Real-life Bloom Day, a day early
I thought about posting only the pretty flowers blooming in my drought-baked garden this Bloom Day, like the lovely passalong phlox from Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings. It looks so fresh and summery, doesn’t it?
Dead ‘Summer Glow’ agastache
But soul-weary from extended heat and drought, this Austin gardener needs to acknowledge the toll the weather has taken on my new-baby garden before I can begin celebrating the survivors. Perhaps you, dear reader, are tired of hearing me go on about our extreme conditions this year. But I think it’s important for new or would-be gardeners out there to know that experienced gardeners get discouraged too, and we watch plants die with disappointment, and we wish things just looked better. Sometimes we need to wait until we feel better about things before we plunge into the garden again.
Dying ‘Dortmund’ rose
I know that things will get better. And I am already feeling the enthusiasm of an approaching fall planting season. In fact, I’m planting my new aloe and mangave acquisitions this week! But more about that later. First, an acknowledgment of the less than perfect conditions in my garden—and a celebration of the wonderful plants that are thriving nevertheless, providing beautiful evergreen color or lovely blooms.
Browned leaves and heat-blasted buds on the ‘Radrazz’ Knock Out roses look sad. But behind this rose, ‘Adagio’ miscanthus grasses are green and growing, and the foxtail ferns (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’) under the rose are looking foxy! They may not be in bloom, but they add a lot of green texture to my summer garden.
Another reason to celebrate? This large softleaf yucca (Y. recurvifolia), which I transplanted last winter from my old garden, is thriving in the heat and looking fabulous. I’m so glad to have a large architectural plant (it’s nearly 5 feet tall) acting as a focal point in my new garden.
More green texture that’s eating up the heat, though I am keeping it regularly watered. This is my beloved and newly planted Mexican weeping bamboo (Otatea acuminata aztecorum), which I coveted for several years before biting the bullet and buying one. I’m thrilled to see it reaching skyward and beginning to screen a hole in my neighbor’s photinia hedge.
OK, there are plants actually blooming in my garden too. Not many, but some. Here’s ‘Desert Sunrise’ agastache paired with ‘Powis Castle’ artemesia, looking cool and collected despite triple-digit temps.
Orange narrowleaf zinnia (Z. angustifolia), one of the few annuals I plant each year for its nonstop blaze of color and cast-iron disposition. It’s great for the front of a border.
‘Goblin’ gaillardia amps up the color with orange-red and gold.
When the petals have fallen, the tawny yellow seedheads stand out against silver artemesia.
In bloom or not, scorched and thirsty or not, the garden will always draw me in. I hope your August garden is bringing you joy as well.
To see what’s blooming in gardens around the world this Bloom Day, visit May Dreams Gardens.
All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
As a fairly new gardener, it really does make me feel better to know that even great gardeners lose plants. Thanks for sharing.
I love that cute foxtail fern!!
Thanks for stopping by, Ginger. The foxtail fern might be an annual for you, depending on where you garden, but it is a cutie. Good luck with your azalea transplants. —Pam
Even in this horrid summer heat, you seem to have beauty in your garden. I’m not sure I’ll have enough for an August Bloom Day post. Things are pretty fried here. Thanks for sharing yours.
August is the most difficult month for any southern gardener, don’t you think? We’re halfway through though, and then we just need to get through September… —Pam
Pam, I am surprised that you have anything blooming in your garden what with the weather as it has been for so long. You must have an impressive green thumb to keep your garden going. I wish you the best of luck in that respect.
Good luck wishes are very welcome at this point, Lisa. The City of Austin is going into Stage 2 watering restrictions in a few days, allowing even less watering. We’ll just have to get through it somehow. Cacti are really becoming my friends! —Pam
Pam, I remember like it was yesterday trying to grow plants that would be happier in an English garden…The lessons are hard and often discouraging, but as you say…it doesn’t keep us out of the garden for too long….especially, when there are beauties like Narrow leaf Zinnia and Goblin smiling at us. gail
No, it can’t keep us out of the garden, can it? No matter what, we must keep growing things. —Pam
Those zinnias are a brilliant orange. I think we need to add ‘Goblin’ to our garden.
