The Lily and the Crag

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Tina

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines crag as a steep, rugged rock or cliff. As for lily, well, I think this is visually self-explanatory:

Pretty, isn’t it? And hardy too, just like the first part of its name–enduring like a rock, that is.

Texas Craglily, Echeandia texensis, blooms beautifully in my gardens from September into November, sometimes well into December.

Tough-n-lovely, this excellent Texas member of the Liliaceae family is sorely underutilized by gardeners from Central Texas southward to the Valley. Here in Austin, I’ve only seen it sold at one nursery, Barton Springs Nursery (BSN). BSN labels this plant as “Copper Spiders” but as I researched this plant, I’ve never seen that term used anywhere else. A long-time BSN employee recently shared with me the story that BSN originally purchased “Copper Spiders” from Yucca Do Nursery and that’s the name the online nursery dubbed it. A quick look at the Yucca Do’s website led me to the the Echeandia texensis page and it’s confirmed that “Copper Spiders” is definitively identified as E. texensis.

No matter what the folks in the nursery trade call it, this gardener calls it fabulous!

There are two other Echeandia species in Texas, E. chandleri and E. flavescens, but I’ve been fairly sure for several years now that what I’ve purchased at BSN and have been happily enjoying in my gardens is E. texensis. All three Echeandia are commonly called “Texas Craglily” or “Craglily”; the E. flavescens is also called Torrey’s Craglily, and E. chandleri is known by the poetic Lila de los llanos.

When I first saw the Texas Craglily at BSN (four? five?) years ago on a hot July afternoon (yeah, I garden in the summer), I remember thinking that I’d seen a photo of it in the seminal Texas gardening book, Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region, by Sally and Andy Wasowski, which was my gardening guide and muse for many years. In fact, the Wasowski’s wrote about the E. chandleri, (page 177!). but the bloom and foliage are very similar to the E. texensis.

I’m no botanist, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s been some hybridization in nature and cultivation through the nursery trade. But whatever this plant is, I’m glad to make room for it in my gardens–and you should too if you live in Central and South Texas.

Dying back at the first hard freeze, it disappears until late spring–sometimes not returning in full until May or June.

During summer the foliage returns quickly and is attractive and well-behaved.

It’s always a bonus in the garden to host plants with elegant grassy structure, especially when it’s lush and easy-care. In my heavy soil, the foliage only grows to about a foot in height and width. Sometime in late August or early September, the stalks begin shooting upwards and bloom development begins, mostly toward the top of the panicles.

A glorious autumnal yellow-orange, the sweet little blooms are pollinator magnets.

Most of my Texas Craglily plants grow in part-sun, but it’s a perennial that likes lots of bright sunshine. Some of mine leeeaaan over to catch the rays.

Others are tall and stand at full floral attention. The more “balloon” look to the petals indicates early morning before they’ve stretched and opened. Or maybe they just need their morning coffee.

I have a number of Texas Craglily specimens planted alongside Henry Duelberg Sage, Salvia farinacea ‘Henry Duelberg’ and Gregg’s Mistflower, Conoclinium greggii: it’s a winning combination.

Peeking between some garden art, the graceful foliage holds its own.

I see bees and butterflies feeding at the blooms throughout Texas Craglily’s bloom period, though funnily enough, I don’t have a single photo to prove that. Additionally, none of my Craglily plants have ever produced seedlings–that could happen, but it hasn’t thus far.

So I’m off to BSN to purchase just one more because I’ve figured out another spot where one is absolutely REQUIRED and will be perfectly situated. And just in case there’s a run on these beauties, I asked a kind employee to hold two for me! Ha!

I have no information about its attractiveness to deer, but if you live in or near Austin, try this lily in your garden–in full or part sun and either thin or heavy soil. Texas Craglily is hardy enough to handle the cracks, crags, rocks and clay, yet dainty enough to decorate the Texas autumn garden.

Happy planting!!

