Flowers

April 15, 2008 This Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, it’s all about the roses. Naturally, all but one (‘Carefree Beauty’) refused to bloom for the Spring Fling on the 5th, but they’re rockin’ now. ‘Belinda’s Dream,’ my favorite, looks dreamy in the morning light. It leans over the garden fence out ...

April 15, 2008 This Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, it’s all about the roses. Naturally, all but one (‘Carefree Beauty’) refused to bloom for the Spring Fling on the 5th, but they’re rockin’ now. ‘Belinda’s Dream,’ my favorite, looks dreamy in the morning light. It leans over the garden fence out ...

February 05, 2008 Front garden, Early Summer 2007. Purple coneflower and ‘Belinda’s Dream’ roses harmonize, while silver artemesia and chartreuse Salvia greggii foliage add a little punch. Like many gardeners, I love color in the garden. Pinks reign in the front, reds and blues in the back. At this time ...

February 05, 2008 Front garden, Early Summer 2007. Purple coneflower and ‘Belinda’s Dream’ roses harmonize, while silver artemesia and chartreuse Salvia greggii foliage add a little punch. Like many gardeners, I love color in the garden. Pinks reign in the front, reds and blues in the back. At this time ...

August 02, 2007 Pale pavonia (Pavonia hastata ), the impulse buy After saying somewhere recently that I rarely make impulse purchases for the garden, I’ve made quite a few lately. It’s one thing to be impulsive in the spring or fall, when the plant’s chances for survival are high, but ...

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 ...

April 20, 2007 Purple prickly pear (Opuntia macrocentra) flower Blazing! No, I’m not describing the temperatures in Austin yet. It’s been remarkably temperate for the past few weeks, and today has been lovely too, about 80 degrees with a cool breeze. No, it’s the late-spring light that’s blazing, causing certain ...

April 14, 2007 Purple prickly pear On Bloom Day this April, sweet spring is in full swing in the garden. Sensory impressions: the delicious scent of ‘Marie Pavie’ roses; hot pink roses near the street that I’ve dubbed “Stop ’em dead roses”; birdsong in the back garden and peep-peeps from ...

April 14, 2007 Purple prickly pear On Bloom Day this April, sweet spring is in full swing in the garden. Sensory impressions: the delicious scent of ‘Marie Pavie’ roses; hot pink roses near the street that I’ve dubbed “Stop ’em dead roses”; birdsong in the back garden and peep-peeps from ...

April 11, 2007 Purple prickly pear (Opuntia macrocentra) flower Flower buds cover this purplish cactus. The first two have opened, to much enthusiasm on my part. I’ve never had a prickly pear bloom before, and when I first saw the flowers budding I mistook them for new pad buds. A ...

March 19, 2007 Quiet, little purple oxalis has begun flowering under the daylily foliage. The green eyes pick up the green of the daylily leaves, and the pale lilac petals faintly echo the eggplant-colored oxalis foliage. The polar opposite of dainty oxalis, crossvine (Bignonia capreolata ‘Tangerine Beauty’) flowers shout, “Look ...

January 17, 2007 Hymenoxys (four-nerve daisy) The icicles are long and dagger-like on the eaves, but they are melting. Drip, drip, drip—we can hear it indoors. When I stepped gingerly into the front garden this morning to poke around, evidence of melting and refreezing overnight was written on the plants ...