Just in time for Halloween, perhaps! —Pam
How much watering are you doing at this point? I have tons of dying plants but I made the choice to only water them very occasionally. Part of me wants to see what survives so that each year I encourage myself to plant the most adapted plants. I am especially interested in what trees look bad in my neighborhood (Crestview), because I am coming up on planting some large tree species and I want to know which ones are most likely to look great year after year, even if the dust bowl era comes to Austin. Although not a large tree, my Mimosa tree looks great, makes me feel like I live on a savannah somewhere! Maybe if this warming trend is permanent I’ll get to have a Jacaranda soon!
Thanks for your great blog…
Cathy in Crestview
Hi, Cathy. Thanks for commenting. This summer, I’m watering twice a week with a sprinkler system. I hand water more often if I’ve just planted a new plant.
If my garden were more established (I started planting last fall) and if this were a normal summer, I’d be watering about every 7 to 10 days, as I used to do in my former garden, which was xeric (drought-tolerant). In winter, spring, and fall, I water less, of course. Since this is not a normal summer for Austin, even drought-tolerant native and adapted plants are showing the strain and some are outright dying unless they are irrigated.
Your strategy to see what survives this punishing summer is a good one if you are already planning to replace your thirstier plants next year. But unless we get rain this fall or winter, non-irrigated plants of all stripes are going to be croaking. It’s a difficult decision for water-conserving gardeners. Let’s start dancing for rain today! —Pam
It’s hard to stay focused on the garden when the heat withers everything in it, but it looks like you’re doing okay without too many losses. It’s sometimes hard to believe that some of the plants that revel in the heat are in the same garden that holds some of the departed ones. I guess it’s a way to figure out which plants are really drought tolerant and which ones can just skip and occasional watering…
Oh, I’ve had quite a few losses, James. I don’t bother blogging about them all. But my former garden was in full sun, so I have had experience with some very xeric plants. Surprisingly, a number of them do well in partial sun too. —Pam
I’m drooling over your 5ft soft-leaf yucca!!! It’s gorgeous!
I knew you’d like that one, Loree. I’m still waiting for it to bloom though. Maybe next year! —Pam
Hang in there, Pam, your garden’s time will come, with the cooling temps and rain of fall and winter. We will be shivering with leafless gardens and yours will be brilliantly alive. It does pay to plant the right plants, as you have done with the grasses and yuccas. Your area grows them like no where else, to perfection. I’ll bet the Whale’s Tongue is looking good too? 🙂
Frances
I’ve really neglected my poor ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave, haven’t I? I need to take pics of it more often, as I used to, but the trouble is the photinia hedge behind it. I despise a photinia hedge, and it ruins the beautiful lines of the agave. I need to put up a fence to hide the hedge as soon as the budget allows, and then the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ can shine once more. —Pam
I started getting serious about gardening about three years ago, when we had the record rains. Success was motivating. These conditions? Not so much. I definitely feel your pain.
You really know how to tell a story with that camera. Thanks again.
Man, those record rains seem very distant now, don’t they? Seems like it’s one extreme or the other around here. Thanks for your comment, Bruce. —Pam
love the agastache paired with the artemisia!!! great colors!!
Thanks, Janet. Those soft colors are visually cooling, aren’t they? —Pam
Now I don’t feel so badly… my ‘Dortmund’ died over the winter this year. Apparently my gamble of planting it REALLY close to the house despite knowing that it wouldn’t get much moisture there did NOT pay off. 🙁
The agaves, bamboo, grasses, and zinnias are great! As far as that gaillardia goes, though, you can keep those. Even the pretty ‘Oranges & Lemons’ doesn’t tempt me–I guess I’ve gotten “bitten” by those tawny round spheres of death while deadheading gaillardia at the garden center one too many times! lol.
