Persian shield Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

Fresh foliage follow-up …

Having blogged HERE about everything that was blooming in my garden this weekend, today I’ll join Pam Penick of Digging, and highlight some of the lush foliage in my garden.

Refusing to be dismissed by a lack of blooms, many of my favorite plants in the garden earn their status with colorful, textured foliage that delights season after season.

Last fall I planted a few more heuchera — actually gold zebra heucherella — the lime and burgundy plants in the foreground. I was delighted when they reached out with these wispy white blooms, almost like exclamation points emerging from their core.

I try to limit the annuals in my garden because I have enough work caring for the perennials as it is, but I reliably plant coleus in many places each spring. Their hot, popping colors brighten any shady spot and bring an energy to the garden that I just love in our Texas summers.

My Cephalotaxus, or Japanese plum yews, continue to thrive in the mostly shade areas of the front and side gardens. I love seeing the new growth arrive, heralded by the luscious lime foliage. I began using these in the garden about 3 years ago and they are tough as nails and satisfy my wish to have other conifers in the landscape.

This cardoon qualifies as a foliage favorite for sure. Fuzzy, spiny, and dusty, these leaves are always showing off in the garden.

This Yucca aloifolia, commonly known as Spanish Dagger or Bayonet, means serious business. Unlike the variegated ‘bright edge’ and ‘color guard’ yuccas that live in other parts of my garden, this guy’s leaves are sword-like and quite dangerous to work around. This pup popped up when I had to move its momma several years ago because she was getting too tall for the front of the bed. Her little one is following in her footsteps, so this one may soon move to another bed behind the back fence.

My Persian shields never fully died back this winter, so they are already getting to be a nice size in the shade garden. Score!

Plectranthus amboinicus, also known as Cuban Oregano, Mexican Mint, Spanish Thyme and Indian Mint, is a staple in my ornamental gardens. It is an herb and can be used in a wide variety of dishes. But I grow it for it’s cool, textured and succulent leaves. Mature, it’s about 18 inches tall and wide and makes a nice front of bed plant. It’s an annual here, but can easily be propagated from cuttings, which is what I do. It’s not a true mint – it’s botanically closer to Swedish ivy, which I also grow for similar places in the garden.

Another fabulous variegated abelia. I’m kicking myself for not keeping the tag. I love that this one is creamy and mild, while the ‘Twist of Lime’ and ‘Kaleidoscopes’ I love are spicier — with lime, bronze and reddish foliage.

Sparkler sedges are scattered throughout my garden. This winter I thought I’d lost one in the back, but it’s coming back from the roots. Sadly, it has reverted and is coming up solid green.

I’m about to plant several more of these variegated dwarf firebushes for their hot, tropical color.

That’s the foliage tour for today. What’s your favorite foliage in the garden?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:26:55-06:00May 17th, 2016|abelia, Cardoon, coleus, Cuban oregano, dwarf firebush, Foliage Follow Up, gold zebra heucherella, Persian shield, plum yew, Sharing Nature's Garden, sparkler sedge, yucca|0 Comments

Propagating new plants for a new year…

Before we get our first official freeze here in Central Texas, I went wandering through the garden and gathered up a box of cuttings from some of my favorite annual plants and then spent a few hours in the greenhouse.

I got my tools and materials together and set about prepping the cuttings, trimming leaves, making long, clean cuts and giving everyone a dip into the rooting hormone.

Nice and toasty warm, with plenty of humidity and a controlled temperature, the cuttings should grow happily in the greenhouse over the next few months of winter.

When spring arrives, I’ll enjoy having some great little starter plants to replace the annuals I lost through the winter, or to expand planting of some of my favorites.

Can you tell what I planted?

Some plants are easier to identify than others.

This one is an easy ID, but also one of my faves.

Now let’s see if I can keep them all alive all winter. Fingers crossed!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:38:48-05:00January 3rd, 2016|Blog, brugmansia, butterfly weed, Cuban oregano, Iochroma, Persian shield, Pride of Barbados, propagate, Royal Queen, Sharing Nature's Garden, Swedish ivy|2 Comments

Morning sun in a shady spot…

There was an undercurrent of cool in the air this morning. It almost felt like fall. Almost. But the forecast for today is 97. No kidding. Unbelievable.

Standing on the front porch watering pots, the light was beautiful, highlighting a very shady corner of the garden with the only sun it ever gets. Surrounded on 3 sides by house and growing under the high canopy of majestic oaks and a pomegranate, it only gets a dribble of filtered morning sun through the trees.

Because it’s so protected and the area takes a long time to dry out after rain or watering, it doesn’t need a lot of extra water, which is a plus.

