Catch me on CTG, at Wildflower Center book-signing & more!
October 13, 2016 It’s back-to-the-garden time in Texas, and it’s also garden-talk season! I’m making a few appearances around Texas this fall (see below), and you can also catch me this weekend on Austin’s own Central Texas Gardener TV show. Last fall, right before my garden was on tour, CTG ...
Silobration at Magnolia Market and Fixer Upper fandom
October 12, 2016 Uninitiated into the world of Chip and Joanna Gaines and their HGTV show Fixer Upper because we don’t have cable TV, I’d nevertheless picked up an inkling of their popularity from fellow bloggers and multiple magazine features. So when we were in Waco last Saturday for one ...
Spiky plant love, decor and more
October 05, 2016 Check out my neighbor’s beautiful blue rose of an agave, which I planted for her several years ago. Yes, you guessed it: it’s a whale’s tongue agave (A. ovatifolia), and it’s quickly grown into a truly stunning specimen. Surrounded by minty-leaved autumn sage (Salvia greggii), it has ...
Blazing oxblood lilies, new Moby, & cool bugs
September 29, 2016 Wow, what gorgeous weather we’ve been having: sunny, low humidity, and perfect for getting outside, whether to plant, doze in a chair, or just gaze at the garden as it moves into its second spring. The showiest plants in my garden this week are the oxblood lilies ...
Fall in the air has oxblood lilies popping up
September 27, 2016 Finally! An honest-to-goodness cool front has pushed the awful heat out, and we’re enjoying some rain and 70-something temperatures here in Austin. In response, the oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida), which were tentatively pushing up last week, have burst joyously into bloom. I like their rich red trumpets ...
Spider lilies are up
September 19, 2016 So much for calling the end of summer. It’s been as hot as Georgia asphalt for the past week, and I’ve been out in it every day, getting the garden in shape for fall. At least it’s given me a chance to appreciate the spider lilies (Lycoris ...
The berry good season
September 08, 2016 I’m calling it. We’re over the hump of Death Star Summer and sliding into mellow fall. I know, it’s not exactly mellow out there yet, but I can feel it coming. Can’t you? The beautyberries do. In the lower garden, black beautyberry (Callicarpa acuminata) is laden with ...
Plant This: Little Grapes gomphrena
January 18, 2016 Since first planting it at Green Hall Garden in 2008, I’ve known this delicately branching gomphrena cultivar as ‘Grapes’, but it also goes by ‘Little Grapes’, ‘Itsy Bitsy’, and airy bachelor’s buttons. By any name, it’s a moderately reliable perennial in my fall garden, sometimes remaining in ...
Peak fall color before the wash-out
December 13, 2015 A rainstorm overnight knocked a lot of the leaves down, so I’m especially glad I took these pictures yesterday afternoon. The ‘Wonderful’ pomegranate was glowing golden under gray skies, echoing the yellow stripes on the ‘Color Guard’ yuccas. A golden puddle of leaves at its feet. The ...
Decked and swinging at the Wildflower Center
December 10, 2015 The weather has been so beautiful lately — Austin’s payoff for making it through another summer. Last Sunday, the whole family joined me for an afternoon stroll at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, one of my very favorite places. Right now it’s a mix of fall ...
Smart, water-saving landscaping at UT’s Dealey Center
December 08, 2015 On a chilly, rainy Saturday in mid-November — a quiet traffic day — I headed to the University of Texas campus and actually found street parking at the G. B. Dealey Center for New Media (renamed from the Belo Center in 2021), whose landscaping I’ve wanted to ...
Autumn color at Barton Creek
December 01, 2015 Fall finally arrives in Austin along with the holiday celebrations. The quiet beauty of Barton Creek overhung with mellow-leaved trees, with Lady Bird Lake in the distance, caught my eye as we walked to the Zilker Tree Lighting yesterday evening. Cedar elms, flameleaf sumacs, and crepe myrtles ...
Blowsy autumn beauty at Rollingwood Waterwise Garden
November 18, 2015 Last Saturday, a drizzly, cool day, I returned to the West Austin neighborhood of Rollingwood to see how the waterwise garden at city hall had fared over the summer. Designed by Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden, the garden was installed two years ago. Following an initial ...
Foliage Follow-Up in Zilker’s Japanese Garden
November 16, 2015 It’s a little early for fall color, such as we get here in Austin. But this Japanese maple at Zilker Botanical Garden is getting a jump on the season. Red leaves mingle with green Shades of green still predominate in the Taniguchi Japanese Garden. I’ve always liked ...
Foliage Follow-Up in Zilker's Japanese Garden
November 16, 2015 It’s a little early for fall color, such as we get here in Austin. But this Japanese maple at Zilker Botanical Garden is getting a jump on the season. Red leaves mingle with green Shades of green still predominate in the Taniguchi Japanese Garden. I’ve always liked ...
Fall flowery goodness at Zilker Botanical Garden
November 15, 2015 For your Bloom Day viewing pleasure, how about a return visit to Zilker Botanical Garden? Colorful subtropical perennials surround the parking lot, giving visitors a nice blast of color as they walk in. Here’s ever-popular yellow bells (Tecoma stans), with the purple blooms of fall aster (Symphyotrichum ...