Another garden blogger was at my house this morning, and she was trying to convince me to give ‘Dortmund’ another chance once fall comes. But no, any plant that looks like this for more than half the year has got to go! No gaillardias for you though? Too spiky? Compared to my agaves and prickly pears, gaillardia is very tame. I guess it depends on the context of the surrounding garden. 🙂 —Pam
Pam – I love looking at the xeric things in your garden, and I’m making a list of much more drought tolerant plants for a Fall planting project (assuming Fall ever comes!) and love your Weeping Bamboo. I’m sorry you have crispy critters, we’ll just have to hope for rain soon, I guess. I didn’t water today by hand and I know my pots are choking out there tonight, but I just haven’t got it in me :-/
The Mexican weeping bamboo is drought-tolerant for a bamboo, Diana. But, being a bamboo, it still needs extra water. I wouldn’t count it among my dependably drought-tolerant plants, at least not until I have more experience with it. Meanwhile, I’m with you, desperately hoping for rain. Rain, rain, rain! —Pam
Is that Euphorbia tirucalli looking fabulous in a pot next to the rose? Love that great texture and form.
Yes, it is! This potted ‘Sticks on Fire’ euphorbia was a 40th birthday present almost two years ago. I have to protect it from the occasional hard freeze, but otherwise it requires almost nothing. I really will have to prune it one of these days though. —Pam
You have so much blooming in so much heat and a lack of natural water. It truly does surprise me that so much will grow and bloom with so little.
Jake
There are a lot of tough plants out there, with a strong will to live. Thank goodness! —Pam
We’ve had weather problems too here in the NE but at the opposite extreme – cool and rainy, so lots of fungus is growing. Too bad we can’t meet somewhere in the middle where conditions might be perfect, huh? I’ll have to look for that orange zinnia – it’s a knockout! Have a great day, Pam!
Yeah, where are those elusive perfect gardening conditions? I’m so there! Seriously though, I’ve been reading about your unseasonably cool, rainy summer, and I know that can be disheartening for other reasons. Wacky weather, eh? —Pam
Pam,
While I’m sorry to see that some parts of your garden are fried, it’s refreshing to read how the weather has impacted even a seasoned gardener like yourself. Here in CT we’ve had the opposite extreme – so much rain since June that almost plant that is still standing has been infected by either a fungal or insect disease or in some cases both. It’s hard to find a leaf that isn’t spotted, eaten or discolored.
I love the color or your orange zinnia, I recently planted a crocosmia with almost the identical shade of orange flower. While it’s such an intense color somehow it manages to combine nicely with many different plants.
Happy Blooom Day!
You’re right, Debbie. Long periods of unseasonably cool, rainy weather can be trying too. We had that situation one summer a couple of years ago. I loved it (I’m not a heat lover, despite living in TX), but all over town I heard about succulents like agaves getting too wet and rotting away. There’s always something, right? Good thing we gardeners are too persistent to quit! —Pam
Wow, summer’s such a challenge in Texas isn’t it ? We had a severe drought in Chicago two years ago and I witnessed what it did to so many trees and shrubs. And the one they had down South two years ago was the worse in their history. I saw huge river beds completely dried up and filled with fallen dead trees.
It’s painful to see what the heat has done to your beautiful garden, Pam but I’m glad that you are finding the positive to dwell on. One of my colleagues garden was utterly destroyed by an ice and hail storm a few years ago and it took him a long time to get motivated to replace it
I love your orange zinnias. I have the profusion varieties in hot pink, orange and yellow and they’ve performed non-stop. They’re also butterfly magnets.
Xeriscaping makes a lot of sense and its even being tried in some public planting areas here. I love the mixture of ornamental grasses, sedums, blackeyed susans, gaillardia and coneflowers featured in many of them.
Think cool thoughts for Fall will soon be here.
Hi, Carolyn Gail. I’m thinking cool thoughts, thinking cool thoughts! Thanks for your encouragement. Yes, xeriscaping is very necessary in drought-prone areas in the South, but I can see where it would have value for other regions, like Chicago, too. —Pam
I absolutely love the structure you have surrounding your Dortmund rose, did you make that?
Hi, Becky. I can’t take any credit for the cedar-post rose trellis. It was already there, built, I assume, by the previous owners. —Pam
Your garden looks lovely in spite of the drought, Pam. I have some brown plants, too, especially some of my containers that were neglected this past week, and with the rain we’ve had this summer, I have no excuse! I love the tall Yucca; it really does make a statement in your garden.
