In a Vase on Monday: Trash and Treasure

Today's vase is brought to you by deep magenta roses and black-foot daisies.

The rose bush is of an unknown variety, gifted to me as a pass-along plant during the winter months last year from dear friend and garden blogger, Melissa of Dirt and Wine.

Melissa had too many crowded roses at her new house.  I was more than happy to help her out and take a rose bush off her hands.

One gardener's trash is certainly another gardener's treasure.  I had no idea what rose I was going to be getting.  And while I still don't know the name, I know that she is an absolute beauty!  I couldn't be happier with what a wonderful surprise the color, structure, and fragrance of the rose turned out to be.

To compliment the formal structure of the rose, I paired it with another profuse bloomer in the garden right now, and the more informal look of the black-foot daisy.

These flowers do so well in our hot and arid Texas, thriving on neglect and continuing to remain bright and cheerful through the most gruesome days.

Lovely in my flower basket.

Treasures, indeed.

This is definitely my favorite vase yet.

Thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting the In a Vase on Monday meme.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2015

There is so much to share for this month's bloom day - where do I even begin?

I guess I'll start with some of my favorite blooms in the garden.

First, the bearded irises have been providing non-stop color in the garden.  All of my irises were pass along plants from neighbors last year.  I've been very pleasantly surprised with variety and color I received.

The oriental poppies always make me think of the Wizard of Oz.

Their lush greens filled the garden all winter long.  Now, their papery petals flit in the breeze.

Such perfection.

Next on my list of favorites are the roses.  Belinda's Dream, Mrs. B. R. Cant, Heritage and a couple mysterious varieties (the magenta climber that came with the house and the ruby red pass along rose from gardening friend, Melissa) are blooming like crazy right now and I'm loving the show.

I've highlighted them in their own post, but our Texas state flower, the bluebonnet, is still going strong in the garden.  I've notice some of the rosettes are starting to fill out with seed pods. Yay for even more bluebonnets next year!

The ranunculus plants fill the beds with a burst of color.  I've tried these bulb/rhizome plants several times in the past in containers without any luck.  However, they seem to love living in the garden beds and are providing me with great cut flowers.

The Texas Gold columbine is putting on it's first display of flowers for me since being planted late last spring.  You have to love this Texas Superstar plant that puts on such a show while living in deep shade and loving drought conditions.

 Such peculiar looking flowers.

Other blooms in the garden include the coral honeysuckle - one of the hummingbirds' favorite treats!

Then there are the sweet peas...

Blackfoot daisies...

Salvias...

Tulips...

Including Lady Janes, which do especially well here in the South.

Even the edibles are flowering, including the culinary sage...

Chives...

And even blackberries and strawberries!

That rounds out my blooms for April.  For more garden blooms, check out May Dreams Gardens where Carole hosts Garden Blogger's Bloom Day on the 15th of every month.

September 2014 Blooms

I'm late to the party, but I didn't want to miss out on sharing my September blooms as part of Carol's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day over at May Dreams Gardens.

Veggie Beds

I have one full veggie bed full of zinnias that reseeded themselves from transplants that I planted earlier this spring.  The new veggie seeds that I planted in this bed before I left for my South Africa trip didn't sprout while I was gone (a little too hot and not enough water), but the zinnias sprouted.  They are so pretty, that I don't really want to tear up the bed to plant veggies.  I'm now planning for this to be my latest fall veggie bed, so I can enjoy the zinnias for a couple more months.

Backyard Beds

There are a lot of plants blooming in the backyard, but I feel like I'm partially cheating, since they are mainly on plants that I just added to my garden in the last week.  Oh well, they still count in my book.

One plant that isn't new that is finally blooming this year is my bougainvillea.  I thought I lost the plant during our hard freeze last winter, but it came back.  It just needed a little extra time to work up the strength to produce its beautiful flowers.

In the shade garden, of the new plants, there are a few that are currently blooming:

Turk's Cap is a reliable late summer/early fall bloomer that adds plenty of color to the garden when not much else will.

The Big Blue Lithrope is also adding a touch of color to the shade garden with its light purple spires.

Along the neighbor fence line, the butterflies are loving the blooms on this Sapphire Showers Duranta.

And I'm loving the glorious smell of the gardenia flowers.

The fall aster is doing its part to attract the bees.

I love the color this purple coneflower brings to the peach tree beds.

The dainty flowers on the Blackfoot Daisy are so sweet.

Front Yard and Courtyard

The blue plumbago has been going strong since the spring and has been one of the fastest growers in my garden this year, with little to no watering.  No wonder why it is considered a Texas Superstar plant!  It has outgrown the space that I put it though, so that means I either need to move it to a new location, or do some heavy pruning.

The Mexican Sage is making its fall showing.

And finally, the Autumn Sage is living up to its name, adding a splash of magenta to the garden as we head into fall here in Texas.