Woodland tapestry: Jay Sifford’s garden of foliage, art, and light
April 18, 2019 During a family visit to Charlotte, North Carolina, last weekend, I took the opportunity to visit the garden of designer Jay Sifford, an online friend who graciously offered up his morning for a visit. When thunderstorms rumbled all morning, we pushed it to early afternoon. I arrived ...
Spring marvels and cleanup
April 17, 2019 April unfurls new marvels to appreciate each day, like the glaucous berries of ‘Marvel’ mahonia that appeared after its yellow flowers faded in late winter. I’ve been trialing ‘Marvel’ mahonia from Southern Living Plant Collection since fall 2017. A handsome evergreen, it’s thriving in a tall container ...
Winter bees and flowers
January 08, 2019 Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean bees disappear. Warm winter days draw them back into the garden, where cool-season flowers lure them with nectar and pollen. Mahonia flowers in the winter here in Texas. This is ‘Marvel’, a new-to-me mahonia I’m trialing from Southern Living Plant Collection ...
Waterwise beauty and metal animal safari in Linda Peterson’s San Antonio garden
December 05, 2018 An invitation to Linda Peterson’s garden in San Antonio proved too tempting a treat to resist on the day before Halloween. I arrived in San Antonio in time to tour the terrific new culinary and adventure gardens at San Antonio Botanical Garden before heading over to Linda’s mint-green ...
Topiary meadow and sunken pond garden at Great Dixter, part 2
August 14, 2018 In part 1 of my recap of my tour of Great Dixter in England earlier this summer, I confessed that I didn’t like the overplanted, claustrophobic feeling of the Peacock Garden and surrounding hedged gardens. But I found breathing room and the longer views I’d craved along ...
Close encounters of the plant kind at Great Dixter garden, part 1
August 13, 2018 After spending the morning at Sissinghurst, during our travels in mid-June, we drove a half-hour to Great Dixter, another famous English home and garden at the top of my must-see list. The family home of gardener and garden writer Christopher Lloyd, who died in 2006, Great Dixter ...
Tea in Rosemary Verey’s garden at Barnsley House
July 30, 2018 Elton John worked with her on his garden. Prince Charles too. I’m sure everyone who knows anything about garden design or English gardens knows of the late Rosemary Verey. But I confess I knew nothing of her when I visited the famous designer and author’s former home ...
Shopping and English breakfast at Burford Garden Company
July 25, 2018 Before we visited Victoria Summerley’s garden in Bibury, England, last month, we stopped along the way at Burford Garden Company, a nursery, home decor, clothing, furniture, kitchenware, and gift shop. Oh, and did I mention they have a restaurant too? The place is huge, with a diversity ...
Cotswolds country charm at Victoria Summerley’s Awkward Hill Cottage
July 19, 2018 It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that my family and I traveled to England last month to see gardens. Particularly, romantic English gardens in the rosy flush of June. And specifically, three gardens I’ve longed to see for years: the famous estate gardens Sissinghurst and Great ...
Hedge fun: The Italian Renaissance garden of Château d’Ambleville
July 05, 2018 So many châteaux (manor houses, mostly, but also palaces and castles) litter the French countryside that today some can be purchased for a relative song. We were not looking to buy, however, but merely to visit a couple of châteaux in mid-June, after our tour of Monet’s ...
A little Palm Springs, a little New Orleans, all Texas in the garden of Curt Arnette
May 16, 2018 I’ve been after my friend Curt Arnette, landscape-architect owner of Sitio Design, to open his personal garden on tour for years. But because he likes to change things up at home (plus being busy with his work projects), he’s always said it wasn’t ready. Persistence pays off, ...
Does my garden look tasty to does?
April 25, 2018 Does the aloe that’s flowering like a coral-colored candelabra look yummy? Does that yucca bloom spike look tasty? Does the yellow bulbine look succulicious? Does the yellow puffball on the goldenball leadtree (Leucaena retusa) — the first time it’s ever bloomed! — look scrumptious? Probably not, actually ...
Spring flowerings in my garden
March 27, 2018 The mountain laurels and redbuds and plums are done. Carolina jessamine is done. But ‘Tangerine Beauty’ crossvine (Bignonia capreolata ‘Tangerine Beauty’) is hitting its stride as we move into mid-spring here in Central Texas. It looks especially fetching alongside the burgundy leaves of Loropetalum chinense ‘Sizzling Pink’ ...
Flowering trees and Athena the owl at the Wildflower Center
March 22, 2018 Texas mountain laurel, one of our finest native flowering trees Whether you’re hunkered under a blanket of snow or your gardening season is well underway, let’s pause to appreciate the beauty of spring-flowering trees and other gorgeous native plants at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center here ...
New leaves coming up, old leaves coming down
March 16, 2018 Spring looks a lot like fall in my garden, as this photo shows: fresh green leaves surrounded by brown live oak leaves. Live oaks stay green all winter, like an evergreen tree, but come spring they do actually drop their leaves and swiftly leaf out again. Casting ...
Abuzz over gopher plant, plus new plants!
March 14, 2018 Honeybees are out in force, and gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida) is one of their early spring favorites. I’m abuzz over gopher plant’s chartreuse bracts and yellow flowers too — so sunny on these early spring days. Lemon-lime rules out front right now, with ‘Color Guard’ yucca, gopher ...
