

  4. From Carol:
    October 15th, 2007

    You still have a longer bloom list than I do! I hope you get some rain and cooler temperatures for late fall. It’s hard for me to fathom planting ‘winter annuals’.

    I don’t usually like red flowers, but there is something about those red spider lilies, and the oxblood lilies, that just grabs me!

    Thanks for joining in for GBBD again,
    Carol at May Dreams Gardens

    If you’d ask me, I wouldn’t have said that I liked red flowers either. However, for some reason it seems that the ones I can grow are all red. Unfortunately, reds have a way of clashing with one another. In my garden, the oxblood lilies usually bloom before the red spider lilies but on the occasions when they have bloomed together the oxblood lilies make the red spider lilies look a pale sickly orange-tinted red. — mss

  5. From kate:
    October 16th, 2007

    That is a long list of blooms … the Lycoris is gorgeous. The Asters are pretty. The papery Squash blossoms always look so delicate to me.

    I hope you have some rain soon so that the lawn improves. I remember your YouTube video from 2006. That left a lasting impression on me.

    Yes, the garden is looking a bit dry and brown again. Rather pathetic really…but not anywhere as bad as in 2006. Now I look at that video to remind myself that it’s not so bad. — mss

  6. From Bonnie:
    October 16th, 2007

    Amazing that your squash is blooming!

    Is it? I’ve never tried growing summer squash in the fall before. I’m growing Early Prolific Straightneck an heirloom selection from Botanical Interests. It’s suppose to mature in 45 days which I’d hoped gave me some time to get a crop. Had I planted them earlier, I don’t think they would have flowered earlier because they all came into flower as soon as the temperatures dropped last week regardless of the size of the plant. (I did several plantings a week a part in September). This is another experiment. — mss

  7. From Ki:
    October 17th, 2007

    The Lycoris is spectacular – so tropical looking. The mistflower looks interesting. I’ve never seen one before.

    Lycoris radiata is a bulb from Japan but does very well in the American southeast. I don’t know how it fares where the ground freezes? Does anyone up north grow it? Ki, I was quite envious of your anemones. — mss