shasta daisy 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

Cannas and Coneflowers…

Time flies when it’s gardening season. It’s already time for Garden Bloggers Bloom day, hosted each month on the 15th by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

Many plants are coming into their own in the garden right now. Foliage is filling out and becoming lush and new blooms are popping out to surprise me every day.

Unless of course the deer eat them! In my new garden bed, the deer have tromped around, but only ate the potato vines. I deliberately planted the bed with plants that deer typically shun. Except, apparently for Klondyke Cosmos. I was so pleased with my idea – planting this tangerine orange wispy flower grown from seed next to a vibrant purple salvia and some Mexican Feather Grass. I went out this morning to capture a photo of this little vignette, only to find…no vignette. The two blooms that popped up yesterday had been eaten off. So, you will just have to imagine what I imagined when I planted it all.

The Purple Cone Flowers above are some of my very favorite summer bloomers, and this year I have dozens and dozens of volunteers coming up so I will be transplanting lots of them into other beds.

But, I didn’t let the deer spoil my day. Many other blooms in the garden were happy to pose for pictures today.

These photos are of my King Humbert Orange Cannas. I love the hot yellow and tangerine against the lime green leaves.

This is a Mexican Bird of Paradise Tree — perfect for our hot,dry weather. Mine gets next to no water (especially in this drought) and yet it still blooms like crazy all summer long.
These Blackfoot Daisies are tough as nails — even though they look so delicate.
Coral Trumpet Vine is taking over my fence and sprouting up in 3 different nearby beds. But it’s stunning all over the fence – if it would just mind its manners!
Verbena thrives in these warm, sunny days, and it’s making a beautiful purple velvet carpet in my new bed.
Some of the combinations I planned for the new front bed are starting to fill in and look like I intended them to. These yellow Zexmenia are bright and cheerful next to the hot pink Salvia Greggii.
These Shasta Daisies are bursting with blooms in the cutting garden. But I love seeing them there so much that I don’t want to cut them!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:07-05:00May 16th, 2011|Bird of Paradise, Blog, cannas, Coneflower, coral trumpet vine, deer, GBBD, Prairie Verbena, purples. salvia, salvia greggii, Sharing Nature's Garden, shasta daisy|0 Comments

Fall bloomers and a few surprises…

As temperatures drop and it begins to look a little like fall here in Central Texas, new things are blooming in the garden.

There are the traditional plants, like these beautiful mums.

They disappear during the scorching hot summer, but puff up and explode with flowers when it starts to get chilly outside.

And there are the Mexican Mint Marigolds with their beautiful yellow blooms and the Fall Asters that I wrote about two posts ago, all reliable fall bloomers.
There was beautiful light when I went out with the camera this morning.
The oak in the front yard was aglow like a flaming tree with its golden leaves in the rising sunlight. We have so little fall color here because it’s just not cold enough, so we really appreciate it when we see it!
But I was surprised to find these Shasta Daisies in the cutting garden — blooming for the second time this year.
And the roses are loving this cool weather — especially my Katy Road or Carefree Beauty rose.
Another sign of fall — dead things! I’d better get out there and remove all these seeds from this dead morning glory vine or I won’t have any cutting flowers at all in the spring as they will be choked out by vine-y groundcover!
And these precious little Marigolds came from seeds and volunteers in the vegetable garden, where I plant them to keep bad bugs off the tomatoes. I simply moved them to the cutting garden where they are very happy.