Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today, as the title suggests, to talk about red things. You may remember me from such posts as “The Less, The Better”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
The guy I live with has been watering, even though we did get a little rain yesterday and the day before (but nowhere near as much as almost everybody else has gotten). You can see how tall the cowpen daisies are in the background.
Just a while ago I was looking out of the screen door. This is yet another one of those things the guy I live with says he’s going to replace. Eventually.
There was something in my front yard.
It was a fox. When the guy I live with went out to look at it, it ran into the neighbor’s yard.
These are not great pictures.
It would have been more exciting if I’d seen it on my walks.
So there’s one red thing. Two, if you count my red collar.
Here are more red things: the fruits of Berberis (Mahonia) haematocarpa.
The fruits are said to be edible. The guy I live with says no they’re not.
Back to watering. I’ve talked about the hummingbirds here, and the guy I live with wanted more flowers for them, and since we haven’t had very much rain in the last two months, it was time for more watering.
In a “normal” year, whatever that is these days, all these plants would get sufficient rainfall here for them to flower, because they get roughly the same amount of rain (actually more) at the same time of year in their native habitats.
If you look at Alpine, Texas (for Salvia greggii), it gets an average of 2.65 inches (67mm) of rain in August, so if we get a quarter inch of rain in August, the guy I live with said we have to make up for quite a bit of that by watering in order to get the salvias to flower.
Or Galeana, Nuevo León (for Salvia darcyi); it gets the same amount of rain as Alpine, so again watering is necessary if no rain falls.
In the side yard, Salvia greggii is flowering after being watered. This is ‘Furman’s Red’.
Not the best picture, I know.
This is a different one; the color is actually darker than the camera shows.
These salvias have been seeding around in this garden.
Maybe you can see the hummingbird in this picture. If you follow the wooden fence post down to where the flowers are, it’s humming just to the right.
This is Salvia ‘Raspberry Delight’. The guy I live with said he couldn’t get the color right unless he used the “pro” setting on the phone; otherwise the colors were washed out.
This is close to the right color.
And finally, Salvia ‘Windwalker’. The stem is lolling on leaves of Salvia darcyi which hasn’t flowered yet.
And that’s all I have for today. A bunch of red things. And happy hummingbirds.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
You know a lot about a color that canine people do not see.
I was told.
A busy day. No wonder you have collapsed on the couch!
It’s exhausting being me, for sure.
Lovely red things, Mani. We finally got a spot of rain this week (not too much but a couple of nice showers and at this point, we’ll take whatever nature is happy to send. I have to admit, temps in the 70’s is a whole lot more enjoyable than last weeks upper 90’s. This morning it was 58F for our morning walk-paradise in my opinion. Wishing you and the man you live with a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.
Thanks; same to you. We had a little rain yesterday and the day before, but tonight (11:40 p.m.) we’ve had more rain than we’ve had since mid-July. It’s been raining for at least half an hour. Not pouring, but enough to get the patio rug wet. That rug, by the way, is yet another thing that “needs to be replaced, eventually”.
The guy I live with says the rain is very unfairly distributed this summer.
He’s also probably the only gardener who stays up past midnight, but that’s a fairly long story which I might tell some time. At least he can walk outside and enjoy the rain while everyone else is asleep.
I too am a night owl but tend to reserve my insomnia for the house. We had a little shower during the night in my neighborhood, probably around 11:30-ish. It sure makes the air smell nice and fresh. I don’t mind the rain one bit…we can always use the moisture and rain is so superior over supplemental waterings with the hose.
The guy I live with agrees; rain is better than watering.
He was very disappointed, again, today, because he said “they” said this would be a “rain day”. We got about twenty drops.
There was lots of scary thunder and he could see on the radar that storms were sort of headed toward us (a place they call “Dakota Ridge” but we’re slightly farther east) and then they veered off to the south or completely vanished.
Ar least we’re getting some rain.
Similar in my neighborhood. I guess we should be happy with the 20 drops but clearly I’m an ingrate. Sigh.
Uh huh. The guy I live with said this has all been very discouraging, though he’s seen worse, like that makes it any better.
He bought a new sprinkler that he likes a lot.
What a pretty series of juicy reds! And, including a fox? That’s exciting, and deserving of an exuberance of exclamation marks!!!!! Glad to hear about your red collar, too. Seems like just the stylish accent for a purebred border collie like you.
Thanks. It was pretty interesting to see a fox in my own yard.
The guy I live with said we need more red-flowered plants in the garden now, so I guess he’s going to be searching for more seeds.
All the purebred border collies who have lived here have sported red collars. It’s a tradition, I guess.
You look exhausted Mani. All that red must have been overwhelming. You are so lucky the salvias seed around in our garden. These varieties are not hardy in my area so either need to be perpetuated by cuttings and overwintered or purchased new every year. Don’t think I’ve ever met a salvia I didn’t like. We get foxes here occasionally. They can have a hair-raising scream that is quite unsettling. However, they’ll help keep the rodents in control. Don’t tire yourself out too much.
Since I can’t see red, I had to rely on the guy I live with’s description of it, which was interesting. I see everything in shades of yellow and blue.
The garden with all the Salvia greggii is on the south side of the house and so a little bit protected. That fine-leafed plant growing against the wall is a mesquite, which sometimes suffers after a bad winter. (Mesquite is native to the Mesa de Maya is southeastern Colorado and the plants sometimes get winter-killed there.)
The guy I live with got the brilliant idea (just ask him how brilliant it was) to grow a whole bunch of Salvia coccinea in pots around the garden next year. He’s not into annuals but growing this one will make the hummingbirds even happier.
We sometimes hear fox screams, like on the show Midsomer Murders, all the time in the background.