Yesterday Was Bloom Day but ...

I was too busy actually working in the garden to take pictures. Fall weather finally found my corner of Katy: I took full advantage of the cool temperatures and sunny skies and did my best to ignore the stiff breezes. I finally took off my gloves about 4:30, came in to grab the camera and proceeded to snap my way around Wit's End.

I planted these Amazon Rose Dianthus a couple of weeks ago. I think I may have to add a few more around the garden.


This is 'Teresa', a Salvia greggii mutation discovered by Texan David Steinbrunner and named after his wife. I bought this plant at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center fall sale in 2006 and was so underwhelmed (despite their rave reviews) that I had almost given up on her. Earlier this year I moved milady Teresa to this spot under an east facing window, where she's protected from the afternoon sun, then pretty much forgot about her. Evidently she thrives on inattention! Note that she's reverting to her parental hot pink on one branch.


One of my favorite old garden roses is Gartendirektor Otto Linne, seen here with the first bloom on Winter Honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima. The latter's leaves still show the stress of too little rain over the summer and too much Ike in September.


It's not a bloom, per se, but the rosettes of this Flapjack Cactus, Kalanchoe thrysifolia, are as lovely as any bloom in my gardens.


I think I've found just the right spot for the Salvia regla, Mountain Sage. This one has been growing in front of my courtyard wall in the front garden for a year or so now. It's a little leggy, but I think some judicious pruning next year is the answer. When I saw one gallon pots of it at The Arbor Gate recently, plants that were covered in these red-orange blooms, I admit it: I succumbed to their lure. I need to get planted out today!


While I don't have much fall color in the usual sense of the phrase, I do have an abundance of fall colors in the garden. The Copper Canyon Daisy, Tagetes lemonii, is just getting started. Some gardeners find this plant an overenthusiastic grower and complain about its sprawling habit. I'm not one of them, though: how can I not love a plant that will soon be covered in these bright yellow blooms and continue that way through January? It responds well to pruning, even welcomes it. It's also a great passalong plant, since it roots where it touches.


Cigar Plant, Cuphea macropetala, sports tubular yellow and orange blooms.


Butterfly Vine, Mascagnia macroptera, clambers up, over, around and through whatever's nearby. It snakes along the ground and roots where it touches, making it another great passalong.


This purple Lantana is an upright variety introduced here in Houston by grower Heidi Sheesley of Treesearch Farms. Her description of it: Lantana trifolia - Fruity Pebbles Lantana – An unusual lantana, featuring highly ornamental fruit clusters. Flower clusters are lavender-pink. As the blooms fade, flower spikes elongate to form popcorn-like spikes of shiny lavender
fruit. Tough, perennial shrub averages 3’ tall. Sun, Moist, well drained soil. Also known as ‘Lavender Popcorn’ Lantana. The name comes from the fragrance of the flowers: they do have a faint aroma of Fruity Pebbles cereal!



One last picture and we'll call it a Bloom Day ... this is Purple Iochroma, Iochroma cyanea. I love these blooms but the plant gets a little rangy. I'm wondering if it would respond to more frequent light pruning but now is not the time to find out!


Thanks, as always, to Carol of May Dreams Gardens, our congenial and entertaining host for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Check out her Bloom Day post and those of her commenters to see what's blooming around the world!

Comments

Carol Michel said…
It looks like summer in your garden to me. Happy to hear that the weather is finally better and you are able to enjoy your garden again!

Happy bloom day to you!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
EAL said…
I like the iochromo, which I had never heard of. And your salvia, which I don't do too well with. Well, it's all gorgeous, more blooms than i have in July!
Love the white salvia greggi! She looks very happy with her new location. You have lots blooming--wish I had some of those Copper Canyon Daisies! Bloom until Janurary, wow! I'll be checking the garden centers for that one in the spring.
I'm not sure which is my favorite...you have so many things that tempt me! I have a flapjack kalanchoe too and I like the way it gets redder in the cold.
Annie in Austin said…
I recently planted a small S.regla, too, Cindy and like the idea of it being our fall color in future autumns.
Love the Flapjack Kalanchoe!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Aren't you glad you didn't give up on that white Salvia? It looks so cool & airy. People with floral color don't need fall color. Your garden looks very happy that it's November. This post is making me hungry: 'Fruity Pebbles,' 'Lavender Popcorn', Flapjacks...
Gail said…
Cindy, hey there! I love the header photo...boy do I miss the butterflies...it is too darned cold and even though I like seasons...I have had enough cold and am ready for spring! Three seasons is nice!

You have lovely blooms of several plants I have never met before! I love the Butterfly vine....lochroma is another new one. The salvias are always a treat...I have a salvia azurea...and it is too leggy, I am thinking that a gentle pruning will make it a lot more attractive next year.

Take care...

gail
Unknown said…
Flowers make a garden ... that's the great thing about living in a warmer climate where the bloom season is longer.
You've got some interesting plants in your garden and everything looks so healthy!

Thanks for sharing:)
Wow, everything looks so great. I used to have a butterfly vine and found it took several years before it decided it was happy. But when it got happy, I got happy. :)
Cindy, MCOK said…
Carol, if it weren't for the pesky mosquitoes, I'd have nothing at all to complain about, weatherwise!

EAL,that deep rich purple color of the iochroma is why I've kept it around this long. A corner lot gives me lots of space for blooms and I sometimes wish I had less space. It would force me to do less!

MT, it doesn't show up that well in the picture, but Teresa has a blush of pink on her lips. She's very dainty!

Leslie, isn't that kalanchoe color just the coolest? I think this one will outgrow its pot next year. Oh, darn, I have to find another pot for it AND another plant to put in that pot. I'm crushed.

Annie, if the Salvia reglas do as well as I hope, you'll be seeing more of them in my garden. Hope yours thrives, too!

MMD, I am indeed glad I didn't give up on Teresa. I'd still love some fall color: I think I need that reminder of changing season for some psychological reason!

Gail, there's been an abundance of butterflies here lately, especially Painted Ladies. I wondered if one of the nearby school's classes had grown and released some! I think pruning your Salvia azurea would probably do it good. Most of my Salvias seem to respond well to pruning.

RVS, much as I think I'd like an enforced winter break, I'd probably be impossible to live with if I couldn't be out in the garden!

CG, I'll confess that I don't usually show y'all the pictures of less healthy plants. I battle chlorosis way more than I'd like, especially in roses.

Jean, you're right about that butterfly vine, it took a while to settle in. It's growing on a section of fence that backs up to a bed of pinkish-reds, and that yellow doesn't look so great with them. I don't want to move the vine so I'm looking for plants with yellow and red blooms to help tie it together. Any ideas?

Thanks to all for stopping by, especially those I haven't met before! I hope to see y'all again.
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