I'll Remember A.P. R. I. L.

Antique Rose Emporium


When my friend Diane Goode first proposed that we make a trip to the Antique Rose Emporium the year was 1999 and I still lived in Illinois. Diane was the relocator assigned to help our family move to Texas and as we drove around looking at houses, our shared love of gardening helped us bond. It took us 11 years to get there but the Antique Rose Emporium was ours last week! I cut a few roses from my no-name tall pink climber and brought them along in hopes the experts could ID it for me.An overcast day and 70°F was perfect for driving nearly 100 miles to stroll the grounds near Brenham, Texas. We stayed for hours...

...reveling in the beautiful setting, inhaling the rose-scented air and enjoying the fabulously lovely wedding area, as our red wagons gradually filled with must-have plants from red columbines to bedding geraniums to Batface Cuphea to Foxgloves to 'John Fanick' phlox.


You can't go to the Rose Emporium and come home without a rose! Diane bought a hybrid musk rose called 'Penelope' and I could not resist the creamy white 'Climbing Iceberg' . It was late afternoon when we left and headed to Brenham for lunch and pie. What a wonderful day!


Pink-splosion was promised by 'Belinda's Dream' and she's delivered! This rose came with many recommendations when I planted it in the dry spring of 2008, never guessing that the drought would go on for another year and a half. 'Belinda's Dream' made a few flowers now and then but was not that exciting. But since the drought broke last fall, she's become established- acting like the plain secretary in an old movie- taking off her glasses, shaking out her tresses and revealing that she's a beauty, after all.

Reyna De Los Coyolles We took the southerly route back from the rose emporium, veering toward Bastrop, with our destination a place Diane had found on Highway 21 in Cedar Creek. I think that "Reyna De Los Coyolles" might mean "Queen of the Cannas", but if anyone knows for sure please tell everyone in a comment.


This is a fascinating & unusual nursery spread out over several acres. There are displays of beautiful pots and quirky decorations:You will see fields of growing plants in bloom:



There are perennials, daylilies and bulbs with the names of plants seldom written on labels but kept in order inside the nurserywoman Heidi's head. If the exact botanical name is important to you, you may have to do some research after you get home, but the variety of plants is stunning! Some things are already growing in containers - some will be dug for you once you choose them. Diane was thrilled to find a plant she remembers from her childhood growing at this nursery - she's been seeking a Cashmere Bouquet Flower for years.


Choosing a Louisiana Iris had me in a tizzy - how could I have just one color when I wanted them all?
But my garden is small and a decision had to be made - blue? Butter yellow?I've wanted a pale yellow iris for some time so this pale yellow Louisiana iris was the winner:Heidi also had gladiolus and Pineapple lilies - had to try one of those....and yay! there was a row of turtle stepping stones in the same design as one bought for our patio a few years ago. We wanted two but could never find another until now.


I'm still regretting that I did NOT buy one of the white & green amaryllis. Guess we'll just have to go back!
Iris siberica-

My blue violet passalong made it through last summer in good shape but there were fewer flowers than last year -

Every single one was beautiful.




Late start for the Divas of the Dirt in 2010 - our first project usually takes place in February, but this year we weren't able to garden together until April!

Please check out the Divas of the Dirt Blog where we make a front yard vegetable garden, redo the shade beds and have some wonderful food at Sophia's house.


Happy A P R I L!

A Visit to Plantescapes Nursery with MSS

While MSS was touring a castle in Wales, I was happy to babysit a few of her potted plants back in Austin. Most of the plants did okay - one thyme plant didn't live.
I was also happy to bring the plants back to her - because we'd get to visit and continue our September tradition of hitting a few fun South Austin places. MSS declared we must eat dessert first, so we went to Buenos Aires Cafe for soup, empanadas and Quatro Leches. (yes Quatro!! Tres was not enough!) We stopped at the oft-mentioned Great Outdoors Nursery where we bought a few pots and seeds and also visited a nursery new to me -

Plantescapes Nursery is in a house on South First - and it feels a little like visiting the home of a plant obsessed friend, who welcomes you at the door,
and then lets you wander around looking at the cool garden decor both stunning

and whimsical
MSS and I moved through areas with cactus and succulents

and onto other plants. I'd been thinking about buying another Pineapple Guava for the secret garden. My friend Diane first introduced me to this evergreen shrub - hers bears fruit in mild years. At Plantescapes I found a nice group of Pineapple Guava to choose from and then in another area I found a starter plant of Spicy Jatropha/ Jatropha integerrima 'Compacta' and decided to try that, too. There were also unusual ginger-type plants as well as natives. Inside the house you'll find rooms with unusual and eclectic decorations and furniture. I'm glad MSS introduced me to this smaller local nursery and maybe you'd like it, too. For the dog lovers in town an added attraction will be the chance to make the acquaintance of Scrappy.

