Roselee,

Beautiful as always! I love looking at your pictures. I get excited when I see you have posted new ones. I love the porterweed. Mine really died. The lavender trumpet vine is beautiful. I also love the meat claw agave. Awesome. The turtle is precious. I'm sorry to have missed the tour of your garden. I would have loved to have seen it, but my husband was itching to get "on the road." Your madagascar palm is huge! Keep the pictures coming.

Darlene

Darlene, thank you so much for your reply. Basically I garden for myself, but it's nice to have a place to share photos with you all without having a blog.

Incidentally, I once had two beautiful Madascar palms so tall I couldn't get them in the greenhouse for winter so had to let them freeze. Then Joey (Phoenix) tells me I could have lopped them off anywhere and they would have regrown and been fine. Telling y'all so you know! To get me started again Joey gave me this one. They are easy to grow.

Everything is beautiful and inspirational, Roselee! I love all of the vivid colors!

Pam, thank you for looking and commenting. Autumn can be a very colorful season in Texas. There are several things that are just coming into bloom in the yard. I wish everyone would post pictures of their fall blooming plants to give the rest of us ideas.

That lavender trumpet vine is AMAZING!!! And your agave looks scary! Wouldn't want to trip over that one! Love your zinnias too. Is the turtle really a pet that lives in your yard?

Lynnmarie, thank you! Yes, the Ornate box turtle is a pet as are the seven other adult turtles that live here. They mate and lay eggs so we find the babies occasionally, but most of the little ones get through the fence. They seem to be able to make it in the woods around here on their own though. Newly hatched youngsters can go a year without food. Those that stay find lots of insects in the leaves and mulch, plus we feed them on the patio. They've learned to come to the tap of the spoon on a cutting board I use to dish out the dog food and fruit. While they are all the same variety of turtle they are all individuals in appearance and have their own little personalties.

This post was edited by roselee on Fri, Oct 25, 13 at 18:32

Hi Roselee, your garden looks great! I am always inspired by your plant combinations and your photographic compositions. Glad to see your trumpet vine came back.
Jim

Gorgeous as always! If your trumpet vine dies I`ll bring you more in the spring. It`s a bit of a beast here having now totally covered the chicken coop and aiming to take over the back yard.
Tally HO!

Beautiful, as always, Roselee.................love to stroll through your garden with you.

Tally, where do you have your lavender trumpet vine planted? Jim, gave me one, at the swap, he said to plant in full sun. It died, I thought it was because of the salty soil. If you can grow it, I should be able to. I think maybe it was just too hot where I planted it. Barbra

Barbra, I think the vine Tally and Roselee have is actually Pink Trumpet vine, Podranea ricasaliana. The vine I gave you was Lavender Trumpet vine, Clytostoma callistegioides.

The Lavender Trumpet vine has glossy leaves and blooms in the spring. The Pink Trumpet vine has leaves similar to the old Orange trumpet vine. It blooms in the fall, and is sometimes sold as Desert trumpet vine.

The blooms are nearly identical.

I have grown both here, so you should be able to also.

Jim

Thank you all for looking and commenting. And thanks Jim, for setting us straight on the Pink vs Lavender trumpet vine. I don't know why I said 'lavender' this time. I've called it 'pink' before. I've corrected above.

According to the internet Lavender trumpet vine, Clytostoma callistegioides (isn't copy and paste wonderful. I'd never remember how to spell it :-) climbs with tendrils. Pink doesn't, which is one thing I like about it. Since it just leans on structures it's very easy to pull down when it dies back in winter.

The pink is from South Africa; Lavender is from Brazil. It's interesting that they have almost identical flowers. The stripped design must be a good one to guide polinators into the flower.

More about Lavender trumpet vine:

http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=417

Does anybody grow Lavender trumpet vine? Jim? It sounds nice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pink trumpet vine ...

This post was edited by roselee on Tue, Nov 5, 13 at 22:31

Oh sorry, Read your post again Jim, and I see that you grow the Lavender. How does it compare with the pink in your estimation?

Barbra, the link about the Pink says it tolerates salt spray so it may do better at the coast.

Roselee, I no longer have either one. The Lavander only bloomed in spring, and wasn't a heavy bloomer. The Pink, got really huge, and the only place I had for it, was on the back of the shop. It hung down covering the path, and just became more trouble than it was worth, to me. I dug it out this summer.

Jim