Texas natives

May 01, 2007 See the 5-ft. bloom stalk on this plant? It’s not from the prickly pear you see in front, nor an agave, perhaps, hidden behind it. It’s the inflorescence of a Nolina lindheimeriana that I’d thought was Nolina texana until now, although I had often wondered why the ...

April 25, 2007 BSN’s modest sign welcomes visitors, along with roses tumbling over agave and prickly pear. Hmm, I wonder where I picked up that roses-and-cactus aesthetic? With sunny skies and warm, humid temperatures promising a typical spring day in Austin, I decided to pay a visit to an atypical ...

March 31, 2007 The lure of a good bluebonnet season enticed me into the Hill Country today. Around 2 pm, I headed west from Austin toward Fredericksburg, then up to Llano before returning home. Brown, nondescript roadsides along Hwy. 290 on the way to Fredericksburg had me worrying that I’d ...

March 26, 2007 Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis ) The state flower of Texas is coloring the roadsides blue. I came across this lovely patch along Balcones Drive. A true Hill Country sight. As Easter approaches, Austinites will be plunking their kids and even dogs in patches of bluebonnets along MoPac ...

March 23, 2007 Welcome back to our coop No, this isn’t an old post. Yes, I recently posted pics of my ‘Tangerine Beauty’ crossvine. But I can’t help it. The flowers are so exuberant right now that I can’t help but post about them again. Didn’t I say they were ...

March 08, 2007 Spiderwort. I just love these bluish purple flowers that appear in early spring and then die down beneath the summer perennials. So be prepared to see a lot more of them in the next few weeks. Yolanda Elizabet over at Bliss, a blog from the Netherlands, commented ...

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 ...

January 02, 2007 Barton Creek One of our favorite family activities in winter is a trail hike on one of Austin’s greenbelts or at St. Edward’s Park. This New Year’s Day, we decided on an early afternoon hike at the Barton Creek Greenbelt along the popular Twin Falls trail. It ...

January 02, 2007 Barton Creek One of our favorite family activities in winter is a trail hike on one of Austin’s greenbelts or at St. Edward’s Park. This New Year’s Day, we decided on an early afternoon hike at the Barton Creek Greenbelt along the popular Twin Falls trail. It ...

December 13, 2006 This is what winter looks like in Austin: autumn leaves persistently hanging on, ornamental grasses bending in a north breeze, evergreen live oaks and cedars (junipers, actually), and bright blue skies. It may not be everyone’s idea of a winter wonderland, but I love it. I visited ...

November 05, 2006 In the spirit of my recent Open Days tour, I took my camera along during an afternoon trip to Natural Gardener nursery for a pot of oxalis. It was a simple enough errand, and the cool, gray skies made a tour of the nursery’s gardens very appealing ...

November 04, 2006 Ageratina havanensis In the afternoon, my front garden is redolent with white mistflower, also known as white shrubby boneset, a Halloween-sounding name if I ever heard one. Its fragrance is not sweet but spicy and earthy. During the day, bees frolic in its sprays of white flowers ...

October 30, 2006 Please, sir, may I have some more? On Sunday evening we attended Goblins in the Garden, an annual Halloween event at the Wildflower Center. The city’s little haunters were out in force, and it was fun to see the volunteers running the event dressed in the spirit ...

September 19, 2006 Damianita foliage coming back after drought Why am I showing you a brown, twiggy, half-dead looking plant? Because I’m thrilled to see sprigs of greenery sprouting from those dead-looking twigs. Interplanted with Mexican feathergrass, damianita lines the hell-strip of my yard along the curb. It’s a tough, ...

June 29, 2006 Flame acanthus It’s back to the hot and muggy. The mosquitoes are happy and active. Despite the heat, I bundled up in a zipped jacket over jeans to photograph the garden this evening. I think it worked. The only exposed skin was on my face and my ...

June 29, 2006 Flame acanthus It’s back to the hot and muggy. The mosquitoes are happy and active. Despite the heat, I bundled up in a zipped jacket over jeans to photograph the garden this evening. I think it worked. The only exposed skin was on my face and my ...