Tropicalesque Tanglewild, where bananas and palms grow big and bold
September 17, 2020 With the arrival of cooler weather it’s garden visiting season, and I’ve started calling on gardening friends who are willing to have me over for a socially distanced, masked, outdoor visit. How I love touring gardens! This week’s tour is at Tanglewild Gardens, a 1.7-acre garden in ...
Oxblood lilies cavort with agaves in Tom Ellison’s garden
September 10, 2020 A couple days ago, between rainstorms, I returned to Tom Ellison’s garden to see his crop of oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida). Austin’s gardens, especially in older neighborhoods like Tom’s own Tarrytown, blaze with diminutive red flags after the first good rain of late summer. Although the oxblood ...
Beebalm, skullcap, and more wild creatures
May 27, 2020 The early summer flowers are strutting their stuff, so come along for a virtual tour! Here’s dazzling ‘Peter’s Purple’ monarda (Monarda fistulosa ‘Peter’s Purple’) in the driveway bed. It was a breezy day. Looking toward the neighbors’ house and their fast-growing Yucca rostrata In the shady island bed ...
Reopening at San Antonio Botanical Garden, part 2
May 21, 2020 A wildflower meadow studded with Yucca rostrata in bloom — yes, please! Let’s continue with last week’s visit to San Antonio Botanic Garden and this path into the cactus and succulent garden. More flowering yuccas! And more, with shiny-leaved palm trees and a blue, blue sky. And ...
San Antonio Botanical Garden reopening, part 1
May 19, 2020 After a month and a half self-isolating at home, I was craving a garden visit when I got the news that both the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and San Antonio Botanical Garden were opening back up at limited capacity. I immediately went online and secured tickets ...
Xeriscape in bloom at Wells Branch Community Garden
May 14, 2020 Lemon-lime retama trees in bloom caught my eye recently as I drove by the Wells Branch Community Garden and its native xeriscape garden. Someone takes really good care of this waterwise garden, which dresses up the exterior of the walled community-garden plots. Until a few years ago ...
Wildflower fiesta at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
May 11, 2020 Bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and other early wildflowers bloomed in solitude this spring at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which closed in mid-March due to the pandemic and Austin’s shelter-in-place order. Happily, the gardens reopened last weekend to members, who must reserve in advance a specific arrival ...
April visit to Antique Rose Emporium garden
May 10, 2020 In early April I took a wildflower-hunting drive through the country east of Austin. I ended up driving out to Brenham and past The Antique Rose Emporium, which was open to visitors, so I stopped for a quick tour of the gardens, socially distanced of course. The ...
Mexico City: Bosque de Chapultepec botanical garden and more
April 05, 2020 One morning during our stay in Mexico City we explored the city’s “lungs”, the Bosque de Chapultepec, or Chapultepec Forest. At 1,695 acres, it’s one of the largest city parks in the Western Hemisphere. Chapultepec means “grasshopper hill” in the Aztec language, and in fact the park ...
Mexico City: Frida Kahlo’s Blue House and garden
March 23, 2020 Bird of paradise flower at Frida Kahlo’s Blue House Before the scope of the coronavirus crisis had crystallized, my husband, daughter, foreign exchange-student daughter, and I made an early spring-break trip to Mexico City. Had we known how fast the situation would escalate at home, I don’t ...
Japanese garden and prehistoric garden at Zilker Botanical Garden
March 02, 2020 Visiting the Japanese garden at Zilker Botanical Garden last week, I noticed all kinds of changes for the better at our perennially underfunded city garden. In the upper level of the Taniguchi Japanese Garden, pruning of perimeter trees has opened up a nice view of our ever-growing ...
