...

The Mexican olive tree is loaded with fat fruit also. Too bad they are not real olives. But I'll bet its large white flowers are not far behind ...

My one huge bush of Evergreen sumac is covered with flowers. If you don't have this -- get one! It's gorgeous ...

One of the stars of this long hot summer has been Yucca 'Brake Lights'. Notice the new little plants starting along the blooming stems. A big 'thank you' to Lorelei who gave me three "plantlets" from her first plant several years ago when the cultivar first came out ...

Kidney wood is another fragrant tree that blooms repeatedly, especially after a rain...

Continued next post ...

...

The vines have awakened and are stretching ...

What has the rain awakened in your garden? You are welcome to add photos on this thread. We want to hear about it, and if you have photos, to see them too ... :-)

Just one more ...

Edit: Know enough to copy before hitting "submit" these days - this was 3rd attempt to post and apparently still missed the first paragraph in the copy. Was just adding that your Almond verbena is wonderful with and without it's unique rain induced form. Our Kidneywood is also flowering like crazy, but flops badly from its unnaturally rapid growth in our rich clay; have added a second 8ft metal post, and while cherished by the pollinators, it's not yet a pretty picture.

Much of the butterfly hodgepodge garden has been blooming some since early summer, but the rain seems to have started the autumn sages, rock roses, and Turkscaps on their normally stongest fall stretch... while the horseherb and morning glories make yet another push for garden conquest:

One of the new little bluestems has started flowering. Planted these thinking the phlomis had been killed in a wet late freeze.... now looking like will have to move one or the other next year. The phlomis has not bloomed yet and I've since read it can be unreliable about flowering in Texas - so suppose decision is made if no flowers next spring. Still worth a spot somewhere for the foliage alone (and yes, Ragna, those are scions of your First Lady phlox and Little Bunny dwarf fountain grass poking in from the edge):

But our three greatest rain awakenings are probably weeds, fungi, and fire ants.

Haven't yet figured out the new "guess right or fail" GW photo limit or would have added a shout out to the nice burst of blooms from the native violet ruellia (R. nudiflora) we use (tolerate?) as a no-water groundcover in the alley:

Your butterfly garden is wonderful! I have the native ruellia growing in my easement too. And that is where it's going to stay.

I had to look it up to see what phlomis is. I don't grow it myself, but I've seen Jerusalem sage blooming very well around here. I wish you well with it.

As for how many pictures are allowed I tried eight in the first post and yes I copied before posting also Good thing I did because they wouldn't go through. Maybe four is the magic number, I dunno'.

Thanks for the advice. Think I tried eight photos the first time and probably five the second - will keep it to four or less for now.

I was concerned the Ruellia might start showing up in our neighbors' spaces, but has not been a problem for more than seven or so years - though it does show up where not wanted elsewhere in our own yard. We are not as aggressive with pre-emergents as in the past when we followed the TAMU lawn calendar.

Our Phlomis is 'Edward Bowles' (AKA 'Grande Verde') which is believed to be a hybrid of Jerusalem sage (P. fruticosa) and Turkish sage (P. russeliana), though still commonly tagged as Jerusalem sage in the trade. Info varies quite a bit by source, but believe this runs slightly smaller than P. fruticosa. Evergreen in it's native zones, so am speculating the winter die-back might be what does in the blooms. It was close - ours stayed green until the last hard freeze which was no colder than earlier ones, but much wetter.

Gorgeous specimens and photos, as always, Roselee. Love to look at your pretty gardens.

File this in the oddity department: it was so terribly dry this poor little school house lily didn't have enough moisture to make a stem to bloom on, but it bloomed -- right at ground level! Photo taken before the rain ...

Roselee, on the flopping almond verbenas, I tend get big broken branches, so watch out.

The last pic looks like hippeastrum not rhodophiala bifida. BTW, I also have hippies blooming now, weird!

Bossy, thanks for the ID. I wondered if perhaps it was something else because of the lighter colored throat and wider petals..

It could be hippeastrum johnsonii.

Phenomenal! Photographs and gardening go hand in hand. The rain restored all the plants to their former glory! Winding paths showcase a rich and restored palette of perennials, shrubs, trees and bulbs Tthe visual walk, as always, includes bountiful descriptions such as ....'Almond verbena tree not only has burst into bloom, but it took on an oddly, but beautiful pendulous form due the weight of rain drops. Love it all! Thanks, Ragna!

Can y'all stand a few more photos?

With more buds opening up the 'weeping' Almond verbena almost looks like a white wisteria. Well, I can dream, can't I ... :-)

My young althea has struggled so through the hot and dry summer I had to put an umbrella over it. It's really rallied with the rain though and produced several flowers ...

No rallying required of the porterweeds and bougies. They take all the sun and heat that Texas can throw at them. This one came up from seeds that fell into the pot it was in last year ...

And then there's Alfie ... :-)

Anybody else have some interesting responses to the rain. I think we've had about 13 or 14 inches altogether in the last week ... :-)

Wow Bossy -- what a show! I've never been much of a lily person, but that makes me think again.

Its taken a few days for me to get my act together but the rain sure pushed out the school house lillies. Talk about maintenance free gardening.

Similar refreshment, inspired by roselee’s gomphrena fireworks, I reworked a bed formerly dominated by a large shrub rose decimated by rose rosette. With the butterflies I don’t miss it as much . . .

And roses are blooming again

Mara, those patches of school house lillies scattered here and there are looking GREAT! So is the kitty, and the white lilies too!

Dreamr, loved seeing the photos of your garden. Sorry about the rose, but the Gomphrena 'fire works' sure filled in nicely. It comes back from the roots for me. That's an interesting dark stemmed EE (?) in the foreground.

