Green Fennel | My Gardener Says…

It went from this:

…to this,

…and finally, this.

The Shumard Oak leaves responded to the shorter and cooler days, but are no longer much in play on this Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day. It’s winter, such that it is, here in Austin, Texas. Our winters are generally mild and quite pleasant, though occasionally blasted by cold snaps that send our temperatures from mild 50s-70s into the low 30s, or 20s, and even into the teens (Fahrenheit!)–sometimes within hours.

A stout and flexible gardening heart is a requirement for Central Texas gardeners.

The first part of January saw cold and cloudy days, one after another, with no peek-a-boo play from the sun. I just returned from a short trip to Oregon and enjoyed more sunshine there than I’d seen in Austin in those first weeks of January. Additionally, it wasn’t as cold as it’s been in Austin. How weird is that? To travel to the Pacific Northwest, in January, to experience more sun and warmer temperatures?

Austin revelled in sunshine while I was away and everyone was happier for it. I’m back in Austin and so is the gloom and drizzle and chill. No whining allowed though, I’m enjoying and appreciating the foliage of winter-worthy shrubs and perennials and thanking Christina of Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for hosting this monthly look at foliage in the garden.

The Columbines, Aquilegia hinckleyana and Aquilegia canadensis,

… are lush and generous evergreens during winter. Equally delicate-looking, Bronze Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare,

…and Green Fennel, too,

…add daintiness and feathery beauty, but remain green-n-growing during winter’s chill. I like them as winter interest plants, but I grow fennel for the spring, summer, and autumn butterflies, or more accurately, their larvae.

Of sturdier structure is the Leatherleaf Mahonia, Mahonia bealei, which fades into the background during most of the growing season, but lends both floral and foliage interest throughout the winter months.

Soft-leaf Yucca, Yucca recurvifolia, makes a statement with its bold straps,

…as does the American Century Plant, Agave americana.

Variegated Flax Lily or Dianella, Dianella tasmanica, ‘Variegata’, is snazzy year-round. I grow several groups and they are the only plants I routinely cover during the coldest freezes.

When covered, Dianella retain their stripy charm and they march through our hot summers with aplomb. All of my Dianella are several years old.

Red Yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora, is an evergreen, native Texas member of the Agavaceae family. The Red Yucca foliage is attractive in the winter garden,

…though it would be more so if I would prune its dormant bloom stalks,

…and clean out the fallen and trapped tree leaves from its basal leaves.

More leaf removal is on the gardening agenda for this week I have a long list of garden chores after that, so I’d better get off the computer and get to gardening!

Pop on over and check out Creating my own garden of the Hesperides to view beautiful January foliage from many places around the world.

By Austin standards, temperatures for spring and summer of 2014 have been mild to downright cool. While still drier than normal, there has been some rain. I think those factors explain the exuberance of this Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare.

This guy is four and a half feet tall! Where does he think he is? Oregon?? I planted this particular specimen a year or two ago–it’s bumbled along for some time and since last fall, it grew.

And grew. I plant Fennel (and Dill, as well) to attract butterflies to my garden. Fennel is the host plant for several species of swallowtail butterflies. The adult butterfly lays her eggs on the Fennel, the eggs hatch and the caterpillars eat until they’re ready for their trip through the chrysalis and to eventual butterfly-hood. Sometimes a chrysalis will form on the Fennel itself,

but usually the large caterpillar transforms into its adult self elsewhere. Either way, planting Fennel is helpful in assuring a regular population of swallowtail butterflies.

I haven’t hosted hoards of caterpillars and resulting butterflies this year,

just a few, here and there.

And the caterpillars haven’t eaten the Fennel to the ground. Yet. Though they are efficient at stripping the foliage from the stems.

I have a dedicated butterfly garden in a different part of my gardens, as well.

I planted these Bronze and Green Fennel for the swallowtails last fall, along with some transplanted Tropical Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, for the Monarchs. The Fennel has thrived, though the Milkweed froze in the winter and has been very slow to return.

Which is just as well as I didn’t spot one Monarch in my gardens during spring migration. Not. One. Monarch. That is scary and sad.

The Fennel provides food for swallowtails and some delicious salad sprigs–for me, that is. Several of my Fennel are beginning to bolt, which entails producing flower umbels,

and going to seed.

I’m snipping the flower panicles off to keep the Fennel in a growing mode, but summer heat will continue to encourage the bolting process. Fennel has survived summer before in my gardens and if it doesn’t get too hot this year, it could happen again. Time will tell.

The Fennel has been beautiful for these past eight months. Foliage is the main attraction with Fennel, for people and butterfly larvae. Delicate and lacy–it is also winter hardy, so it’s great to plant in the fall. It can overwinter, grow and be ready for butterfly happenings in the spring and summer. I’m particularly fond of Bronze Fennel and usually choose that variety though I plant both the Green and the Bronze Fennel in my gardens.

Butterflies don’t discriminate–their larvae munch on both. Fennel is a lovely, but unreliable, landscape plant. Gardeners must understand that the caterpillars will eat Fennel, possibly to the ground. And here in Austin, if the caterpillars don’t trash the Fennel, the heat will. I recommend that if you plant Fennel, be sure to situate it amongst other summer blooming perennials, so that when the Fennel disappears (either because of caterpillars or summer temperatures), there isn’t a gaping hole left in your garden.

Don’t even think about planting Fennel right now–that would amount to a major garden fail! Plant Fennel in your gardens next fall, when it’s cooler and there is some regular rain.
In time, you’ll have a beautiful garden addition, some yummy herbs for your salad and cooking pleasure, and an excellent host plant for beautiful butterflies.