Friday, July 29, 2011

exceptional drought-tolerant plants

cenizo (Texas "Silverado" sage)
Looks like tropical storm Don is not going to grace Austin with any rain on this dry 45th day of triple-digit heat, so I'm celebrating my truly drought-tolerant plants. Plants that are surviving in full sun in this exceptional drought with NO supplemental water. Amazing. 
artemisia "Silver king":
This artemisia spreads fairly quickly and ends up two to three feet tall. I like it better than artemisia "Powis castle" because its foliage is more delicate. This stand came from one four-inch pot planted three or four years ago.
soft leaf yucca and rosemary:
The yuccas and rosemary appear a little stressed.
abelia
Not sure exactly which abelia this is. In "normal" springs and summers, it puts out tiny white fragrant blooms that attract bees.
front to back: agaves, gray santolina, and yucca
Sorry, but I don't know what type of agaves these are. Same story for the yucca. The white blooms are trailing lantana that I've watered every other week.
unknown sotol with gray santolina and Mexican feathergrass
I need help identifying this one! I didn't keep the tag, but I could swear its common name had the word "leather" or "rubber" in it, but I can't find it online. It spreads medium quickly and gets almost three feet tall. It blooms these teeny flowers (smaller than a pea) intermittently spring through fall:
Anyone recognize it?  EDITED 7-30-11: Husband Kurt found it! It's Jatropha dioica var. dioica, commonly known as leatherstem, leatherwood, or rubber plant.

My salvias, gaura, lantana, and plumbago are doing okay with weekly watering. Having to hand water my potted plants, herbs, and cucumbers almost daily is getting really old, so I particularly appreciate the tough guys I'm able to ignore. 

Friday, July 15, 2011

another crispy garden bloggers' bloom day

zinnia from mislabeled seed packet
I really meant to post something between bloom days, but 32 days of triple digit heat have somewhat fried my motivation and creativity. Please escape Texas' heat and visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see less dusty gardeners' blooms.
I shot this four days ago: my beloved rugged spider lily, hymenocallis 'tropical giant'
Evolvulus glomeratus 'blue daze' with blackfoot daisies in the vegetable garden.
Trailing verbena loves full sun but still needs a little bit of water in this weather.
some kind of Gerber daisy--forgot to save the tag
Armenian cucumber flower
Also hanging in there today are the following blooms: white gaura, blue plumbago, white trailing verbena, white and purple verbena, various raggedy salvias, bog sage, potted white bougainvillea, leadwort plumbago, turks cap, potted torenia, and society garlic. Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!