Root beer plant (Hoya santo ) – which means sacred leaf in Spanish) forms a commanding background for Pam’s pink Turk’s cap (Malavisious drummondii ‘Pam Puryear’)and Persian Shield (Stobilanthes dyerianus). Look closely and you can see the Poms coming on in the tree.

I’ll propagate the Persian shield before it gets cold and those new plants will live through the winter in the greenhouse. It is an annual here and I have to replace the plants every year. Such a striking plant in the garden, I wouldn’t be without them. The deer will eat them, but these are up against the house and I’ve been lucky with them in this spot. The deer would almost have to ring the doorbell to get at them. (And now, of course, they’ll get eaten since I bragged that I’ve outsmarted them!)

Though it’s a later bloomer than it’s red Turk’s cap cousin, I love the pop of pink it adds to this space.

This umbrella plant (Cypereus involucratus), just across the dry creek from the other plants, comes back year after year, giving a great texture and contrast to this space.

This is one of my favorite spots in the garden. And, it requires absolutely no care and it bursts forth beautifully every year without any help from me. You can’t beat that kind of performance.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:00-06:00October 12th, 2015|Blog, Hoya santo, morning sun, Pam's pink Turk's cap, Persian shield, pomegranate, propagation, root beer plant, shade, Sharing Nature's Garden, umbrella plant|1 Comment

Hanging onto hot color in the late summer garden

Even though we are well past Labor Day, summer hangs on like a blanket over Central Texas. Days go by faster, but the heat hadn’t begun to wane until today.

After months without rain, my plants enjoyed an inch of the wet stuff this week – enough to rejuvenate the garden as we head into fall.

The Pride of Barbados seems to mimic the sun with its hot orange blossoms reaching for the sky.

Jutting out like this, it seems alien-like.

Bursting with color, plants in the front garden look like they are in a race to see who can grow the fastest, bloom the longest and be the brightest. Hot time in the city…

Sometimes I am frustrated with the thryallis — it’s definitely a late summer bloomer and occasionally sleeps in after winter. I think we’re spoiled with our vast array of three season plants. I’m spoiled – a season and a half just doesn’t seem long enough!

Like its cousin, the red Turk’s cap, this Pam’s pink variety never disappoints in my garden. In part shade with some morning sun, its delicate hats tip to me in the breeze.

More than 30 different species of Duranta grow in tropical climates. Mine have been perennials most years, coming back in summer to bloom through the fall. Only in very frigid winters have I lost them — two failed to come back after the winter of 3 days at 17 degrees. I have the purple sapphire showers, the alba white and this lavender growing in my garden.

Another stunning tropical, this plumeria started blooming a few weeks ago. Its scent is sweeter than the yellow flowering varieties I grow, but the color is amazing.

The candlestick tree (cassia alata) towering over other plants in the garden is just now starting to bloom.

The back shade garden brings some hot tropical colors to the party as well. I have to replant Persian shield every spring, but I couldn’t garden without its color and texture.

While the Moy grande hibiscus is done with its plate-sized flowers, Lord Baltimore is still blooming strong beside the pool.

I know this is the result of my not pruning enough in the spring, but I am thrilled with the weeping form that my crape Myrtle has taken on in front of the cutting garden.

Only allowed on the vegetable garden fence, this cypress vine always perks me up when the veggie garden becomes a towering and crispy mess before the fall garden clean up.

This happy garden blog post brought to you from my favorite morning roost – particularly nice on this cool morning. What’s blooming in your late summer / early fall garden today?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:01-06:00September 12th, 2015|back porch, Blog, candlestick tree, Crape Myrtle, duranta, hideous bed, late summer bloomers, Lord Baltimore Hibiscus, Pam's pink Turk's cap, Persian shield, philodendrum, plumeria, Pride of Barbados, Sharing Nature's Garden, thryallis, vines|0 Comments

Spring garden spruce up…

While the weather was cold and before it was planting season, I started a project at my house to add a chopped limestone edge and an Oklahoma flagstone cap to the beds along the front walk. It turned out great and I was very happy with the result.

But then the nice weather came, and with it, clients. Clients who wanted designs and hardscaping and landscaping and the items left unfinished on my project remained unfinished. Until this week.

An unexpected opening for the crew found them at my house with 4-1/2 yards of great soil – Thunder Garden Soil from Geo Growers. That was worked into the front beds, which are now, in essence, raised beds. Miscellaneous volunteer seeds – zinnias and salvias and other random plants were hoed out and given the boot.

I stood back and took stock of my bed and tried to view it as I would a client’s. I’d been unhappy with it for a while. So off I went, three days in a row, to the nursery to load up every inch of my car with plants.

