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The mornings and nights are finally cooler.

The sky looks just a little different.

The days are getting shorter.

And it’s only going to be 91 degrees today.

Those are the signs of fall in the Central Texas garden.

And great conditions for enjoying Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens each month on the 15th.

It’s relief from unrelenting heat, and we’re still enjoying the effects of last weekend’s 1.57 inches of rain.

The garden seems to have been rejuvenated. There is nothing quite like a good dose of rainwater to perk everything up again.

And so it is with plants in the cutting garden. In my last post, there was a long shot of it bursting with yellows and creams and oranges, and the wild Coreopsis sneaking through the fence to join the show.

This is the star of the show. This Lion’s Tail, Leonotis leonurus, is from the Lamiaceae or mint family. It’s native to South Africa, and is drought tolerant, which explains why it’s happy in our gardens here in Central Texas.

A dwarf variety, these are only 3 to 4 feet tall. I’ve planted others in previous years and they were up to 6 feet tall.

Their unusual form and profuse blooms add wonderful color to the emerging fall garden.

What a beauty.

I know we aren’t “supposed” to grow Magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) here in hot, dry, alkaline central Texas, but many will tell you that the dwarf variety, “Little Gem” is acceptable.

If you love the look of the old south and all the romance evoked by these glorious trees and the lush gardens in which they are usually found, you will find Little Gem much more than acceptable.
Our recent rains have prompted a flush of blooms all over our Little Gem, and the scent is just heavenly. I walk out to the middle of the yard and stand there just to take in the aroma.
It stresses a little in the drought, but then many trees do, even our natives sometime show their displeasure with our unrelenting summers.
In anticipation of another La Nina summer, I think I will fertilize or compost mine now to give it a little extra boost going into the heat. After all the enjoyment it has given us, I think it deserves a little extra TLC.

I was delighted to read comments on my blog this afternoon and see that my friend Amy, a newer member of the Austin Bloggers group, has generously shared a blog award with me.

Thanks, Amy, of Go Away, I’m Gardening, for this little pre-Thanksgiving gift. I have to admit sometimes I am still surprised that there are people out there reading my blog at all! I love this garden community that transcends time and space and climate.

I must now pass this award on to other blogs who I think deserve such an award along with these instructions. Post the award on your blog along with the name of the person who passed it on to you and link to their blog. Choose blogs you think are great and pass it on to them.

So, my first passalong of the award goes to Robin, of Getting Grounded. Her blog is always interesting and beautiful and full of new ideas and plants that I haven’t tried yet in my shady spaces.

And my second passalong, goes to Janet, the Queen of Seaford, who has a Virginia garden blog, but has roots like mine in Texas and Germany. And she has digging dogs, so there’s that link, too. I love her sometimes tropical plantings, and always learn something new when I go to her blog.

There were so many blogs I could have chosen; I love reading them all, frankly, but that would have made my post WAY too long!

We’re in Indiana enjoying the holidays with family, so I send you Happy Thanksgiving wishes along with this photo of Nana’s Homemade Oyster Dressing before it went in the oven…yummm

Did I mention that I brought a plastic container with ripe tomatoes from Texas to Indiana in my suitcase yesterday? Boy are they good! And since tomato season here is long gone, they are a welcome treat!

I did it.

But I didn’t do it right. So, I’ll be “under construction” here for a bit. If I can post this message, that will help, but my new background doesn’t include a dashboard for editing. And the old blog layout that I thought I saved the way blogger told me to — well, now they don’t like it any more.

sigh.

That’s what I get for wanting something different.

The cooler temps last week had me itching to get into the garden and dig in the dirt. I made the rounds to 5 different local nurseries and almost checked everything off my list.

My goal: to fill in gaps in the garden where I have lost plants or where I have had ongoing difficulties, like the part sun, part shade area off the driveway and the woods where there isn’t enough sun to make the Lantana happy and the ferns that I planted last year didn’t even bother to show up again this Spring.

And I was bound and determined to shift my focus to more xeric plants, so I went in search of agaves, grasses and sedges.
Here you see one of several new Variegated Flax Lilies – Dianella sp. var. Flax Lily
This is a beautiful Squid Agave, Agave bracterosa, with a Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Pony’
Some chives to join the thyme in an herb pot.
Agave victoriae-reginae
A beautiful Mangave ‘Mucho Macho,’ passed along to me by Pam, of Digging. I thought he was so handsome that he needed a pretty pot in which to show off.
Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’
An Artichoke agave — Agave parryi v. ‘Truncata.’
Firecracker bush, or Bouvardia ternifolia with it’s tiny red blooms.
An Agave americana I didn’t quite know where to put, so into a pot it went.
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gold Bar’
Some Mexican Oregano spilling out of the pot.
A Pyramid Bush
I tried to get some morning glories going in here, but to no avail. So I broke down and bought a Mandavilla.
Some little Mexican feather grasses. They always look good, no matter how hot it gets.
This is a Crape Myrtle that I’ve been lusting after for years. It’s a ‘Dynamite’ with deep burgundy blooms and it doesn’t get very tall.
Next to the Crape Myrtle is a new Knock Out Rose ‘Radrazz.’ We’ll see how truly deer resistant they are…
And a Pentas and Helenium ‘Dakota Gold’— in a pot for some color.

We’re still under Stage 2 water restrictions — sprinklers only 1 day a week. Hand watering any time. And it was 95 today — feels much better than 105, but for the plants, it’s still darn hot without water. So, I will be spending hours outside about every other day trying to keep things alive with very strategic and efficient hand watering.

Even though it’s still pretty hot, mornings are just a tad cooler and the days are a little more tolerable…fall will find us, we just have to be patient!

Our vibrant gold finches love drinking out of the fountain in the back yard. My determined DH stood still long enough to blend into the background and get some great shots of them. With our temperatures over 100 every day for 52 days now thus far this summer — they are loving the moving water for a drink and an occasional dip!