Plant This: Crinum procerum
September 10, 2013 Hot-climate gardens need a water feature to counteract summer’s heat with a feeling of cool wetness. My stock-tank pond serves that purpose in my garden, plus it gives me a chance to grow a few plants that like wet feet, like this Crinum procerum ‘Splendens’. With burgundy, ...
Autumn’s heralds, sound the news!
September 09, 2013 Heat and drought may still grip Texas in an iron fist, but cheery oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) are popping up anyway to remind us that autumn will be here soon. I treasure fall heralds like these for their hopeful message as much as for their seasonal flowering ...
Cooling color echo
September 06, 2013 Plumbago auriculata Happy Friday, everyone! All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...
Wide Shot of the front garden, September 2013
September 05, 2013 Jumping on board a few days late with Heather’s new meme at Xericstyle — “Wide Shot,” for posting on the first of the month — I went out at high noon to take a few wide-angle snaps of the front garden. Although midday is not the best ...
Silver ironweed, west Texas cousin to native wooly ironweed
September 03, 2013 Pretty, yes? This silver-leaved lovely with buttons of purple-pink flowers, growing in 4 or 5 inches of decomposed granite with no irrigation, has an interesting back story. In April 2012 David Salman of High Country Gardens (since closed and reopened under American Meadows’ ownership) sent me a ...
Devilishly beautiful datura
August 30, 2013 Whether you call it devil’s trumpet, jimsonweed, or Datura wrightii, this native perennial is a stunner during long summer evenings and into early mornings. Big ole moon-faced blossoms unfurl at sunset with a sweetly perfumed fragrance that attracts sphinx moths. Held up like trumpets on coarse, leafy ...
When (agave) art imitates life
August 29, 2013 Agave art! It’s only a print from Michael’s or someplace like that, but I had it framed and hung it in the living room next to the patio doors. A wider view reveals why: art imitating life. That’s Moby, my ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia), visible through ...
Plant This: White Turk’s cap
August 27, 2013 While native Turk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii) is easily found in nurseries and growing wild along the greenbelts of central Texas, and pink cultivar ‘Pam Puryear’, a relatively new introduction, is now common in the nursery trade, white Turk’s cap can be hard to find. That’s ...
Plant This: Honeybees love garlic chives and so will you
August 26, 2013 Want more bees in your garden? They do need our help, you know. And we always need theirs. Plant garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), and the bees will be busy. You’ll also enjoy sprays of sparkling, white flowers atop slender, green stems — a crisp, clean bloom to ...
How to plant a sedge lawn
August 23, 2013 If mowing once a year sounds good, if pouring less water on the ground is a goal, and if you appreciate or can tolerate a shaggy, meadowy look, a sedge lawn may be your perfect alternative to a thirsty, summer-crisped St. Augustine lawn. Sedges exist for seemingly ...
Front garden in late summer
August 21, 2013 After escaping another Austin summer by reliving my recent California vacation it’s time to refocus attention on my own garden. The Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa) that I planted in early March is finally filling in. Well, the left part is. The section on the right still looks ...
Berkeley sedge for Foliage Follow-Up
August 16, 2013 I’ve promised a post about my new Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa) lawn, but it’s filling in so slowly that I keep putting it off, waiting for better “after” pics. I swear I will post all about it this fall. But in honor of Foliage Follow-Up, here’s a ...
Potted plants and stripey leaves for Foliage Follow-Up
June 16, 2013 It’s so simple, but I really enjoy this collection of potted plants on my back steps. I can see them from my bedroom and living room windows, and they’re a focal point when sitting outside on the upper patio. I just chose single plants to pot up ...
Jewel-like cactus flowers for Bloom Day
June 15, 2013 I’m discovering the joy of growing cactus, not just for the plants’ unique shapes and light-catching spines, but for their stunning flowers as well. Their flowering may be brief — generally just a day or two, so you don’t want to miss it — but what they ...
Screech owlets!
May 22, 2013 We knew that the screech owl in our owl box was raising at least one chick and that it was getting big. Mama owl had moved out but was still roosting nearby, as was papa owl. But any chicks were being shy about showing themselves, so this ...
Hot summer color and Chocolate Chips manfreda in bloom
May 20, 2013 Austin’s lovely, unexpectedly extended spring appears to have faded into summer’s mid-90sF heat and humidity. While I may be complaining about the sauna-like conditions, my garden doesn’t mind. Take this cute little cactus for example. Last year it resided on a sunny windowsill in the kitchen, but ...
