Columbine | My Gardener Says…

Spring has definitely sprung here in Austin and though blooms may be foremost for most garden lovers, foliage loveliness deserves a shout-out. Here are my foliage favorites for April.

The summer and fall blooming Gregg’s Mistflower (Conoclinium greggii) sports deeply lobed foliage, giving rise to one of the common names for this hardy ground cover, Palmleaf Mistflower.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) has beautiful foliage year-round. It’s delicate, fern-like and spreads well (sometimes too well). Yarrow is evergreen, hardy and drought tolerant.

It brightens this shady spot.

A perennial favorite of mine and one I’ve profiled before, Mexican Feathergrass (Nassella tenuisima) is at the zenith of beauty in the spring.

The lone green Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) in my back gardens apparently wasn’t decimated by butterfly larva last year.

With soft, graceful foliage, it’s a wonderful addition to the mixed perennial garden.

Globe Mallow (Spaeralcea ambigua) is such a show-stopper with its combination of orange blooms and arresting, pale gray-green, fuzzy leaves.

I like this combination of Pale-leaf Yucca (Yucca pallida), Heartleaf Skullcap (Scutellaria ovata) and the bright green Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii).

The Pale-leaf Yucca appears blue against the backdrop of the greener Skullcap ground cover and the Autumn Sage’s is a bright green punctuation situated further in that same ground cover.

The Wild Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) not only has beautiful blooms in spring, but interesting foliage year-round.

New growth from a young American Smoke Tree (Cotinus obovatus), promises more beauty as it matures.

Lastly, I can’t resist the photo of the Scarlet Tanager, Piranga olivacea, who has visited my garden this past week as he rests on the green branch of Retama (Parkinsonia aculeata). Plumage and foliage–you can’t beat that!

Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting Foliage Follow-up for April.

We appear done with our chilly winter winds here in Austin, Texas. While our winter wasn’t the coldest, it was certainly one of the colder of the past 20 years. All that’s blooming in my gardens are the earliest of the spring perennials. The native Yellow Columbine ( Aquilegia chrysantha var. hinckleyana), are beginning to open, though this one is probably a hybrid between my Yellow Columbine and my Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)–there is a blush of pink that a Yellow Columbine wouldn’t have.

The native Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is full to bursting with blooms.

Starting its seasonal flush, these buds will open over the next 3-10 weeks and throughout the year.

Another vine, native Dewberry (Rubus trivialis? Not sure as it’s a pass-along plant), is blooming. No doubt, the birds are anxiously awaiting the berries that follow.

My tiny patch of Golden Groundsel (Packera obovata), showcases its first bloom.

The shock of yellow punctuating a still muted landscape.

And I must post a photo of the first Iris to flower in my garden this year.

This Iris is a common, tough bulb with a beautiful flower (maybe Iris altobarbata?). It opened two weeks ago, days before our last and coldest freeze. Nine bloom stalks appeared during a bout of warm weather and when the front hit, three flowers were blooming and all the stalks had developing buds.There was nothing I could do to prevent damage.

Mush. They all became mush. I counted 30-plus buds that will never flower. Sniff. All I can hope is that my other Iris will bloom as we move through our spring growing season.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day.

My Gardener Says…

Yeah, it's work, but it's less work than grass and far more interesting.

Tag Archives: Columbine

Foliage Follow-up, April 2014

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, March 2014