Hot summer garden before it got super hot
June 29, 2022 I returned yesterday from the Madison Garden Bloggers Fling, and I’m already missing Wisconsin’s cooler summer climate. But dark clouds greeted me when I got home and then RAIN! An inch fell on my parched and heat-stressed garden, refreshing everything and sparing me from having to do ...
A peaceful morning in Cat’s garden
September 28, 2019 A week ago in my friend Cat Jones’s garden, I found my attention divided between her new canyon-side stock-tank pond topped with a glorious flowering crinum and the rolling green canyon vista itself. For a few minutes, the crinum won out, and I exclaimed jealously over the ...
Datura superbloom
August 07, 2019 From such little seeds, what a profusion of flowers! Two evenings in a row this week, my seed-grown datura (Datura wrightii) unfurled more than two dozen blossoms, which shine like spotlights through the night and into the next morning. It’s a superbloom! Here’s how they look as ...
Wild for wildflowers at Mueller’s Southwest Greenway
June 10, 2019 A week ago I buzzed around Mueller, a sustainable, mixed-use neighborhood built on the site of Austin’s old Mueller Airport. When the concrete runways and asphalt parking lots were jackhammered out, acres of blackland prairie soil saw the sun for the first time in decades. What an ...
Plant This: Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima
October 01, 2018 When summer’s heat sizzles the back of your neck and it hasn’t rained in a month and the rest of your plants want to give up, Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) sassily unfurls dozens of ruffled, ember-hued flowers at the ends of blue-green, feathery-leaved branches and throws ...
Garden powers through a Texas heat wave
July 24, 2018 Arizona-level heat is plaguing us here in Austin this week. Temps reached 110 F (43.3 C) yesterday, and we’re cooling down to “only” 101-105 F all the rest of this week. The Death Star is on high beam! The garden must power through, as must we all, ...
Flower power at Kew Gardens: Perennial borders and rose garden
July 10, 2018 My indulgent family and I took the Tube to Kew Gardens (officially, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) while in London last month. I could easily have spent the whole day there, but we had only about 4 or 5 hours, so I had to pick and choose among ...
Yellow flowering prickly pear glows like sunshine
June 06, 2018 Hot weather and sunshine bring out the beauty of prickly pear (Opuntia) flowers. This gigantic spineless prickly pear growing in a neighbor’s yard stands about 6-1/2 feet tall, and it’s covered with butter-yellow flowers. The toughest plants seem to have the most splendid flowers. I welcome your ...
Early summer color coming on
May 28, 2018 Mexican oregano, vitex, and ‘Vertigo’ pennisetum harmonize in shades of purple. Since the Austin Garden Bloggers Fling tour in early May, when 92 bloggers trooped through my garden, a purple explosion has occurred. So many plants are in full bloom now that weren’t then, and that pains ...
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 ...
Oxblood lilies popping up after Hurricane Harvey
August 30, 2017 Hurricane Harvey dumped nearly 10 inches of rain on my garden between last Friday and Sunday, and high winds littered the ground with leaves, twigs, and ball moss. A Texas mountain laurel fell over in the sodden soil, and we lost power for 6 hours. A weather ...
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, part 2: Succulents, Ocean Trail, and Dahlia Garden
August 29, 2017 In my last post I showed you the Perennial Garden and Heath and Heather Collection at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Ft. Bragg, California, which I visited in early August. Today let’s continue the tour, starting with the Succulent and Mediterranean Gardens. My first thought upon seeing ...
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens: Colorful perennial and heather gardens
August 28, 2017 I was not expecting this. None of us were. As we made our way up Highway 1 along the coast of Northern California in early August, naturally I’d planned a few garden stops, including a visit to Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, expecting little more ...
Edibles, outdoor living, and more at Sunset Gardens at Cornerstone Sonoma
August 21, 2017 While touring the Cornerstone Sonoma gardens in Sonoma, California, a couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed a two-fer. Sunset’s Test Gardens relocated to Cornerstone in 2016, and after a year of growth they’re already looking amazing. A glowing vertical garden of sempervivums, planted in the orange Sunset ...
Datura’s morning glow
August 11, 2017 The datura (Datura wrightii) I planted in the front garden a few years ago has petered out and needs replacing. But this volunteer that self-seeded in the back garden is growing beautifully. Moreover, it asks nothing from me except an occasional pinching back of stems that threaten ...
Silver ironweed in bloom
July 31, 2017 Unirrigated and thriving in decomposed granite, West Texas native silver ironweed (Vernonia lindheimeri var. leucophylla) powers through the depths of summer. I enjoy its silver sheen and purple pom-pom blossoms and its Texas-tough attitude. For more info, click the link above, which will take you to a ...
