June Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers Bloom day snuck up on me as usual. The list of bloomers is long this month. We've had just enough rain to keep everything going and still have a low water bill. 

First up is a new one. This is a coreopsis aka tickseed that I bought at the Mercer Plant Sale this Spring. It burst into bloom a few days ago. It is supposed to be an annual, but we'll see. It will depend on how cold it gets this winter.

I really like the look of the Mexican petunia and it is a reliable bloomer, but I hate how it spreads...we have a love-hate relationship.

 

These were in a previous post, but I couldn't resist putting another picture of them on the blog. Not sure why, but I really enjoy these daylilies, they were one of the first plants I received at the first plant swap I attended in Houston.

 

The diamond frost euphorbias are looking nice, although their flowers are so fine, it was tough to get a good picture of them.

 

New cuphea called Totally Tempted is doing well in the ground. It has been there for about a month.

 

Then there's good 'ol batface. So far, all the cupheas I've planted are doing well. They are great bloomers and don't seem to mind the Houston weather.

 

My Clerodendrum bungei is from a plant swap. Not sure how much my neighbor appreciates it though, she has some too, although not by choice.

 

 The crepe myrtles are in bloom all over town. My three are blooming wonderfully.

 

Under the crepe myrtle, indigofera is blooming on the right and pink surprise bush on the left. They almost blend together in the picture below.

 

The duranta is on the comeback. After the winter freezes we had, this once 10 foot tall plant was just a few short sticks.

Another swap meet plant, crocosmia is just starting to bloom. It will probably be covered in blooms by tomorrow.

And today's final picture, purple coneflower. I believe this one is double decker, although it's not quite like other pictures I've seen of it.

 

Other plants blooming today, but not pictured are: chenille plant, pentas, most of the salvias in the yard, all of the cupheas I have, shrimp plant, ice plant, yarrow, many of the daylilies, knockout roses, angelonia, butterfly weed, jasmine 'Maid of Orleans', orange cestrum, cannas, & american beautyberry.

Thanks for stopping by to see what is blooming in my garden today! Visit May Dreams Gardens blog for more Garden Blogger Bloom Day postings.

My Birthday Present

5 years ago on a monumental birthday, my husband gave me a fountain. This year, in another part of the yard, we had a gazebo built. And it NEEDED a fountain as well. So, for my birthday this year, I got another fountain. My birthday was in May, but it took me awhile to pick the fountain I wanted. We bought it last week at Buchanan's and hubby aka he who never ventures outdoors for the purpose of manual labor, installed it yesterday.

I need to get some more mulch and probably some more rocks to finish covering the reservoir. The garden around the gazebo is going to be my purple and white garden, so far I've planted Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, black and blue salvia, white balloon flower, heliotrope, iochroma, tuberose 'Double Pearl', white turks cap, clerodendrum minahassae, Sweet Olive, Two Winger Silverbell, virginia spiderwort, and Maid of Orleans jasmine. I can't wait until it all starts to fill in.

Daylily Daze

The first one pictured below is my favorite daylily in the garden. It was given to me at one of my first Mercer Plant Swaps about 5 years ago. I had no idea what color it would be or what it would look like.

I bought the rest of these daylilies in 2008 from Dutch Gardens.

Wild Mustang

Jean Swann

 

Patricia

 

and Ezekiel at night.

Besides these, I have one called Dark and Handsome, but I haven't managed to get a picture of it.

Rain Garden

Last weekend's project was a rain garden. Exhibit 1, my backyard after torrential Houston downpours last April.

I'm planning on taking a three-pronged approach to this problem. First, was spreading 4 yards of dirt around the yard in hopes of slowly raising the level. Second is the rain garden. And third will be gutters and a rain water collection system.

I've been wanting to build a rain garden for several years. I've even had most of the plants that are now in the garden for at least a couple of years. You'll notice the picture below is the same location as the first picture above, which looks like a lake.

I filled the rain garden with Louisiana iris, colocasia (elephant ears), wood fern, iris cristata, white tip sedge, and a few plants that I got from the rain garden workshop I attended at the Houston Arboretum. This is the lowest part of the yard, so it is a natural location for a rain garden. I removed about 2-3 inches of the existing soil. It just so happens that it was great soil, most likely this was a garden bed sometime in the house's history. And, it just so happens I needed some extra soil about 8 feet away, in the bed I'm building around the gazebo.

Here is a Rain Garden fact sheet from Angela Chandler, a Harris County Master Gardener.  There is a great plant list on the last few pages.

I still have room for a few more plants in the rain garden, but I'll wait for some of the existing ones to fill in a bit. Now, I'm waiting for the torrential rains to find out if it will work. Let's hope the build it and they will come approach will work.