Heat lovers
A heat wave is suffocating not only central Texas (par for the course this time of year) but also parts of the country that don’t usually contend with triple-digit heat: Minnesota, Chicago, New Jersey. Ouch, because I know a lot of homes in the north don’t have A/C, a southerner’s lifeline.
It’s hard to keep a garden going in extreme temperatures. Gardens in Austin cope by going dormant through the hottest months. Some plants—usually those with the narrowest leaves, to reduce transpiration—keep blooming, but the rest save their energy for cooler weather, which arrives by late September or early October.
The photo above is of my true heat lovers, plants that look their best at this time of year: agaves, white skullcap, Mexican oregano, white narrowleaf zinnia. It’s good to see something enjoying the weather. “Bring it on!” they seem to say.

More narrowleaf zinnias, and Nolina texana in the glazed pot. I grow few container plants because they require so much water in our climate, but nolina is tough enough to withstand two weeks without water in this pot that broils under full afternoon sun. It’s a quiet, grass-like native, not showy, but it earns its keep in my garden with its water thriftiness.

Faded echinacea
In case some of you think I’m not willing to show the uglier parts of my garden, here goes. My purple coneflowers look really sad at this time of year. Their peppy pink flowers on long stems have blackened like overcooked marshmallows spitted over the fire. They hang their blackened heads in shame, and even their leaves are shredded and wilted.

Wilted, soon to be blackened. Alas.
I know that birds enjoy picking the seeds out of overripe coneflowers, but I’d had enough this morning. Wearing my body armor of bug spray and a big, floppy hat, I chopped all those purple coneflowers to the ground and hauled off the carcasses. Ahh. That’s better.