Texas natives

August 29, 2007 ‘Valentine’ rose. The new camera handled the saturated red pretty well. Kids are back in school. Classes began at the University of Texas today, adding 48,000 college students to our city’s population. The temperature remains surprisingly low for August (low 90s), and we even got a few ...

August 27, 2007Esperanza (Tecoma stans ) means hope in Spanish. With that in mind, I have a few hopes to share, along with a few quick photos of newly blooming esperanza (also known as yellow bells) taken this evening with my new camera, the Canon Powershot S3 IS. I hope ...

August 18, 2007 The flame acanthus (Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii ) in the south corner of the front garden is kicking into gear with the return of the heat and sun. My kids asked me to buy a hummingbird feeder the other day. I told them we already had several ...

August 16, 2007 Mexican oregano and white narrowleaf zinnia Yesterday I spent 8 hours in the car, driving home from a visit to my mom’s, so I missed Bloom Day. The temperature in Tulsa soared over 100 every day, but Mom still had a number of plants blooming, including cleome, ...

August 16, 2007 Mexican oregano and white narrowleaf zinnia Yesterday I spent 8 hours in the car, driving home from a visit to my mom’s, so I missed Bloom Day. The temperature in Tulsa soared over 100 every day, but Mom still had a number of plants blooming, including cleome, ...

August 06, 2007 American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana ) is one of my favorite harbingers of autumn. At the point in a typical Austin summer when you think you just can’t take the heat and humidity anymore—about now, actually, though this summer has been atypically cool—this understory shrub goes all purple ...

July 14, 2007 ‘Belinda’s Dream’ is wide awake after all the rain we received recently. Although I missed Bloom Day in June because of my travel schedule, I’m happy to participate this month. The roses and salvias are enjoying a lush rebloom thanks to cooler than normal temperatures and ample ...

July 14, 2007 ‘Belinda’s Dream’ is wide awake after all the rain we received recently. Although I missed Bloom Day in June because of my travel schedule, I’m happy to participate this month. The roses and salvias are enjoying a lush rebloom thanks to cooler than normal temperatures and ample ...

May 17, 2007 Salvia guaranitica—love those blues! I’ve been covering Gardens on Tour 2007 all week, and I have one more to show you tomorrow (my favorite of the bunch, actually), but I decided to give you a little tour of my own garden today. It differs from my Bloom ...

May 17, 2007 Agaves and exposed limestone anchor a sunny spot by the front door while orange lantana and purple winecup add splashes of hot, southwestern color. Another tony West Austin address led us to this garden—a sculpture garden, really. Designed by Judy Walther (who also did the Stonecliff Circle ...

May 16, 2007 A twisted live oak frames a sweeping lawn of ‘Palisades’ zoysia and a potting shed in this estate-sized garden. Our next stop on the garden tour led us to a luxurious home in a West Austin neighborhood. Surrounded by the open, palatial St. Augustine lawns of the ...

May 15, 2007 The second stop on our tour included two gardens on a cul-de-sac in the hills of northwest Austin, one belonging to Cathy Nordstrom, owner of San Souci Gardens, the second belonging to her client and next-door neighbor. We visited the designer’s garden first. Native bee balm and ...

May 14, 2007 Buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides) stands in for a traditional but thirsty St. Augustine lawn in this NW Austin garden. Surrounded by typical suburban yards, this garden shows how to use drought-tolerant natives in a fairly traditional way. While it didn’t bowl me over with an unusual design or ...

May 10, 2007 Does this look like Texas to you? More specifically, does it look like Austin? I hope so. I posted two days ago about The Landscaping Revolution, which proposes, among other things, that homeowners make their landscaping look less homogenous and more regionally diverse—and therefore more interesting—by using ...

May 10, 2007 Does this look like Texas to you? More specifically, does it look like Austin? I hope so. I posted two days ago about The Landscaping Revolution, which proposes, among other things, that homeowners make their landscaping look less homogenous and more regionally diverse—and therefore more interesting—by using ...

May 08, 2007 Last week a friend pulled this book off her shelf and insisted I read it, enthusing that it caused an awakening for her and changed the way she looks at traditional, lawn-centered landscaping. I’m glad she told me about it. It’s a highly persuasive and entertaining book—although ...