It’s going to bloom soon, Rose, and I can’t wait to see the statement it makes then. Thanks for stopping by.
BTW, I just popped over to your Bloom Day post and admired all your beautiful flowers. I really do need to try the ‘Oranges and Lemons’ gaillardia. I’d have left you a comment, but I don’t use a Google account for blogging, so I thought I’d leave my comment here. Happy Bloom Day! —Pam
My condolences re the drought. (I remember our drought so well. It was hell.) This year we’ve had more rain than we know what to do with. I wish I could send you some, along with cooler temperatures.
How I wish you could too. I’d happily make an even trade of hot, dry weather, Yvonne. Thanks for stopping by. —Pam
Sometimes just sharing the frustrations and disappointments can make you feel better, at least I hope it does. Dee’s Phlox is just lovely. I hope you’ve positioned it where you can see it from inside the house. When all the world is brown & crunchy, fresh & green looks mighty fine, so it’s worth celebrating. Hang in there, fall’s coming soon.
Hi, MMD. Much of the back yard is considerably lower than the house and obscured by a deck, so the view from inside is mostly of treetops. I’m outside every day by the pool though, at least until school starts, so I see the phlox and the rest of my garden then. —Pam
Pam–Thank you for including the dead and dying! Color and health abound despite your drought. I covet that Zinnia BTW.
Hi, Susan. That zinnia is such an easy one to grow. The white variety is beautiful too. —Pam
Just was reading Les at Tidewater and the big rainfalls he’s just had this past week. No matter where you garden, this year in particular seems to be a challenge. It is hard to be trying to start a new garden with all the work and babying that requires, when conditions are so difficult. We’ve had serious droughts in the past but nothing really like what you are going through. But I remember how exhausting — mentally and physically — getting through that period seemed to be.
It is, Linda, but I can’t imagine not gardening no matter how harsh the conditions. I’m using a lot more desert-like plants than I used to, but good drainage is essential because one day, just maybe, we’ll get more of those big ole Texas rainstorms again. —Pam
Pam, I know you are suffering the losses of some of these plants, and some of them you have an amazing ability to detach from and just observe their habits. I always learn something from your blog, and a few of those Proven Winners might go in my garden AFTER we begin again to get rain. No more planting and spending money for me until the drought has broken! This fall, once we can set foot outside again without danger of heatstroke(December?), I plan to remove all the dead plants and make a list, so that I don’t plant more of those again! I should print out your blogpost and put in my gardening book so I’ll know what to purchase and not purchase when replacing them at some point.
Hi, Robin. It’s a hard row to hoe in Austin right now, isn’t it? I don’t blame you for waiting until fall (or winter) to go back out into the garden. It’s too brutal to plant anything now anyway but cacti. I’ve had fun popping a few of those into the dirt recently. It keeps me engaged with the garden, even in summer. Hang in there! —Pam
I liked the honesty post here. It is true that drought takes its toll, thank heavens I’m not in one here but I’ve experienced them before. Watching your plants die is so hard, it makes it difficult to go out and nurture the ones that aren’t dying. In my newest section of gardens I have been looking for plants that are native to Missouri and if they aren’t natives I look for the most xeriscape things I can obtain that are still hardy in this zone. It seems to be working for me so far.
Surely the fall rains will come soon and give you relief.
We’re banking on El Nino, HMH. Meanwhile I’m trying to be pragmatic about the losses in the garden and am planning to put in more-xeric plants to replace those that are failing. —Pam
Pam, the new garden is looking lovely! Wish I could be successful with phlox, perhaps will try again. I sure hope Dortmund makes it. I’m starting the body count this week myself.
‘Dortmund’s days are numbered, I’m afraid, whether she attempts a comeback or not. I don’t want a plant that looks like crap for half the year—and hot summers do take up half the year in Austin. I’m planning to rip her out soon and replace her with a beautiful blue nolina! A body count can be cathartic. I look forward to commiserating with you over yours. —Pam
save some of that death for ‘garden blogger’s death day’ hosted by ? oh, I forget who it is at Gardening Without Skills.
love the weeping bamboo! how fast does it spread, that is always a concern with bamboo, although it is undoubtedly not hardy for my (Utah) zone. cool looking, though.
