Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.
A cold front blew in last night, dropping temperatures 20 degrees but not bringing any rain. Today is sunny and windy. It’s hard to take photos in the wind. Zanthan Gardens is looking like it’s ready for a new year. Leaves are dropping just enough to litter the lawn, paths, and beds and yet not enough to open up the yard to sunlight. The trees, perennials, and even grass looks tired and worn.
I’ve been planting out winter annuals these last couple of weeks and that’s where almost all the new flowers for this month come from.
The violas are one of my favorite flowers. I don’t really like their larger cousins, the pansies, maybe because pansies are ubiquitous in commercial plantings around Austin. I hate the way they are typically set out in as if they were floral color dots, all different colors and lined up in unnatural rows and columns. I prefer the diminutive violas. I like to plant them in winding drifts so that they look like they just sprung up on their own.
I also like sweet alyssum, Lobulari maritima. I need to buy a lot more of it, though. In years past I’ve made containers out of rotted logs and the sweet alyssum looks very pretty draping down over the logs.
Pinks, Dianthus chinensis, are another common winter annual here in Austin. If the summer isn’t too hot, they will last and last. I managed to keep one group of so-called annuals growing for over 4 years. They finally died out so I decided that 2007 was a good year to plant out some more.
Among the vegetables, the jalepeno pepper is still going strong.The summer squash continues flowering but I don’t have much hope left for it because the plants look so sickly and ragged. On the other hand, the bush beans have finally decided to grow and are flowering like mad.
I don’t have any roses in bloom at the moment. ‘Ducher’ had been in full bloom last week but all the flowers faded by today. ‘French Lace’, which has been struggling all year, finally died. ‘Blush Noisette’ has buds that look like they will open tomorrow or the day after.
- Antigonon leptopus (only a few flowers left)
- Asclepias curassavica (mostly gone to seed)
- Cosmos sulphureus (some very short ones, only a foot tall)
- Aster ericoides (in full bloom)
- Commelina communis or C. erecta (weedy dayflower)
- Curcubita pepo (straightneck summer squash)
- Dianthus chinensis
- Dolichos lablab (suddenly flowered again after going to seed)
- Duranta erecta
- Lantana montevidensis
- Malvaviscus arboreus
- Oxalis crassipies
- Plumbago auriculata (still many flowers)
- Lobularia maritima
- Podranea ricasoliana (finally blooming all along the north fence)
- Rudbeckia fulgida
- Solanum jasminoides (new this month)
- Tradescantia pallida/Setcreasia (purple heart)
- Tradescantia–unknown white
- Viola cornuta ‘Sorbet Coconut Duet’