Texas Craglily is a native plant and Gail at clay and limestone promotes natives and wildflowers for the home garden through her Wildflower Wednesday gardening meme. Thanks to Gail for hosting and teaching others about the importance and beauty of wildflowers.

Foliage Day, October 2015

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Tina

Joining with Christina for a fanfare of foliage on Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day in October, I’m also celebrating Texas Native Plant Week and will do so with pretty leaves from native Texas plants.

I grow Frostweed, Verbesina virginica, for its late summer and fall white bloom clusters which feed oh-so-many pollinators, but the leaves are big and bodacious and tropical looking. An under-story and under-used perennial, the leaves are large in order to catch some rays for photosynthesis.

The leaves are rough, much like sunflower leaves and easily broken off from the stems, so I’m careful when working around these plants.

At the opposite end of leaf size range, the foliage of the Fall Aster, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, are small and numerous. Surrounded by autumn blooms,

…the foliage hangs tough against the relentless Texas summer sun, but remain green and growing in preparation for the sweet fall blooms.

A Mexican Feathergrass, Nasella tenuissima, rests in a pop of red pot,

…accompanied by a single, thin strand of Silver Ponyfoot, Dichondra argentea. The Ponyfoot would be more than one strand if the darned squirrels would cease their digging in my pots!

Next door, an American Century Plant, Agave americana, produces spiky pups that I’ll need to find a home for.

Any takers?

Another mature containerized Agave sits poised and handsome for the camera.

I don’t generally plant agave in the ground. They grow HUGE and are difficult to remove at the end of their life. Also, they’re dangerous (those spikes! OUCH!) and I don’t like being attacked by my garden plants– I’m not a member of the Spiky Plant-lovers Club. The downside of growing them in pots rather than the ground is that I’ll never host that majestic bloom spike in my garden.

Lastly, soft, gray Woolly Stemodia, Stemodia lanata, cascades over the sides of a scarlet ceramic pot.

Yes, the squirrels are digging this one up too. Grrrr.

Pop over to My Own Garden of the Hesperides to see beautiful foliage from all over the world–and thanks to Christina for hosting. And where ever you live, learn about and plant natives in your garden–for beauty and for wildlife.

Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum): A Seasonal Look

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Tina

The first mistflower plant I ever grew was the Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum.

Like Gregg’s Mistflower which I profiled in the most recent A Seasonal Look, this stunning native ground cover is a good autumn perennial to showcase for Texas Native Plant Week. I always think of this mistflower as the blue-headed step-child, especially in comparison to the more commonly grown Gregg’s Mistflower. Blue Mistflower is not as well-known or popular–not one of the cool kid plants, or at least that’s true here in the Austin area. I’m amazed at how few gardeners know about this lovely Texas ground cover.

Just as tough and hardy as its more admired cousin, it’s also a real looker. Pollinator gardening notwithstanding, the Blue Mistflower is my personal favorite. The deep purple-blue flowers,

…in all their puffy pulchritude,

…make me swoon!

I don’t think photos capture the depth of its color. You’ll just have to plant this beauty and see for yourself.

Interestingly, Blue Mistflower has a much wider range of distribution than the Gregg’s Mistflower. I follow several Northern garden bloggers who’ve planted this pretty, though I think it’s probably an annual or tender perennial in some of those places that experience true winter. Its native range is Texas to Florida, but also northward into Illinois and New Jersey (plenty of winter there!) and is grown in other parts of the U.S. as well.

I purchased a four-inch pot of Blue Mistflower for about $1.50 (I don’t remember exactly how much I spent, but it was very little) some 20 years ago. Over time, it filled in a back corner of my garden and put on a reliably gorgeous late summer/fall flower show every year. Eventually, that spot became…something. I never quite figured out the problem, but one spring, only about 10 sprigs returned. So I popped them out of that spot and into a another which receives a tiny bit full sun, but primarily dappled light, throughout the year.

The Blue Mistflower patch has thrived. With an almost identical growth and seasonal pattern as the Gregg’s, the zenith of its blooming occurs during September, October and into November. It is at its peak now.

As the autumn days shorten and cool, the blooms fade from deep blue-purple,

…to soft beige.

After the first hard freeze, the seed heads are wheat-colored and fragile. Like the Gregg’s, I’ve never experienced the Blue Mistflower seeding out, but if you’re so inclined, it’s at this point of the year that the seeds can be sowed.

I tend to leave the winter dormant plant alone until I can’t stand it anymore, then cut it back to not-much-of-anything, except for a light covering of Shumard Oak leaves.

You’ll notice the soaker hose which runs through the middle part of the Blue Mistflower plant. That one hose is generally enough for summer watering, although by hot August and especially if there’s been no precipitation, I sometimes hand water the Blue Mistflower because one hose doesn’t deliver enough moisture to cover all the roots of the entire group. I don’t want the Blue Mistflower to sulk, bloom less, and then cause me to miss out on its gorgeous blooms. I’m not the least bit selfish as a gardener, am I?

With the warmth of spring, the plant returns rapidly. If you look closely at the bottom of the photo, you can see the newly emerged spring growth in March.

Once spring has sprung, the form of the ground cover is firmly established.

While not much of a re-seeder in my garden, Blue Mistflower spreads by the roots. I keep it in bounds by weeding up the edges and passing along sprigs to other gardeners. As with the Gregg’s, I plant smaller evergreens like Iris and Purple Coneflower at the perimeter edges and I also have some container plants placed to visually enforce a stopping point and to give some winter interest. If this Blue Mistflower were planted in full sun, I would have more options for evergreen and structural plants, but this gardener plays the plant cards she’s dealt.

In summer, the foliage is thick and lush.

More than the Gregg’s, which has a comparably controlled growth habit, the Blue Mistflower is a straggler, stems growing wonky and wild over the course of its growing season and that’s especially noticeable once its purple, puffy, floral hats appear.

If you’re a neat-freak gardener you might not like this plant, but I find it casually charming.

Adding to its rangy behavior, Blue Mistflower also puts out stems taller than any of the Gregg’s–upwards of two feet or so.

The leaves of the Blue are triangular-shaped and a darker green shade contrasting with the palmate form and light green foliage of the Gregg’s,

Over the course of summer the foliage continues to grow and the perennial maintains itself as an unexciting, but generally handsome green ground cover, tolerant of heat and summer dry, and sporting the occasional bloom here or there.

In August and in tandem with the Gregg’s Mistflower–the fun begins with fuzzy-wuzzy blooming!!

While Tina the Gardener finds the flowers more alluring than those of the Gregg’s Mistflower, the same cannot be said about most pollinators. The Blue is a good pollinator plant, but not an excellent one, like the Gregg’s.

Monarchs like it just fine.

Honeybees tend to agree.

This Southern Oak Hairstreak, Satyrium favonius favonius, isn’t complaining about Blue Mistflower, either.

But I’ve never witnessed quite the variety of pollinator activity on the Blue Mistflower as on the Gregg’s. If you only have room for one, I’d suggest the Gregg’s, because the pollinators need all the help we can give them and the Gregg’s Mistflower is a Boss Pollinator Plant.

There is a fast flying and hardly landing tiny moth or skipper that I see each fall, flitting around the base of the plant, but it’s been a tough one to capture. I finally snagged a decent photo of one who perched (briefly!) for the camera.

I’ve also seen this one on the Gregg’s too, but it seems to prefer the Blue. I’m glad the Blue Mistflower has a committed pollinating pal.

Even though it’s not quite the power-house pollinator plant that some others are, Blue Mistflower still warms my heart and will always be welcome in my Texas garden!

As a whole and as an addition to a native plants/wildlife garden, Blue Mistflower is a terrific choice for anyone gardening in its range, who seeks a water-wise, attractive, hardy native ground cover that thrives–in both bloom and foliage–in sun or part-shade.

In Spring.