Good Things Emerge in April

Last night the predicted temperatures ranged from low 40's to mid 30's F. We weren't worried that the vegetables would freeze, but tomato & pepper plants sometimes sulk after being that cold so we rigged up some sheets and curtains - hopefully for the last time this spring. Since the thermometer showed 38°F it was worth the effort.

Early this morning the tent was still up -that cloud of white is Philadelphus inodorus, the native Southern scentless mockorange, single-flowered, and a beautiful background shrub for a fence. We've just about finished playing 'Dead or Dormant' here at Circus~Cercis, with only a few plants whose fate is undecided. My head is telling me the big Bay Laurel is dead as a doornail, but my heart made me pretend it's dormant for now. Some plants don't need pretending - they're alive!

Whether called Clerodendrum ugandense, Rotheca myricoides 'Ugandense', Blue Butterfly Bush or Blue Glory Bower, it looks as if we'll have Blue Butterfly flowers here. Although the large container I bought last summer froze badly, one sprout has emerged and a few cuttings that I took last fall seem to be rooting.

Even better, the original plant that had looked like a goner after the February deep freezes was tougher than expected - three new sprouts are emerging.
In the long fence bed the Dietes bicolor/ Bicolor iris was alive, but barely half the blades were green. When I bought this plant it was labeled as a Butterfly Iris /Dietes grandiflora - that's the one I wanted, but Bicolor Iris is what I got. So a plant I didn't want in the first place was badly winterkilled two years in a row and it never even bloomed in 2010. I decided to just dig the whole thing up - even had the garden fork ready, then a closer look showed not just one but 4 flower stalks.
How could I trash a plant that was making such an effort? I set to work with garden scissors and spent 40 minutes making it presentable. A few days later the open flower still seems more interesting than beautiful, but the plant can stay for now. The 'Marilyn's Choice' abutilon was shrub-sized last December, then possibly dead in March and now just a few inches tall. But at least this abutilon is alive - unlike 'Patrick's' abutilon -definitely dead, not dormant.
Last spring the 'Ramona' clematis began to bloom almost exactly the same minute that the 'Julia Child' floribunda roses started - a spectacular combination. This year Ramona jumped the gun and was more than half open by last weekend. The many buds on 'Julia Child' were barely showing color yesterday: ... but today it looks as she's shouting Hey, Ramona - Wait for me!
Our Texas Superstar shrub rose 'Belinda's Dream' came through rough weather and is covered in buds - here's Belinda in the area rather grandly designated as The Pink Entrance Garden:
In 2006 I bought a 1-gallon pot with a starter plant of Weigela 'Rumba' at the closing sale for Howard Nursery on Koenig Lane. The stock was down to just a few plants so I picked it up for sentimental reasons - in Illinois we called it 'Cardinal Bush' - not expecting it to live long. But here it is, at 30" tall, slightly larger than last year, and blooming for the 5th spring not far from 'Belinda's Dream'.It's annoying that the Hesperaloe/ Red yucca at lower left has not been inspired to floral display by its neighbors... although alive and larger than last year, this native plant has produced the desired tall spires of coral-pink-red flowers only once in 6 springs.
I pruned the large Mutabilis rose quite severely in mid-February which only made it bloom more - and the scent in the front butterfly border is wonderful. This is its 4th year in the ground. See that spot of orange to the left of the birdbath base? It's a Texas Paintbrush, back for the 3rd spring.
Mutabilis, my sweet baby... Happy April & welcome back!

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!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, April 2009

This bloom day is better than I thought it would be a couple of weeks ago - the garden is hail-scarred but the buds that weren't knocked off keep opening.Seven amaryllis from long-ago Christmases grow in the bulb bed - four are in bud and this one opened today. Some have no leaves left at all.


'Julia Child' lost a lot of leaves and I found a dozen unopened buds on the ground the morning after the hail. But she's releafing and there were many more buds in reserve.



The unnamed tall pink climbing rose grows under the roof overhang - unharmed and happy. The flowers seem much larger than last year... maybe because I remembered to fertilize it last month?



