salvia

A little garden trip down the road…

Last week I went on a jaunt to visit some of our blogging friends in San Antonio. They’ve come to Austin periodically, so it was time to venture south to see them. Our first stop was Melody’s beautiful and spacious garden. After a treat of delicious mini muffins and ginger cookies baked by her lovely daughter, we stepped into her sanctuary. The first view is a wonderful pool, surrounded by pots and plants that gave it a rustic, more natural look.

To deal with foraging deer, this fence guards Melody’s vegetables, herbs and some perennial favorites.

Garden art like this gazing ball catches your eye as you meander through the perennial garden.

Depending on which way you walk, this beautiful arbor marks the beginning or the end of a delightful path.

A shroud of vibrant green vines clothe the wooden structure.

This long view emphasizes the beautiful, though tough-to-photograph day with its bright light and deep shadows.

And then there were the gorgeous plants, like this salvia madrensis, one of my faves.

And then there were the gorgeous plants, like this salvia madrensis, one of my faves.  Clever uses of ordinary things added such a nice touch, like this cracked cement birdbath repurposed as a planter with a small figurine in the center.

Carrying on with the wooden theme, this vignette beckons deep in the path and offers a place to sit and ponder the garden.

Pots like this one, overflowing with bougainvillea, are scattered throughout the garden landscape.

Another striking salvia, Wendy’s wish stands out among lower layers of perennials.

From the distance, the arbor is quaint, but standing underneath, it’s quite grand.

I almost passed this dragonfly by as he was well camouflaged by backdrop of the fence and the surrounding plants.

Another long view across the landscape.

Across the yard, this rustic trellis serves as a home to a vine and a birdhouse.

Coral vine adorns this rustic limestone wall to the tool shed…though it’s really more like a tool house.

Inside the safety of the high fence, a collection of tasty hibiscus grow with impunity.

Sunlight streams in to light up this seating area.

More friendly and welcoming plants in the garden.

My tools don’t look like this!

While not a blogger, we tried to convince Melody to blog so we can keep up with her garden, but we didn’t succeed – yet!   Pam Pennick, of Digging, and our hostess, Melody, as we’re saying our goodbyes.

Thanks to Melody for graciously opening her home and garden to us for a wonderful morning.

Bloom Day showcases late summer blooms in the garden…

Even though the thermometer hit 97 today, summer is beginning to wane here in Central Texas for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  Carol of May Dreams Gardens invites us to share what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month, so here’s a stroll through my landscape.

Some of the heat-loving perennials are on their second set of blooms this summer.  Plants like lantana, salvia, sage, are putting on a dog days show while the sun is still high in the sky.

I recently made a return trip to the Arbor Gate Nursery in Tomball to collect some of their wonderful garden art.  I came home with two ceramic fish and two blue/green glass ribbons to add to the one I bought on my original visit. Now I need to plant just the right things to create an appropriate vignette for them to “swim” around in.  But I had to put them in the garden somewhere until then, so here they are.

I also ordered some clever pieces online — these three faucet flowers are guaranteed to be ever-blooming varieties!

 The seem to feel right at home with the blooming Turk’s cap.

These monstrous salvias that are dwarfing the fully mature bright edge yucca are Amistad salvias that I transplanted last fall after they were under performing in another spot with too much sun. Here they get morning sun and evening sun and they seem to be thrilled with the switch.  Had I known they would get THAT happy, I’d have found them a spot further back in the bed!

One little surviving bat-faced cuphea.  I planted them amongst many other things that are deer resistant, hoping to hide them.  But alas, the deer are smarter than I am, and I almost never get to see an actual bloom before it becomes a snack.

This curve around the bend of the front bed is lined with society garlic – something the deer never eat!

These Salvia leucantha, or Mexican bush sage, love the hot, dry sun of late summer here in Central Texas.

 The society garlic border confetti lantana and one of my bird baths.

