I’ve been out of town for a trade show all week, and JUST got back at 11:30 last night. So what did the morning (the late morning) entail aside from eating tacos and three cups of coffee and enjoying hanging out with my family again? That’s right, this morning it was time for a garden stroll, even if it was on painfully blistered feet!

First stop- the seed tray on the back corner of the driveway slab for a bit of a downer. I planted three lobed coneflower seeds with the toddler on Sunday in a seed tray with a plastic cover and honestly thought they’d be fine until I got back. And they would have been… if the cover hadn’t blown off- the soil was bone dry. It doesn’t look like they germinated, but we all know how delicate this process is… fingers crossed for the whole lot.

I saw these flowers at my aunt’s house this summer- I’d never seen any rudbeckias other than the large flowered ones, so I’m really excited about these. The perpetual question of these sorts of things must be asked though: “If it does well in Minnesota, will it do well in Texas?”

Fingers also crossed because in the same tray I planted all of the Angel’s Fishing Rod seeds- I don’t have any spares. (For someone who doesn’t grow many seeds I’m awfully experimental with them this year.) Why is this so experimental? Because they’re seeds, one. And two, because I’m not sure any of these will do well here. This is a DIFFICULT climate for out of area plants. Sure it’s zone 8, so the low winter temperatures are similar to other zone 8s… like Portland, Oregon! And parts of England! But the summer temperatures… sheesh. This ain’t no Portland, lemme tell ya. Not only are the daytime temperatures extreme, but there is little to no dip in temperature at night. And that part… that’s the one that is hard for many species of plants to deal with.

I also just remembered I have some mallow and confederate rose seeds around here… somewhere. Now where did I put them so I wouldn’t forget them and then immediately lost them forever?

Also from seeds for the coming year, but less experimental: I’ll be putting in more cardinal creeper vine, and lots of red zinnias later in the season. Tithonia again? Maybe. we’ll see.

Anyway, I gave the dried out seed tray a thorough soaking and popped the cover back on. Though maybe I should leave it off because it’s 70 degrees and sunny outside today and it might heat up too much. (This is why Texan’s tend to not have greenhouses as well.) And yes, we appreciate this weather as much as we should- it doesn’t last for long.

Next up on the garden stroll? Off to the Mexican Redbud to check on the spring bloom.

My beloved Souvenir de la Malmaison rose is usually large and quartered, but this one hasn’t been in the ground a full year, and has been mostly neglected in this bed… I need to do a better job, the poor thing.

These flowers are a good 4″ to 5″ across- it’s really hard to convey the hugeness of the blooms. I bought this plant out of bloom which is a bit of a crapshoot because, somehow, there is some real variability to the bloom shape for this one. Some have perfectly pointed buds and florist shaped roses, and some have fatter buds and more of a packed and quartered bloom- luckily mine is the latter. And the flowers have a hint of fragrance as well, whereas my previous Belinda’s Dream had absolutely zero. (It had the more florist shape as well) Different growers with different parent stock maybe accounts for it.

And finally, in the front yard. The above shot is a corner of one bed (needs to be weeded) that is right on the property line. Our neighbor feeds stray cats on her front porch, and by the clear and well worn cat trail in the grass it certainly looks like our greedy gus cats are well used to helping themselves to the bounty. Looks like I need to start chipping in for some cat food costs…