prairie point

garden update

The sky is overcast and grey. We had a few cold days the early part of the week but now it is warm enough again to be comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. A light mist was falling in the morning. The cats love to drink rainwater and when they come out of the house with me they immediately head for the spots where they've learned that little pools of it collect.

The limbs of the trees are not bare yet but they have lost their healthy green color. Little eddies of dry hackberry leaves have started to form in front of the garage door and along the edging of the flower garden border. The cedar elms have started to drop leaves too. Their leaves are so small that they are only noticeable on the pavement. There is a long berm of them in the gutter, with a clear space about four inches wide separating them from the curb, where the runoff from the rain cleared a space.

The butterflies are still making whoopee out back with the Eupatorium and the milkweed. Several salvias are blooming and the pavonia. The lantana is just now starting to look good and we have a small resurgence of purple coneflowers. The big show though is the morning glories by the driveway. Every morning as I go to my car they cheer me up with several dozen bright blue blossoms.

The Iceberg rose still has multiple blossoms although not so many as a month ago. The Rouletti and the Mutabilis are also blooming reliably. The Mutabilis is one of my favorites. The simple five-petal blossoms open a creamy white and then slowly darken. They always seem slightly bruised and damaged.