Spring has sprung?
‘Amethyst’ iris
I confess. I’ve been a negligent gardener lately. The kids have been home, we’ve been on vacation, we’ve had family and friend get-togethers, it’s been rainy and cool part of the time . . . . Yes, I know—poor excuses for not taking a good look at my garden since mid-December. Mea culpa!
So imagine my surprise when I glanced out the window of my home office this afternoon and saw a purple iris in bloom. I hadn’t even noticed that it was budding! Well, that sight got my lazy self out the door with camera in hand to see what else is going on. Quite a lot, actually. “Quite a lot” is not unusual for Austin gardeners in January, as we often have sunny, mild (even up to 90-degree) winter weather, mixed liberally with cooler, rainy weather and the occasional hard freeze.
Another look at the iris
It’s been cool but not cold for the last several weeks, and the plants in my sunny, front garden are falling for the same old trick of nature. They think it’s early spring. The iris is blooming. The daffodils are nosing up. The purple coneflowers have never stopped blooming since last summer. Some of the salvia greggiis are blooming. Even the lantana, one of the first to get browned back in a freeze, is putting out new leaves.
New growth on the orange lantana
I know good and well that another freeze (maybe only one, but probably a couple) will occur, probably around late February, when the garden is really getting frisky again. Ah, well. The vagaries of weather make life in the garden interesting. Here’s what’s blooming right now.
Hymenoxys, or four-nerve daisy
Purple coneflower
Salvia greggii , or Autumn sage (misnamed, as it blooms off and on all year, but especially in spring and fall)
Wow! Texas has it going on! California, supposedly the flower of the winter gardening set is looking pretty glum by comparison. I got some paperwhites and some snowbells coming up, but that is about it. Usually the daffodils have started to come up, but even they seem to be moving slowly this year.
Great pictures!
Douglas
Thanks, Douglas. So California is late blooming this year, and Texas is early. Or at least my little slice of Texas is early. My parcel of dirt is located in the warmest part of Austin, so other hometown gardeners may not be seeing the same early growth. But I know that Annie in Austin also has an iris in bud right now. —Pam
Oh Pam, you sure must be warmer than my NW corner! Although I do have one iris bud, the coneflower tops all froze, leaving a rosette of live growth at the very base – ditto for the perennial sages – Salvias guaranitica, ‘Black & Blue’ and ‘Elegans’/Pineapple sage. All the Cupheas have dead tops, with green basal leaves. The Duranta looks dead rather than dormant, one of the Esperanza/Tecoma/Yellow Bells died outright, and the lemon verbena and Barbados cherry lost all their leaves.
Only one of the Salvias greggii is blooming; the others need shearing of browned and leafless branch ends. There are a few flowers around: paperwhites, the dependable pansies, several colors of dianthus in containers, the Camellia japonica, two Sweet Olives and nosegays of little Purple-leaved oxalis.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
My salvia guaranitica has died back too, as have my cupheas, though the pink one you gave me recently still has a rosette of green leaves. I also have lots of happy oxalis and a few pansies. My Barbados cherry is still fully clothed, and the chile pequin, sheltered under the vitex, is still half-green and full of overripe red peppers. I still have a lot of green : rose bushes, Mexican oregano, salvia greggii, artemesia (silver), agaves. No roses right now. —Pam
Keep those flower pictures comin’!
Love your blog and photos! Those ice photos are really cool. And I really enjoyed your entry and photos about painting garden accessories with COLOR:D
Thanks, Julia. I’m glad you stopped by. —Pam