It might be rainy, but you can still get outside! The color pallette this week seems to be pinks, purples and yellows in my garden.
Pinks:
My echinaceas are happily reseeding through the front yard. I love their fractal-like pattern. I think they like the clay soil where they are- they refuse to grow in the caliche in the back. I have micro-ecosystems within micro-ecosystems..
New this year- Monarda (Peter's Purple, recommended by many other Austin gardeners) has grown tall (and fairly chicken resistant). I hope it will draw many bees and butterflies. It apparently does well with the Texas summer humidity which is a plus.
Right next to it is a gomphrena 'Fireworks' spared from the chickens by a fence. I lost half the plants to my ladies' incessant appetite. I wish I had more since it has lovely pompom flowers and should make lovely cut flowers!
This rock rose survived getting pulled up and transplanted in the fall- it needed the room. Individual rock rose plants apparently don't last too long but they reseed in my garden easily. They do well in the heat.
My newer red yucca (hesperaloe parviflora) is blooming already. It is in part shade but seems quite happy.
Last of the evening primrose blooms- I want them to re-seed and come back next year..
Purples...
Henry Duelberg salvia, uneaten by the hens. The other one I planted was devoured. If they didn't give me yummy eggs I'd hold it against them!
Smaller gomphrena (globe amaranth) next to blackfoot daisies..
Winecups are my favorite wildflower and I am happy that this one is spreading far and wide..
Tis the time that my lamb's ears put out their small blooms. They have been remarkably tough in the dry back that gets little to no supplemental water- and the chickens leave them alone!
Yellows
Well, kinda orange. This orange bulbine is not native (it comes from South Africa I believe), but it does so well in sunny, dry, hot, xeric spaces that I'm happy to use it.
This St Johns Wort (hypericum) has resided next to my driveway (in partial shade) for the last ten years and has been a trooper. It gets absolutely no extra water, has been sprayed with fence stain and run over by cars and it still puts out gorgeous delicate flowers every year.
Mystery plant (small, bushy, kinda like a small lantana in growth and size) in the back. It has slightly sticky leaves and promises yellow blooms.. but they never really open up. I have left it next to my milkweed and Copper canyon daisy since it volunteered itself and looks fairly handsome but.. I'd love to know what it is and if it is a friend of the native bees and butterflies..
I hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful rain (and the brief fantasy that we live in Seattle with lush greenery everywhere!).
