Amber and Jason Schoneman, owners of garden design biz Dwarf Palmetto Design, nurture a fascination with palms, cactus, and other low-water plants. Avid collectors, they know the provenance of every plant in their garden. They also propagate plants for their private plant sales. In short, they are self-described plant nerds, and they’ve turned their front and back yard in Austin’s Onion Creek neighborhood into a xeriscape garden of fringy palms, comb-leaved cycads, spiny dyckia and cactus, and flowering perennials. I had the pleasure of meeting them for a tour earlier this month.

Xeriscape front garden

In a neighborhood of mostly standard front lawns, Jason and Amber’s garden stands out for its bristling flora that embrace the heat and sunshine of a Texas summer. Golden barrel cactus, dyckias, aloes, yuccas, prickly pear, cycads, salvias, and ladyfinger cactus mingle with no lawn in sight.

For comparison, here’s how it looked before they got to work ripping out sod and foundation plants — perfectly ordinary and forgettable.

Today it’s a dynamic, textural, waterwise garden. These ladyfinger cacti (Echinocereus pentalophus), which Jason and Amber use like a groundcover, are new to me.

In spring, they cover themselves with screaming-pink flowers. Amber shared this photo with me, and wow! People stop their cars to stare during the flowering season, they told me, which lasts a few weeks.

From the house, bushy cycads, yuccas, palmettos, and prickly pears provide some privacy from the street. The handsome, upright cycad in the center is Dukou cycad, or Panzihua sago palm (Cycas panzhihuaensis).

Queen Victoria agave is a cold-hardy beauty that needs excellent drainage, which a rock garden provides.

It’s like a pinstriped bloomin’ onion!

‘Sandia Glow’ hesperaloe offers a deeper red flower than the standard red yucca.

The silvery hue of Dyckia platyphylla caught my eye. I was surprised when Jason told me their dyckias have proven winter hardy over the last few challenging years. I lost almost all of my dyckias to deep freezes. Jason and Amber must enjoy a warmer microclimate, or they have better drainage, which helps dry-loving plants survive cold weather.

Overhead view of this gorgeous dyckia

A Mexican dwarf blue palm (Brahea decumbens) presides over the right side of the garden, with dwarf Texas palmettos lurking behind, in the shade of an enormous yaupon holly.

Nicely pruned up yaupon hollies and sabal palmettos

More sabals

Jason is proud of this rare cycad, Cycas panzhihuaensis x debaoensis. Its fringy fronds look tropical, but it survived even Snowpocalypse by dying back to the ground and resprouting.

Sonoran palmetto (Sabal uresana) keeps it company. I believe Jason told me he bought it from the John Fairey Garden in Hempstead.

Queen butterfly resting on cactus spines

Yellow bells still flowering in November

Backyard garden

Stepping into the back garden, I was greeted by a lemon-lime ‘Quadricolor’ agave in a green pot.

The large backyard is completely planted up with palms, hesperaloe, potted cactus, and other dry-loving plants.

Gravel garden with potted cacti

Another Queen Victoria agave caught my eye.

That symmetry

Golden barrel cactus with a crown of spent flowers

A closer look

Graceful ‘Lavender Lady’ mangave

Along the back fence, a potted blue nolina, dyckias, and young Argentine saguaros hold court.

Dyckia ‘Brittle Star’ hybrid

Blue barrel cactus (Ferocactus glaucescens) is matched nicely with a yellow pot.

Blue barrels

Amber and Jason have a collection of sansevieria — not winter-hardy but can be left outdoors all summer.

Cryptanthus ‘Thriller’ too

Large live oaks spread their canopy over one side of the garden, allowing the couple to grow shade-loving plants.

A number of palms thrive here too.

Chusan hardy windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Wagnerianus’)

The Chusan’s fan-like leaf

Dwarf rock palm (Brahea moorei) is maybe my favorite of their palms.

That blue coloring!

A closeup

Here’s another unusual one: Cycas revoluta X debaoensis.

Check out those long, arching fronds.

A cedar trellis with blue bottles supports a vine along the fence.

In the side yard, Jason and Amber grow cactus and aloes for their home nursery.

Other new plants are potted up in the shade of the trees.

It’s fun to see what serious plant collectors like Jason and Amber are into. They’re growing all sorts of plants I’d never encountered and wouldn’t have thought hardy here in Austin. Just goes to show, you never know until you try. Thanks for the tour, Amber and Jason!

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Digging Deeper

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