This week in the garden - #85

Finally, this week we got the "killing frost" that we had been anticipating. Our low temperatures got into the 20s F. and all the plants in the garden that can be affected by frost are now in a deep winter's sleep. It's time to begin the clean-up and time to move those sleeping plants that are poorly sited and need to be in a different location.

Plants like my 'Montrose Purple' vitex that is presently living in the shade of my red oak tree. It grows in a misshapen form because it needs more sun. It would be happier, in fact, in full sun, so, I want to move it to a new location. But it is a big shrub and I'll need help with the project. I do want to save the vitex if I can. Assuming that I am able to secure the assistance I need, I hope that I can move that unhappy plant to a spot where it will be more comfortable - maybe next week.

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Earlier this week, before the freeze came, I photographed this little butterfly in my garden.

It is a Sleepy Orange Sulphur butterfly. I don't often see them in my yard, but in the autumn of 2012, when we visited Big Bend National Park, these butterflies were everywhere. I love that name - Sleepy Orange.

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There's not much going on in the garden with the plants at the moment, but it is one of the most active times of the year for the avian visitors to the garden. I keep my bird feeders well stocked and they are almost always busy with backyard birds like these.

 Carolina Chickadee

 Northern Cardinal

Pine Warbler

Thank goodness we have our feathered companions and the occasional butterfly to brighten our otherwise dull gray days of winter.

This week in the garden - #82

We had unseasonably (for us) cold weather for Thanksgiving week. A couple of nights ago, we even had a light - very light - frost. Light though it was, it was enough to put paid to some of my more tropical plants, like the cannas.

 And, of course, the bananas. They are gone for this year, but they'll be back next spring.

The exposed outer leaves of the hamelia shrubs were nipped by the frost and turned to mush, but you can see that the more protected leaves underneath are still green.

Most of the brugmansias and the daturas were full of blooms and/or buds when the mini frost came. It was enough to cause them to wilt and droop. But, again, I think you can see that the lower leaves that had more protection are still green.

Walking through the garden today, I noticed that the ends of some of the milkweed leaves were nipped by the frost but then I found these guys happily munching their way along the leaves.

These Monarch caterpillars are well along in their development and, with any luck at all, will soon be ready to pupate. Obviously, they came through the cold weather without discernible problems. From what I have read, I gather that these caterpillars are, in fact, able to withstand quite cold weather without damage as long as they have a food supply. If the weather is both cold and inclement, that can cause problems for them. Today, I saw another migrating female Monarch laying eggs on these same plants now being devoured by the caterpillars.

It may be another effect of the colder weather that the garden was full of honeybees today. They were visiting the remaining flowers, such as the Copper Canyon daisies.

But, also, they swarmed all over my hummingbird feeders!

This feeder has bee guards, but it also has a small leak at one of the seams and the bees crowded around to sip the leaking nectar.

No bee guards here and the bees sipped directly from the feeding ports - much to the annoyance of the Rufous Hummingbirds that were trying to feed there.

We are supposed to have slightly warmer weather over the next few days which is probably a good thing for the caterpillars and for any developing eggs on the milkweed. But we know that killing frost is inevitably on its way. On average, it comes around December 10,  so, much of the garden now exists on borrowed time and we must get ready to protect what we cannot bear to lose.

This week in the garden - #81

This week in the garden has been mostly warm and pleasant, typical late fall days in Southeast Texas when it feels good to be outside. Then, overnight, everything changed.

Today dawned chilly and wet. The thermometer on the back porch, which admittedly is in a protected spot, said 50 degrees F. Since then, the temperature has been falling. Though still in the 40s, in comparison to our previous warm days, it feels a lot colder than that. I know my friends up north will laugh out loud to read that description, but there it is!

*~*~*~*

I haven't spent much time outside today, but I spent as much time as I could outside earlier in the week, and I did actually manage to get a few things accomplished. It's been a very depressing month because the effects of my illness have lingered and I've been too weak to do much. But finally I'm feeling a bit stronger and was able to do a bit of pruning and basic clean-up in the garden, as well as moving around some of the pots that I wanted to be in different places for the winter.

I even persuaded my hubby and sometime garden helper to assist in cleaning out the fountain and the pond and in removing a couple of dead and dying shrubs that had become eyesores in the backyard.

It certainly wasn't my most productive week, but all in all, I feel pretty good about it.

*~*~*~*

Butterflies have been a big feature of the week in the garden. Cloudless Sulphurs have almost been a "cloud" of their own as they swarmed around the garden.

