The Gardener of Good and Evil

Bloom Day, April 2010

2010-04-16T05:15:00.006-05:00

I'm alive, and so is my garden! In fact, I can safely say that my garden has never looked so good. After the last two years of drought, it amazes me how quickly everything filled in and bounced back. Even the roses are covered in flowers despite the fact that I barely fertilized and completely missed the window to cut everything back properly.

Seriously, it's completely ridiculous how much is in bloom in my yard right now. I've been walking outside, looking around, and laughing with giddiness. The garden is the most spectacular it's ever looked in the three and a half years I've been working on it, and that's including the front yard, which I finally finished hardscaping and planting last month.

So thanks to all the rain this winter, it's a jungle out there. Here's the rose Sunny Knockout being cuddled by artemesia "Silver King" and larkspur:

Here's the rose "Maggie" on the fence. Thanks to planting four other extremely thorny roses directly in front of it, sadly, I haven't managed to fight my way back to the fence in order to properly appreciate the fragrance. Which is sad, because the scent is strong and fabulous. I'm tempted to knock on my neighbors' door and ask if I can spend 5 minutes in their backyard just because there's nothing in the way on their side of the fence.

Here's rose "Gruss an Aachen" tempting me to take up watercolor painting again:

Here are a few blurry pictures of the back borders, which contain roses, artemesia, heartleaf skullcap,and a ton of salvia greggii, among other things. Please excuse the blurry pictures; it was starting to rain:

Here's catmint drowning a "Bright Edges" yucca. The cat is particularly fond of this combo for some reason:

The cat, with a "Mutabilis" rose in the background. The stock tank is planted with bamboo muhly, which should fill in enough by fall to screen the seating area behind it from the street.

And yet another rose blooming is Blush Noisette. I love the graceful form of the bush and it's gorgeously fragrant, especially in the summer heat:

One of the most fragrant roses in my garden, with the prettiest blooms is the English rose, Abraham Darby. The color of the flowers varies quite a lot from flower to flower:

Right now nearly every rose in my yard is blooming with such abandon that I spend every spare moment outside wandering around smelling the flowers and staring. A complete list:

Marie Pavie
Thomas Affleck
Mutabilis
Republic of Texas
Star of the Republic
Mme Berkeley
Felicia
Gruss an Aachen
Belinda's Dream
Maggie
Souvenir de la Malmaison
Duchesse de Brabant
Louis Philippe
Zephirine Drouhin
Archduke Charles
Blush Noisette
Buff Beauty
Abraham Darby
Eugene de Beauharnais
Mme Alfred Carriere
Sunny Knockout
Pink Knockout
Pink Double Knockout
Rainbow Knockout
Double Knockout

Also blooming:

salvia greggii
yellow and orange bulbine
ice plant
'Homestead Purple' verbena
moss verbena
"Walker's Low" catmint
passalong peach iris from Annie In Austin
pansies
snapdragons
various ornamental cabbages
clover
bluebonnets

This is my favorite Bloom Day ever.

San Antonio Botanical Garden: color, texture, & light

2009-11-09T06:09:00.009-06:00

On Saturday, a bunch of us Austin garden bloggers voluntarily woke up at an early hour and drove through picturesque fog down to San Antonio for the day, where we visited Madrone Nursery, the San Antonio Botanical Garden, and the Antique Rose Emporium. Here are some of my pictures from the San Antonio Botanical garden, where everything was lush and green and butterflies were everywhere:

White Floss Silk Tree (Chorisia insignis):

A shady rill. I have no idea why the water was flowing here when the rest of the water features were dry:

Purple & green & texture:

Light in a courtyard:

Violet-blue & orange:

Spiky contrast:

Dwarf canna "Madame Angele Martin":

Fall color:

The fist of an angry cactus:

And as Blogger is messing up formatting even worse than usual, I'm going to give up on lining my text up with my pictures and let everyone else do the talking. So far, we have reviews from:

Pam @ Digging
Jenny @ Rock Rose
Rachel @ In Bloom
Amy @ Go Away, I'm Gardening

Diana @ Sharing Nature's Garden

Caroline @ The Shovel-Ready Garden

Also, I am amazed that I spent only three dollars on plants the entire day, which is some kind of personal record in self-restraint and frugality. When I mentioned this to my roommates after I staggered in the door, one did a double-take, pointed, and yelled, "Who are you, and what did you do with Lori?!!"

What can I say? I like to think that I've come to terms with the fact that I can cram only so many plants into my yard.

my milkshake datura brings all the boys bees to the yard

2009-10-26T05:16:00.006-05:00

So while I haven't been actively blogging for months-- aside from complaining about the drought and heat on Twitter-- I have been taking pictures of the interesting things that have been happening around my yard. For instance, I knew that the datura in my yard was a favorite plant of bees and moths and other insects, but a certain morning back in August was like stumbling into a bee bacchanal:

Snails in Smurfland

2009-09-22T23:06:00.002-05:00

The rain means the reappearance of two things: snails and strange mushrooms.

a quiet evening on Lady Bird Lake

2009-09-15T23:58:00.003-05:00

dramatic clouds and amazing weather

2009-09-13T23:11:00.000-05:00

Escape from the Death Star!

2009-08-04T23:55:00.007-05:00

So, I'm a bad Austinite. I've lived here for five years, but I'm taking my sweet time hitting all of those destinations that most tourists see within their first week here. One of those destinations happened to be Barton Springs Pool.

I had no special plans to ever visit, but late this afternoon I didn't have the courage to open the door and stick any part of my body outside to gauge the temperature, so I checked The Fucking Weather instead, which shrieked, "102?! IT'S FUCKING HOT. (I need gloves to touch the steering wheel!)" Yeah, no kidding. So I could kiss my plans of working outside goodbye. Again. And then I paused to hurl invective with as much passion but entirely less creativity than Stephen Fry.

Sadly, this summer I've reached and fallen headfirst over the tipping point where I don't even care about gardening. I've put my grand plans on hold and have resolved to just hunker down under the AC with my laptop and wireless connection until October and let Teh Internetz distract me (I'll admit it: my recent Adam Lambert obsession has been very helpful in this regard). Every now and then, I'll force myself off the couch to turn on a soaker hose long enough to keep my trees from dying.

But today, I just couldn't take my Austin Summer Coping Routine any longer. I had to get outside before I went nuts. And it turned out that Barton Springs Pool is open until 10 in the summer, perfect for people like me who are practically flammable. Also, did I mention that the pool is always 68F? Let me tell you, it seems even colder when the air is still nearly a hundred degrees when you wade in there. Also, while I knew the pool was fed by a natural spring, I had no idea that it was so slimy. This was particularly challenging considering that I'm a giant wuss and wanted to work my way into the water at my own (glacial) pace, but it was a constant stuggle to keep from falling down as the slimy rock floor of the pool sloped unpredictably. Eventually, I just gave up and went with it. The swearing involved was therapeutic, and I enjoyed feeling smug about paddling around in a bikini while some dude was doing laps in a full wetsuit.

The pool at night. Witness the vampires of Austin. And the smart people, since apparently admission is free after 9 PM.

Once I was throughly chilled, I found that it's incredibly satisfying to sit on a towel on the hill and watch people swim. The hot air actually feels wonderful when you're sitting there in a wet swimsuit watching some chick in a lime green 'fro jump off the diving board.

Also keeping Austin weird was some random guy who stood up on the hill and gave an impromptu yodeling demonstration, to enthusiastic applause. Sadly, it was too dark to get a picture, but public opinion said he was good. For a yodeler. I lounged around for half an hour drying off and testing out the night settings on my camera. I got a lot of pictures of ghosts hovering above the diving board and spectral presences haunting the pool.

On the way out, my friend overheard a lifeguard telling someone about how they'd found a giant riding lawnmower in the pool last Thursday. It's nice to see that, by comparison, I'm keeping my cool and dealing with this hellish summer rather well.

overachieving agave

2009-05-21T15:48:00.003-05:00

I've long-admired the dramatic placement of this agave in front of a house in my neighborhood. Sometime this winter, it sent out a bloom stalk that seems to be trying its best to imitate the vine in Jack & the Beanstalk. It's now over two stories tall.

When those flowers open, it's gonna be legendary.

Gardens on Tour 2009: Rockcliff Road

2009-05-14T20:30:00.002-05:00

So, while my roommate tears up the front yard with a giant Bobcat in a desperate bid to rip out a giant stump so I can get on with my grand gardening ambitions and we can all get on with our lives, I'm sitting on the front porch with my laptop observing how in the timeless conflict of man versus nature, it's looking like once again nature is going to kick my ass.

To distract myself, I figured I'd might as well post about the second garden we visited on Saturday, the giant garden on Rockcliff Road. While sweating my butt off out here and feeling the dirt grit between my sweaty toes, my strongest recollection of Rockcliff Road is that I'm pretty sure it wasn't a do-it-yourself project, and right now I would kill to be able to present my grand vision and let someone else make it happen. But until I win the lottery and/or develop superpowers, I guess I'll just have to live vicariously. And speaking of vicariously, heck, half the time I was at Rockcliff Road I wasn't sure if I was in Austin or freakin' Rivendell. Seriously:

Gorgeous:

Still gorgeous:

Hey, gorgeous:

Insert another laudatory adjective here:

I give up. It's gorgeous, and I could never do this myself. Someone recently mentioned that I won't ever win the lottery unless I buy a lottery ticket. Maybe I should do that.

Last spring I tried to build a pond in my yard. I gave up trying to dig such a big hole through caliche and massive tree roots, and the liner's now sitting in my garage. I feel it mocking me from walls away.

Anyway, here's the view from the bottom pond looking up towards the house. It's steeper than it looks.

Here's the view from the bottom pond looking down, quite a drop. Clearly, man won the man versus nature battle here.

Here's my favorite thing about the entire place, the grotto. I've gotta confess that I'm a sucker for both grottos and follies. I have an entire folder full of pictures on my hard drive. Even better, I had no idea there was going to be a grotto here-- I'd just heard about the ponds.

I loved the "floating" stones and the bench that runs along the back of the grotto. I wish I'd taken a picture looking out and down the levels of waterfalls.

And here I pause to recommend everyone run over to Tom Spencer's blog, where he's posted some gorgeous pictures of the grotto here (scroll down to May 10).

