Doorways in chunky stucco walls frame vista after flowery vista in the garden of Jenny Stocker, also known as Rock Rose, the title of her blog. I showed you half of her Austin garden yesterday. Today I’ll lead you through the rest, starting with the sunken garden between her back porch and swimming pool.

Not a single tree shades this sunny garden, allowing sun-loving annuals and perennials to thrive with their roots tucked under cooling slabs of limestone.

Multiple deep porches with comfortable seating offer shade for people, however — perfect spots to look out over a profusion of colorful spring flowers.

An L-shaped swimming pool with an urn fountain lies low at the rear of the garden, thoughtfully refraining from becoming the center of attention, handsome as it is. A white Lady Banks rose stretches across a section of verdigris fencing. The rest of the garden is enclosed by buff-colored, 5-foot-high stucco walls.

The sunken garden dazzles in early April, with yellow columbine and orange California poppies jostling for the starring role.

Red corn poppies, or Flanders poppies, as English-born Jenny calls them, add to the riot of color, along with peach and yellow iris and ‘Tangerine Beauty’ crossvine clambering atop the greenhouse beyond the wall.

I sat on a bench for a while and just blissed out.

Every view sparkles.

Our native Gulf Coast penstemon (Penstemon tenuis)

Poppies with fuzzy, gooseneck-stemmed flower buds. And what are those delicate lilac flowers, I wonder? Update: It’s a native toadflax.

Columbine and poppy

I love this candid photo of my friends Jenny (at left) and Cat, chatting and utterly relaxed, surrounded by flowers.

Native allium of some sort

More peach iris and columbines

Spineless prickly pear and yucca on the periphery add structure and muscularity to the meadowy garden.

On the deep covered porch, Jenny displays dozens of cacti and succulents in tidy terracotta pots.

No comment on the cactus at left.

A window in the wall offers a tantalizing glimpse into the circle-themed rose garden (see yesterday’s post).

This pretty cactus has hairs that look like a dusting of snow

View from the porch

Skyrockets in flight

Columbine is a spring favorite of mine. Jenny gave me a few passalong seedlings a few weeks ago. Maybe next spring I’ll have blooms like this.

Nasturtium

Purple-mauve iris and California poppies

View from the back porch dining table. See how the swimming pool is nearly hidden, letting the garden shine.

Side view

Pots of nasturtiums dress up the porch steps.

Charming details everywhere

In the next garden room, as a focal point in the center of a small patio, Jenny displays a crevice garden atop a pillar. It looks like a mountain vista in miniature, doesn’t it?

The most beautiful potting shed ever

And the most beautiful globe mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), perhaps — a blush-pink beauty glowing with red poppies against a stucco wall. My thanks to Jenny for another magical garden visit!

For a look back at Part 1 of my visit to Jenny’s garden, click here.

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Digging Deeper

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