abutilon

January blooms brightening the garden

I’ve been amazed at the lack of a freeze this late in the season, but Facebook reminded me with a photo of brilliant variegated shell ginger that we only had our first freeze here at the house on January 4th last year.

While there aren’t as many blooms as in the summer months, it’s still delightful to find flowers in the garden now, especially these coneflowers.  

 These Pam’s pink Turks caps start blooming late but keep on going.

 The cape honeysuckle are a bright burst on the increasingly grey days.

 Another late summer/early fall bloomer, Mexican bush sage is prolific.

 As are the Mexican mint marigolds.

 In the pots by the front door, these begonias are refreshed after some cooler temps and rain.

 And next to the begonias, these Mexican honeysuckles are about to bloom for the third time.

This Royal Queen, or Iochroma, is stunning.  Bar none, my favorite in the garden these days.  It’s a mid-fall bloomer, but oh-so-well-worth the wait.

In the granite and flagstone path out back, the sweet alyssum are perky as can be.

Even the neighboring pink skull cap is starting to bloom again.

I posted these on my FB profile last week – this abutilon is bursting with blooms.

Unruly, but showing deepening purple colors, indigo spires salvia is tough-as-nails.

The lion’s tails are still showing off — I’ve brought them in and arranged them in vases with other late bloomers.  You can see those arrangements here and here.  They include many of these blooms.

As I write this post, I realize that I’ve left a few of these bright blooms out of those arrangements, so I’m feeling inspired to make another arrangement today.

THIS is what I love about living in Austin, Texas.

Are you making bouquets from your garden?

Feeling left out …


A few of my garden friends were feeling left out because my photo skills were lacking and I didn’t post them yesterday.

They gave me what-for today, so I decided I would show them off! Above we have one of my new day lilies – Grand Wazir.
And my Abutilon is still a steady bloomer — what a prolific plant she is.
The tropical hibiscus in the pots by the pool are blooming. Sadly, they are leftover from last year and really big. That’s sad because now I have hot pink Maggie Roses peeking up over the back of the pool wall and it literally hurts my eyes to look at them both in the same view. What to do, what to do…I hate to pull out those big hibiscus and have no where else to put them…

This pretty little vine (I think it’s a Clematis, but I can’t be sure and for some reason I didn’t write it down), is much more magenta, but my camera didn’t produce it true to color. I also have that problem with purples — they come out blue. Do you have the same problem with some of your colors? I’m going to have to go down to the camera shop and figure this out.
These coneflowers came back up again this year, pretty as you please. Their friend, the very expensive “Green Envy” that I ordered is still a tiny little patch of green. It should take note of the impressive growth of it’s neighbor!
And here we are back to the Hibiscus. Janet, the Queen of Seaford, is trying to help me figure out if it’s a Texas Star or a Lord Baltimore or something else. So, here are some more shots of the whole plant and the foliage and today’s amazing bloom. (I count my lucky stars for every one that the deer don’t eat!)

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