Zanthan Gardens
Category: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

• Commelinantia anomala
• Consolida ambiqua
• Coriandrum sativum
• Engelmannia peristenia (Engelmann daisy)
  First flower opened today.
• Glandular bipinnatifida (prairie verbena)
• Hyacinthoides hispanica (Spanish bluebells)
• Iris (unnamed blue)
• Lupinus texensis
  full bloom. Trying to go to seed but I keep dead-heading.
• Nemophila insignis
  just a bit past its prime. Flowers no longer fully open and look a bit droopy
• Rivina humilis (pigeonberry)
• rose ‘Blush Noisette’
  covered in flowers now that the pecan tree isn’t shading it
• rose ‘Solero Vigorosa’
• Salvia leucantha (Mexican bush sage, purple)
  full bloom
• Solanum jasminoides (potato vine
• Tradescantia
  Getting seedy. I’m deadheading some.
• Tulipa clusiana
  in full bloom this week
• Viola (in a pot)
  full bloom but I have to constantly deadhead it

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

February 2020

All of a sudden, the garden is changing markedly every day. February is the month that I can hardly wait to rush outdoors to see what’s happening. It’s not the most floriferous or showy month. But, in Austin, we can feel the tension between the seasons. Spring won’t hold back much longer.

Summer snowflakes open in front of my usual winter bedding out plants, Viola cornuta and purple oxalis.

On schedule, my neighbor’s redbud tree signals it’s the week of Valentine’s Day. And the first bluebonnets are opening…almost ten days later than last year, but a bunch are about to open all at once.

After an almost non-existent winter, this has been a strange spring. The wildflowers got off to a very late start because of a hot, dry fall. Then rain and warmer-than-average temperatures in late December and throughout January put the flowers (and weeds) into overdrive. They acted like they’d missed the starting gun and sprouted and started sending up bloom stalks as quick as they could.

I’ve got bluebonnets just opening and others just sprouting. The tradescantia is flowering but no false dayflowers. Duranta and Salvia madrensis which normally would flower with the fall rains, are flowering now on last year’s growth. We haven’t had a freeze hard enough to kill any of the perennials back to the ground.

Rose ‘Blush Noisette’

The roses ‘Souvenir del Malmaison’ and ‘New Dawn’ have been flowering. And have buds on them. They have faded flowers today but I can’t really say that they’re flowering today.

The Meyer’s lemon tree still has a lot of lemons on it. We’ve made 4 batches of marmalade so far and are giving lemons away. Best harvest ever, probably because it rained so much in the spring and early summer of last year when the lemons were forming. Usually it gets hot and dry and most of the fruit drops just after it sets.

A few tiny flowers can be spotted on the pigeonberry. Mostly berries…and last year’s leaves are bronzed by frost. I’ve started cutting it back for the new season’s growth. Ditto the Salvia madrensis and ruellia. All are flowering on last year’s growth and putting out new growth. Usually, the old growth has frozen and and I cut back these perennials by this point in the gardening year.

The foul weeds are rampant.

Complete List for February 15, 2020

• Duranta erecta
• chickweed, goose grass, henbit
• Leucojum aestivum
• Lonicera fragrantissima
• Lupinus texensis
• Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’
• Oxalis triangularis
• Prunus mexicana
• Rivina humilus (on old growth)
• Rose ‘Blush Noisette’
• Rose that yellow one I’ve forgotten the name of
• Ruellia (on old growth)
• Salvia madrensis (on old growth)
• Setcreasia pallida
• Tradescantia
• Viola cornuta ‘Penny Denim: Jump-Up’
• Viola cornuta ‘Penny Peach: Jump-Up’

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

February 15, 2013

My Austin neighborhood has not had a hard freeze at all this winter. So none except the tenderest plants (like the basil) have died back. The kalanchoe, which won’t survive a freeze, is blooming. I think this is the first time it since 2009. The duranta, Port St. John’s creeper, and the Forsythia sage are still blooming on last year’s growth. I really should cut the old stalks down as new growth is forming around the base. But I’m not disciplined enough to cut down what few flowers remain in the garden.

After a very dry fall 2012, we had a nice rain in January. New larkspur and cilantro sprouts have popped up and the struggling bluebonnets have put out growth. The flowering of the Mexican plums was very poor this year, the trees are leafing out without producing many flowers at all. The redbuds around town began blooming at the first of February. I saw my first Texas mountain laurel in flower (2/16), on the SEU campus.

