Garden surprises and Red Geranimums

In the fall I love to walk around the yard and find little blooming surprises. I didn't have to go far before noticing this lonely little cosmos growing right in the grass.
Not a blooming plant, but I thought it was odd to see an asparagus fern growing in the bed in front of the tree. Now, where did that come from?
I bought this little plant because I thought it would look good growing around some of the large rocks in my garden. I don't even know what it is..so how surprised I was to find a little yellow bloom on it!
The little star creeper has started to bloom again. Poor little thing has been struggling to survive this summer. I think the ground ivy is taking over.

When I put the new trellis in the wildflower bed, I saw this one BIG bloom on White Swan Coneflower.
And look at the tiny bloom of a rose moss growing in with the hens and chicks. I think this pot at one time was full of rose moss.
Not a surprise though are the red geraniums all around my yard. Now that the temps are lower and we have gotten so much rain, they are lush and blooming up a storm. This is one of two containers that I kept on the front porch. They are just too heavy for me to move around, so hubby did one final move and put them in the back bed. I will try and keep them over the winter, but this may be the year they go.
An old tin picnic basket holds more flowers...

I actually started both of these plants from cuttings from the large pot of geraniums.
Red in a garden is my favorite!
I completely forgot there was a little geranium in the basket of all mixed plants I bought in March. It never really bloomed, but I see now there is one tiny bloom.
I love these late fall surprises..and I especially love seeing all the geraniums blooming for probably the last time this year. I guess I will move all the plants to the corner of the patio and cover them during the really cold days (if we get any of those!). It's quite a treat to have early blooms in spring after looking out on the brown of winter. Flowers never fail to brighten my day.

"Flowers are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul."

Luther Burbank

Saturday things..

Do you see this..it is sun!! Today is the first time I have seen the sun in a month. We are so grateful for all the rain, but cloudy and dreary every day really gets to a gardener. I was ready to get out in the garden today when I saw the bright sun!
This pretty yellow daisy is one of my favorites. I bought it last spring to put in a red ceramic container (you know me with my red and yellow in the garden!) It has bloomed continually all summer. I did have to water it twice a day during the hot summer days, but that was not a problem.
Have you noticed I keep calling this pretty little thing an "it?" Well, it's because I forgot what it was! Is it an Englemann Daisy? I always keep the plant tag that comes with plants when I buy them, but guess I lost this one. Look closely at the petals--does this look like a cutleaf to you?
Remember this? I didn't know exactly what it was-and I still don't know. Some of you thought asparagus, Robin thought it looked like her sea shell cosmos, and Cindy thought it was probably just a weed. Well-I didn't know..and decided I didn't care. This plant was taking up too much room in my wildflower bed. So, today it was cut down. I still needed height in that bed, so--I did what all good gardeners do, I went shopping!
And this is what I found at Lowes. It is just a plain wooden trellis, but I think it was just what I needed. The green looks really good against the fence.

The trellis looks pretty lonely right now, but what you can't see is that this bed is full of little seedings. Bluebonnets Mexican Hat Coreopsis, Coneflower rosettes and who know what else.

Winter may find this bed rather dull, but I am hoping spring will put on a beautiful show of blooms to make this new trellis happy.

What did you do this Saturday? Hope it was a good one for you too!

Fall at the Arboretum

It has been so rainy in the Dallas area, I have had a hard time finding a Saturday to go to the Arboretum. Even though today was cloudy and pretty chilly, it was a great day to tour some of the gardens.

It is fall, and the trial gardens are full of plants showing off their fall colors. It was so wet, I just stayed on the walkway and didn't venture over like I usually do. Looks like most things did really well this past year. They will be planting bulbs and pansies pretty soon I think.
The cute little thatched roof house is still transformed into Hansel and Gretel's house. The plants on either side of the walkway look like they are about ready to stop blooming, but they have been spectacular this past year. I love the cottage look this area has.

This is one of the ponds. I think it looks great! It won't be long before the lilies and poppies will stop blooming. In the winter, the ponds look cold and lonely, but the minute warm weather returns, the pond comes back to life.
This is one of the beds around the grassy meadow. This time of year the Arboretum beds are full of coleus (my favorite!) and ornamental grasses. The colors are normally very striking-this cloudy day does not do justice to their brilliance.
And, Cindee, I took this picture just for you! These hens and chicks were really big!
Can you tell it's getting about time for Halloween? woooooo...

And of course, we saw lots and lots of pumpkins!

They lined the walkways..

There were pumpkins to buy..

There was even a pumpkin house!
But we had the cutest pumpkin there!

No day for gardening!

This was definitely not a day to garden. It started to rain yesterday late afternoon, and rained all night into this morning. I think it stopped around 2 in the afternoon, but the day remained cloudy and cool.
We have such bad drainage in back, even with a french drain. Water will be standing for days-and the weather forecast is for rain all week. It was sure not a day to be outside...but..
..it was the perfect day to bake cinnamon cookies! My best friend gave me this recipe 19 years ago. It is the perfect cookie for a cool fall day. And it is really easy to make!