It's A Blooming Mystery

Flowers bloom on their own time, a fact that seldom bothers me in my daily life as an Austin slacker. But now that I’ve become a Garden Blogger [note those capital letters!], I occasionally need blooms on my plants for a certain date – like last week's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on May 15th. Nothing makes me drag my feet more than a direct order to hustle, and my garden behaves no less stubbornly. That must be why the Rose of Sharon refused to open one single bud for the 15th, but opened a dozen flowers on the 17th, instead. Should I call it the "Roses of Sharon" since this is more than one shrub in a clump?

There were buds on the Hemerocallis ‘Prairie Blue Eyes’ by the 15th, but none opened until today. It’s not a fancy daylily by today’s standards, but I’ve loved it for a decade, bringing it to Texas from Illinois.

We Garden Bloggers have another scheduled event coming up - the Garden Bloggers book club is due by the end of May. Writing about the book, Passalong Plants, is easy – heck, I’ve even met one of the authors - Felder Rushing - but it’s not so easy to get flowers to open on time. I absolutely need photos of some passalong plants from my own garden to use as illustrations for this post, but will they get their act together and bloom within the next 11 days?

There’s no schedule involved for this next group of plants – just a hope that one of these days they’ll flower for me –

The Pineapple Guava above should bloom in spring – my friend Diane’s shrub was covered in its oddly beautiful flowers just a couple of weeks ago – but this young plant had a rough winter and was frozen back before it had a chance to make any blossoms. The botanical name is Feijoa sellowiana, so it is not actually a guava. Although it would be interesting to taste the fruit, described as Pineapple mixed with strawberry, I’m more interested in seeing the flowers.

Since this pomegranate has leafed out and I like the way the leaves and branches look, is it greedy to want delectable orange flowers, too? I’ll give this young tree one more year in this spot, but if it doesn’t bloom next spring – it will be transplant time the following fall.

Next we have a pair of non-blooming plants. The amarcrinum at right may take a few years to settle in and I’m not worried about it at all… but that perfect weed of a Brugmansia? Angel Trumpets are supposed to love water, sun and organic fertilizer, growing so quickly that even when cut to the ground over winter, they bulk up and hang long, fragrant bells. This one has been treated like a queen for a couple of seasons, given everything it wants, and if it was labeled correctly, someday the bells will be yellow.

I’ll ignore these poky plants, and pay attention to the ones in flower now – a couple of daylilies, annual moss roses, and the last of the larkspur; yellow Achillea, white and gold lantanas and the "Roses" of Sharon; short annual violet Verbenas and tall Verbena bonariensis, a sea of Salvias, budding Cannas and a Butterfly bush in bloom. The view from the back door is just fine today.


NURSERY NEWS
Many of us were dismayed to find that Kimas Tejas Nursery, southeast of Austin in the Bastrop area, had closed its doors last fall. But it wasn’t permanent – I had this news via email from the nursery:
Kimas Tejas has reopened on a seasonal basis. For the months of March, April, May and June, Kimas Tejas will be open Wednesday through Saturday, closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
The nursery will be closed for the months of July and August, then will reopen for the fall planting season in September, October and November. Then close for December, January and February.

THE NAMESAKE
One of these days I’m going to buy the DVD of Monsoon Wedding. Did anyone of you also see it? Have you had a special fondness for orange marigolds ever since? The director Mira Nair has a new movie in the theaters, which Philo and I enjoyed this week.
You might like it, too – The Namesake has some wonderful actors with memorable faces, is full of humor, intelligence and sadness, touching on the immigrant experience and Indian customs, separations and reunions, focusing on a coming-of-age story and several becoming-in-love stories. Mira Nair looks at things we’ve seen elsewhere, but from a different perspective. How many times have you seen the Taj Mahal in movies? A dozen times? Usually it looks like a postcard, but this time, it’s seen as the total of many designs and many parts, making us somehow recognize that individual people made those parts.

