Strawberry Fields Gomphrena October 13, 2017

Growing amidst the Fireworks Gomphrena is a plant of Strawberry Fields that I grew from seed.  I really like the color, and I will try to grow more of it next year.

Red Firespike October 13, 2017

Another fall bloomer - Firespike.  This one likes shade.  It dies back to the ground in the winter here in zone 8B, but in my Houston garden it stayed green all year.

Country Girl Mum October 10, 2017

I just bought these two plants.  I have some growing in the Rose Garden which I planted two summer ago, but I took a picture of these because the ones in the Rose Garden need staking, and I haven't gotten around to it yet.  Country Girl is a very old-fashioned variety.  When fall rolls around it send up two feet tall stems with flowers that branch out from there. The new chrysanthemum varieties are very compact.  Country Girl spreads by underground stolons, and it stays green all year which means it makes a pretty decent ground cover in the spring, summer and winter.  In the fall it starts its growing spurt and the low-growing ground cover starts to get more lush and full.  Then the flower head branches shoot up.  The flowers are very, very pale purple.  In the bottom picture you can see that these are new plants, they have not begun spreading yet, but when I pulled them out of the pots I gently spread the little green shoots out all around the mother plant to get them started.

Juana's Orange Amaranth October 1, 2017

Amaranth gets really tall!  I did my usual over-crowding when I planted it, so it is very leggy.  One of the plants broke off at the top, and I see that's the way to go - lop off the top and you get a lot of branching.  I will do that next year.  A fun and pretty plant to grow.  Here in Texas where I garden I think it is best to plant it in the summer rather than the spring.  I planted it in the spring two years ago, and the bugs chewed on it until the leaves were like lace.  Not attractive.  This year I planted it in the summer and had no problem with insects.  Whatever insects were so enamored of my amaranth in the spring were already dead or dormant by the time I was growing it this summer.  Insects have a very short season.  The insects that thrive in the spring are different than the ones that thrive in June.  Japanese beetles are an example of that, they arrive in spring, just in time to wreak havoc on my roses.  By the end of spring they have laid their eggs in the soil and died away.

 Below, this is the plant that broke at the top.  It shot out four branches, and I have many more seed heads as a result. 

White Philippine Violet September 30, 2017

This is a new discovery for me.  I saw it blooming last fall at the Antique Rose Emporium.  I hunted down an employee to ask them what it was.  Barleria, or common name Philippine Violet.  I had never heard of it.  That is why it's good to go to display gardens at various times of the year to see what is blooming.  It is a fall bloomer, and it likes shade.  Two things I really like:  fall bloomers and anything that is a shade plant that blooms.  There is a white variety and a purple variety.  They didn't have any for sale at the Rose Emporium, but I found some at the Arbor Gate.  It is a perennial, not a shrub, although it gets about 3-4 feet by 3 feet every year.  In cold winters it dies to the ground and then comes up from the roots.  It is cold hardy, but last winter the weather dropped 40 degrees in a few hours, and I lost several of the plants I put in - the purple ones, unfortunately.  But I have two white ones at the entrance to the Boardwalk Garden and two in the Star Garden.  I really like them, and I plan on getting the purple variety to plant in the Infinity Garden next spring.  They set seed, so I can start some plants from seed and put some in the Shade Garden as well.

Above, this plant is not yet in bloom, but the light was right for displaying the size of the plant.

Ageratum October 1, 2017

This is Wayside Ageratum which is referred to as a perennial ageratum.  I don't find this to be perennial, as soon as the flower heads turn to seed the plants dries up.  I pull it all up, shake the seeds onto the ground and throw the dead plants away.  Next summer zillions of little plants pop up.  They stay very small through the summer and then in September they make a huge growth spurt and then bloom.

Pringle Aster and Ageratum October 1, 2017

This time of year, my ageratum is blooming everywhere.  It is the same ageratum that grows wild on our property (or I should say it looks exactly like the wild ageratum).  It completely takes over in the Star Garden, and I love it. It looks really pretty with the white Pringle Aster.