Prairie Verbena

Spring flowers scattered around my garden on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

We’ve had a tumultuous winter and spring.  Well, it isn’t officially spring, but here in Central Texas, spring starts in February.  We’ve already had a 91-degree day, then a week or so after that we had a low of 21.  It was the first hard freeze of the winter in my garden.  Of course, everything had already started to sprout and put on buds. We love the warm days, but then we pay for it.

Today is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens, so we can see what’s blooming around the world today.

I covered for the 21-degree freeze.  I normally don’t do that any more — it’s just too much work.  But we’re getting things ready to put our house on the market and move up to northwest Austin and I’d really rather not have to replace plants and fill holes.  (And, I want to take some of the great plants with me!)

Nonetheless, there are things blooming in the garden, in spite of the yo-yoing weather. I planted these Ostespermum, African daisy, late summer last year and I’m getting another round be beautiful blooms.

These pass-along white cemetery iris bloom first among all the iris in the garden. They’ve made the rounds among most of the Austin garden bloggers so they brighten gardens all around town.

I can always count on the bulbs and love the daffodils in my garden.

I’ve had these in the garden for a long time.  It’s called yellow fortune.   The contrast of the almost orange cup with the bright yellow makes a colorful display.  I’ve taken to collecting different varieties of daffodils over the years.  It’s fun to see who comes up each year.

These ice follies have naturalized and definitely need to be divided.  Hmmm…a good opportunity to take some with me to a new garden once we find a house.

The flowering quince makes a lovely backdrop for these frilly, delicate daffodils, called double campernelle.  She’s getting lost in the quince and the primrose jasmine beside her, so I may have to rescue her and bring her with me as well. (See how I keep adding to my list?)

 

The native Texas Mountain Laurels continue to bloom – only the open blooms succumbed to the cold.

Some of the trees hadn’t even produced buds yet, so I will get to enjoy the Kool-Aid, grapey-goodness scent of these beautiful evergreen trees for weeks to come.  And, when brought into the house as part of a cut flower bouquet, I can continue to appreciate Mother Nature’s air freshener!

It was hard to cut back the roses when I had several blooms on Archduke Charles, but I brought them inside and pruned the rest.

The four roses in the new rose parterre aren’t all the same height at maturity, so keeping them similar requires careful pruning.

Livin’ easy, grandma’s yellow and ebb tide show no signs of emerging buds yet.

 

Catmint remains one of my garden favorites.  Mostly evergreen with a compact, clearly defined form, it stays orderly in places where I want a small mounding plant.

‘Walkers low’ makes a pretty, reliable border plant, getting only about 12-14″ in my garden.  Advertised as getting up to 24″ tall, that’s not my experience and I’ve had them for several years.

I’ve enjoyed them in the front bed and last year expanded their reach into a few other beds as well.

The Mexican honeysuckle on the trellis behind the green goblet agave is awash with coral-y/salmon-y blooms.  They grow up into the air and over the fence, draping delicately onto the side of the greenhouse roof.

Hinkley’s columbine has started blooming and brightens up the woodland path garden.

The prairie verbena loves this spot by the street.  Hot and dry, this bed bears the brunt of the full, scorching Texas sun.  The perennial verbena provides a beautiful, soft contrast to the ginormous squid agave next to it.

I think we’re finished with freezes here in Central Texas.

I’m ready to start working in the garden and soaking up the spring sunshine.

How ’bout you?

 

 

Purple plumes peeking out in the spring garden

As the temperatures creep up to early summertime highs here in Central Texas , irises, salvias and other purple plumes are putting on a pageant in my garden.

Maybe I like the purple and blue hues so much in my garden because they seem to cool off our scorching heat.

At least they give the impression that it’s cooler in the garden.

And because blue hues on the color wheel make things seem to recede, they also make my garden seem bigger.

One of my very favorites is Indigo Spires. It’s tall, deep purple blooms sway in the breeze and make a real statement.