There's a second source for the ponds, to the right of the grotto and echoing its shape. I like how the arches of the water sources echo Roman aqueducts:

Around the side of the house, a sunken area. I was a bit confused by this since there was no furniture or apparent purpose to the space until someone said it was a dog-washing area. Judging from the size of the dog door nearby, I'm guessing that some pretty big dogs live here.

A close-up of the stonework. I liked the precision fit:

The view from the sunken area. I'm guessing the vines will cover the wire grid roof in a few years, but I liked how it looked as it was. And the lawn. I hadn't seen the unmowed look in person till I went on this tour. The garden at Buckeye Trail also used unmowed grass to great effect.

At the front of the house, another water feature echoes the steps down into the front courtyard:

A seating area in the front courtyard. Gee, I wish my stump would do that:

A close-up of the inside of the fireplace. I loved the smoke patterns. The herringbone brick also reminded me of part of the driveway that looked old, and upon closer inspection it appeared that the builders had used a couple of different colors of bricks to imitate the wear and tear of age. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture, because I loved the effect.

So, this garden too felt very secluded, but in a different way than the garden on Academy Drive. Here there was actually quite a bit of acreage surrounding the house, which was set a ways back from the road, and the surrounding woods blocked any view of neighbors.

So, being a person who grew up in the country and prefers to not have people looking into my yard, I was surprised that I didn't connect with the naturalistic, woodsy garden here the same way I did with some of the others on the tour, and I had a hard time putting my finger on why. It was obviously gorgeous.

I think part of it was that, with the exception of the grotto, I felt more exposed in that garden than I prefer. I didn't feel like there were really any private spaces to explore or hole up in, and I really like that sense of discovery and I like the intimacy of having smaller spaces in a larger whole. Heck, even when I would play in the woods as a kid, I'd compulsively build treehouses and places to hide and secretly survey my domain. You could see pretty much the whole back garden from inside the grotto and I assume from the house, and pretty much the whole front garden from the driveway, and the spaces weren't really broken up significantly into different areas, except between the front patio and front yard, exaggerated by the lack of greenery within the hardscaped areas of the patio. There also wasn't a whole lot of comfortable seating throughout the garden, and I tend to not really relax in seating areas unless my back is to some kind of wall, since I never hear people come up behind me.

So I guess that, as a whole, while I loved certain aspects of the Rockcliff Road garden, overall my impression was that it felt more like a place to wander around in than a place to relax. I'm curious to know if anyone else had a similar emotional reaction to this garden, or if it's just a personal quirk.

Gardens on Tour 2009: Academy Dr.

2009-05-12T23:36:00.006-05:00

On Saturday morning, I woke up at an ungodly early hour to go to the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour. Our touring group consisted of Diana from Sharing Nature's Garden (who should be sainted for offering to drive), Pam from Digging, and me and my friend Nancy, who's in town from even dryer Arizona for the week.

Our first stop was in a neighborhood within walking distance of one of my favorite restaurants in Austin, Home Slice. A few times a year, I'll drag a friend to Home Slice for an impromptu hipsterfication tour, which consists of first eating a pizza and then attempting to walk it off by exploring the neighborhoods on the east side of South Congress, which are a nice mix of old cozy bungalows, many of which are being fixed up, added on to, and landscaped with funky xeric plants as the property values skyrocket and ownership changes hands. There are also quite a few teardowns that are being replaced with more modern-looking houses that actually blend pretty well with the fixed-up bungalows. This property on Academy Drive was a particularly nice example of fixing up an old property and putting a modern spin on it.

Here's the requisite shot of the area next to the road with the giant agave. The wall behind it has a sliding panel on tracks that can be used to close the driveway and add privacy, which I thought was a cool concept, and the plantings in front keep the facade inviting.

Here's the view from just inside the wall on the driveway. The parking area is off to the left, unpictured, with a shade sail suspended over it, so well-integrated into the landscape that I didn't even notice it at first. I also liked how the flowers draping over the retaining wall at the left center of the picture match the color of the decorative window screens. I have no idea where to find screens like this, but I am tempted. They add a lot of personality to the place and I think there'd be more incentive to play with color when you have something you can swap out at whim.

To the left of the last photo, the materials of the retaining wall change. I like how organic the rocks and rusted metal are, within the framework of a sharp, minimalist design.

The property was landscaped to be lush but low-maintenance, and the gravel mulch around the house and flowerbeds was broken up with a series of vignettes. Here we have a succulent combination with some fun details on the deck extension at the front of the house.

A stone stack under some bushes. I love the shades of blue in the smaller stones:

A really lovely focal point. I like how that light panel doubles as a fun nightlight.

Close-up of the various plants. I've got to say that foxtail fern is really growing on me after seeing it used so effectively in this garden. I'd previously thought of it only as a container plant, which is how I always saw it in Wisconsin.

A hedge of inland sea oats runs along the fence beside the sidewalk from front to back. It's going to look amazing in the fall when the arching seedheads mature, but right now it's still lovely, lush, and green.

How could I post about this place without showing a close-up of the fountain? It's up in the raised "V" area near the front porch. Here it is:

Since I spent the entire evening sweating my butt off doing yard work (and I've gotta admit that I spent quite a bit of that time pondering Lee's thoughts on the subject), I wonder just how much of a pain this fountain is to mow around. Don't get me wrong, I love the natural vs. minimalist style and how it's so well-integrated with the lawn, but I wonder if they need to use a hand skimmer to get grass clippings out of the water before they clog the fountain pump or wield pruners to keep a straight edge along the rectangular sections. I know that if this were my property, it would be one of those nit-picky things that would keep me from sitting still on the front porch for longer than a minute at a time.

In retrospect, the strongest impression I have of this garden if of quietness and privacy. The South Congress area is a lively part of town, but walking into this garden, you completely forget about the cafes and shopping and people-watching scene just a few blocks away. And thanks to both the walls around the garden and the plantings and the layout of the house and office in the back, you don't even notice the neighbors. It's very cozy and calming, two things that can be in short supply living so close together in the city.

FYI, Pam's got a post on this garden with even more pictures and plant IDs here.

spring's gone sproing.

2009-04-22T08:47:00.002-05:00

Let us all take a moment to mourn the passing of the best weather Austin's had so far this year. On Monday it was in the low 80's and gloriously unhumid (as opposed, I suppose, to inhumid), and the last in a stretch of perfect days. After I checked the forecast, I went out and took a whole bunch of pictures of all the spring flowers before the heat nuked them. This is the best the show's going to get until fall, so I figured I'd might as well wallow.

So, on Monday, first of all, we have my twobonnets, the twin results of many, many bluebonnet seeds strewn throughout the yard. I'm hoping that the lack of germination is directly related to the drought, and hope that maybe there'll be more of a show next year.

Souvenir de la Malmaison in the afternoon. I swear that it's nearly impossible to take a bad picture of this rose. And the scent, which I used to be unimpressed by, has really grown on me this year.

Louis Philippe has filled out a lot in the last few months. I cut it back really hard in February, and I think that helped a lot. The flowers aren't as showy in this much shade, but I'm impressed that it's doing so well with so little sun!

Gruss an Aachen, guaranteed for flower porn. See all those subtle shadings of color? Those disappear the minute it gets above 90F, so I'm enjoying them while I can. And I'm showing remarkable restraint in only posting two of the pictures I took. I took a LOT of pictures.

Duchesse de Brabant, at peak bloom, and smelling freaking incredible. I do have to admit that it's really hard to photograph this rose and do it justice. I should probably try lying on the ground and aiming the camera skyward, as all the flowers nod.

And at last, long after I'd given up hope since I planted the bulbs so late, daffodil Thalia started blooming on Monday. Lousy timing for Thalia, but at least I have some consolation that my pricey impulse buy of a ton of bulbs off the Lowe's bargain table wasn't totally in vain. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that they'll be back-- earlier-- next year. I love the flowers' elegant form. I've heard that they're fragrant, but I was in a hurry when I took the pictures and forgot to smell them.

Belinda's Dream is in full bloom, too. This is another rose I have a hard time photographing from close-up. The flowers on this plant always seem to show insect damage and a good amount of wear and tear, but I know a lot of people go crazy for the hybrid tea-like blooms. I have mixed feelings about this rose, but that's a subject for a separate post.

And for comparison purposes to the last few years, the requisite long shots of the garden:

I am also thrilled to announce that soon I will finally have a hammock to lounge in in the garden. The fine folks at Teak, Wicker & More, an online store that sells a huge variety of patio furniture, contacted me about reviewing one of their products on this blog. After much deliberation and nearly crashing my poor computer with the number of tabs open in my browser, I decided that what I really needed was this hammock stand. I have long been of the opinion that the peak of decadence is lounging in a hammock surrounded by flowers, and now I have the perfect excuse. For testing purposes, of course. I aim to be thorough.

Until then, I'll be out in the garden, trying to get as much done as possible before it's too hot to move.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - April

2009-04-15T07:34:00.007-05:00

Ah, April, my favorite month of the year! And it's especially nice this month since we finally got some rain here in Austin, which led to insanely fast growth of everything in the garden and me finally getting a much-needed break from watering everything.

In other news, I can now say that I garden with one hand tied behind my back.

Still Life With Wrist Brace:

Yup, I managed to sprain my wrist pretty spectacularly. Sadly, the bag is pretty much there just to keep the brace clean-- I'm under strict orders to keep that hand immobile, which is especially annoying because it's my dominant hand...and it's April in my garden and I have important things to do, *&&^$^$!!!

So if I can't work in the garden, at least I have something to look at. Now that it's April, the roses have started blooming! I got around to my pruning pretty much on Valentine's Day and was a little worried that would mean that everything would bloom late and be victims of a heat wave. Right now, the weather is perfect for the show. In a bit of serendipity, I noticed something a little odd when Maggie started blooming last week. Did the flowers spontaneously change color? Nope, that's Belinda's Dream up there at the top of the fence, rather than in front of Maggie where she's supposed to be. Er, oops?

And on to the flower porn...

