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Late summer blooming perennials and annuals hang on in spite of the drought

We’ve had a slight break in the heat wave, and while some parts of Austin have enjoyed 2-3 inches of rain in the last weeks, we only got .12. But so many annuals and perennials in the garden are powering thouggh the heat and drought.

I love the contrast between this agave and the thryallis in the background.

I love this mandevilla, even though it’s typically an annual. Our mild, wet fall and winter last year kept it going so I’ve gotten two beautiful summers out of it.

The datura is a powerhouse – it reseeds like crazy and transplanting is so easy.

Indigo spires salvia is one of my very favorites – I always have a place in my garden for its tall, wild-looking stalks with their vibrant blue blooms.

While some of my perennial vines were barely hanging on, this morning glory decided a few weeks ago that it was time to grow and it’s been putting on more and more blooms every day.

Much of the garden is going to seed and slowing down, but these few, bright pops of color perk me right up when I’m walking around checking things out.

What’s perking you up in your garden today?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:34-05:00August 26th, 2012|Agave, Blog, datura, indigo spires, mandevilla, Sharing Nature's Garden, thryallis, vines|0 Comments

Summer perennials blooming even in the heat and drought

While some of the early spring-through-fall bloomers are taking a break in all this heat, some of the mid-summer bloomers are putting on a show.

I love this thryallis in the front xeric bed. It’s a focal point and should have plenty of room to grow and shine.

One of my all-time go-to favorite plants, Mexican oregano. It’s tough as nails and tolerates the heat and the drought.

The the new-ish plants in the back shade bed are starting to fill in and making a lovely cool landscape.

After going after the new gold lantana with a machete (just kidding, but I DO own a machete!), I can now see the agave Americana var. I know it won’t be long before it’s a giant.

The combination of my transplanted coneflowers next to the May night salvias makes a nice contrast.

After a little pruning and clean up of the dead spring flowers last week, the cutting garden has new bloomers. The larkspur and bluebonnets are all gone and the Klondyke cosmos, blackberry lilies and Clematis are blooming.

Now it’s time to prune all the other early bloomers so we have time for another flush of blooms. Too hot to plant, but sadly, not too hot to prune and weed! After 109 on Monday, today’s high of 88 with cloud cover was great and I spent a long time deadheading and pruning the lamb’s ears, narrow-leaf zinnias and the Santolina. It was really delightful with a little breeze.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:35-05:00June 30th, 2012|Agave, agave Americana, Blog, Coneflower, Crape Myrtle, cutting garden, heat, May night salvia, Mexican Oregano, Sharing Nature's Garden, thryallis, variegated liriope|2 Comments

Spring garden projects…

It’s spring. Well, okay, it’s not quite spring yet, but it’s spring here in Central Texas for all intents and purposes.

It’s time to start the vegetable garden, to amend the soil, to pull lots and lots of weeds. And, it’s time to start planning those garden projects that have been nagging at me all winter.

Let’s be clear, every single bed has a project of some sort. There are holes to fill where the drought decimated plants we thought were indestructible. There are holes to fill where the 3-day below freezing cold snap the winter before killed things or stunted them so much they were never the same last summer.

There are a lot of holes to fill.

But this is an entire area that need revisiting. In the bed above, I actually started out with a plan and a vision of a tall, beautiful bottle brush tree with it’s deep red, wispy blooms set against the strong, structural contrast of a smooth blue agave with deep purple ‘May Night’ salvia scattered all around.

The best laid plans…

Three winters ago, I lost the first bottle brush tree and agave to an abnormally cold freeze. I’d planted the tree in the fall and wondered if it hadn’t had enough time to get established before the cold. So I replanted — another agave and a bigger tree — and I planted them in late spring.

Then we had another unusual cold snap and I lost the second tree. And the deer messed with many of my little salvias.

Early last summer, the bottle brush began to come back from the roots. After a few months I had a nice shrub…the same size as the agave. Not exactly the contrast I’d envisioned. In the meantime, a few irises I’d plopped in there began to grow and spread. And I hated the bottle brush shrub, but I didn’t want to kill it – it offends my gardening sensibilities to kill a plant with that much will to live.

A few weeks ago I pruned the bottle brush back into tree form. Multi-trunked, but still pretty and growing like crazy. The agave looks bad after one or two light freezes this winter, and it needs pruning. It’s also been taken over by the irises. (They are stunning right now) But they don’t go next to the agave – the form is too similar, their colors don’t work together…I could go on and on.

Further up the bed toward the house I originally had a dwarf crape myrtle in deep burgundy. It was literally cut in half by my guys on a pruning #fail. Some transplanted loropetalums didn’t survive there and there is one pathetic knock-out rose left hiding there.

This will be my first spring project. The bottle brush? Gonna keep pruning – it stays. The agave? I’ll prune it and think about it. The irises? They will move when the time is right. May night? Nah – something tougher will take their place. Some grasses might find their way there. I’m still hooked on the burgundy, deep purple, silvery gray color combo. Indigo spires would be delightful, but that’s a very windy spot and at their height, I fear they’d be whipped around like crazy there. But I know what I want there, so it will come together if I take my time.

I might even treat myself like one of my clients and draw out a plan.

Or not…

Stay tuned.

Two more beds to go…but I’ll save them for another day.

What’s your first garden project for this spring?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:19-06:00March 7th, 2012|Agave, agaves, Blog, Bottle Brush tree, knock-out roses, landscape project, May night salvia, planning, projects, salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

The wounded in my garden…

Last week’s unseasonably cold temperatures — down to 17 here at my house — left their mark on the garden.

