The slow progress of Mountain Laurels

Someone asked me the other day whether the mountain laurels had always been there. Which made me wonder how much they'd grown over the years I've been here, so I went looking through past photos. The picture above is from 5 or 6 years ago. Below is from today.

Well, no wonder I feel like I can't see the birds and butterflies in the curbside bed from the kitchen window anymore! These guys are all grown up, with the tallest at the level of the eaves. But in real time, it felt like these shrubby trees were hanging out at the same size forever.

So, hang in there anyone who's wondering if their mountain laurels are doomed to stay small!

Morning dew and post-season blooms

Yesterday's walk at Walnut Creek was bejeweled. Dew drops on the long grasses, caught in the morning sun...gorgeous! Also, the moon stayed visible the whole time. My main complaint is that my iphone doesn't take the same quality photos as it did this spring. An update between then and now changed the touchscreen focus to touchscreen zoom, and I haven't figured out the new trick to focus. Anybody?

In the backyard, the mystery sage and obedient plant are blooming...at the same time! That's a first (sage usually stops by early summer). And the obedient plant is putting out a lot of buds along its stalk for a second round of flowers. A little scraggly, but I love having them.

Morning walk at Mueller

Everything looks so healthy and happy right now, and there are so many great planting ideas along the paths at Mueller. The kidneywood shrubs were covered in bees, and I've never seen Turk's cap so packed with blooms. I like the feather grass next to the yellow coneflower-type plant...may have to do something like that in the front.


The reflection on the "lake" was beautiful. Stopped by Elixer after the walk for the most amazing plum ginger scone (my first choice was lemon nectarine, but it had sold out). Yum.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: September 2010

From the top: indigo spires salvia; Turk's cap and inland sea oats; thryallis (aka 'rain of gold'); Mexican sunflower (aka tithonia); firespike (which the hummingbirds visited last week); 'golden' cosmos; cypress vine; 'coral nymph' salvia; end of season obedient plant; chives (a baby anole lizard has been hanging out in them the past week, catching visiting insects); firebush (planted in July) and trailing lantana; Mexican petunia; 'hot lips' autumn sage; Mexican sage and Texas sage. Not shown, but blooming: Russian sage, chaste tree, flame acanthus.

Interesting how many of my plants have 'Mexican' or 'fire' in the name. Thanks to the Hermine deluge last week (my rain gauge only measures up to 5 inches, but we got a couple more than that), everything looks pretty happy right now. And I haven't had to water anything in the ground since, which is such a luxury for summer. Despite the fact that school has started, the day-time weather doesn't realize that it's fall yet, and we're still hanging out in the mid-90's.

To see more gardens around the world, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens. It's been so much fun to participate in the monthly look at what's blooming and a nice journal of what's going on in my own garden seasonally. Happy Bloom Day!