Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: July 2014

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (hosted by May Dreams Gardens)! Today is overcast with light sprinkles, but the past week has been pretty hard on the landscape. Austin has been lucky this year that full summer started late, but it is finally here. We're moving into the season of flame-colored blooms... 

Blackfoot daisy against bronze fennel and Mexican feathergrass
Chocolate cosmos

Coral bean (this color makes my heart happy)
Coral bean against golden thryallis
Bronze fennel behind globe mallow

Verbena bonariensis and artemisia

Tatume squash vines in bloom (you can spot one squash to the right of the tree base...these go from baseball to softball size in less than a day!)

Trumpet vine monster

Swallowtails, ladybugs and aphids all living in fennel blooms

Cigar plant

Fireworks gomphrena

Loving the way dittany of crete drapes over the pot (bees love it, too)

Soapwort (Bouncing Bet) is getting leggy, but she still looks lovely

First crinum to bloom this year!

Okay, not blooms but these are from this morning's harvest and are something to look forward to in the summer garden.

Old Black Magic in the Garden

So, this was a surprise. I'm not sure if it's actually an Old Black Magic iris, but that's the closest I could find when I searched images on line. The petals are more black than burgundy when not photographed in full sun. This iris is one of the dozens that I dug up right after I bought the house a couple of years ago, as they were right smack in the way of foundation work being done.  Below: The mystery bunch of irises (and daylilies) I inherited with the house, in their original spot.

I have yet to figure out the secret of getting irises to bloom: am I using too much bone meal? too little? are they planted too deep? Exhibit A: these were planted last spring, got a bit of bone meal in the fall, have beautiful strappy foliage, and no sign of a bud anywhere.
But each rare time an iris does bloom, I think: "Oh, so that's the color I planted there." This time, the reveal was delightful, especially next to the pale orange flowers of the Indian mallow.

Garden Conservancy Open Days

Just now getting around to posting photos from the garden tour on November 3. My mother and I stopped at three of the gardens on list, all beautiful and inspiring. Our big takeaway was to leave enough spaces for conversation areas, or "outdoor rooms." And to paint window trim periwinkle. And maybe to train pyracantha on a stone wall espalier-style. Full set of photos here.

Garden of Jennifer & Fred Myers


 Garden of Yvonne Tocquigny & Tom Fornoff
Christine Ten Eyck/Gary Deaver Garden