Hackberry Trees, etc, #5

Thanks Sharon and Christi.
So I've still got my feet on the ground!

Hi Christi,
Good to see you.

Yep, Charlie, your feet are firmly planted, I think.

"Planted". (Double entendre?)
Not bad, Sharon!
Sure to put my mind at ease.

Heh heh, Charlie, you are quick, too!

Been trying to locate pictures of monkshoods, taken over last month, to send to thread on that plant. From now on, am intending to keep record of images and their numbers on camera cards.
Had better get to bed.
Need to garden today between the downpours (as did yesterday).
Nite Sharon,
Charlie.

Nite Chalie, have a good day tomorrow!

Look at what's blooming at my house!! Texas Star Hibiscus.....taller than I am, and so so pretty...

And look at this blue sky today, behind the hyacinth bean vine...

It was a great day, but still had to water tonight.

About the only thing that is surviving and blooming in these 100+ days is the Texas Star. I have 3 plants in various areas of the yard and they are all blooming multiple stars, too bad they only last a day like all hibiscus. Had a good rain last night and the temps have dropped. Don't know how long it will last but any little respite is wonderful. My backyard looks like a school for Mary Poppins, umbrellas and shade screens of various ilk everywhere.

Sharon, Beautiful. And beautifil sky!
Christi, glad you got some rain and temps have dropped. Amazing how different the challenges to gardening sometimes are in different parts of North America.
Some pictures from Garden 3.
Phlox, Kashmiri tree mallow and culver's root.

Purple coneflower, delphinium and culver's root.

False sunflower.

Lythrum anceps.
Not one of the two problem species.

There's a lot of helenium in this garden; most not in bloom yet.
This is 'the Bishop', but it's about half the height of the last few years.
Suspect it needed digging up (last fall) and replanting with fresh soil.

Beautiful, Charlie....
Going back outside now, will be back later with photos.
A bit hot, but I have so much weeding to do....had to come in for a break.
So later...

Oh, here's a combination of some same blooms from yesterday, and more from this morning. Still more to go...

More...

Kentucky and Ontario are so much kinder to plants. We have had an inch of rain since this time yesterday and the temps are down 25 degrees. Afraid it is too late. Everything went dormant like it was winter just trying to stay alive. My yard looks like someone used a torch from front to back. Supposed to be under 100 with more rain this week so maybe they will come back.

Christi

Lovely pictures Sharon.

Phlox in second looks a lot like the Franz Schubert in garden 3 picture,
but I get more and more confused by most summer phlox identification.
The black eyed Susan looks like Goldsturm. Recently read that elitists say Goldsturm is overused, but I feel very strongly that if it is used a lot, it is because it is such a wonderful plant.

What is the pink flower in the second picture? I also don't recognize the attractive red pods.

Love caladiums.

Interesting how you put the composite pictures together, e.g. the placement of morning glory color in the first picture. Think your art is showing!

Christi, also think Sharon's and my climates may be kinder to the humans as well. Texans must be tough! I guess though it's all relative. When my parents used to visit us from London, England, they always found it very humid as well as warm. Have got used to summer humidity myself.

Carol and I visited my parents one Christmas. You can't imagine how cold and damp Carol found their house. The philosophy was, if it's cold, put on a jumper (= a sweater). But even I felt you couldn't get away from the permeating cold dampness. After that we always went in summer. Mind you
(at least when I lived there), a North American in Southern England in summer might think "What summer?".

Charlie

Isn't that lythrum, the pink stalky flower? It's nearing the end, so the blooms aren't as pretty now.

I have another collage that I made of more blooms today, but for some reason it is being a pain to load. I'll keep trying.

The pods are on the hyacinth bean vine (Russian pea, maybe you call it).

I love black eyed susan....have pots of it sitting around too. Forgot to take a photo of the pots.

I am going to keep trying on the 3rd collage. It's quite pretty too.

Ahhhhh, think it might have worked. It includes my last daylily, some purple monarda, also mint with the garden phlox, althaea, and maybe the hollyhocks, can't see from here, and can't remember.

Oh, and two butterfly bushes, and a balloon flower at the bottom. butterfly bushes are white and purple. And more garden phlox.

Sharon,
Well worth waiting for.
Lovely vibrant colors.

Find balloon flower very useful plant. And phlox, of course.
Mildew resistant monarda is great.

Love the butterfly bushes, but they are usually not very long lived here, being killed back to ground level each winter.

Love all your daylilies. Sorry to hear it's the end of the season for them.

Mints great, as long as they're not runners.

Two obvious perennials I've never had much luck growing are hollyhocks (althaea and alcea, I think) and lupins. No real idea why with respect to the hollyhocks. Maybe they don't do well in deep mixed perennial beds, since you would have to put them towards the back because of their height.

What is the yellow flower (below the white hibiscus?).

The yellow flower is Tanacetum (tansy)...I've had it for years and years, and it is so aggravating because it has to be staked, but still I love it because it came from my great grandmother's garden.

Always nice to have a family plant like the tansy.

Just downloaded an update to the Safari - very confusing.
Have to get Tim to tell me what happened in the morning.

