Spring color

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 ...

March 30, 2011 A bit of the Old South blooms at Zilker Botanical Garden each spring. Under a green canopy of new-leafed trees, banks of pink and fuchsia azaleas remind one of Austin’s split personality, where alkaline-loving plants of the arid southwest mingle with acidic-loving plants of the lush southeast ...

April 05, 2010 These beautiful but temperamental irises do not bloom every year. In times of drought, they dry up too and stubbornly refuse to set buds. But the rains this winter enticed them into glorious, ruffled bloom this spring, and I’m delighting in them again. If the friend who ...

April 28, 2009 After visiting Jill Nokes’s walled garden last Sunday, the Austin garden bloggers drove to fellow blogger Jenny/Lancashire Rose‘s walled garden. Although differentiated by geography—Jill gardens on black gumbo clay in central Austin, Jenny on thin limestone “soil” and gravel in southwest Austin—they have much in common, including ...

April 28, 2009 After visiting Jill Nokes’s walled garden last Sunday, the Austin garden bloggers drove to fellow blogger Jenny/Lancashire Rose‘s walled garden. Although differentiated by geography—Jill gardens on black gumbo clay in central Austin, Jenny on thin limestone “soil” and gravel in southwest Austin—they have much in common, including ...

March 12, 2009 It’s a spring fling. A brief yet passionate affair. I have a big, orange crush on crossvine ‘Tangerine Beauty’ (Bignonia capreolata ) that lasts for a blissful couple of weeks every spring. Actually, crossvine is pretty fine all year, with long, evergreen leaves perfect for cloaking a ...

May 25, 2008 I can’t drink my fill of winecup (Callirhoe involucrata) right now. This Texas native, which sprawls along non-rooting stems, carpets the ground with glowing magenta cups. Growing just 6 to 12 inches tall but several feet wide, winecup is the perfect groundcover for spring through early summer ...

April 27, 2008 Is that the corniest title in the blogosphere or what? Thankfully, I can’t think of any more Robin Hood puns, as Callistemon viminalis or C. citrinus (websites differ as to the name) ‘Little John’ hails from Australia anyway, not England or Sherwood Forest. If you live in ...

April 13, 2008 On Sunday after the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, the out-of-towners who stayed an extra day joined some of the Austin garden bloggers for a personal tour of herbal-cookbook author Lucinda Hutson’s garden. The other Spring Flingers may remember Lucinda from the happy hour at my house on ...

April 13, 2008 On Sunday after the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, the out-of-towners who stayed an extra day joined some of the Austin garden bloggers for a personal tour of herbal-cookbook author Lucinda Hutson’s garden. The other Spring Flingers may remember Lucinda from the happy hour at my house on ...

March 14, 2008 Remember that Yucca flaccida ‘Bright Edge’ I bought while shopping for pond plants (how does this happen?) at Hill Country Water Gardens? I’d stuck it in a glazed pot until I could decide where to plant it. Here is its new, permanent home—I hope. I hope it ...

March 14, 2008 Remember that Yucca flaccida ‘Bright Edge’ I bought while shopping for pond plants (how does this happen?) at Hill Country Water Gardens? I’d stuck it in a glazed pot until I could decide where to plant it. Here is its new, permanent home—I hope. I hope it ...

March 03, 2008 Spring called to me yesterday, and I spent a good deal of time in the garden just puttering around. I shot some photos, I pulled one or two weeds, I watered some moonflower vine seedlings I’m growing. But mostly I just looked and touched and smelled and ...

March 03, 2008 Spring called to me yesterday, and I spent a good deal of time in the garden just puttering around. I shot some photos, I pulled one or two weeds, I watered some moonflower vine seedlings I’m growing. But mostly I just looked and touched and smelled and ...

February 14, 2008 Taiwanese pear in full bloom at the Dallas Arboretum After a 3-hour landscape design class at the Dallas Arboretum yesterday, and before the 3 1/2-hour drive back home, I took a quick stroll through the gardens, which I’d never seen, despite having stayed over in Big D ...

March 06, 2007 Bottle tree at sunrise Garden bloggers are always looking at their gardens in close-up, filling posts with macro photos of plants and flowers. I tend to do this more than some. So today I thought I’d compensate by including several long-shot photos. It’s easier to see how ...