VOLUME 15, ISSUE 42 • October 17, 2019

Neil Sperry editor. Gretchen Drew design and circulation.

It's election season, and I vote for more of this cool weather with a little overnight rain thrown in for good measure.

Welcome to e-gardens. It's going to be a good one!

In this issue…
• Super monarchs are in Texas right now;
• Funky, fun fences;
• Oxblood lilies make encore appearance;
• Gardening tips for the weekend; and
• Pruning blunders to avoid.

Our best deal on my book returns!
Here's your chance to buy my book and buy a couple more at the lowest price of the year.

Neil Sperry's Lone Star Gardening
First book $33.95
Second and third books only $28.95 each!
(Plus tax and postage. Shipped to same mailing address. Limited time offer.)

• The perfect holiday, birthday or housewarming gift.
• Self-published, so it's exactly the way I always dreamed my book would be.
• A quarter century more up to date than the old "cowboy boot" book.
• 344 pages and 840 of my best photos.
• Hardback and printed on high-quality paper.
• Printed in Texas to keep Texas printers employed - also so I could go to all of the press checks.
• I sign every book. Personalized if requested. (Short inscriptions, please. If wishing "Happy Birthday," please tell me which year - 2019 or 2020.)
• Satisfaction guaranteed or full refund.

Not in stores and not on Amazon.
• Order from my website, or call my office weekdays (800) 752-4769.

Photo: "Super" monarch on tropical milkweed in McKinney this week.

"Super" Monarchs Flying Through Texas

Can you explain the term "super monarchs?" If you visited Dallas' Perot Museum a couple of years ago when they had they a fabulous program on these beautiful butterflies like our family did, you can. Let me tell you more.

Photo: I photographed this "super monarch" in McKinney this week.

Tiny Pruning Error, Huge Consequences

I walk past this poor tree several times a year and it always makes me sad. You see the small stub of a branch that was left at some point in years past. What I'll show you is what developed as a result.

Photo: It doesn't take any longer to prune a tree properly.

Fun and Funky Fences

As Lynn and I have travelled across Texas we've seen some unusual fences. I thought this might be a fun time to share a few of my favorites. Click through to see them.

Photo: Purple fence at Antique Rose Emporium in Independence.

Oxblood Lilies, Round 2

These wonderful little bulbs surprised us this week with another round of beautiful blooms along our driveway and in our landscape. I'll give 'em a shout-out just for hanging in there even after a terribly dry late summer and early fall.

Photo: Oxblood lilies are heirloom bulbs worth bringing back into our gardens.

Gardening This Weekend

It's the tail end of the growing season for this calendar year. That brings an end to many of your gardening tasks, and it marks the start up of some of the others. I've carved out this list.

Photo: Louisiana phlox can be divided now for spring blooms.

And, in closing…

That's it for another edition of e-gardens. We're already planning topics for next week, but in the meantime, please let others know about us.

Please join me on Facebook or at my website. You'll find my 1001 FAQs there, also information on rose rosette virus. Also podcasts of my radio programs and information about where you can tune me in. I hope you'll watch for my newspaper column in your local newspaper. (I write for more than a dozen.)

Until next week, thanks for reading…

And happy gardening!

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