Flowers

May 27, 2020 The early summer flowers are strutting their stuff, so come along for a virtual tour! Here’s dazzling ‘Peter’s Purple’ monarda (Monarda fistulosa ‘Peter’s Purple’) in the driveway bed. It was a breezy day. Looking toward the neighbors’ house and their fast-growing Yucca rostrata In the shady island bed ...

May 24, 2020 After years of coveting oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) I’d seen in other Austin gardens, I found a shady, relatively moist spot to plant one of my own. Near an air-conditioning unit’s condensate discharge, which directs water toward this bed, and shaded by a large crape myrtle, this ...

May 11, 2020 Bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and other early wildflowers bloomed in solitude this spring at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which closed in mid-March due to the pandemic and Austin’s shelter-in-place order. Happily, the gardens reopened last weekend to members, who must reserve in advance a specific arrival ...

May 07, 2020 It turns out a 6-foot-tall stand of Verbena bonariensis is all you need to dispel traces of coronafunk. For years I’ve grown tall verbena in a halfhearted, one-plant-in-part-shade way. Not bad. But now — shazam! — a mass of it in the Circle Garden delights me whenever ...

May 01, 2020 Slow-growing Coahuila lace cactus (Echinocereus pectinatus var. coahuila) bloomed in one of my wall planters recently. Tight quarters and dry, gravelly soil don’t bother cacti and succulents (that’s a little ghost plant tucked in there with it), which makes them perfect for small containers. Speaking of slow-growing, here’s how ...

April 27, 2020 My seed-grown ‘Lauren’s Grape’ poppies debuted a week ago, to my delight. In my first blog post about them, I hoped temperatures would remain mild to keep the flowers going. Instead Austin hit a record high of 98 F! Still, the poppies kept popping. I babied them, ...

April 20, 2020 A corona of a non-viral kind tops mammillaria cactus in bloom. It’s a crown of jewel-toned flowers! This particular specimen elicited chuckles from certain dirty-minded members of my family, when I cajoled them outside to see the cacti in bloom. All I see is a ’60s flower ...

April 19, 2020 I’m not a big seed sower. A well-mulched, shady garden isn’t really conducive to growing plants from seed. But last fall, having pulled out a few under-performing plants from the back garden’s raised beds, I had a few square feet of bare soil at my disposal. Fishing ...

April 16, 2020 Taking out the stock-tank pond opened up a partly sunny spot in my shady garden. You can bet I wasn’t going to let that go to waste! Inside a new circle of diminutive ‘Micron’ hollies, which echo the form of ‘Winter Gem’ boxwoods at the entryways, I ...

April 12, 2020 This Easter Sunday, we can’t join family and friends around the table or at church. We’re worried about big stuff like losing jobs and getting sick, as well as smaller stuff like finding flour and toilet paper at the grocery store. We’re missing springtime rituals like buying ...

March 25, 2020 Before Austin’s shelter-in-place (i.e., stay-at-home) order went out yesterday, I grabbed my camera and hopped in the car with our Italian high-school exchange student to find a nice field of bluebonnets a friend had told me about. We soon located a denim-blue field of dreams. As it ...

March 07, 2020 Responding to warm temps and a good rain this week, the garden is awash with new growth and pockets of spring color, like glowing yellow bulbine. Mild winter temps didn’t kill it back, and now each bloom spike is a yellow sunbeam. The coral-red flowers of ‘Blue ...

January 30, 2020 Winter in my garden brings the sweet flowers of abutilon, or flowering maple. I used to have several different varieties, but harsher winters or drought killed many of them off. ‘Bartley Schwarz’ is not only a survivor but my favorite for its glowing, cantaloupe-colored flowers that dangle ...

November 13, 2019 Before the big freeze I squeezed in a short visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, unintentionally joining throngs of families streaming in to explore Fortlandia on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I’d intended to photograph both the flowering gardens and Fortlandia but decided to save the ...

October 23, 2019 First the good: my yellow spider lilies (Lycoris aurea) are at peak bloom. Every flower has opened and seems filled with golden sunlight. They thrill me every time I look though my office window or step out onto the back patio. Shazam! Cosmo had to get in ...

October 19, 2019 Golden hour is a lot more golden when yellow spider lilies (Lycoris aurea) are blooming. Even after a hot, dry summer, these tough but glorious bulbs popped up right on schedule with our first fall rain. Each day brings new flowers as tardier blossoms continue to unfurl ...