Yesterday, I saw a lone Monarch female laying eggs on one of my milkweed plants. I've had no luck at all with producing any new Monarchs this year, so I'll keep my fingers crossed to see if anything develops from her efforts.

Earlier in the week, on one of those warm, sunny days, I photographed a Common Buckeye butterfly nectaring on the almond verbena shrub.

Buckeyes are not noted for their willingness to pose and so these pictures are not the greatest, but I enjoyed observing this butterfly as it nectared on this plant for at least an hour and it was fun trying to capture its image. They are one of our typical autumn butterflies and it is always a treat to have them around.

This week in the garden - #80

It's been a lovely week in the garden, for the most part. The weather has been pleasant, at least until today when the heat and humidity returned a bit. I've managed to get several chores done, but I've also managed to spend time just sitting in or walking through the garden to enjoy this time of year.

 The rains that we had last week have nudged the 'Silverado' Texas sage to burst into bloom again.

The cat whiskers plants have been a disappointment this year, but now the white one is trying to make up for lost time. The purple variety though is still lagging.

 Jatropha continues to put out a few blooms.

The red yucca puts up a long bloom spike in spring and then starts blooming beginning at the bottom of the spike. All summer long, the rows of blooms continue to open in turn, traveling up the spike. Now, the bloom cycle has reached the very top of the spike and is beginning to open these final blossoms. These flowers must be very rich in nectar because every passing hummingbird stops to sip from them.

 The 'Mystic Spires' salvia is a great favorite with bumblebees.

This is one of the double-blossomed hybrid daturas that I raised from seeds. It has been a very prolific bloomer.

 'Chi Chi' ruellia loves autumn.

And so do the butterfly gingers. They've been in bloom for weeks now and show no signs of slowing down.

 Some of the milk and wine lilies have started putting out some blooms once again.

As the weather warmed toward the end of the week, I started seeing green anoles again. There are lots of baby anoles around and this is one of them. You can't really judge size from this picture, but I would say his body was about two inches long, his tail perhaps four inches in length. Many of the babies that I'm seeing are much smaller than this.

As we ease toward mid-autumn, the leaves are yellowing more and more and falling from the trees. The setting sun has traveled about halfway across my yard since late summer. It is now much farther to the south and it drops below the trees on my western horizon much earlier. Not so long ago, it was still light at 8:30 P.M., but now by 7:30, all that's left is the faint afterglow of the setting sun. Winter, with its short days, is coming and gets a little closer with every sunset.

This week in the garden - #79

I'm a bit late with this post because a happy family gathering had claimed my time and attention, but the past week was a lovely one in many ways and it deserves some recognition.

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Autumn has truly arrived here. We've had intermittent rain during the week - light rain, to be sure, but a real refresher for a tired and thirsty garden.

When Hubby and I go out for our early morning walk these days, we find a landscape shrouded in fog and mist with just a hint of coolness in the air. It's a refreshing change from our usual suffocating heat and humidity.

I love the look of the roadsides and meadows in autumn. Many different varieties of yellow wildflowers are in bloom at this time and they paint the countryside with sunshine.

In my own garden, of course, things are changing pretty rapidly now. Leaves are falling. Some plants are beginning to fade as they prepare for winter. Others, like the Cape honeysuckle that I showed you on Wednesday, are in their glory just now.

The honeysuckle has been claimed by a migrating Rufous Hummingbird, seen here sipping from one of the blossoms. He defends the plant against encroachment by any of the other hummingbirds that are presently stopping in my yard. It requires constant vigilance on his part, because these blossoms are a magnet to all the hummers. For the last two winters, I've had Rufous Hummingbirds that have spent their winters in my yard. I'm hoping that will be the case again.

He does deign to share "his" blossoms with passing butterflies, like this Cloudless Sulphur.

 Autumn, of course, is prime bloom-time for the angel trumpets. All the plants are full of fat buds right now, just ready to burst into bloom. This pink one has already opened a few of its blooms.

The oleanders have caught their second wind in the slightly cooler weather and are full of their pretty blossoms now.

Still more pink. This purslane blooms happily at the feet of a large split-leaf philodendron.

The almond verbena sends out its lovely scent that perfumes the backyard and draws all the bees from around the neighborhood. All day long the plant is alive with these pollinators.

The sprawling purple lantana, beloved by butterflies of all kinds but especially the little skippers, blooms next to the white beautyberry shrub. I'm surprised the beautyberries have lasted this long. They usually disappear down the berry-loving birds' gullets as soon as they ripen, but this year the birds seem to have homed in on the purple beautyberries first. They've pretty well stripped most of those, but the white berries are still waiting for them.

 With the advent of a few fall rains, mushrooms have sprung up around the garden. They are a happy sight.