Carolyn's Cinnamon Cookies

Cream:

1 cup softened margarine

1 1/2 cup sugar

Add:

1 egg

1 T. plus 2 t. molasses

Combine:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 T. plus 2 t. cinnamon

1 1/2 t. baking soda

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well. Drop by level tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 10-12 minutes (I bake mine 13 minutes). Let rest on cookie sheet about 2 minutes before removing to rack to cool.

Now pour yourself a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and enjoy! YUM!

A few new things for Fall

I know-it's not exactly the right time of the year to buy new plants, but when you go to a garden center to buy mulch, you just can't resist picking up a few things!
I don't have any asters, and knew this cute little "Pixie Dark" aster would just fit in a spot by the pond. And it's a perennial, so maybe next year I will see Pixie's cute little flowers again!
I have been trying to think of a way to camouflage these stakes around the pond. Until I do, I thought I might try a dwarf grass. So, I picked up a "Little Bunny" fountain grass. I read about these before I went to the garden center, so this is one plant I was watching for. It will only get about 18 inches tall and wide-perfect for this space!
The wheel-
barrow full of coleus and sweet potato vine is so pretty right now, but I needed something tall for the back. I thought this ornamental pepper plant would work great. It is a very, very dark purple and called "Black Pearl." Should look great against the reds and greens in the wheelbarrow.
I wasn't planning on buying any sweet alysum, but they had some pretty little bedding plants, and I thought I would get a few for the flagstone walkway and enjoy their sweet fragrance this fall.
And of course, who could leave without buying a few pumpkins...

Even though it's in the 90's here today...

It's Fall Y'all!!!

Window Boxes and Bluebonnets

When we lost the Bradford, I just knew one of the things to go would be my window boxes. They are full of shade loving plants..and they just couldn't survive in the hot west sun, or so I thought. But, look how good they look!
They didn't just survive, they flourished! I have had these window boxes for years. Hubby made them for me. I just stick bits and pieces of this and that in them. There is airplane plants, swedish ivy, wandering jews, some tiny english ivy, and of course my favorite...
...coleus!!! I snip cuttings from all my coleus plants and just stick them in the dirt. So easy!
I am so pleased with the results, and with all that sun too!
Even the purple heart growing below looks good (although I think it enjoys all this added sun).



And the Bluebonnets ??
I scattered seeds 2 weeks ago all around the bed the new tree is in--and here they are! We have had so much rain lately, I just hope they don't drown, but wildflowers like rain early in their life. Hopefully I will have a bed full of these blue beauties in April!

Late Summer Blooms

I couldn't resist the temptation to go outside on this rainy Saturday and get a picture of the morning glories. They love this cooler weather-and will enjoy the rain. It has been a real chore to keep up with watering these plants all summer, but their fall show may just be worth it. This past week I have been taking a walk around the house and making note of what is still blooming in late summer. This are some of my late bloomers...
My favorite thing blooming right now are Blackfoot Daisies. This is an old pail that is on the flagstone patio. I also have several plants in the wildflower bed cascading over the stone border. Our backyard gets hot, hot sun which these little flowers love. When the sun hits them, the have the most wonderful honey fragrance. The entire yard has a sweet and homey scent-kind of like a vanilla candle you might burn inside.
The Salvia Greggi (Autumn Sage) is blooming which is making the humming-
birds really happy. They are getting ready for their trip south, and are filling up on flower nectar as well as the sugar water I provide them.
I have 2 Angelonia which have bloomed continually since I bought them back in spring. I hate that they are annuals, but they are definitely a buy next year.
Profusion zinnias are just the best. They start performing in early summer, and will continue to bloom until I replace them with pansies. I couldn't recommend these flowers more.
I have been totally surprised about how well the red begonias have done in back. We really kept them watered, and I guess that is the trick. We just knew the begonias would die after we lost the tree, but no..they just kept blooming and are beautiful. You can also see that I have a few Rudbeckias still in bloom.
Not everyone likes Ruellia because it is so invasive, but this one is contained and is placed in an area that really needed height. The pink blooms have been beautiful and another flower appreciated by the hummers. I may be pulling new plants next year, but I don't mind.
I still have a few Zinnias. Most are becoming very leggy, but they still add a little bit of color to the gardens.





I don't have any fall blooming plants. We keep summers so long in Texas, we can keep quite a few plants up to our first frost. I think one reason I am so drawn to yellow and orange in the garden is because it is so pretty in all seasons.


It's about time to say goodbye to summer. I don't think many will be sad to see this season end. It will be time to put some flowers to bed, and plant wildflower seeds and bulbs for spring. We will be getting out our sweaters (well, it will be a while before we do that here in Texas!), and buying pumpkins and mums. Knowing summer is coming to an end, I will cherish the memories of summer-both good and bad-and look forward to crisp autumn days and enjoying a cup of hot tea sitting in the swing.