The cruelest month has arrived, but I managed to get into the garden anyway by planting a desert plant. Impressed by local gardener and public TV personality Tom Spencer’s website, Soul of the Garden (no longer online), in which he fairly gushes over agaves and shows off his beautiful photographs of them, I decided that I had to have another one. I already have a couple of agaves in pots, including a Parry’s, visible in the green glazed pot.

At Barton Springs Nursery I found this beautiful, blue-green agave called ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave, or Agave ovatifolia. I planted the 5-gallon agave in the sunny front garden, where a Jerusalem sage had been crisping up each summer. This agave is supposed to be cold hardy and only about 2 or 3 feet tall at maturity. My only concern is that it might not be as heat-tolerant as our local agaves, as it comes from the mountain states. Despite my misgivings, I decided to take a chance on it. It looks nice with the white skullcap and lavender Mexican oregano. However, the black-eyed Susans will have to be moved. They relied on the shade of the Jerusalem sage, and now that it’s gone, they’re getting baked in the afternoon.

Another view of the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ and a sun person

An early sign of approaching autumn: purpling berries on the American beautyberry. Halleluiah! The end of summer isn’t too far off. By early October we should feel the difference in drier, cooler air and highs in the 80s instead of the 90s and 100s.

American beautyberry

Seed heads of ‘Duchess of Albany’ clematis