Plant This: Pale pavonia, or Brazilian rock rose
July 28, 2017 Even in gentler months, my shady garden is not particularly flowery, and in the heat of summer those perennials that do flower — salvias, mistflowers, cupheas — tend to hunker down until fall. One happy exception is pale pavonia, also known as Brazilian rock rose (Pavonia hastata), ...
Pink flower ka-power
July 25, 2017 Several rosy-cheeked flowers are standing up to the Death Star during this hot midsummer. The ones I’m enjoying most, because the plant is new in my garden, are these satin-petaled, carnation-pink flowers that appear every couple of weeks on a mammillaria cactus. A spiny stoic cactus, just ...
Plant This: Moonflower vine for moonlit nights
July 23, 2017 When the sun goes down and the moon comes up, that’s when moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba) unfurls tissue-petaled white blossoms as large as your palm, inviting you to lean in for a deep whiff of its sweet perfume. In my mind’s eye, the flowers glow like miniature ...
Summer-tough Foliage Follow-Up
July 16, 2017 Summer is my most challenging season as a gardener. Yes, really — not winter. I don’t care at all for hot weather, so I retreat indoors and don’t venture outside much until that first hint of cooler air and lessening of the Death Star that typically occurs ...
Summer solstice evening
June 21, 2017 A pink sunset through the trees drew me outside this evening, but then I got sidetracked by the garden, including this pretty combo of ‘Color Guard’ yucca, Mexican oregano (Poliomintha longiflora), and ‘Vertigo’ pennisetum, which has been a successful trial plant from Proven Winners for me, returning ...
Patio life and summery goodness
June 18, 2017 I hope all the pops out there are enjoying an easy day sitting on the patio or otherwise enjoying some time in the garden. It’s Father’s Day, and you deserve it! I spotted this relaxing patio and spikylicious steel planter at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, ...
Early summer garden offerings
June 11, 2017 A few offerings of early summer beauty in the garden. Beaked yucca (Y. rostrata ‘Sapphire Skies’) as seen from our deck — I enjoy this topside view of the spiky stunner. The galvanized pie-plate planters I filled with succulent cuttings in March have filled out beautifully. Here’s ...
Datura glowing at twilight
June 06, 2017 After a sunset that turned the sky gold last evening, I took a twilight stroll through the garden*, Ruth Wilcox-style, and stopped to admire several datura blossoms perfuming the air. Still sparkling from an afternoon downpour, the plate-sized, horned blossoms unfurled as the moon rose. Now bring ...
Early summer flowers brighten my Texas garden
May 28, 2017 I didn’t realize how many white flowers I’m growing until I photographed what’s blooming this week. Let’s start with pale pavonia, aka Brazilian rock rose (Pavonia hastata). I love the tissuey white flower with a maroon eye and veins. I grew a moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba), one ...
RIP, wren chicks — you were no match for a rat snake
May 20, 2017 Tragedy for the wrens raising week-old chicks in a birdhouse I’ve been observing from my office window. Yesterday morning, as I sat down at my desk, I looked out to check on the little family — I’ve been watching the parents feeding the chicks — and something ...
New shade sails and other garden goodness
May 05, 2017 We’ve always wanted shade for our deck, which is one of the few spots in our yard not overhung by live oaks. Facing south, it gets blasted by the Death Star all day long, and even our kitchen table overlooking the deck gets unpleasantly toasty by midafternoon ...
How to prune clumping bamboo
April 24, 2017 I’ve known many people who are afraid to plant any kind of bamboo, even a clumping type, for fear it will take over their yard — and with good reason. Here in Austin, many a back yard is clogged with running bamboo, which is often planted for ...
Easter Sunday Foliage Follow-Up
April 16, 2017 I’m imagining my blog feed filling up with pictures of pastel Easter eggs and white lilies. But here at Digging, in spite of a flurry of kitchen activity (I’m making Tex-Mex deviled eggs and a lemon cake), it’s still Foliage Follow-Up. Let’s start with the stock-tank pond ...
Let’s take a walk around the garden
April 10, 2017 Live oak leaf and pollen season is finally over, and the patios are clean again, hallelujah! This calls for a spring garden stroll, so let’s go. I’ve been playing with a squid theme on one wall of the upper patio. A couple of tentacle pots from Tentacle ...
Gorgeous flowering of a pond iris and more
March 27, 2017 As buds began to swell last week, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the flowering of my pond iris. And this morning, three burgundy, yellow-throated flowers unfurled. They look especially picturesque as viewed against the turquoise shed doors. Several more buds mean more flowers to come. Jenny/Rock Rose gave ...
Refreshed porch pots and tiki hut
March 19, 2017 Happy Sunday morning! After a week of family illness at Chez Penick, I finally got in some gardening time this weekend. Here are my refreshed containers on the back porch steps. The purple oxalis (Oxalis triangularis) in the turquoise pot gets all the oohs, and no wonder ...
