Hill Country Blues

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Tina

I love blue flowers in the garden and my current favorite blue flowering perennial is the Henry Duelberg Sage (Salvia farinacea ‘Henry Duelberg’).

(As a disclaimer, many of these photos show the flowers of this post as more purple than they are in real life. I don’t know if it’s me or the camera. It’s probably me.)

It’s lovely planted with other mid-to-late spring bloomers.

I’ve grown the compact cultivar Mealy Blue Sage for a many years in my gardens.

The true native Mealy Blue Sage is taller and typically a lighter blue than the cultivar Mealy Blue. The cultivar has a darker blue bloom and is compact in form, reaching a height of about eighteen inches. It is a terrific addition to the garden. They’re happiest and most striking when they’re blasted by the hot, Texas sun.

These three have been in this spot for several years and bloom stunningly in spring, with a second, less dramatic bloom cycle in the fall. During the summer, the Mealy Blue Sage tend to bloom less and typically, I’ll cut them back to the ground in July or August. The plants bloom again in the fall but once the temperatures are consistently chilly and the days are short, I prune the spent bloom stalks down to the base rosette for winter. The rosette is evergreen for winter here in zone 8b. This plant is so pretty when planted en masse and is excellent for the xeric garden, especially because of its compact form.

I fell in love with the Henry Duelberg S. farinacea when I started working at Zilker Botanical Gardens a few years ago. I manage the Grow Green Gardens as Zilker Botanical Gardens (ZBG) and these demonstration gardens are designed to showcase low maintenance, native and non-native plants. The City of Austin’s Grow Green program provides a wealth of information for homeowners and businesses about proper landscape plant choices and irrigation techniques to enhance water conservation. Many folks who live in and around Austin are familiar with the free Plant Guide (located in the above Grow Green link, bottom right hand side of page) where some of the more popular landscape plants for Central Texas are profiled. The Henry Duelberg Sage is listed in the Plant Guide, but when I started working at ZBG, there wasn’t one planted in the Green Garden.

So, I fixed that.

This beautiful specimen blooms three-quarters of the year and is a dramatic addition to the entry of the Green Garden. It’s produced loads of seedlings (which will be planted in other gardens at ZBG). This spring, a white blooming hybrid seedling, the Augusta Duelberg, has joined the mix.

Nice!!

I was so entranced with the Henry Duelberg and its performance at ZBG, that I bought several for my gardens.

The Henry Duelberg is larger than the cultivar Mealy Blue Sage and has a graceful, open form. The stems are two to three feet tall and the flower spikes atop the stems are three to four inches long. This gorgeous bloomer is probably a hybrid of the native Mealy Blue Sage (S. farinacea).

The leaves are lance shaped and are located along the length of the stem. The Henry Duelberg will bloom from mid-spring, through early summer. In my gardens, it experienced a dormant period during the hottest part of last summer. I pruned mine to the ground and once the rains began again, the Henrys enjoyed a nice fall bloom cycle. Like the cultivar Mealy Blue, the Henry Duelberg can be pruned to its evergreen winter rosette at the end of the growing season.

The Henry Duelberg at the Green Garden bloomed all of last summer, but it’s more established and receives more water than my personal plants.

Both the Mealy Blue Sage and the Henry Duelberg are favorites of bees and butterflies, as well, though I’ve noticed more pollinators visiting the Henry Duelberg than the Mealy Blue. I planted two, four-inch pots of Henry Duelberg in the fall of 2010 and they have re-seeded, so I have six of these plants now. Thus far, all of mine are blue–none have hybridized to the white ‘Augusta’ form.

As with most plants in the salvia family, the hybrids and cultivars of S. farinacea are generally considered deer resistant.

The Henry Duelberg Sage was discovered growing without care in a Texas cemetery by Texas horticulturist and garden writer, Greg Grant. He named the blue flowering plant after Henry Duelberg and the white variety after Henry’s wife, Augusta. If this plant can survive neglected in an old cemetery, surely it’ll perform beautifully for you in your gardens. So go ahead–plant a Salvia farinacea (‘Henry Duelberg’) in your garden.

Or, if you prefer its little cousin, plant the Mealy Blue Sage.

Or, plant both and enjoy the show!

Shoshana’s Iris

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Tina

I don’t know the true name of this iris. These plants (or more accurately, their ancestors), were in a small garden along the driveway when we moved into our home in 1985. I was 25 years-old. Was I ever that young????

They were nicknamed ‘Shoshana’s iris’ by Pam of Digging. She dubbed these ‘Shoshana’s’ sometime after my 13 year-old daughter, Shoshana Weintraub suddenly died. Shoshana died in April 2006 while on a Kealing Middle School band trip to Chicago.