Marie Pavie:

Thomas Affleck, in a picture that finally accurately captures his color:

Madame Alfred Carriere, climbing up a mesquite tree and absolutely smothered in sweet-smelling blooms:

Gruss an Aachen:

Archduke Charles, showing off its color-changing flowers:

From foreground to background: Duchesse de Brabant, Louis Philippe, and Blushing Knockout:

Double Knockout:

Full list of roses in bloom:

Rainbow Knockout
Pink Knockout
Pink Double Knockout
Double Knockout
Blushing Knockout
Marie Pavie
Martha Gonzales
Belinda's Dream
Maggie
Souvenir de la Malmaison
Duchesse de Brabant
Louis Philippe
Archduke Charles
Madame Alfred Carriere

Gruss an Aachen
Perle d'Or
Thomas Affleck
Mutabilis

Also in bloom is my tough and trusty favorite, ice plant:

And a more unusual addition to the garden, here's the bloom of a native manfreda. The flowers smell like black tea:

Also, for the first time, the hardy aloe is blooming. I'm not sure of the variety-- I got them bareroot at The Natural Gardener. They seem quite happy in part-shade:

And finally, finally, after 2 years, the back border is finally filling in to the point where I don't see mulch and I see much, much less of those ugly landscaping bricks. This makes me very, very happy:

And as a surprise for Bloom Day, the datura opened its first bloom. I thought I'd yanked out all of the datura last fall, but this one came back from some roots I missed and I decided to let it stay for old times' sake. It's freaking huge:

Also blooming: Canna "Australia" planted against the house, pink Himalayan indigo, caryopteris, catmint, thyme, yaupon hollies, bulbine, verbenas, Mexican feathergrass, salvia greggii, Marilyn's Choice abutilon, narcissus tazetta (planted very late), broccoli, snapdragons, and the last of the pansies. The bluebonnets are winding down and will be done within the next week or so, sadly, but they've had a good run.

Have a great Bloom Day, everyone! Check out Carol's post at May Dreams Gardens to see everyone's GBBD posts.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - February

2009-02-15T23:55:00.001-06:00

I really had to hunt to find some actual blooms for this month's Bloom Day. Luckily, the first flower that popped to mind was the bulbine, both bicolor and yellow, blooming in a fairly sheltered sunny spot. They're flowering more than I've ever seen them flower right now. Once the mesquite tree leafs out, the bulbine/agave bed will be in filtered shade, and the show will pretty much be over until next winter.

Due to the lack of flowers, foliage has been keeping things interesting. Here are a few leaves of the Tropicana canna, which I've been covering during freezes since I planted it so late in the fall. I had green and yellow variagated Pretoria cannas right next to the Tropicana, but alas, the ROUS ate them in the dead of night.

And speaking of foliage, I thought the colors and textures of this cold-burned agave were kinda cool.

Every year, I plant some blue pansies. These are this year's selection.

After last week's rain, the wildflower seeds I sowed in the side yard are finally, finally taking off. Here's the first to bloom, white alyssum.

The only rose in the garden right now with blooms is the Rainbow Knockout, and even those are well past their prime. Instead, the Rainbow Knockouts are really shining right now with their bright red hips.

My absolute favorite thing in the garden right now, Pandora's Box pansies from Barton Springs Nursery. I couldn't help myself-- I got an entire flat and planted them all around the backyard. I only wish I had some luck with pansies reseeding. These are my favorites of all time. Look at those colors!

The first bloom of 2009 on the Homestead Purple verbena. Usually, the Homestead varieties of verbena are the first to really go crazy blooming in the spring, followed by the magenta blooms of an ice plant I picked up at Walmart years ago. The front bed should be covered in these purple blooms in a week or so.

Finally, some daffodils! Here's the first bloom on Narcissus tazetta 'Grand Primo.' The blooms aren't as showy as Ziva, but boy, oh boy, do they smell better.

A promise of things to come...the bluebonnets are starting to take off! Maybe next month we'll have some more blue in the garden.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for coming up with Bloom Day. And check here for a list of more February Bloom Day posts!

Moat Shark!

2009-02-11T18:31:00.002-06:00

Thanks to last night's thunderstorm, I am now convinced of the effectiveness of the front yard's half-dug swale, which is now a moat:

And when it comes to my own personal moat, I have two words for y'all: MOAT SHARK!

Somehow, I'm not quite hearing the theme from Jaws.

Narcissus tazetta 'Ziva'

2009-01-23T03:46:00.004-06:00

Back in, oh, October, when I was loading up on winter-blooming bulbs for naturalizing, Ziva kept coming up again and again as the showiest and most reliable paperwhite for the Austin area. I bought eight bulbs, stuck them in the ground, and crossed my fingers that they would survive the enthusiasm of the mystery ROUS that's been digging up my backyard under the cover of night. Well, let me tell you, my back garden for the last few weeks has been filled with the sweet stench of success!

Living up to its reputation, Ziva is gorgeous and easy to grow. While the other narcissus varieties I planted have taken their sweet time deciding whether they want to deal with Texas, Ziva's green leaves practically leapt from the soil.

But, good god, once they sprung into flower, they smelled like ass! The musky reek of Ziva reminded me of horses and livestock. At twenty paces, the smell slapped me in the face and demanded satisfaction with a pistol duel at dawn.

As pretty and harmless as they looked all lined up in a row, planting 8 bulbs was overkill on the scent front, and what with Ziva's naturalizing tendencies, next year should be rife with what we from Wisconsin dairy country ironically call "fresh country air." (Or as the t-shirts say: "Wisconsin: Smell Our Dairy Air.")

There's an ironic sort of happy ending to this olfactory horror story, though. You may have noticed me saying "smelled," rather than "smells," and this is not because Ziva has finished blooming or is suddenly wafting BOD Man's Really Ripped Abs Fragrance on the breeze.

Now that cedar season has hit, I can't smell a damn thing, and thankfully, that that includes Ziva's fresh dairy air.

January Bloom Day

2009-01-15T15:13:00.005-06:00

Here in south Austin, we got our first real freeze on Tuesday night. But fear not, ye alle, for there's still some color to be found in my garden.

First up, Marilyn's Choice abutilon, which is hands-down the best abutilon I've tried:

Second up, we have winter-blooming germander, which I am shocked to report I did not kill in the 12 months since I planted it. It doesn't look spectacular like the one along Lady Bird Lake, but it's alive, so I'm proud:

Next up, some surprise bright-red hips on the Rainbow Knockout, the only one of my 5 varieties of Knockout to develop hips. This is one Knockout that definitely looks its best and grows the most in cooler weather. In the summer, it looks like a pox-ridden and jaundiced version of its winter self.

And blooming like crazy on the east-side fence is a whole bunch of white potato vine.

And here's the last of Narcissus tazetta 'Ziva,' stinking up the late afternoon garden:

No flowers here, but I'm amused by how the leaves on the far right of canna 'Australia' survived the freeze and look fresh and glossy. Actually, everything right along the house looks pretty good, which only proves how incredibly fond of insulation homebuilders were in the 1970's:

And saving the best for last, I cut a bunch of late-blooming roses to bring in as a GBBD insurance policy. Here's Gruss an Aachen in my extremely classy vase:

Stay warm, everyone!

November Bloom Day

2008-11-16T23:34:00.005-06:00

Well, there are still plenty of cheerful colors in the garden, like this lantana that's trying to turn into a giant bush that devours everything in its path. Actually, come to think of it, this lantana needs a new location, and it might be entertaining to pit it against a purple potato vine. Botanical Death Match!

Definitely losing this year's sad Lawn vs. Summer Death Match is my back lawn. But this picture is actually supposed to be of the salvias, verbenas, and roses putting on a grand fall show.

The show this month is definitely the roses, so without delay, here's Louis Philippe, in one of the only decent pictures I've managed to take of him. My camera is really bad with reds and pinks, but this is a more accurate representation of the color than I've managed to capture so far.

I'm also frustrated in my attempts to take a decent picture of Duchesse de Brabant in full bloom. This captures the effect, although blurry. I'm kind of liking the blurred effect.

Duchesse de Brabant, close-up:

Souvenir de la Malmaison. I'm thinking of relocating this one...for the third time. It's too far back in the border to smell easily (I am slowly learning my lesson there), and in some lights, the very light pink looks dirty next to the more saturated Belinda's Dream and Knockout Rose.

Republic of Texas blooms in the catmint. I love how these colors work together.

Blush Noisette. It's been growing fast since I got it, and has been covered almost constantly in these little blooms. And the scent is both strong and fabulous. I'm counting on this one to perfume the backyard in a year or so. It's going to get a sunny spot to stretch its legs.

Archduke Charles, finally blooming now that I've both watered it and unearthed it from a thicket of wild sunflowers:

Just opened, Archduke Charles. I'm surprised that more people don't grow this rose. The flowers have a great fruity fragrance, the bush is extremely full and healthy (I neglected it all summer and it still looks great), and the color-changing flowers are kind of fun. Out of all the Chinas I've grown, this one is my favorite.

Other roses blooming right now:
Thomas Affleck
assorted Knockouts
Zephirine Drouhin, with the third bloom I've gotten in two years
Perle d'Or
Marie Pavie
Maggie
Belinda's Dream

Mutabilis

Just finished blooming:
Gruss an Aachen
Martha Gonzales

This Bloom Day finally had cool weather, and lately I've been outside working on projects every chance I've gotten. I have big plans, so I suspect that this will remain the case until spring. I can't wait to see what everything looks like next November Bloom Day!

P.S. Other Death Match candidates? Horseherb vs mint.

Peckerwood!

2008-11-10T05:30:00.025-06:00

Last Friday, a bunch of us Austin garden bloggers drove over to Hempstead for a private tour of Peckerwood Gardens, John Fairey's botanical and artistic experiment-in-progress. It wasn't what I was expecting-- which was a sort of contemporary-looking xeriscape garden that would lend itself to putting my brand-new Canon PowerShot SD1100 through its paces-- and this was not a bad thing.

We were met at the entrance to the garden by John Fairey himself, whom I liked immediately. There are certain people who seem to radiate intelligence, curiosity, and good humor, and he was one. After giving us a rundown on the history of the garden and the purpose of the land contouring for drainage and microclimate creation, we were introduced to Chris Camacho, one of the two gardeners who maintain the space, and he was our guide for the rest of the tour.

