Jenny Stocker’s garden is in Southern Living!
March 22, 2012 My friend Jenny Stocker’s garden has inspired me since before I knew her, when I first visited during a crowded garden tour. I’m so glad to have talked her into starting a garden blog because now I get to see her beautiful pictures of her inspirational garden ...
Best-smelling tree in Texas: Sophora secundiflora
March 11, 2012 In my 18 years in Austin, I cannot remember the Texas mountain laurels blooming as beautifully as they are doing this spring. Look—even as a parking-lot tree surrounded by cars it’s stunning. This one, in an office complex near my house, has been catching my eye as ...
Marching into spring
March 09, 2012 For a mostly evergreen garden, mine is looking pretty flowery right now, although perhaps not in the wide view. I took these pics yesterday after I’d planted several new plants and before the cold front and rain blew in, dropping temperatures from the 80s to the 50s ...
First flowers of spring are brightening the garden
March 02, 2012 Care to take a garden stroll with me? Spring has sprung in Austin. The earliest sign, the Texas mountain laurels, are already past peak. But in my garden the mountain laurels aren’t big enough to really flower, and the early show is at knee level. Case in ...
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 ...
It’s nearly spring, so ready…set…grow!
February 11, 2012 We’re parachuting into spring here in Austin. This is white potato vine (Solanum jasminoides), a dainty little climber for shade or part shade. I had two of these until last summer. The survivor is perking up for a spring show. Chinese fringeflower (Loropetalum chinense) marks the landing ...
Purple pansies and a breath of spring
February 07, 2012 This sweet pot of pansies was brightening up the patio at a client’s house yesterday. In her garden beds, the fresh green leaves of bulbs stood tall, and nodding snowdrops spoke of spring. I love the promise of this time of year, don’t you? All material © ...
Read This: Chanticleer, a Pleasure Garden
June 06, 2011 I stumbled upon Chanticleer Garden by happy accident while on a driving trip down the East Coast during the summer of 2008. It was, and still is, the most engaging, playful, and beautiful garden I’ve seen. (Click here for the first of my six posts about Chanticleer.) ...
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 ...
Going to extremes at the Wildflower Center
April 24, 2011 Lace cactus in flower Gardening in central Texas is all about embracing extremes—of temperature, of rainfall, of summer’s brutal duration, and, most delightfully, of the contrast between soft and spiky. One element of good design is using contrasting forms, and our native plants offer many opportunities, as ...
More spring beauty from Lucinda’s garden
April 14, 2011 For those of you who loved the images of Lucinda Hutson’s garden (and who doesn’t?), here are a few more luscious spring pics, including this bee burrowing into a Jerusalem sage blossom. A long shot of the Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) in Lucinda’s front garden. Its tiered, ...
Enchanted evening in Lucinda Hutson’s cantina garden
April 12, 2011 “Let’s go into the garden! Ai-yi-yi-yi!” trills Lucinda Hutson as she leads her guests, each with a rosy prickly-pear margarita in hand, over the threshold of her purple cottage and into her Rosedale garden. Lucinda is the kind of hostess who can pull off such cross-cultural exuberance ...
Bluebonnets, ‘Chocolate Chips’ & more in bloom
April 07, 2011 Is this perhaps the prettiest week in central Texas? Or will it be next week? I don’t know, but early April is looking mighty fine in my own garden and I hope in yours as well. Our state flower, the Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), adorns a miniature ...
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 ...
Spring spring spring! sings the wren
April 05, 2011 ‘Radsunny’ Knock Out rose Full-throated song fills the garden each morning. No, it isn’t me, though spring sings in my heart. We’re serenaded by our resident Carolina wrens, who surely vie with roosters for their “get out of bed, the day’s a-wasting” lung power. And I know ...
Flowers & spring green at Zilker Botanical Garden
April 04, 2011 From dinosaur gardens to Japanese gardens to the surprise of azaleas in Austin, Zilker Botanical Garden has something for everyone. And yes, they also have mixed beds of flowers in bloom, although thankfully no sweeps of bedding annuals. Here’s some lovely spring color (I’m including green!) brightening ...
