oak trees

Spectacular signs of Spring

Here she is, Miss Tangerine Crossvine in her full spring splendor. See how gracefully she climbs up into the nearby Live Oak tree?
Her blooms are cheerful and bright – bringing a cacophony of color into the shady corner bed.
And she just keeps on cruising down the fenceline, spreading her beauty.
Out front the little Anacacho Orchid tree that I planted last year is living up to her full expectations with a profusion of delicate white blooms.

The variegated lemon tree is chock full of pink buds, ready to burst into lemony goodness very soon. The bees are eager for the buds to open, too, as they were hovering around just like me!
Green beans peek out of the ground in the veggie garden.
The tomatoes planted before we left for our Indiana Spring Break trip were damaged by the 1 cold night in Austin last week. I think it got down to the mid-30s and the tomatoes all have leaf damage, but they will be fine. See, this one has a BLOOM!!!!! A wannabe tomato…the plants may not be pretty any more, but they are growing and developing, so I won’t complain.
These are the White Icicle Radishes shown in the sidebar photo above. Tasty – and spicy.
Here’s another Bluebonnet blooming in the greenhouse bed. I gave in a planted plants this year as I have not had luck with seeds — we just have too much mulch where I want to plant them, so I carefully amended the soil and pulled back the mulch and put in 15 plants this spring.
The Mexican Plum tree is full of blooms this week, too.
Aren’t they pretty?
This, however, is NOT so pretty. Witness, please the GAZILLION Live Oak leaves that are cascading from my trees. If they were white, you’d think it was snowing in parts of my yard. And they aren’t even 1/2 done with their littering of my beds.

I’m itching to get out there and blow them elsewhere, but more will fall right into their place, so I will wait a week or two. I know, for instance, that there are dozens of wildflower seedlings under here waiting to get out…and I can’t wait to see them…next week maybe!

The worms are here, the worms are here …

Photo by: Eric Siegmund

Well, they really aren’t worms, they are caterpillars of the adult moth, the Oak Leaf Roller. The moth is about 1/2 inch long and has brown wings and brown markings.

In May, the moths lay their eggs on Texas Live Oaks. The eggs stay there for an amazingly long 10 months, until they begin to hatch in mid-March. And they are here. Now. I had my first sighting in the back yard moments ago as I almost walked right into one dangling from an oak tree in the back yard.
And they do dangle — down from the oak trees by the gazillions (well, maybe a few less than that) and make it almost impossible to pass under an oak without having green, squishy, squirmy caterpillars in your hair, and on your clothes, and everywhere you can imagine. These little caterpillars feed on the tender new Spring growth of the oak trees through late April. They can literally defoliate an entire tree. But they are a sight to behold if stand a little to the side of them!
Then they form the pupae stage and in early May, and the moths come out and then they start laying eggs again and the whole cycle starts all over again.
While you can control them with BT, or Bacillus Thuringiensis, we’ve never really needed to use it. The oaks are hearty, and while I’m sure they don’t like being eaten on, they bounce right back for the most part, so we just watch where we walk for a month and leave the moths alone to complete their life cycle. It’s another part of Spring, much like the flowering of daffodils, quince and Texas bluebonnets.
Then there is the new oak growth and the neon-green, powdery pollen that covers everything in a thick blanket of green dust … but that’s another post!
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