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Happy Day…

Here’s wishing you a warm spring Sunday and a Happy Easter, if you are celebrating that today.

In the spirit of rebirth and renewal, I wanted to share with you these beautiful Texas wildflower photos taken by my sweet husband this week.

Even though we are weeks behind in the emergence of spring flowers, thanks to our unseasonably cold winter, most things are making up for it now.

With a wet fall, winter and spring, our wildflowers here in Central Texas are bursting forth right now.

They are prettier and more widespread than they’ve been in years.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:33-05:00April 3rd, 2010|Blog, blue bonnets, Easter, Sharing Nature's Garden, Wildflowers|0 Comments

Wildflower Wednesday

Our blogging friend Gail, over at Clay and Limestone, has invited us to post our wildflower photos on this fourth Wednesday of the month.

When I first saw her post, I thought, “wildflowers…now?”

Well, no, not now, but soon! And that’s her point. Watching them creep along until they burst forth with beautiful color, dotting our landscape.

The one most easily identified right now in my garden is, of course, the bluebonnet. So, here are a few — first, what I am seeing scattered about today…
And what I hope to see when Spring has officially arrived!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:35-06:00January 27th, 2010|Blog, blue bonnets, Sharing Nature's Garden, wildflower weds|0 Comments

Revitalizing Rain

After our recent slow, soaking rain, I heard my plants in the garden give a collective sigh of relief.

Then the sun came out and several sad little specimens started lifting their frazzled foliage upward – reaching for the warmth radiating once again onto their little world.

Many things are very dormant. Some: dead-dormant. And most of the plants, while salvageable, are still sad. But the Aralia, above, once bowed over and brown, perked up again and was very pleased to be sporting some ravishing raindrops.
The teensy Bluebonnet plants are all still alive and beginning to grow again.
Many daffodil bulbs are popping up around various beds.
My Hellebores are a little worse for the wear, but they do have some fresh, new leaves. I can’t wait for the first blooms. Three of my 4 plants are new from last year and have never bloomed for me so I’m eager to see what they look like.
These darling little Hyacinths were a totally surprise when I happened upon them today. Forgot I’d planted them!
Who knows who this guy is! But he’s on the fast-track up.

This Autumn Joy Sedum survived all the cold – 18 and lower, without anything more than a few yellow leaves. And it’s blooming. Wow.
Then you turn around, and on the other hand…

Need I say more? Sigh…

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:36-05:00January 20th, 2010|aralia, Blog, blue bonnets, daffodils, freeze, Hellebore, hyacinths, sedum, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

The good, the bad and the ugly…

“To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.”
— ecclesiastes 3:1-8

So, as the Death Star blazes on (100+ for as long as I can remember …103 today), some things in my garden are still doing well — many things, in fact. These plants have popped up recently and come into their own. These are some of my hot St. Tropez-on-the-beach-loving plants!
Grandpa Ott morning glories greeting the day on the back fence in the cutting garden.
Look hard for the 3 new Butterfly weed plants in the center of the bed – finally filling a hole left by last year’s Viburnum exorcism!
Coral trumpet vine is bursting with trumpets — can you hear her?
The huge Duranta bush looks like purple fireworks exploding in this corner.
And one of my very favorites, the Pride of Barbados, is giving us a long show this year. This tropical normally doesn’t bloom until August and I’m so excited to see them so early. I hope they can last the whole, hot summer.
Another Pride of Barbados.
Like the Pride of Barbados, this Cassia alata, or Candlestick Tree, normally blooms in August. I have two in a slightly less than perfect spot – they routinely stop growing at about 2-2-1/2 feet tall, and this one is blooming already! My other 3 are in a hot protected corner in the back and they are easily 10 feet tall! They aren’t blooming yet, but they never even died back during our mild winter last year. Can’t wait to show them to you.
A few spindly vines still have wonderful tropical colors to offer. They just need to GROW and fill in! The orange one is a Mexican Flame Vine and the other is a Morning Glory.

Ok – did enjoy the tour?

You might want to shield your eyes now — parental discretion is advised for the following photos. These are the bad and the ugly. Things stressed by the heat and the sun and not enough water, or, conversely, too much water or scalding on the leaves. I desperately try to water before 9 a.m., but life doesn’t always cooperate and at 106, 1 missed day of watering can mean death. So, sometimes even careful watering with warmer temps can damage.

Ready? Are you sitting down?
My new Avocado plant. I think it fried in the heat, I thought it like sun…maybe not OUR sun, though.
My lacebark elm is stressed and I’m going to have to get a drip hose on it to deep water tomorrow.
A Mandavilla vine recently planted with roots too close to the surface in the cutting bed.
The variegated lemon tree has a few sad leaves.
And the Sago is suffering, too.
The black elephant ears were great until about 2 weeks ago. These are in full sun, and on a less than scorching summer, which we USED to have, they are fine that way. But, that’s not this year!
Variegated shell ginger struggles, too
And apparently, I have the dreaded day lily rust that came to Texas in the last year or two. I may have to remove them before the other plants in the bed succumb to it.
Even the tropical Plumeria has a few sad spots.
And this one is just plain UGLY. But amazing, nonetheless. This is a Texas Bluebonnet. They normally bloom in March, but I did see my first bloom this year on February 28th and posted about how amazing THAT was in this Seriously? post.