Felder Rushing at Florarama

The answer to all of the questions at the end of the last post is Yes! I did get to hear Felder Rushing speak in person. Philo & I did get to Florarama [AKA Zilker Garden Festival]. I bought the two replacement Duranta plants, and also found another Barleria-Philippine violet, a Pigeonberry, a Denver Gold columbine, a Dwarf myrtle, a Bletilla-ground orchid, another hot pepper for Philo, raffle tickets to benefit Zilker Park, and bought Felder Rushing’s book Tough Plants For Southern Gardens, seen above with my well-read copy of Passalong Plants, which I've scribbled in, stuffed with notes and filled with post-its.

You know, that passalong book has been in my possession since the middle nineties. It had me craving Crinum lilies and wanting Banana Shrubs/Michelias when I lived in Zone 5-Northern Illinois. I’ve read and reread it, and made lists of plants I’ve been given and plants that I've given away from three different gardens.

When Felder Rushing walked up to the podium and started talking it was like hearing an old friend – a very wise and funny friend. He talked of left-brain horticulture and right-brain gardening. He talked about his ancestors and his descendents, about plant societies and rules, bottle trees like Pam’s, using plants that want to grow where you live, told how to use plants in combinations, and then he shared the his “Gardeners’ Bill of Rights”, which was quite empowering! He introduced his radio partner, Dirt, who spent decades as a chef, but is now a radio gardener with very unusual advice, a mellow voice and very interesting stories.

Can you imagine how glad I was that we were in that audience?

Apparently with age comes boldness - because after the talk I not only asked Felder Rushing to sign my book, but mentioned that the Garden Bloggers' Book Club had chosen Passalong Plants as the next selection. I even gave him one of the little business cards Philo made for me with the girl-in-the-hat icon and my blog address.

This was my second burst of courage. Earlier in the day, I approached John Dromgoole [John is the garden guru I linked to in The Gardener’s Year post] and told him that there were a bunch of Austin Garden Bloggers who were fans, that we loved his nursery and that we had links to the Natural Gardener’s website on our blogs, so that people all over the country may have heard that rooster crow. And I gave him one of the little Annie cards, too.

For the Wisteria fans, let’s close with a photo of Zilker Botanical Garden’s method of dealing with this lovely, rampant vine. Their venerable Wisteria is pruned into a tree-form on a small, manmade island in the middle of a koi pond:

A REFERENCE POST - AUSTIN NURSERIES

There have been a few changes to this post - new information is in red.

This post lists addresses for local places where I’ve bought plants and supplies. Most of them are independent. I usually try to get things at an independent nursery first, but if I’m in a Lowe’s, I’ll check the plants out and also will look at the plants outside groceries like Sun Harvest or HEB. [Both Lowe’s and HEB grocery frequently carry some organic products.] I also go to sales held by a garden clubs and plant societies and to sales run by Austin organizations like the Wildflower Center; I've found many plants at the Spring festival at Zilker Park; it's now called Zilker Fest, but long-time Austinites may prefer the former name of Florarama.

John Dromgoole’s The Natural Gardener, far SW near Oak Hill, tons of plants, décor and supplies, including dig-your-own soil amendments. It’s an amazing place! Go there! John also has a call-in radio show and appears on television.
[If you're at work, turn down the sound, or your coworkers will hear a rooster crow.]

Garden-Ville for compost, potting soil, and dig-it-yourself decomposed granite, 10624 N FM 620, far NW Austin. Gardenville no longer lets people dig and bag the soils, composts, etc., themselves - we were there in May 2007. There's a chance they may allow it again if they can redesign the materials lot, making a separate loading area for small, hand dug orders; they wish to avoid having humans and machines working in the same area.

Sunset Valley Farmers Market has several vendors who sell interesting plants, including vegetables, herbs, banana plants, brugmansia, and perennials;

Red Barn Nursery, 12881 Pond Springs Rd, in NW Austin, perennials, annuals, vines, shrubs, trees. This area was originally called Jollyville, and the building was once the historical Thompson home. Some of the Divas of the Dirt remember when the grounds were a mini-golf course. Phone 335-8093.

Hill Country Nursery Gardens, 13561 Pond Springs Rd, in NW Austin, Trees, pots, plants, annuals, vegetable plants. Well-known for hanging baskets. Phone 512- 258-0093.

Countryside Nursery & Landscaping, 13292 Pond Springs Rd, NW Austin,
Perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees and a lot of organic products. Phone 512-249-0100

The Great Outdoors, 2730 S. Congress Ave. Central South Austin, plants and containers in a lovely setting, with a little venue for coffee & tea and stuff to go with them. See an enormous windchime hanging in a humongus live oak.

