Sharing Nature's Garden Archives | Page 57 of 124

Making up for lost garden time!

I missed Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Foliage Follow up. But I have a note from my doctor…

…just kidding!

But I was doing something important — my 7 year-old daughter and I were at a Mother-Daughter camp in the mountains for the weekend, hiking, swimming, horseback riding and enjoying nature. It was so fun.

But I feel the need to get back to blogging! So here are a few new things from my garden this week:
These are the first blooms of my ditch lily — brought back to me from Wisconsin personally from The Gardener of Good and Evil. What a friend! In a bucket in her car, no less!
This is my first bloom on my first Lamb’s Ear. I know, I know. I didn’t like them before, but I love them in the garden with the Katy Road Rose and Indigo Spires Salvia. And who knew that they bloomed? Not me!
Early Larkspur popping up — given to me by Zanthan Gardens two years ago. They are such amazing colors. Love that deep purple, especially.
The variegated Eureka Lemon is making a strong comeback after the hard freezes this winter. (Maybe it’s because I talk to her!)
The Sagos that are going to be fine are all happily adding new growth. I did lose one, though, a very young one in an unirrigated bed. Too much stress, I guess. This one is happy as can be.
The Plumeria is about to burst forth with yellow, lemon-scented blooms any day now.
Several of my Coneflowers are in bloom, but some sneaky bug has been eating on this one.
The Autumn Joy Sedum must also be Spring Joy, because it, too, is about to bloom. Go for it!
Another immature Coneflower bloom. It’s so compact before it opens up.
Artemnis got a new hairdo last week. Since she looks out over the deer water bowl, I have to be careful what I plant in there. I think this Squid Agave will do well in dry conditions and the deer won’t be interested in it, either.

And this is the first of my Day Lilies to bloom in the Day Lily bed. This is the Spider Miracle Lily — from Olallie Daylily Gardens. Last year it bloomed first on April 18th. So we really are almost exactly a month behind with garden growth — at least that’s been my experience.

We’re getting a wonderful, soaking rain and summer storm tonight. Sat on the back patio with my folks who were over for dinner tonight and smelled the fresh air and let it mist on us a little. It was so refreshing. And we need the rain — looks like we might get it well into the night.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:28-06:00May 17th, 2010|Blog, ditch lily, eureka lemon tree, Lamb's Ears, larkspur, Sago, Sharing Nature's Garden, spider miracle lily|0 Comments

Enter, stage right…and left…

The towering palms — the ones that made you think you really had driven too far south of town and ended up in Corpus Christi — are gone.

They came down with barely a whimper on April 29, and left four big holes.

Today, three of those holes were filled.

At the back corners on either side of the pool, I planted two beautiful, graceful, arching Pindo Palms. I’ve been wanting one since the garden bloggers toured Peckerwood Gardens together in November of 2008.

In the open space in the back bed, I also planted a purple Datura (there is a white one there now also) and a Cardoon. Tomorrow, I’ll add several Silver Ponyfoot plants to (eventually) cascade down the wall and fill the base of the bed. (They’re pretty darn tiny right now, but they’ll grow!)

I think a giant burgundy Dracena may be joining them on the end soon. And I’m sure I will think of some more things that need to be in there as well.

See, doesn’t that pretty Pindo look so much better?

I also planted a Pineapple Guava tree on the other side of the pool, having fallen in love with them on our bloggers tour to San Antonio to the Botanic Gardens. I didn’t get a photo of it, but it comes before this palm in the photo below – right where I am standing. (I didn’t take a picture of it because it looks like a giant bush-ball, and I am going to prune it up into a tree once it’s gotten over the shock of the move.)

They didn’t photograph very well in the afternoon sun, but the look sooooo much better there than the other palms. Guess I can let out my breath now … everything went as planned and I’m happy with the result. Can’t ask for more than that!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:28-06:00May 11th, 2010|Blog, Cardoon, dature, pindo palm, pineapple guava, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

And then there were more!

Several more Professor Neil irises opened up for me today, eliciting squeals of delight.

(Good thing no one else was in the garden to hear me!)

I think I got better color on these. They are such a warm, plum-like, burgundy-color that I really can’t describe them.

Suffice it to say that they looks so rich and velvet-y that I can’t get enough of them.

That’s why I am gushing about them and why they are getting two posts in as many days.

Guess it’s no secret who my favorites are in the garden, is it? But then, we all have favorites, don’t we?

And disappointments.

Like this next iris.

This is supposed to be a vibrant tall bearded iris called “Ocelot.” If you look at this link to Dave’s Garden, you will see it has a rich buttery color, combined with a royal purple.

Sadly, that is NOT what bloomed in my garden today. I was so careful to choose the iris colors in this bed, and then I’m foiled again by Mother Nature. Sigh.

It’s pretty and delicate, but it’s just a little too subtle to be anywhere in the neighborhood of the engaging Professor Neil, don’t you think?

Maybe it’s our conditions – heat, drought, never-ending rain and then colder than you can imagine for Central Texas. Hmmm… Mother Nature again.

Maybe it’s my soil. Black clay. Hmmm…Mother Nature.

So, has Mother Nature foiled your garden color schemes, too? Who do we see about this?!

I want to know where to file my complaint!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:28-06:00May 3rd, 2010|Blog, irises, Ocelot iris, Professor Neil iris, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Sweet Garden Surprise

I’ve been wondering if my irises were going to put on a show for me this year.

