Happy Belated Bloom Day!

I don't know what I was thinking, to miss the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  It's graciously hosted by Carol at May Dream Gardens and I'm usually on the ball enough to participate.  But today, a day late and a dollar short!

Welcome to the Scrooge edition of Bloom Day!  No, I'm not in a bad mood.  I just couldn't shake the feeling that the garden was showing me a glimpse of the past, present and future.

Here's the ghost of garden past, the spare, spent look of blossoms just going to seed.  Accompanied by the wild tropical remnants of Hurricane Bougainvillea!

Alternanthera

Bougainvillea

Here's the ghost of garden present, the few bright winter annuals I planted this year.

Calendula

Pink Dianthus.  Forgot to deadhead!

White Dianthus, which I like better.

Faithful penta.

Popcorny Snapdragons

Here's the ghost of garden future, new buds and hopeful beginnings.

Rose 'Spice'

Rose 'Valentine'

Australian Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa)

Happy Bloom Day, and be sure to check out the wonderful posts at May Dreams Gardens!  Thanks again, Carol, for hosting!

Bloom Day, November 15

November is an odd sort of time in the garden.  It's fall here, such as it is.  The very few trees that change color and lose their leaves are doing so, while the last of the tropical gingers and hibiscus continue blooming.  In fact, bougainvillea is rejuvenated with the onset of cooler nights.  It's a fidgety time, I think.  Neither fish nor fowl.  We plant our pansies, snapdragons, violas and such now.  That's part of our fall color, and helps us cope with the loss of our coleus, caladiums, and vincas.  But it's not a real fall.  The weather will surprise you and the highs will climb into the 90s.  The next day, a chilly rain will fall, and even though it's 56° outside, it will feel like 46°.  An awkward disconnect between what it really is out there, and what it ought to be.  Especially if you've been reading glossy gardening magazines.

So here's what's still blooming in my garden.  A little fish, a little fowl, and really, none of the above.

Sweet Potato Vine.  It really flowers!

Basil gone to flower and looking artsy and soft-focus.

Butterfly Gingers continue to show off.

Dianthus dying of shock, because I deadheaded it before I took this photo.

Faithful pentas.

Calendula.  Very sparky!

Snapdragons -- a nod to the season.

Always in bloom, the Bottle Tree.

Every month, gardeners all over the world post pictures of flowers on their own blogs, and link to May Dreams Gardens, where Carol is gracious enough to host us.  Hop over to May Dreams Gardens and see what the rest of the world has in store for you!  Thanks, Carol!

Bloom Day Is Tomorrow

And for the first time in a long while, I'm not excited about it.  This is a tough time for me to get in the spirit of things, gardenwise.  There's a serious disconnect between the garden I have in my mind and the garden I have in my backyard in late September and October.

Datura.  Is this a summer flower or what?

My mind says Fall is here!  The kids are back in school, Halloween is in a few weeks, the Christmas decorations are already in the stores, the family negotiations over Thanksgiving dinner have begun in earnest.

Tomato flowers waiting for cooler weather before they set fruit.

But outside, it's still late summer.  It's been in the 90s this week, even though it has been much drier lately, and cool in the mornings.  I do have tomato flowers on the bushes, but the rest of the garden really still looks like late summer.  And I so want for it to be autumn.

Coral vine on the back fence, sprawled over the gingers.

Morning Glory

The coral vine looks good, as it has all summer.  The butterfly gingers are going crazy and the morning glory, turnera and pavonia are still blooming their collective hearts out.  But not for us, not yet, the pansies, violas, mums, snapdragons, etc.  I must say, I planted a snapdragon in the vegetable garden because I couldn't stand it anymore, but it's really almost too hot.

Turnera now tall enough to wrestle with bougainvillea.

For now, check in with Carol at May Dreams Gardens for a cheerier Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  She hosts this wonderful meme, and gardeners all over the world are happily visiting with her, celebrating the change of seasons.  Perhaps you'll meet my friend Diana at Elephant's Eye, who's probably rejoicing in the spring.  US gardeners north of me are certainly reveling in the fall weather.  For us Gulf Coast gardeners, it may be a while yet. 

