Mangave

April 07, 2023 The spuria irises have sprung! Their burnt gold, droopy-petaled flowers perch atop tall stems, surrounded by slender, sword-shaped leaves, sheltered under a crape myrtle canopy. Their distinctive color pops against a green backdrop. They glow behind mauve, fleshy ‘Fiercely Fabulous’ mangave. They make a golden filling between ...

March 22, 2023 Spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis), a self-sowing native and a springtime beauty, continues to color my shady spaces purple. Its bee-feeding flowers open at dawn and close in the early afternoon, except on cool, cloudy days, when they may stay open all day. More flower spikes line the raised ...

April 04, 2022 In early March, on a quick trip to Houston, I returned to Houston Botanic Garden for an end-of-winter visit. HBG is still a new garden — it opened in September 2020; click for my visit — and the culinary garden with its massive, aqua-tiled water wall is ...

February 23, 2022 Teacup Garden in 2021 A teacup-shaped fountain in the entry garden at Chanticleer gives the Teacup Garden its name. Each year the plantings around the fountain are redesigned to create a bold, new theatrical vignette. I visited Chanticleer in Wayne, Pennsylvania, last October on my East Coast ...

November 02, 2021 My Northeast road trip in early October wasn’t only about seeing fall foliage. Naturally it included lots of garden visits too, starting with Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. Only 17 days remained until the garden closed for the season (what a strange concept for this Southerner), ...

September 07, 2021 ‘Moonglow’ mangave I’m a little infatuated with mangaves, those succulent-leaved hybrids of agaves and manfredas. I’ve been growing a couple hardy mangaves (hardy most winters in our zone 8b) for years as focal points in protected beds or containers. My hardy faves are ‘Macho Mocha’ and its ...

November 11, 2020 Ah fall, how I love you. Even though our fall weather is comparable to summer in northerly regions (low to mid-80s F), and colorful foliage rarely occurs, it’s still my favorite season. After all, autumn is our second spring here in Texas, and fall perennials like Philippine ...

September 24, 2020 Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio all have botanical gardens, but until now, the biggest and most international city in Texas did not. Last weekend Houston finally got its due with the long-anticipated opening of Houston Botanic Garden. I road-tripped with my daughter three hours east ...

December 16, 2016 I’ve been celebrating a belated fall here at Digging and on Instagram this week, as our Japanese maple flamed into orange and then red. Although it’s a little odd to see brilliant fall color at Christmastime, we deprived Texas gardeners happily take it whenever we can get ...

December 28, 2011 Southern gardens traditionally rely on evergreen shrubs for winter structure and greenery. In my Southern meets Southwestern garden, agaves serve the same purpose. Pictured here is ‘Moby,’ the white whale of my garden—‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia), whose broad, cupped leaves, each serrated with thorns and tipped ...

July 16, 2011 It’s Foliage Follow-Up, a day of celebrating leafy beauty in the garden. After I took my photos, I noticed that they fell into one of two categories: the fierce, pointy leaves of yuccas, agaves, dyckias, and mangaves, and the fine texture of various grasses or grass-like plants ...

May 19, 2011 My gardening rule of thumb, frequently broken (the rule, not the thumb), is to stop planting by May 1 in order to avoid having to establish new plants under the Death Star. But I make exceptions for cacti and succulents, which require little supplemental water. Still our ...

August 17, 2009 When you grow agaves, mangaves, and aloes—which love our Texas summers—you often get pups. That’s what you call the baby plants that grow up under or beside the mother plant’s leaves. Not all agaves produce pups (the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ does not), and that can be a plus ...

May 05, 2009 Look what I noticed yesterday afternoon. The ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave’s flower spike is beginning to open! The top of it is over my head, at about seven feet tall. When all those buds open, it should be an amazing sight. Stay tuned! And in case you were ...

April 25, 2009 “I rose,” responds ‘Dortmund.’ “Still rising,” answers ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave’s flower spike, which now stands at about six feet. All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...

March 25, 2009 My ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave (pronounced man-GAH-vay) is budding its first bloom stalk! I’m very excited and checking on it almost hourly. When I transplanted it from my old garden last fall, giving it a solo spot in a low stock tank, I never expected it to respond ...