Bloom Day

September 15, 2010 Having just returned from a trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where my husband competed in his first Ironman triathlon, I want to treat you to pics from the delightful Dane County Farmers’ Market on the Capitol Square last Saturday. Overcast skies and a little rain could not dampen ...

August 15, 2010 This Bloom Day post may fool those who skim the pictures without reading the text. You could be led to think that quite a lot is blooming in my garden right now, when really it’s just a few agastaches, some ornamental grasses, and a few tiny, scattered ...

June 15, 2010 The new island bed out front, where deer make daily foraging rounds, is holding up well thanks to fuzzy and spiky leaves and strong-smelling foliage. While foliage is the backbone of that bed, flowering perennials are going strong too. It seems natural, then, to combine Bloom Day ...

June 15, 2010 The new island bed out front, where deer make daily foraging rounds, is holding up well thanks to fuzzy and spiky leaves and strong-smelling foliage. While foliage is the backbone of that bed, flowering perennials are going strong too. It seems natural, then, to combine Bloom Day ...

May 15, 2010 Plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) grown from seed in the partly sunny side garden This Bloom Day post almost didn’t happen. I’ve been working in the garden every day this week despite muggy, hot weather—planting, transplanting, and putting in new paths—and feeling that things are coming together in ...

April 15, 2010 For Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in central Texas this month, nothing can outdo Mother Nature’s garden. (My own is shrouded in oak pollen.) So here are more pictures from last Saturday’s drive on RR 1323 and the Willow City Loop through the Hill Country. Above, Indian paintbrush ...

March 15, 2010 Recent purchases are making me happy with a sunny-side-up Bloom Day. Cute little hymenoxys, also known as four-nerve daisy (Tetraneuris scaposa), is in bud and in bloom. This tiny Texas native is super tough and nearly ever-blooming. It loves full sun and good drainage. Another hymenoxys flower ...

February 15, 2010 Were it not for my daughter, who insisted on planting a rainbow of pansies in her little patch recently, I’d have nothing blooming this Bloom Day. But she did, and I do. Cheery! Other than that I have the promise of flowers: here, on the ‘Candy Corn’ ...

January 15, 2010 What are the beautiful, hardy “flowers” still blooming in my garden after Austin’s recent foray into the teens and low 20s (F)? Marvelous, multi-colored succulents, that’s what. I believe these are all Echeveria, and only the top two pictured (the ones in planters) were covered during the ...

December 15, 2009 Bloom Day pickings in my garden are pretty slim on this chilly, gray day with a north wind. But even after a couple of early hard freezes, dependable ‘Radrazz’ Knock Out rose is still hanging onto a few blossoms. Another warm day might convince ‘Radrazz’ to open ...

November 15, 2009 Sunny Dahlberg daisies (Thymophylla tenuiloba) make up for a lack of sun this November morning. The star of Bloom Day this month has to be pineapple sage (Salvia elegans), which blazes crimson above yellow-green foliage that smells like pineapple when crushed between your fingers. It’s just gotten ...

November 15, 2009 Sunny Dahlberg daisies (Thymophylla tenuiloba) make up for a lack of sun this November morning. The star of Bloom Day this month has to be pineapple sage (Salvia elegans), which blazes crimson above yellow-green foliage that smells like pineapple when crushed between your fingers. It’s just gotten ...

October 15, 2009 I’m taking a break from posting about national parks today in order to participate in Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. But I’ll be back with one more park post tomorrow. If you’d like to join in the celebration of national parks, there’s still ...

September 15, 2009 ‘Radsunny’ Knock Out rose is back. I love its lemony scent too. What a difference a month and several inches of rain make. Last Bloom Day there was a hint of desperation in my post, and I noticed that many of my fellow Austin garden bloggers didn’t ...

August 14, 2009 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 ...

July 15, 2009 This newly blooming Gaillardia ‘Goblin’ represents my garden this July Bloom Day—hot! I love plants like this blanketflower, which shrugs off our unremitting heat wave and dry conditions. It may not cool things down visually, but it seems more honest that way. After all, it’s summer in ...