Big booms and May blooms

May 16, 2008


Our second hailstorm in a week pounded us Wednesday night. Like machine-gun fire—rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—chunks of ice flew horizontally at the west-facing windows and piled up on the patio. We moved the sleeping kids away from the windows, I listened to reports of “tornadic rotation” on the TV, and my husband stood vigil on the back porch, watching his car take a beating in the driveway. When it was over and morning revealed the damage, it was mercifully minor. Unlike neighborhoods to the east and south of us, no trees were lost, no windows broken, and even the car seems undented. In the garden, the daylilies, a few new roses, and the cut-leaf daisies were a little ragged and torn, but otherwise everything looked fine. Plus we got three-quarters of an inch of rain, which is always welcome.
I’m a day late for the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day party, and I didn’t try to document every flower with a photo this time. So here’s an abridged version of what’s blooming in my garden this May 15. To see what’s flowering in other gardens all over the world, visit May Dreams Gardens for links to other Bloom Day posts.

‘Wilson’s Yellow’ daylily defiantly opened the day after the hailstorm.

Autumn sage (Salvia greggii ) welcomes visitors to my garden on each side of the entry with cheery flowers and fragrant foliage. To the left of the blue-green agave, rock penstemon and bulbine are blooming. Jerusalem sage and four-nerve daisy show their yellow flowers in the background on either side of the variegated agave.

Bat-face cuphea (Cuphea llavea ). Do you see the little bat face with big ears?

The purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea ) look a little bedraggled after the hailstorm, but I like the way they’re mingling with the leaves of Gulf muhly grass.

Pink skullcap (Scutellaria suffrutescens ), like a tidy alpine shrub, grows in a small mound of tiny, green leaves topped by tubular, lipstick-pink flowers.

Heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata ), visibly fuzzy in the morning light, sends up lavender spires.

Along the curb, where summer sun and drought would shrivel fainter hearts, the native damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana ) and Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima ) make a pretty, yellow combo. The feathergrass also acts as a weathervane for me. Here you see it blowing southward, which tells me at a glance from the window that a cool north wind is blowing, and the humidity will be low—perfect for gardening.

‘Best of Friends’—still hanging in there after the hailstorm

‘Indigo Spires’ salvia
Also blooming this month
‘Carefree Beauty’ rose
‘Radrazz’ Knockout rose
‘The Fairy’ rose
Engelmann’s daisy
Rock penstemon
Bulbine
Mexican snapdragon vine
Pink cuphea
Barbardos cherry
‘Hot Lips’ salvia
Salvia guaranitica
Coral honeysuckle
Passionflower
Cosmos
Zinnias
Blackfoot daisy
Winecup
Kidneywood tree
Gulf Coast penstemon
Salvia leucantha
Pigeonberry
White oxalis
Purple oxalis
Pomegranate tree
Zexmenia
Lion’s tail
Blue mealy sage
Gaura
Texas betony
Star grass
Blooming, but nearly finished
Orchid tree
Star jasmine
Crossvine
Nasturtium
Bluebonnets (blue and maroon)
Columbine
All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

0 responses to “Big booms and May blooms”

  1. I see the little bat face with the big ears, very Austin-y! Your garden always looks wonderful, I like how the black-eyed susans (that’s what’s in the 1st picture right?) compliments the bench nearby. Have you every thought about painting that bench purple?
    Yes, black-eyed Susans. They would really pop with a purple bench behind them, but I tried my other purple bench out there initially, to see if I liked it, and it just didn’t work. It was, dare I say it, too purple for the front yard. So I went with yellow instead, which plays off the yellow stripes on the variegated agave, which is closer to it than the Susans. —Pam

  2. Gus says:

    Up in Round Rock it was similar… My live oaks have had some of the weak pieces pelted out, some of the smaller plants in our front beds were obliterated. My youngest kept saying “it’s not good to be in the pink square,” referring to the tornado watch. Larger leaved plants had hail holes and I need to call my auto insurance people… Glad to see you escaped the brunt! I don’t know if your blogware allows html tags, but I’ll try… this is the drainpipe on our north side… it was smooth until the latest storm.
    -Gus
    Hi, Gus. I’m sorry to hear about the damage in your garden. Your kiddo was right! By the way, my blog allows you to insert a link into your comment with html code, if your photo is on your website. —Pam

  3. Gus says:

    Seems the tag was unallowed. Apologies.