I thought all the roses were budding out early. Most of them didn’t even lose their leaves. However, looking at my post for last February, these same roses were all blooming. As usual. Memory does not serve.

Complete List for February 2013

The list of all plants flowering today, February 15th 2013, at Zanthan Gardens.

• Commelinantia anomala
• Consolida ambigua
• Coriandrum sativum
• Duranta erecta
• Kalanchoe daigremontiana
• Lantana montevidensis
• Lavandula heterophylla ‘Goodwin Creek Gray’
• Leucojum aestivum
• Lonicera fragrantissima
• Meyer’s lemon
• Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’
• Podranea ricasoliana
• Prunus mexicana
• Rosmarinus officinalis,
• Salvia madrensis

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

February 15, 2012

Well. If winter is the only season left for Austinites to garden in (the rest of the year being too hot), I’m glad this winter has been wet and warm in contrast to last year’s horrible dry and cold winter. I only had four things blooming last February and one of them was henbit. Zanthan Gardens is overrun with henbit this year but a lot of other nicer things, too.

The plants are very confused, though. They went semi-dormant in 2011’s hot, dry summer and then started putting out growth the second it began raining. So, while this February had a very lacksluster showing of paperwhite narcissus and the daffodil, tulips, bluebells, and summer snowflakes have not yet appeared, it is filled with roses. Roses blooming and roses putting out new canes.

The first rose to bloom was the hot weather trooper, ‘Blush Noisette’.

Then ‘Mermaid’ started blooming. It usually is my last rose to flower. I think of it as a late May, early June rose. Mermaid has the biggest flowers, flat flowers the size of saucers. It’s also the thorniest rose I grow. ‘Mermaid’ is a monster of a rose and not one that’s easily tamed.

Typically my first rose of the year is my favorite ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’. I breathed a sigh of relief when it started putting out new canes. I was very close to losing it to cane dieback last fall. I cut back the bad canes and sprayed it with pruning paint. It did not look good. I’ve already lost half my roses to cane dieback so I was not optimistic. But it’s pulled through.

‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ is one rose that doesn’t like wet weather. The flowers ball; that is, the outside petals of the blossoms stick together. I had about a dozen flowers that I had to peal the outside petals off of for them to open.

The ‘New Dawn’ rose along the front fence is blooming. The one in the back yard is not yet. It is about the same color as ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ but with a much more modern flower shape.

Now for the flowers which are blooming in season. The Mexican plum started blooming last week and is just starting to fill out this week. In my mind, the Mexican plums are the first to bloom, followed by redbuds for Valentine’s day, and then Texas mountain laurels. The latter has been blooming all over my neighborhood and downtown for a week. I still haven’t spotted my first redbud for 2012.

Flowers in the tradescantia family will start blooming with any spring rain. I’ve had false dayflowers bloom in December but February and March is more usual. So far, I have only this one in flower but the yard is covered with plants about to bloom.

Ditto its perennial cousin, the spiderwort.

For some reason, the larkspur began blooming before the bluebonnets. Usually my bluebonnets are in full bloom by mid-March and the larkspur take over in mid April. Several larkspur are already blooming and a lot more are soon to follow. Not a single bluebonnet (and there are quite a few plants) has sent up a flower stalk yet.

And then we have several flowers, like this salvia, that were blooming in fall, got some frost damage in December and died back slightly (but not all the way to the ground) and have made a comeback. Ruellia and lantana are also in this category.

In the vegetable garden the English peas are in full bloom and we’ve been eating peas, too. We pick lettuce and swiss chard almost every day. And the carrots are producing baby carrots. I hope they get a little bigger. The rosemary is still full of flowers.

Henbit has been very invasive this year. It’s just beginning to fade but the chickweed and goosegrass is coming on strong in its place. I hate them all.

Complete List for February 2012

The list of all plants flowering today, February 15th 2012, at Zanthan Gardens. If the flower was blooming in February in 2008 or 2009 I indicated that in parentheses. I don’t have a February list for 2010.