Seems we could all write a lot of “Seriously?” posts these days, couldn’t we?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-09-28T18:08:46-05:00July 12th, 2009|Blog, blue bonnets, butterfly weed, candlestick tree, coral trumpet vine, duranta, heat, Morning Glory, Pride of Barbados, rust, scorched, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

The fling has flung…

We’ve had a wonderful five days at the 2nd Annual Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, held this year in Chicago.

It was such a treat to see friends and make new friends and step into a whirlwind of garden-mania.

The Chicago bloggers put on a great show for us and treated us to the best their gardens and their city has to offer and I want to extend my thanks to them for a fabulous fling.

Our first outing was a visit to the world-renown Chicago Botanic Garden.

We strolled through so many different gardens.

We ooohed and aaaahed over the design, the plants, and the color combinations.

And we speculated about whether or not we could grow that plant, that combination, in our gardens.

After she’d heard enough of my speculating, Pam, of Digging, finally said:

“Diana — don’t think for even a minute that you can grow any of this in your garden!”

Ok.

I knew that!

But I needed an intervention. After seeing all the beautiful gardens, I just wanted to rush home and try to replicate some of that creativity and color in my garden.

There were a handful of things that we can grown in Austin in my zone 9 garden. We were shocked to find Texas Bluebonnets among the plants in this bright spring planter.
And there were several Agaves growing throughout the garden, which surprised me as well.

Cindy, My Corner of Katy, Layanee, Ledge and Gardens, and Pam, Digging, and I spent a really long time in front of this poppy field – taken by the interesting mix of colors and the papery-softness of the poppies.
Alliums have held a mysterious allure for me for some time. I even tried to plant them in my garden, but the one that actually came up OUT of the ground fried to a crisp at about 2-3 inches tall. So much for Alliums in Austin!

I certainly got my fill of them in Chicago — they were everywhere. and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of them — big ones, little ones, purple ones, lavender ones, white ones — they were all there, just waiting for me to join the party.
One of my favorites at the Botanic Garden was the Japanese Garden. It was so peaceful to stroll through the meticulously cared-for garden with its Zen style and simplicity.
And there were Irises everywhere, too. I never tire of looking at them. These were stunning in the Japanese garden. And even though my camera is showing them as more blue than they actually were, they are still pretty.
The species Tulips were so cheery.
As were the Ranunculas (above) and the Toadworts (below).

Enough posting for now, my bed is calling after a long travel day back home.

(Where the first place I went was a walk around the gardens to see what I could see and where I found everything happy and healthy thanks to my DH who lovingly took care of my plants while I flitted off to the Fling!)

I’ll post more tomorrow…check back for gardens galore, ala Chicago.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:44-06:00June 1st, 2009|agaves, alliums, Blog, blue bonnets, Sharing Nature's Garden, Spring Fling 2009|0 Comments

Spectacular signs of Spring

Here she is, Miss Tangerine Crossvine in her full spring splendor. See how gracefully she climbs up into the nearby Live Oak tree?
Her blooms are cheerful and bright – bringing a cacophony of color into the shady corner bed.
And she just keeps on cruising down the fenceline, spreading her beauty.
Out front the little Anacacho Orchid tree that I planted last year is living up to her full expectations with a profusion of delicate white blooms.

The variegated lemon tree is chock full of pink buds, ready to burst into lemony goodness very soon. The bees are eager for the buds to open, too, as they were hovering around just like me!
Green beans peek out of the ground in the veggie garden.
The tomatoes planted before we left for our Indiana Spring Break trip were damaged by the 1 cold night in Austin last week. I think it got down to the mid-30s and the tomatoes all have leaf damage, but they will be fine. See, this one has a BLOOM!!!!! A wannabe tomato…the plants may not be pretty any more, but they are growing and developing, so I won’t complain.
These are the White Icicle Radishes shown in the sidebar photo above. Tasty – and spicy.
Here’s another Bluebonnet blooming in the greenhouse bed. I gave in a planted plants this year as I have not had luck with seeds — we just have too much mulch where I want to plant them, so I carefully amended the soil and pulled back the mulch and put in 15 plants this spring.
The Mexican Plum tree is full of blooms this week, too.
Aren’t they pretty?
This, however, is NOT so pretty. Witness, please the GAZILLION Live Oak leaves that are cascading from my trees. If they were white, you’d think it was snowing in parts of my yard. And they aren’t even 1/2 done with their littering of my beds.

I’m itching to get out there and blow them elsewhere, but more will fall right into their place, so I will wait a week or two. I know, for instance, that there are dozens of wildflower seedlings under here waiting to get out…and I can’t wait to see them…next week maybe!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:38-05:00March 20th, 2009|anacacho orchid, Blog, blue bonnets, green beans, Mexican Plum, oak trees, radishes, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes, trumpet vine|0 Comments

blue bonnets

Happy Day…

Wildflower Wednesday

Revitalizing Rain

The good, the bad and the ugly…

The fling has flung…

Spectacular signs of Spring

Escape in the garden