Fall flowers for a Texas garden
My shady, evergreen garden will never be showy with flowers. But I have pockets of seasonal blooms that brighten the garden for a week or two at a time and please me when they appear. Right now, Philippine violet (Barleria cristata) is one of these.
I have this subtropical perennial on each side on my back garden, and both started flowering in time for Saturday’s tour. Well done, P. violet!
Duranta (Duranta erecta ‘Sapphire Showers’) is also lovely with white-edged purple blossoms that dangle like chandelier earrings. It grows in a stock-tank planter in the raised bed behind the house, and it got pretty wilty this summer without twice-weekly watering. But I guess it was worth the trouble because these flowers are beautiful.
Here’s a mid-October surprise. Long after most of my oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) flowered and faded, these popped up just in time for Saturday’s tour. The bulbs lie under a trio of soap aloes (Aloe maculata) that don’t get watered by the sprinkler system. The aloes were looking drought-stressed the week before the tour, so I gave them a deep watering with the hose. And lo and behold, the oxbloods planted underneath them responded by popping up and bursting into crimson bloom. Many visitors on the tour mistook them for soap aloe flowers.
Forsythia sage (Salvia madrensis) is just revving up in the shade of live oaks.
Its yellow flower spikes show up well against the dark-brown cedar fence below.
Before the tour, I added a few more sunny flower spikes to the rocky bed behind the pool: a trio of the yellow-flowering variety of red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora ‘Yellow’), which I found at Shoal Creek Nursery.
Those are the limestone slabs that everyone asked me about during the tour. The hesperaloes’ moonshine-yellow flowers stand out beautifully against the cedar fence.
And they pop against the blue stucco wall too.
Flowers aren’t the only fall color I’m enjoying. Moody Mexican beautyberry (Callicarpa acuminata) is bejeweled with nearly black berries along its arching branches.
It grows in deep shade in the lower garden, but shafts of sunlight brighten the berries to a wine-purple. I imagine the mockingbirds will get them soon.
Some other critter has been enjoying my fall decor on the front porch. I walked outside this morning to find my pumpkins pushed up against the porch step. Huh?
Uh-oh. My daughter said forlornly, as we stood there looking at the damage, “And it was the best pumpkin too.”
What do you think did this? Deer? Raccoon? Possum? Grrrr.
All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
do you have squirrels? could be any of those critters..
Yes, but it happened overnight, so I suspect a nocturnal beastie. —Pam
One year I was so proud of the gourds that I grew, and used them in a basket to decorate my front porch. The squirrels carried off every last one of them. I didn’t even think they were edible!
How frustrating. Maybe they just used them to file their teeth. —Pam
Critter damage can be so frustrating. But your garden’s timing with all the blooming was perfect for the tour. I’m mesmerized by that Mexican Beautyberry. Wow.
I really love that black beautyberry. I’d looked for it for years before I found it at a nursery last year. —Pam
Our Beauty Berry is a darker purple this year. I think it is due to our extended fall drought. The robins are making short work of them. The added yellow flowers are perfect. Your garden has lots of blooms for this time of year. Beautiful!
Thanks, Lisa. I’m glad you have fat and happy robins. Maybe we’ll see them this winter. —Pam
Pam, Are the Philippine violet and Forsythia sage a “forage” food for deer? Or do they leave them alone? Needing dry shade tolerant plants they don’t prefer eating. Thanks for this article.
They’re both in the fenced back garden, Vee, partly because I suspected that deer might like them. You may want to try just one of each to see how they fare. —Pam
Very pretty! It was nice of them to make an appearance at your tour.
Yes, indeed. —Pam
Great sense of timing your garden’s flower are showing. I noticed the oxblood lilies here came out in several spurts this year as well. We usually get them all showing up and showing off at once. I enjoyed their spaced out bloom times quite a bit but don’t hold out hopes for that to happen every year. I imagine it had something to do with the weird weather patterns we’ve been struggling to garden around.
That’s a shame about your pumpkin being vandalized. Such a neat attack, at least. No mess left on your porch to deal with (insult to injury). Our small patch of lawn is under nightly attack from something – an armadillo we think. SO many holes. The Hub wondered aloud “You think every one of these holes represents a grub? Or just an attempt to find a grub?”. I had to laugh at that…
We have an armadillo digging holes and trenching the beds out front every night as well. Hubby went out early on tour day and caught it in the act. He made quite a racket in scaring it off. —Pam
Aw, the critters want pumpkin pie this time of year too. What a bummer. Love all your flowers, and I love that some of them showed up just in time for the tour.
The critters want everything all the time, as far as I can see it. 😉 —Pam
Love the story of the lily/aloe flowers (and I’m glad your tour was successful and you enjoyed it). I’ve caught a squirrel munching down on one of my pumpkins, and something almost entirely consumed, or rather tried to – it looked to have spit out every bite it took – one of my decorative squash. Darn things.
Is it annoying or satisfying to see that an animal has tasted and found it wanting? I can never decide. —Pam
That was nice for your blooms to show up just in time.
I bet your pumpkin eater is a raccoon. The deer don’t seem to like pumpkins here.
That’s what I suspect too, Linda. —Pam
I have a Barbados Cherry bush that I planted a couple of years ago and I just love it because it blooms several times of year! It has small pink blooms and red berries right now and I do nothing to help it along besides water from our in-ground sprinkler. My kind of plant!
I love Barbados cherry too, Shelley! I have several dwarf ones currently, but in my previous garden I had a crepe myrtle-sized one. —Pam
Something has already nibbled at my pumpkin too – I caught a squirrel in the act last year but responsibility for this year’s intrusion hasn’t yet been determined. Re the Duranta, mine is in a large pot and, since I started giving it graywater saved from the kitchen sink, it has bloomed continuously.
I thought it would appreciate extra water. My husband is a dedicated shower water saver, and if the duranta container was closer I’d ask him to start dumping it there. Alas, it’s tucked in a hard-to-reach corner. —Pam
The pale-yellow-flowering Hesperalo are genius, calling out to the pale yellow in the foliage of the potted yucca. I’m always looking for something like that in the early and late seasons to keep the big Yucca ‘Color Guard’ company, so it looks less from-another-planet. Don’t think Hesperaloe is going to be my answer, but had already added Salvia madrensis to my spring 2016 shopping list — very helpful to see your nice shots of it.
That beautyberry is gorgeous. Will never forget an experience I had about twenty years ago in November: an avid gardener south of here grew Callicarpa from seed season after season, selecting for dark berries, and put the best selections along his (long, hill-climbing) driveway. An absolute knockout.
That sounds gorgeous, Nell. What a sight that must have been. —Pam
I love the aloe/Oxblood lily combo, and what great timing!
My teeny Philippine violet bloomed too – it amazes me how plants just “know” when to do their thing.
They are pretty clever, aren’t they? —Pam