A Flush of Fall Flowers After a One Inch Rain!

The desert blooms after a rain. And since we seem to be in an endless cycle of aridity, a number of flowers jumped at the chance to bloom after our recent 3 days of rain. Sadly, the heat and drought are back...until the next rain. For now, we enjoy the flowers.

28 flowers on this Setcreasea were in bloom yesterday morning. A new record for Tropical Texana!

They ramble all over the place and I love it!

This orange Justicia is also blooming at a record pace.

The blackfoot daisy went dormant during the heat, but now is back. I really like this plant!

I worked hard to keep this purple lantana alive and it has paid off. It's sweeping over the agaves in waves.

...and waves. Our car lights were fixed on it one night and we saw a garden fairy moth going from flower to flower. Nice to know that it's a pollen source for that elusive creature.

Of course, the agaves have enjoyed the rain as well and they have had a nice summer...probably the only plants that can say such a thing.

That's it from Tropical Texana.

Special note: I've changed the wallpaper on my website thanks to a lead from my friend over in Miami.  If you use blogger, it's free and they have some really nice ones.

I was happy to find one that matched my style.  I'm just amazed how something as simple as a background can change the whole feel of a garden blog. Hope you like it.

Thanks for visiting.

David/ :-)

HEN HAPPENINGS: CHICK RESCUE & OUR NEW PECKING ORDER

My friend at school popped her head inside my door and asked if I wanted a chicken? A chicken?
Yes. Her daughter had rescued a stray chicken from certain death by her cat. It was cute, but she couldn't keep it. The only other option was a coworker who said she'd take it home and fatten it up before cooking it.
I said yes.
Her name is Mary Marco Marie de la Boca de Gato and she was someone's pet.

She has that classic Spanish name because she actually reminds me of a baby Caracara or Majestic Mexican Eagle.

(Source: Wikipedia)

                                   Of course the odds of finding a baby Caracara roaming the neighborhood is

just a bit remote.

The first night it looked more like a baby black vulture. But there again, I don't

think black vulture babies are all that common for your cat to find.

Mary Marco Marie is very tame and loving but was not well taken care of.

It was probably just fed bread. Already, after just 4 days on a good diet of high protein chick feed, the 'vulture' skin is growing tiny feathers. The other stiff, ragged feathers will also recover.

She'll also gain weight.

She looks very small and young, but she acts much older than her appearance.

She's got a great, loving personality and of course, she IS a chicken.

I 'Caracara' a lot for her.
And who knows, maybe someday with care she'll soar all the way across the garden!

That's it for this episode of Hen Happenings.

Hope to post 'Rainfall Happenings' soon, but that's not likely.

The cold front was a flop and we're back to dry and hot weather. Ugh!

David/ :-)

TODAY'S RAINFALL IN HARRIS COUNTY: ALL STATIONS GOT RAIN!

The last cloud of the day.

HARRIS COUNTY TEXAS

It was hit or miss. The red areas got the most, but even those areas had dramatic differences. Click to enlarge. The link to this data is on my left sidebar for future use. :-)

Woke up to thunder and a storm today. We got .70" here at Tropical Texana...one of the red areas.

Lots of storms around the Texas Gulf Coast these past 3 days. It's a start. Maybe by Thursday more parts of Texas will see rain. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

About 80% of the pine trees are dead at the Arboretum due to the 2011 drought.

David/

WHAT SIN LOOKS LIKE DURING A DROUGHT...

I turn the water off while I brush my teeth. This saves about 1/10 of a gallon of our precious water during this hideous drought.
I use as little as possible to water my drought tolerant plants. This saves water as well.
So...
please tell me why the city workers do this?

Oh, might I add...we ate out at 12:00 and went back down the SAME street at 12:45. It was still going.
I looked up the flow rate for something like this...it's a minimum of 250GPM (gallons per minute). In one hour that would be 15,000 gallons of water down the strom sewer...more than 2 months of water for my family of four! They say it's to clean out rust, but for how long? Won't running it a few minutes do the same?
Watson Street in the Woodland Heights Addition.

I'M NOW A MEMBER OF THE LONE STAR CHAPTER OF GARDENERS WHO JUMP FOR JOY TO GET .32" OF RAIN

                                             I was so excited I put this image on my header!

The black bamboo glistens in the rare rainfall. The tenacity of bamboo has gained my respect

during this drought. As a member of the grass family, it has both a shallow and deep set of roots

that can cope with extremes. It's one of the few tropicals that look good right now.

I'm not feeling bad about this runoff. Every drop ran along our foundation and soaked in in minutes. Many Houston

homes have cracked foundations since this drought has dried out the soil unevenly.