  4. rees cowden says:

    Once again some great photos Pam,
    I especially like the salvia. It’s too himid here for it but I used it alot when I lived out west. Funny that in Florida we use Texas Sage (Leucophyllum fruiticans)and it does very well.
    Rees
    It’s hard to imagine someplace more humid than Austin in the summer, but I suppose Florida would be it. Maybe it’s just that the ground stays too wet for it? Here we have very humid summers but little rain. Then again, if Texas sage does well for you, then I don’t know. It’s a great plant too, and I wish I had room for it in my garden. Thanks for commenting, Rees. —Pam

  5. Gloria says:

    Great garden pictures.The flowers are very pretty plus the tall grass and those strong shaped agave give your garden a real distinct feel. That bench in the first pictures is such a perfect yellow for garden furniture. I like yellow but have been unable to commit to a shade.
    Thanks, Gloria. That yellow turned out well for my garden, and it’s right out of the spray-paint can—so easy, and if you don’t like it, just spray again. —Pam

  6. Lisa at Greenbow says:

    Your garden looks good for having come through a hail storm. They can be so devastating. Great blooms. I can always see how much further along your garden is than ours through your blooms.
    I got lucky, Lisa. I drove through the neighborhood just to my southwest today, and it looks shredded, from the trees to the groundcovers. —Pam

  7. Nan Ondra says:

    Whew, Pam – how lucky that your family and garden (and the house and car, too, of course) made it through the stormy weather. How neat that you use your Mexican feathergrass as a weather indicator; it’s probably far more accurate than “official” forecasts. Your scutellaria photo is especially amazing – and that reminds me to add my congratulations for your well-deserved Mousies!
    Thank you, Nan. I appreciate your kind words. Regarding the weather, hailstones are not exactly the kind of stone post I hoped to write about for this month’s Design Workshop. 😉 —Pam

  8. Hey, your Coneflowers just look like those new fancy ones with the feathered petal edges. 🙂 That’s quite a list of bloomers, I can see why you chose not to post photos of all of them.
    I like those feathered edges and just noticed them this year. I don’t know what variety they are. I have a couple of different types but didn’t keep track of the names, unfortunately. —Pam

  9. kerri says:

    Thank heavens that your garden, house and car survived the hailstorm intact. We’re pretty helpless to do anything but hope and pray when the heavens let loose, aren’t we?
    Those daylilies are gorgeous! I love to see the Salvias on your blog and Annie’s. You’ve both inspired me to grow some.
    Your garden is looking wonderful as usual Pam.
    Thanks, Kerri. Salvias are indeed wonderful plants for flowers and fragrance. I look forward to seeing which ones you’re growing this year. —Pam

  10. The hail really was blowing sideways wasn’t it. I finally remembered to go look at the car this afternoon. The hail was pretty big but there wasn’t any damage to the car. I was also afraid of the windows breaking. Apparently some did on the houses in Tarrytown. We got very little rain in Wednesday’s storm–more the night before.
    Your coneflowers and rudbeckias are far ahead of mine. Of course, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have any coneflowers and rudbeckias. A little bit of your garden is blooming in mine.
    Congrats on your Mousie for Best Photography. That’s a great shot of the bat-faced cuphea.
    We seem to have been skipped over as far as real damage went, thank heavens. A friend in Tarrytown, to the west of us, lost a window to the hailstorm, and her neighbor lost her garden. My mother-in-law’s office, to the east of us, suffered three broken windows.
    I’m glad my coneflower seedlings are growing well for you. If I let them, they’d colonize my entire front garden. Thank you for the Mousie congrats. —Pam

  11. Kathy says:

    Lovely flowers, Pam. I especially like to see your salvias, as I haven’t had much luck with them. I think it’s the Mud Season limbo between winter and spring that gets them.
    No, they don’t like to be soggy. I’m sorry you can’t grow them, Kathy. I remember how you enjoyed the fragrance of their foliage when you first visited my garden. —Pam

  12. Iris says:

    Beautiful, as always, Pam! We had a similar storm experience and were lucky the neighbor’s uprooted 50-ft sycamore didn’t fall our direction onto our carport. Yikes.
    I just visited your blog and saw the big tree that went down. We didn’t have anything like that in our neighborhood, so you must have gotten stronger winds than us. I’m glad you had no major damage. —Pam

  13. Frances says:

    Hi Pam, that must have been so frightening, glad all survived. Your garden looks as though nothing had happened, glad for that also. That little cuphea is the dearest thing. They are annuals here, but still worth planting, especially nice in a container. Hummingbirds love them, is that right? Way to keep up with the blogging even after a storm. I am still reading the bloom day posts, so many good ones!
    Frances
    The hummers probably do like the bat-face cuphea, but the plants I usually notice them on are Salvia guaranitica, Cuphea ignea, Lonicera sempervirens, Salvia leucantha, and Malvaviscus arboreus var. Drummondii. Do you grow any of those? —Pam