• Commelinantia anomala
• Consolida ambigua
• Lantana montevidensis (2008, 2009)
• Lonicera fragrantissima (2009, 2011)
• Pisum sativum (2009)
• Polanisia dodecandra, clammy weed (2009)
• Prunus mexicana (2008, 2009)
• potato vine
• rose ‘Blush Noisette’
• rose ‘Mermaid’
• rose ‘New Dawn’
• rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ (2009)
• rosemary (2008, 2009, 2011)
• Ruellia
• Salvia madrensis
• Setcreasea pallida (2009)
• Sophora secundiflora
• Tradescantia, spiderwort (2009)

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

November 15, 2011

At 8:34 AM we were holding our breath with anticipation. It looked like the storm might dissipate before it reached Austin.

One thought was on our minds in Central Texas today. Rain. We’d been told that there was a good chance that we were going to get some but as we tracked the storm on radar it seemed like it might veer or dissipate before it reached Austin. When the storm arrived, it seemed like it couldn’t work itself up to more than a paltry drizzle. In the end, we got a pretty decent rain–more than an inch (depending on where you are). The last good rain was in October 9th–June 22nd before that. The heaviest rain did fall to the south and east of us, but we as we head into the second year of exceptional drought, we appreciate every drop. Austin’s total rainfall is a little more than 12 inches for the year…about one-third of our yearly average.

By 10:50 Austin had gotten some welcome rain but the heaviest downpours were south and east of us.

A Late Fall

Summer ends with the rain and this year Austin didn’t get any significant rainfall until October 9th. After that, the plants kicked into high gear. Wildflower seedlings began popping up. Unfortunately the same dry conditions that’s produced desert-like heat has also brought some clear, cold nights. Overnight temperatures dropped into the mid-30s on November 4th and 11th bringing freeze warning to some parts of the Hill Country. Daytime temperatures jump back quickly to the 80s. The cold temperatures brought out a deep russet leaf color of the one crape myrtle that still had leaves. (The other’s leaves had already turned brown and dropped off.) There’s some buttery yellow in the leaves of my neighbor’s chinese parasol tree, too. I even saw a hint of red in the red oak. Its leaves don’t usually drop until after Christmas.

Waiting on fall rains, the white mistflower (boneset) was very late to flower this year. Usually it’s covered with butterflies, too. I haven’t seen any this yet. Did they miss each other? Did the cold temperatures push the butterflies south before the mistflower could bloom?

2011-11-15. White mistflower. The branches are weighed down with wet flowers after the storm.

Fall Pinks

Pink just doesn’t seem like a fall color to me. However, these two impossible-to-kill vines don’t care about fashion.

2011-11-15. Pandorea ricasoliana, Port St. John’s Creeper

2011-11-15. Antigonon leptopus, coral vine

Some buds of the coral vine were wide open after the rain. I’ve never seen this happen before. Unfortunately it was so dark that all the photos I took of the fully open buds were out of focus. Looking around I see more pinks. At least the two roses, ‘New Dawn’ and ‘Blush Noisette’ sport a more delicate tint. The pigeonberry also has pale pink flower but then goes all out and clashes with bright red berries. The turks cap finishes off that part of the color spectrum.

2011-11-15. Malvaviscus arboreus, turks cap.

Fall Golds

The golden thryallis has pulled through summer and has been blooming well for more than a month. It would get all droopy in the heat but it always came back. As did the velvet leaf senna. The ‘New Gold’ lantana started blooming once the sun moved far enough south to shine on it again. I think that’s the oldest plant that I planted in my garden. The Salvia madrensis has been struggling but not giving up. It has very large leaves for a salvia and they droop piteously in the dry weather. But it keeps popping up new plants from the roots and today I saw some bud so close to opening that I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and count them.

After the October rain, I cut back the zexmenia hard and it’s come back beautifully with lots of bright new leaves. It’s put a few flowers. They all looked pretty soggy. Soggy but happy. That’s us Austinites, today.

2011-11-15. Zexmenia hispida

Complete List for November 15, 2011

The list of all plants flowering today, November 15th 2011, at Zanthan Gardens. Comparing today’s list to last November’s is depressing. And to 2009? Don’t go there. I don’t really have a garden anymore. So this list represents just the few hardy survivors.