The chickens were thrilled to see rain since the bugs get active and provide a snack.

This Arrowhead groundcover (Syngonium podophyllum) is another plant that somehow endures

extreme conditions and utilizes every drop of rain. It comes back from hard freezes if covered with a leaf mulch.

I could show you all the dead plants from the drought, but instead I'll show you this remarkable

Spearmint plant that continues to amaze me. Its buddies are all in pots that...yes...have

been watered weekly in order to survive.

May we all get rain soon!

Thanks for stopping by.

David/ :-)



GARDEN SNAPSHOT: WHAT'S ON MY MIND TODAY

NOTE: This is mostly for my own benefit, but if you want to take a look inside my brain, read on:

Funny balloon we used for helium payload experiments in my classroom today.

This will be my expression when it rains!

Not so funny...another wildfire on my way home from work. This one was at George Bush Park west of the city.

IT'S ALMOST THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER AND THIS IS WHAT'S ON MY MIND TODAY:

1)Why was it 102 degrees this afternoon?
2) My beautiful camphor tree is wilted and the leaves are turning brown. The head of landscaping at U of H says it takes 500 gallons of water per week to keep larger trees alive at this point in the drought. I don't have that much water to spend. The 2 loquats are still being watered and hanging on though wilted.
3) My neighbor's Alaskan Malamute got out and into my yard while I had my 4 chickens out for their daily 'free range' time. The dog ran out the gate while I threw Hoot and Phoebe into the house and scooped up Zeebee and threw her into the hen house. I chased Gwen around since she was panic stricken. Got her safely into the hen house but I bumped her head on a board when I stuffed her into the pop door. She said 'Squaaaack!' The two chickens stuck in our house for awhile were baffled by the tile floor. My neighbor has to fix the hole in his fence.
4) Saw another fire today near my school. It was in a wooded area in a large park west of the city.
5) It is forecast to rain 5 days in a row later this month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.6) My water bill is the highest ever at 12,000 gallons. We've had .05 inches of rain this month....about equal to nothing.
7) I have listed about 35 tropical looking plants that still look good despite the drought...a list I'll use if we have another drought year in 2012. The agaves all look fine.
8) I'm turning most of my yard into gravel if we have 11 inches of rain next year. I will pretend I live in Marfa, Texas far to the west.
9) Rain or shine,
drought or flood,
freeze or heat wave,
I will continue to write a Garden Blog.

HOW TO MAKE A SODA CAN HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER

Yesterday I visited Cindy at My Corner of Katy and was delighted to see hummingbirds in her beautiful garden. She's got one of their favorite plants in bloom ~Turk's Cap.  Today I saw a hummer in my yard, but due to the drought, I have no red flowers in bloom. So, during this emergency, I fall back on making some quick soda can hummingbird feeders.

My first customer...a honeybee.

Cut an upsidedown "U"  shape about 1 inch (2 1/2 cm) from the bottom. Make 3 of these around the can.

Push in the metal so that it forms an opening as shown above. Be careful not to scratch yourself on the edges. Hang it outside, then fill it until it overflows.

You do not need to add red color to the sugar water.

As long as there's some red on the can, you can leave it "plain" or make a "Deluxe" model with red paper and stickers.

I use red paper and stickers if it is a green can. Flower shaped red stickers would be nice, but I didn't have any handy.

I hope to see some hummingbirds tomorrow.

I got this idea from some people camping in a state park in Arkansas. They had made 10 of them and hung them all over their camping area as a temporary attraction for these lovely birds. The hummingbirds swarmed around them endlessly.

Try it!  David/ :-)

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WILDFIRES IN TEXAS~ BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK

We woke up to smoke from the tri-county Riley Road Fire this week. No outdoor cooking fires allowed in city parks as of today! Drought continues with no rain in the forecast for the next week.



I drove through smoke two times this week. At school, recess was cancelled one day due to poor air quality and smoke. Drought is a nasty business for gardeners. But it's much worse than that. Once forests get to a certain level, the dry conditions and wind can fan even the smallest fire into a roaring blaze. All of these fires are monitored by the Texas Forest Service. I have friends there, so I know how profoundly sad it must be for them to file these reports. I was shocked at the number of homes destroyed so far. If you want to read more, click on their first hand situation reports.  The fine people at the Texas Forest Service are devoted to ending these fires and work tirelessly with local fire departments to do so.

http://ticc.tamu.edu/Documents/Home/tx_sitrep.pdf

WOW! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? HAPPY MACRO MONDAY

The bare fence next to our church parking lot is never reason to look up. But this morning after services, I was dumbfounded. What was that across the parking lot blooming in all its glory!!!!