Last year, none of them bloomed.

At all.

I had planted several different varieties in an effort to create the beginnings of an iris bed.

My first irises were a mystery. It took me lots of searching and some blogging queries to determine that this is a Louisiana iris named Professor Neil.

I’m afraid I didn’t get the full range of color with my camera. It was a little too hot already and when I realized the photo was lacking, I went to shoot another, but today it’s gone already.

I am so excited to see that glorious dusty burgundy color with the wheaty-gold. They are so rich and unusual.

There is another bud in the iris bed. It’s a very different kind — I think it might be either a Lace or Ocelot iris that I ordered and planted in 2008.

It’s like Christmas in May!

A surprise around every corner — after last year’s iris-bloom drought, I’m enjoying every one of them.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:29-06:00May 1st, 2010|Blog, iris, Lace Iris, Ocelot iris, Professor Neil iris, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Timberrrrrrrr…

This photo was taken before we bought this house. See those two short palms on the left side of the cabana — they are just over half as tall as those posts. In August, that will have been 7 years ago. There were also two other palms on the other side of the pool – all 4 of them almost the same size when we moved in.

This was shot about 2 years ago – they have crested the cabana roof on the right of the photo.

And this is from Tuesday evening. They tower above the roof. They are too tall for my husband to prune any more, and they are completely out of scale with the rest of the landscape and property. Personally, I would not have planted trees that grow that tall. But, I didn’t plant them, and while I did enjoy them for the last 7 years, I decided it was time for them to go.
And so they did!

I was shocked at how easily they came down. It took two men just one hour to fell all 4 of those huge palms. First they roped them, using a plastic-coated wire rope with what looked like a giant fishing sinker on the end. After lassoing the tree, one guy pulled and one guy sawed.

Then, “Timeberrrrrr…”

They cut up the biggest pieces and left me with dead palm parts all over my yard.

The next day, a different crew of 2 guys who work for my landscape design installation foreman came to cut up more, load those massive pieces into a trailer and to cut the stumps down flush with the ground.
I never anticipated how bare it would look without the palms. Because they towered so high, I didn’t think of them as being that prominent. But they were!
The roots fascinated me. They were huge. The biggest base diameter was about 2.5 feet across.
Today they came back with the chainsaws and picks and shovels and cut and dug and whacked away at those fibrous and very short roots on the outside edges of the trunk. It really is amazing that those tall trees stand with such a small shallow root. And we have lots of strong winds up here on this hill.
They left some big holes, some pieces of wall that need remortaring and 1 broken pipe.
Not bad, when the original plan included a bobcat destroying the walls, my grass and sprinklers in multiple places. Didn’t need the bobcat, and the roots were much easier than any of us anticipated.

(Easy for me to say, right, since I wasn’t the one out there sweating like crazy doing about the hardest work I can imagine for several days.)

After the wall is fixed and the sprinkler repaired by the end of next week, one new Pindo palm will grace the back left corner of the pool bed. The oak tree shaded one of the previous palms and as a result, it never grew evenly with its mate. (Drove me crazy) So I won’t be planting two sister palms, just one further in the corner and then something different will go on the other end to anchor that bed.

I’m not sure what I will do behind the cabana — the pindos are too wide with their arching fronds and would be in the way of the shades between those posts.

So, now I have one hole, and one completely empty new bed! Those two cabana palms took up most of that bed and I let a Datura take over the rest, never bothering to put anything else in there.

But now…

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:32-05:00April 29th, 2010|Blog, palms, pindo palm, pool, Sharing Nature's Garden, trees|0 Comments

Very Variegated V…..

Phooey – I’m late for Foliage Follow-up, and I couldn’t think of anything else appropriate that starts with “V.” (Writer’s block!)

But I do have some lovely foliage in the garden thanks to some good spring weather and the recent rains.

I’ve been introducing more variegated plants into the shady areas of my garden over the last year, and they are putting on a show right now.

This is new growth on an agave that almost died last winter.

Walking my garden with me this morning, Robin of Getting Grounded commented that its foliage looks soft, not hard like an Agave. Guess that’s that fresh, new growth.

Isn’t it funny how something so tough and so spiny can also look so delicate at times?

This is a Crystal Palace Gem Geranium.
This is variegated Mikaela Euonymos – it’s a very compact shrub – hasn’t grown much at all since I planted it two years ago. The deer have munched on it once or twice, and while it didn’t do what I wanted it to do, it looks pretty right now.
The variegated Dianella — Flax lily — died back in the freezes, but they are all coming back nicely now.
This is an Agave americana var. mediopicta f. alba.
Sparkler sedge that I got at the Great Outdoors last week — Carex abula — thanks to a tip from Pam at Digging.

This is Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’ — well, maybe it’s not. Actually the Carex across the path is the ‘evergold’ — so this would be…..hmmmm….another kind?!
This variegated Vinca keeps coming back in the middle of my Abelia, and I will rip some of it out, but I may try to plant it somewhere that I would actually LIKE for it to grow. It is pretty.
Another variegated sedge or miscanthus — my record-keeping last summer left something to be desired, didn’t it?
These are my blooming African Hostas. Aren’t they cool? Drimiopsis maculata.
The variegated shell ginger by the pool are all coming back nicely.
And last, but not least, the variegated Eureka Lemon tree that rose from the dead and will live to fruit another day!