Happy Easter, happy spring!
Hinckley’s columbine
As you munch your chocolate bunnies and marshmallow Peeps today, perhaps you’d like some fresh, spring flowers and new greenery to celebrate the season. How about some cheery, yellow columbines in full bloom?
For those who like a long shot, here’s a view across the columbines (planted in a stock tank), past the new, as-yet unleafed crepe myrtle, to the yellow bench on the far side of the garden. The garden has greened up, though aside from the columbines, nolina, bulbine, and iris, much has yet to bloom. I’m still waiting for the roses, salvias, Mexican oregano, purple coneflower (they may have opened today, but I haven’t looked yet), and winecups. Sweet anticipation.
In the back garden, the new variegated yucca (Yucca flaccida ‘Bright Edge’) makes a pretty backdrop for the spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis ), which are a river of blue and purple.
The cedar elm is putting on its bright green frock. Here it’s seen from the back of the garden near the kids’ play area, looking through the trellis screen back toward the patio and the screened porch. Cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia ) is one of my favorite Texas-native trees. It has small, oval, serrated leaves which are bright green in spring and what passes for yellow fall color here in Austin. It has a fairly straight, upright form, a shady canopy, and its height ranges from 25 to 50 feet, depending on whether it’s grown in thin, caliche soil or deep clay, like mine.
Happy Easter, and happy spring!
All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Thanks for the yellow columbine long shot, I love to see your garden as though there in person, but it won’t be long now! Happy Easter to you also.
Frances
It won’t be long till the Spring Fling. Hope you had a happy Easter, Frances. —Pam
Your columbines are lovely. I’m hoping to add some of those to my garden soon!
They’re a welcome sight in early spring, Rachel. —Pam
Just the burst of colour I needed this cold windy morning, Pam! I appreciate your thoughtful comments on the blogging series, incidentally. I’m slightly behind (migraine time) and haven’t answered the latest slew of comments yet (and going back to bed for a while) but just wanted to let you know that I’m delighted to have been supportive. Your blog, incidentally, always loads really quickly for me. I did forget to mention the Spring Fling again in the last post and I will amend that after my nap.
Happy Easter and spring to you from not so springlike NS.
I hope you’re feeling better soon, Jodi. And here’s to an early spring in Nova Scotia! —Pam
Everything looks beautiful and very Spring-like. I wish I could cut and paste your photo into my backyard to cover up the snow 🙂
Happy Easter.
Cut-and-paste gardens would be fun, wouldn’t they? Thanks for your comment, Jane Marie. —Pam
Mmm, loving the cedar elm this morning…
Your garden looks like a fun place to hunt for Easter eggs!
It would be—only we forgot to do it this Easter! My kids must be getting too big for egg hunts if they forgot to remind me. —Pam
I enjoyed seeing the long shots of your garden. Happy Easter, Pam.
I’m glad you enjoyed the long shots, Robin. I always like seeing them on other blogs too. —Pam
Pam,
The Columbine is superb but the rainbarrel, also caught my eye. That and the fabulous wire trellis. I know that crossvine must look good on it and cover your kiddieland behind it.
Gail
Kiddieland is not entirely hidden, but it is somewhat disguised by the trellis screen. You’ll see what I mean at the Spring Fling. —Pam
Happy Easter to you too, Pam! Thanks for sharing the beautiful blooms today. And by the way, your silver ponyfoot really does look superb with the silver metal of its container.
Thanks, Nan. What a great little plant that silver ponyfoot is. I’m glad you highlighted it in your recent post. —Pam
That is so cheery and your columbine is so bright and vivid, not like some of the shy, delicate types! And I love the long shot of the garden. We really do want to see the whole thing when you post – can’t wait for GBSF. Happy Easter~
I keep trying the smaller, red-flowering columbine, but they never do much for me. Do you have any of those, Diana? —Pam
Cedar Elm? What a gorgeous tree! I’ve never heard of it! A texas native / fav I’m sure?
Cedar elm ( Ulmus crassifolia) is one of my favorite Texas-native trees. It has small, oval, serrated leaves which are bright green in spring and what passes for yellow fall color here in Austin. It has a fairly straight, upright form, a shady canopy, and its height ranges from 25 to 50 feet, depending on whether it’s grown in thin, caliche soil or deep clay, like mine. I’ll add this info to the post, so others can find it too. Thanks, Benjamin. —Pam
I’ve been admiring the columbine on all the Austin blogs and have decided that need some for my yard. I’m impatient for more color this time of year. The only thing that gives me pause is that I was under the impression that columbine needed rich, moist soil, and I think my part-shade area in the back is probably too sandy and dry. But your columbine seems to be thriving with drought-tolerant succulents in the stock tank! Do you give it extra water or a different blend of dirt than the other plants, or does it thrive in leaner conditions than I thought?
That’s right, Lori. I find that it does just fine in the gritty soil of my stock-tank planter. Columbine wants good drainage, though it also likes a little extra water. The columbine growing in gumbo clay in my shady back garden isn’t as vigorous as that growing in my sunnier front garden, which has soil amended generously with decomposed granite and compost. Based on my own experiments with it, the soil matters more than the moisture, though ideally I’d suggest well-drained but moist soil and a partly sunny location rather than full shade. If you have sandy soil, I’d add some compost to it so it can hold more water, and give it a go. —Pam
What lovely columbine. I hope you had a great Easter. We sure had a nice time with family.
Just seeing all that you have green and growing in your garden makes me anxious for spring to
really get here. We had snow and sleet yesterday, a first for Easter in my recollection. None
of it stuck but whew was it cold and windy. Today isn’t much better we had heavy frost this a.m.
Easter snow—brrr! I’m glad it didn’t keep your celebration from happening. Spring is bound to be right around the corner for you. —Pam
Hope you had a lovely Easter Pam. I certainly did but it was an unexpected white one. Today it’s snowing again, where did spring go?
Love those pretty yellow columbines of yours, must find me a yellow one too or grow them from seed.
You had Easter snow too, I saw on your blog. Wow, that certainly must have been a surprise. I suppose that’s what an early Easter may bring, as well as chocolate bunnies. —Pam
Pam,
I came back to see your Variegated Yucca…It is a good looking plant, especially with the spiderwort Now, if I were driving I would bring you the Y gloriosa!
Gail
Well, that’d be a looong drive, wouldn’t it? Did you decide to keep it, Gail, or is it going back to the nursery? —Pam
Hope you had a Happy Easter too.
Columbines remind me of cats. They’re independent and could care less of what I want them to do in the garden. I don’t think any have really thrived where I decided to plant them. But seedlings pop up all over the garden and those always do well.
A good analogy. They are certainly their own plants, aren’t they? —Pam
Oooh, I see you have the fabled xMangave ‘Macho Mocha’ too. Unless it’s just a Manfreda? Which, apparently, is also what the alleged xMangave really is.
It is a manfreda, Max, but you got the name right. I love saying ‘Macho Mocha.’ And I love those speckled, chocolate-colored leaves. —Pam
Austin seems to start flowering much earlier than California. All I have is bulbs and loripetalum. Oh, rosemary, too.
I’d have thought California would be ahead, but I suppose it all depends on what part of CA we’re talking about. Chuck has a lot going on his San Francisco garden. —Pam