On this tour, I learned a boggling amount about trees. A large amount of space at Peckerwood is dedicated to trying out tree species from around the world to see how they'll do in Central Texas. In particular, there were quite a few varieties of oak and magnolia. Chris explained that the largest variety of species is found in Mesoamerica, and since those species tend to be acclimated to extreme conditions, they do well in Central Texas. At this point, Chris was rattling off botanical names like a Valley Girl, like, says "like," which was pretty awesome. I, er, may have kind of developed a geek crush on him. I blame that for not taking any pictures of the trees. I was kind of engrossed.

Eventually, we got to the part of the garden with the xeriscape plants, and my camera distracted me instead. And it disappointed me-- it turns out that the Canon Powershot SD1100 display is completely useless in sunlight, even if you shade it with your hand. So for most of these pictures, I was just guessing where the macro was focusing. And since I like my macro options, this camera is going back to Circuit City. Which sucks even more when you consider that the color balance and clarity of these blind-focused pictures was really impressive compared to my old Nikon, and there wasn't much I had to do in ImageReady other than resizing everything.

Eventually, the path through the xeriscape garden took us into the woods. One of the things I really liked about this section of the garden was how shady it was. I love the sculptural functions of cactus and agave in the garden, but I worry that my yard doesn't get enough sun for them to do well. But here's evidence that part-shade and cactus can work well together, as long as there's good drainage.

A fountain I adored, a set of faces on each side of the wall setting off John's house from the rest of the garden. I've always liked Green Man garden art, and these more abstract versions were really compelling.

And here I got a little obsessed with a pergola/trellis design that, along with the fountain wall, divided the public and private areas of the garden. I liked both how the lines worked with the geometry of the landscape and I liked how it looked like something that I, in a daydream of wielding weapons of mass construction, could build myself.

On a side note: Doesn't this look like an excellent place to hang a hammock? I feel my garden won't be complete until I have a good home for a hammock. (And here my inner 12-year-old is gleefully chanting, "Peckerwood, hammock, Peckerwood!" Why I feel the need to share this, I do not know.)

Why not make this digression into immaturity official? Ladies and Gentlemen: The Peckerwood Shrine To Your Inner 12-Year-Old!

So yeah, I got punchy for a while at that point, which lasted until Chris finally broached a related subject on my mind-- why would anyone name a garden "Peckerwood?" Sadly, I wasn't really listening to the answer, which had something to do with a book, because I was looking around at all of the the big trees with bushes at the base and trying to keep a straight face (I warned you-- 12!). But I did get a chance to ask Chris a burning question at the end of his Peckerwood etymology: Does it ever stop being funny?

"No!" he said, and laughed. In retrospect, I wish I'd asked a followup: How long did you have to practice in front of the mirror before you could say it in a serious voice? Ah, well. It's not like I have a reputation for journalistic integrity to uphold here, or anything.

Anyway, I enjoyed how this place and its people had a sense of humor. Here's some visual wit-- check out how the fan shape of the sculpture echoes the palm fronds and the fan shape of the pine needles in the trees.

Lots of lush undergrowth in the woods. Not really funny unless you're trying really hard to not make a bad hardwood forest joke.

On a more serious note, one of the things this place got me thinking about was the passage of time. Gardeners in particular know that what they do entails a lot of waiting for things to grow and there's no guarantee that they'll do what you want them to do. It was amazing to me that most of the garden was leveled by a tornado in 1983, and most of what you see is from after that. It took an awful lot of waiting-- most of the span of my lifetime, really-- for the landscape to evolve into the mature trees and sense of permanence you get today in the heart of the garden. I tend to be impatient, waiting for my garden to look the way I see it in my mind's eye, but that's something I can work towards and look forward to, while also enjoying the process and the hard work, which have their own benefits.

In these days when it seems like people are constantly relocating, I envy John Fairey for being able to work so intensively at one site for such a sustained period of time. Many of us, I suspect, don't get to see what a tree we planted looks like thirty years later. Oaks are generally long-lived trees, and there was one particular oak at Peckerwood that I took a liking to. I find myself wanting to get ambitious, mark dates on the calendar, maybe ten and thirty years from now, to return to the garden and see how that oak is doing. I find it absurdly comforting to think of it existing there, like Yeats' golden bird, with the potential to outlive us all.

Many thanks to Diana of Sharing Nature's Garden for organizing this tour! I doubt I would have ever visited Peckerwood if I couldn't do it in the company of fellow gardeners.

Here are links to everyone else's posts about our safari:
Diana @ Sharing Nature's Garden
Pam @ Digging
MSS @ Zanthan Gardens
Vertie @ Vert
Cheryl @ Conscious Gardener
Libby @ Aurora Primavera

The Natural Gardener: Fall Butterfly Garden

2008-10-30T20:59:00.008-05:00

This afternoon, I trekked out The Natural Gardener to acquire both quality dirt and some better ideas for attracting butterflies to my garden. It's butterfly migration season in Austin, and all week I've been watching butterflies of all kinds fly in confused-looking patterns through my yard, completely ignoring the many verbena, lantana, and salvia varieties I'd planted for them. They even shunned the Gregg's mistflower I'd transplanted with the certainty that it would be definite butterfly kegger material.

So I figured that if I was missing something in my planting scheme, the butterfly garden at The Natural Gardener would clue me in. The garden features quite a few fall-blooming butterfly plants, including milkweed, fall aster, pentas, dalea, lantana, firebush, and several different varieties of mistflower.

The entrance to the butterfly garden, with a nice little pond. (Note to self, add a wildlife water source to your garden already!)

The right fork. I wish I'd taken a closer look so I could ID that yellow flower on the right.

Farther down the path, firebush, with orange milkweed in the background. I didn't see many butterflies on the red-flowering firebush, and the milkweed seemed only slightly more popular:

Taking the left fork instead, here are firebush and mistflower, clashing like the butterfly-attracting titans they are! I'm trying to keep to a cool color scheme in my backyard, but I told myself that if I had to plant a garish firebush in the middle of all of the pink and blue to feed some butterflies, I'd grit my teeth and do it. In a neglected corner. But where the bleep are the butterflies?

Jackpot! Here's where all of the butterflies are hanging out, the blue mistflower! Hmm...

Upon closer inspection, it became apparent this was a completely different variety of mistflower than the one I've planted all over my yard. This plant forms a huge, tall, dense bush rather than a groundcover under 18 inches. Browsing through the perennials in the nursery looking for a match, this plant was revealed to be the fragrant native mistflower.

This planting of native mistflower was completely covered in butterflies, with butterflies flying a few feet around and above it. I only wish my camera was better so I could have properly captured the spectacle. If you look closely, you can see a blur right above the mistflower that's actually a butterfly in flight. They were a busy bunch, and it took some patience to get a picture where they were in focus.

I also noticed that despite there being both native and Gregg's mistflower in the butterfly garden, the butterflies were ignoring the Gregg's here too.

And last of all, a planting of native fall aster behind a stone bench:

I grabbed a pot of the white fragrant native mistflower on the way out, and I'm hoping I can make enough room for it to fill in and thrill a decent population of butterflies by next fall. If you have a chance to stop by the butterfly garden over the next week or so, I recommend it. I don't think I've ever seen so many butterflies in one place before, and it made my day.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it gets ridiculously better...

2008-10-27T18:56:00.000-05:00

And this concludes the Gruss an Aachen flower porn, I swear!

I take it back: Gruss an Aachen is fragrant, after all!

2008-10-20T17:21:00.004-05:00

I don't know what it is about this weather, if I can blame the temperature or perhaps humidity, but suddenly roses that have had no scent to my nose are perfume powerhouses.

Take Gruss an Aachen. I've read more than once that it has a strong scent, but I've only occasionally been able to pick up a faint fragrance early in the morning. Until Sunday, and the last two days it's been strongly, wonderfully scented, and blooming its gorgeous heart out.

I can't believe what a transformation this rose has undergone since I moved it from the backyard. I can't believe that I almost yanked it out to put it out of its pathetic, twiggy, blackspotted misery!

The Garden Conservatory's Open Days Tour

2008-10-04T23:24:00.004-05:00

After visiting James David and Gary Peese's amazing garden during Spring Fling, I couldn't miss a chance to see it again and drag some more friends along with me during The Garden Conservatory's Open Days Tour. Just like my first time visiting this garden, I spent more time searching out interesting niches and talking to people than I did taking pictures. No matter, the garden was crowded with visitors and the light was terrible for photography, though I did have some decent pictures turn out in the shade.

And ironically, once again I somehow escaped taking a picture of the dramatic lawn. Someday I'm going to compile a list of links to everyone's Spring Fling pictures of that lawn, and it's going to be awesome.

Bloom Day, September 2008

2008-09-15T06:32:00.005-05:00

In September, the big show from the datura has wound down, and the sweet almond verbena is between bloom cycles as well. The show right now is divided between the new front bed, which has finally filled in, and the roses, which are having a good fall flush.

The new front bed, Still Life With Car:

Here's Duchesse de Brabant. This bloom in particular had an intense tea fragrance:

Gruss An Aachen, just begging for someone with watercolor painting skills:

I've gotta say that now that since I moved Gruss An Aachen to better dirt and more direct sun late last winter, this rose has been almost blackspot free and remarkably free-blooming. It does get a lot of extra water from the leaky hose connection when I water the rest of the yard, though, which is probably a factor in its spectacular performance.

And the backyard rose bed, out of focus, I'm afraid. Blooming from nearest to farthest are Marie Pavie, Double Knockout, Belinda's Dream, Souvenier de la Malmaison, Maggie, Duchesse de Brabant, and finally, a very faint pink speck in the in the back, Louis Philippe:

And as a note to anyone planning to plant Maggie, a wonderfully-scented bourbon: Make sure you plant this rose where you can actually get to it to smell the flowers. Planting several roses and an agave right in front of it is most definitely NOT a bright idea. At least my neighbors have been enjoying the flowers from their side of the fence, so all is not lost.

As I write this, there's a definite chill to the morning breeze, and I'm looking forward to getting back to digging large holes in my yard for "fun." Six new roses have just been acquired (nearly all in shades of peach, which was unintentional), and I can tell already that my pickaxe is going to get a workout. It's gonna be awesome.