No hint of distress after a week of temperatures from 100 to 109F. I'm taking notice!

Let's review: I have a tropical garden, a fence, and a sunny spot. Hmmm....now would I want to see this scene from a chair in my backyard?  Uh....why yes, I would.

Beautiful leaves, graceful trailing vines, multicolored exotic flowers. Heat tolerant.

I'll be buying a RANGOON CREEPER next year...drought or no drought.

It's got a cool Latin name, but I don't know it. Anyone know?

Happy Macro Monday

Visit Lisa, our gracious host, at http://lisaschaos.com/ for more beautiful surprises.

David/ :-)

MY AGAVE COLLECTION PART 1: THE SOFTER SIDE OF AGAVES

I divide my agave collection into 3 kinds according to what happens when you fall on one:
Soft Agaves ~ You say 'oops' and keep gardening.
Specialty Agaves ~  You say 'Ouch!' and get a bandaid.
Serious Agaves ~ We don't let small children or pets near these. Burglar deterrent.

SOFT AGAVES
These are my favorites. You will have a difficult time finding them in nurseries along the Texas coast. Rarely offered and some are mail order only. Austin, Texas will have some and so will California and Arizona. You will need to protect most of these from freeze damage and some from excessive watering.

Agave attenuata

The beautiful, oval powdery green leaves are almost surrealistic. Very frost tender and brittle leaves are the downside to this one. Rarely offsets here in Houston. I've read it grows commonly in San Diego, California. Mine is in dappled light and a clay pot with quick draining, sandy loam soil. Forms a stem over time. Likes to be pot bound. Stays in a sunny southern window in the winter. A similar plant called 'Nova' is shown below.

Both versions are worth all the fuss!

Agave celsii

Similar to attenuata but armed with a harmless row of tiny teeth. Likes to grow in bright shade. Can take frost down to 26 degrees here. Offsets slowly. Turns yellowish and less attractive in Houston's full sun. Prefers more water than most. I lost this one to the agave weevil, but will try to grow this again. Very beautiful in clusters or as a single specimen. There are some growing along Sunset Blvd across the street from Rice University.

Rarely offered in Houston, but found mine at Wal-mart.

Agave celsii 'Nova'

One of the parents of this hybrid is celsii; the other is unknown. Notice that it has a tiny row of teeth. A bit stronger than the parent and less susceptible to frost damage (still, I'm taking no chances). Looks very delicate, but grows quickly and can take temperatures up to 109. Not sure if it offsets, but I hope it does.

The other parent is a subject of discussion by Agave experts and plantsmen.

Loves dappled light and water if in a well-drained clay pot. Very similar to attenuata.

Agave 'Unknown'

I took lots of these little plantlets off  a bloom stem in my brother's yard in College Station, Texas.

It was a tall bloom stem with many yellow sessile buds opening a few at time all the way up to the top.

It might be close to an A. bracteosa bloom spike, but not sure.

Very slow growing and really needs to be kept from frost. I let mine fight it out both winters and they took an entire year to regrow.

Agave bracteosa ~ Squid agave

Can grow in dappled light under a tree. This one took temperatures down to 25F with no freeze damage.

Leaves are very brittle, so leave lots of space around it. Slow growing, but keeps adding those cool leaves year round.

Agave desmettiana (Regular version)

I lost my beautiful, full grown plants during the heavy freezes. All I have are these little ones. I'll try to find a picture of the full grown parent.

Agave desmettiana (toothed cultivar)

I have seen these offered in Houston. Offsets freely. Protect from frost. Nice blue green color.

Agave desmettiana variegata ( usual variegation pattern on edge)

Agave desmettiana variegata (highly variegated patterns)

This is one of the most beautiful desmettianas I have and I was lucky to find it. This one offsets freely, but the variegation patterns of the babies are not set until they grow older. I'm not sure if this parent transfers its bold pattern. I hope so.

Agave 'NOT SURE' 

I thought it was Agave weberi until I found a weberi for sale. It's a beautiful plant, takes heavy freezes with NO damage, and offsets like there's no tomorrow. Can tolerate flooding, but prefers it dry.

Never for sale at nurseries, but passed along from people in Mexico to their friends. Found in many parts of Houston.

Agave weberi

Agave desmettiana 'Joe Hoak'

Very beautiful and rare here in Houston. I had to buy it mail order from Florida. Grow it in bright shade the first 3 years. Grows very slowly. Beautiful variegation patterns make it stand out from a distance.

For comparisons: Regular variegated desmettiana on top, 'Joe Hoak' on the bottom. It looks whitish green.

Agave 'Nova' on the right.

Whew! So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Thanks for stopping by.

David/ :-)