daffodils Archives | Page 2 of 6 | Diana's Designs Austin

Dazzling color in the spring garden…

We all love the spring garden — the awakening of plants that herald the arrival of spring and provide a foreshadowing of more to come.

As the sun shifts in the sky and the breezes begin to warm up, I’m enjoying some rejuvenating time in the garden.

I bought these sweet glass daffodils to bring a pop of color into the garden before the daffodils were ready to open up.

The ‘Kate Izzard’ irises are loaded up and several of them are opening every day. You can tell that I should have divided them last fall, which I fully intended to do, but I seriously need to do that this fall.

Just gorgeous.

Even though traditional tulips aren’t in our Central Texas plant palette, these species tulips, cluisana ‘Lady Jane’ are sweet substitutes in my garden.

This little patch of phlox disappears entirely in the head of summer, but I can count on it to emerge in spring with loads of little blooms.

My cemetery irises are also popping open all over the garden. Our winter clearly made the irises happy.

Bluebonnets are covering my decomposed granite path, and even Kallie’s playground filled with pea gravel. Fletcher enjoys a peaceful moment with them here.

While most of the buds on my monster wisteria were frozen in our last freeze, there are still some opening up and draping delicately from the fence.

And then there is the homestead verbena. What a powerhouse. In the cooler spring and fall, they thrive and liven up any spot in the garden. They will shrivel and look poor in the heat of summer, but just shade your eyes and pretend not to see them until they return again in the fall. Even though many of our bloomers start now and run through the fall, homestead verbena is well worth it’s little summer break.

Now that the threat of freezing is past (I have my fingers crossed as I type this), it’s time to fill in the rest of the garden with new and exciting plants that will herald the summer.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:38:53-05:00March 29th, 2015|Blog, bluebonnet, daffodils, Fletcher, garden art, hideous bed, homestead verbena, iris, iris 'Kate Izzard', phlox, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring, spring bloomers, tulipa clusiana, verbena, wisteria|0 Comments

Signs of spring in the garden…

Like all gardeners, I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring. While the calendar won’t declare it spring for some time, here in Central Texas, the signs of spring abound with the recent above-average temperatures.

These aren’t new spring plants popping up, but I love the color in the winter garden.

If you look closely, you can see the buds forming on the Mexican plum tree.

The new bark is emerging on my lacebark elm tree. Beautiful bark is a wonderful sculptural element in the garden.

The bluebonnets are growing quickly now – getting ready to put on a real show in my crushed granite path.

My loropetalum has hundreds if not thousands of teeny tiny buds, waiting to turn into pink fringe flowers.

The hellebores are starting to bloom. I have to go out and lift them up to see these delicious drooping flowers. Even though I can’t see them easily when walking down the path, the lure of these mysterious blooms makes for a fun garden game of hide and seek.

This one’s in full bloom. It’s limey-green petals camouflage this flower even more than the others. Helleborus ‘green gambler,’ is a fast grower and usually has some burgundy spotting, veining, or picotee on each bloom. The picotee is the edge that is a different color than the flower’s main color.

These are very special little specimens — muscari golden fragrance. Unlike most muscari, these are not the tell-tale purple, but rather a soft yellow and they have a wonderful scent. They are very low to the ground – about 5 inches high – so I literally have to get down on the ground to get a whiff of them. But it’s worth it!

The primrose jasmine is about to burst forth beautiful yellow blooms. This one is about 5 feet tall, so it will be brilliant when it’s covered.

These little daffodils are looking good. Soon it will be time to blow away the blanket of leaves and let the flowers shine.

The deer have been checking things out in the almost-spring garden as well. It’s ok, maybe they pushed down my newly planted bulbs since I know I probably didn’t plant them deep enough. (I don’t really worry about that, though, since they seem to come up and perform regardless of my late and lazy planting!)

My cemetery passalong irises are already blooming. I believe these came from my garden blogger buddy, who blogs here about her garden, which is filled with many kinds of iris.

The loquat tree is sporting new foliage. I love this tree and the lime-colored new growth that contrasts with the glossy, established dark-green leaves.

And, one last bloom – I bought 3 lovely glass daffodils at the nursery last week and put them next to the emerging real ones. I wonder what the growing daffodils will think when they come up to find these imposters in their garden.

What’s coming up in your garden today?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:02-06:00February 8th, 2015|Blog, bluebonnet, buds, bulbs, daffodils, garden art, green gambler hellebore, Hellebore, loropetalum, Muscari, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring, spring bloomers|0 Comments

Beautiful spring blooms and bulbs brighten the garden…

Isn’t she lovely? Isn’t she wonderful?

My bletilla striata, also known as ground orchids, burst into bloom suddenly this weekend and I almost missed them. I love their exotic form and stunning color.

These little blooms are jonquilla “baby moon” and are less than an inch in diameter. About 8 inches tall, they are miniatures in every way. Their stems are like long, thin, round blades of grass. They bloom last of all my daffodils, but they are my favorites because of their delicate form.

Although I’m saddened to mark the loss of some of my cilantro, thanks to the early and unseasonably warm temperatures, I do think the blooms are sweet.

This is an oops bulb. It must have come in a bag of daffodil bulbs that I ordered, because that’s what’s blooming all around her. But I love the swirling red, white and pink color combination.

These tulips were intentionally planted. My neighbor brought me bulbs back from her trip to the Netherlands in February and I promptly put them in the ground. They were up in no time, much to my surprise. Because I’m not willing to dig up tulip bulbs and replant them every year (which we have to do in our hot climate because we don’t have enough chilling hours), I don’t have tulips in my garden. But I might have to dig these up for sentimental reasons. They have special meaning for me — they were a gift from a dear friend, and I lived in the Netherlands for four years when I was a young girl.

