Red and yellow autumn foliage in my garden
November 30, 2019 Fall color in Austin was surprisingly good this year, including the show put on by the ornamental trees in my own garden, like the species Japanese maple (Acer palmatum). Most years it goes rusty red in mid-December, coordinating with the red Christmas balls I hang from an ...
Yellow spider lilies at peak and agave weevil death
October 23, 2019 First the good: my yellow spider lilies (Lycoris aurea) are at peak bloom. Every flower has opened and seems filled with golden sunlight. They thrill me every time I look though my office window or step out onto the back patio. Shazam! Cosmo had to get in ...
Happy fall garden
October 20, 2019 With the Death Star at bay and a little rain last week, the plants are rejoicing with a flush of flowers. It’s a second spring for us Texas gardeners. Being mostly shady, my garden isn’t exactly a flower-lover’s paradise. It’s all about foliage and texture and, frankly, ...
Plant This: Yellow spider lilies
October 19, 2019 Golden hour is a lot more golden when yellow spider lilies (Lycoris aurea) are blooming. Even after a hot, dry summer, these tough but glorious bulbs popped up right on schedule with our first fall rain. Each day brings new flowers as tardier blossoms continue to unfurl ...
Plant This: Dwarf Barbados cherry
October 11, 2019 Are you looking for a native Texas shrub (native to South Texas) that stays 3-to-4 feet tall, attracts pollinators with pretty pink-and-cream flowers in spring and early fall, produces small red fruits that birds love, and is evergreen in mild winters? Oh, and did I mention that ...
Butterfly vine seedpods flutter into fall garden
October 03, 2019 Monarch butterflies will migrate through Texas this month, headed for their overwintering grounds in Mexico. But already masses of butterflies have arrived in my Austin garden. Butterfly vine seedpods, that is. Butterfly vine, also known as gallinita (Mascagnia macroptera), is my favorite late-summer flowering vine. After its ...
End-of-summer garden
October 02, 2019 Austin is eager to bid a less-than-fond farewell to summer after a record-breaking hot and dry September. I can already see a change in the light, and my garden got a bit of rain last week. With any luck, by next week temperatures will finally drop 10 ...
Plant This: Mexican beautyberry
October 01, 2019 I am not, in general, a plant collector. I rarely make impulse buys at the nursery. And yet a few plants (agave, mangave, and Turk’s cap come to mind) have captivated me enough to try different varieties, even if I don’t exactly need or have space for ...
Beneficial insects love a stock-tank pond too
September 24, 2019 A small water garden helps me endure a Texas summer that stretches well into October. The plinking and burbling of water, jewel-bright and pastel water lilies, and lush green lily pads all make the glaring Death Star (i.e., the Texas sun) less oppressive. Coral-pink ‘Colorado’ water lily ...
Things are looking pretty crispy
September 09, 2019 Junker planted with cactus and agaves behind Planet K (long story) in north Austin. It’s endless summer in Austin, and things are looking pretty crispy. The garden (and gardener) gasps for rain, and I’m seeing browned-out trees all over town. Enough is enough, Death Star! One of ...
Pond plants aren’t sick of summer (but I am)
September 04, 2019 One thing I love about having a stock-tank pond is the visual cooling it provides, a little oasis in my Texas garden during our long, broiling summer. Pond plants like waterlilies never get crispy looking because they’re growing neck deep in cool water. Who wouldn’t want to ...
Summer scenes
August 10, 2019 Morning light in the front garden, with Berkeley sedge aglow, a hulking ‘Green Goblet’ agave, and a silvery groundcover of woolly stemodia — this is a summer scene I enjoy before the Death Star gets high in the sky. And here’s another random summer scene, this one ...
Skullduggery among the agaves
August 09, 2019 Amused by skull-tipped agaves in Dan Johnson’s Denver garden, I’ve given a few of my own agaves the Yorick treatment. Turns out, all sorts of skull beads can be found online. Who knew!? I ordered strings of yellow, orange, and white. Here’s a little ‘Cream Spike’ agave ...
Datura superbloom
August 07, 2019 From such little seeds, what a profusion of flowers! Two evenings in a row this week, my seed-grown datura (Datura wrightii) unfurled more than two dozen blossoms, which shine like spotlights through the night and into the next morning. It’s a superbloom! Here’s how they look as ...
Plant This: ‘Purple Pillar’ Rose of Sharon
August 05, 2019 Do you ever come home with a plant you don’t know what to do with and just stick it in the most neglected, out-of-the-way place, dust off your hands, and say, “Well, little plant, good luck”? I know you do. All gardeners do this. That’s what I ...
New steel planter and meadowy sedge in my garden
July 12, 2019 You might not know it from my all-day-all-night coverage of gardens on the Denver Fling tour, but I’ve been busy in my own garden too. My happiest addition is this new custom steel planter in front of the blue stucco wall by the pool. Tina Strarup of ...
