mealy blue sage Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

Blooms abound in the spring garden

My morning walk through the garden brightened my day. My garden is still young, compared to my previous 16-year-old garden. Filling in holes where plants have been lost and adding layers over time has paid off. This spring the garden feels full and lush. Today. (Check back with me in August!)

We’ve been fortunate to have had a little bit of rain lately in our part of Austin. Because of our topography, it’s not uncommon for different parts of town to have dramatically different rainfall.

It’s been a rough couple of years. Snowpocalyse Uri in 2021, another terrible freeze in 2022 and multiple days at 110 or higher last summer.

This spring feels like the garden is coming into its own. Things are filling out and look like my vision for the space.

Jerusalem sage is one of my go-to plants. It doesn’t mind our heat and it’s evergreen and deer resistant.

Few things perk up the spring landscape like shasta daisies.

While I have a large swath of bluebonnets along my creek bed, this year I ventured out and bought a few of the cranberry-colored ones to add into the garden.

They look so interesting compared to all the blue ones.

We won’t talk about the idea that they were bred to represent A&M University, the arch rival of Austin’s University of Texas!

A fabulous border plant, purple skullcap looks great trailing over my street-side boulders. This soft, mounding perennial blooms reliably from spring through fall.

This scrappy little Damianita grows throughout the tough landscape of the Texas Hill country in the most difficult conditions. Another great border plant, it grows about 18 inches tall.

The bluebonnets are almost done. I’m just waiting for the seed pods to dry out and start to open before plucking them. In November, I will plant all of this year’s seeds, so we have an even bigger show next spring.

The ditch lilies and the coreopsis intermingle and blow in the breeze together.

Heartleaf skullcap is another of my spring favorites. The luminescence of the tiny blooms is enchanting atop the velvety-soft leaves.

Lemon mallow makes a striking statement against the nearby Henry Duelberg salvia.

It’s 90+ today, but we are all holding out hope that this summer isn’t as brutal as last. Spending as much time in the garden now as we can!

By Diana C. Kirby|2024-05-08T13:18:48-05:00May 8th, 2024|blooms, blue bonnet, blue bonnets, bluebonnet, coreopsis, cut flowers, Daimianita, daisies, daisy, day lilies, daylily, ditch lily, Garden, golden coreopsis, lily, mealy blue sage, sage, salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, shasta daisy, skullcap, spring, spring bloomers, tall coreopsis, Uncategorized|2 Comments

Summer comes early to Central Texas gardens…

Although it’s technically still spring, we’ve already had our first 100-degree day here in Central Texas. That means our tough-as-nails perennials are being asked to show their stuff. Many of them are answering the call in my garden this week.

Thryallis, euonymous, salvia greggii, Mexican oregano, lamb’s ears, dianella, indigo spires salvia and Mexican feathergrass surround this agave franzosini with soft, billowing blooms.

This pineapple guava is full of stunning blooms that will soon turn into a yummy snack for us (if the dogs don’t get them before we do!)

Pops of yellow and blue fill this bed with the octopus agave in the cobalt blue pot. New gold lantana, mealy blue sage, mystic spires salvia, zexmenia and Mexican feather grass love these hot, sunny days.

The show put on by the grey santolina with its tiny, button-like blooms is beautiful. In the background, salvia greggii, Mexican oregano, thryallis and a few tiny orange narrow-leaf zinnias I just planted. I could only locate 4 plants, so they are going to have to hurry up and spread fast to make the orange border for the santolina!

One of my all-time favorites, indigo spires salvia is such a vivid purple and blooms all summer long under the worst conditions.

This falls under the category of “I never dreamed this would get this big.” This Mexican oregano in a raised bed in the full hot sun is clearly in its element. It is 10 feet wide!

These poolside day lilies just started blooming this week.

One of my favorite combinations — these pale peachy-coral gladiolas provide a beautiful backdrop for the native Texas clematis pitcheri that’s showing off dozens of purple blooms.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:14-06:00May 21st, 2013|Agave, Blog, clematis pitcheri, daylily, gladiola, indigo spires, mealy blue sage, Mexican feathergrass, Mexican Oregano, mystic spires, pineapple guava, salvia greggii, Santolina, Sharing Nature's Garden, zexmenia|1 Comment

Purple plumes peeking out in the spring garden

As the temperatures creep up to early summertime highs here in Central Texas , irises, salvias and other purple plumes are putting on a pageant in my garden.

Maybe I like the purple and blue hues so much in my garden because they seem to cool off our scorching heat.

At least they give the impression that it’s cooler in the garden.

And because blue hues on the color wheel make things seem to recede, they also make my garden seem bigger.

One of my very favorites is Indigo Spires. It’s tall, deep purple blooms sway in the breeze and make a real statement.

Luckily for me, the salvias I’m collecting are safe from our hungry, grazing deer.

This catmint was a new addition to my garden last spring and it’s been a great performer. It easily survived last summer and stayed evergreen all winter. No cats here in my garden, but I’d recommend this a a hardy Central Texas perennial.

Mealy blue sage — which grows wild in the fields in Texas — seems very happy in my front garden and is spreading every year.
My pass-along irises, Amethyst Flame, from Pam of Digging, are still blooming and going strong after weeks.

Little pink and purple pretties are mixed into this whimsical windowbox arrangement.

My larkspur — from seeds passed along several years ago from Zanthan Gardens — are just beginning to bloom. I love that feathery foliage.

These tradescantia, or spiderwort, are finally spreading a little in the back bed. I hear they can be invasive, but there’s plenty of room for them, so I keep enouraging them to grow more!
The rock path in the back has 4 or 5 different purple blooms intermingling among the Oklahoma flagstone, decomposed granite and river rock. Homestead verbena, 2 kinds of winecup and more all make great neighbors.

This is the easement beside our neighbor’s property – filled with wild native prairie verbena. It’s not in my garden, but I can see it from my garden … kinda like you can see Russia…oh, nevermind!

While I lost some of the salvia ‘May night,’ the ones that survived last summer are going strong and attracting lots of bees.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:37-05:00April 5th, 2012|amethyst flame iris, Blog, homestead verbena, indigo spires, iris, larkspur, mealy blue sage, Prairie Verbena, purple salvia, Sharing Nature's Garden, spiderwort, window box, winecup|0 Comments

mealy blue sage

Blooms abound in the spring garden

Summer comes early to Central Texas gardens…

Purple plumes peeking out in the spring garden

Escape in the garden