sparkler sedge 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

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

Very Variegated V…..

Phooey – I’m late for Foliage Follow-up, and I couldn’t think of anything else appropriate that starts with “V.” (Writer’s block!)

But I do have some lovely foliage in the garden thanks to some good spring weather and the recent rains.

I’ve been introducing more variegated plants into the shady areas of my garden over the last year, and they are putting on a show right now.

This is new growth on an agave that almost died last winter.

Walking my garden with me this morning, Robin of Getting Grounded commented that its foliage looks soft, not hard like an Agave. Guess that’s that fresh, new growth.

Isn’t it funny how something so tough and so spiny can also look so delicate at times?

This is a Crystal Palace Gem Geranium.
This is variegated Mikaela Euonymos – it’s a very compact shrub – hasn’t grown much at all since I planted it two years ago. The deer have munched on it once or twice, and while it didn’t do what I wanted it to do, it looks pretty right now.
The variegated Dianella — Flax lily — died back in the freezes, but they are all coming back nicely now.
This is an Agave americana var. mediopicta f. alba.
Sparkler sedge that I got at the Great Outdoors last week — Carex abula — thanks to a tip from Pam at Digging.

This is Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’ — well, maybe it’s not. Actually the Carex across the path is the ‘evergold’ — so this would be…..hmmmm….another kind?!
This variegated Vinca keeps coming back in the middle of my Abelia, and I will rip some of it out, but I may try to plant it somewhere that I would actually LIKE for it to grow. It is pretty.
Another variegated sedge or miscanthus — my record-keeping last summer left something to be desired, didn’t it?
These are my blooming African Hostas. Aren’t they cool? Drimiopsis maculata.
The variegated shell ginger by the pool are all coming back nicely.
And last, but not least, the variegated Eureka Lemon tree that rose from the dead and will live to fruit another day!