The Dry Corner and Other Garden Notes

Although we are still running a narrow race with our IP regarding the month's data usage (see my last post), I think I can afford to post for the End of Month View in the garden. Once again, I'll keep the post short - all the easier since little has changed in the Dry Corner, which has become the main focus of the meme here.

The succulents are sustaining our increasing temperatures beautifully. Senecio “Blue Fingers” has been in bloom roughly since last month's view. It's not a particularly spectacular blossom, but enjoyable to watch, and it certainly changed the outline of the plant a little.

While most of its flowers are finished, a few more may be lurking deep inside.

The most striking change to be seen is with Crassula “Campfire”, which had darkened to deep mahogany hues and has just bleached to a range of gold-toned greens, still with red leaf backs.

I planted Aloe “Walmsley's Blue” in the Corner, as well as a Lampranthus (from which I still await some blinding pink rebloom). No pictures of either, I'm afraid, but both appear healthy. The bargain Anigozanthos I added was destroyed, presumeably by rabbits - but not eaten, merely shredded... grrr!

Elsewhere in the garden there are a few new flowers to enjoy. The Celosia planted for a summer experiment is doing well. A tiny cluster of Anchusa “Dawn Mix” seems perfectly contented even though it was planted just as temperatures began to spike - a fact worth remembering!

The Gaura recently planted is also thriving, but the Agastaches which decided to bloom early are struggling a little, though I think they will win through all right.

Did I learn from these? No. Call it greed, insanity, determination, or merely A Bad Mistake, but I did pick up another plant just the other day. Lagerstroemia “Rhapsody in Pink” came home from the garden centre and was popped into the south bed. Just a few days ago. Just as temperatures went to the century mark. It wilted next morning, but it revived well when watered so I will be watering it religiously for a while. The reason I went ahead was that I have been wishing for a crepe myrtle for months, but I have always found them offered at tree-size and priced accordingly. This was a young (very young, I believe) plant in a five gallon container, which, in addition to making it more affordable, should allow it to settle in more easily - or would have if planted earlier in the year! The blooms are a lovely, delicate, frothy pink. New foliage is deep red. Hoping for the best!

And now to the roses.

The biggest splash comes from William Shakespeare 2000. Placed in a planter in the front patio, he struggled with the aphids and spider mites which plagued some of my other plants there. He is finally coming along with a couple of those incomparable crimson blooms, packed with petals and fragrance.

It's a bit of a fight now to keep the rose blossoms from crisping up in the heat. But here are some beauties: a perfect bud from Crown Princess Margareta...

...and a shy bloom from Wollerton Old Hall...

And a bonus of a lily bloom. Variety unknown, it arrived as the “gift” part of my McClure and Zimmerman order last spring. A little bag of three Asiatic lilies was included with my package so I potted them up in the front patio, where they have been growing well. This is the first flower. I did not order lilies as I understood that they would not stand the heat well. However, if these pull through all right, I'm sure there will be some lilies on next spring's list. Our long, mild May might have fooled them so far; but that patio is something of a heat sink, and June and July will tell the tale. In the meantime, enjoy!

This was a longer post than I intended, a bit of a ramble through the garden after all, but I didn't want to miss a pleasant good-bye to May for the End of the Month View. Thanks to Helen at The Patient Gardener for hosting this ongoing theme!

Weather Diary: Fair; High: 104 F (40 C)/Low: 74 F (23 C)

The Dry Corner and Other Garden Notes

Although we are still running a narrow race with our IP regarding the month's data usage (see my last post), I think I can afford to post for the End of Month View in the garden. Once again, I'll keep the post short - all the easier since little has changed in the Dry Corner, which has become the main focus of the meme here.

The succulents are sustaining our increasing temperatures beautifully. Senecio “Blue Fingers” has been in bloom roughly since last month's view. It's not a particularly spectacular blossom, but enjoyable to watch, and it certainly changed the outline of the plant a little.

While most of its flowers are finished, a few more may be lurking deep inside.

