Rain is Coming

The most reliable predictor of rain here in Central Texas is the Texas sage, Leucophyllum frutescens. When this plant blooms, rain is on the way. There has been many a time when the local weather forecasters are not predicting rain, but my Texas sages are all blooming like crazy, and within a couple of days we will get rain. It is almost uncanny how reliable these plants are. Anyway, they are all blooming now in anticipation of the rain we are expecting from the tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.

Blackberry Lily

I inherited this plant from a friend who moved from the area a couple of years ago, and I had not identified it until now. I haven’t grown many lilies or irises in my life, so I wasn’t really sure if this plant was an iris or a lily. I took some close ups of the blooms friday and googled ‘orange lily’ and looked through the images until I found the one that matched my plant. It turns out that this plant is actually an iris that has been classified as a lily. The botanical name is Belamcanda chinensis, and the common name most often used is blackberry lily because of the black seed clusters that it produces in the fall. According to the Univ of Wisconsin horticultural site, this plant can be easily started from seed, so I think I will try to cultivate more of them this winter in the greenhouse.

First Passion Vine Flower

I have never grown passion vine before, so this is my very first passion vine flower. I like the scarlet color of this variety, Passiflora Coccinea. It works well with the red knock out rose hedge that lines the fence that the passion vines are growing on. I also like the large dark green foliage [...]

Texas Hill Country Garden Art

The previous owner of our house was a collector of many things, among them was old farm implements and tools. When we purchased the property we inherited these items. They have been scattered about and moved around over the years we have been here, but I just recently decided to use some of them as garden art. To be honest, my decision was prompted by a spot I saw a couple of weeks ago on Central Texas Gardener. They were featuring a Hill Country garden that included alot of garden art, some of which was old tools and farm implements. I got inspired and asked Ron to rustle up any artifacts that he could find laying around the property that looked interesting.

Watering and Weeding

It’s been five or six weeks since we have had a measurable rainfall. Add to that temperatures in the upper 90s and winds at 15-20 mph every day, and that equates to spending a whole lot of time watering just to keep everything alive. Even though almost everything I grow is either native to our area, or well adapted to the dry conditions and high temperatures, they still require a bit of water to keep going, especially when they are first getting established which many of my plants and trees are.

More Roses - Featuring Caldwell Pink

I spied a butterfly on a parsley plant this morning, but by the time I grabbed my camera and got out to the herb and vegetable gardens to take some pictures of it he was no where to be found. So I took the opportunity to take a few pix of the Caldwell Pink rose [...]

As Good as it Gets

The weather here in Central Texas has been ‘as good as it gets’ for the past few weeks. The temperatures have been a little below normal, and the humidity has been low. Even the wind has been more gentle lately. All of this means that the gardens are growing rapidly. I am struggling to keep [...]

Spring Showers and March Madness

An early morning walk with the dogs and Ron this morning provided a perfect opportunity for taking some photos of the gardens. I selected some of the best shots and put them into the slideshow below. There are many more on my Flickr page, and the full sized jpegs are there as well if you [...]

New Spring Blooms

This is the first time I have tried direct seeding poppies. I planted them in the fall, and they are finally rewarding me for keeping them alive through the winter.

California Poppy

The ice plant over-wintered well and I expect it will produce many blooms this year. I am planning to take some cuttings off this plant [...]

More Fun With Photos

I took a walk around the property looking for signs of spring yesterday, and I found them everywhere I looked. Here are some samples. If you click on them you will link to larger versions of the photos on my Flickr page.
I found several nice clumps of bluebonnets near the green house. Ron has been [...]

Almost Feels Like Spring

Although the mornings are still quite cool here in the hill country, there are definitely signs of spring showing. Our new redbud tree started blooming several days ago. The golden leadball tree that we planted over the winter is also just starting to bud out. Narcissus and gladiolus bulbs are sprouting. The larkspurs that I [...]

Enjoying the Holidays

I hope your holiday season has been as enjoyable as ours has been thus far. We have been resting and relaxing, as well as spending time with out of town guests. The weather has been mild, but windy, with some very cold mornings. Suffice it to say, that we haven’t had much time for gardening [...]

Front Yard Project: Part 5 - Planting Has Begun!

Planting has started!! I wanted to get some of the main architectural plants installed first so I could begin to visualize other aspects of the planting bed designs. I have a high level plan that we are working from, along with a plant list, but there are many detailed elements that are yet to be [...]

The Front Yard Project: Part 1

As I mentioned in my last post. We have started to work on a landscaping project in our front yard. We built a cedar fence to define the space last year, but we just recently began the rock work that will form the raised beds. We are filling the raised beds with Geo Growers [...]

Planting Pansies

We had a cloud burst early in the morning this morning which yielded about an eighth of an inch of rain, and made the conditions perfect for planting the three flats of pansies and violas that I got yesterday. I planted some in pots and some in my raised beds.

Potted Pansies

Potted Pansies

Potted Pansies

Violas and Pansies

I [...]