Foliage Follow-Up

June 16, 2014 Now that the Death Star is lasering central Texas with its high beam again, I appreciate more than ever those visually cooling, heat-loving, drought-tolerant plants in my garden. Silver ironweed (Vernonia lindheimeri var. leucophylla) is a beautiful example. With fine-textured, almost feathery, silver-white leaves, it stands up ...

May 16, 2014 After the deep freeze that Austin experienced last winter, I had to replace three-quarters of the succulents in my cinderblock wall planter (click for the how-to) this spring. It’s still a bit sparse, but it’s nice to see all that pinchable — like a plump baby’s cheek ...

April 16, 2014 ‘Will Fleming’ yaupon (Ilex vomitoria ‘Will Fleming’), a fastigiate cultivar of our native yaupon holly, is one of my go-to vertical accent plants. It’s a green punctuation mark, ideal for adding height to a flat bed or using in multiples as a narrow hedge to screen an ...

March 16, 2014 Hey, all you leaf lovers! Today is Foliage Follow-Up, and I had fun with my zoom lens in two foliage-driven sections of my garden. Oh, who am I kidding? All of my garden is foliage-driven. Sometimes I regret not having a big, seasonal flower display, but I’m ...

February 15, 2014 I’m posting for Foliage Follow-Up a day early this month because tomorrow I’m participating in a book release party and giveaway. But I couldn’t let our monthly celebration of leafy goodness slip away without a post. February is a turning point in the Austin gardening calendar. We ...

January 16, 2014 It looks handsome all year, but winter is when I really admire Chinese mahonia’s upright form and narrow, pointed, evergreen leaves. It helps to green up the winter garden, and at about 4 feet tall it makes a good foundation plant that won’t try to eat your ...

December 16, 2013 Edged with mellow-yellow stripes, Yucca filamentosa ‘Bright Edge’ adds a little sunshine to my garden on chilly winter days. Evergreen, drought tolerant, deer resistant, heat loving, and cold tolerant to US hardiness zone 4 or 5, ‘Bright Edge’ proves adaptable to everything except shade and damp soil ...

November 16, 2013 A feathery, chartreuse cloud in the garden, bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa) is my favorite ornamental grass for hot, dry, sunny spots, where it grows vase-like to 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, tall enough to make a pretty border along the driveway, perhaps, hiding the neighbor’s ...

October 16, 2013 Billowy, chartreuse clouds of bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa), shimmering balls of Yucca rostrata, Mickey Mouse-eared prickly pears, feathery firecracker fern (Russelia equisetiformis), and a silver carpet of ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea): could you ask for a more striking, drought-tolerant garden for a full-sun, fast-draining site in central Texas? ...

September 16, 2013 I know I keep coming back to this part of my garden for Foliage Follow-Up, but I just can’t help it. Planted earlier this year, its growth has been explosive, especially of the silvery groundcover pictured here, our native woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata). Here’s another look. Silver-green ...

August 16, 2013 I’ve promised a post about my new Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa) lawn, but it’s filling in so slowly that I keep putting it off, waiting for better “after” pics. I swear I will post all about it this fall. But in honor of Foliage Follow-Up, here’s a ...

July 16, 2013 Heck, I don’t know what these plants are except that the green, grassy plant at bottom is probably some type of rush (Juncus). All I know is that the combo made my heart sing when I spotted it while touring gardens at the San Francisco Garden Bloggers ...

June 16, 2013 It’s so simple, but I really enjoy this collection of potted plants on my back steps. I can see them from my bedroom and living room windows, and they’re a focal point when sitting outside on the upper patio. I just chose single plants to pot up ...

May 16, 2013 I’m in the midst of posting about an Austin garden tour this week, but I’m taking a break today for Foliage Follow-Up. Still inspired by the garden at Highland Terrace West, I’m showing another view of this living still life — white, ceramic containers planted up with ...

April 16, 2013 In the wake of the bombing in Boston yesterday, putting together a Foliage Follow-Up post seemed awfully trivial, and I didn’t have the heart for it last night, even though I’d already taken my photos that morning. As the wife of a former marathoner, I’ve stood at ...

March 16, 2013 For Foliage Follow-Up this month, I offer up a leafy extravaganza from the conservatory at San Antonio Botanical Garden, which I visited last weekend (for more SABG pics, click here). This is the fern room, a humid, tropical study in lines and texture. Many of the plants ...