Browsing at The Natural Gardener

2008-08-21T15:56:00.008-05:00

The Natural Gardener is a great nursery with an organic focus, specializing in native, well-adapted, and drought-tolerant plants. I also enjoy wandering through their many display gardens and planted niches, many of which have been added over the past year or so. Here are some pictures from today's visit.

The butterfly garden:

Drought-tolerant plantings around the new "southwestern stream" water feature:

Other panoramas:

And a cool idea-- limbing up a beautyberry bush into a small tree:

Bloom Day, August 2008

2008-08-18T07:18:00.009-05:00

Well, there's no huge show going on right now, especially in the back yard, but in the sunny front yard, the new garden is filling in.

For instance, the datura. There are six datura in the front yard, and right now, they're all blooming like crazy. The scent is amazing. Here's a long shot down the front porch, where the first three plants are. I have to admit that I didn't expect them to get this huge:

This datura is from Diana of Sharing Nature's Garden, and it started blooming just in time for Bloom Day. I'm guessing it's a different variety than the ones I got from Barton Springs Nursery, since it's much more compact and better-behaved, and I'd describe the scent as more melon than lemon. I quite like it. I'm going to have to save some seeds from this one to try in the backyard.

A comparison in flower sizes with the BSN datura:

Sweet Almond Verbena, formerly in a pot on the back deck. Can you believe this baby was only a foot and a half tall back in May? I'd estimate that it's at least six feet tall now; it's certainly taller than me. It's a more awkward-looking bush than I expected, but the flowers smell heavenly. I'm thinking about training it into a tree form:

"Son of Bubba" desert willow. And yes, I bought it because of the name.

Pioneer rose "Thomas Affleck," being completely worry-free, as usual:

The one section of the backyard that I've been watering faithfully in this heat. Sadly, the second flush of roses missed Bloom Day by about ten days and now it's just shades of green and grey with the occasional bit of purple foliage thrown in:

The half-completed front bed is filling in, although I'm gnashing my teeth over the inability of any trailing plants to actually grow to cover up those el cheapo landscape bricks without smothering everything within five square feet. Next year, I tell you, next year! I'm rooting many, many ice plants along the edge as we speak. Also, I feel the need to mention that I've gained a new respect for Pam's ability to take stunning pictures of her front yard that don't feature her neighbors' cars:

A favorite combo (for me and the many neighborhood cats) of catmint, Russian sage, and Pink Knockout. Not terribly original, but I like it:

Bulbine:

Duchesse de Brabant, a bit past her peak:

One tough plant! The common name is "Bluebeard," but I need to dig through my huge pile of plant tags to find the botanical name. This is the one thing that remained uncharred in a bed that I kept forgetting to water. And it was mostly in the shade of some volunteer sunflowers, and I'm pretty sure that this plant is supposed to want part-sun. Color me impressed, and I love the blue-purple hue. I'm going to have to get my hands on more of this:

And as usual, moss verbena and blackfoot daisy are still going strong. I love both of these plants!

And that's my Bloom Day. As another Austin garden blogger commented, the macro lens IS my friend! ;D

Downpour!

2008-07-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

Finally, this afternoon, rain! It really started pouring at 4:30, and didn't stop raining for at least an hour.

I'm especially thrilled because this means that I don't have to get up early to water for at least a week.

July Bloom Day

2008-07-15T23:45:00.007-05:00

Thanks to last week's rain and giving my roses a few deep waterings, my garden has perked up quite a bit and I actually have flowers to show this month.

First off is the pioneer rose Thomas Affleck. I have two of them, and they've both been growing and flowering like crazy for the last few months, and I haven't seen even the faintest hint of blackspot on either of them. And the eye-peeling intense pink goes well with my pink Knockouts. The one drawback is the lack of fragrance, but hey, no thorns!

The one wide shot of the garden worth showing. It's hard to see in the picture, but I like how the burgundy-purple of the new growth on the Double Knockout and Duchesse de Brabant contrasts with the other foliage.

The first flower of the second flush of Duchesse de Brabant. I smelled it before I noticed it, from a good three feet away! Last summer this rose bloomed nonstop, and I was a little mystified as to why I'd only gotten one lousy, halfhearted flush this spring, but chalked it up to the weird dieback issues Duchesse had earlier in the year. It turned out that my soaker hose had sprung a leak and half of the bed was getting no water at all, including the Duchesse. Now that I've fixed the irrigation issue, every rose in that section is putting out lots of new growth. Here's to hoping there'll be more roses to show next Bloom Day!

I cut back the Double Knockout, like, last week, I swear! I cannot believe how much and how fast this rose is growing, even in the filtered shade of the mesquite.

Heya, salvia guaranitica, I didn't see you down there! If I hadn't been carefully picking my way around the roses with my camera, I never would have seen this. But it also serves as a good note to self: When planting something in an already-established bed, spend the extra money and buy a bigger pot of the new plant! I'm hoping this one will be able to catch up with everything else next year.

Showing off for Bloom Day, the most photogenic rose in the garden, Souvenir de la Malmaison:

...and yet again...

The lantana has finally-- finally!-- opened. They seemed to get started later than usual this year.

Mutabilis sports a tiny, lovely bloom. This rose is taking a while to get established for me, and I've only noticed a handful of blooms since I put it in the ground. Isn't it a lovely color, though?

Ruella. I love the intense watercolor hue of these violet blooms:

In my quest to find something that smelled fabulous for the new front yard bed, I settled on a bush of Sweet Almond Verbena. It looked incredibly unhappy for a few months, since I pretty much mangled the rootball in the process of getting it out of the pot it had been living in on the back deck, but thanks to some extra attention and SuperThrive, it's finally perked up. It started blooming a few days ago.

The scent of the Sweet Almond Verbena is drowned out every evening by the wonderful citrusy scent of the datura. There are six datura plants in the front yard, and right now three are putting on a spectacular show. You can smell them from the front porch and from the street.

A tiny little bloom on Ducher. I love the warm yellow hue at the center of the flowers.

And I leave you with other supermodel in my garden, Gruss An Aachen. Sometimes I feel like I take a picture of her every day, but how could I not? She's too photogenic not to share!

Also blooming:
Pink Knockout
Marie Pavie (1 bloom)
Maggie (1 bloom)
agastache
catmint
Russian sage
wild sunflowers
salvias
white guara "The Bride"
blackeye daisies
moss verbena
bulbine
mexican oregano
sedum "Autumn Joy'
rose "Martha Gonzales" (one flower)
orange abutilon
blue mistflower (just starting)
various trailing verbenas
rose "Republic of Texas' (one bloom)
Rainbow Knockout (still blooming like its life depended on it)

desert willow "Son of Bubba"

Natchez crape myrtles

Himalayan indigo

Eumorpha Fasciata: International Moth of Mystery!

2008-07-11T01:19:00.003-05:00

So, I saw this unusual-looking moth hanging out on my back porch last Thursday, and finally, I think I've ID'd it: Lesser Vine Sphinx Moth, Eumorpha fasciata.

While I've managed to match a name to my picture, I still haven't been able to find out what they eat or anything else about it, other than that they live in the southern U.S.

This exciting lepidoptera sighting was followed by an enthusiastic debate over whether this moth was designed by Lothlorien elves or the U.S. Air Force. We're both hip and sophisticated, over here at my house.

after the rain

2008-07-09T06:28:00.005-05:00

So, we've finally gotten some measurable rain down here in south Austin - two days of afternoon showers, in fact. Sweet! The lawn is looking much happier and the plants all seem to be breathing cool green sighs of relief. I celebrated the rain and cooler temperatures by taking some pictures.

Cleome:

Gruss an Aachen, yet again. This is one of the few roses that has bloomed nearly nonstop for me this summer. Its only two drawbacks in my experience are lack of fragrance and tendency to blackspot, though it quickly drops its yellow leaves and keeps on blooming:

Happy coneflowers:

A color combo I'm experimenting with as I wait for the perennials to fill in: potato vine, "margaritaville" yucca, and purple fountaingrass.

Moss verbena. A few days ago these bright violet blooms matched the blooms on the silverado sage.

And surprising me, Souvenir de la Malmaison, blooming in the rain. I hadn't even noticed a bud!

evening light

2008-06-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

rose "Gruss An Aachen"

2008-06-06T04:29:00.002-05:00

Just before sunrise. In this heat, the rose is blown by afternoon.

early-morning datura

2008-05-28T03:36:00.001-05:00

May Bloom Day

2008-05-15T23:21:00.006-05:00

Well, the glorious month of roses is over and most of the bushes have been pruned back. There are still a few wilting, bug-eaten flowers left on both the Rainbow and Pink Knockouts. The Double Knockout is looking pretty ragged as well. Now taking the stage are all of the early summer flowers bursting into bloom: guara, verbena, lantana, coneflowers, dwarf ruella, blackfoot daisy, blue mistflower, and pink skullcap.

And here's the rest of the list in pictures...

Verbena bonariensis:

What I thought was the usual violet moss verbena has bloomed in an intense shade of magenta:

Close-up, white potato vine:

Daylily, bought before I started keeping records. It picks up the cool yellow of the bicolored lantana next to it:

The first blooms on the heartleaf skullcap:

The second plant I bought for my back garden, bicolored lantana. The butterflies love it:

A peachy pink verbena:

Next to the peachy verbena, Rainbow Knockout:

My newest rose, Republic of Texas. Another rose? How could I not grow a yellow rose in Texas! I really wanted to try Stephen F. Austin, a gorgeous cross between Carefree Beauty and Graham Thomas, but it was too big for the space I had. Republic of Texas should stay under 3 feet, and work well with Rainbow Knockout and Rosette Delizy, which are in the same area. The color is usually more saturated than this.

Sad, pitiful acanthus mollis:

Cleome, which I've never grown before:

Ah, nostalgia. Bachelor's Buttons, aka cornflowers. This shade of blue is especially intense at twilight:

Grasshoppers are also blooming in my garden this month:

The head gardener:

Acanthus Mollis @ Barton Springs Nursery

2008-05-08T03:34:00.001-05:00

Pic O' The Day

2008-05-02T18:37:00.001-05:00

Sometimes my crappy little camera really makes me happy.

