Foliage Day, February 2015

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Tina

Here we are on the cusp of spring–some of us closer to that cusp than others, but we in the Northern Hemisphere are all headed in the same direction and whooping it up as buds are swelling and leaves are greening. Those in the Southern Hemisphere–happy almost autumn to you! Regardless are where the gardens are planted, thanks to Christina of Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day set aside for profiling and parading foliage–for this gardener, of the late-ish winter garden.

Blackberries. Yum. I can’t wait to make pie and cobbler, but also to pick the berries right off this vine in May. For now though, I simply appreciate the burgundy blush that winter’s chill left on some of the prickly leaves of the Rosborough Blackberry vine (Rubus, sp.), ‘Brazos’.

Opposite in the color and texture spectrum of the deeply colored and thorny foliage of Blackberry is this Heartleaf Skullcap, Scutellaria ovata ssp. bracteata.

This winter spreading, spring and summer blooming perennial, sports subtle gray-green leaves which are soft to the touch.

The morning sun backlit this pairing of Bamboo Muhly, Muhlenbergia dumosa and Cast Iron Plant, Aspidistra elatior.

I love the effect.

In the same garden, just down the pathway, I also really like this combination of Cast Iron Plant (at top), Sparkler Sedge, Carex phyllocephala ‘Sparkler’, and Iris straps (unknown variety).

All are evergreen and hardy, water wise, and lovely plants year-round.

And this fun combo includes tawny, crispy about-to-be-pruned-to-the-ground, Inland Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium, graceful Giant Liriope or Lilyturf, Liriope muscari, snazzy Variegated Flax Lily, Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’, and lacy and lovely summer-blooming Yarrow, Achillea millefolium.

Oh, and also fallen oak leaves which STILL need raking up.

There’s more foliage gorgeousness to see from beautiful gardens at Creating my own garden of the Hesperides. Check it out!

Foliage Follow-Up, November 2014: The Non-Freeze

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Tina

My gardens are slowing down in preparation for winter, but haven’t experience the frosty nip that was promised earlier in the week. Thank goodness! I’m not quite ready to give in to the dark season. Not Just Yet.

Focusing on mid-November foliage, I’m joining with Pam at Digging for Foliage Follow-Up.

In one corner of my garden with dappled light most of the day and some direct sun off and on, are a couple of favorite foliage vignettes. One such is of Iris straps, Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum, and cobalt-blue containerized succulent Ghost Plant, Graptopetalum paraguayense.

Planted alongside that mix are several Dianella or Variegated Flax Lily, Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’.

I love the wide, grass-like foliage of Dianella with its snazzy white stripes down the sides.

When a freeze was predicted this week, I covered the Dianella, though my concerns were unwarranted. Last winter, I covered all of my Dianella each time the temperature sank into the ’20s, especially for extended periods. They soldiered through winter like the garden champs they are and thrived in our long, hot summer. Dianella nicely combine with Iris and Soft-leaf Yucca straps,

…as well as with these snuggly Love-Critters.

Ghost Plant is unkillable: it goes for months without water, isn’t fazed by freezes (or at least mine haven’t been), can re-grow if a stem is broken.

My kinda plant.

Maiden Grass, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Adagio’ is in its glory now.

The beautiful seed heads reflect the sun as it briefly peeked through our mostly cloudy week.

Toasty-seeded Inland Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium and the green swath of Cast Iron Plant, Aspidistra elatior are a striking pair.

Added to this scene is Purple Heart, Setcreasea pallida, which dramatizes that story a bit.

Big Muhly, Muhlenbergia lindheimeri and Soft-leaf Yucca, Yucca recurvifolia are cool weather troopers.

Graceful while also lending structure to the garden, these two are beautiful companions throughout the year, hot or cold.

I took this photo of evergreen Yarrow, Achillea millefolium and Chile Pequin, Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, just before what was supposed to be a freezing night. I figured the fruits wouldn’t survive the plunging temperatures and wanted to record them for posterity.

I’m happy to report that the fruits are still available for dining by interested birds.

I love the twisty-curvy foliage of Corkscrew Rush, Juncus effusus spiralis, silhouetted over a pair of Mexican Feathergrass, Nassella tenuissima.

Finally, the leaf change is beginning on my Red Oak, Quercus coccinea.

Here in Central Texas, our tree foliage color change occurs later than that of our northern kin, but beautiful and appropriate for our climate and region. There will be more of this in the weeks to come.

Digging hosts Foliage Follow-Up–drop in for a look at November foliage fanfare.

Wildflower Wednesday, August 2014

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Tina

Today I join Gail at clay and limestone with heat loving wildflowers for August. No longer cool nor even somewhat pleasant, we’re crawling down the hard stretch of summer here in Austin, Texas. But the light is different and once in a great while, I feel a slight change to the breeze. When there is a breeze. I say that every year, to anyone who will listen: Sometime in August there is a change–the air is different, the breeze is different! Usually those I’m in conversation with roll their eyes and smirk.

I get lots of smirks.

There’s no smirking though when viewing this hot, summer/fall blooming Goldeneye, Viguiera dentata.

A few of these flowers open throughout the summer months, but in October? Watch out! There will be an explosion of yellow.

The ridiculously pink Rock Rose, Pavonia lasiopetala, is a long-blooming native perennial. These pinks,

look almost too pink. They open in the wee hours before dawn and close in the afternoon heat. This group is tired of the heat and are closing up shop for the day,

…while this group contends with both heat and sun.

By 4pm in hot August, Rock Rose blooms are done for the day. Fresh, perky blossoms will open for business early the next morning.

The glory of Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea,

is over for the year. I leave the gone-to-seed flower heads as long as possible for finch nibbling, but the blooms are crispy now and I’ve pruned most back to their rosettes. After the spring/summer blooms are done and pruned, there’s usually a second flowering that is shorter in stature, but very welcomed,

…by pollinators and people. Later in fall, Purple Coneflower will segue again into seed production for winter finch food.

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, is taking a bow for its long bloom season as well. All of mine, save this patch,

are pruned to their ground foliage for the year. I’ve always found the ecru disks of spent blooms as attractive as the snowy white of the peak of Yarrow season, so I keep them through the long summer months.

The finches appreciate the seeds, too.

Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus, blooms magnificently during this toasty time of year.

Visited by bees,

Turk’s Cap produce scads of swirled lovelies with pollen and nectar galore and will do so for another month or two.

Frostweed, Verbesina virginica, employs a hopeful common name.

Frost. That’s hard to imagine right now. Frostweed’s snowy blooms evoke a coolness we can only dream about with our daily 100 degree-plus temperatures and the death rays of the August sun.

Flowering will continue into September, giving way to seed production in the fall.

Slather on the sunscreen, drink plenty of fluids and traipse over to clay and limestone to see other hot August wildflowers.

My Gardener Says…

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

Tag Archives: Yarrow

Foliage Day, February 2015

Foliage Follow-Up, November 2014: The Non-Freeze

Wildflower Wednesday, August 2014