Luckily for me, the salvias I’m collecting are safe from our hungry, grazing deer.

This catmint was a new addition to my garden last spring and it’s been a great performer. It easily survived last summer and stayed evergreen all winter. No cats here in my garden, but I’d recommend this a a hardy Central Texas perennial.


Mealy blue sage — which grows wild in the fields in Texas — seems very happy in my front garden and is spreading every year.
My pass-along irises, Amethyst Flame, from Pam of Digging, are still blooming and going strong after weeks.

Little pink and purple pretties are mixed into this whimsical windowbox arrangement.

My larkspur — from seeds passed along several years ago from Zanthan Gardens — are just beginning to bloom. I love that feathery foliage.

These tradescantia, or spiderwort, are finally spreading a little in the back bed. I hear they can be invasive, but there’s plenty of room for them, so I keep enouraging them to grow more!
The rock path in the back has 4 or 5 different purple blooms intermingling among the Oklahoma flagstone, decomposed granite and river rock. Homestead verbena, 2 kinds of winecup and more all make great neighbors.

This is the easement beside our neighbor’s property – filled with wild native prairie verbena. It’s not in my garden, but I can see it from my garden … kinda like you can see Russia…oh, nevermind!

While I lost some of the salvia ‘May night,’ the ones that survived last summer are going strong and attracting lots of bees.

Cannas and Coneflowers…

Time flies when it’s gardening season. It’s already time for Garden Bloggers Bloom day, hosted each month on the 15th by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

Many plants are coming into their own in the garden right now. Foliage is filling out and becoming lush and new blooms are popping out to surprise me every day.

Unless of course the deer eat them! In my new garden bed, the deer have tromped around, but only ate the potato vines. I deliberately planted the bed with plants that deer typically shun. Except, apparently for Klondyke Cosmos. I was so pleased with my idea – planting this tangerine orange wispy flower grown from seed next to a vibrant purple salvia and some Mexican Feather Grass. I went out this morning to capture a photo of this little vignette, only to find…no vignette. The two blooms that popped up yesterday had been eaten off. So, you will just have to imagine what I imagined when I planted it all.

The Purple Cone Flowers above are some of my very favorite summer bloomers, and this year I have dozens and dozens of volunteers coming up so I will be transplanting lots of them into other beds.

But, I didn’t let the deer spoil my day. Many other blooms in the garden were happy to pose for pictures today.

These photos are of my King Humbert Orange Cannas. I love the hot yellow and tangerine against the lime green leaves.


This is a Mexican Bird of Paradise Tree — perfect for our hot,dry weather. Mine gets next to no water (especially in this drought) and yet it still blooms like crazy all summer long.
These Blackfoot Daisies are tough as nails — even though they look so delicate.
Coral Trumpet Vine is taking over my fence and sprouting up in 3 different nearby beds. But it’s stunning all over the fence – if it would just mind its manners!
Verbena thrives in these warm, sunny days, and it’s making a beautiful purple velvet carpet in my new bed.
Some of the combinations I planned for the new front bed are starting to fill in and look like I intended them to. These yellow Zexmenia are bright and cheerful next to the hot pink Salvia Greggii.
These Shasta Daisies are bursting with blooms in the cutting garden. But I love seeing them there so much that I don’t want to cut them!

Pretty purples are my passion…

My garden is awakening.

Warm days have coaxed many plants into beautiful blooms.

Among the best performers in the garden right now are the purple plants.

Can you tell I have a passion for purple?

Many of my favorites are salvias.

Did you know that there are more than 900 species of salvias in the world? How amazing.

