I got a chance to inspect my flower beds today and here are some surprises I found. Surprises, because I'm used to coming back from vacation to a lot of dead stuff. This year, I found my impatiens to have been over-watered, but mostly, I was pleased w/ the condition of my yard after being gone for 10 days. Look how full of apricots this tree is! Portion of a back yard bed w/ coneflower, rudbeckia, gallardia & lilies coneflower Four O'Clocks Lilies about to bloom (I have no idea what these are - they were here when we moved in) Phlox That funny poinsettia-related thing w/ the orange/red coloration in foliage Rudbeckia + others Rudbeckia more Rudbeckia View of a back yard bed w/ lots of Alaska Shasta Daisies (most of these seeded themselves last year) Shasta Daisies - Alaska Alaska Shastas that seeded themselves last year, which I moved to the front flower bed. Shasta Daisies - Snow Princess (I think - it's shorter than Alaska) A West Texas native sunflower Verbena
Wonderful pics WTD. I love that purple of your phlox. You have a lot of color going on right now. Glad to hear your garden survived your vacation. Thanks for sharing.
WOW...WTD... looks like you should go on vacation more often! All your flowers look great! Thanks for sharing.
Lovely blooms! I'm so glad that's what greeted you when you came home. It would have been sad if your lovely plants had gone down with sunstroke.
You must have been so pleased to see everything doing so well on your return WT. Lots of colour going on and such a lovely selection of plants. I think your lilies may be stargazers - do they have a scent when they open? Lovely to have you back again.
WTD, everything looks great. I can't believe that apricot tree, what are you going to do with them all. Your lily is a crinum lily, or milk and wine lily. It is very pretty.
All of your flowers are so beautiful. I'm very envious of all those daisies! I especially like the native west texas sunflower. I always dread seeing my flower beds when returning from vacation. I would be happy if they looked half as good as yours!
Beautiful gardens! That's quite an unusual Poinsetta type plant. I wonder how you pick all those apricots. Wow what a tree. Carol
The last batch of apricots were given to a good friend, who made preserves out of them. This tree looks like we could stock the entire shelf of a grocery store with preserves. Too bad, I don't like apricots, huh? What I'd go for is an apple tree that produces like that! Man, I like apples! I must attribute the relative health of my gardens to my nephew's good work - he is a conscientious 20 year-old, who works in farming when out of college. He understands agricultural stuff and translating that to horticultural concerns is not hard for him. We also got a couple inches of rain too! For the last several years, when we'd go on vacation, I'd hire somebody (just a local teenager) to water for me. Each of the last 2 years, I'd come home to most all hanging pots dead and large patches of my fescue & perennial rye grass dead from heat & lack of water. This year, they're all alive! The problem areas I described are not things that died, but rather weeds that sneaked up when they saw, I wasn't home to kill them. But I took a sicle to some yesterday and I'm coming after 'em this weekend! WATCH OUT, WEEDS! I'M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!!!
What a great show, WTD. It looks like your minder did an overall good job. Those flowers are looking absolutely fantastic. They are arranged nicely as well. I find that Phlox an exceptional colour. Do you recall which one it is?
Ahhh. too bad, but it's a beauty, isn't it? Of course I liked the rest of your attractive flowers, but the Phlox caught my eye because I'm partial to them. The way that yoiu have arranged your plants in the border areas looks really good and presents them quite nicely, I think. That shot of the side of your home with the 90° paving tile path looks nice and 'wooly'. It has a nice 'feel' to it. Anyway, thanks again for p[osting these very nice pics.
