Is It Fall Yet?

After a little rain and some (slightly) cooler temperatures, I forayed out into the garden this morning to see what was still holding on after our hottest ever August.

In this picture, you will notice the Lindheimer senna looking prety perky with its sunny yellow flowers and velvetty soft grey- green leaves. What a winner- it takes the heat and the dry without losing a leaf. Five years ago one of these seedlings piggy- backed into my garden in the pot of a Barbados Cherry I bought at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I didn"t know what it was but I gave it a shot and it shot up and bloomed it's heart out for a few weeks beginning in September. It produces lots of long seed pods that will provide you with plants for years to come. I love the leaves on this plant and look forward to the splash of color it brings in the fall when lots of plants are pretty done in.

Dead or Alive?

It seems that many of the things I planted last spring have not made it through to see another summer. Who can blame them for giving up. It was just a miserable year weather- wise. Blasting heat accompanied by record- breaking drought, followed by a cold and wet winter. I hated it, too. I am greiving especially hard for the apparent passing of the poor pitiful- looking Mexican weeping bamboo, at left. I check every day for corms pushing up through the soil, but I am losing hope.

My next door neighbor cleared her lot 18 months ago and I lost the privacy I had from my upper deck. I decided last spring to splurge for this bamboo because of its beautiful form and its rapid but mannerly growth. I was diligent in giving it extra water this summer and mulched it ( not well enough?) this winter. I'm heartsick and guilt- ridden. Where did I go wrong?

I tend to be relentlessy hopeful, unable to admit defeat so I will continue to go out everyday sometimes twice a day to look for new growth. I cannot admit this relationship is at an end just yet.