After an extended winter and coolish spring, summer is finally upon us. High temperatures have hovered just under 100 this week and are expect to pass the century mark by the weekend. With temperatures at this level, it will not take long for any moisture still in the soil to be sapped away.
I have noticed that plants in the garden are beginning to go dormant to prepare for the long summer months. There are fewer blooming plants than there were a month ago and the cactus and yuccas are becoming the prominent features of the garden.
Looking across the front garden, another prominent feature would be all of the feathery stalks of the Liatris. They will look a little weedy until they are covered in purple blooms in September.
Here is a look from the opposite direction. The grass with the white flowers is Mexican Feathergrass.
The Pine Muhly, Muhlenbergia dubia, growing around this cactus are beginning to show their spiky blooms. Even though it is getting hotter and drier, there are other flowers still blooming in the garden.
Datura wrightii thrives in the heat. The large, fragrant flowers open at dusk and stay open until morning. The flowers are always swarming with bees when they are open.
Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstonne' has bright yellow flowers at the top of its four foot tall stems. This plant is native to the south eastern United States and prefers a little more moisture than most of the plants in my garden receive. It is planted at the edge of the front yard rain garden so its roots can take advantage of any rain we may receive during the summer.
Nearby, Rudbeckia fulgida bloom under the False Indigo.
Big Red Sage, Salvia pentstemonoides, as the name implies, is another large perennial. The purplish red flowers normally attract a number of hummingbirds, but I have not seen many this year.
Here is a closer look at the flowers.
The flowers of Red Yucca are another great hummingbird nectar source.
Zexmenia is tough summer bloomer. I cut mine back a couple of times during the growing season to reduce the size, remove the spent flowerheads, and force more blooms.
This Purple Coneflower blooms in the shade of my red oak tree.
Several of the photos in this post were taken for an Independence Day post that never materialized. The plan was to simulate a fireworks display with plants and flowers. This explains why I took pictures of yuccas from above. The yucca above is variegated Yucca gloriosa. Ooh!
This yucca is Pale-leaf Yucca, Yucca pallida. Ahh!
This one is Soapweed Yucca, Yucca glauca. Wow!
Another picture from above shows the fruits of the spineless prickly pear.
Little Bluestem with Blackeyed Susans and Rock Penstemon in the background.
Horsetail Reed looks good in the stock tank. I never got around to moving the stock tank this spring. Maybe because it would be such a chore. I considered moving it because it is a little too close to the Possumhaw Holly just outside of this photo to the left of the tank. In time, I suspect the holly will shade the tank.
This Pineapple Lily, Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy', is one of the few non-native plants in the garden. It looks like I finally moved it to a spot that has just the right amount of sun and shade. It is close to a faucet too so I can give it a squirt of water when needed.
This Mexican Milkweed only hosted aphids so far this year. Maybe there will be some monarch caterpillars later in the summer. This one planted itself next to the vegetable garden.
This is a tatume squash flower. This was my first time to plant this variety. I harvested the first one yesterday and sliced and grilled it. It was pretty good. It is supposed to be more resistant to squash vine bores so it may replace yellow squash in my garden in the future.
Chocolate Daisy flowers open in the mornings and close by noon on hot days. This is another plant that I cut back a couple of times during the summer to control the size of the plant and produce more flowers.
Mexican Hat is still in bloom and several other buds are forming.
The Horsemint is wrapping up its blooming season. I carefully remove the dried flowers to control where the hundreds of seeds fall. The numerous seedlings are a pain to remove from decomposed granite pathways.
This parting shot is of the backyard rain garden. The little white flowers are Frogfruit and a great nectar source for small native bees.
Well this is a nice surprise. I just watched the weather forecast and a "cold" front is supposed to come through next week and drop high temperatures into the low 80s. I may need to plan a day off from work.
The dog days of summer continue into September as temperatures continue to venture into triple digit territory. The stress of high temperatures and lack of rain are evident in lake levels, plants and wildlife. Take this squirrel that has been hanging out in my backyard lately.
He seems to be suffering from heat exhaustion as he hangs his body over this branch.
A few moments later, he turns the other direction in an effort to find some comfort in the heat.
Still no relief, so he turns again.
Even as I approach, he (or maybe I should have said she?) is too exhausted to acknowledge my presence.
The garden looks a little tired too. This is always my least favorite time for my native plant garden. Few plants are blooming and it just looks a little messy to me. I have to keep reminding myself that it is resting in preparation for the burst of life that will come in the next few weeks. In this photo, the spiky stems of Gayfeather, Liatris, are everywhere and the lanky stems of Pitcher Sage, Salvia azurea, are topped with blue flowers.
