After the Rain, Harbingers

2.61"/66 mm of rain Sunday August 20 into Monday August 21st, bringing our rain season's total to 27.02"/686mm.  

 I've been distracted by important matters.  Natasha has been ill.  Vet visits, tests, medicine, attentive care, etc.  She's on the mend and is feeling better.  We'll find out if the medicine does what it is intended to do.  

She's beautiful even when she's ill:

When there's time, in the garden I'm removing and cutting back...  

...in preparation for wind and fire season.  One more Cuphea cut back because...

...the one chopped back some five or six weeks ago has started flowering again, fresh and renewed:

The rain didn't make much of a mess.  We got some wind, but not much.  Just about the only issue was the Ebony 'Blush'.  The weight of the rain flopped it over and it can't straighten itself.    

I'll have to straighten it somehow.  Tying it to the wall's wrought iron window inset probably.  

Finally harbingers of autumn.  Harbinger derives from the 14th and 15th century Anglo-French word herberge meaning "lodgings", implying the servant who went ahead of a group of travelers, securing lodgings in anticipation of their arrival.  The harbinger of autumn I always most hope for is a subtle, strong hint of coolness before dawn, which arrives as daylight hours lessen and the equinox nears.  That seems to be arriving.

'Easy Spirit' "leaped" this year:

In more northern climate gardens where leaves change color in the fall, the first leaf color may be autumn's harbinger.   Here deciduous leaf color is more likely to occur in December or January signaling winter.  More reliable as autumn nears here is the re-awakening of Aloe reitzii, which flowers reliably in the last weeks of summer.  Feeling a slight hint of chill this morning, I went out specifically seeking an Aloe reitzii flower stalk.  

Yep:  

Not quite so predictable, one of the Yucca 'Bright Star's is also sending up a stalk:

I spend little garden time on the front slope in summer--it's too hot there.  The front slope plants were richly colored, thoroughly washed and hydrated by 2.61" of rain.  

Elsewhere I've been puzzling over color again.  The current tips of Leucadendron 'Harlequin', for example: 

Mostly red?  A tint of red?  It's not the same as the red flowers of a nearby Lagerstroemia:

Until the sun hits the Leucadendron at a certain angle, when suddenly their reds are the same:

There's also an adjacent Hemerocallis, which matches the Leucadenron at other times.  It's barely visible to the right of the Leucadendron: 

 But it's not red like the Lagerstroemia is red:

Though a day lily catalogue would call it "red".   

 This color thing is a moving target.  So how does burgundy fit in here?  'Burgundy Iceberg':

 For a while 'Burgundy Iceberg' was looking fabulous with 'Harlequin'.  Now?  And with the Lagerstroemia in flower adjacent? 

How about Dahlia 'Duet':

Or Clematis 'Bourbon':

Are you burgundy?  Wine?  Raspberry? Magenta?

Maybe leave reds alone a while.   They don't seem to get along easily.

Easier to think about pink?   Another of the garden's Lagerstroemia, is most definitely raspberry pink.  I got a raspberry out of the fridge and held it up next to the 'Cherry Mocha' flowers and they matched.  

Not cherry.  Raspberry: 

But this raspberry pink--or is it magenta--is called purple on the seed package:  Zinnia 'Giant Purple', with a Saliva...

...named 'Mystic Spires Blue', that sometimes looks very blue, but at other times...

...is unquestionably purple.  

Now that I've thoroughly confused myself, maybe it's just time to sit in a cool place with Boris and Natasha and look forward to autumn.  Another heatwave to get through:  Sunday through at least Wednesday.  Hilary's rain gave us a few days vacation from spot watering and a couple of days of relative cool, garden-able weather.  Now, heat again.