May 15, 2012
Bloomfest in my garden for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
After more rain in recent weeks than in the first four months of 2011, my east Austin, Texas garden joyously celebrates Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! Daylilies keep coming, day after day.
‘Patrick’ abutilon’s little lanterns light up part shady spots near the house on this graceful evergreen shrub.
Mexican blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) is one of my favorite annual native wildflowers.
Perennial Coreopsis lanceolata is another love that favors me with foliage all year.
Oh, but I can’t be picking favorites yet, because there’s rock rose (Pavonia lasiopetala), a shrubby perennial that blooms for months!
And groundcover winecup (Callirhoe involucrata) that sprawls underneath them and everywhere!
Shrubby plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) sprawls a little too, but much taller, cooling us off all summer.
Native plumbago (Plumbago scandens) is less aggressive but just as eager to perform, even in spots that get shade a lot of the day.
Lemon yellow rosemallow (Hibiscus calyphyllus) is a dreamy plant in shade. It barely wants a speck of sun.
Nearby, shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana) hasn’t stopped blooming since we had such a mild winter. I did cut them back to shape, but they jumped right back in!
White oxalis is still out to join heat lover Turk’s cap that’s already feeding butterflies and hummingbirds again this year. The bees go for the oxalis.
Towering over us are bird-seeded sunflowers, some 8′ tall! In a few weeks, the birds will have picked them clean.
Closer to the ground is sweet little rain lily Habranthus robustus.
Although my coneflowers are going absolutely nuts, they don’t compare to this scene at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
And all around town, check out these Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta).
That’s only a sampling of what’s going on in my east Austin garden. Now it’s time to thank dear Carol at May Dreams Garden for showcasing gardeners from around the world on Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! Linda