I’m lucky to have a nice collection of them in my garden. Indigo spires, Mystic Spires, Mesa, May Night and several more, but I’d have to go digging through previous posts because they are unusual and I don’t have them committed to memory





























Blooms bursting out…

This Bloom Day, the Bluebonnets are bursting forth here in Central Texas. Even though we are behind in our blooms this spring, it seems things are finally waking up this month. All those fall rains are finally paying off. You can thank Carol, of May Dreams Gardens, for inviting us all to share our beautiful blooms with our friends on the 15th of each month.
My Tangerine Crossvine is absolutely out of control.
I’m very excited that I finally learned to plant Spiderwort INSIDE the fence so the deer don’t eat it and I get to enjoy it’s lovely blooms.
This pretty purple Vinca won’t be around long…it’s leftover from the previous owners (and we’ve been in the house almost 7 years!) and keeps popping up where I don’t want it – in my Abelias. But it is pretty…maybe I will try to move some…
I bought this perky Hinkley’s Columbine at the Wildflower Center Sale last weekend. I hope I have better luck this time – I’ve been unsuccessful with columbines so far.
My ‘Maggie’ rose has a hundred blooms on it, easily. And they smell heavenly — can’t you smell them?
Okay – back to the Crossvine – see how out of control it is? It’s climbing from the ground all the way to the top of this big oak tree.

These two photos are the Carefree Beauty or Katy Road Rose. It’s full of blooms, too and is competing neck and neck with Maggie for the best scent ever!

These sweet little Cosmos are in the cutting garden. They’re only a few inches tall. My last Cosmos were the tallest ones – probably 3 feet tall!
Here’s another little Spiderwort.
The Damianita are starting to bloom and this one of several little pups that I’m going to dig up and move to expand my collection! I love it when I make new plants in my own garden — well, not me personally, but my plants.

One of many different colors of Alyssum…
Texas Primrose sundrops are so perky in the rock path.
The Homestead Verbena is a sea of purple in the path.
Carpet thyme in the path.
More Alyssum…
and more…
My tall winecups are blooming, too. The foliage is up to my knee.

The profusion of Maggie Roses again.
The Desert Rose is so happy with our nice spring weather.
The Phoebe Hellebore is still blooming – all the blooms have turned from pink to green now, but sadly, none of the other plants have any blooms. Next year.
I have lots of Dianthus scattered around the beds for winter filler — the deer don’t eat them and they perk up the garden when everything else is brown.
One of several salvias I didn’t label (bad blogger, bad blogger!).
The Four-Nerve Daisies are all blooming like crazy right now.
The itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie Daffodils are still blooming. The stalks are like standing pieces of twine, they are so thin and delicate.
The first blue Salvia bloom opened today in the front garden by the driveway. This is Mystic Spires – which is a compact, clumping form.
Another Salvia…
A leftover Tete-a-tete Daffodil – I will definitely plant more of these in the fall – loved them.
This was supposed to be Homestead Verbena — hmmm…someone (not me) was color blind. I just made the mistake of buying them with no blooms and trusting the nursery owner!
The infamous Cleome Senorita Rosalita, made famous by Pam of Digging‘s trial and rave reviews last summer.

Louisiana Blue Phlox & Dianthus
Phlox – pink something or other!
Primrose Jasmine.
Potato Vine.
Mexican Flame Vine – I am trying a new one. First year I had one it did great, then I think Mexican Mint Marigolds stole its water. Gonna make sure it gets a little more this year.
One of my favorites – Blackfoot Daisies.
A volunteer Bluebonnet that seeded across the driveway from last year’s plants.
Diamond Frost Euphorbia. Look quick – I have 3. One has been eaten to the nubs. One is on its way out. This one’s days are numbered unless I rush out and move it to the back!
Prairie Verbena that I got at the Wildflower Center last weekend.
Something I planted and didn’t write down — rats!
Another something I planted and didn’t write down — rats!
Bletilla Striata – I now have 3 of them dotting the shade along the river rock bed and it is just beautiful.

This unusual spring has enabled me to inter-plant early and late spring/summer plants and to see where the holes will be when bulbs and early bloomers die back. For me, this is the biggest challenge — keeping the garden going year round with seasonal bloomers and interest.

Happy GBBD!

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