The bright lime green of these daylily leaves make a pretty contrast against this purple salvia — sadly it didn’t come with a good tag when I planted it, so I have no idea which of the 200+ salvias it is. I just know it’s colorful and hardy.

This is hellebore ‘winter wren‘. It and ‘Phoebe‘ are both blooming. They were sad when the weather first warmed up and I thought the summer heat had zapped them. Then all of a sudden they had a growth spurt and put on a show.

The bluebonnets are bringing great color to my cutting garden (although I never cut them!). They also spread their seeds all over Kallie’s play scape. Those plants are a few weeks slower growing than these, so I hope to have fun pictures of them soon. They clearly love that pea gravel.

My Japanese Maple was miserable last summer, but is happy with this wet, temperate spring.

Are any of these beautiful blooms putting on a show in your garden yet this spring?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:17-06:00March 20th, 2012|Bletilla Striata, Blog, bluebonnet, cilantro, daffodils, Hellebore, japanese maple, purple salvia, purples. salvia, salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, tulips, winter's wren hellebore|0 Comments

Daffodils and spring bulbs in bloom…

Almost all of my daffodils are up and putting on a spring show of blooms. Only one late-blooming variety is waiting to open. This one is a Double Campernelle, or Narcissus odorus plenus.
These are the ‘Yellow Fortune’ daffodils – I’ve lost quite a few of them in recent years – I suspect the drought has been hard on them.

I cannot locate the label for these pretties right now – they are packed away in a massive garage clean-out before installation of cabinets next week (cabinets to hide away all my garden *stuff* that seemed to have taken over the garage). These are my first pale yellow daffodils and I must say I like them. They seem almost illuminated on a pretty day.

I think this is Jonquilla ‘Simplex’.

These are the lovely and always prolific “Tete a tete” — a shorter variety — about 8 inches tall and very dense.

My new Muscari ‘Dark Eyes’ are all coming up and filling in nicely, making a pretty, purple textured carpet against the grey of the winter mulch.
Pretty in purple are the hyacinths of unknown variety, courtesy of HEB’s indoor planter two years ago.
This Hellebore is Helleborus x hybridus `Gold Finch’ with beautiful contrast. I just had to have this one since we have so many goldfinches in the wooded garden bed where this is planted.
Another unlabeled Hellebore (also known as a Lenten Rose) — I just love those wispy markings in the center. They are hard to see and photograph, though, because of their growth habit and how they demurely keep their blooms bowed down. It also means I have to lie on the ground and hold up the foliage to try to get a photo.
This is muscari golden fragrance. They are a delicate yellow and have a wonderful scent.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:02-05:00February 24th, 2012|Blog, bulbs, daffodils, double campernelle, Hellebore, hyacinth bulbs, hyacinths, Jonquilla Simplex, Muscari, muscari dark eyes, narcissus, narcissus odorus plenus, Sharing Nature's Garden, tete-a-tete|0 Comments

Spring bulbs are starting to bloom…

Ah…the promise of spring.

When renewal is in the air and the garden begins to awaken from a long winter’s nap. Well, not really this year. It was more like a quick cat nap.

I love it when the early spring bulbs start coming up and making buds. The daffodils, the muscari, the irises … they are are all putting on their finery.

These are the true harbingers of spring.

And they are some of my favorite favorites in the garden. (I really have too many favorites to count.)

I’m especially fond of the daffodils – there are up to 200 different species of them. I just have a handful of the different varieties, but it’s so much fun to see how unique they can be.

Japanese quince is another reliable plant that signals the arrival of spring. I think of it as an nice old historic plant – you often find very large ones in the gardens of older homes in central Austin. I imagine them being lovingly planted decades ago and being cared for by successive families over the years.

Mine is still small, but those delicate salmony-rose blooms are sure to bring a smile to my face every time I pass by.
These sweet little peeks are traditional muscari (grape hyacinths) that came home from the grocery store with me in a mixed bulb pot and then found their way into the garden to bloom another day. And bloom they do. This will be their third year to perk up the mulch on a drab day.
These are very special little specimens — muscari golden fragrance. Unlike most muscari, these are not the tell-tale purple, but rather a soft yellow and they have a wonderful scent. They are very low to the ground – about 5 inches high – so I literally have to get down on the ground to get a whiff of them. But it’s worth it!
Are you enjoying any early season bloomers in your garden yet?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:02-05:00January 27th, 2012|Blog, bulbs, daffodils, hyacinth bulbs, hyacinths, japanese quince, Muscari, quince, scented blooms, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

A few little garden early birds…

Most of my garden is awash in a sea of browns, grays and deads. Everywhere you look, there are dried limbs, waiting, desperately waiting to be pruned.
But thank goodness for my passion for early spring bloomers. They never fail me. There are daffodils scattered all about … Yellow Fortune, Tete a tete, Dutch Master, Double Campernelle, Jonquil Simplex. These are Dutch Masters above, also known as King Alfred.
And here we have one of the newer Hellebores. I believe that this one is Phoenix, but I’m not sure because the two about to bloom are not tagged, I didn’t keep the receipt, and I didn’t blog their names or record their names in my master notebook.

I hate it when I do that! I do have two that have tags, but they are sad and pathetic and not blog-worthy! That’s how it goes, isn’t it?!
This is the Double Campernelle Daffodil. See how fluffy and full it is?
And right behind it I have this lovely Japanese Quince that blooms and heralds the spring every year.
Not sure which one this is. I keep meaning to take photos of them all and try to pin point which is which, but that’s low on the list of garden-to-dos!
This one I can ID – it’s the Tete-a-tete. They are tiny little Daffs with a nice upright shape and lovely, neat little blooms.
Unknown variety hyacinths from a grocery store bulb planter I was showing off inside the house two years ago — see it here.