Blog Archives | Page 22 of 116 | Diana's Designs Austin

Bottle brush blooms are amazing…

As I was making the rounds through the garden this evening, I was struck by the uplighting into the bottle brush tree, Callistemon rigidus.

I have been overwhelmed by the healthy, growth and year-round blooms on this tree. With a growth habit of 10-12 feet, it is drought-tolerant and attracts bees, butterflies and birds.

This is the freeze replacement tree from Bottlebrush tree #1. Then the next bad freeze came and wiped this one out. Or so I thought. It came back from the roots after last winter and I let it grow like that for a little while to determine what the trunks would look like. Then I began to prune it up like a small multi-trunked tree, instead of a bushy shrub. It’s worked out really well and I think I like it even more than the original single trunk.

I like the softness of the flowing bottle brush next to the structural rigidity of the blue agave.

A peek as the blooms first begin to emerge from the buds.

The buds look a little like alien fingers reaching out to you, don’t you think?

Just look at all those blooms. I did have to share space with the bees while I was taking pictures.

Then a last shot of the blooms up against the eerie color of the sky at dusk.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:31-05:00April 10th, 2013|Agave, Blog, bottle brush, Bottle Brush tree, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Garden fest delights…

A gaggle of garden geeks took over the Zilker Botanical Gardens on Saturday and Sunday for the annual Zilker Garden Fest.

Mom and Dad and I were there bright and early when they opened at 10 a.m. Saturday. Two wagons in tow, we were prepared to fill them to the brim.

The festival includes everything garden, not just plants. These gourd planters were among the most creative things I saw.

Love these little birds — I keep thinking I want one hanging in my garden and wish I’d gotten one now that I see my picture!

And then there are the beautiful gardens — being surrounded by all the beautiful plants and vignettes of Zilker would inspire anyone to buy plants and stuff!

East Austin Succulents had a great display of their plants. I bought one – keep reading and I’ll show it to you.

More of beautiful Zilker Garden.

The plant I didn’t get. I browse a little first and then sometimes go back to buy things – sadly, someone else had already snatched up all three of these.

But this aeonium did come home with me and found its happy place in a tall copper pot.

This is another of my finds. I know it’s made for a window – but I’m dying to hang it somewhere in my garden for the light to shine through it outside.

I was wowed by this ceramic art – I kept eyeing the turquoise and copper flower tile, but left without it this year.

Mom and Dad — we’ve been going to this Festival for more than 20 years together. It’s my favorite event of the year in Austin – a city full of great stuff to do.

Here are more goodies from other festivals and my sentimental memories of our outings there with my now-grown son, when he bought my Mother’s Day gifts there for years as a young boy.

The rose garden was amazing – this was my very favorite rose.

I still want some ligularia in my garden, and I have some yellow columbines just like these … hmmm… now that’s an idea!

These baby blue eyes (Nemophila maculata) were everywhere – a perky ground cover erupting in bloom.

And off we went with our goodies…home to plant and hang and pot. Until next year…

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-10-27T12:18:13-05:00April 8th, 2013|aeonium, baby blue curls, Blog, Dad, garden art, ligularia, Mom, Mom and Dad, roses, Sharing Nature's Garden, son, succulents, Zilker, Zilker Garden Fest, Zilker Gardenfest, Zilker Gardenfest 2013|0 Comments

Plants that love cool spring evenings…

While Euryops (Euryops pectinatus), or yellow bush daisy, struggles through the dog days of summer here in Central Texas – it bursts forth with perky little blooms when nights and days are cooler here in late fall and early spring.

In this raised bed with good soil, this one is in its third year — done with sleeping and creeping and leaping into a beautiful plant. In addition to being showy right now, it’s clearly working hard to compete with the monster Franzosinii agave. And with a mature height of 4-6 feet, it will likely soon have to find a new home somewhere else in the garden where it can be the focal point.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:31-05:00March 27th, 2013|Blog, euryops, Franzosini agave, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Catalog shopping spree for the spring garden…

Thanks to cool nights by the fire, flipping the pages of glossy catalogs filled with stunning photos of the swimsuit edition versions of new plant offerings, there are exciting new additions to my garden.

Pictured here, Aralia ‘sun king,‘ Heucherella ‘gold zebra,’ Rudbeckia ‘prairie glow,’ and Eupohorbia ‘rainbow ascot.’

In light of the chilly temps, they are all still hanging out together in a tub trug – going out in the morning and coming in at night. They are jockeying for prime places in the garden — each of them whispering to me: “I’d look fabulous paired with the verbena or calylophus or salvia…or whatever!” They speak to me when they think the others aren’t listening.

I feel like they are the judges on “The Voice.” Pick me, pick me, pick me.

But I haven’t picked yet — I’m still ruminating about the best spot for each of them — determined not to just plop them somewhere willy nilly. This I do know, because of it’s color palette, the rudbeckia will be embarking on an adventure of its own — off to a very different part of the garden than the other shade or semi-shade plants. It’s going to find its own hot spot in a yellow/orange themed bed.

Have your catalog weaknesses …(oops)…orders arrived yet? Who will be joining your garden this spring?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:31-05:00March 26th, 2013|aralia, Blog, catalogs, euphorbia, gold zebra heucherella, Heuchera, Heucherella gold zebra, plant order, prairie glow rudbeckia, rainbow ascot euphorbia, rudbeckia, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring, sun king aralia|0 Comments

Plants playing games with me …

In my last post, I shared photos of the sneaky little blooms of my “Phoebe” hellebore. I was surprised to see them because there were no signs of them until they popped open.

This morning, I ventured into the cold 39 degree morning to survey a few plants.

Lo and behold, a teeny, tiny flash of pink buried under the “winter wren” hellebore.

Ah ha!

Caught ya – you sneaky little plant.

I had to really pull it up to get even a poor photo of it and was afraid it might snap.

But isn’t she lovely?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:31-05:00March 6th, 2013|Blog, Hellebore, Phoebe, Sharing Nature's Garden, winter's wren hellebore|0 Comments

Bulbs and bores … hellebores, that is

The promise of spring bursts from the irises in my garden today. This clump of stunning blooms, passalongs from Pam Penick, of Digging, has come into its own this year. She calls them Shoshanna’s irises, named for a friend who passed them along to her.

Last week, I was lamenting that our exceptionally warm winter didn’t do my hellebores any favors. There were no blooms in sight and with a heavy sigh I gave up hope of flowers for this year. Less than a week later – voila! Blooms galore. She must have known I was sad.

You can see here that she was trying to hide those buds and blooms – like hellebores do — but I helped Phoebe posed for photos this morning so you could see her.

Any hellebores in your garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:32-05:00March 4th, 2013|Blog, bulbs, Hellebore, iris, irises, Phoebe, Sharing Nature's Garden, Shoshanna's iris, spring bloomers|0 Comments

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Bottle brush blooms are amazing…

Garden fest delights…

Plants that love cool spring evenings…

Catalog shopping spree for the spring garden…

Plants playing games with me …

Bulbs and bores … hellebores, that is

Escape in the garden