A year in photos: So long, 2013
December 31, 2013 Last year I had fun selecting my 10 favorite photos from 2012, an annual meme led by Les at A Tidewater Gardener. So here I am again, sitting at my computer in stretchy pants and a cuddly cardigan, with the spicy scent of a baking pumpkin pie ...
Darn deer! Why I cage woody plants in fall and winter
December 19, 2013 My 6-year-old nephew, who was here for Thanksgiving dinner, asked why I’d put cages around some of my plants. Isn’t it the silliest looking thing? Wire cages are not exactly my idea of fine garden decor. But short of ditching agaves, yuccas, and other stiff-leaved or woody ...
Bright Edge yucca brightens up a December Foliage Follow-Up
December 16, 2013 Edged with mellow-yellow stripes, Yucca filamentosa ‘Bright Edge’ adds a little sunshine to my garden on chilly winter days. Evergreen, drought tolerant, deer resistant, heat loving, and cold tolerant to US hardiness zone 4 or 5, ‘Bright Edge’ proves adaptable to everything except shade and damp soil ...
Japanese maple blushes crimson
December 04, 2013 It’s December, when our thoughts turn to Christmas trees and holiday baking and battening down the hatches of the garden for the winter. My green Japanese maple takes this moment every year to go all autumnal, flaming into the most spectacular fall display in my garden right ...
Copper canyon daisy cascade
November 22, 2013 A blue norther blew in last night, chasing away yesterday’s 80-degree F high. The glow of the copper canyon daisies (Tagetes lemmonii) out front was just as warm as the temperature yesterday, and I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures. I’m glad I did since it’s too ...
Plant This: Queen Victoria agave
October 28, 2013 With chunky, triangular leaves iced in precise white lines, and with a tight, symmetrical rosette shape almost too perfect to be real, Queen Victoria agave (Agave victoriae-reginae) is as regal as its name suggests. This little agave is decidedly not queen-sized, however. In contrast to the SUV-sized ...
Moody blue palm, sunlit grasses, and popping orange mallow
October 26, 2013 Some plants need a little more time, that’s all. The adage says that in the third year, a garden leaps. For the silver Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis var. argentea) I planted four years ago, the leaping growth I’d begun to despair of seeing has finally occurred ...
How’s my Berkeley sedge lawn growing?
October 25, 2013 Two months ago I wrote a post about my experimental “lawn” of Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa). After 5 months it was filling in, but with areas of patchiness. Since then, the Death Star has abated, temps have cooled off to the 80s and 70sF, and we’ve had ...
Festive fall color just a footstep away
October 24, 2013 Look low, not up in the trees, for vibrant autumn color in an Austin garden. Our trees tend not to turn until early December. But fall-flowering perennials provide plenty of pizzazz until then. Right now in my garden I’m enjoying golden thryallis (Galphimia gracilis), which blooms all ...
Plant This: Mexican orchid tree
October 21, 2013 Brightening the shade with floppy-petaled, gleaming white flowers, Mexican orchid tree (Bauhinia mexicana) is a gangly but pretty shrub for dappled shade or light morning sun here in central Texas. Cousin to the Hill Country-native, spring-blooming Anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides), Mexican orchid tree blooms spring through ...
Seeing red: It’s oxblood lily time!
September 26, 2013 Yesterday morning I saw that the oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) in the back garden were going to be in full bloom once the sun rose. But I was out all day long with client meetings, after-school driving to a volleyball game, and dinner. Finally at 7:15 pm, ...
Autumn light and a morning garden stroll
September 24, 2013 October has arrived early in Austin. Since Saturday we’ve all been thrilling to temperatures in the 80s and low 90sF, with a dry, northerly breeze. While those temps may sound summery to some of my readers — those who do not live and garden under the Death ...
Oxblood lilies in bloom and other garden excitement
September 18, 2013 The red flags of oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) bloomed for two or three days in the front garden, but by yesterday they were shriveled in the heat and hanging at half mast. A short but sweet show. I have only a few bulbs in this area, sprinkled ...
Green texture for September Foliage Follow-Up
September 16, 2013 I know I keep coming back to this part of my garden for Foliage Follow-Up, but I just can’t help it. Planted earlier this year, its growth has been explosive, especially of the silvery groundcover pictured here, our native woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata). Here’s another look. Silver-green ...
Plant This: Indian mallow
September 15, 2013 In my sunniest, driest garden beds, gray globemallow (Sphaeralcea incana) is a true performer. When I first spotted this Indian mallow in the exhibition hall at GWA Tucson last fall, I mistook it for another of the many species of Sphaeralcea. Was I surprised to learn that ...
New snake pot and other succulicious planters
September 13, 2013 I don’t know when my Rick Van Dyke pottery obsession started, but I have it totally under control. I can stop anytime I want. Anyway, I needed a little pick-me-up a few weekends ago and found this fun snake pot at Rick’s booth at the Austin Cactus ...
