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After our lovely tour of the Wildflower Center, we headed to lunch and sat silently as Tom Spencer inspired us with his insight about the sanctuary of our gardens and the bonds we all share.

Then we trekked over to the Natural Gardener for some eye candy that included amazing plants and garden do-dads, and an amazing vegetable garden, herb garden, labyrinth, butterfly garden, chickens and donkeys. I know the Flingers who drove were happy to be able to squirrel away something in their cars and those who flew were wondering just what would get confiscated if they tried to sneak something home in their luggage!

This is the beautiful herb garden.

Sorrel and a lovely yellow poppy.

Spineless cactus.

Then we sped over to the David/Peese garden paradise which truly is indescribable.

A little posing for the shutterbug!
Bloggers scatter to find beautiful garden treasures.
For people who write so much, we sure were good at talking this weekend.
A stunning red maple understory tree.

An amazing water feature — we all agreed we could have sat and looked at this all day.

See the goldfish looking back at us?

This is the long shot down the steps to that particular water feature.

Looking up the steps from the water feature.

Top of the steps and the back of the house.

Don’t ask me what happened with my centering and justifying, I’m just glad I got the photos and the commentary on my blog.

I hope this helped you feel like you were here. We thought of you – and wish you could have joined us. Maybe next time! We were all in agreement when it was over that we’d love to make it an annual event. What do you think? Are you up for an annual Garden Bloggers Retreat somewhere?

Oh, what fun! The Spring Fling, by all accounts, exceeded our wildest expectations.

It was a beautiful day – cool in the morning – for Austin, at least – at 49F, and then it warmed up to 80F. So our guests got a good taste of the range of Austin weather. For those who were here on Friday morning, some experienced a fast-moving cold front that brought with it wind and rain and hail, a 20 degree cool-down, and then blew out of here a few hours later as quickly as it came in.

We started on Saturday at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with a docent tour to learn about Lady Bird and her efforts to beautify our country, and to get a great overview of our unique Texas native plants. Here, Flingers are checking out the water plants in the pond at the entrance to the center.
Our docent tells everyone about this spineless cactus native to Texas. For a lovely tour of her own garden, check out Pam’s post of a small private tour she gave some folks on Friday as an early event.
The bright Texas sun starts to show itself as bloggers listen.
Looking at the natural spring at the entrance to the center.
The spring, surrounded by native grasses.
From this tower vantage point, you can see wildflowers blooming all over the central Texas Hill Country.
Blogger perusing the grounds.
A blooming yucca stands at attention for us!
More plant inspections. We were a tough crowd for a tour guide – we couldn’t stop visiting with each other and everyone had detailed questions and answers about all the plants.
Tiny baby grapes cover the arbor along the pathway.
An acacia tree waves it’s golden branches at us.
A cactus with little babies.
A stunningly beautiful field of poppies had us all in awe.

Ok – that’s the first sneak peek of the day — I have in-laws here visiting from Indiana and since I bailed on them Friday and Saturday for “flinging,” my posts will be in fits and starts today.

But I wanted to give you a little taste, and I’ll try to be back later in the day for more show and tell, because there is so much to share with you.

Ok, so thus far, I suck at seeds.  Sorry.  But that’s the ugly truth.  My seedlings (round 2) are still alive, but I’m not holding out too much hope for them.  So, I’m going to toss the seed catalogs, because tonight, I let my fingers do the walking at a Daylily farm!  

When I took GBBD photos this week, I didn’t even check the vines. Then I saw some wisteria in bloom while out driving and rushed home to check mine. Yeah! Wisteria in baby bloom. Very few blooms, but lots of soft, fuzzy caterpillar-like buds all over it.

And then, I turned around and realized I hadn’t seen the Coral Trumpetvine because it wasn’t blooming on the fence, it was blooming far up in the tree beyond the fence!
You can see the fence tips at the bottom of the foreground, and the Coral Trumpet vine is planted in front of it.

Plants in the mail! Whoo hoo. I have things lined up in the garage waiting for a good planting day.

Yesterday was NOT a good planting day. I was trying to capture a picture of the river of rain in our dry river bed pathway. You may not be able to see the rushing water, but you can sure see all those evil oak leaves!And here are our palm trees in the blustery breeze.

On Sunday a few little plants went into the vegetable garden – strawberries, peppers, collards and one tomato.

This bed is anxiously awaiting seeds!
This is the lone tomato – who was immediately whipped around into a limp mess by the gusty winds, so I propped him a little and didn’t plant the other two.  We are supposed to have storms today, so I thought I would wait just a few days more.  Then yesterday, lo and behold, my TomatoBob Heirloom seed order arrived!
In addition to my traditional celebrity plants, I am going to try Black Krim,Yellow Giant Belgium, Omar’s Lebanese and Eva’s Purple Ball.  I also got a free sample package of Hank tomato seeds.  I chose varieties that aren’t as likely to split – a problem here with occasional torrential rains, and those that are also pretty heat- tolerant.  

Boy, are we wusses down here. (At least I am – I’ll just speak for myself.) The temperature dropped all day today – it’s supposed to be 33 tonight. It’s been raining and up to 25 mph winds. Just plain miserable if you ask me, but we did get 3/10 of an inch of rain, so that’s good.

The only place I went today after taking my daughter to school was an underground parking garage so I wouldn’t have to brave the elements. Hard to believe that I survived 4 winters in Minnesota in the Twin Cities area!

So, since we are still not quite past the point of freeze danger, my garage is still full o’plants. I miss the greenhouse from our previous house enough this year that I think we’ll put one in here next Fall. But, for now, my greenhouse is the garage with space heaters and a nice window for light. Here’s the tour!

My Duranta pruned to be a tree is sprouting new leaves.
(This is the mystery plant that MSS @ Zanthan Gardens helped me identify.)

The new thornless Mexican lime tree that I bought on Tuesday!

A cluster of half-dead or dormant pots and the Boston Fern
that Mom and Dad gave me for my birthday for Artemis’ head!

A budding Plumeria stalk!

Hmmmmm…this is one of those unusual/exotic specimen plants that
I always buy at the Austin Zilker Garden Fest and can’t remember the name of!
Anyone wanna guess?

Little annuals for window boxes and a Red Maple waiting for permanent homes
…and my fabulous Little Red Wagon that I couldn’t live without!