From Valentines straight to Summer
My red, red rose, ‘Valentine,’ rebloomed this week, after a period of seeming broken-hearted. It had flowered wonderfully in early spring, but by April it had started to defoliate and by May it was twiggy and pitiful looking. It never turned fully brown, however, like MSS’s roses that have suffered die-back, so I didn’t worry all that much. I gave it a foliar feed and waited to see when it would recover.
It rewarded my patience this week with a flush of new flowers.
The only downside of this beautiful, thornless rose is its lack of scent. For some, that would be a deal breaker. But with heavily scented ‘Marie Pavie’ nearby, I love ‘Valentine’ for its fiery color alone.
Also this week, the first water lily opened in the container pond. This dwarf yellow is called ‘Helvola,’ and it’s tolerant of the part-sun conditions in my back garden.
I cut some classic summer flowers this morning to create this bouquet for post-Memorial Day lounging on the screened porch. Very American, isn’t it?
I hope you’re enjoying the first days of summer too.
What a lovely bouquet! I recognize the echinacea and black-eyed susans, but what’s the other, purple, flower?
‘Indigo Spires’ salvia. —Pam
Beautiful Pictures. I won’t seed Echinacea or Rudbeckia for at least a month or more.
Wow. My rudbeckia has just started blooming, but the echinacea blooms off and on all year long, even in winter. It’s pretty hardy down here where it rarely freezes. —Pam
Your mosquito-screened porch is a wonderful idea, Pam – and the bouquet is perfect!
I have a few purple coneflowers open now, but too few to cut… maybe by the weekend I can do a coneflower, shasta container.
The waterlily is in bloom? Now we know it’s gonna get hot~
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Yep, the heat is here to stay now.
I love shasta daisies. They’d make a beautiful bouquet. —Pam
Those are just utterly beautiful pics and flowers! I love that shade of red on the rose.
Thanks, Nicole. —Pam
What a beautiful summer bouquet. As I was driving home and thinking that we still need more rain and it is too hot, I recalled your posts about lots of rain and cooler temps and decided “Austin stole our spring”! But I checked the weather forecasts and it looks like you all get hot and stay hot for the next 10 days, and we are going to start a cool down Thursday and have a chance of thunderstorms nearly every day. So, maybe we are getting our weather back.
Keep up the good gardening!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
Yes, Carol, I think we can safely say that the “dream spring” is finally over in Austin. Sigh. Back to reality. But I’m glad that you’ll get some of the rain and cooler weather just when you need it. —Pam
Love the rose, love the bouquet!
Thanks, Layanee. I’m enjoying these prairie flowers brought indoors. —Pam
Austin’s dream spring might finally be over but, oh!, it was wonderful while it lasted. I made a conscious effort to celebrate every minute of it especially given that I spent so much time grousing last year. My only regret is that we haven’t gotten our rainwater collection system in yet. My rainbarrels were full long before the latest round of rains and come July I’ll want water to fill the new pond.
Yes, it was delightful! I really enjoyed it too.
What kind of rainwater collection system are you putting in, MSS? —Pam
Pam, the bouquet adds a perfect touch to your porch. You did a great job with the arrangement.
Thanks, Robin! —Pam
Two of my roses started losing leaves after their first round of blooming, too. They seem to be recovering now.
I love water lilies.
I’m glad your roses are in recovery too. And if you love water lilies, you definitely need a pond, R., or at least a container pond. The latter is pretty easy. —Pam
Lovely flowers Pam, very colourful. BTW What is my wicker sofa doing on your porch? 😉
That waterlily is very pretty, I like its rather pointed leaves. I used to have a white one too, when the flowers would open their hearts would always remind me of soft boiled eggs. They looked yummy! 🙂
I loved each photo more than the last. The bouquet is so sweet and such an exciting color combination. The words “container pond” caused my ears to perk up. I had never thought of that. Do you need to keep the water running so it does not breed mosquitoes?
I do have a bubbler, but you really need fish to eliminate mosquitoes in a container pond. A couple of goldfish is all it takes; they eat the mosquito larvae. Or you could use mosquito dunks, which prevent the larvae from maturing into adult mosquitoes. If you do a search on my blog for “container pond,” you’ll find my other posts that show photos and have more how-to information. —Pam
Thanks Pam! I just spent a good half hour reading about container ponds, rain barrels, and cattle troughs. I was great. I love the river rock creek you created.
You’re welcome! —Pam
Pam,
I think your photography is awesome, what camera do you use? I graduated from RIT with a BFA in photography and I don’t say this lightly, you should really be proud of your work. You have an incredible eye and your focus and depth of field choices are fantastic. Not sure how I ended up at your website, I think I googled “austin humid summer usual or not” and ended up at your site! Gotta love the internet.
Happy shooting, gardening and traveling,
Nancy
Thanks, Nancy. I really appreciate your kind comments. I use a Canon Powershot A-80, although for the Tanzania travel photos I borrowed a Canon with a 300mm zoom lens. You’re right—ain’t the internet grand? —Pam