The most striking change to be seen is with Crassula “Campfire”, which had darkened to deep mahogany hues and has just bleached to a range of gold-toned greens, still with red leaf backs.

I planted Aloe “Walburton's Blue” in the Corner, as well as a Lampranthus (from which I still await some blinding pink rebloom). No pictures of either, I'm afraid, but both appear healthy. The bargain Anigozanthos I added was destroyed, presumeably by rabbits - but not eaten, merely shredded... grrr!

Elsewhere in the garden there are a few new flowers to enjoy. The Celosia planted for a summer experiment is doing well. A tiny cluster of Anchusa “Dawn Mix” seems perfectly contented even though it was planted just as temperatures began to spike - a fact worth remembering!

The Gaura recently planted is also thriving, but the Agastaches which decided to bloom early are struggling a little, though I think they will win through all right.

Did I learn from these? No. Call it greed, insanity, determination, or merely A Bad Mistake, but I did pick up another plant just the other day. Lagerstroemia “Rhapsody in Pink” came home from the garden centre and was popped into the south bed. Just a few days ago. Just as temperatures went to the century mark. It wilted next morning, but it revived well when watered so I will be watering it religiously for a while. The reason I went ahead was that I have been wishing for a crepe myrtle for months, but I have always found them offered at tree-size and priced accordingly. This was a young (very young, I believe) plant in a five gallon container, which, in addition to making it more affordable, should allow it to settle in more easily - or would have if planted earlier in the year! The blooms are a lovely, delicate, frothy pink. New foliage is deep red. Hoping for the best!

And now to the roses.

The biggest splash comes from William Shakespeare 2000. Placed in a planter in the front patio, he struggled with the aphids and spider mites which plagued some of my other plants there. He is finally coming along with a couple of those incomparable crimson blooms, packed with petals and fragrance.

It's a bit of a fight now to keep the rose blossoms from crisping up in the heat. But here are some beauties: a perfect bud from Crown Princess Margareta...

...and a shy bloom from Wollerton Old Hall...

And a bonus of a lily bloom. Variety unknown, it arrived as the “gift” part of my McClure and Zimmerman order last spring. A little bag of three Asiatic lilies was included with my package so I potted them up in the front patio, where they have been growing well. This is the first flower. I did not order lilies as I understood that they would not stand the heat well. However, if these pull through all right, I'm sure there will be some lilies on next spring's list. Our long, mild May might have fooled them so far; but that patio is something of a heat sink, and June and July will tell the tale. In the meantime, enjoy!

This was a longer post than I intended, a bit of a ramble through the garden after all, but I didn't want to miss a pleasant good-bye to May for the End of the Month View. Thanks to Helen at The Patient Gardener for hosting this ongoing theme!

Weather Diary: Fair; High: 104 F (40 C)/Low: 74 F (23 C)

Monday Vase: Small and Sweet

Today's Monday vase post must be kept very brief. One of the perils of living in a rural area is internet service providers that cap data usage. Somehow we have managed to get all too close to that limit rather early this month! But I do not want to miss the bright spot in Mondays, so here is today's vase - picture files sized down and text kept brief.

My still very small Texas Ranger bush has just started into full flower. I am a bit peeved with myself because somehow I failed to note down the variety. I have assumed it was a form of Leucophyllum frutescens, but it may instead be a form of L. candidum. At any rate, it came home looking little more than a few sticks in a can, but it is filling out into a promising young shrub now. And blooming its heart out!

So a few Leucophyllum stems, with their blue-purple bell flowers (blessed with a light sweet scent), went into my smallest vase, along with a couple of lantana stems with their twin flowerheads.

I won't be able to go check everyone else's vases this week, but I will link to Cathy's meme, which is the inspiration for all of this. Please understand that it may be awhile before I can respond to comments though I always appreciate them!

Happy Monday!

And I will limit the weather diary to “sunny and very warm” for today's post!

