From Summer to Fall

What a summer in Texas this year. Hot and dry, and well, down right miserable. It was even too hot for the mosquitoes, a fact they are not letting us forget now by making up for lost time.

Very fortunate to be close to Thanksgiving, and the garden is still lush with many things blooming. The Hawaiian woodrose I grew from seed, beat the odds and flourished blooming for the first time this month. Typically a tender tropical, and a winter bloomer I had my doubts. The problem is that the vine is too successful, and in fact is quite the monster. This is one experiment that will have to be removed, just too aggressive.


I have had great luck with the blue ginger this year, it has bloomed for several months. The secret? Leave it alone, and keep it in a dryer bed, it prefers less water than most gingers.

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For the most part, the garden didn't seem too bothered by the heat, as the garden slave kept busy with the watering, often twice a day. The Papaya tree continues to grow so tall, that I must now retrieve the fruit by ladder. I'm also waging a war with a few possum snackers, that have found papaya rather pleasing. I grew these trees from the seeds of a papaya I bought at the grocery story. They turned out to be a hybrid species, which was fortuitous for me as all of the trees bear fruit. The younger trees produce seeds, so I've been able to grow more should I need to replace any fallen trees over winter. An interesting note however, is that the tree in the photo here is 6 years old, and the fruit have stopped producing seeds, a feature that was designed with this particular hybrid.

My favorite, the tree fern has had some revelations as well. A couple of gardeners from Australia have identified this fern as C. Australis, not C. cooperi as was labled. This turns out to be a good thing, as the fern is a bit more cold tolerant (down to 0F). It continues to grow about one foot per year.