Zanthan Gardens
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: GBBD 201010: Oct 2010

October 15th, 2010
GBBD 201010: Oct 2010

Antigonon leptopus. Coral vine is a monster that dies down to the ground after the first freeze and then returns to clamber over my neighbor’s cedar elms each year. No water. No fertilizer. No mulch. Bees love it.

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

October 15, 2010

Second fall is firmly entrenched in Austin. As September rolls into October, usually a front will come in from the north and banish the humid Gulf air for a month or six weeks. Then Austin gets a lovely October of intense blue skies, dry air, and temperature ranging from lows in the 50s to highs in the 80s. This has been one of those perfect Octobers; my only complaint is that we didn’t get the prelude of a good long rain. We’ve had a few sprinkles but the last really good rain came with Tropical Storm Hermine at the beginning of September. Hermine dumped six inches of rain all at once and some Austinites got twelve inches or more. It would be nice to spread these rain events out a bit. These are lovely October days but dry, dry, dry. And it’s so cool I become negligent in my watering.

The garden has some fitting golden yellows for October. However it is mostly a jarring clash of reds and pinks at the moment. It was even worse at the beginning of the month before the oxblood lilies and the red spider lilies died down. (And people wonder why I don’t paint my gray cement wall purple.)

Turks cap clashes with coral vine

Ipomoea quamoclit, cypress vine

Dianthus ‘Fandago Crimson’

Ipomoea nil ‘Chocolate’

The package art and description led me to believe that this ‘Chocolate’ morning glory would be a gentle mauve or dainty buff. Not.

Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Dancing Petticoats

I planted some cosmos in the empty larkspur beds thinking I’d get some nice fall color. I always forget that it is too dark for annuals until the pecan tree loses its leaves. This was the only tiny pathetic flower from the entire packet of seeds. All the seeds sprouted but the plants quickly got leggy and died when they were about a foot tall.

The two ‘New Dawn’ roses are covered with flowers. And so is ‘Blush Noisette’. You probably would never guess it from the rest of the garden, but I really prefer these dainty pastel pinks.

Rose ‘New Dawn’

October 15, 2010

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

• Abelia grandiflora (2010) full bloom
• Abutilon incanum (2010)
• Antigonon leptopus (2010) full bloom
• Antirrhinum majus (2010) rebloom, survived summer
• Commelina communis (2010)
• Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Dancing Petticoats’ (2010)
• Datura inoxia (2010)
• Dianthus ‘Fandango Crimson’ (2010)
• Duranta erecta (2010)
• Galphimia glauca (2010)
• Helianthus annuus (2010) wild
• Hibiscus syriacus (2010) fading
• Ipomoea nil ‘Chocolate’ (2010)
• Ipomoea quamoclit (2010)
• Lantana ‘New Gold’ (2010)
• Lycoris radiata (2010) last day
• Malvaviscus arboreus (2010)
• Nerium oleander (2010)
• Nierembergia gracilis ‘Starry Eyes’ (2010)
• Oxalis crassipes (2010)
• Oxalis triangularis (2010)
• Pandorea ricasalonia (2010)
• Parkinsonia aculeata, Retama (2010)
• Pavonia hastata (2010)
• Plumbago (2010)
• Polanisia dodecandra (2010) one flower left
• Rivina humilis (pigionberry) (2010)
• rose ‘Blush Noisette’ (2010)
• rose ‘New Dawn’ (2010)
• rose ‘Red Cascade’ (2010)
• rosemary (2010)
• Ruellia (all three) (2010)
• Salvia madrensis (2010)
• Senna lindheimeriana (2010) mostly gone to seed
• Setcresea (both purple and green) (2010)
• tomato (2010)
• Verbena canadensis (lavender wilding) (2010)
• Vitex agnus-castus (2010)
• waterlily ‘Helvola’ (2010)
• Zexmenia hispida (2010)

by M Sinclair Stevens