Garden Foliage: Variations on a Theme

For this month's Garden Bloggers' Foliage Day, I have been thinking about the degree of variation in leaves of a single type of plant, in this case Salvia.  I have four different species of Salvia growing in the garden at present: S. greggii, S. elegans, S. reptans, and the humble classic S. officinalis.  There are many more, some of which will undoubtedly be added to the garden when I get the chance because Salvias are proving reliable plants here - at least so far.

But about the leaves.  Here are the four.

S. greggii's are small and rounded, bright green with a slight scallop to the edges.  Here is a cluster from the now happy "Flame", which is happily reestablishing itself in a shadier spot.

Somewhat similar in colour and overall shape is the foliage of S. elegans.  Its leaves come to a sharper point, however; veining is heavy, and the edges are more notched than scalloped.

And yes, it is blooming just now!

Those two are very "leafy".  The other two Salvias are more exaggerated.  At one extreme are the very linear leaves of S. reptans which have earned it the nickname West Texas Grass Sage. 

And at the other extreme, culinary sage, S. officinalis, with its rounded, furry, bumpy, silver leaves. 

 All of these have fragrant foliage - as one associates with sage - but the scents vary as widely as the shapes.  S. greggii has a fresh, minty fragrance; S. elegans earns its soubriquet of  "pineapple sage" by its wonderfully fruity fragrance; S. reptans, as I noted in an earlier post, smells pungent with something of a whiff of gasoline, and S. officinalis is, of course, the "true" sage scent of the kitchen.

There are others I would love to try, but these four contain quite a bit of variation in themselves so I thought it would be fun to present them here for Garden Bloggers' Foliage Day.  I will be linking this post - though quite late - to Christina's at My Hesperides Garden . 

Weather Diary: Mostly sunny, High: 80 F (26.7 C)/Low: 61 F (16.1 C)

Wordless Wednesday: St. Swithun in Bloom

Rose: St. Swithun (Austin, 1993)

Weather Diary: Mostly sunny, High: 88 F (31.1 C)/Low: 59 F (15 C)

Monday Vase: Bright Off the Desert

Hesperaloe parviflora flowers are in bloom all over the place just now.  I don't know whether they grow wild here, but they are a very dependable plant and widely used in area landscaping.  We have several which grow and bloom with minimal care and water along the difficult west side of the house.  So for today's vase I decided to use some of their vibrantly shrimp-pink stalks, combined with stems of Bougainvillea and Cistanthe grandiflora.

All went into an earthenware jar I made last summer.  Its small mouth was just right to hold the long stems, and the colour seemed perfect.

Not knowing anything about preparing these varieties for  arranging, I simply put them in the vase - with the exception of the bougainvillea, which had its woody stems dipped in boiling water prior to use.  The vibrant magenta bracts surround the occasional white bloom.

The flowers of Cistanthe grandiflora are the most volatile element in the vase because the blooms close at midday.  By the time I was able to get these pictures, the flowers were already beginning to shut.  However, the stems, blooms, and spent calyxes are still decorative in themselves.

Equally decorative are the big seedpods on the Hesperaloe.

And the bright pink flowers grow in rows along arching stems.  Some of these stems must be seven feet or more (2 m) tall; I used smaller ones and cut them shorter as necessary.  The warm colour is unlike anything else I grow.

This was a fun vase to put together - a very bright vase for a mid-May Monday, and using some of the more exotic material available.  I am linking to Cathy's Monday Vase meme; do go and check all the other vases inspired by the meme in this flower-rich season!

Happy Monday!

Weather Diary: Mostly sunny, High: 85 F (29.4 C)/ Low: 62 F (16.7 C)

Garden Fragrance: May

This month, for the first time, the scents in the garden are dominated by the presence of roses.  This is true even though not all have begun blooming yet; as I noted in my last post, James Galway is taking a little extra time to settle.

But overall, the new roses are getting into stride.  Graham Thomas has just opened a first bloom though the plant is still not more than a foot and a half high.

The scent of "The Generous Gardener", which has begun to be very generous indeed with its blooms, is superb.  It is markedly old rose in character, which is also true of the quartered flower forms.

