Plant This: Awash in blazing red oxblood lilies
September 18, 2012 Their little, green noses were just beginning to poke up last week, and a few early birds had already bloomed and faded. And then three and a half inches of rain soaked into the soil last weekend, and yesterday—like magic!—the oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) were standing at ...
Plant This: ‘Dark Knight’ caryopteris
September 15, 2012 I’m growing bluebeard for the first time, convinced to try it by a fellow shopper at Barton Springs Nursery last spring who said how great ‘Dark Knight’ Caryopteris x clandonensis had performed for her in a hot, sunny bed. Of course I don’t have too many sunny ...
Plant This: Butterfly vine
September 09, 2012 Butterfly vine, also known as gallinita (Mascagnia macroptera), brightens up the midsummer garden with lemon-yellow flowers whose petals look as if they were cut out with pinking shears. Flowering best in full sun, this Mexican native is a wonderful addition to the drought-tolerant garden, able to hold ...
Plant This: Datura shuns the day, shines at dusk
August 31, 2012 If you brave the West Nile-carrying mosquitoes at dusk, you can enjoy the unfurling of datura’s lightly scented trumpets. Under a full moon last evening, I took these images of one of my datura (Datura wrightii) in full, moon-like bloom. I like the curved “hooks” on the ...
Plant This: Garlic chives
August 20, 2012 As the days grow shorter in late August and early September, garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) burst into bloom, with clusters of starry, white flowers held aloft on long stems, like 4th of July sparklers. They’ll bloom for weeks, giving you at least a month of beauty—more if ...
Plant This: Anacacho orchid tree
March 29, 2012 Almost everyone (in central Texas’ zone 8 or 9) has room for an Anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides) in their garden. After all, it only grows 8 to 12 feet tall and 6 to 10 feet wide, with an airy habit and tiny, semi-evergreen leaves shaped like ...
Plant This: Carex leavenworthii, or Texas sedge
March 08, 2012 If you’re lucky enough to have shade in central Texas, you may be unlucky in your attempts to grow traditional lawn grass. St. Augustine is the only dependable turf grass for shade, and during the drought, thirsty St. Augustine dried up and blew away all over Austin ...
Plant This: Mexican honeysuckle
February 29, 2012 Like February 29, Mexican honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) seems an infrequent presence in Austin gardens, even though it puts on a particularly fine show at the very beginning of spring, when other plants are just yawning and stretching and sniffing the air for breakfast. Although its orange, tubular ...
Plant This: Silver Peso Texas mountain laurel shines in spring
February 25, 2012 Spring may be the sweeter for breaking a hard winter’s grip, but we central Texans wouldn’t know. I can assure you, though, that spring is pretty darn sweet following a summer of devastating drought and record-breaking heat. Miraculously, despite predictions of a dry winter, we enjoyed a ...
Plant This: Spanish flag, aka exotic love vine
October 28, 2011 A one-two punch of stunning photos on Meredith O’Reilly’s Great Stems and a positive write-up in Armitage’s Vines and Climbers sent me running to the seed rack at the nursery last spring. I bought a Renee’s Garden pack of Spanish flag vine (Mina lobata) and soon after ...
Plant This: Whale’s Tongue agave
July 18, 2011 Moby, my ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (Agave ovatifolia), sails through hot summer days in part-sun/bright shade, perched above most of the garden in a terraced bed. It’s a ghostly white whale of a plant, about 5 feet in diameter, an iconic presence in my former garden and in ...
Plant This: Sweet almond verbena
July 14, 2011 Looking for a flowering, sweet-scented shrub that can take the heat and drought dished out in a central Texas summer? Then try sweet almond verbena (Aloysia virgata), an Argentinian deciduous shrub with a strong vanilla almond fragrance. Mine grows at the base of our elevated deck, and ...
Plant This: Chocolate Chips manfreda
May 21, 2011 Manfreda undulata ‘Chocolate Chips’ is in bloom all over Austin, judging by posts on various local garden blogs. I have two of these striking plants. The more mature one bloomed several weeks ago, but my newest, a passalong from Eleanor, is doing its Dr. Seussian thing now ...
Plant This: Heartleaf skullcap
April 28, 2011 Heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata) romps through my garden with greater vigor each year. Belonging to the mint family, it spreads with abandon, and yet it never seems a thug because it’s so easy to pull out and dies back in summer to let other plants have their ...
Plant This: ‘Etoile Violette’ clematis
April 18, 2011 A classic garden beauty, ‘Etoile Violette’ clematis has proven hardy in my garden for the past two years through our blazing summers and unusually nippy winters. Its name means Violet Star in French, and its blossoms are indeed star-shaped, large, and open, unlike our native bell-shaped clematis, ...
Plant This: Gulf Coast penstemon colors the shade garden
April 06, 2011 I’m singing the praises of Gulf Coast penstemon (Penstemon tenuis) today. It’s in peak bloom in my garden and throughout Austin. Spires of lavender, bell-shaped flowers stand about 1 to 1-1/2 feet high in the shade or morning-sun garden and look especially nice underplanted with purple oxalis ...