I think most of these plants are simply damaged and not actually dead.

But I’m going to cross my fingers for a little good luck, anyway.

I didn’t cover anything this year. Too many years of running around on dark and blustery nights with sheets and blankets and rocks, trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to cover plants.

First of all, the freezes this week were to hard and too prolonged to benefit from any covering.

And, frankly, I’m tired of running around on dark and blustery nights with sheets and blankets and rocks, trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to cover plants!

So, come on a tour with me — and send some good karma my way as you look at my sad specimens.

The first one is an umbrella plant, (Cyperus alternifolius). Like many more tropical plants, like Sagos (cycads), the cold weather turns it pale and papery.

This big blue Agave is sad on the bottom, but the firm and standing center is an excellent sign.
This variegated agave will be getting a haircut for sure.
For the first time, the Society Garlics are all looking miserable. I know they will revive, but expect to sheer them after the danger of frost has passed.
This Mangave looks pretty squishy to me…
See, here’s a Sago (Cycad) that’s lost almost all of its pigment. It’s a pale version of its former self.
Two more squishy Agaves (that’s the technical term). The top one is a passalong – variety unknown.
This Agave celsii took a hard pruning last winter, but eventually came back. And now, it’s back to square one. Do you think they are tired of this? I sure am.

But I know my garden blogging friends anywhere north of here have it far worse in the winter. And, this is not our official whining season, it’s theirs. Ours is reserved for August and September.

How squishy is your garden these days?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:24-06:00February 5th, 2011|Agave, agaves, Blog, cyperus alternifolias, mangave, mangave macho mocha, Sago, Sharing Nature's Garden, society garlic, umbrella plant|0 Comments

Signs of fall in my garden…plants and projects…

There are several signs of fall in my Central Texas garden. The Mexican Mint Marigold is in full bloom after a summer of green. I can always count on their bright and cheerful flowers after the temperatures begin to cool.
The fall asters are look like lavender firecracker bursts with the fine little petals.
The end of summer also brings out these sunflowers – Helianthus Maxmilliani. They are rather leggy this year from getting too much shade under the oak trees, but I still love their statuesque 6 feet tall form.

Blooms are the only thing that comes with the fall garden. As the temperatures drop, I get the itch to start a garden project…or two!
This little bed on the edge of our woods was pure happenstance. After laying out the bed below, I had quite a bit of leftover recycled glass and decided to make use of it, clearing out little understory scrub oaks and cedars and making a proper place for the birdbath that was tucked in the brush.
But this was the real project. This very large terra cotta pot (not my favorite) had been sitting at the edge of the woods gathering dead leaves, because I kept forgetting to water it and the deer kept eating my plants.

So I decided to move it to the crushed granite path entrance as a focal point and surround it with some recycled glass so it would look like a pond leading into the dry river rock dry creek.

Inside it, I planted a volunteer agave, from a passalong given to me by Phillip of East Side Patch . (One of many, I might add! He’s renown for sharing his agaves.)

And the small river rock outlining the tributary came as a donation from my neighbors — left over from a project they did and sitting by the side of the road with grass growing in it! I asked to buy some and they gave it to me.

With the free rock, $5 worth of recycled glass from the city, and old pot and a volunteer agave, this was designing on a budget! My only real cost was labor for the help I had hauling and spreading the rock.

I’m happy with the result, and now I have some more space in the accidental bed for planting! Imagine that!
While we’ve had temps down to 40, the days can still get up to 80 here, so we have about another month to garden here.

What’s on your fall project list? Or is fall already over for you?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:25-06:00November 6th, 2010|Agave, Blog, dry creek, fall asters, Mexican Mint Marigold, new bed, recycled glass, river rock bed, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Very Variegated V…..

Phooey – I’m late for Foliage Follow-up, and I couldn’t think of anything else appropriate that starts with “V.” (Writer’s block!)

But I do have some lovely foliage in the garden thanks to some good spring weather and the recent rains.

I’ve been introducing more variegated plants into the shady areas of my garden over the last year, and they are putting on a show right now.

This is new growth on an agave that almost died last winter.

Walking my garden with me this morning, Robin of Getting Grounded commented that its foliage looks soft, not hard like an Agave. Guess that’s that fresh, new growth.

Isn’t it funny how something so tough and so spiny can also look so delicate at times?

This is a Crystal Palace Gem Geranium.
This is variegated Mikaela Euonymos – it’s a very compact shrub – hasn’t grown much at all since I planted it two years ago. The deer have munched on it once or twice, and while it didn’t do what I wanted it to do, it looks pretty right now.
The variegated Dianella — Flax lily — died back in the freezes, but they are all coming back nicely now.
This is an Agave americana var. mediopicta f. alba.
Sparkler sedge that I got at the Great Outdoors last week — Carex abula — thanks to a tip from Pam at Digging.

This is Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’ — well, maybe it’s not. Actually the Carex across the path is the ‘evergold’ — so this would be…..hmmmm….another kind?!
This variegated Vinca keeps coming back in the middle of my Abelia, and I will rip some of it out, but I may try to plant it somewhere that I would actually LIKE for it to grow. It is pretty.
Another variegated sedge or miscanthus — my record-keeping last summer left something to be desired, didn’t it?
These are my blooming African Hostas. Aren’t they cool? Drimiopsis maculata.
The variegated shell ginger by the pool are all coming back nicely.
And last, but not least, the variegated Eureka Lemon tree that rose from the dead and will live to fruit another day!