A few new additions to the front walkway bed this year, the foxtail ferns and zinnias have done well.  But the rock rose in the upper left corner has been rudely stripped of its pretty pink blooms by you-know-who.

The front bed, or the Hideous Bed, as we call it, is definitely not hideous.  These plants thrive in hot, dry conditions so they can take it here.  But last weekend’s rain did help them with an extra boost. Here you see thryallis, santolina, a variegated yucca and homestead verbena.

And a different angle that also includes damianita and a salvia greggii.

To the right of these photos is a swath of blackfoot daisies — they’re natives that grow in rocky outcroppings of the Hill Country.

Across the drive is another dry bed that enjoys a little shade.  Here is new gold lantana, salvia greggii, a sago palm, and in the pot — a variegated false agave.

Stunning liatris is a riot of lavender color. 

Large pots in the back by the pool have orange narrow-leaf zinnias and potato vine.

 …And homestead verbena.

The Duranta erecta (lavender color) is full of blooms – below – and fruit — above.  Though all parts of the plant are poisonous, so don’t be tempted to eat the fruit.

 I have 3 different colors of Duranta – this one, the deep purple ‘sapphire showers’ and a white one.

This pitcher sage came from a 4′ pot I bought at the semi-annual Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center sale.

Another shot of the Amistad salvias on steroids.

 One of my Turk’s caps — ‘Pam’s pink.’

 Some pots on the back patio that I rolled out into the rain for a drink.

Even though they are delicate and hard to see, I love adding Euphorbia ‘diamond frost’ into pots for filler.

And again, a supremely hardy lantana – cherry bandana — perky all the time.

Happy garden bloggers bloom day.  What’s blooming in your garden?

Cistus nursery delights gardeners at Portland Fling…

Our third stop on the first day of the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling was Cistus Nursery.  Coming from the Lan Su Chinese Garden, which was serene and peaceful, Cistus provided a bold contrast — it was chock full of plants – a sensory explosion for plant lovers.

There were many familiar plants at the nursery, like these Yucca rostrata, which grow happily at home in Austin, Texas.

 I did say chock full, didn’t I?

 But some of the Cistus family were uninterested in visiting bloggers.

“Yeah, I see you, but it’s hot and it feels good here on these cold bricks, so I hope  you don’t mind if I don’t get up to greet you!”

 Oh, so true!  It should have said, “gaggle of plant nerds!”

 I’m smitten with interesting tree bark and there were several great trees to photograph.

 Love these Eryngium — their dramatic spiky blooms provide unique texture in any garden bed.

 Dramatic grasses billowed in the breeze.

While it was easy to become engrossed in the plants on the ground and the tables, the impressive views extended to some of the majestic trees that love the Pacific Northwest.

There were many different species of Eucomis in the gardens and nurseries in Portland.  I’ve been  babying one in my own garden at home for some time.  Forced to suffer the scorching heat and the periodic nibbling deer, it is tough as nails.  Hmmmm…. and thus began the idea of taking another one home with me…

I saw this plant all over the Portland gardens — Melianthus major.  Big, bold, textured and tough, it really caught my eye.  I took several photos of it, fully intent on finding one for my garden at home.  But after some research yesterday, I’ve decided it might be too invasive in my garden…but maybe I can keep one in a pot!

 Another favorite in my garden, Euphorbia.

 Flingers in search of treasure.

 More interesting bark.

And these crocosmia were everywhere.  Their beautiful strappy leaves combined with vibrant blooms add a real pop to any garden setting.

 More amazing Erygnium.

 Reaching for the sun.

Being a salvia collector, I’m going to have to try to find one of these in Austin for my garden — Salvia guar. ‘Argentine skies.’

Even the growing heat couldn’t keep us from fanning out across the nursery in search of garden goodies.  Some bloggers left with plants.  I left with something almost as good — ideas!

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.
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.

Don’t you think all of these plants would love getting to spend the winter in my greenhouse getting lots of TLC?  I do!

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?

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?

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