Bloom Day, September 15

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting.  Today, gardeners all over talk about flowers blooming at home.  Hop on over there later and check out her lovely garden, and the links to gardens everywhere.

It's so hot around here I can barely stand to go out and take a picture.  Temperature-wise, it's no hotter than most of August, and maybe even a tiny bit cooler, but by September 15, I am so tired of heat and humidity.  I can hardly wait for the cooler days and cooler colors of fall.  But the flowers blooming now are the toughest of the tough, and I'm happy to share them with you.

Bougainvillea.  Faithful as always.

Coral Vine.  Not as good as last year, but still.

Mauve Dancing Ladies Ginger.

Butterfly Ginger -- a great year!

Lantana.  Cannot be killed. (Look! No lacebugs!)

Milkweed.  Caterpillar damage artfully cropped out.

Oxalis.  In the full sun.  On the west side.

Passionflowers for the fritillaries.

Pretty pavonia.  Not the Peruvian kind!

Pentas.  My almost-perennial standby.

Turnera.  My favorite in the morning.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't show you the most prolific blooming groundcover in my entire garden.  Yes, there it is.  The lovely Virginia Buttonweed.  Sigh!

Virginia Buttonweed.  Also cannot be killed!

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and don't forget to visit Carol's site for more flowers.

Bloom Day, August 15, 2010

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting.  Today, gardeners all over talk about flowers blooming at home.  Hop on over there later and check out her lovely garden, and the links to gardens everywhere.

Here in hot, humid Sugar Land (outside of Houston, TX, towards Richmond), it's hard to even go outside.  I think this is the most difficult time to be a gardener around here.  Fall is definitely on the horizon, but even the most faithful of us can't see it yet.

Sweet Autumn Clematis

Passionflower

Gulf Fritillary

Nature seems to respond with vines.  Flowering vines are a sight right now, from dainty little Sweet Autumn Clematis, which I talked about earlier in the week, to dramatic blue passionflowers.  I wish I could take a good picture of the passionflower vine when it is alive with Gulf Fritillary butterflies.  It's almost eerie to see that many little creatures flittering around.

Purple flowers now, purple beans later.

Pretty heart-shaped foliage, too.

Oneof my favorite vines this time of year is Purple Hyacinth Bean, which has many different botanical names.  I'm going to go with Dolichos lablab.  This lovely vine not only produces pretty purple flowers, but brightly colored seedpods as well.  I understand that every part of this vine is edible, except for the beans, which must be boiled first.  It's too hot to boil anything, so I just like to look at it.  Although it's an annual, it must reseed easily, because I've noticed it growing in the same place, year after year.

Pink Coral Vine

My coral vine got off to a slow start, but it's coming along.  The dark pink always seems a little bit more assertive than the white -- I don't have blooms on the white one yet.

You can see where I'm trying to prop this would-be vine up!

Not really a vine, but it ought to be.  I so wanted this dark blue Thunbergia battiscombei to climb but it won't.  It just lays over on the ground, pretending to be a vine.  Oh well!

I had hoped by this GBBD to have flowers on the 'Mauve Dancing Ladies' ginger, or Globba winitii, but no luck.  Maybe in September!

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and don't forget to visit Carol's site for more flowers.

Bloom Day

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!  And thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting.  Visit her lovely garden -- and the links to gardens all over the world.

July flowers in Houston are something else entirely.  Florid.  Baroque.  Luscious. Extravagant.  Vivid.  It's a good thing there are a few white things blooming or we'd all go mad, just in time for the dog days of summer.

Without further ado, here's tropical July.

 (Coneflowers left or top, Mallow right or bottom)

(Two hot purslanes)

(Blue Butterfly Pea left, Turk's Cap right)

(Esperanza or Yellow Bells left, Crinum 'Ellen Bosanquet' right)

('Fireworks' Gomphrena left or top, Rudbeckia right or bottom)

(Evergreen Wisteria left or top, Dwarf Red Canna right or bottom)

And now, to cool things off a bit:

(Crinum powellii 'Album')