Also still having a periodic starting problem with this computer,
though shop doesn't seem to think there is one. Seeming to be able to get the computer going after a while. Might have to take the thing back in again. Hope not.

Had better get to bed,
Nite Sharon,
Back tomorrow,
Charlie.

See you, charlie...
hope your computer problems are little ones.

So pretty, Sharon. I have blue balloon flowers and had never seen white before. I love them. So dependable to come back every year and even in this awful heat they continue to bloom.

Good news! We have had 1 1/2 inches of rain and the temps are in the 80's. Feels like a cold wave. Forecast is for showers everyday. If so maybe some things will perk up again. When it gets so hot for so long, not only do the plants go dormant, so do the people. Sort of like the blizzard mentality. Go inside and stay there.

Christi

Hi Sharon and Christi,

Very good news about your weather, Christi.

Have heard many complaints, here, about having no summer - cool and wet!
Feel sorry for folk taking their vacation and going to cottages or lodges in cottage coutry. Here: not hot enough yet!

Re Sharon's picture and Christi's comment on balloon flower: happened to get a picture of balloon flower today (the blue version of this one). Comes in white and pink, but the pink is not as hardy as the blue and white. I've had the same experience with balloon flower here, as Christi says in Texas. Once established, it is very drought tolerant.

A couple of new blooms today....

Of course you already saw this with its first bloom, today it had 4.

And my surprise lilies, some call them naked ladies, some Resurrection Lilies...I like surprise lilies. I always worry about them every year, then suddenly they appear. I love them, too.

And this one is a re bloomer, it bloomed out about a month or more ago, and now it is starting over with all new growth. It is a large bloom,

Christi, I am glad things have cooled off for you. For me too a little bit.

Love that color, Sharon.

Suspect the hummingbirds would too.
Really do find that red does attract one (quite territorial) to our garden.

Carol loves shastra daisies, so put this one in new area of our front garden:
Phyllis Smith. It really reminds me of a hat that Phyllis Diller may have worn in the 1960's.

Very interested to see the ladies. David has talked about them in his winter slide shows. Very delicate.

I should look into reblooming daylilies. Have not seen them advertized here.
Very fond of orange.

As said I started to use daylilies about three or four years ago. Put this one (Mint Condition) into our front garden then. It was accompanied by a very pretty double orange one. Strange that the one is doing very well and the other is fading away.

Know I sent picture of approximately this part of this bed a week or two ago,
but love the colors. The Stachys is Hummelo and the Veronica has the fitting name of Purpleicious.

Didn't know how to spell Diller so looked it up on line. Saw this Phyllis Diller quote: "A smile is a curve that sets everything straight." Smart Lady!

Great pictures as always, and nice quote, too, Charlie!
You are quite literary, too.

Sharon,
Love your advice about Buddy and catmint.
Meant to ask about the cat picture in the catmint article.
It certainly isn't Daisy. And Jazz, judging from the Jazz on the ladder picture, seems more plush.
Who is the cat?
Charlie

I found the picture in plant files, and the cat belongs to someone that is mentioned at the bottom of the article, Dybburc or something like that. Can't remember now. No, not my cats, neither of them would be lying down in it like that, they would be rolling around like they had lost their minds. Or tearing through the house to fast to be seen by the human eye.

They do tend to get little crazy with catnip.

You say 'catmint' but catnip is something different, nepata cataria is cat nip, not sure the formal name for catmint. And they do have a different effect on cats. The article was on cat nip.

Slip of the tongue-pen-eye?, thought haven't consciously tried to separate the two mints.

Buddy's taken to howling for no obvious reason. We don't believe it is physical health related, but he'll be getting a check up soon.

Had better get to bed,
Nite Sharon,
Charlie.

You have a good day tomorrow, Charlie...
Ask Buddy what he's howling at. The half moon maybe??

Hi Sharon,

We assumed, for food, but now we're thinking he's lonely!

You've got me reading into catnip and catmint. Really enjoyed zoological classification when I was in Anthropology, though I am only gradually becoming familiar with complexities and complications of plant classification. Found some on-line sites use the popular terms catnip and catmint interchangeably, for Nepeta cataria. Apparently, catmint is used more in the UK. Apparently, some only use catmint for Nepeta mussonii (a horticultural form). Bet the more one reads, the more confusing the usage of the common names becomes.

The best solution (with respect to common names) would be to use catmint for the whole group (genus: Nepeta). Apparently all (true?, or some) other species in the genus Nepeta have the same effects on cats. And keep catnip for the species (N. cataria), as you do. It was interesting to read that only about 2/3 of cats are effected by catnip and that Australian cats are mostly in the non-effected group!

This is why we used to preach the use of scientific names (Linnaean binomina, etc) in Anthropolgy (and Zoology) and not the use of common names. Same obviously goes for Botany.

As you can see Sharon, I've always enjoyed dancing on the head of pins.

So it's Nepeta cataria for me, or should I say Buddy! And do you know, Buddy just may become a guinea pig (a test subject), because I've got Nepeta sibirica, Nepeta x faassenii and Nepeta subsesillis 'Candy Cat'.
If he's in the pot-head group, he should be flying high!

Could be that it will calm his nerves and he won't be so lonely.....ya think??