Diana C. Kirby, Author at Diana's Designs Austin

About Diana C. Kirby

Diana Kirby is a lifelong gardener and longtime Austinite, who loves the Central Texas climate for the almost year-round opportunities it offers for active gardening and seasonal splendor. Known as an impassioned and successful gardener, Diana began by helping friends design and implement their landscapes. Soon, she was contracted as a professional designer by a popular local landscaping installation firm, where she designed landscapes for residential and commercial clients for several years. In 2007, her new passion blossomed with the launch of her own firm, Diana’s Designs. ... Diana is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, the Garden Writers Association of America, and she writes a monthly gardening column for the Austin American-Statesman. Diana teaches the Landscape Design classes for several county Texas Agrilife Extension Service Master Gardener certification programs and speaks about gardening and design for garden centers and other groups. Learn more about presentation topics, availability and speaking fees.

Got a little garden bling?

I love bling.

I loved bling when bling wasn’t even cool.

Don’t know what I’m going to do when clothing styles change, because I’m taken with the swirls and the sequins and the glitter that are so popular right now.

Then I got to thinking, I like a little bling in my garden, too.

And I don’t mean gazing balls (I’m not so fond of them, actually).

Like this ginger I recently planted — it’s kind of like bling in my garden.

What’s garden bling, you ask?

You know — it’s those one-of-a-kind specimens, the exotic plants or the plants that perform amazingly. The plants you and your gardening friends ooh and ahhh over time after time.

So here is an overview of the plants I think of as bling in my garden. For starters, there’s this Carara Ginger — a tropical perennial with reddish bracts with pale purple to greenish tips. It blooms for several months and like part shade. It’s new to me, and I don’t know if it will do well here, but it called my name at the nursery.

This “Phoebe” hellebore is another delicate favorite that is a shining star in my garden. It never ceases to amaze me that she almost disappears in warm months, but comes back in the cold of winter like a pale princess.
Even though the foliage is less than attractive at times, when it blooms, this Night-blooming Cereus is stunning. Sadly, you have to catch it late at night or first thing in the morning to enjoy its one-night bloom.
The cassia, with their tall, exotic structure and candle-like blooms is always a thriller in the garden. Especially the year before last when they didn’t die back in the winter and grew to be about 12 feet tall in its second season.
Then of course there is the Moy Grande hibiscus — phenomenal blooms as big as plates. On a mid-summer day, there were as many as 12 giant blooms open at once. It’s a real show-stopper.
These irises are really exotic, but I’m so enamored with the color that I eagerly await their bloom every spring. It’s a Louisiana iris, “Professor Neil” and one of my favorites.
The Bletilla Striata, or ground orchids are defnitely bling. Just the thought that I have “orchids” growing in the ground amazes me!

The plumerias definitely are exotics, but they love it here. It’s been a particularly good year for them this year. They’ve liked the extra moisture in the air.
But on the same note, I’ve had to pull this Desert Rose out of the rain many times this summer because I wants to be dry, dry, dry. And it rewarded me with these great blooms.
These? No exotic at all, but the giant patch of wine cup that completely covers my rock path each spring is another jaw dropper. I walk around the path for months, because I can’t bear to cut it back one little bit!
And this ia a perfectly ordinary Wisconsin ditch lily, brought to me in a bucket by car by Lori, the Gardener of Good and Evil . Hemerocalis experts frown at these common ditch lilies, but this amazing plant bloomed for me ALL summer long and at times had a dozen hot tangerine blooms at once.

I had a hard time limiting my choices because there are so many plants in my garden that I think are special. So, these are just a few of my favorite things.

Which plants are the bling in your garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:25-06:00October 10th, 2010|Bletilla Striata, bling, Blog, Cassia, desert rose, ditch lily, ginger, Moy Grande hibiscus, night blooming cereus, Phoebe, plumeria, Sharing Nature's Garden, special plants, winecup|0 Comments

One of these plants is not like the others…

When I build a new bed and take the time to plan it out and do a real garden design (that means measure, plan, research and shop all at once), it usually works out nicely.

But, do I do that much? In a word, No.

I fall in love with something at a nursery, or in the glossy pages of a garden porn catalog, and I buy. Then I plop. Plop plants wherever there is room and the conditions are right.

We all do it, right? But then it comes back to haunt us.

Or, sometimes, invasive plants behave badly and stretch their limbs and vines to end up far away from where they once started!