Out on the patio, one blossom opened on the smaller Pineapple guava/Feijoa sellowiana. This plant and a more established one in the Secret Garden were bashed pretty hard, especially toward the top of the shrubs. But nearer the base of each plant a few buds were sheltered by the branches. I won't hope for fruit, but will enjoy the flowers.


The hail did some damage to the Secret Garden Passionvine but most of the holes in the flowers and leaves aren't weather-related. They're the work of caterpillars which will grow up to be Gulf Fritillary butterflies. There were a dozen of them on this vine yesterday. A few years ago, when the new Passionvine plant consisted of one struggling strand with a few leaves, I killed any caterpillars that appeared. The plant was too fragile and there wasn't enough substance to the plant for the cats to reach the pupa stage. Now that the vine is established and can take the munching, I enjoy the uneaten flowers and let the rest support the butterfly larvae.


The Confederate Jasmine on the end of the front veranda began to open on Sunday - soon after our guests left. Just walking from the front door to the car can be an intoxicating experience.



In the Bat-shaped bed, Bridal Wreath spirea is the background for the tall, grape-scented passalong iris from my friend Ellen.



The adjacent Pink Entrance Bed is just plain gaudy now - the Weigela 'Rumba' seen in the last post are still blooming, along with deep pink Gaura, the coral colored Hesperaloe parviflora seen above, two pink mini-roses, creeping ice plant and a 'Belinda's Dream' rose which will show up below.




In the back yard the dappled sun under the pecan trees made this unnamed Siberian iris look striped, but it's really solid violet-blue. I'm thrilled to have it not only survive but be happy in Austin - there are 15 bloom stalks this year.



Not too far from the Siberian iris I planted some mixed Anemone bulbs last fall. For me Anemones bloom but don't return. The red one above looks similar to red anemones from other springs.


But I've never seen a white anemone with this shape before. It's really pretty and different.




Along the back fence a Southern variety of MockOrange grows. It's Philadelphus inodorus, also called English Dogwood, and although it's lovely, it's also unscented.



The Spanish Lavender is cheerful and pretty but its rather pleasant scent is somehow not quite the same as 'real' lavender. The Fernleaf lavender that grew in this bed last year had no lavender scent at all. Luckily it was tender and the Fernleaf plant croaked over the winter. Once the Fernleaf was gone, the Spanish Lavender/Lavendula stoechas and the Sweet Lavender/Lavendula heterophylla started to expand and grow. The Sweet lavender is just making buds - so far they smell like the real thing!




At our last house the hummingbirds would come for Calibrachoa - this basket hangs outside the breakfast room in hopes it will entice them close so we can see them.



The 'Ramona' clematis isn't in the ground, but grows in a container on the bench near the shed. It's got about 7 or 8 large flowers right now.



This is a new Salvia - Cedar sage/Salvia roemeriana. It's a native plant, frequently found growing under junipers AKA cedar trees. In my yard it's planted next to the new small Yaupon holly with cedar mulch all around it...think it will be fooled?


Below are all the photos Blogger insisted on uploading sideways, even though they've been formatted and saved in landscape form. This happens every bloom day and is a huge, time-sucking pain! The last few times I've reopened every incorrectly oriented photo in Photoshop Elements, resaving them from jpgs to pngs then uploading again. It seems to work but the pngs are huge files compared to jpgs. Blogger churns as it uploads and my portion of Blogger MB's shrinks too quickly. Philo and I are trying to decide on a new roof and I'm too tired and cranky to mess around fixing them tonight, so even if the words wrap around them and look stupid, too bad. The first open flower on a pale apricot mini-rose that was a gift from our daughter and son-in-law a couple of springs ago. I love the color and it's making buds and flowers so maybe it's finally in the right place!


Rosa 'Belinda's Dream' from the Pink Entrance Bed in the front, with oregano and ice plant below.


This clematis twines up at the base of the Lady Banks rose. It was mislabled but looks a lot like the photos of 'Miss Bateman' which is close enough for me. Think there are six flowers right now.



Ixia/Corn lilies planted in fall 2007 bloomed last spring and then returned this year. And instead of being smaller the second year - the florets are larger!


Sooner or later I'll get a list of all that is in bloom today (with botanical names) up on Annie's Addendum. Have fun visiting the other blogs participating in Carol of May Dreams Garden's monthly roundup of what's in flower at Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.