To help control the messy look and prepare for the fall blooming season, I pruned some plants a couple of weeks ago. Some of the plants were pruned more severely than others. There are several Zexmenia, Wedelia texana, in the now open space in this photo. The plants had grown to one foot diameter loose balls of seedheads, so I whacked the plants within inches of the ground to visually open this area and to allow the plants to regrow for fall blooming. I did not prune all of the Zexmenia this severely. I only removed an inch or two of growth from some plants and left others alone if they were still blooming.
I was very tempted to cut back some of the Gayfeather so some of the other plants, like this Pale-leaf Yucca, Yucca pallida, could be seen. I resisted the temptation because the Gayfeather are weeks away from being in full bloom. I do think I will remove some of the Gayfeather next year and group them together instead of letting them cover the entire front garden.
The Rock Penstemon, Penstemon baccharifolius, were in a down time between blooms, so I took the opportunity to shape the plants by removing a couple of inches of the tip growth. I did the same thing with the Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii. To the right of the Rock Penstemon is a Zexmenia that I did not prune because it was still blooming. This one now has several gray seedheads that rise above the foliage and I may end up pruning them off before the fall blooming starts.
I cut back this Mexican Feathergrass because most of the leaves had turned to as straw color. Fresh green growth sprouted quickly.
Another shot showing all of the Gayfeather in the garden. This will be a sea of purple in another month. Unlike the spring and fall, flowers are few and far between in the heat of the summer, but they are out there if you look around. The white flowers of Angel's Trumpet, Datura wrightii, are hard to miss when they are blooming in the evening and morning hours. This is one of the plants I mentioned in the last post that sprouted where it wanted to.
The red flowers of Scarlet Sage, Salvia coccinea, white flowers of Clammyweed, Polanisia dodecandra, and blue flowers of Pitcher Sage bloom among the inflorescence of Pine Muhly, Muhlenbergia dubia. Some of the brown seedheads from this spring's Echinacea are still around because I find some beauty in them and the birds may eat the seeds.
I really like the white, curly filaments on the leaves of this Hesperaloe funifera (?). This is its first year in the garden. I really hope it blooms next year so I can give a positive identification of the plant. It was sold as Giant Red Yucca.
These are the flowers of the Pitcher Sage shown in the first garden photo above. The flowers are favorite of bees and hummingbirds.
These are the flowers of the Pitcher Sage that grows in the backyard. The flowers of this plant are a darker blue than the flowers of the plant in the front yard and this plant is less upright than the plant in the front yard. Some of the Little Bluestem leaves in the background are beginning to turn colors.
Rain Lilies, Cooperia drummondii, bloomed last week, but not because of rain. I think these must have been tricked into blooming because I watered the backyard garden for the second time this year.
Skeleton-leaf Goldeneye, Viguiera stenoloba, laughs at the heat and drought and continues to bloom. I will need to find a new location for this plant next year because it blocks the view of the stock tank from the street.
I carefully removed most of the Horsemint, Monarda citriodora, seedheads when I was on my pruning spree. These seedheads are full of seeds and I wanted to control the number of seedlings that come up in the garden (and pathways) next spring. I left the seedheads of this plant in tact because they are attractive and this plant bloomed longer than all the others. Salvia greggii blooms in the background.
Flame Acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus v. Wrightii, is always a popular stop for hummingbirds.
Seep Muhly, Muhlenbergia reverchonii, is not quite as impressive as it's cousin Gulf Muhly, Muhlenbergia capillaris, but it is still attractive and it blooms earlier.
The lush green plant in the center of this photo is Prairie Flameleaf Sumac, Rhus lanceolata. It was a small twig when I bought it in January. I am amazed at how much it has grown considering I moved it three or four times before I settled on this spot. I saw one today at the Plano Environmental Education Center that formed a large forest and now I am rethinking the placement of this plant again. Looking to the left of the sumac is a sign that the dog days of summer are beginning to come to an end.
The Eryngo, Eryngium leavenworthii, is one of the first late season flowers to begin blooming each year.
The plants are often unattractive and the leaves are spiny, but those purple flowers are tough to beat.
Another sign that summer is coming to a close is that the berries on American Beautyberry are turning purple. This shrub is native to east Texas and prefers a little more water than it gets in my garden. As a result, the leaves often wilt during the hot, dry times of the year.
This morning the garden received a little relief from the dog days of summer in the form of rain and slightly cooler temperatures. It was only enough to make things wet, but I will take any rain that I can get.
I took a few pictures of the wet garden. These are wide shots because I periodically receive requests to show different angles of the garden. Wide Shots is also the title of Xericstyle's new meme. The idea is to post a wide shot of the garden on the first of each month. Below are two wide shots of the front garden and two wide shots of the back garden.
This is the front garden looking southeast.
Front garden looking southwest.
Back garden looking southeast.
Back garden looking southwest. Go to the Xericstyle blog to see her Wide Shot for September.