• Antigonon leptopus
• Aster ericoides. These little white wild asters bloomed very late this year. Most of the plants are brown and dead. But a few hardy sprung back after October’s rain.
• Datura inoxia
• Eupatorium wrightii
• Galphimia glauca. golden thryalis
• Lantana montevidensis
• Lantana ‘New Gold’
• Malvaviscus arboreus
• Pandorea ricasoliana. The plant that won’t die.
• Salvia madrensis. Well, there’s a bud that’s about to open. The rain should bring it into full bloom. It’s struggled but it keeps coming back.
• Senna lindheimeriana
• Rivina humilis pigeonberry
• Rose ‘Blush Noisette’. A couple of tiny, soggy blooms that probably shouldn’t count. I have to give her an A for effort.
• Rose ‘New Dawn’
• Rosmarinus officinalis
• Setcreasea
• Zexmenia hispida

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

September 15, 2011

Due to the ongoing Texas drought and the record breaking heat, almost all the plants in my garden have died. Only four are flowering and all because they were near something being watered. The senna and datura are getting water from my neighbor who overwaters.

The City of Austin is on Stage 2 (mandatory) water restrictions now. That we went from voluntary to mandatory only on September 6th amazes me. If you would like to understand the seriousness of our situation down here in Texas, look at these photos: Texas drought and wildfires. Lakes have dried up. Livestock and wildlife are starving. Fires rage.

How can gardeners help? Not by giving up their gardens as I have. (My decision not to garden this year goes beyond the bad weather or a desire to conserve water.) Gardeners can help by providing a refuge for wildlife — food, water, and shrubbery to hide in. Many of us have observed an increase of wildlife into our gardens. Most of my fellow gardeners take an extra effort to provide for wildlife including birds, butterflies, and other pollinators. Gardens are important in the drought.

The City of Austin is also offering incentives encourage people to just let their lawns die and then replace them with more water efficient and wildlife friendly plantings.

Gardeners should also cut back their dead, dry plants. Unlike the true desert, Austin alternates wet years and in early 2010 many of our perennials tripled in size. If they have died since, our houses and fence lines are lined with masses of small, dry fuel that can ignite with a spark or a carelessly tossed cigarette.

Complete List for September 15, 2011

The list of all plants flowering today, September 15th 2011, at Zanthan Gardens. A single oxblood lily opened this morning after I watered the banana plants in the same bed last Sunday.

• Datura inoxia
• Lagerstroemia indica
• Rhodophiala bifida
• Senna lindheimeriana

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

April 2011

The drought continues. The pink evening primrose and Engelmann daisy seem to prefer this drier weather and are the stars of the day. The dry weather hurries summer along. Many flowers that are usually in bloom in April have already finished. Others that don’t usually start blooming until later have already begun. Even semi-weedy plants like baby blue eyes are relatively sparse and the plants are tiny and shrivelled. Austin’s ubiquitous bluebonnets are short and faded.

Nigella damascena. Love-in-a-mist. Doubles. A passalong from Jenny.

Dianthus chinensis. Pinks

Phlox pilosa. Prairie Phlox. A passalong from Julie.

Callirhoe involucrata. Winecup

My larkspur plans have gone awry. I dug two beds along the front path several years ago. Larkspur was supposed to line the path and the lawn. The lawn died. I didn’t get the larkspur planted this year. The last two years it self sowed where the lawn was. This year I didn’t get my beds planted so the self-sown larkspur is all I have. Without water or thinning the resultant plants are only about one to two feet tall rather than three or four feet tall. The front yard now looks a bit like the back yard used to. The meadow in the back yard is almost completely devoid of larkspur. After ten years, what was once the meadow is almost completely in shade by the time the wildflowers want to bloom.

Between GBBDs

Flowers that bloomed between March 15, 2011 and April 15, 2011 and so did not appear in either list.

• Allium neapolitanum
  These use to flower in abundance in the meadow but creeping shade and this year’s drought resulted in only one bulb blooming.
• Datura inoxia
  One flush of flowers already, just none open today.

Incomplete List for April, 2011

I always have to double-check some things but it’s 10PM. So there you are.

