Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - September 2013

September Bloom Day. One week away from the beginning of autumn. Let's see some of the things blooming in my Southeastern Texas garden here in mid-September.

 Crape myrtles, of course - the queen of the summer southern garden.

Nearby, the 'Coral Nymph' salvia has also been a faithful summer bloomer.

 As has its cousin, 'Mystic Spires.'

 This little red ruellia has done well for me.

And, of course, 'Katie' ruellia is downright incorrigible, which makes some gardeners hate it, but I quite like it.

 Speaking of incorrigible, Turk's Cap blooms twelve months of the year in my garden.

 This "volunteer" wildflower is either marsh fleabane or camphor weed - I think. I'm leaning toward marsh fleabane.

 

 Justicia 'Orange Flame' has been in bloom for a long time and continues to put out a fresh blossom or two each week.

 The little Blackfoot daisies are not at their best just now but they continue to give me blooms.

A single bloom from the shrimp plant. I find these blooms fascinating and hummingbirds love them.

 The Lobelia 'Cardinal Flower' is almost blooming - close enough to count for Bloom Day.

 Some of the roses, such as this old 'Caldwell Pink,' are beginning their autumn flush of blooms.

 'Graham Thomas' is always at his best in autumn.

 I have several varieties of lantana in my garden and they are all blooming now. We'll let this golden yellow one stand in for them all.

 The oxblood lilies, or schoolhouse lilies, continue their September bloom.

 And the datura continues to attract the nighttime pollinators with its beautifully scented blossoms.

 The 'Tropicannas' have bloomed prolifically for me this summer and they continue to do so.

But the star of my garden this summer has to be Cape Plumbago, sometimes called Blue Plumbago. My plants have been in bloom without a break since spring and, here in mid-September, they continue to be covered in these lovely blue, butterfly-attracting blossoms.

It's still quite warm in my garden, but the temperatures are moderating - low 90s Fahrenheit instead of high 90s - and in just one week my favorite season of the year begins. Hold on - autumn is coming!

Thanks to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for again hosting Bloom Day for us. Thank you for visiting my garden this month and happy gardening!

More about beautyberries

(Reposted from The Nature of Things.)

The berries which give beautyberry its name, photographed in my garden this week.

Beautyberry is well-named. Those shiny berries that develop in late summer and early fall on the 3-5 foot tall shrubs are indeed very attractive, both to humans and to birds which love to feast on them.

In fact, I am sure that all the purple-berried beautyberries in my yard were planted by birds - birds who either pooped out the seeds from the berries or dropped them in flight. I do have several of these native shrubs from the verbena family, because, generally, if possible, I just leave them alone and let them grow where they are planted.

Historically, Native Americans made a tea from the leaves and roots of American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), sometimes called French mulberry, which they used for sweat baths for rheumatism, fevers, and malaria. A root tea was used for dysentery and stomach aches. Root and berry teas were used for colic.

The plant is very valuable in a native plant landscape because it attracts birds and butterflies. In areas where deer are a nuisance, unfortunately, it also attracts them.

For gardeners looking for a carefree shrub to add to their gardens, this could be the answer to their dreams. Once established, it requires virtually no maintenance. The only thing I ever do for mine is to prune them back when they get too big for their space. They can be pruned severely before new growth starts in the spring to control the plant's size, and they can be pruned throughout the growing season if they need to be shaped or the size further controlled.

In addition to the more familiar purple-berried plant, there is a white-berried variety which I also have in my garden. The white berries, for whatever reason, seem to be even more attractive to the birds in my yard. They will strip this shrub of its berries before moving on to the purple berries.

The shrubs are deciduous and so are not especially attractive in winter and sometimes during prolonged droughts, as we are prone to have in Texas, they will lose some leaves and the fruit may not develop properly. But, in my backyard, for three seasons of the year, they are an attractive and valuable addition to my habitat garden.

Wordless Wednesday: White beautyberry

This week in the garden - #77

Sometimes you just have to get away from the garden for a bit, and this week I did that. On Wednesday, we took the day off and traveled to Brazos Bend State Park, one of my favorite day trips for birding.

We found the water in the lakes at the park to be quite low, but, after all, we are in the midst of a drought. That drought did not seem to have affected the vegetation though. Things were lush and overgrown. The lakes were covered in lily pads, duckweed, and other water plants. The live oak trees, as always, were covered in Spanish moss. Birds were not as plentiful as they sometimes are, but the park was teeming with life, both animal and vegetable.

The best thing was, since school had just started and summer vacations were over, we had the park almost to ourselves. It was very quiet.  I think we only saw five other visitors while we were there. This in a place that is usually crowded with people.

Both hubby and I carried cameras and we took lots of pictures, so instead of taking you on a walk through my garden this week, here is a walk through the park.

  
If you need a day's vacation from your garden, I highly recommend Brazos Bend State Park.

Happy gardening!

Wordless Wednesday: Dragonfly

Schoolhouse lilies

Another new bloom in the garden this week is the oxblood lilies, aka schoolhouse lilies, so called because they bloom around the time that school starts in the fall. 

These are the two colors of oxbloods that I have in my garden. The traditional or true oxblood is the one in the center. The paler ones are a more recent innovation but very pretty I think.

Oxbloods are one of the most carefree plants we can grow in our gardens. I usually forget all about mine for most of the year until they pop out of the ground overnight in early September and burst into bloom. They are small plants, only about a foot tall at most, and with blooms only 2-3 inches long. In spite of their size, they can be showy, much like their relative the amaryllis, especially when planted in a drift.

My oxbloods are planted under a corkscrew willow tree, but they can be very attractive at the feet of evergreen shrubs or in a rock garden. I've seen them mixed beautifully with things like thyme, thrift, and dianthus. They thrive in full sun or in half shade and are not finicky about soil as long as it isn't soggy.

I am famous for my failures with bulb-growing but my oxbloods haven't heard of that reputation and so they just roll merrily along, surprising me every September with their happy little blossoms.

Autumn! Well, autumn clematis anyway

My garden labors last week kept me occupied on the north side of my yard and in the vegetable garden area, so I never set foot on the south side. When I finally ventured there over the weekend, there was a nice surprise waiting for me.

  The autumn clematis was in full bloom!

The last time I had looked at the plant several days before, it was full of buds, but I got distracted by other things in the garden and forgot to check back.

These lovely white blossoms certainly brightened my day and made me believe that, yes, autumn is actually possible!