Blooming in spite of it all

I promise I took these shots on the 15th, though I'm a little late posting for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  Some plants are carrying on bravely but look somewhat washed out in our harsh summer light.

One of my favorite is gomphrena--here are the red and purple varieties against a background of trailing lantana.

This summer snapdragon (angelonia ) is true to its nickname.  Next to it is a supertunia picked up at Shoal Creek.  In June it browned back severely, so I cut it back to a few green stubs, and this is its comeback--super.

If they're lucky, my several plumbagos get some water about once a week.

This dianthus was potted three years ago.  The cleome seeds itself everywhere.  Zexmenia (background) would live in hell if it had to.

Thyrallis looks spring-like and fragile but will bloom in the heat for a long time.

Passionvine blooms seem to come in waves--this week about ten popped up on this plant.

Pigeonberry--the happy little groundcover that continues growing and blooming even while forming its red berries.

And what would I do without my giant flame acanthus bush within a few feet of my back porch.  Hummingbirds galore!

Elsewhere in the garden-- riots of orange cosmos, four-nerve daisy, Black n Blue salvia, indigo spires, frogfruit with its tiny white blossoms, tropical sage, Pride of Barbados, and the ubiquitous blackfoot daisy.
Can we keep this up for another month?



The dead, wounded, and missing in action

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings

To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:

He withers all in silence, and his hand

Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

- William Blake, Poetical Sketches - Winter, 1783

It's taken a couple of bleak winter weeks (and I hope they're the last this year) to prompt me to post after a long hiatus. Texas gardeners are fond of taking risks with marginally hardy plant, and this year has proved which ones have true mettle. The scene last week didn't look promising.
In my garden some things definitely look dead, such as this no-name euphorbia that once upon a time was upright

and the pretty pine-cone cactus that has lost its oomph.

Another of my favorite succulents looks like it has some real green left; it's not an upright form, so its recumbent state is normal.

The society garlic, of which I have many, looked like goners, but then I noticed some bright green at the centers.

I was worried that my manfreda undulata "chocolate chips" that I had dug up and divided when it pupped in the fall would be mush, but it looks like the center spike has life.

I saved what little bulbine survived last year's 17 degrees and replanted it. Through that act of natural selection, it looks like it will pull through.

Aloe "lizard lips," my favorite variegated aloe, earns a gold star for being hardy enough to survive two winters without being brought inside.

In the vegetable garden, the more exotic plants in the mesclun mix are toast

and the more common lettuces like Red Sails and Salad Bowl are a little shriveled but still growing.

The sweet bay tree is still green and pretty with its snow frosting. Other things I found healthy and green: lambs' ears, Mexican oregano, both kinds of rosemary, lavender, oregano, and snapdragons.  Those paperwhites that had dared to start blooming lost their heads.

Finally, just so we don't lose our perspective on how our weather contrasts with the east coast, this weather map sent to me by a friend in New Hampshire: