Splayed and Twisted

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Tina

Splayed and twisted describes so much of life at the moment, but in the garden, splayed and twisted are often normal happenings.

The scarlet and gold fluted flowers of Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, span outwards and downwards, trumpeting their beauty and wildlife value. Each await visits from their pollinator partners.

Some of the cheekier visitors steal nectar, rather than fulfilling pollinator expectations.

Nevertheless, I’m certain that eventually native bees, butterflies, moths, or birds will happen by to sip the good stuff from the tubular openings and carry pollen grains to parts unknown.

I grow several Red yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora, plants and all are pushing up their bloom stalks, daily and at a rapid pace, for this season’s bloom show. This one is reaching for the clouds, but hampered by its twisted ways.

Just beginning its push skyward, the curvy anomaly, known as fasciation, has kicked in. It’s unknown why stems occasionally go wavy-gravy or flowers turn into two-headed floral freaks, but it happens. It’s not a big deal in the plant world, because fasciation isn’t generally indicative of a spreading disease event or a genetically inferior plant. When the weird wonder occurs in the garden on a stem or flower head, it’s easily remedied by pruning out the botanical boo-boo. Or the gardener may leave it, as an acknowledgement of life’s vicissitudes.

I don’t plan to prune this stalk because even if it doesn’t grow-up straight or arched like its sibling stalks, pollinators (with the possible exception of hummingbirds) will find the flowers. Aside from Red yucca’s beauty to my eyes, the attraction to pollinators is the reason these perennials have a place in my garden.

The curvy one’s neighbor, an offshoot of the same mother plant, has grown about 4 feet tall. Single blooms, arrayed along the stalk, will soon open.

In a different part of the garden, another of the same species is bursting at its petals with salmon-hued goodness, ready for the winged-things to feed from.

The garden provides surprises, mostly good, always fascinating.

I’m joining in with Anna for Wednesday Vignette, check out her lovely Flutter and Hum for garden stories–the funny, the weird, the wonderful. Also, it’s April Bloom Day! So Carol’s gorgeous May Dreams Garden celebrates blooms –pop over to enjoy blooms from many places.

Color Wheel

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Tina

In the color wheel, red and yellow bookend a range of oranges. There’s no book-ending in my Central Texas garden, though. The color wheel, well-represented throughout, is engaged, even in winter.

This past week saw the first blooms of the Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens. For now, only one bloom in this drooping cluster is willing to flounce its yellow petticoat.

Clusters of coral-red blooms, skirted with golden-yellow frills, bloom on and off throughout spring. When the rains are generous, this vine flowers well into summer.

Petite Hymenoxys, Tetraneuris scaposa, sends up sunny winter daisies, each of which dance in chilly breezes atop slender stems.

The Hymenoxys bloom in spring and occasionally in autumn; flowers hunker down in dormancy during the hot months of summer. The evergreen, grassy clumps from which hail the stems and blooms, are always present, permanently marking the plants’ homes.

As mentioned in my last post, orange is this winter’s signature color. Mexican honeysuckle, Justicia spicigera, is covered in tubular orange goodies, eager for pollinators to awake and work.

Plenty of honeysuckle orange decorates my winter garden.

Globe mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua, opens for honeybees each cold day, once the sun warms its petals.

Globe mallow dots its foliage with orange-petaled beauty.

I miss a good, hard freeze which sends the garden into rest and simplicity. But enjoying blooms in winter? Well, that is hard to beat.

Enjoy blooms from many places by checking out May Dreams Gardens, Carol’s monthly marking of blooms.

Wildflower Wednesday, April 2014

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Tina

Celebrating all things wild…well just all things wild and flowery, here are some of my wild ones this beautiful April in Austin, Texas.

The luscious Yellow or Hinckley Columbine, Aquilegia chrysantha var. hinckleyana, is still showing off after a month of blooms.

A favorite of my honeybees is the Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.

Though this year, I haven’t spied any hummingbirds sipping nectar from those tubular blooms.

The Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, sports a color I can’t quite capture with my camera–a rich blue-purple. This tidy little Texas native blooms for about a month, then sets interesting seed heads for the summer.

The sunny blooming Engelmann’s or Cutleaf Daisy, Engelmannia peristenia, is so bright that it almost overpowers its native companions– the deep pink Hill Country Penstemon Penstemon triflorus, to its left and the ‘Henry Duelberg’ Sage, Salvia farinacea, on its right.