Inside Austin Gardens Tour: Heaven on Ea-- er--The Stoker Garden

2008-04-30T18:40:00.001-05:00

So, I'm thinking of subtitling my blog "Better Late Than Never." These are my pictures from the Inside Austin Gardens tour on April 19, specifically the garden of Jenny and David Stocker, where I blew through 2 USB cards and my fully-charged camera battery. (It was just that awesome.)

Uploading pictures to Blogger for this post has been an epic test of the strength of my character, and I concede that I am but scissors to Blogger's rock. So, disclaimer: I will be wandering through this garden willy-nilly, as I have given up posting the scenes in the order you would see them while walking through the garden.

In random order, then, here are two pictures of the lovely vegetable garden, for my food-growing friends:

A shady nook. Doesn't it look like it would be nice and cool here even when it's 100 degrees outside? I like how the fig ivy completely covers the wall and cuts any glare from the stone underneath, which cools everything down. It makes the walls seem to recede and the space seem larger.

The formal shape of the swimming pool gives you a place to rest your eyes. I love that agave, which practically functions as sculpture. Anyone know what kind it is?

Courtyard with square pavers. The friends I dragged along with me particularly liked this area.

Another shot of the pool in the middle of a field of wildflowers.

The circle garden with Knockout roses. I took many pictures of this area, but the sun burned everything out and this is the only picture with colors that didn't hurt my eyes.

Looking from the Knockout bed towards the house, the circle motif is continued by the round patio right off of the back door:

And round pavers in the path surrounding the Knockout bed:

Concrete pavers in the first courtyard. I like the scale here. The pavers are big enough that you don't have to worry about stepping on plants, and also big enough that you can see the shape even with plants blurring the square, formal edges. I also like how this photo shows the horizontal lines across the landscape, edges of pavers and then the edges of the steps. It's a nice contrast to the round shapes of the plants, and leads your eye and then your feet into the next room:

The wild-looking mediterranean entrance courtyard:

I like the rustic stairs as you enter the first of the courtyards from the driveway-- the rough stairs echo the exposed stone of the Balcones Escarpment and thus help the the house blend into its surroundings:

Dry creek in the entrance courtyard. I wonder how much of this is functional?

Another dry creek, this one seen from the driveway. I love how lush and cool and green it looks, and how it draws your eye into the woods:

Another view, another dry stream. All of these dry streams reminded me of MSS's post about the difficulties of keeping these areas looking appealing and free of leaves and weeds:

A pot of aloe, set on a rock wall. I wish I'd had a shot that included the natural woods in the background, because the dry, dead junipers contrasted quite well with the green fleshiness of the aloe.

I also liked how the sedum grew out the bottom of this window basket. I bet that no drop of water is wasted this way.

And in order to put this all in context, here's a shot of the natural woods around the property. As you can see, Jenny and David Stoker are gardening on the outskirts of Mordor. I'm especially impressed with what they've accomplished when I see it in this context.

Word on the street says that, other than the stucco, the Stokers did all of the hardscaping themselves. Holy crap. Having accomplished such a huge project so well, it wouldn't surprise me to hear that they're superheros. Can't you just see it? Jenny and David Stoker: they fight crime!

Souvenir de la Malmaison apparently has a sense of humor

2008-04-24T15:50:00.008-05:00

So, I've been warned a million times by a million people that Souvenir de la Malmaison likes to ball in rain and humid weather. But this spring, even in the most ideal dry air, I've had a grand total of one flower open properly.

And then, a few days ago, humid weather hit Austin like a hot wet sponge to the head, and suddenly, Souvenir de la Malmaison decided to bloom properly and put on a show while every other rose in my garden sulked. Check out the audacity:

And check out the detail on the edge of those petals. Now I know why everyone is so freakin' obsessed with this rose.

This has gotten me wondering whether plants can have a sense of humor, because I sense a certain snooty rose declaring, "Dahling, you KNOW I am the star of this show!" Of course, I also picture a certain diva rose holding a cigarette in a long holder as she says this, so who knows?

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - April

2008-04-17T06:33:00.002-05:00

One of these Bloom Days, I'll get my Bloom Day post up on time! This week has been insanely busy for me. If I'm not at work, I'm out in the front yard shoveling dirt and hauling landscape bricks. My goal is to have the new beds ready for planting by next week. I've had the trees delivered already and it's going to get hot soon, so I'm working as fast as I can. We'll see how that goes. I'm just thankful that the Inside Austin Gardens tour is tomorrow, so I have an excuse to take it easy. I'm just about ready to get myself a t-shirt that says "Welcome To The Gun Show" and rip off the sleeves redneck-style, because with all the heavy lifting I've been doing lately, my biceps can ripple with the best of them.

Anyway, this Bloom Day, welcome to The Shire! Sadly, since there are two mesquite trees overhanging the back yard, Hobbits don't go barefoot here.

In a few short months, everything has grown in leaps and bounds. I'm hoping that soon I won't be seeing much mulch. Here's a shot featuring Maggie, Belinda's Dream, and the Double Knockout, with the Orchid Tree also in bloom.

Today's incarnation of Double Delight:

The other Double Knockout:

Ice plant, a total workhorse bloomer for the last month at least:

The best of my attempts at photographing larkspur. I love this stuff. It reminds me of the delphiniums I grew in Wisconsin.

Madame Alfred Carriere, reminding me of the bloom form of Marie Pavie:

Maggie on the fence:

Marie Pavie putting on a show, with Double Knockout in the background:

Pink Knockout looks almost like a bicolor as the flowers age:

First bloom, Pioneer rose Thomas Affleck. Unfortunately, I can't catch a fragrance, but the bush is thornless, so there are compensations:

And a list of plants blooming on the 15th:

roses:
Thomas Affleck
Double Knockout
Pink Double Knockout
Pink Knockout
Rainbow Knockout
Blushing Knockout
Belinda's Dream
Maggie
Louis Philippe
Souvenir de la Malmaison (theoretically, since only that one bud has opened properly)
Duchesse de Brabant (one flower, full flush in probably a week or so)
Marie Pavie
Archduke Charles
Double Delight
Mutabilis (one flower)

other:
white potato vine
confederate jasmine
sambuc jasmine
salvia greggii
"bath's pink" dianthus
one purple coneflower
white guara "The Bride"
oxalis
blackfoot daisy
mexican feathergrass
larkspur
snapdragons & violas
abutilon "marilyn's choice" (never out of flower since I got it!)
verbena "homestead pink" under the tree
moss verbena
other trailing verbenas I've forgotten the names of
ice plant
mexican buckyeye
yellow & orange bulbine

And I end with a plea to the tech gurus reading this: how on earth do I fix my formatting? If I write my post as usual, and then go into the html window and backspace until there's only one space after my pictures, I end up with pictures and text that don't line up. It looks good to me in Firefox, Safari, and in Internet Explorer that I tried on another computer, but quite a few people have told me that I have huge spaces between my pictures. I have no idea what else to try!

More roses!

2008-04-10T15:58:00.018-05:00

The big show right now is being put on by Maggie, who is also wonderfully scented. Weirdly, her scent is very changeable from day-to-day, but usually rich and rosy. However, on one bizarre occasion-- and I am not making this up-- her flowers smelled like Miller Lite. (I made two friends smell the flowers in question to make sure I wasn't insane, and yup, lousy American beer. )

Here's Louis Philippe, who is doing wonderfully in part-shade. Check out the lighter petal reverse-- I love the depth it gives to the bloom. L. Philippe's flowers start off cupped, and stay that way if it's cold:

But when it's warm, he looks like this:

This bush is rather leggy, so I recommend planting in groups of three or at the back of the border. The Antique Rose Emporium does this too.

Double Knockout, burning my retinas, but look at that form!

Sweet relief! This is the first decent picture I've gotten of my Blushing Knockout. I love the delicate coloring and form, like a wild rose:

The Pink Double Knockout. I take back what I said about this bush lacking charm, because unlike the other Knockouts, it's actually scented! And it's scented enough that I, with my lousy sense of smell, could smell it from two feet away! I would describe the scent as a sort of spicy tea rose, very pleasant.

My only hybrid tea, Double Delight. This one also clashes with my color scheme in being too warmly red, but every time I'm about to give it away, it blooms with huge vanilla-scented blooms, and well...

Double Delight also changes color with sun and heat. This is the same bloom a day later. When it's really sunny and hot, the whole flower turns red.

The last day of Abraham Darby in bloom:

And now I think it's time for the first lawn mowing of the season. A few days ago I had a ribbon-cutting ceremony like Carol, but mine was quite literal, as I fired up my electric mower and then promptly ran over the power cord and sliced it to ribbons. Oops? Or rather: Welcome to spring!

Souvenir de la Escargot

2008-04-10T01:10:00.002-05:00

Sunday's roses

2008-04-07T01:48:00.016-05:00

After not being in the garden for nearly three days while I was busy with Spring Fling, like many Fling-ers, the first thing I did when I got home on Sunday night was to check on the garden.

Now that the trees have leafed out, it feels more like a garden in the backyard. Nearly the entire backyard is covered with a green ceiling of leaves, either crape myrtle or the delicate sun-filtering leaves of the two mesquite.

Abraham Darby is almost done blooming:

And here's poor Abe from the top view. It looks like he bloomed at just the right time, since the plant tends to defoliate when this happens. The sad thing is, this is the only rose I spray!

Pink Knockout against the fence. I'm amused that the flower color and foliage of the Knockout perfectly match the flower color and foliage of the verbena planted right in front of it. Happy accident!

The first good picture I've taken of the found rose "Maggie":

I was losing the light, but here's the Pink Double Knockout, finally blooming. I'd never seen it flower before, so I was ragingly curious. Sadly, now that it's in bloom, I think it lacks charm, but I'm hoping it'll take some shade and still bloom. Nothing else really seems to want to thrive in that spot under the crape myrtles. We'll see what happens.

For comparison purposes, here's the regular Double Knockout, looking less obnoxiously tomato-red today. This pink is a bright shade that I can live with.

And in conclusion, the garden seen through the gate of two unfurling blooms of the hybrid tea "Double Delight":

post-Fling!

