Flower power
Quiet, little purple oxalis has begun flowering under the daylily foliage. The green eyes pick up the green of the daylily leaves, and the pale lilac petals faintly echo the eggplant-colored oxalis foliage.
The polar opposite of dainty oxalis, crossvine (Bignonia capreolata ‘Tangerine Beauty’) flowers shout, “Look at me!” Looking like they’ve been colored with orange sidewalk chalk, the trumpets remind me of open throats singing loudly.
The vine is one of two I planted last fall on the fence along the driveway. I’d already tried coral vine (Antigonon leptopus ) there, with no success; the soil is dry, dry, dry. But the crossvine is doing great on minimal attention.
The tubular buds feel funny—like long, puffy balloons.
Look what’s coming soon. The privacy fence in the back garden is bedecked in crossvine buds.
Aloe-like bulbine is starting to flower in the front garden.
So is black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’). This is the only flower so far, but I am surprised to see one so early. As an aside, which is the proper way to spell “Goldstrum/Goldsturm”? I see it spelled both ways in flower catalogs.
The Texas redbud is beginning to leaf out, though the flowers still hang on. A jealous bee was guarding the tree this afternoon, zipping in front of me as I inched closer. Her behavior was like a male hummingbird’s—trying to keep all the nectar for herself, or maybe for her hive-mates.
Leaves unfurling alongside the flowers
The first spring rose opened today: a Marie Pavie. Here’s a bud unfurling—a soft pink.
And in full bloom it’s white with a tinge of pink, and very fragrant.
Beyond flowers, new leaves are beautiful too. The purple smoke tree is leafing out. Soon it’ll be “smoking.”
The purple prickly pear (Opuntia macrocentra) is budding new pads, and looking distinctly otherworldly.
New green leaves on a ‘Little John’ bottlebrush I planted last fall. I love the texture of this plant, especially in combination with its red flowers, yet to come.
The cedar elm is fully clothed now, and its bright, chartreuse foliage is already toning down to a more sedate lime green. Here the setting sun shines through those new green leaves.
Love the cedar elm with its lovely coloured leaves. Roses in flower already? I’ll have to wait a few more months for that.
Lovely pictures Pam, as usual!
Thanks! —Pam
You don’t make it easy darlin’.
I’m generally a happy guy, and then I come over here and you are fairlly strongly rubbing in my face that my life sucks. 🙂
The Bignonia capreolata ‘Tangerine Beauty’ is amazing. And I’ve never looked twice at oxalis, but I will now.
Hell, it is ALL amazing!
Hank
Thanks, Hank. Though, you know, I’ll be saying the same thing to you once July arrives in Texas. By then you’ll be living it up in some glorious Yankee summer. —Pam
My usual response… WOW! Such beautiful pictures of beautiful flowers. Do you mind my asking what kind of camera you are using for such clear close ups? I love the oxalis, especially.
Thanks, Carol. I use a Canon PowerShot A80. It’s a pretty good little camera, with a great macrofocus setting for closeups. —Pam
Okay, you win!
Everything looks wonderful, Pam – you have such a variety of plants!
Hortus Third doesn’t says Rudbeckia fulgida sullivantii ‘GoldSTURM’, or ‘Goldstorm’. The Clausen/Eckstrom “Perennials For American Gardens” was considered pretty definitive a few years ago, and they say the true cultivar is the propagated-by-division-only Rudbeckia fulgida sullivantii ‘GoldSTURM’. Then they note that an inferior seed-grown type is frequently sold as ‘GoldSTRUM Strain’.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Thanks for wading into the Goldsturm/Goldstrum muddle, Annie. The sentence about Hortus Third is confusing me though. Did you mean to say that Hortus Third says Goldsturm? Based on your research, I now know to go with Goldsturm, not Goldstrum. —Pam
I notice yesterday that my crossvine is in bloom, too. You’re right, it does look someone colored them with chalk! I’d never thought of that.
Good grief – bad proofing! Sorry, Pam.
Hortus Third calls it Rudbeckia fulgida sullivantii ‘GoldSTURM’. ‘Goldstorm’ is the English translation.
The impression I got from Clausen/Eckstrom was that if the tag says GoldSTRUM, watch out for unreliable seedlings.
Annie
Wonderful, wonderful closeups of the flowers. Some how yours look more sharp than mine, but I think I am just messing with my own head. I like the Bulbine and Oxalis a lot. I know how small those flowers really are.
Are you sure those are new pads on the prickly pear cactus? They look like flower buds to me.
Ooh, I hope they’re flower buds. I’ve never had a prickly pear bloom before, so I’m not sure what flower buds look like. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. —Pam
May 8, 2011
Hi Pam,
Thanks for posting all the wonderful pictures , especially the crossvine on the wooden fence . I just bought a crossvine . In the close up picture of the crossvine , I saw you have a cattle panel fencing for the vine to climb up . Do you only have a small section of cattle panel to help the crossvine grow up to the top of the fence and then it can just hang down from the top by itself without any support or do you have cattle panel all over underneath where the crossvine is ? I would like to do exactly what you did with the crossvine . By the way, how long did it take to get to that gorgeous stage since the time you planted the crossvine at that location ?
Again thanks very much for your help.
Dee Hughes
Hi, Dee. In the 3rd picture, you’re seeing a metal trellis from Home Depot or Lowe’s that supported the crossvine on the fence by the driveway. In the 5th picture, the crossvine growing on the back fence was trained up the fence very simply: I attached eye screws to the fence at top and bottom, in a fan pattern, and strung thin, galvanized wire between the eye screws. The wire is nearly invisible, and of course much less expensive than cattle panel. The vine twined around the wire to reach the top of the fence, and from there it just rambled along the fence. I planted three crossvines along that back fence, and they filled in nicely. —Pam