Foliage Follow-Up, June 2015

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Tina

It’s been awhile since I’ve participated in showing off foliage after bragging about blooms, but today I’m glad to join in with Pam at Digging for Foliage Follow-Up. Additionally, June 15-21 is Pollinator Week and along with fab foliage, we’ll take a look at a few of the many pollinators that happily and diligently work for free in the garden.

Many of my native Texas perennials shoot forth in foliage growth during wet years and this year is no exception to that general rule. The leaves of Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus, are wide and lush and a bit holey, due to munching insects abundant this spring and summer.

I don’t really mind the chunks taken out because those eating machines do little damage to the plant as a whole. The Turk’s Cap flowers are good for pollinators like this hummingbird who happily nectared last fall in preparation for migration.

Turk’s Cap foliage complements other interesting foliage, like the slender, bright leaves of Flame Acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii,

…and the gray, aromatic leaves of Heartleaf Skullcap, Scutellaria ovata.

Both Flame Acanthus and Heartleaf Skullcap are excellent pollinator plants.

Oops! That damselfly visiting the Flame Acanthus is a beneficial insect in the garden, but not a pollinator.

On the other hand, Ms. Honeybee, nectaring on the Skullcap, is certainly a pollinator worth cheering on.

The sandpaper-rough, dark foliage of the perennial Goldeneye, Viguiera dentata, pairs nicely with the soft, ruffly foliage of Globe Mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua.

Goldeneye flowers,

…and Globemallow flowers,

…attract all kinds of pollinators and both are favored by native bees.

Mountain Laurel, Sophora secundiflora, is a beautiful tree year-round. Waxy, softly rounded, evergreen foliage perfectly augments the lusciously drooping clusters of spring flowers, which are visited by many kinds of pollinators.

After the blooms have ended, the foliage is attractive–really attractive.

Mountain Laurel blooms are stunning, but the abundant and verdant foliage, as well as the graceful form of this tree is its selling point for me.

Mountain Laurel is a winner–in the urban garden or viewing on a hike in the Texas Hill Country.

Finally, this ‘Sparkler’, Carex phyllocephala, has no value to pollinators that I’m aware of.

But I’ve welcomed it and two more to my gardens. It’s cheery–downright sparkly–evergreen and white, as well as drought tolerant. What more could you ask from a foliage-driven plant?

What are your leafy greens (or maybe purples? reds?) doing this June? Show them off and then pop over to Digging for a look at foliage shared by other gardeners.

It Begins

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Tina

It begins.

Shumard Oak, Quercus shumardii

Golden Groundsel, Packera obovata

Goldenball Leadtree, Leucaena retusa

Possumhaw Holly, Ilex decidua

Mountain Laurel, Sophora secundiflora

Texas Smoke Tree, Cotinus obovatus

Turks Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus

Columbine, Aquilegia chrysantha

Mexican Orchid Tree, Bauhinia mexicana

Goldeneye, Viguiera dentata

The budding.

Yuck-ah

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Tina

This is what became of my lovely Soft-leaf Yucca, Yucca recurvifolia.

The nascent pup shows the discoloration common with a probable fungal infection from growing in a too-wet soil.

Additionally, the large root came out of the ground without complaint and was rotted, stinky, and mushy–those last two terms aren’t technical, but they are descriptive.

Yuck.

I don’t have a good shot of them, but there were also fat, gross grubs in the mass of squishy, smelly root. The grubs crawled back into their fetid lair before I took these photos and I wasn’t going to stick my hands or even a trowel into the disgusting mess to look for them. You’ll just have to take my word that they exist.

Here’s a head of one, though, in case you’d like to look at it.

I wrote about my concerns for this yucca in December 2014 in this post. Once I removed the mature plant, I hoped that the root with the yucca pup would survive and thrive. At that time, the pup looked healthy and the root was firmly ensconced in the ground, so my positive outlook for the health of the yucca was reasonable. Alas, I believe over watering by the neighboring lawn zealot truly did this yucca in during winter. I think fungal problems were established and the damp of winter took care of the rest.

It’s a bummer, losing this yucca. I’ll miss the evergreen form and gorgeous, twice per year bloom stalks. Oddly, I don’t have a photo of the deceased yucca, but this is another Soft-leaf Yucca in my garden,

…and it, as well as the other eight specimens, seem healthy. Soft-leaf Yucca is striking in the garden–foliage and blooms add so much in grace and structure.

I’m not going to run out and buy anything to plant in the newly vacated spot. If design was my priority, I would replace the yucca with something else that is evergreen with interesting structure. Instead, I planted these two dormant Plateau Goldeneye , Viguiera dentata.

They’ll flourish in the western exposure and they can handle much, or little water–whatever is dealt them. I pulled these two out from a work area at the side of my house where they receive no water from me–they established themselves because that’s what Goldeneye do. An excellent wildlife plant, attracting pollinators and birds, Goldeneye are pretty too.

Really, really pretty.

The two perennial Goldeneye, planted together with others in this garden, will make a bold statement along the street and edge of my property and provide sustenance for wildlife throughout the growing season.

My Gardener Says…

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

Tag Archives: Goldeneye

Foliage Follow-Up, June 2015

It Begins

Yuck-ah