2008-04-07T00:15:00.003-05:00

I just finished downloading and Photoshopping my pictures from the garden last week and Spring Fling, and it's after midnight and I am exhausted. So, first off, I'd like to say thank you to Pam, MSS, Bonnie and Diana for planning this fabulous weekend. I had so much fun and met so many interesting people and felt so comfortable with such a large group that, introvert that I am, I was, quite frankly, shocked. I couldn't believe how many of us self-professed introverts simply couldn't stop talking. Garden geeks, unite!

(And here I pause to make a conquistador-like fist of horticultural solidarity.)

And thanks to all of the driving between houses, nurseries, hotels, and gardens, I've seen more of Austin in this weekend than I've managed in the last four years.

Anyway. Since I was too busy talking Annie's head off at The Natural Gardener to take pictures, and too busy getting my mind blown at the David/Peese garden (like a bullet through a peach, my friends) to take pictures, I must shrug a sheepish shrug on the topic of Spring Fling photo documentation and offer instead these few images of South Congress Avenue this afternoon, where the last of the lingering Fling-ers saw the sights.

Outside Guero's Taco Bar:

We have achieved roses!

2008-04-03T18:13:00.007-05:00

Since I didn't plant any spring-blooming bulbs, I've been timing the arrival of spring by the first flush of roses. This week-- finally-- the roses started blooming. And judging from the number and state of buds on nearly every rosebush, next week should be spectacular!

My current favorite of the Knockout family, Rainbow Knockout:

The bourbon climber, Zephirine Drouhin. This is the first bloom I've gotten from her, and the second spring she's been in my garden. Although this rose has a reputation for blooming in the shade, I think it's too shady against the fence where I put her. Nevertheless, I am pleased to report that the fragrance of this rose is every bit as decadent as I was promised. Moreover, even though this is the only bud on Z. Drouhin as far as I can see, I still love this plant for the purplish foliage. I use it as backdrop for the grey-green leaves of the salvia leucantha.

In the battle of the bourbons, Souvenir de la Malmaison here is taking a beating. Although covered in buds, none of them open more than this. Why? It's a mystery:

The area with the most sun in my garden, and hence, the most roses. Against the fence is the found rose "Maggie" being trained as a climber. In front of her and to the left of the blue pot is the Earthkind rose "Belinda's Dream." And in front of Belinda's Dream is our sad bourbon, Souvenir de la Malmaison:

Mexican Buckeye in bloom. It's not a traffic-stopping spectacle like the redbud, but the flowers are interesting close-up:

Madame Alfred Carriere, doing its white-hat best to de-uglify the mesquite:

Eupatorium "Blue Mist" from the Antique Rose Emporium. I had no idea that they grew anything but roses!

Perennial dusty miller and its shadow. I prefer the so-called "perennial" (We'll see about that!) dusty miller to the more common fuzzy variety. This looks grey and dramatic instead of moldy:

The long-awaited flowering of the Double Knockout! Sadly, the first flower is a scary shade of bright tomato-tinged red that clashes with everything in my garden. Eek! (I think it hurt the camera's eyes too, since this picture does not make me wince nearly enough.) This bad color surprise happened when I bought the hybrid tea "Alec's Red" as well. Roses vary quite a bit in color based on the temperature, but reds seem to be the most dramatic about it, alternating between warm and cool, much to my dismay:

Archduke Charles seems to have recovered from hosting an entomological bow-chicka-wow-wow just fine. I guess that makes sense, since roses are the flowers of loooooooovvvve!

And I apologize now for the lame thing I'm about to say, but it's contractually obligated:

It's snail thyme!

Pink-flowering oxalis. I thought I'd killed it all with all of the moving around of plants I did this winter while most things were dormant, but it's coming up in places I barely remember putting it. The purple-leafed version is coming up around stuff I accidently planted on top of it. I ought to check whether any of that brave oxalis is four-leafed!

Meyer lemon blossoms. Smells like the air freshener I use in the car, only better! (Citrus Magic rocks!)

Anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia congesta):

English rose "Abraham Darby" trying out a lavender-and-peach look:

And this poor, innocent bystander exclaims, "That's it! I've had it up to HERE with flowers!"

English rose "Abraham Darby"

2008-03-29T06:14:00.009-05:00

My English rose "Abraham Darby" sits in a pot and looks ugly for most of the year. It's an awkward bush, with long stems jutting out at weird angles, covered by huge thorns. You have to navigate carefully around its pot or spend minutes untangling your clothes from the branches. And not only is this bush particularly ugly and lacking in grace, the foliage is prone to blackpot and burns in the sun. That said, "Abraham Darby" is probably the most oft-photographed and oft-smelled single plant in my garden. Why?

Three days ago, this happened:

This picture is from some time last year, probably around March or April 2007. This rose's stems are too thin to support the huge, heavy flowers, so I had to give them a little help to get a good picture. You can also see how much the color and form varies from flower to flower over time, starting out very saturated and then fading to blush pink and the palest yellow:

"Abraham Darby" is without question happiest in cool weather, and rarely blooms in hot weather, as it did in the summer of 2006. Here, the flowers are much smaller and paler, and no color variation is present:

Winter blooms are the most saturated, with distinct yellow and pink areas. This flower was produced during the ice storm in January 2007. I hauled the pot against the outside of the house protected by the covered deck, threw a blanket over the bush, and then snuck outside every few hours to take a nice hit of its incredible rose-and-citrus scent:

Nodding flower in the afternoon sun:

This may be an ugly bush that is constantly unhappy with our Texas climate, which bursts fully into bloom maybe twice a year if I'm lucky, but when "Abraham Darby" flowers, I am mesmerized.

The Weekend Edition

2008-03-23T23:50:00.001-05:00

Here's a view I'm very pleased with, although the photo doesn't quite capture the thing that's causing me to smile. After the weird rose dieback issues I was having last month, all of the roses have put on huge flushes of new growth. From the back deck, the red new growth looks like masses of burgundy flowers. In fact, my roommate admitted that she had been admiring the"flowers" as she ate breakfast on the deck. So now I'm very relieved that all seems to be well in rose-land:

As I was posting my old pictures to my brand-spankin'-new archives, I noticed that almost none of my pictures had been taken from the most common perspectives around here-- the comfy chairs on the back deck. (And do me a favor and pretend you don't see a garden hose, please...I was feeling lazy.)

Verbena and succulents. I like the light:

And to answer my burning question of whether the blooms of Chinese Witch Hazel would match the redbud blooms...not so much. But I'm crossing my fingers that next year the Double Knockout Rose in that corner starts blooming before the Witch Hazel is done-- I bet those two would look good together! I guess we'll wait and see:

Green, white, and blue under the mesquite:

A question from Diana about the pink verbena prompted me to try to find the tag that came with it to verify its identity. I took one look at this pile and, er, gave up. One of these days I'm going to figure out how to be more organized in the garden, or at least wash the mud off these tags so I can handle them inside the house. Maybe I'll tape them all onto looseleaf and stick them in a binder.

What do you do to keep track of what you buy and plant?

Springtime Is For Lovers

2008-03-23T23:30:00.005-05:00

Auugh! Freaky bugs! They're having an orgy all over poor Archduke Charles!

Does anyone know what these insects are, and whether I should be worried that they're really intent on reproducing? They've been covering the rose bush for the last three days. They blend in well enough that I didn't notice at first, but as I was hunting for flowers to photograph, I saw the bush move.

*shudder*

Normally bugs don't really, well, bug me, but the weirdly-shaped limbs of these seem almost mechanical. Maybe I've watched a little too much Stargate: SG1 in my day, but it's like looking at a rosebush teeming with Replicators...

*twitch*

March Bloom Day...a little late.

2008-03-17T01:02:00.000-05:00

I completely forgot about Bloom Day until it was too late to take pictures, so this month's chronicle is a day late. Compared to the other Austin garden bloggers, my garden still seems brown and sleepy. I completely forget to plan for this time of year with better evergreen structure and flowering bulbs. I did finally get around to adding some permanent color with three blue-glazed pots and several rose pillars spray-painted with what turned out to be a pimped-out glittery blue car paint (now I'm just waiting for the rest of my garden to bounce at stop lights).

You can see one of the blue pots, planted with Agave Americana, in the background:

Ok, this oft-photographed viola wins my own personal award for awesomeness in winter annuals. While the rest of my violas upped and seeded out the minute the weather warmed up, this one is still cool and perky when it's 94 degrees. I hope it sticks around for a while.

Tangerine crossvine, blooming at last!

Oxalis "Garnet," from The Natural Gardener. The pink is a bit loud for my taste, but I bought it for the cool mottled leaves. They have a distinct red-pink tinge when it's colder.

Mexican Feathergrass, taking off:

A new purchase from Barton Springs Nursery, Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. I've never seen one grown in Texas, but when I was in college, there was a gorgeous specimen at the Allen Centennial Gardens, a short walk from my dorm. I love this tree for winter interest:

Chinese witch hazel. It's a short distance from the redbud, and I suspect that
the bloom colors will match. A few more days, and I'll know for sure:

The aformentioned Agave Americana in a pot. I've been thinking a lot lately about hardscaping, color, and winter interest in my garden, and considering the possibilities within my budget. Last week I bought three matching blue-glazed pots to space throughout the garden, and hopefully guide the eye to some nice all-season views. So far two of the pots have been planted with the agave, and the third is waiting for a bed redesign. The pot by itself is heavy enough that I know once it's filled with dirt and extra-pointy agave, it's not going to be moved again any time soon. Anyway, I like the contrasts of the blues with the purple.

Henbit and the first Blackfoot Daisy. I scattered so many bluebonnet, bachelor's button, and viola seeds there, and what came up, despite my faithful watering? Henbit. Sigh. I've had no luck so far with direct-sowing winter and spring flowers, which I find especially depressing when I add up how much I've spent on seeds. It's too bad I have equally lousy luck starting seeds in flats. Maybe the bluebonnets will sprout next spring? My fingers are crossed.

And yet another picture of "Marilyn's Choice" abutilon. The longer I have this plant, the more I like it. It flowers right through the extremes of Austin winter and always looks good. I'm hoping it can deal with the heat with as much grace as it's dealt with the cold. At Barton Springs Nursery last week, I saw a much, much larger version blooming in a pot. I'm hoping mine will grow up to look like that one. It's too bad I didn't have my camera.

Lookin' Good

2008-03-05T03:40:00.007-06:00

Things are finally beginning to wake up in my garden! Here's what caught my eye this afternoon.

