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…
White mistflower (a gift from Pam/Digging)
Aster ericoides, a tiny native aster.
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).
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)