• amaryllis ‘Dancing Queen’ (2010, 2011–last day)
• Antirrhinum majus (2010, 2011–just barely)
• Aristolochia fimbriata (2011)
• Callirhoe involucrata (2011)
• Centaurea cyanus Black Magic (2011)
• Commelinantia anomala (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Consolida ambigua (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Coriandrum sativum (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Dianthus chinensis (2011)
• Diospyros kaki ‘Eureka’ (Japanese persimmon) (2007, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Echinacea purpurea (2011)
• Engelmannia peristenia/pinnatifida (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Hesperaloe parviflora (2011)
• Hippeastrum x johnsonii (St. Joseph’s lily) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Iris flavescens (?) yellow heirloom (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• iris ‘Full Eclipse’ (2011)
• iris ‘Incantation’ (2010, 2011–last day)
• Lonicera japonica (2011)
• Lupinus texensis (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Nigella damascena (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Oenothera speciosa (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Oxalis crassipis (hot pink) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Oxalis stricta (yellow flowering weed) (2010, 2011)
• Oxalis triangularis (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Papaver somniferum “Dorothy Cavanaugh” (2010, 2011)
• Parkinsonia aculeata, retama (2009, 2011–first day)
• Polanisia dodecandra (2011)
• Phlomis lanata (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Phlox pilosa (2011)
• Rhaphiolepis indica (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011–last day)
• rose ‘Blush Noisette’ (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• rose ‘New Dawn’ (2011)
• rose ‘Red Cascade’ (2011)
• Ruellia (2011)
• Sedum album (2011?)
• Solanum jasminoides (potato vine) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011-fading)
• Spiraea bridal wreath (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Trachelospermum jasminoides (2011)
• Tradescantia (spiderwort) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Verbena canadensis (lavender wilding) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Vicia sativa (common vetch) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Zexmenia hispida (2009, 2011)

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

March 2011

The paperwhites and kin got frozen out in February but the other classes of narcissus have had a great year. I planted 100 new ‘Ice Follies’ bulbs and they did not disappoint. Even some old clumps of ‘Ice Follies’ that haven’t bloomed in the last few years threw out a few flowers.

This week the daffodils turned center stage over to the irises. Unfortunately I wasn’t home during daylight hours so I missed getting a photo when they were at their best. The grape hyacinths hit their stride and the cherry laurel is loaded with flowers. The Texas mountain laurel is a making a good show, especially on the east side of tree where visitors can be surprised by the scent of grape soda as they walk down to Auditorium Shores for SXSW concerts.

Because of the drought, this has not been a good year for bluebonnets (especially when one contrasts it to 2010, the best year ever). My experimental stand of pink bluebonnets is very healthy only because planted them early and kept them watered. Self-sown bluebonnets are small and few in my meadow this year. The cilantro and arugula were both barely up before they bolted. The roses haven’t started yet. I think ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ will open her first buds tomorrow.

All the trees decided to leaf out today: cedar elm, oak, and Texas persimmon. I’ll be thankful for the shade in July but as long as the temperatures remain in the 70s, I wish the yard was sunny and the flowers had a chance to show their stuff.

2011-03-16. Bridal wreath spiraea. Austin, TX

Complete List for March 15, 2011

• Bridal Wreath spirea
• Commelinantia anomala
• Coriandrum sativum
• Dianthus chinensis (a single flower)
• henbit
• Eruca sativa (arugula already bolted but the flowers are yellow not white)
• Iris (unnamed blue)
• Iris albicans
• Leucojum aestivum (fading)
• Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’
• Lupinus texensis (both pink and blue)
• Muscari neglectum/racemosum (full bloom)
• Narcissus ‘Ice Follies’ (one late flower)
• Narcissus jonquilla ‘Trevithian’ (fading)
• Narcissus triandrus ‘Hawera’ (one flower)
• Nemophila insignis
• Oxalis crassipes
• Oxalis triangularis (purple)
• Prunus caroliniana (Full Bloom)
• Prunus mexicana (a handful of flowers on smallest tree)
• rosemary
• Solanum jasminoides (potato vine)
• Sophora secundiflora (full bloom)
• Tradescantia

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

Feb 15, 2011

Valentine’s Day always marks the beginning of spring in Austin for me. The shocking pink of the redbuds seems appropriate to the holiday. Although it is in the 70s today, the previous two weeks Austin has experienced what is shockingly cold weather for us; two separate fronts brought night after night of temperatures in the low 20s. Very little has survived in my garden and cold damage reveals itself daily. So there are no redbuds for Valentine’s Day, no Mexican plums, no roses, or irises. Some early greens (henbit and chickweed) have survived as always but even they seem subdued.