Looking around the garden as fall arrives, I can’t help but think, many of these things are not like the others! It’s sometimes hard to see in the photos, because both plants aren’t always in focus, but look carefully and you’ll see reds and pinks, oranges and lavenders, you name it. And I’m all for color and bright combinations, just not hideous ones!

But I’m not a mover. (Maybe a shaker!) But definitely not a mover by nature. Several of my garden blogging friends are always moving things around, trying to find the perfect spot, sun, soil for a particular plant.

Not me.

But I’m done with that. This fall the change of season also marks a change in my gardening habits. I’m going to fix all of the mis-matches in my garden. Or at least those that I reasonably CAN fix.

Because I have 2 Pairie Sun Rudbeckia, and 2 unidentified red plants and as I look at them sitting on the edge of my driveway, I realize — I haven’t planted them because I don’t have a red and yellow bed. Well, I have a yellow bed and tried to have red with it, but the deer didn’t like the color combination and ate all my Standing Cypress this summer!

So, with new resolve, I’m attacking my garden in an attempt to impose a Sesame Street style order to the most unruly of my plants.

What about you? Any mis-matches in your garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:25-06:00October 4th, 2010|Blog, mismatched, moving plants, replanting, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

The promise of things to come in the garden…

As gardeners, we think of the spring as a time of renewal.

Plants awaken from their long winter’s nap and begin the process of growing again.

But fall is also a time of renewal.

Here in Texas, our hot summer perennials are refreshed by ever-so-slightly cooler temperatures and a little bit of rain. Many of them begin a new bloom cycle until the first frost appears.

Fall bloomers, like fall Asters and Oxblood lilies also thrive.

And, our most precious Bluebonnets, the state flower and our February/March pride and joy, begin to grow delicate green foliage.

My Night-blooming Cereus is also experiencing a revival. This bud showed up 3 days ago and I’ve been checking it each night to see if I can capture it’s beautiful flower. The last time it bloomed in the spring, I actually missed 3 blooms at once because I forgot to check it one night. (There is little more disappointing as a gardener than missing such an infrequent bloom, only to find a limp little goose-neck looking spent bloom drooping down.)
These variegated dwarf Satusuma oranges are growing rounder and rounder and turning a little more orange than yellow. I can’t wait to taste them! (But it will still be a few months before our traditional citrus harvest here in Central Texas.)
And more Lycoris Radiata buds are forming in my flower beds. Some are hidden by other plants, and I have to push foliage aside to get a sneak peek at many of them.
I can only get a partial shot of this one, but isn’t she pretty?

There are many more promises of things to come in the garden. What are you looking forward to in your garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:12-05:00September 29th, 2010|Blog, blue bonnets, dwarf satsuma oranges, fall, lycoris, night blooming cereus, oranges, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

What a happy garden looks like…

My garden is pretty darn happy these days.

A little rain, a little break from the heat and the promise of a fall break has most plants beaming.

Plants that had almost disappeared have made a remarkable recovery and reappearance. And, those without blooms are now showing off.

It’s amazing what a little moisture can do for the garden!

I hadn’t seen this Bat-faced Cuphea in a while, (the deer munched it to the nubs earlier in the summer) but now it’s bursting with color, even giving the unflappable Lantana a run for its money!

This Pitcher Sage that I bought at last year’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plant sale has finally come into its own and is blooming profusely in this pretty, dusty cornflower blue.
The Senorita Rosalita Cleome that Pam of Digging trialed last year sounded perfect for our hot, dry summers. All this rain has made mine very leggy. But, in spite of that, she’s still putting out delicate blooms.
This Pale Pavonia passalong, shared with me by Robin of Getting Grounded, is finally blooming after several months of adjusting to the transplant.
And, not so pretty, but very active thanks to the rains, our resident fire ants. This mound rises 3-4 inches high at the base of my Bi-color Iris.
And their monstrous mound has all but obliterated this little decorative rock that reads, Peace. (Well I can tell you that I didn’t leave them in peace, I sprinkled a nice little dose of ant bait all around their pretty little hill!)

How does your garden grow these days?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:12-05:00September 28th, 2010|Blog, Cleome, cuphea, pavonia, pitcher sage, rain, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Rain, rain, come again!

The last few weeks we’ve had an uncharacteristic amount of rain here in Austin. No real relief from the heat, mind you, so it’s been a tropical sauna.

Since it’s such an unusual occurence, I had to capture some of the beauty of the water in the garden.

A lovely, long cool drink in the garden. And this week, fall will really arrive — tonight’s low is forecast to be 58 gloriously cool degrees!