Still Colorful on My Corner of Katy!

"You might give some serious thought to thanking your lucky stars you live in Texas."

It's the 15th of the month and savvy garden bloggers around the world know that's the day on which Carol of May Dreams Gardens invites us to share what's blooming in our gardens. Despite last week's unexpected and unusually early visit from Old Man Winter, it's still a bountiful Bloom Day here on my corner of Katy. The picture above is a view of the garden in back. Note the lovely new fence enclosing the back, with which I am very happy EXCEPT for the fact that we waited years to replace the old fence, secure in the belief that a hurricane would decimate it. Not one picket was damaged by Ike's winds, not ONE. Hmmphh. The executive producer used this as an argument against replacing the venerable fence: "If a Category 2 hurricane didn't blow it down, it's in good shape." The Head Gardener, however, also serves as the Head Trustee of this corner of Katy and as such was the one in charge of decidingwhether a new fence was needed. Since the Head Gardener also serves as Chief Financial Officer and as such is in charge of disbursement of funds, the executive producer was overruled. The new fence certainly does set the backyard blooms off nicely ... and thus I segue back to the subject at hand ...

The roses are loving the cooler weather. First, a collage of some of the roses that are blooming right now:
I'm really tickled that worked! I've been attempting to teach myself some new tricks blogwise and here's another example of what I've learned (with thanks to Vertie at Vert for her how-to post). Here are closeups of two of those pictured in the collage, the eternally lovely Souvenir de la Malmaison and blushing beauty Reve D'Or. (Upon publishing this post, I saw that the pictures were too large to fit into the post frame so I've edited them to fit better. Obviously I still have some tricks to learn!)


The front garden is hot, hot, hot despite recent chilly temperatures. Clockwise from the top left, we have Copper Canyon Daisy, Rudbeckia hirta (one of the Susans that Gail of Clay & Limestone loves so much), Fruit Cocktail shrimp plant, Salvia regla, Salvia coccinea 'Forest Fire', the seed pod of Yellow Butterfly Vine (Mascagna macroptera?), Cuphea macropetala, Mexican Turk's Cap, Salvia blepharophylla and Variegated native Turk's Cap (a little weatherbeaten):



Batface Cuphea (Cuphea llavea) is so cute that it gets a closeup of its own, which shows exactly why it deserves its name!

Amongst the plants blooming in the back gardens you'll find Purple Coneflower and alyssum, Sweet Almond Verbena (Aloysia), Clerodendron, Salvia farinacea, Purple Fan Flower (Scaevola), Madame Antoine Mari (actually in the rose bed on the alley corner), Gartendirektor Otto Linne rose, Pansy, Fernleaf Lavender (Lavandula multifida), Lilac Penta, Ruby Crystals grass, Pandora/Bower Vine, Amazon Dianthus, Salvia 'Otahal', Scaevola again, an old rose that might be Martha Gonzales and might not (it's not Knockout although it does look very much like it), and Coral Woody Penta (Rondeletia).


Much to my delight, the multihued Melusine Amaryllis decided to get in on the Bloom Day festivities, opening two blooms today. The veining on her leaves is actually much greener than I could capture with the camera. I still think I need more Amaryllis!