Sparkler sedge is back, plus more great foliage

Sparkler sedge is back, plus more great foliage

April 16, 2018 Today is Foliage Follow-Up, a celebration of great foliage plants on the day after Bloom Day, and I’m celebrating the return to nurseries all over Austin of one of my favorite foliage plants for dry shade or morning sun: ‘Sparkler’ sedge (Carex phyllocephala ‘Sparkler’). For the past ...
Gopher plant 'Winter Blush' is mini-hydrangea lookalike

Gopher plant ‘Winter Blush’ is mini-hydrangea lookalike

April 14, 2018 The best plants look as good going to seed as they do in flower. I’d put ‘Winter Blush’ gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida ‘Winter Blush’) in this category based on its passing resemblance to fading hydrangea blossoms. Mind you, they’re on a whole different plane than the Prius-sized ...
Sprout brings high-quality terracotta pottery to Austin

Sprout brings high-quality terracotta pottery to Austin

April 10, 2018 When Gardens closed in 2010, it left a void in Austin for a source for high-quality terracotta pottery. Landscape architect Jackson Broussard, who owns and operates Sprout, decided to fill that void by importing Italian Impruneta pots — the finest terracotta available — and selling them via ...
Spring flowering in Jenny Stocker's walled courtyard gardens

Spring flowering in Jenny Stocker’s walled courtyard gardens

March 31, 2018 When I spotted this pool-garden view from inside the home of my friend Jenny Stocker, I nearly tripped over my feet to get outside and drink it in. Jenny, who blogs at Rock Rose, is the owner of an exquisite garden that she designed herself and maintains ...
Bluebonnets, buckeyes, and more in bloom at Wildflower Center gardens

Bluebonnets, buckeyes, and more in bloom at Wildflower Center gardens

March 25, 2018 Ahh, Texas bluebonnets! They’re turning Austin’s roadsides blue right now, and early ‘bonnets were in bloom last week at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I wish everyone could experience a good bluebonnet season at least once in their lives. California poppies were blooming too, their orange ...
It's spring-crazy nursery shopping season

It’s spring-crazy nursery shopping season

March 17, 2018 I’ve been all over town at Austin’s wonderful nurseries this past week, shoulder-to-shoulder with other spring-crazy gardeners snapping up new plants to freshen up the garden and replace goners zapped by winter’s deep freezes. While I was after plants or soil for the most part, I couldn’t ...
New leaves coming up, old leaves coming down

New leaves coming up, old leaves coming down

March 16, 2018 Spring looks a lot like fall in my garden, as this photo shows: fresh green leaves surrounded by brown live oak leaves. Live oaks stay green all winter, like an evergreen tree, but come spring they do actually drop their leaves and swiftly leaf out again. Casting ...
Loropetalum color bomb

Loropetalum color bomb

March 02, 2018 ‘Sizzling Pink’ loropetalum is still sizzling in the lower garden and knocking my socks off every time I look at it. Yesterday the sun was lighting up those fuchsia blooms like a stained-glass window. The fringey flowers look like the pom-poms of a thousand cheerleaders. So colorful! ...
Snake in the garden: Danger noodle or welcome predator?

Snake in the garden: Danger noodle or welcome predator?

March 01, 2018 Am I the only one who finds snakes rather fascinating, even charming, particularly if the scaly visitor is small and harmless? For every gardener who goes pale over a slithery shape in the grass, surely there are plenty of us whose eyes light up and who lean ...
Fringeflower benefits

Fringeflower benefits

February 27, 2018 Just when I’d begun to stomp around, impatient for a little spring color in my shady garden (no daffodils, no quince, no plums, darn it!), Chinese fringeflower (Loropetalum chinense) burst into fuchsia bloom and saved the day. Hallelujah! Throughout my garden (even out front; deer don’t eat ...
Spring pinks

Spring pinks

February 25, 2018 Spring is coming along ever so slowly, although of course it’s still only February. But still — I’m so ready! Stepping out of my car in the driveway with a bag of groceries, I spotted this blazing color echo between flowering loropetalum in the island bed and ...
Succulent pots set out for spring, but too early?

Succulent pots set out for spring, but too early?

February 22, 2018 A balmy breeze smelling of spring convinced me to move my cold-tender potted succulents back out into the garden over the weekend. It’s so nice to see them gracing a plant table on the deck again, after several months in which they sat packed in a wagon ...
It's been a cold winter, but the garden's still got it going on

It’s been a cold winter, but the garden’s still got it going on

February 14, 2018 Thank heavens for evergreens, grasses, yuccas, and structural features like stock-tank ponds, big containers, and low walls. After this withering, frostbitten winter, my garden would otherwise be flattened. Of course I’ve been moaning and groaning about the damage anyway. (Isn’t that what we gardeners do?) But taking ...
Mowing the sedge, and other expressions of hope for spring

Mowing the sedge, and other expressions of hope for spring

January 30, 2018 Central Texas gardens got walloped by Old Man Winter this year, and a lot of plants that normally contribute to Austin’s evergreen palette — bamboo muhly, sago palm, flax lily, even ‘Alphonse Karr’ bamboo — are sporting sad shades of tan or brown. With a garden tour ...
Waterwise outside, oasis inside a walled Sonoma garden

Waterwise outside, oasis inside a walled Sonoma garden

January 25, 2018 Last August a family road trip took me through Sonoma, California, where I had the pleasure of seeing a garden I was writing about for Garden Design magazine. The owner, Marilyn Coon Stocke, had generously extended an invitation to me and my family, and so we stopped ...
Maple on fire at last

Maple on fire at last

December 19, 2017 Under a soft blanket of fog yesterday, the Japanese maple’s blushing leaves glowed amid the greens of river fern and sedge. Dampened by the fog, its graceful limbs were like dark strokes from a calligrapher’s pen. So after walking the dog, there I was, crouching amid the ...