White clover. I know that many people consider this a weed, but I'm fond of it. When I was growing up, my parents' four acres in Wisconsin were rife with this stuff, and I used to pick it and braid it into crowns and chains. There's a picture of me, maybe six years old, sitting in the middle of a massive field of white clover with my My Little Pony and picking a bouquet. This is the only white clover in my yard, and I spoil it rotten. If I could replace my lawn with this stuff, I would:

The first flower on the pink verbena, and a sculptural succulent I'm forgetting the name of:

White potato vine, far away and close-up. The flowers are subtle, and hang down like shooting stars:

Mexican feathergrass, backlit. It really takes the spotlight in the spring, so to speak:

A tiny little winter-hardy agave I bought on a whim from Lowe's last year:

some notes on moving stuff around

2008-03-02T03:03:00.001-06:00

Before I get to the plant-moving chronicles, I wanted to post this picture of some weird dieback a few of my roses are getting, and see if anyone knows what's going on. Take Duchess de Brabante for example-- everything seemed fine, lots of red new growth, some with little flower buds, and then on March 1, this:

So far the dieback seems limited to this extent, but I have no idea what to make of it. Rather than brittle dieback, it's mushy when I cut through it. And the dieback took all of the spring flower buds with it. This is the largest and healthiest rose in my garden, so I'm worried.

In happier rose news, the first rose of the year, Madame Alfred Carriere. My friend who recommended it to me raved about the scent, but I have to say "eh." It reminds me of Souvenir de la Malmaison, which is all right to my nose, but not spectacular. I'm beginning to conclude that I prefer citrus and tea scents from my roses. It's good-looking flower, though.

For Diana, a picture of the new Japanese Aralia, which replaced the Acanthus Mollis:

Why replace the Acanthus? An illustration:

Ah, shade, the happy place...

The sun, eet burns!
*swoon*

I put the Acanthus against the other side of the fence, where the same thing is bound to happen, but I don't have anywhere with full shade to put it. Maybe when the bamboo muhly next to it grows taller it'll shade it enough to avoid the sunny day dramatics. Or maybe I'll just pretend that the Acanthus is the heroine of a bodice ripper, and narrate accordingly.

If I had great floodlights in my yard, I would never stop puttering.

2008-02-22T18:23:00.001-06:00

The last few days I've been fighting daylight to try to get through the many projects I have planned for the garden. Instead of making leaps and bounds of progress, it took me two days to clean up the raised beds and cut back all of the ornamental grasses. I have a nice blister at the base of my thumb from the pruners, even though I wore gloves.

It's a pretty sad picture out there right now, since so much of the "bones" of my garden rely on the foilage of the ornamental grasses, and with those gone, everything seems boring and a bit unbalanced. I'm thinking that next fall I need to put in a whole bunch of oxalis and spring-blooming bulbs so that this whole cutting-back routine isn't quite so depressing.

In other non-depressing news, I finally caved and bought this ornamental stone head that I've been admiring for over a year. I love it:

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the succulents root and fill in without any problems. The planting pocket on the top of the head was smaller than I thought. Either way, I love how this stone face catches the light.

Before the haircut:

After the haircut:

And for comparison purposes, last February. In retrospect, I really could not have gotten any luckier than starting my garden when I did. I don't think I even watered until October!

Tomorrow's plan...exciting trench-digging. It's time to de-uglify the other side yard.

More pictures of winter ornamental grasses and foliage...

2008-02-16T05:51:00.016-06:00

note: posted 3/22/08 for archival purposes

These are pictures from pretty much every area of the flower beds, including the ugly parts, since this is a learning experience:

My most recent re-design. I moved a leggy "Belinda's Dream" rose into more sun and planted bamboo muhly and pink abutilon against the fence for fast height and evergreen interest, and in front of those, an anacacho orchid tree for spring flowers and an "Adagio" miscanthus to spill over the edge of the raised bed. This section is in filtered shade from the mesquite most of the year:

I like the variety of colors and textures in this view:

Messy. I've since moved a few things around and added a Pink Double Knockout that will hopefully be able to take a little shade:

The rose section. Trained up the fence is "Maggie," a found rose. In front and to the left of "Maggie" is "Belinda's Dream." And in front of "Belinda's Dream" is the bourbon "Souvenir de la Malmaison." The lindheimer muhly to the right of the picture has since been moved out of its way.

This is, hands-down, my least favorite section of the garden, made more problematic by buried cables that limit my plant choices. I'd also like to add a pergola in front of the back gate to the left of the picture, so I'm waiting to see how far that will extend into the bed before I move anything around. But still, it's a lousy view from the side yard. Sigh:

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

2008-02-15T18:21:00.000-06:00

I must preface this post by saying that my pictures for February's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day are cheating a bit, since most of my flower pictures are of brand spankin' new plants that I just spent far too much money on at Barton Springs Nursery. You see, if I subtract the two P's-- new purchases and pansies-- I'm left with the gloriousness that is...

*drumroll*

WHOOHOO, the verbena is blooming!

So, yeah, I'm thinking that I'll pad this post out a bit.

I just got some perennial dianthus and some more verbena. I hear that this particular dianthus smells like cloves when it blooms:

Winter-blooming germander from BSN. I've been admiring some blooming almost constantly in a limestone retaining wall by Town Lake, but the guy I talked to at BSN said that they need excellent drainage and tend to up and die suddenly, so I'm crossing my fingers and trying it anyway since it's one of the few things that blooms all winter in Austin. I worked a lot of rose soil into the hole before planting to make sure the drainage would be decent, since the rose soil I had on hand has decomposed granite in it to aid drainage.

Since the weather's been really warm all week, the pansies are going to seed:

Alyssum in a pot. It smells sunny and sweet.

The coralberry is leafing out again. Time to cut it back, I'm thinking.

And in conclusion, the lovely watercolor blue of a pansy:

I tried to come up with a catchy title, but nothing clever rhymes with 'cedar.'

2008-02-08T03:24:00.000-06:00

Ah, February in Texas. It's warm, it's sunny, and boy, do I miss being able to breathe through my nose!

In other cedar-related shenanigans, I began my gardening week by managing to get myself and my car locked into The Natural Gardener on Super Bowl Sunday. Note to self: in the future, when you plan to shovel 14 bags of cedar mulch, start shoveling at least an hour before the place closes!

Luckily, I'd dressed for the occasion. When climbing over security fences, you can't do much better than camo cargo pants and a MASH 4077 t-shirt. I was even wearing a fedora to keep the sun out of my eyes. If I'd have had a bullwhip anywhere on my person, it would have been a totally awesome Clash of the Archetypes. I had to scale the dirt yard gate, flag down some poor woman on her way to church to borrow her cell phone, and then reclimb the gate to move my car to the front parking lot, and then made like a ninja over the front gate when my friends pulled up 45 minutes later.

In those 45 minutes, the donkeys got bored of watching me and I got bored of watching the donkeys, and I found myself lost in contemplation. For instance, what would one sell at a landscape nursery called The UnNatural Gardener? Pink flamingo lawn ornaments, definitely. For the holidays, poinsettias sprayed with neon glitter, check! Disturbing-looking houseplants straight out of the R-rated Japanese anime, we wants it, precious!

But I'm thinking that what would make The UnNatural Gardener so stunningly successful would be a confidential service called Yard Ninjas. Your neighbors have huge swaths of pampas grass in their front yard that they never cut down to the ground in spring? Who're you gonna call? Yard Ninjas! They'll sneak up in the dead of night with their stealth and scythe! Annoyed by those people down at the corner who let the low branches of their trees grow low over the road so your car's windshield gets thwapped every time you make a right-hand turn? Yard Ninjas!

What I'm trying to figure out now is what special sets of skills it'll take for the extra-elite-Delta-force-equivalent squad of Yard Ninjas to stop people from topping their crape myrtles every winter.

Well, a girl can dream.

So, that was Sunday. Monday was a beautiful day, and I spent my free time rescuing my car, which still smells like cedar mulch five days later. And I know it must really reek with the power of a thousand of those little pine tree air fresheners, because I can't breathe through my nose! I find I kinda like it.

Tuesday I continued my east side yard de-uglification project. My side yards are both about five feet wide, and my large kitchen window looks out onto a breathtaking vista of...meh. Last summer I stapled some wire fencing to the board fence and planted a combination of tangerine crossvine, white potato vine, jasmine, morning glories, and just for kicks, Kentucky Wonder pole beans. The view out the window was greatly improved with the bright blue of the morning glories, but once they were done for the year, I knew I needed something to look at besides boards and dormant lawn while the vines filled in.

And here I insert a few pictures from October through December. I'm a big fan of this shade of blue.

Here's the side yard now, with the addition of 14 bags of cedar mulch, "White Ruffles" dwarf ruella, white lirope, tall ruella "Chi-Chi Pink" in front of some pipes coming out of the house, and some bamboo muhly on each side of the gate.

I still need to add some more finely shredded cedar to even out the edges of the path, but I'm pretty much satisfied for now. When it warms up more, I'm going to add some purple heart for more contrast and possibly oxalis if I can convince myself that it'll take both the clay and the shade. (Can you tell that the theme of the side yard is "hard to kill?") I also stuck a Madame Alfred Carriere climbing rose where it'll get the most sun, and plan to train it on the wire that goes above the top of the fence.

I tried M. Alfred last summer on the west side fence, and it was a monster. It grew about 15 feet in 7 months, and it was incredibly thorny. I'd bought it for its thornlessness and it hadn't bloomed, so I pulled it out and added it to the growing list of roses I have killed, but more on that another day. In the epic struggle of Man vs Nature, this gardener definitely has a special category set aside for Man vs Rosebush.

January blooms

2008-01-15T22:42:00.000-06:00

Coralberry:

violas

ajuga

I never thought of December as a month for morning glories, but then I moved to Texas.

2007-12-15T05:32:00.000-06:00

note: posted on 3/22/08 for archival purposes

My favorite month in the garden...

2007-10-04T05:25:00.008-05:00

Finally, the mess looks intentional!

Late September

2007-09-23T05:19:00.006-05:00

note: posted 3/22/08 for archival purposes

The floribunda Gruss an Aachen:

The garden looks almost abandoned: