Bulbs/Rhizomes

February 20, 2008 Doesn’t this senorita look ready for spring? Maybe that’s because she lives on my back porch (poor thing) and sees that the garden is waking up. The Mexican plum (Prunus mexicana ) is awake. Hundreds of tiny, white buds are unfurling along the bare branches. Hola!! Beneath ...

January 28, 2008 Look at these beautiful snowflakes coming up here in Austin. Coming up? Not down? That’s right. I’m talking about Leucojum aestivum, snowflakes, an easy, naturalizing bulb for the South. Mine aren’t so far along as Yolanda Elizabet’s in the Netherlands, but I’m happy to see them nonetheless ...

September 23, 2007 Lycoris radiata at sunset A little later than usual, but already putting on a better show than last year, when the garden was struggling through a long drought, the spider lilies have sprung up seemingly overnight. In the morning light, the lilies are a cooler red. Also ...

September 05, 2007 Oxblood lilies How many of you Southern gardeners have planted bulbs that made a poor showing and never came back? I know I have. Our climate’s summer heat, humidity, and mild winters are the undoing of many of the flowering bulbs shown in glorious sweeps of color ...

September 04, 2007 Weekend showers enticed the oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida ) into opening their red trumpets. “Fall is coming!” they announce. For this reason alone, I’d have them in my garden. Luckily there are other reasons too. As MSS at Zanthan Gardens told me when she passed along a ...

July 17, 2007 Traveling home from Tanzania, my dad and I stopped for two nights in Amsterdam to have a look around, as we were passing through and neither of us had been to the Netherlands before. What a change from dusty, dry-season Tanzania. Surrounded by water and picturesquely built ...

March 01, 2007 Mexican plum branches and blue sky With temperatures in the 80s the last couple of days, the garden is practically unfolding before my eyes. If I hadn’t just pruned all my perennials back to the ground, I suspect some of them would be blooming on last year’s ...

February 23, 2007 The ground-hugging spikes of the grape hyacinths have appeared. The daffodils won’t be far behind, though I don’t seem to have as many coming up this year. Perhaps the drought has taken its toll on them. A wider shot Tonight at 7 pm is Amy Stewart’s reading ...

February 19, 2007 The Christmas amaryllis is gracing the table with another cluster of flowers. I’m enjoying the orangey red, trumpet-shaped blossoms, which brighten up the dining table. But looking past the amaryllis, through the window overlooking the rear garden, all I’m seeing right now is the kids’ trampoline, its ...

December 22, 2006 Four red trumpets on the amaryllis add Christmas cheer at the table. We got home after dark last night, lugging our suitcases and Disney souvenirs into the chilly house. When I switched on the light over the dining table, the blazing amaryllis greeted my eyes. Ka-pow! I ...

December 14, 2006 It’s been a week since I brought home this amaryllis, and I’m still waiting for it to reveal itself. The stalk has grown a few inches, and a split has appeared at the top of the bud, so it’s close. I feel a bit like a kid ...

December 08, 2006 I bought myself a “wrapped” present yesterday: a potted amaryllis of unknown color. I’ve often considered buying an amaryllis but resisted the impulse. At this time of year, I’m busy Christmas shopping, and an amaryllis bulb has always seemed an extravagance I just didn’t really need. But ...

September 09, 2006The good news first . . . My oxblood lilies are coming up! M. at Zanthan gave me about 20 bulbs way back in early May. It was already hot then, and I didn’t feel like digging them in, so I kept them in a paper bag in ...