Blooms continue to be lighter than anticipated, but the same happened with the first flush of blooms from Crown Princess Margareta, so I'm not yet debating the identity of the rose.  Crown Princess Margareta is now consistently blooming in luscious apricot hues with, of course, a lovely, full fragrance.  Only buds just at the moment...

...also true of St. Swithun, which is setting up its first now.  I include it though, honestly, the flowers are not yet open enough to smell.

I still have no good pictures of The Alnwick Rose, but its scent is certainly one good reason to grow it.  Wollerton Old Hall has also paused.  However, the old hybrid tea Sterling Silver is in full bloom.   This variety has a reputation for being a bit weak when young; but in this garden it has grown and flowered freely.  Perhaps this Massachusetts-born rose prefers desert conditions after all!   Its classic tea fragrance is second to none.

Aside from roses, there are a few fragrant flowers that have been in bloom for months, as well as a couple that were not expected so early.  The latter group includes Agastache "Apricot Sprite", known as licorice mint because of its strong, minty scent.

This is a young plant which came from High Country Gardens back in March.  Both this one and A. "Ava" are anticipating their expected late summer bloom time by several months.  However, as they are growing vigourously, I am not too concerned.

Another plant which arrived with them is Salvia reptans, sometimes called West Texas Grass Sage.  It is also going ahead early and sending out its miniscule but magnificently blue flowers.  Scent, while present, is perhaps not its strong point: pungent with, to my nose, a hint of gasoline.  Perhaps it would be better to note that many desert plants have fairly pungent fragrances of the love-it-or-hate-it type.  Despite my description, I don't actually mind the smell of S. reptans.  I would definitely grow it for the colour more than the scent, however!

A dry-country plant with a much sweeter smell is Berlandiera lyrata, the chocolate flower.  It had just begun blooming when I first posted for the Scent in the Garden meme.  At that time, I could hardly smell it, since when the fragrance has become unmistakeable.  I can only describe it as distinctively chocolate without sending one immediately in search of a candy bar.  Carob perhaps?  In point of fact, the plants apparently are edible and were used as a food source by native Americans, though it is presumeably without the intense flavour appeal of chocolate.  In bloom since February and still loaded with flowers, this is proving to be a very garden-worthy plant here.  Shown with friend...

Berlandiera is fragrant in the mornings, while citrusy Oenothera pallida "Innocence" continues to scent the air after nightfall, making it much harder to grab any pictures!

Other long-blooming fragrant plants include Salvia greggii "Autumn Moon"...

...and now "Flame", which has been so woebegone that I transplanted it up into a shadier spot a couple of months ago.  It does look better now, a little less like a limp rag and more like Autumn Sage.  A few of its bright scarlet blooms are in evidence from time to time.  The scent of Salvia greggii is much more minty than culinary sage.  Both flowers and leaves seem to carry the same fragrance.

Another fragrant sage variety now in bloom is Salvia elegans, whose scent earns it the name of "pineapple" sage.

Then there is Lavandula "Goodwin Creek Gray" thought to be a variety of L. dentata,  To my surprise, I watched a hummingbird feeding from these flowers the other afternoon; I had not seen her on the L. stoechas plants and had begun to assume that lavenders were not useful for the hummingbird garden.  Apparently, "Goodwin Creek Gray" was highly satisfactory to her as she came back for more.

There is a light sweet fragrance from Armeria, which has not proven very happy here but continues to bloom for the time being...

...and, going from strength to strength, Cistanthe grandiflora.  Though I have to bury my nose in its cups to get the sweet fragrance, it is there!  The bees love it also, by the way.

That is a fairly complete listing for the month of May!  As weather has turned a bit wetter the past two days, the overriding scent is the wonderfully pungent tang of the wild creosote bushes (Larrea tridentata) covering most of the open land around us.  Creosote blooms in response to rains, so we will probably have a new flush of their little yellow flowers.  In the meantime, there were already plenty of furry seedballs on the plants.  I love the way the sunlight glows through them.

Weather Diary: Mostly sunny, High: 83 F (28.3 C)/Low: 60 F (15.6 C)