Surprises under the weed carnage

Pepper plant

End of summer cleanout

Well, okay, it's not really the end of summer here in Texas. A more
apropriate statement would be; the summer has made and end of our
garden. At any rate, it's time to clean it up and replant for the
fall. That's right, even though the dog days of summer are here (have
been all summer actually) it's time to plant fall tomatoes, peppers,
cucumber, and more. So, the grunt work has to happen first. But even
grunting has it's rewards, a clean garden yes, but also some
unexpected surprises.

Pride of Barbados , I really like this plant!

Caesalpinia Pulcherrima, also known as red bird of paradise is one of
those must have plants. This one doesn't even get going until temps
really get cranked up. That's when this beauty begins to really shine.
Does best in full sun and a protected south exposure. Try it, you 'll
like it.

Blue Emu, cool plant from Australia

Here's another great plant from Australia. This beauty has soft
silver- grey foliage and beautiful blue flowers, is extremely drought
and heat tolerant and thrives in full sun. Botanical name is
Eremophila Hydrophane. It reminds me of Texas Sage, but much smaller
(2' to 3 ') and has larger flowers. Blooms from spring to winter. I
like!

The heat is on

Here in Central Texas we have seen consistent triple digit
temperatures since mid June and summer has just begun! What's a
gardener to do? Enter Tithonia. This plant just screams HOT! Common
name is Mexican torch flower and it lives up to it's name with
scorching orange color that's as guady as it gets. This plant is super
heat tolerant, easy to grow from seed, and if that's not enough, it's
also a butterfly magnet. Check it out.

Texas Nursery and Landscape Expo

Well, we arrived in Houston yesterday, Friday afternoon around 1:00 pm. After grabbing some lunch at a nearby Jack in the Box, we proceeded to the Nursery Expo at the George Brown Convention Center which is right across from Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. Amazingly enough it was real easy to find and while traffic was heavy, it really wasn't that bad. Registering for the event was real tedious. In the past I would fill out one registration form and list everyone on the one form. This year I had to fill out a complete form for each one of us. Myself, Jody, and four of my five children. (Molly is still in England). Then I had to wait as the woman processing the data entered in all the info from each form with a hunt and peck typing technique. Note to self: next year pre-register online. We finally got registered, got our badges and entered the ginormous event room. This place was huge and the sheer number of vendors and interesting displays was quite impressive. I have a feeling I'm going to exceed my self imposed catalogue limit! My youngest son Jesse, age 2, was a big hit with all the vendors. He had a great time being generally cute and a huge ham. He even got into a game with one of the vendors where they played ball using a lime. It was hilarious. It's Saturday morning now and we are getting ready to head over to the Expo for day 2. We'll finish up this evening and head back to Elgin tonight. Well that's all for now, I've got to wake everyone up and rally the troops for another day of trudging through Plantland.

Awol

Well, it's been a while since I posted and I know this is very bad for blogs. I do have an excuse although it may be considered lame by all you expert bloggers out there. Here's my excuse: it's been too darn hot! It's been consistently in the low 100's temperature wise here in Elgin, Tx. for quite some time now. After baking in the heat all day I don't feel much like doing anything when I get home from work. So please forgive me, I'll try to do better. I haven't been doing much gardening except I did get some fall tomato plants started. The challenge is keeping them from experiencing spontaneous combustion. On Friday I'm heading to the Texas Nursery and Landscape Assoc. annual trade show. The show rotates from Dallas to San Antonio to Houston. This year it's in Houston, my least favorite venue. (Sorry Houstonians). I'm hoping to find a few new suppliers and maybe discover some cool new plants and products for my nursery. I'm taking the family and the kids are very excited as they usually get lots of free candy, gadgets and basically worthless stuff from the vendors. My employees have asked for koozies, pens and free samples. I usually come home with several large bags full of catalogues that end up never getting looked at again. This year I am determined to be a little more discriminating and not grab a catalogue from every single vendor there. (How many tree growers do I need?) I just finished cleaning my office and threw away 4 trash cans of stuff from last years trade show. I'm sorry, I'm kind of a pack rat. I think I get this from my mom. Well that's it for now. My next post will probably be from the hotel in Houston. At least the convention center will be air conditioned!