Early fall purples in Sheryl’s garden
Gorgeous late-season purples in Sheryl’s not-quite-autumn Texas garden include American beautyberry and eryngo. … Read More
Reds for fall and foliage power
Ah, end of summer in Texas, and fall only a few weeks away. It’s still a bit too early for the fresh flowering of our “second spring,” but festive reds blaze among the ferny foliage of cypress vine on the deck railing. … Read More
Garden bed evolution and a newly named agave
Garden design is a process! It’s taken over a year, but the corner bed below the deck is finally moving in a good direction. … Read More
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens grows high in the Rockies
At 8,200 ft. elevation, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, Colorado, claims bragging rights as the highest botanical garden in North America.… Read More
Pretty native plants and fountain at Cat’s garden
Hooray for summer rain, for simple flowers, and for friends’ gardens. Here are some pics from a friend’s lovely front garden.… Read More
Home gardening inspiration, plus a boxwood garden and Chinese garden: Missouri Botanical Garden, part 4
At Missouri Botanical Garden recently, I enjoyed touring the home-gardening center, a formal boxwood garden, and a beautiful Chinese garden.… Read More
Climatron tropical house, origami sculpture, and more: Missouri Botanical Garden, part 1
In mid-June I drove to St. Louis to see Missouri Botanical Garden. Here’s Part 1 of my visit: the Climatron, an Ottoman Garden, and more.… Read More
Wildflowers, water features, and flying pigs add charm to no-lawn garden in Cedar Park
June 10, 2021Whenever I see a no-lawn, front-yard garden in suburbia, I know a daring and enthusiastic gardener lives there. Such is the case with Cedar Park homeowner Frances Fortanely, whose garden I had the pleasure of seeing last week. … Read More
Heart eyes for heartleaf skullcap and more
A blue haze has settled over the driveway-island bed, the silvery blue flowers of our native heartleaf skullcap.… Read More
A week of bloom spikes and rain
The garden responds to a week of rain with a profusion of growth and towering bloom spikes on yucca, aloe, and sotol.… Read More
Redesigning a boring side garden and shading a patio
A boring side garden gets redesigned and replanted, and a patio gets a new steel roof for shelter from sun and rain.… Read More
Hello, flowering cacti and vines; goodbye, pipe-planted sotol
My cacti have started blooming, and oh, those flowers! I love their jewel-bright colors and satiny petals atop spiny stems.… Read More
Spring sights in the garden
My spring planting is done, and now I’m enjoying the plants that are looking happy or that are valiantly coming back from the roots.… Read More
Ghost plant in bloom is boo-tiful
Ghost plant and a variegated squid agave have grown into a combo that thrills me in spring, when the ghost plant erupts in tiny yellow flowers.… Read More