Is that Canna 'pretoria'? It's one of my all time favorites.

What are the red flowers in the last photo? A little rose, maybe?

My gomphrena come back from seeds here. There is a difference between SA and here. I must be closer to 8A than 8B and you are closer to 9a. My lille display is now starting the red spiders. I think the drought is making fewer of them, this year. That cat is Lionel, a quiet 18 lb. gentle giant

Ragna, how often does the vita and the almond verbena get water in the summer? Are they in pots or the ground? Bostedo, my phloomis is a flowering fool here west of Austin. Just a wee bit south of you.

I have four vitex and three almond verbena; all planted in the ground. All are surprisingly drought tolerant. If it doesn't rain they get watered when I see them wilting a bit, which is maybe once a every four to six weeks.

The almond verbena in the photos above is near the rooting/potting area so in a normal year it gets a few shallow sprinkles when they are watered. However, this year my little pots of plants were passed along to Patty to take care of.

The newest vitex is the purple leafed one. It's in full sun and even though it came as a very small plant early this year, it rarely wilted through a summer of unintended neglect. The back of the leaves are becoming more purple by the day. I'm wondering if that's due to maturity, the rain, or slightly cooler weather.

Omar, we discussed the lack of purple coloration on the back of the leaves earlier in the year. How is yours doing now?

Mara, eighteen pounds and your cat does not look fat. Is he a puma/house cat mix or what? ;-)

I have 2 big 20 gallon pot that I am looking at filling.

Mara, I believe the plants will work well in those pots.

A couple more shots. Striped beauty canna among yellow flowers of perennial arugula ...

Plant this: Calliandra californica "Baja fairy duster"...

Needs very little water, blooms in flushes throughout the summer, dies to ground with first freeze, returns quickly in spring. Grows fast. Planted in 2016 ...

My one little patch of school house lillies ...

We've received 19 inches of rain the last couple of weeks, which is the 2nd highest amount of rainfall for September on record.

Still impressed with fast growth and purple backed leaves of this vitex. Whether it freezes to the ground remains to be seen. If it does, it's supposed to return ...

Ragna, September is not over a possible 3"+ this weekend. We are at 11 -12"

Roselee, i am astonishised that your 'gomphrena come back from seeds.' .... Lovely.!' Alfie looks just like Toto on the 'yellow brick road' .... comfy and so precious!

Mara, Does kitty have a name ? She is so pretty! Thanks for the pics.

Irene, one of the 'fire works' you gave me to get me started. I liked it so much I bought a couple more. They are so easy to grow, require little water, never stop blooming all summer, butterflies love them, and they always come back.

"Toto on the yellow brick road" ... I like that! :-)

My gomphrena comes back from seed but not the roots.

Roselee, PLV will freeze and will return. It does in my z9a. I like its fragrance.

Ragna, mine is like yours. Just a hue of purple. Nice but nothing compared with Charlotte's. The first time I saw it from far I thought it was a bush full of purple flowers. The effect was caused by the leaves flipped by the wind. The variegated Vitex is also nice.

Omar

Omar, perhaps it would be worth it to get some cuttings from Charlotte's bush to root if it is a better cultivar than ours.

Here is Linda Collins bush taken at her garden at Rockport. Did Charlotte's look more it this?

She called it 'tricolor vitex' ...

That's the variegated vitex behind it. More photos are on the link above.

Bossy, how does the purple hue on your bush compare to the color of ours or Linda's?

Yeah, it was more like Linda's. I got some cuttings last year at the end of the fall. Not all of them took in water and I failed on providing more sun to those cuttings that took so I ended up loosing all of them. :(

Omar

Well, thank you for trying ...

Still wondering if the amount of color in the leaves has something to do with soil pH and fertility, temperature, and/or maturity. As mentioned before, the leaves on mine have gotten a lot more purple with maturity and cooler temperatures.

I guess time will tell...

Omar

I just bought a almond verbena. The ride home with the blooming bush was heavenly. The guy at the nursery says that I am at the edge of hardiness. He lives near by and grows one, but says I need to protect the first year and make sure I mulch and blanket my pot or ground. After listening to him, I am thinking I better put it in the ground.

In my experience almond verbenas are not fussy about soil. My three just went into a small hole years ago and grew quickly.

How much sun/shade does it get?

None of mine are in full sun. The one pictured above has lots of trees around it and I'd guess the top half of the tree probably gets 4/5 hours of sun. One of the others gets less sun and even less water and blooms less. The third probably about half day of sun and blooms a lot.

Thank You.... I am thinking. The plant is still in the car. I have a spot that is north of an oak and will get eastern summer sun and morning and mid day sun , some early morning shade and then early afternoon shade and VERY late afternoon sun maybe.

Talking about land responding to rain. Look at ALL the agave babies sprouting where my flower stalk landed. I have some weeding to do. I think every seed sprouted.

So that's what seedling agaves look like? Oh my! Wanna' borrow my Pik Stik? ... ;-)

too small for that fumbling pic stic

So sorry for the late reply, my gomphrena dies back but reseeds; the canna is Pretoria/Bengal tiger, the dark stemmed colocasia is “teacup” and the little red rose is Red cascade or it’s relative Magic dragon as they are intertwined. If you like dark elephant ears, “black coral” has been my most dramatic . . .

Dreamr, that Colocasia black coral is absolutely STUNNING. I'll be watching for it to come to a nursery near me. You've paired it nicely with the other dark foliaged plant. What is it? I like the trellis too ... :-)

Thank you roselee, it is an alternanthera hybrid, maybe ‘purple knight’; it’s come a long way from a 2 inch planted in spring. The first frost will get it though. I left the colocasia in its nursery pot because I plan to overwinter it in the garage or house, but it does love this east facing location.