Protecting the garden from a Texas deep freeze — or not
January 05, 2018 We’ve just recovered from a bad case of winter here in Austin. From New Year’s Eve through Wednesday, a long deep freeze — by Central Texas standards, anyway — had us huddling by the fireplace night after night. Lows in the mid-20s rose only to around freezing ...
Final fall foliage as winter’s icy breath freezes Austin
December 18, 2016 Austin plummeted from a high of 80 F (26.6 C) yesterday afternoon to 26 F (-3.3 C) this morning, and today the Japanese maple is clinging shiveringly to far fewer leaves than yesterday, when I took this photo. That’s Texas winter weather for you. In preparation for ...
Bluebonnets already a-blue-m at the Wildflower Center
February 06, 2016 Well, this is a surprise! Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) ordinarily bloom in April, but a bonny patch was abloom yesterday in the family garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Don’t go running over for your photo op with the kids. Only about 3 plants are blooming ...
Aloe from the other siiiiiide
February 02, 2016 With apologies to Adele and her earworm of a song, aloes are still saying hello in my garden this mild winter with spring-like flowering. I find their leaves equally eye-catching, with white spots reminiscent of disco-ball light effects. Believe it or not, this is the same aloe ...
Plant This: Purple prickly pear adds rich winter color
January 23, 2016 Photos of rich-purple pads on a spineless prickly pear called ‘Santa Rita’ sent me running to the nurseries about 10 years ago. I came home with this, a purple prickly pear I thought was ‘Santa Rita’ but now believe to be Opuntia macrocentra. What’s the difference? Long ...
Plant This: Little Grapes gomphrena
January 18, 2016 Since first planting it at Green Hall Garden in 2008, I’ve known this delicately branching gomphrena cultivar as ‘Grapes’, but it also goes by ‘Little Grapes’, ‘Itsy Bitsy’, and airy bachelor’s buttons. By any name, it’s a moderately reliable perennial in my fall garden, sometimes remaining in ...
Winter pizzazz of flowering maple and ornamental grasses
January 11, 2016 A mild winter makes flowering maple (Abutilon) happy, and that makes me happy. I adore its pink-veined, balloon-skirted flowers. Here you see it in the foreground, part of the stock-tank pond garden. Let’s walk up the hillside path, shall we? But first, check out how big the ...
Aloe surprise and prepping for owls
January 10, 2016 Aloes bloom in profusion at the Huntington in Los Angeles at this time of year, and my winter-blooming ‘Blue Elf’ aloe is already sending up asparagus-shaped bloom spikes. But soap aloe (Aloe maculata) prefers warmer weather to strut its stuff in my Austin garden. And yet… …with ...
Drive-By Gardens: Xeriscapes taking off at Mueller neighborhood
January 08, 2016 On New Year’s Day, we took a stroll through Mueller neighborhood, a New Urban community in east-central Austin. Built on the site of the old airport, where acres of runways and parking lots once sprawled, attractive homes and row houses in a mix of different styles (no ...
Decked and swinging at the Wildflower Center
December 10, 2015 The weather has been so beautiful lately — Austin’s payoff for making it through another summer. Last Sunday, the whole family joined me for an afternoon stroll at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, one of my very favorite places. Right now it’s a mix of fall ...
Evergreens, color, and hardscape carry garden through winter into spring
March 11, 2015 A recent conversation on Linda Lehmusvirta‘s Facebook page got a few Austin gardeners talking about winter interest. Tracie, a local gardener, wrote that her mostly native garden looks great spring through fall but is “asleep” in winter, and she wanted ideas. Lori at The Gardener of Good ...
Plant This: Chinese fringeflower
February 25, 2015 As winter and spring duke it out in late February, Chinese fringeflower (Loropetalum chinense) starts strutting its stuff, flashing hot-pink, strappy-petaled flowers amid its dusky-purple, evergreen leaves. Dark foliage is kind of rare in central Texas — our native and adapted plants tend to have gray-green and ...
Trying ‘Nabob’ abutilon
February 18, 2015 I opened the Plant Delights catalog recently and was coveting the rich-red ‘Voodoo’ abutilon in its pages, though balking at the shipping cost. A few days later I found ‘Nabob’ abutilon at Vivero Growers right here in Austin and scooped up three of them. Y’all know how ...
Possumhaws coming into glory
February 08, 2015 The reddening of possumhaw holly (Ilex decidua) berries seems a couple of weeks late this year. (Click the link to see how they look at peak.) Usually the red-berried trees are blazing by mid-to-late January in my northwest Austin neighborhood, but this year they’re just starting to ...
Possumhaw holly is berry beautiful in winter
January 26, 2014 The possumhaws (love that name!) were in fine form at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center yesterday. Wowza! Bright red berries against the olive green of live oaks and juniper and a scrubbed, blue sky. 65 degrees. This is what winter should always be. All material © ...
Plant This: Possumhaw holly adds fire to winter landscape
January 20, 2010 Beaded with bright-red berries, possumhaw holly (Ilex decidua) really stands out amid the greenish-gray and tan winter landscape of Austin. I’ve driven past several of these native, deciduous hollies in my neighborhood for weeks, and I keep thinking they’re at peak beauty. And then I’ll drive by ...
