What Is It About Yellow Flowers?

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They’re just so…yellow.

And bright.

And cheerful.

And, unfortunately, not planted or grown commercially nearly as much as they should be.  The Golden Groundsel (Packera obovata) is a beautiful spring blooming perennial ground cover native to much of North America, including Texas.  It belongs to the Asteraceae (Aster) family of plants,

and is a wonderful addition to a shade or part-shade garden.  It can be planted in a formal setting or as drifts in a woodlands garden.  But in either place, it brightens the late winter/early spring  garden spectacularly.

I first became acquainted with Golden Groundsel just over two years ago, when I noticed a patch of bright yellow  flowers in one of the native woodland areas that I garden at the Green Garden in Zilker Botanical Gardens (ZBG).  That patch absolutely resonated yellow! I recognized the plant because I had read about Golden Groundsel before, although this was the first time I’d actually seen it in a garden.  Most of the year, it’s a ground cover with evergreen, oval and finely serrated leaves.

In January/February (in Austin), it sends forward its bloom stalks.  The slender stems grow to about a foot tall, then burst open with shockingly bright, little flowers.

It colonizes well in ideal conditions and is an easy plant to grow.  Its water requirements are moderate and it fits well in a xeric landscape.  If it gets water once a week in a hot, dry summer, it’ll be just fine.  In the Green Garden,  I moved some Groundsel in late spring of 2010 to this spot,

and while it bloomed last spring, it’s even lovelier this year.  Here, it gets mid-day sun in the summer, with dappled light most of the rest of the day.  It also receives irrigation once per week.  Its companions include Turk’s Cap, Twisted Leaf Yucca, Purple Coneflower and also Columbine.

The two other areas where Golden Groundsel is planted in the Green Garden receive more shade and thus, the plants are not yet blooming.  This group is in a native woodland area which receives very little irrigation.

This second group is planted in the Habitat Garden.  This colony began with six starts, about 15 months ago.  It gets regular (once/week) irrigation and dappled light.  The soil is a bit on the heavy side and you can see how well it’s filled in.

Golden Groundsel is a good nectar source and given that it’s often one of the earliest to bloom, very appreciated by hungry bees and butterflies.  Oddly, it’s blooming a little later this year compared to the last two years.  This is in contrast to so many other plants which are blooming earlier than their normative bloom times.

Golden Groundsel spreads by  roots and by seeds–don’t cut back the flower stalks until the seeds have ripened and dispersed.  It doesn’t seem to spread voraciously by seed though.  My only experience with propagating Groundsel is by root division. When I transplanted the Groundsel at ZBG, I had to be careful about where I dug the plant up from the soil.  Several times I shoved my trowel firmly into the ground, assuming that I was well-underneath a nice root ball, only to realize that the rosette that I was attempting to dig up was connected to another by a runner and there was no root to excavate.  So, if you separate this plant, you must  be sure that the rosette you’re aiming for actually has some root.

When I decided to write about this plant, I called a number of the independent nurseries in and around the Austin area to check for availability and almost no one was familiar with this plant.  Only the nice folks at Barton Springs Nursery  knew anything about Golden Groundsel although they don’t carry it regularly.   I do know that it’s sometimes available at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s plant sale, but I don’t know if they grow it for every sale.

For more information about this great and underused native plant, check out the Central Texas Gardener link–Golden Groundsel was the “Plant of the week” for the  October 1, 2011 program.  Or, as always, you can find information on the page for Golden Groundsel in the Native Plant Database.

I’m going to purchase and plant this lovely perennial for my own garden.  Gardeners should encourage their local nurseries to carry available, but rare, plants.  In turn, growers will begin to produce these plants for retail sales.

Almost Done!

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The end of February looms and I’m almost done with the pruning in my personal gardens and the gardens I tend at Zilker Botanical Gardens.  I waited as long as a could before I started pruning, but almost waited too late.  Spring has sprung in mild Austin and I need to wack back the remaining plants that I intend to prune.

I pruned the roses  in my gardens last week.  Most had been blooming for a few weeks, so it hurt to cut back such beautiful flowers.  Gardening sometimes resembles parenting:  the difficult and painful things that you occasionally must do, are often the most important for nurturing growth and blooms.

Philosophical musings aside, the Mutabils (Rosa ‘Mutabilis‘) was big and full of darling blooms.

It had even developed new stems.

But it’s pruned back and now ready for new beginnings and a long year of growth and blooms.

The Knockout Rose (Rosa ‘Knock Out’) produced  lovelies for my kitchen table and to enjoy outdoors,

but it too is reduced to mere sticks.

