Purple Reign

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Tina

Purple is the color of the week in my garden.

A purple Spiderwort flanks a potted Ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense), setting the mood for a reign of purple.

Oh sure, there’s yellow, red, and orange too, all vying for attention with their look at me! petals and am I not gorgeous? spring-green foliage. But it’s the purple array of Spiderwort–demonstrating pollinator-driven color and petal variations–that is stealing the wildflower show at this moment in my March garden.

Some Spiderwort flowers are darker and suggest an affinity for geometric arrangements.

The petals are curling, heralding afternoon heat.

Other Spiderwort flowers trend pink, though purple is definitely a part of the petal pedigree.

Still other Spiderwort are shy and soft in color, with hint of blue and only a suggestion of exhibitionist purple.

The pollinators are busy, busy, busy and Spiderwort blooms are a favorite dining spot! This diminutive syrphid fly caught my attention as I was chasing a significantly larger butterfly. I failed at photographing the butterfly, but I followed the syrphid, or flower fly, as it visited several Spiderwort blooms. The syrphid was a work-horse pollinator at the flowers, spending more time at each bloom than the flighty butterfly.

Part of the honey for next season will come from this Spiderwort and its farming honeybee.

Check out Ms. Honeybee’s pollen pantaloons. The proper name for this part of the honeybee is pollen basket or corbicula, but I prefer my own addition to bee etymology: pollen pantaloon.

Purple reigns in the garden, though it–in the form of Spiderwort–hasn’t quite taken over. If I want a diverse garden community next year, I’ll need to cull a fair number of these randy Spiderwort plants–they’re rather a promiscuous bunch! That’s fine, I’ll be donating some to plant swaps and cajoling neighbors into planting some of my extras. (But will those neighbors ever speak to me again, after they, too, reap the bounty of Spiderwort?)

A stalk of purple passalong iris photobombs the cluster of spiderwort. In time, this iris and its compadres will likely assume the mantle of purple.

Spiderwort: a reign of purple and a prince of flowers.

Bloom Day, April 2015

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Tina

Welcome to the April edition of Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens. There are so many blooms in my April garden and so little time to profile all of the flowers, so I’ll focus on a few, mostly native Texas lovelies.

The purples have taken control of my gardens–holding the garden hostage with their beauty. Included in the violet-hued blooming coup are several varieties of non-native Iris and native Texas perennial wildflowers.

I have scads of Spiderwort, Tradescantia, ssp. clumps which have spread willy-nilly throughout my beds. They vary in size, color, and petal form, but all are pretty in purple and pollinator-attracting.

A relative of the Spiderwort, this dainty False Dayflower, Tinantia anomala, displays a delicate spring lilac.

It’s a nice companion to the Spiderwort and like its taller kin, was a surprise gift in my garden.

Cedar Sage, Salvia roemeriana, is a blast of red-hot gorgeousness in spring and is flowering a bit earlier than typical for this shade-loving perennial.

It’s certainly no shrinking salvia in the garden.

This darling Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium chilense, popped up in a crack in my patio and is blooming along just fine in its mortar mulch.

I’m only guessing at this identification–I didn’t buy it in either seed or container plant form. It’s definitely a blue-eyed beauty, though.

Native Texas Columbines are spring favorites. The Yellow Columbine, Aquilegia chrysantha var. hinckleyana,

…and the smaller, less flamboyant Wild Red Columbine, A. canadensis,

…and the natural hybrids of the two that occur when both are planted together over the course of a few seasons.

I love ’em all!

Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, is at the peak of its beautiful spring blue flower spikes. Or is the color purple? Or maybe more of a lavender? Whatever it is, it’s welcome in my garden.

Lyreleaf Sage is a good choice for a shade-tolerant ground cover and is attractive year-round.

Coral Honeysuckle vine, Lonicera sempervirens, is a blooming monstrosity!

But no one can doubt the beauty and pollinator zing it adds to a garden

Hill Country Penstemon, Penstemon triflorus, stands as s a fuchsia sentinel in my early and mid-spring garden.

This one is perhaps a hybrid between the P. triflorus and P. cobaea. The tag at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center was labeled P. triflorus, but it’s never quite looked like my others. It sports larger blooms and foliage in an overall taller plant, plus the coloring is variegated.

Nonetheless, like my other Hill Country Penstemon plants, I appreciate its good looks, long flowering time, and purpose as an excellent pollinator plant.

Not native to Central Texas but instead, to West Texas and New Mexico is the Globe Mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua.

Hot, dry, and sunny makes this mallow happy and I’m glad I have ONE spot that it’s happy in. Doesn’t it look happy to you?

Happy April GBBD–check out other gorgeous April bloom happenings at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, April 2014

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Tina

Joining garden bloggers from around the world, here are my picks for Bloom Day, April 2014 from Austin, Texas. The Hill Country Penstemon (Penstemon triflorus), thrust upward its bloom stalks during January, but waited until March to unfurl its fuchsia beauty.