We filled the holes and created structure and contrast and texture (all the things I preach about!) These are the plants I added:

Foxtail ferns
Variegated agapanthus – these are way cool!
Persian shield
Sparkler Sedge
Purple pixie loropetalum
Mexican bush sage
Amistad salvia
Bat-faced cuphea
Blackfoot daisy
Mexican honeysuckle
Purple skullcap
Yellow zinnias
Skeletonleaf goldeneye
Sun coleus
Copper plant
Helianthus maxmilliani
Whale’s tongue agave
Miss Molly buddleia
Yellow bulbine
Hibiscus
Mexican bird of paradise

These didn’t all go into the walkway bed, I filled holes in other beds, too. I finally replaced my critically-wounded franzosini agave with a whale’s tongue. It will never be the same, but it also won’t make 30 pups a month that have to be cut out and it won’t get 20 feet tall and it won’t freeze as easily.

I love the new plants and the new mulch that followed, but one of the things I’m most excited about is that they finally brought me moss rocks to put in the section of dry creek right by the front door. After lots of — no, tilt it this way, no, bury that end, no turn it around, not this way, that way — I am happy with the placement of the rocks. They add so much to the natural look of the entire area.

Though they are still small, the Persian shield and loropetalum will add a nice purple to the lime spikes of the sparkler sedge and the hot gold Cuban duranta that’s now just emerging from dormancy.

My new passalong bronze iris from Robin at Getting Grounded went into this bed along with some coleus to mirror the lime and purple on the other side.

These foxtail ferns (my first ever) will provide some structural contrast for the rock rose volunteer in the center that I babied over the winter. The yellow zinnias will coordinate with the yellow skeletonleaf golden eye and the bright edge yucca further down the bed.

I can’t wait to see the brilliant purple Amistad savlias bloom next to the bright edge and the agapanthus. (It’s still hard to envision it all since almost nothing is blooming quite yet.)

This vignette is at the end of the path – yellow columbine, golden grass, sun coleus, creeping jenny, a yellow lantana and hidden – a copper plant that will grow to become a nice tall bronze backdrop on the left.

This is just a little slice of the bed behind the pool. The ginormous Maggie roses used to live here. Now the center piece will be this Miss Molly buddleia, surrounded in front by a semi-circle of pure yellow bulbine. On either side of the bed are phlox paniculata and lavender trailing lantana and Mexican oregano.

I moved the Amistad salvias from behind these bright edge yuccas last fall. They just didn’t do well in this bed – I think it was too hot for them here. The stock tank I painted holds an evergreen wisteria planted in the fall – check out the amazing bloom color here. So now between the two I have three Mexican honeysuckles with their hot orange blooms to play off the purple, yellow and lime. Love those combos.

So, now I wait, and water a lot by hand. Bought a few new expandable hoses (yes, I love them and will do a post soon). And I’m using rainwater from the tank, so that feels great. I think there are probably 200-250 gallons in there and that’s going to go fast if it’s going to be 90 every day.

I’m happy with the result and enjoyed walking through the garden tonight with gin and tonic in hand, surveying all the new things and appreciating my garden.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:07-06:00May 3rd, 2014|Blog, bright edge yucca, buddleia, coleus, dry creek, foxtail fern, Mexican honeysuckle, Miss Molly buddleia, new beds, Persian shield, river rock bed, Sharing Nature's Garden, sparkler sedge, spring planting|0 Comments

Propagation planning for winter greenhouse plants…

My garden is making me very happy right now. It looks great. I don’t say that much, being my own worst critic, but I feel good about what I’ve accomplished since the spring. Even in this tough summer, I worked hard on it.

But, I realize it won’t be long before the blooms stop and plants go dormant as we usher in a short winter’s nap.

Many of the plants in my garden this year are not perennials. Unless we have a very mild winter, I’m likely to lose some of my new favorites in the garden.

Like the variegated begonia in the right of the picture above. It was fussy and had to be watered every day, but so did all my pots just about 10 feet away, so I babied it. It was so pretty with its cranberry colored stems and juicy cream and lime colored leaves. I want more of these next year.

:i

This Persian shield is also one of my new faves this year. I finally got a few close enough to the house and big enough that the deer aren’t eating them to the ground. Love that vivid color.

This salvia madrensis below isn’t in my garden, but my friend and fellow garden blogger, Renee of Renee’s New Blog, gave me three cuttings of hers and I know I’m going to want more, so I will root some more over the winter. They are really hard to find in nurseries.

The variegated plant in the photo below is Cuban oregano – a strong smelling herbaceous perennial that is cold tender. I lost my first one last winter, but promptly went out and bought several more. And I stuck at least 6 little stems into the ground and they immediately started growing. So, I will prune some off before the first freeze and have my own collection growing over the winter.