I don’t specifically remember giving Pam any iris, but over the years, I separated them, moved them around and gave them away to many people. I gave some years ago to my mother in Corpus Christi, but the iris didn’t thrive in her sand and humidity. Several of my neighbors have grown these lovelies in their gardens for years. And Pam, in turn, has shared them with other gardeners outside my immediate circle. Diana, of Sharing Nature’s Garden, recently profiled her ‘Shoshana’s iris’ in bloom, given to her by Pam. So, it’s nice to know they’re out there in the world, blooming. And it’s even sweeter knowing that many gardeners call them ‘Shoshana’s’. Any opportunity for Shoshana’s name to be spoken in the universe, is a good thing–whether in the guise of a beautiful flower or someone remembering what a lovely gift my Shoshana was.

The color of this iris is richer than lavender, but not a true purple. Lilac? Okay, I’ll go with that, although to me, it is a deeper hue than lilac. The fragrance is cloyingly sweet, but then, that’s what iris are supposed to smell like. And it sports the signature ruffles common to iris.

I recall reading in one of Pam’s posts about this iris, and Pam called it “temperamental.” I never thought of it as that, but it’s true that isn’t showy every year. I often have a tinge of jealousy when I see another gardener’s ‘Shoshana’s’ blooming well (like Diana’s, this year), when mine are not. This spring, I had only one stalk, with only four blooms. My other established iris bloomed beautifully, though. I’ve observed over the years that this iris blooms less frequently than it once did. Is it because of our generally warmer and drier climate this past decade or so? Perhaps. I know that it use to bloom, reliably and prolifically, every spring. Like most iris, it blooms best given more sun, but several of mine are in spots of dappled light to part shade–including the one that bloomed this year.

I enjoy the straps though, throughout the year; they add vertical, evergreen punctuation in clusters throughout my gardens.

Bloom time for this iris has passed, so ‘ll have to wait until next spring, once again hoping that ‘Shoshana’s iris’ will grace my gardens with its large, dramatic blooms.

The name Shoshana means lily in Hebrew. My Shoshana loved Purple Coneflowers–she thought they were “happy” flowers. In a little garden atop her grave, surrounded by Texas limestone taken from my garden and accompanying her Texas pink granite headstone, I planted Coneflower and several lilies–some Crinum lilies (unknown name) from my parents’ garden, Oxblood Lily (Rhodophiala bifida) and Red Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata) from my own gardens.

There are no ‘Shoshana’s iris’ on Shoshana’s grave.

Foliage Follow-Up-April 2012-Kitty Hiding Spot

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Tina

What is soft and feathery,

tough and hardy,

and a great place for the cat to hide in?

Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima)!

Today is Foliage Follow-Up, hosted by Pam at Digging and my foliage plant-of-choice for today is an ornamental grass which is a beautiful addition to the perennial garden.

Native only to the mountains of far West Texas, New Mexico and southwards to central Mexico, it also has a native population in Argentina and Chile. Everywhere else, it’s an introduced species and for home gardeners and commercial landscapers, a welcomed one. Graceful and elegant,

and an unusual silvery-green color,

it’s xeric even though it looks delicate and beautiful.

While Mexican Feather Grass is stunning in full sun,

it is a plant that can take some shade. These two new ones receive only dappled light and I expect that they’ll grow well. I’ve seen Mexican Feather Grass in a in a variety of places as an understory ground cover and it works nicely.

These are a little over a year old, and get direct sun only during the summer. This is what they looked like about six weeks ago

and what they look like now.

The Mexican Feather grass normally blooms in late spring/summer, but mine have started a bit early this year (like so many other plants). These plants will seed out, though I’ve never had many seedlings develop–until recently. I was weeding one of my beds and discovered about 20 seedlings!! There are others elsewhere in my gardens, too. Wow! I’ll give them to my friends! I’ll give them to my enemies! I’ll buy a new house with a bigger lot and plant them there!

Well, maybe for now, I’ll just enjoy the ones that I have planted in the gardens.

Many people (myself included…) have made the mistake of pruning these lovely plants like other ornamental grasses are pruned, that is to say, snipped straight across, close to the ground. Don’t do that!! It takes forever for them to grow out and they just look stupid for a long time. The best thing to do when you notice that the Feather Grass seems to have more brown than green, is to gently run your hands through the plant and pull out the “dead” strands. They’ll come loose easily and this combing should leave your plant with green, healthy strands. I’ve done this at various times of the year, as needed.

What I’ve also found over time in my gardens is that sometimes Feather Grass rots out, especially if planted in heavy, clay soil.

The two above have been in the ground for 5-6 years and I believe the one on the left is declining. Is it the soil? Maybe, although the one to the right still looks good and has new, fresh growth. If you want this plant, I wouldn’t hesitate to plant in heavy soil-just be aware that it might not be a long-lived perennial.

Mexican Feather Grass also makes a great container plant, as well. It will need some supplemental water, but doesn’t require constant watering.

It’s a great plant to soften the edges of a garden,

or mix with spiky, more architectural plants.

Mexican Feather Grass is versatile, hardy, easy-to-care-for and beautiful–in short, a great addition to the home landscape. And, while it’s good for Kitty to hide behind,