I’m more careful with this rose than I am with my others (although I don’t think it’s  necessary because this rose is a tough one).  I clean (disinfect) and sharpen the pruners before I start with this rose.  I take care to prune the branches cleanly above a leaf node.

The node is the pinkish bump to the right of the cut, above the thorn.

The Belinda’s Dream Rose is a new one in my gardens, so I’m leaving it as is.

But at Zilker Botanical Gardens, there are two in the one of the beds I tend.   I pruned both down to their major three or four branches.

The other roses in my personal gardens, the Martha Gonzales and the Old Gay Hill, are treated like I treat my hardy native shrubs–I thwack away with abandon!  I transplanted both of these last year,

so they haven’t grown much.  But I did prune them back a little,

so they’ll be ready for growth in the coming year.  The Old Gay Hill still had buds n’ blooms, so I left them–there’s no need to be heartless, after all.

I cut back the Martha Gonzales Roses at Howson Library Garden last week as well.    This photo is on the City of Austin Grow Green Resources page, under the “Landscape Design” section and can be seen when you click the “Classic” design.

There are a total of eight roses at Howson. This view is of the four at the southern end of the area where the roses are planted.  This photo shows the roses in early fall and by the end of the growing season, they’re even larger.  I didn’t take a photo before I pruned them back last week.  (Oh, no!  That would have made too much sense!)   But, I did take a picture once I pruned.  This is the same angle now, after pruning:

and from the front.

The Martha Gonzales is such a hardy rose that the gardener doesn’t have to be particularly careful about cutting.  I clip off any dead branches, but other than trimming them to roughly the same height and shaping and tidying a bit, not much more is required during pruning time for this beautiful rose.

Pruning roses is easier if you keep the pruners clean and very sharp.  It’s also a great idea for Central Texas gardeners to plant roses that are hardy and tough and don’t require much water.  Check out the “Native and Adapted Landscape Plants Guide”  under “Plants” on the Grow Green Resources page for some examples of suitable roses for our area or visit one of Austin’s excellent independent nurseries for guidance on what roses to plant.

It’s not too late to prune and it’s time to plant some pretty roses in your garden.

Foliage Follow-Up–February 2012–Good Nandinas

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One of my favorite plants for nice winter foliage here in mild Austin, Texas is the Nandina domestica (Atropurpurea ‘Nana’).  Nandinas are not native to North America, but are originally from Asia.  The Nana variety is a dwarf (it gets about two feet tall) which doesn’t produce berries, but is grown for its dwarf habit, hardiness in the home/commercial landscape and its foliage.  Because the Nana doesn’t develop berries, it’s not considered an invasive plant in Central Texas, unlike its brethren with berries.

Nana Nandinas can be quite striking in the winter.  During the fall and winter, the Nana’s leaves turn colors ranging from green to yellow to rust to deep red and burgundy.  There’s even a little orang-y/coral-ly thing going on sometimes!

All of the Nanas in my personal gardens are in shade for most of the year, receiving full sun only once the deciduous trees have dropped their leaves. Unfortunately, my plants don’t turn the striking red coloration that shrubs in full sun do.  This Nana belongs to some nice neighbors and is absolutely stunning, I think.

My Nanas have bits of red here and there, but tend to be less dramatic in their coloring, though still attractive and they provide good contrast to evergreens during the winter months.

The Nana Nandina is a hardy plant which doesn’t require that much effort.  This Nana  is at the edge of a street/sidewalk and brightens this spot beautifully.

In my gardens, I water sparingly and they perform well in our hot summers. During the growing season, the Nana Nandina is nondescript looking, so I like to plant them alongside showy perennials like Turk’s Cap.  This is what one Nana looked like in October planted with a Turk’s Cap,

and here it is now.

I haven’t cut this Mexican Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) back yet, so the Nana is peeking out from under and behind its overgrowth.  But had the Mexican Honeysuckle succumbed to a hard freeze, the Nana would be colorful and provide structure in this spot.

I recommend the Nana Nandina as a great plant for the home gardener because of its hardiness, form and especially its gorgeous winter foliage.  It’s also non-invasive and that’s always a consideration for the gardener to make.

For more information about invasive plants in Texas and the Austin area, check out  Texas Invasives.org.  This site has a great deal of information about problems that invasive plants cause and solutions to those problems.  It also has links to other sites for lists of plants which are not appropriate for our area and for alternatives that gardeners should use instead.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting Foliage Follow-Up this February 2012.