McIntire’s Garden Center, 303 Leander Rd, Georgetown, TX, an old fashioned place with roses up north of Austin

It's A Jungle, 907 Kramer Lane in North Austin off Lamar. Tons of roses, orchids and exotic plants.

Shoal Creek Nursery, Hancock Drive (between Mopac & Shoal Creek) Austin, TX 78746. Phone is 458-5909 .

Barton Springs Nursery, 3601 Bee Cave RdWest Lake Hills, TX 78746(512) 328-6655 is a favorite of many friends, including Austin Garden Bloggers. I need to get there, too!

Kimas Tejas Nursery , 962 State Highway 71E , Bastrop, Texas 78602, , far southeast, organic type place in the country, trees, plants and supplies http://www.texasgrown.com/ [Back in January, we heard that this nursery had closed. I had a note from Steve Bridges in May 2007, "We have since opened back up and will be here now on a seasonal basis; March, April, May, June – Wednesday thru Saturday, closed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Closed July and August. Open for fall in September, October and November. Closed December, January and February."]

MSStevens from Zanthan also recommends Sledd Nursery, near downtown Austin.
Last year we visited Floribunda, a design studio with gorgeous pots and unusual plants, 2041 South Lamar Blvd., Central South Austin.

Pam/Digging links to her list of nurseries on the right sidebar at her site
http://www.penick.net/digging

Gone But Not Forgotten

Marbridge Garden Center, part of the Marbridge Foundation in far south Austin used to sell lots of plants and unusual shrubs, but as of December 2006, Marbridge no longer sells plants to the public, reserving the gardens for horticultural therapy. Here is a link to the announcement:
http://www.marbridge.org/new/pages/gardencenter.htm

Living It Up In South Austin

Between too much fun with friends and too much to do in the garden there’s no time to write a real post. Should I write a big story of my own, or hop around the blogosphere reading what everyone else has written, leaving comments behind me? Guess which one won?
You see, I was a garden blog reader & commenter long before I was a blogger and I still want to visit everyone. If this post is very short, it’s because you’re all too interesting!

Earlier this summer I had to confess that I’d been in Austin for 7 years without ever lunching under the trees at the Shady Grove. MSS from Zanthan Gardens decided it was time for me to act like an true Austinite and drink a margarita on the patio. I wore one of my Hawaii shirts! It was incredibly relaxing and conducive to conversation! I feel hipper already! [After eating an enormous mushroom burger, maybe that’s actually 'hippy-er'.] Thank you, M!

Wandering around Floribunda was another South Austin experience to savor. I got to sit on the grass sofa and admire their imaginative nursery. Isn’t the entrance agave amazing?
Floribunda had an enormous selection of colorful ceramic pots too. I found one that will be just right for repotting my old Jade plant.

That’s it – I need to take photos of my ‘sort-of’ Veranda for another post on another day. It's not like the wrap-around porches that adorned the houses in Susan's Charleston story at GardenRant, but it counts for a veranda in this family.

Howard's Tall Farewell

The left half of our back yard had an open area in the middle that was mainly grass until this spring. This space is irregular, approximately 22’ X 25’ at the widest points. You walk through it every time you enter the gate, or exit the house, or go over to the mixed border and the vegetable garden. We cross through that area many times a day and also see it from the breakfast room, from the patio and from the shady bench under the peach tree.

Because this middle area was so sunny, the grass needed regular watering, unlike the grass in shadier areas. If I’m going to water, I want something more than grass! Last year we planted a ‘Little Gem’ Magnolia at one end of this space, adding the gloss of dark green leaves and a few fragrant white flowers, but at barely five feet, it will take a few years for this tree to make any vertical impact or cast shade. This spring, we made a new long bed that includes the magnolia, a Texas Mountain Laurel, salvias, Lemon verbena and other plants.

In April, we added instant height to the bed when Philo and I found a 7 and ½ foot-tall obelisk at Howard Nursery on Koenig Lane. Howard’s has been a great source for shrubs, flowers and fun gift items. Although the new structure is taller than anything else on that side of the yard, it was rapidly climbed and entwined by the second Snail Vine.

When we bought the obelisk in April, we passed up some tempting roses. Now I really regret that lost opportunity. Our most recent trip to Howard’s was for their closing sale, where I bought a one-gallon Weigela as a sort of souvenir. It will have to be in a container for now, but it may live and someday bloom, reminding me of a loved-and-lost Austin nursery.