  14. Sounds pretty scary, Pam – that’s a second big hailstorm for you, isn’t it? We had tornado sirens wailing while we were under the “rotational” arrow during the first storm but it passed over our part of town…we were shocked to find out yesterday that a second wave hit Central Austin. There were so many trees down and so many houses and cars damaged. I’m glad your family is okay.
    It’s good to see the coneflowers and daylilies still growing cheerily in your garden.
    Mine are lagging, as usual. The pink cuphea and orange cigar plant cuphea lived over but the bat-faced red and purple insist they’re annuals up here.
    Annie at the Transplantable Rose
    Yep, the second hailstorm in a week. This one was longer and more intense, but the hailstones were smaller than last week’s golf-ball sized ones. I worried about you during the weather reports of a tornado warning, and I’m glad nothing happened in your part of town. —Pam

  15. Nancy Bond says:

    Your lovely garden seems not much worse for wear after the storm — everything is beautiful.
    It came through with flying colors. We were lucky not to have the bigger hail that some parts of town got. Thanks for visiting, Nancy. —Pam

  16. Gail says:

    Loved the Bat Faced flower, I imagine it’s one your children enjoy pointing out to guests.
    Glad you weathered the storms….
    Gail
    Me too! Yes, the bat-face cuphea is a favorite, but it grows low, so you have to crouch down to really see the bat faces. —Pam

  17. Leslie Kuss says:

    Best of Friends is a beautiful daylily! I love your photos…they’re always so nicely done. I especially like the echinacea and muhly grass shot despite the bit of damage…glad the storm wasn’t worse.
    Thank you, Leslie! —Pam

  18. wiseacre says:

    Give me some time to catch up. My Coneflowers and Black eyed Susans are just getting a start.
    I’m going to leave here and look up the Bat-face cuphea. I’ve never seen it before and now I have to have some. I just hope they are cold tolerant.
    I’m afraid that cuphea is not at all cold-tolerant. In fact, I’ve lost a couple to freezes over the years, but usually they come back. Perhaps you could grow it as an annual. It is a fun plant—especially here in Austin where we’re already batty about our local bat colony. —Pam

  19. Diana Kirby says:

    Glad you all survived mostly unscathed. We just got rain down here and heavy winds. No hail or rotations. It’s odd that it can be so different when we really don’t live that far apart. Like gardening, I suppose, where some of us can grow certain plants and others can’t because of soil, sun, etc. Your photos show the plants truly toughed it out – they look pretty good considering you had the hail.
    This storm inflicted fairly localized damage. We were fortunate to be skipped over as far as the worst of it went. I’m glad you missed the brunt of it too. —Pam

  20. Brenda Kula says:

    Lovely photos, as usual. The daylilies are breathtaking! Your gardens are works of art.
    Brenda
    You’re too kind, Brenda, but thank you. When I look at the garden, I often notice all the things that aren’t working. Thanks for reminding me to enjoy what’s also looking just right. —Pam

  21. Bonnie says:

    Glad there was no major damage. I must have slept through it all- or it went around us!
    The photo of the bat faced cuphea is the best one I have seen to show why it has the name.
    Isn’t it cute? It does require a close look to see the little faces. —Pam

  22. Cinj says:

    Ha! Funny how plants can be more accurate than a weather person at times, isn’t it? Glad everyone made it. I wish we got 3/4 of an inch of rain, that would save me a lot of time watering my new plants and trasplants!
    Lots of flowers blooming in your garden. Very lovely.
    The wind direction is the most important factor to me in whether the day will be nice or not. Whenever I see those grasses blowing in a north breeze, I know the day will be fine. Blowing from the south means hot and muggy—our usual summer conditions. —Pam

  23. Pam, your photos make your garden look so well tended. I especially loved the echinacea with the muhly grass. Seems like you all weathered the storm really well.
    We’ll be out of storm season very soon. Hard to believe May is nearly over.~~Dee
    Yes, it hard to believe. The kids will be out of school soon, won’t they? —Pam

  24. Ralph says:

    Once again, you post beautiful pictures of your beautiful garden. I keep trying to get up to your standards but its a long climb.
    Thank you, Ralph. The key for me is taking a whole lot of photos and winnowing out the few good ones. That and cropping. —Pam

  25. Congratulations on your award for the best foto blog Pam.
    Your foto is always exelent.
    Ken
    Many thanks, Ken! —Pam

  26. LindaLunda says:

    Hi! What a nice blogg you got! Have a nice day!!!!
    Linda
    Thank you, Linda, for visiting and commenting. —Pam

  27. Ki says:

    Nice to see flowers we will have in our garden in about 2 months. A late congratulations for your Mousie!
    Thanks, Ki! —Pam