A wet but still-blooming garden


As homeowners in Texas are recovering from the most recent in what I am afraid will be a string of big storms, we’ve also been having strange weather of a sort. Yesterday was 87 and sunny: a perfect summer’s day flanked by dreary rain and wind on either side.

All the rain has kept the garden fairly green and lush—and what a relief never having to water—but it’s brought plenty of slugs and a certain amount of lank weedy growth among the perennials. Overall, I feel good about the garden; it looks pleasant. I’ve already talked about what makes it pleasant: all the colorful and variegated foliage plants. There are some blooms, though.

At top you see a tangle of flowers: buddleia, lobelia, diascia, and dahlia, with some emerging boltonia in the back and some canna foliage and rudbeckia seedheads. There. All in one shot!


There are others, but my favorite is a plant (above) you Southern gardeners probably take for granted. It’s been blooming all summer.

Comments

Trevor said…
Nice gardenia! I wish we could grow them here...yours looks so lush and happy.
Your garden is certainly lush, I can understand why it's turning into a slugfest. The blooms in the photos look great, no evidence of the slugs. I love Diascia. The flowers are pretty & it's such a trooper.
Oops! My son (Trevor) apparently left himself logged in on my computer...he really doesn't know much about gardenias although he is my Gardener Trainee.
Carol Michel said…
All in one shot, I love that look in the garden. It's nice to still be enjoying blooms in September.

I assume you take the gardenia inside for the winter?

Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Eve said…
I love Gardenias in other people's yard. I still remember when we first got married and we were given these huge, thirty year old things. We dug them up and took them home and thus began my daily battle with black spotted leaves. I fought those the whole time we lived there.
I love them and the smell is wonderful but never again.
EAL said…
Yes, the gardenia lives inside, but does not bloom, in the winter.
JAbel said…
A little update on Sonnenberg Gardens.Sunday nights winds and rain brought down a 120 year old 150 ft. tall Northern Red Oak and at least another 50 ft. tree.One hit one of the small cottages but did not cause much structural damage.
Anonymous said…
Lovely and lush. They sell gardenias here for outdoor planting buy they need more water than we can provide with our continued drought. Maybe one year we will be able to grow them, for the scent reminds me of childhood with very large gardenias in the gardens next door that would scent the whole neighborhood in Oklahoma.

Frances at Fairegarden
new url
http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/
Anonymous said…
I'm glad to see the rain. We haven't had hardly any all summer. Love your bloomers today and I know that gardenia smells wonderful.
All that rain has certainly made your garden lush EAL.
Annie in Austin said…
Austin is more than 225 miles from Galveston Island - we escaped the hurricane but didn't get any rain. So your lush and wet garden looks very inviting, EAL, including the gardenia and the canna with lobelia.

Camellias do well for East Texans with more water and non-alkaline soil - mine was invaded by ants and died.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Anonymous said…
That gardenia can get as high as my door here and it blooms all summer - and winter! But here it has competitors for scent. The Natal Plum scents my dooryard.
P.
http://sicluceatlux.wordpress.com
Anonymous said…
I have a 5ft wide gardenia in zone 7 - problem now is it's too big to get it inside for the winter! Do you know when/if I can cut it back?
EAL said…
Ha, try to take it inside and the doorway will trim it for you! Seriously, they keep growing all year, so you should be able to cut them back at any time.

Popular Posts