In like a Lion and Out like a Shorn Lamb

This post about my garden in Austin, Texas was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog.

Did my February post listing all the trees in the garden put a hex on them? This part of the privacy screen looked pretty good six weeks ago.


By the first of March tiny leaves and buds had appeared on Spiraea, Redbud, roses, Arizona Ash, Fig and dwarf Pomegranate, and flower buds swelled on the native Texas Mountain Laurel

But then came the March 3rd-4th Thundersleet that bent the Loropetalum to the ground

While the iced Oleander leaned over to block the steps to the driveway

The trees and shrubs soon bounced back from the ice, but unlike plants in a northern place where dormant plants sleep, insulated by snow from cold air, our plants were wide awake and full of sap, making leaves and setting buds. When the temperature dropped to 19°F on March 6th even the native plants were shocked at the cold.

The results have slowly revealed themselves over the last few weeks.
All the leaves dropped off the Arizona ash and the pomegranates, every leaf and bud froze on the redbud trees and on the fig tree, leaves fell from the 'Climbing Iceberg' and the Meyer's Lemon, the flowers froze on the Texas Mountain Laurel, and leaves on all four Confederate Jasmines began to turn brown. Friends who grow agaves and aloes say they're badly damaged.

Plants that were dormant are mostly OK. Evergreen plants like Salvia greggii, Skullcaps and Salvia 'Hot Lips' froze way back but most are alive at the base. Semi-evergreens like Mexican honeysuckle, Philippine Violet and Turkscap died to the ground. Plants like iris and daffodils didn't die, but most buds froze.

The Lady Banks rose lost all its leaves and buds

The ends of every boxwood twig and branch began to die back, with stems turning light tan instead of green - something I've never seen in 15-years of growing them in Central Texas. The Barbados Cherries were already iffy - now they look dead.

Last spring I took many photos of the garden in bloom, but never got around to making a post at the end of March 2013 to celebrate the end of that unusually mild winter. The garden in those photos seems like fiction this year.

On March 30th, 2013, the Lady Banks was in full bloom.

On March 29th, 2013 the Mutabilis rose looked like a dream of spring

On March 29th, 2013 several Bluebonnets popped up with yellow Four-Nerve daisies, the tall fragrant Peach Iris, and white Salvia coccinea AKA Hummingbird Sage.

On March 30th, 2013 the white rose 'Climbing Iceberg' filled the left side of the sweetheart arch with blooms while the white-flowering Confederate/Star Jasmine filled the right side.


On March 30th, 2013 another Confederate Jasmine grew 8-feet high on the shed trellis with Spanish Bluebells at the base.


We were busy nursery-hopping and planting tomatoes at the end of March in 2013 - no guests arrived to see the garden clothed in blooms but we appreciated them every day.

Any longtime gardener can take the bad years along with the good years - of course, we can! And I know that much of the cold damage to this year's garden will grow out and repair itself and make flowers again some other day or some other year.
But the thing that made me want to scream was that this year there were garden visitors - real, talk-Latin-to-me, gardener-type garden visitors. 

Flash forward to the end of March 2014... and what do this year's guests get to see?

How about a frozen and browned Loropetalum chinense var rubrum 'Plum Delight', no longer a screen but a see-through shrub?


Or the pitiful remains of the Jasmine on the shed trellis with one stem of Hyacinthoides?


At least the Rosa 'Mutabilis' had begun to releaf, even though it had no flowers


The Lady Banks rose also has made leaves, and may yet bring forth a few golden blossoms


What a trouper! After losing the main crop of buds and leaves, the Texas Redbud produced a second batch of buds for a light but lovely show of blooms.


The Confederate Jasmine is now 8-inches high instead of 8-ft tall, but the white 'Climbing Iceberg' has releafed and is forming buds. The Magnolia figo/ Banana Shrub is almost bare of leaves but tiny new leaf buds show green.


Only two-thirds of the knee-high Mexican Buckeye is alive, but the little tree was in bloom to greet the guests.


The buds froze on the white iris and the peach iris, and most of the dozens of Salvia coccinea AKA Hummingbird Sage plants died, but the Four-Nerve daisies are a cheerful lot, and some bluebonnets are in bloom, saying This is Texas. It's not a dream of a garden, but still a real one. Let the pruning-back begin!





This post about my garden in Austin, Texas was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog.

The Annual April Affair - Color Echoes

Coral honeysuckle and Lady Banks rose have a brief affair each spring, meeting on the patio arch, vine twined around cane, the yellow interior of the honeysuckle tubes finding its reflection in the yellow of each rose blossom. For a few days the Tulipa clusiana blooms echoed the yellow & coral color in the partial shade at their feet. Their affair is passionate but brief because the rose blooms once a year - like that of George and Doris in Same Time, Next Year, and like theirs- a romance you can count on to return with vigor every spring.

But the timing changes a little from year to year and this romance didn't last until the 15th - no 2010 GBBD appearance for them!
Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' became mine in early 2001, kept captive in containers at the previous Austin house and finally planted in this garden and joined by Lonicera sempervirens in October 2006. The petals fell from many of the Lady Banks over the weekend and I pruned the rose back this afternoon.

All the better to see the pearly clematis winding its way through the rose canes - clearly happy after a long cool winter and some good rains.

Finally Time for March 2010 GBBD

The Central Austin garden bloggers first called Spring when their redbuds and Texas Mountain Laurels began to bloom on March 11th.