*~*~*~*

When I first went outside this morning, the thermometer on the back porch read 58 degrees! We haven't seen temperatures in the 50s here since late April/early May. We are promised fairly cool temperatures for the next few days. Let us hope that is the start of a long trend.

I hope you and your garden are enjoying pleasant weather. Happy gardening!

This week in the garden - #78

Rain! Lovely rain at last.

Not only have we had rain today but it looks like we have a rainy weekend ahead of us. As far as I am concerned, that is the perfect kind of weekend for this time.

And, to make matters even more perfect, in addition to looking like a wet weekend ahead, it is the weekend when we finally get to say a formal goodbye to summer, for on Sunday afternoon at 3:44 P.M. Central Time, the Autumnal Equinox occurs and fall will have officially arrived.

Earlier this week, Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, we got to enjoy the beautiful Harvest Moon, which is the full moon that occurs closest to the time of the Autumnal Equinox.

So, all in all, we've had several days of happy events in the garden this week, even as the plants themselves begin to wind down and show the effects of the stress of the long, hot, and dry summer.

*~*~*~*

One of my Esperanzas, the one planted next to the inner southwest corner of the house, has grown to gigantic proportions this summer and it is full of its yellow bell blooms.

 Butterflies have been a little more apparent in the garden this week. I've seen a couple of migrating Monarchs and a couple of Pipevine Swallowtails, as well as the usual Gulf Fritillaries. And then there was this Giant Swallowtail visiting the Texas 'Silverado' sage. There were also lots of the smaller butterflies, like skippers, around.

 This celosia has been a consistent bloomer all summer.

The cardinal flowers have had buds for quite some time but finally this week some of those buds started opening.

But my favorite blooms of the week came from the butterfly gingers. They are fragile and fragrant and the individual flowers don't last for long, but while they last, they are glorious.

I hope your week in the garden has gone well and that your weekend will be everything you hope for.

Happy gardening and happy autumn!

This week in the garden - #76

It's been a fairly unpleasant week, weather-wise. The last week of UGHest has lived up to its reputation with searing heat and air quality alerts in effect most days. I have frankly tried to stay inside as much as possible.

I did venture outside a few times to practice with my new camera that I got for my birthday earlier this month. It's a Canon EOS 60D and I haven't mastered it yet, but I'm trying. I found a lot of things in bloom this week as subjects for my fledgling efforts.

The red yucca has been blooming since spring and is now coming to the end of its cycle, but the hummingbirds still visit it every day.

 The flame acanthus that I cut back severely just about a month ago has grown out and is blooming again.

 And it is attracting the Gulf Fritillaries that are becoming more numerous in the garden here in late summer.

'Darcy Bussell' rose had some of its pretty blooms this week.

The variegated abelia was added this spring and I've been very happy with its performance.

The datura continues to amaze me with its nightly heavy load of blossoms.

 'Chi Chi' ruellia is pretty in pink, but beware! It reseeds prolifically and can become a pest.

This 'Mystic Spires' salvia blooms by the lemongrass next to the pond.

Fitting in with my theme of orange blossoms in August are the 'Tropicannas.' We love them for their colorful leaves but their tropical-looking blooms are hard to ignore.

 Still more orange - 'Pride of Barbados.'

I had never grown wedelia before this year, but I am delighted with this ground cover and its pretty daisy-like blooms.

 In the wild hedgerow along the back fence, the elderberries are ripe and ready for the birds.

The muscadines aren't ripe but they hang heavy on their vines.

Beautyberries are well-named, I think.

 Many years ago, I got some seeds of cypress vine from my late mother. The plants reseed every year and whenever I see them blooming, I think of her.

 I believe this wild interloper in my garden is marsh fleabane (Pluchea purpurascens). I quite like it and so do the butterflies. I'm glad I decided to let it stay.

The 'Lady of Shallott' rose has been a bit of a disappointment so far. She hasn't bloomed as prolifically as I would have liked. But this week she has blooms and more buds, so maybe I was just a mite too impatient with her.

 This sunny yellow hibiscus has certainly not disappointed.

The Hamelia blossoms were covered in many varieties of native bees this week, much to the chagrin of the hummingbirds that wanted to feed from them. Incidentally, I have seen very, very few honeybees all year long, but my native bees seem to be thriving here.

 In the wild hedgerow, the bright blossoms of the native trumpet vine stand out.

I'm beginning to feel a little more comfortable with this camera. Maybe next week I'll try my hand at bird photography.

And next week I hope the weather conditions will be a bit more conducive to spending time outside.

Happy gardening!