It’s Bloom Day, and we are having fall-like weather!!! Most of the day was in the beautiful 70’s, with a mild north wind to cool it down even more and lower the humidity. Wow, what a great day! Still no rain, but this is a vast improvement. I waited until evening to take my bloom day photos, because I spent the day outdoors running errands and having a great time.
I’m sure most of you recognize the Esperanza (Yellow Bells) above; it’s one of my favorite plants and blooming right now all over Austin. I love seeing it – such a brilliant, vibrant yellow that never fades in the heat.
My favorite part of my bloom day (besides the cool weather) is this bed that is starting to fill in. All of these plants are new this year, and struggled to survive. Right now, though, they are singing the praises of Autumn.
I love it that in this picture that you can see the Esperanza, some happily blooming Plumbago, a Hibiscus that decided to give me four – count ’em, FOUR – blooms today, a canna, and even my Ivy Geranium that is really enjoying cooler weather.
Here’s the Canna – what a great color. This one has variegated striped leaves that I love.
Do you recognize this? It’s the brilliant tiny blooms of a succulent – sempervivum gelsenium succulenium helsinkium – okay, you’re right, I have no idea the name of it, but I think it’s some sort of Hens and Chicks. Doesn’t matter, its my favorite one and I have had it for 8 years now. She’s frozen several times and keeps on coming back. What a girl!
This is a new succulent bowl that I’m really pleased with. A really cool terracotta-underneath-turquoise-on-top bowl from Great Outdoors, with beach glass from Pottery Barn as a mulch. The Rabbit Ear succulents are velvety and soft…the seashell is one I gathered myself from the bottom of the Caribbean many moons ago, and the rusty swimmers came from an art fountain that I used to have indoors. I think it looks like an underwater ocean scene, and since I’m such a water junkie, it really takes me away when I look at it.
Another look at all those colors in my backyard. Plumbago, Hibiscus, Esperanza.
What a beauty! I love how this picture shows the progression of the berries on this appropriately-named Beautyberry as they turn from green to vibrant fuscia.
I tried to capture how cool this Ruffled Leaf Echevaria is, but it’s hard to do.
The Elephant Ear came from Barton Springs nursery, and the Sword Fern came from Natural Gardener. Both of these are next to the waterfall on my pond. It really softened the whole thing when I added these.
My sweet and brilliantly hardy Bottlebrush tried her best to bloom, but this is as far as she got. There just isn’t enough water for her.
Does anyone know anything about this plant? It’s a Mussaenda Luteola (Dwarf Mussaenda). I found it at Natural Gardener, and the bloom is so sweet I had to get it. Before it blooms, the leaf nearest the buds turns completely white (making it very challenging to photograph, I must add), and then these tiny little bright yellow blooms show up and last quite a while. Supposed to get 2-3 feet tall, and likes the sun, according to the label.
I gave the Senna a long slow drink of water this weekend once it became abundantly clear that we still weren’t going to get a drop of water from the sky. She’s doing well, considering it’s her first year.
Wedelia…I thought I had gotten rid of all it, since it likes to take over so much. Here’s a hardy piece that I decided to let it live and see if I can control it this time.
Other bloomers today are Mexican Oregano, Society Garlic, Bulbine (SO hard to photograph!), a bit on the new Snail Vine, Althea (Rose of Sharon), and Lariope.
And since it was so gorgeous, I did have to end the day at a nursery, of course! It really wasn’t my fault…I had to return something to Home Depot and I just happened to walk through the plants as I was leaving…anyway, here’s the back end of my SUV…
That’s it for bloom day! I had a great day today, I hope you did, too!
Getting Grounded 