Garden Bloggers Death Day? Too, too funny. I will have to check that out.
The Mexican weeping bamboo is a clumping bamboo that gets wider like an ornamental grass, rather than running. It’s perfectly safe to plant. However, it’s only just cold-hardy here in Austin (8b). Not sure what your zone is though. —Pam
Pam, I agree that it’s important to show our struggles and disappointments (I really don’t want to use the word failures!) in our gardens. Even experienced gardeners doubt their abilities in a summer such as this. As bad as it is here on my corner of Katy, it pales in comparison to what y’all have endured two summers running. I’m growing ever more ruthless about what gets supplemental water and what doesn’t.
Heat is expected in a Texas summer. But going this long without rain is just a killer, isn’t it? I’m sorry to know that even Houston is not getting the usual rainfall. —Pam
We are all faced with different challenges in each part of the country. For those of us in the north (I’m in Southern Ontario, Canada), it’s been a dismal summer with alot of rain and cool temperatures. One day the blooms look great and then we get hail the size of marbles and there are huge holes in the hosta plants. Now it’s hot (95), humid and no rain. Time to get the hoses out after a month of wet weather. Lots of slugs, earwigs and spiders to contend with.
Cheer up, what you do have blooming is lovely. Here our yuccas grow about 3 feet at most – would love to see a 5 footer in this neck of the woods.
There’s always a silver lining, as you rightly point out. And soon that big yucca will be even taller. A bloom spike is pushing its way up—yippee! —Pam
I’m honestly surprised that an established rose is keeling over; your weather must have been ferocious! But looking at poor old Dortmund, I do wonder if she’s dying of shock after being treated nicely? I suspect your care is responsible for all the new growth at the top, which is frizzling in the heat. The pictures of ‘Dortmund’ online indicate a vigorous climber with foliage almost to the ground. This one looks like it hasn’t been pruned properly by the previous owners, or doesn’t it get enough light? If the problem is previous neglect rather than position, and it isn’t grafted, why not just cut it to the ground in winter and let it start again from scratch?
The weather has been (and is) ferocious this summer, Chookie. The drought, not the heat, is the real killer. However, you are right that ‘Dortmund’ is not as dead as it looks. There is some fresh growth at its base. It does get lots of sun, but not much water. I think if I were to prune and feed it, it would bounce back this fall for a decent show.
However, I’m not going to do that. I expect roses in Austin to look bad through the summer, but this one just takes up too much real estate in my garden, in a highly visible spot, to put up with a plant that looks like hell for six months out of the year. I want something beautiful all year long! —Pam
I’m sorry some things have died. About the ‘Radrazz’ Knockout roses. Mine look like pure “hell” in the middle of the summer when it hits 107F here like it did in June. However, when August decided to become cool and rainy (don’t ask me why) like fall, they rebounded and look beautiful again. I’ve resigned myself to having ugly roses in the middle of summer no matter what the variety. However, some of my plants didn’t make it through the heat either. I need to do a post on that soon about those that died while in battle. The grasses are doing just great in Austin and Oklahoma. I find I like grasses more and more, and I pulled up two non-performing, blackspot ridden roses this year. Guess what, they were David Austin’s. Here’s looking to fall.~~Dee
“I’ve resigned myself to having ugly roses in the middle of summer…”
I think that is the key. In extreme summers like this one, even our toughest roses are going to look half dead, though they will bounce back with cooler weather. I too am happy to make that trade-off for certain roses in certain places. But ‘Dortmund,’ as I was explaining to Chookie above, occupies a spot that is highly visible all summer, and I’m not willing to make the trade-off there for a few months of flowers.
Here’s to fall, Dee! May it come very soon. —Pam
I really love the corral that you built for the ‘Dortmund’ rose. I wouldn’t have even noticed the near dead rose if you hadn’t mentioned it!
I also love the zinnias. I planted a lighter variety this year, but I like the color of yours better.
Thanks, though I didn’t build it. The previous owners must have. —Pam