Eleven days later the Texas redbud in my far NW Austin garden has poked out little pink tongues so I'm calling Spring here, too!
We've had frost warnings the last 2 nights, with the actual low temperature falling to 34°F/1.11ºC each morning.

Now it's time to once again take off the thermal covers from the Meyer's Lemon and the Mexican Lime and switch off the Christmas lights. The weather looks pretty good for the next week - are we done with freezes?
Are there flowers today? Yes! It's a week late but today I'll join Carol of May Dreams Garden for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

The Mexican Lime has buds and tiny new leaves that stayed safe under the thermal covering
The top branches of the Meyer's Lemon died and most of the leaves fell off, but it's pushing out new leaves and making blossoms, too.

At their feet Oxalis regnellii 'Atropurpurea' blooms happily after recent rain

The Texas Mountain Laurel is a little squashed from the sheet thrown over it last night

One yellow Lady Banks rose shows petals

The Spiraea on the back fence is in full bloom


The Carolina jessamine has passed its peak flowering time but still smells sweet
There are enough yellow flowers left to please the bees

Earlier yellow daffodils have wilted - my muse 'Thalia' takes her turn
Only one of the Pale Peach colored iris has opened but there are many buds

Most of the white 'cemetery' iris, a favorite Austin passalong, are already blooming

Blackfoot daisies are finally happy here, making flowers in the parkway bed
The Cherry sage/Salvia greggii blooms there, too

A single mutabilis Rosebud is ready for its closeup
And there's a hint that the most famous sign of spring in Texas, the Bluebonnet, is on the way

But even without open flowers the garden has been exciting to watch every day

Cedar Waxwings arrived a few weeks ago to strip berries from the evergreen hollies and act like kids in the birdbath fountain (23 seconds)





The song of the Mockingbird called Spring before anyone else was sure it would come (about 1 minute)


Pam/Digging holds Foliage Followup the day after GBBD - my foliage is appearing today not because it is spectacular... but because the leaves bear witness that these plants are alive

I've left the Shell Ginger outside in other years - but it spent this winter in the garage


I was sure the Amaryllis planted outside would be gone after 13°F/-10.5ºC , but MSS of Zanthan Gardens thought they could make it - she was right!

If my pomegranate is alive maybe that means Rock Rose Jenny's will be alright, too?

The Japanese Painted Fern disappeared during last year's heat and drought but it's appeared again, ready to face life in Texas for another year. I hope we humans can do it, too.

Thought Pops, Edition 5: Buds to Iron Man to Rain

COMPANY IS COMING:

This Michelia figo was in bloom on April 3rd, 2008 when MSS of Zanthan Gardens brought MayDreams Carol to my garden but this year the flowers are open in March. We're expecting visitors in a few weeks and I hope a few flowers hold on so the guests can feel the silkiness of the petals and catch the fragrance that gives this plant its common name "Banana Shrub".

My April guests won't be here in time to drink in the grape soda scent of the "Big Drunk Bean" above (Nicknames for Sophora secundiflora include Mescal Bean, Big Drunk Bean and Texas Mountain Laurel) but this March guest buzzed in on time.

A month from now the Coral Honeysuckle/Lonicera sempervirens might still be blooming but the 'Lady Banks' rose/Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' will be done. The entwined green leaves enhance the metal arch year-round but this electric combination happens only briefly each spring.

ROBERT DOWNY JR
Philo was quite surprised when I moved Iron Man to the top of the queue because he didn't think it was my kind of movie. We watched it last night. It was pretty silly, and it sure would be great to see Jeff Bridges in a more Dude-like role instead of as a typecast power-driven executive with a shaved head. But I enjoyed most of it. Apparently any movie that has Robert Downey Jr in it is my kind of movie.

SLOW GARDENING
When our guests come the white iris will be done but the native Red Yucca above should be flaunting its first flowers along that stalk. In Spring 2005 I paid less than $2 for a tiny plant of Hesperaloe parviflora, but had no flower bed ready for it. The small plant grew and I repotted it into a larger container. Then in March 2007 Philo and I began the Pink Entrance Garden and the Hesperaloe had a home.
Could I have had instant impact by buying a blooming-size plant right away? Of course - but I would have lost the pleasure of seeing it grow and develop until it become mature enough to bloom.


PALM FLOWERS Do those weird yellow growths on the Mediterranean Fan Palm look like a promise of flowers to you? If Kerri hadn't blogged about flowers on her potted palm I might have thought it was some kind of fungus. Isn't it cool that an Illinois-born woman gardening in Austin, Texas can learn about Palm flowers from an Australian-born woman who gardens in upstate, snowbound, non-Mediterranean New York?


DRY SPRING IN TEXAS
The white iris (probably Iris albicans) are blooming in three borders - seen here with some snapdragons that just started reblooming after making it through a second winter.
In two facing borders the tall, fragrant, pale peach iris are in full bloom. Now 'Amethyst Fire' iris from Pam/Digging are in flower, too.
I hope Henry Mitchell is wrong, and that the perfection of the iris will not call down a major hailstorm. But if the iris must be sacrificed to make the clouds rain down on us so be it - we need rain that badly!
The Leucophyllum frutescens, AKA Cenizo AKA Purple Sage AKA Texas Barometer Bush says it might rain and so does Jim Spencer. And I have a new rain gauge ready to go.