The Whitebud is Late for March GBBD

Welcome to a pretty good Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post for May Dreams Carol! Spring looks more normal this year after rains have lessened the drought - my garden has more flowers than a sensible person could expect after the last 3 years, surviving hail, record heat, record drought, record cold and a sideswipe from Hurricane Hermione. The green of annual grasses gives the look of a lawn. The coral honeysuckle- Lady Banks rose combo on the arch are once again in synch
There was enough moisture to make Bluebonnet seeds sprout and grow. Salvia greggii is starting to bloom, the Blackfoot daisies lived through winter, the larkspur has buds, the white iris flowered and the cilantro is bolting. The first fragrant peach iris opened today
After months of bloom, the Loropetalum/Chinese witch hazel is still adding color - this time with bright new leavesBattered but alive, the Banana Shrub scents the air and makes me smileSomething happened to the native Mock Orange that has suckered along both sides of the fence - a lot has died. But there's a big chunk living and blooming still.
In 2011 the Meyer's Lemon tree against the garage wall was frozen, nearly died and had no flowers. In 2012 it reaches to the roofline and has hundreds of buds ready to open.
Last year the Texas Mountain laurel froze but it was beautiful this year
The native Four-Nerve daisies haven't stopped flowering for months so no surprise there... but when the also hyphenated Blue-Eyed grass lives and blooms again it's an event!
I bought a native Mexican Buckeye last spring, then chickened out as the heat came on, moving it into a larger container rather than planting it in the hard, hot earth. Last month with softened ground and more hope in our hearts Philo & I set it out under where the canopy of a live oak will shade it in afternoon. It's a small shrub so we had to look down to see the flowers.
Texas redbud and old-fashioned Spiraea are paired again
But the Whitebud is not only late for bloom day - it must be permanently known as the Late Whitebud. The flowers were beautiful in the March 2011 post for GBBD, but the tree was already in its final decline. The garden is named Circus ~ Cercis for the 3 kinds of redbuds but the star is gone! Tom Waits once sang
"tell me who will put flowers
On a flower's grave"

Actually, most gardeners do it all the time, planting new flowers when something dies. I dried my tears and bought a 'Muskogee' crepe myrtle, hoping it will handle the harsh west winds and sun in that front bed. When my turn as hostess for The Divas of the Dirt came last November, in addition to making hypertufa troughs we planted the new tree forward of the spot where the whitebud once grew. The leaves will not be heart-shaped but with luck the blooms will be beautiful.
A complete list of blooms with botanical names is posted on my Annie's Addendum blog.

(The lyrics for Flowers Grave can be found at the Tom Waits website and the song is on YouTube. )

A Very Merry Un-Bloom Day for March 2011

The UN in Un-Bloom Day doesn't mean there are no flowers - it's just a little riff on the Unbirthday party in Alice in Wonderland - a way to remind myself that the flowers weren't around for 'Official' Garden Blogger Bloom Day on the 15th. If you're still interested, last week I made a GBBD list for Annie's Addendum, but this week it is Full-On Spring here in Austin - nights in mid-60's F and windy, dry days in the mid-eighties making bluebonnets and Texas Paintbrush pop.

The Divas of the Dirt have had a couple of projects; it's nursery-hopping season; with no rain many hours must be spent soaking, composting and mulching beds, and it's also the season for visiting friends' gardens in the real world. And since the Coral Honeysuckle and Ladybanks Rose are once again blooming together in that real world, it's way past time to make a post in the virtual world.

The parade of dead and damaged plants is still straggling past - the larger Bay Laurel still looks dead and so does one of the Southern Wax myrtles. And the Mediterranean Palm took a real hit. I cut off the dead fronds and used a dolly to wheel the remaining stump from the patio to a more obscure area with best wishes for recuperation.

This week has fried the blossoms but last week the Texas Whitebud was lovely!

The Texas Redbud came into bloom with the lance-leafed Bridal Wreath spiraea... next up will be a similar, shorter white spiraea with rounder, scalloped leaves.
I like 'Thalia' daffodil so much that it's planted in little clumps all over the garden, some in sun and some in part shade. The first to open are already done but the last ones opened yesterday.
White iris - an old passalong type tentatively identified as Iris albicans - is usually the first one of the bearded types to open.


The second triangle has a little bit of everything - bluebonnets from seeds that MSS of Zanthan Gardens gave me, a Texas Paintbrush, Blackfoot Daisies (one survivor and one new), annual white and purple phlox (the cultivar is humorously named 'Twentieth Century Phlox'), Salvia greggii not yet blooming, seedling cosmos with 'Amethyst Flame' iris from Pam/Digging in the background.

A few more bluebonnets grow in the sunny end of the Yaupon border - this time with a Four-Nerve Daisy/Tetraneuris scaposa and some very happy Phlox subulata/Creeping phlox in a lavender shade.


The center of that bed is sunny now, but once the pecan trees leaf out it will be shady. That's where I planted the sticklike 'Snow Queen' Oakleaf hydrangea about 1 year ago, with fingers crossed that it had survived January 2010 in a container. February 2011 was even worse for cold, but the Oakleaf hydrangea had settled in and breezed through.

Look at that developing flower head!

In the mixed sun-and-shade of the long fence bed a few Persian ranunculus survived February 2011, too - but just a few. Many more froze and dried up. I really like this white one

And this clump of yellow ranunculus is back for the 4th springAt the back of this bed we planted a 'Ramona' clematis on a metal trellis a little more than a year ago. I hope the flowers come slowly, because the 'Julia Child' rose is slow this spring, and the combination of 'Ramona' and 'Julia' was spectacular last year.

Near the birdbath fountain another Four-Nerve daisy has not only survived but increased... joined by a sweet little Blue-Eyed grass from Barton Springs Nursery.

Not all the native plants did so well - although all four of the Texas Mountain Laurel plants survived the freezes, only one tiny floret was left unfrozen from the buds set last year.

I couldn't resist a Blue Sky Vine on sale, also at Barton Springs Nursery. It may not be hardy here, but garden forums suggest growing it in a container until fall, chopping it down to 2-feet and bringing the pot into the garage for winter. I'm giving that a try - it's now in a container next to the white arch in the Secret Garden, looking quite at home.
We bought tomato plants at Natural Gardener and Shoal Creek Nursery a while ago, grew them on in larger pots for awhile and planted them last week. Some of the peppers are in, but some are still in the pots until April. That worked pretty well last year.

There are more plants in bloom but the one that said Spring to me today was this small-flowered member of the Magnolia family, bought in 2004 as a starter shrub at Red Barn Garden Center and now 7-feet tall. At various times it's been called Magnolia fuscata, Michelia fuscata, and Michelia figo, (Michelia always makes me think of May Dreams Carol), but it seems to be now called Magnolia figo... at least this week. I haven't been a very good Garden Blogger this month - more like the White Rabbit saying "I'm Late, I'm Late"- but I'm still trying to be a good Gardener!

Happy Spring, everyone!