Great Garden Plants

Notable plants I will rely on more in the next few years.  These have been doing good in hot hot hot, and dry dry dry conditions.  That makes them perfect Texas garden companions.

Datura...Absolutely LOVE these, and the bonus is that they come back year after year.   I love love love watching these flowers open at dusk.  The hotter it gets the more it grows.  Not really a surprise it does well, since its also known as Jimson's Weed, and Thornapple, and are native to TX.

Perfect for a night garden...they really sparkle in moonlight.

Plumbago.  What's not to love about Plumbago?  I have many of both the blue and white varieties.  I call them the hydrangeas of the west. 

The pale blue or white blooms cover the small shrub, all season long.  Usually they go on and on, just about all year round.  This past year with our terrible winter, most died back to the ground.  The blue ones also produce babies, I haven't gotten any babies of the white one.  Also easy to multiply these by layering. I have never tried them in containers, so I don't really know how they would do.

Picture has a bonus butterfly, and yes, butterflies love to feed on it.

  

Sweet Potato Vine, however, spreads like wildfire in the ground, definitely a container only plant. Blackie is better behaved, and not as vigorous as Limelight, and Tricolor.  and they are soooooo easy to propagate.  just stick 'em in water and roots form.  I have also stuck them straight into moist potting soil, making sure the soil stays wet/moist for about a week, and then you have a new plant.  Does really well in drought conditions, especially in the I forgot to water my containers for a few days, kinda drought.  I see them around town planted in the ground, and they always look lush.  When I pick garden bouquet, I like to add some sweet potato leafs, gives some great foliage. 
Oh and as a nice bonus, blackie produce pink petunia like flowers, if you're lucky.

Another perfect Dahlia

That's all that's needed to be said about this picture

Mid July and still green

This has been the best gardening summer ever.  Lower than normal temperatures, and more rain than normal.  what a difference a year can make.  Last July everything was brown.  This year it's lush and green.  Eventually a lawn will be put in the now existing weed patch

Some plants are early bloomers this year, and others are late.  Guess Mother Nature is keeping me on my toes. 

Grasses and Russian Sage have been blooming since June.   

Meet Mr. Squirrel

This year the grape arbor was completed and finally this was going to be the year we got grapes, lots of blooms turned into small clusters, growing larger and larger every day.  The anticipation was growing in tandem with the grapes.  We just didn't know someone else was watching as well.

Meet Mr. Squirrel, he's furry, brown and cute, yet a pest.  He devoured roughly 25 grapes before he hiked up in the hackberry tree and took a well deserved nap.  A fully loaded arbor, yet this year we ate none.  Eventually we're gonna have to find a critter solution

What happened to my Lantana love affair?

I used to love them, collect them, treasure them...

now they are forgotten in the garden.  They are fantastic performer's in the garden, comes in all shapes and colors (except blues).  So what's not to like?  I don't know what happened.  They were my first reliable performer's in the garden when I started many years ago.   Maybe they are just too low maintenance to be appreciated? 

While walking through the garden center the other day I thought to myself, "they have nothing special, just a bunch of different Lantanas."

I think I want to re-discover them...What's not to like.  The hotter and drier it gets, the better they perform.  The only plant I know of that's 100% dogproof, butterflies and hummers love them, no need to fertilize or water.  They are really great plants, but WHY, oh Why can't I get excited about them? Why do I strive to grow "high maintenance plants", plants that need constant care ? 

Tomorrow is a new day, and I WILL start to appreciate Lantanas again.

It's Dahlia time

It is Dahlia time. Dahlias might be my absolute favorite flower ever. They are so perfect looking, actually fake looking. Each one is more stunning than the next, always a surprise, always joyous. Everytime a bud opens I get giddy, it's like unwrapping a gift.
A few were lost in last years drought and this past winter's awful cold and wet. A couple of new acquisitions have been made, but no blooms on those yet. Fresh tubers in the ground usually bloom later than the established ones. My all time favorite, the Nenekazi, was lost.

