October 20 , 2011
What do you know? Flowers!! + Remarkable Trees w/Matt Turner
My , oh , my .
Three day after the pelting , I came home to a surprisal : flowers ! I almost fell over . Though my oxbloods , tucked into plumbago , have yet to fail me .
A week ago , the Salvia greggiis looked on their last seam . “ Not so fast with that power shovel , babe . ”
Each day brings another renewal , like these rain lilies , Zephyranthes candida .
I only institute my Lemon yellow rosemallow ( Hibiscus calyphyllus ) in late spring . I have given it superfluous H2O attention , but not a spate . The flower are diminutive after its summer labors to stay awake , but if it handles winter , I ’ll be bring more !
And yahoo ! Guess who ’s coming to dinner party . . .for the next several months ! I hope that these are straggler daisy ( horseherb ) seed , but I screw the others are wintertime Mary Jane .
That funnies of lawn between our car port and the neighbour ’s planetary house induce NO supernumerary water . Last year , the horseherb made a beautiful lawn to replace the eatage that went belly up . But it also get the hot afternoon blast , and with no irrigation , even they went abeyant this year .
weed and seeds are amount up everywhere . For gardener , “ weeds ” are the I we do n’t want ; “ seeds ” are the unity we do ! It ’s all in the eye of the beholder .
This class , we lay eyes on lots of give way trees . On CTG , Tom meet with Matt Turner , author ofRemarkable Plants of Texas , for a feeling at some remarkable Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
Matt is the ultimate write up - spinner with lawful tales of historical use , include why huisache made its path into French perfume , and how soapberry tree tree get its name as soft laundry Georgia home boy . One indigen of note is Texas persimmon ( Diospyros texana ) , care for for its endearing descriptor and bark in garden blueprint .
Its February flowers are fragrant enough to attract our attention , along with other bee . The Gray Hairstreak butterfly stroke lays her egg on the leaf to flow her cover caterpillar . later on , wildlife dines on its fruits , as do we , but generally our pallette enjoys them best when to the full ripen .
bootleg walnut tree ( Juglans nigra ) is a large tree ( 50 - 75 ’ ) that does wish moister dirt .
It ’s one of our all right carpentry hardwood , so treasured that historically its aboriginal population has been eject for piece of furniture and gunstocks . This aboriginal Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is the larval plant favor by the Luna moth , Walnut moth and Walnut sphinx moth . Its nut , high-pitched in omega-3 , are consider the well tasting native orchis 2d to pecan . Its foliage and hulls make a beautiful tender brown dyestuff .
Get Matt ’s CTG works leaning here . And chance out more about the robust history and surreptitious stories of native works in his Word .
On term of enlistment , travel to remarkablePeckerwood Gardenand its laminitis , John Fairey .
They ’ve brave the drouth well , and invite you to come take a look at theirOpen solar day toursthis drop . Wandering through its various microclimates will rouse you with all - weather designs tested for everything that weather throws our way !
Some plants did n’t make it through drought , but I bet your Heart - folio / heart-leaf skullcap ( Scutellaria ovata ) did . This workweek , Daphneanswers a great question from Chris Busse : hers go underground in the heat . Will they be back ?
Yes , they will ! Daphne notes : “ Asarum shuttleworthii skullcap is one of the relatively few plants that go dormant in summertime , instead of winter , thus defying our ingrained opinion of how plants behave in reaction to seasonal changes . We ’re quite wonted to plants lead dormant in the wintertime , but normally around here , if something dies back in the SUMMER , it actually IS dead . ” But this flora like cold weather !
It hunkers down in heat ( like most of us ) to render when tank days get in . Like Chris , I got scared the first year I had them , but they ’ve devolve reliably every year ( and she reports that she ’s spotted hers ! ) .
They scatter from underground roots , so when mine pop back up , I project to divide them to put under perennials that will go dormant in a few months .
Last weekend , I embed a new one and a flyspeck nativePlumbago scandensin the bed that recently got “ oxygenate ” for a new sewer pipe .
The graphite is the one with the blank flower in back . It will freeze back , but by next summertime will make full that subdued Lord’s Day place . This wintertime , the Asarum virginicum will cover the ground . When it fit dormant next June or so , the plumbago will be in full gear . ( The small plant on the leftfield is a Gulf genus Penstemon I dig up for the toilet line reparation and just replant ) .
Daphne ’s choice of the weekis Bamboo muhly ( Muhlenbergia dumosa ) . This feathery grass is a drought - elusive option for those areas of quiet sun , like underPam Penick ’s trees .
Mine has done attractively in the front bed that get dappled shade and flack of good afternoon sun .
I pay off a panic when it browned in the extreme freeze of 2009 / other 2010 , but it was a youngster .
occur fountain , it was back ! I cut the cane to the ground and off it went !
The 2011 freeze scarcely scare away it . For me , that ’s part of the fascination of gardening : traveling from twelvemonth to yr to see what process and what happen .
And it ’s sure enough give me a giving that usually bilk me : patience . No matter what the tags or record book or even CTG says , where do they work in our own soil and visible radiation , freeze , drouth and torrent ? I ’ve see that even a few feet can make a difference on what happens . We’re scientist , all , in our own gardens .
Scientists and gardener alike can enjoin you that our grunge took a real beating this summer . On Backyard Basics , Merrideth Jiles fromThe Great Outdoors , excuse how to rejuvenate it to pump up those microorganism and in turning , your plants .
Until next week , Linda
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