Practically the only flowers in my garden are three ‘Ice Follies” daffodils. They started to shoot up before the freezes, froze solid in the bud, and opened on dwarfed stems.

The only other new flower in my garden this month is the winter honeysuckle. I didn’t notice when it started to flower in the rush of activity that accompanied my having the house painted. Then the first big freeze was upon us and as I was running around with a flashlight covering plants, I saw that it had burst into bloom. I was disappointed that it was going to freeze before I even got a chance to sniff at it. The freezes didn’t seem to bother it much.

2011-02-15. Lonicera fragrantissima (winter honeysuckle).

Between GBBDs

An early oversummering bluebonnet was flowering before the freeze. It’s not the earliest I’ve ever had bluebonnets flower but it was out of season. The flower froze but the plant is fine, as are all the bluebonnet plants whether large or just sprouting. Some false dayflowers had also opened in response to much needed rainfall in January before the freezes.

Feb 15, 2011

Complete List for February

The list of all plants flowering today, February 15th 2011, at Zanthan Gardens. The most meager February list ever! Compare February 2009 or February 2008.

• henbit
• Narcissus ‘Ice Follies’
• Lonicera fragrantissima
• rosemary

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

November 15, 2010

The day began gray and gloomy, real November weather. Mid-afternoon it finally cleared a little but the chill remained. We built our first fire of the season tonight.

Lots of forward-thinking Austinites are scurrying around preparing for our first frost. One of the earliest freezes in recent years was on November 17, 2005. I’m hoping this will be the warm, dry winter forecast; I have a lot of tomatoes hanging in the balance. The ‘Gold Rush Currant’ tomatoes open scores of flowers every day even though I pinch them back daily.

The leaves of most of the trees are beginning to turn. They aren’t dropping off fast enough to suit me, though. I’m anxious for the leaves to drop, so I can clean up, and plant my meadow flowers out.

Almost everything flowering today is new for this month. The Pacific chrysanthemum and the butterfly weed started opening today.

Pacific chrysanthemum, Ajania pacifica

Scarlet milkweed, Asclepias curassavica

The ‘Elves Blend’ sunflowers are in full bloom now. So is one wild sunflower. I planted another variety for fall but it hasn’t bloomed yet. Last year, Austin got its first freeze before the sunflowers opened.

Elves Blend sunflower, Helianthus annuus

I planted some other flowers for fall color but I forgot how bad the shade is still in November. The zinnias and cosmos were a complete failure.

The rest of today’s flowers were brought to me by other Austin garden bloggers. The white cat’s whiskers are a passalong from Robin at Getting Grounded.

Cat’s whiskers, Orthosiphon stamineus

The stunning Salvia madrensis is a passalong from Renee at Renee’s Roots.

Salvia madrensis

And now in its second year, the Mexican mint marigold is a passalong from Annie at The Transplantable Rose.

Mexican mint marigold, Tagetes lucida

November 15, 2010

The list of all plants flowering today, November 15th 2009, at Zanthan Gardens.

• Abelia grandiflora (2010)
• Ajania pacifica (2010)
• Aloe ‘Grassy Lassie’ (2010)
• Antigonon leptopus (2010) almost all gone to seed
• Antirrhinum majus (2010) rebloom, survived summer
• Asclepias curassavica (2010)
• Dianthus ‘Fandango Crimson’ (2010)
• Duranta erecta (2010)
• Galphimia glauca (2010)
• Helianthus annuus ‘Elves Blend’ (2010) wild
• Helianthus annuus (2010) wild
• Lantana montevidensis (2010)
• Lantana ‘New Gold’ (2010)
• Nerium oleander (2010)
• Nierembergia gracilis ‘Starry Eyes’ (2010)
• Orthosiphon stamineus (2010)
• Pandorea ricasalonia (2010)
• Parkinsonia aculeata, Retama (2010)
• rose ‘Blush Noisette’ (2010)
• rose ‘New Dawn’ (2010)
• rose ‘Red Cascade’ (2010)
• rosemary (2010)
• Salvia madrensis (2010)
• Setcresea (both purple and green) (2010)
• Tagetes lucida (2010)
• tomato (2010)