RAIN

 

Finally.. I had given up hope, but somehow with a coldfront stalled above us we got RAIN.

and not just a little teaser drizzle, nope real rain.  A whole 5 inches of rain.  I do wish it could have been spread out over a few weeks, but I'll take it.  I'll take ANY precipitation in summer.  Only bad thing is the grass will now hit a growth spurt, and grow leaps and bounds overnight and create a jungle.  maybe not quite that quick, but almost.   A nice bonus with this rain, is that the temperature dropped into the 70's.  I haven't seen 70's in a long time.  I've heard that they exist, apparently at 4am...but not when I am awake.

Tomorrow afternoon, when things have dried up a bit, I'll start planting.  Since I lost all my white CF last year during the record heat/drought, I now have 7 new ones, waiting for their new spots.  Also picked up some pink Daylilys and a couple of tall pink Ruellias.  Time to start planting in my newly created sunny bed, and move the shade loving residents elsewhere.  Nothing is more invigorating during a hot TX summer than rain.

More Hydrengas

That's right, Bright and early Sunday morning I went to the HD to look for potting soil.  Looked at their plants, and right by the entrance to the garden center a cart with Hydrangeas.  Reduced, and needing a home.  I picked 4,  5gal sized ones, One Glowing Embers, one Queens Lace, and 2 Variegated ones...Also picked up some white plumbagoes... ( haven't seen them for sale in YEARS, and they don't produce babies like the blue variety...)
THEN....I had to see what was going on at LOWES.  Had to get mulch anyway.  Ended up with pentas galore some vincas and lantanas.  50 pentas, 15 white trailing lantana, 30 vincas(white)...I had JUST about caught up with my stash, and now it's refilled.  CGD...compulsive gardening disorder...Yeppers, that's what I got.
The picture is of Merritts Pride... Acquired with another Deja Bloom Saturday.
I have a feeling that the colors listed and the colors I'll get aren't going to be the same.  Merritts Pride, according to the tag, has BRIGHT RED flowers....We'll see

Crazy Aboy Hydrengas

Or absolutely NUTS!! I have always loved the, and never successfully grown them
I think this year things might go differently.  Over the years I have killed many hydrangeas.  Though this year I have gone completely crazy.
The picture is of my "Doublicious" I have bought two of them, one planted in a planter with potting soil, and the color changed from blue to pink.  The other I haven't planted yet, I have to get something to turn the potting soil acidic.  I want BLUE blooms. 
The list of my new acquisitions started with some mailorder hydrangeas.  To think there were none in my garden 4 months ago, and now I have 12 at least. 
6 Blue Moon, 1 Blueberry Parfait, 1 white, 2 Doublicious, 1 Deja Bloom, 1 Glowing Embers... This is the list so far.  I am definitely getting another Deja Bloom, and who knows what else I'll stumble on at the garden center.

Hummer

Yep, snapped the first hummer pic EVER.  I wish those tiny little birds were larger and slower.  That would make it SO much easier to photograph them.  I have also noticed that they are skittish, and frequently fly away when I try to approach them.  Lizards are WAY easier to photograph, as they sit completely still. 

Now I need to research and buy a telephoto lens that I can attach to my camera.

Clematis...

Every spring this purple Clematis gets prettier and prettier. 

It doesn't bloom for long, but when it does it is breathtaking.  Nothing is prettier April mornings than seeing this Jackmanii in full bloom, the morning sun reflecting of the perfectly purple petals.  Just stunning. 

This is only the second year, so next year it should really be putting on a show.

Costal gattaway....

We took a nice"weekend" trip down to the coast to fish.  The fishing part became excrusiatingly boring for me after a few hrs, so I started to chase birds with my camera instead.  Costal birds are definatly excotic for land locked folks like me. Tohough absolutely STUNNING. 

Here are a few