Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: May 2015

Happy GBBD! It's been a while since I've posted, despite having a banner iris spring and hundreds of volunteer bluebonnets I kept meaning to photograph. All this rain has been pretty amazing for the landscape; strangely, it's the sun that's missing (so unlike a typical May in Austin). Artichokes and the verbena bonariensis are the stars in front right now, as the magnolia perfumes the air. In back, the 2-year-old Passion Flower vine has totally taken over the fence and is creeping up through the pocket lawn (be careful what you wish for!).

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: May 2014

It's all shades of purple with orange accents up in here for this month's GBBD (hosted by May Dreams Gardens), starting with the star of the front yard: artichoke (and, yes, they do feel like koosh balls).

Curb strip Candystripe cosmos, from seed thrown out last year

Globe mallow just keeps trucking along

Creeping germander hasn't crept very far, but the blooms remind me of lavender

Passionvine

Mexican petunia, filling in with no help from me, per usual

End of the larkspur among the iris foliage

Heartleaf skullcap

Trumpet vine just started blooming yesterday

Not pictured, but just started blooming: magnolia, crepe myrtle and coral bean.

Happy spring, gardeners!

April Foliage Follow-up

Mexican feathergrass is in full good-hair-day glory out front. And the artichokes, fig, Gulf muhly and artemisia providing some nice layers of foliage texture.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: April 2014

Days of irises and roses this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (hosted by May Dreams Gardens). A day late to the party, but here's what was blooming in my garden yesterday.

Moved these iris from the driveway area a couple of falls ago, and finally a bloom!

Mutabilis rose is covered in peach, pink and dusty rose blooms

Gotta love Martha Gonzales rose this time of year

This shade of iris has been blooming for at least a couple of weeks (preceded by the deep burgundy ones)

First passion flower bloom of the year opened up on GBBD!

Bee enjoying bolted cilantro

Top heavy iris blooms hiding among the Gregg's Mist

Bluebonnets!
 
And bluebonnets going to seed en masse. These are all volunteers from a single bluebonnet that showed up in my front yard last spring.

California poppies in such happy shades of orange and neon yellow

The unstoppable show that is globe mallow

Poppies and massive globe mallow in context

White Mexican poppy

Future blooming excitement (aka artichokes)

Somebody's been eating the last burgundy iris, but they put on an excellent show this year. Definitely doing some dividing and transplanting this fall.

Happy late bloom day! And check out May Dreams Gardens for more gardens around the world.

Accidental Butterfly Garden

When I chose the plants for the two beds on either side of the path to the back gate, I did not realize I was making a butterfly garden. But the white mistflower turned out to be a huge beacon to pollinators: butterflies, bees, hairy flies, you name it. Here's one of the prettier visitors. Long view includes the sad chain link fence which will hopefully be covered in passionflower vine this time next year (and maybe some fritillaries). The milkweed is the one plant specifically chosen for butterflies, and it's working just fine as you can see from the monarch and queen butterflies. Blue mistflower was nothing but uninteresting foliage from last fall till this november, but it's now a noteworthy plant. Martha Gonzales rose and pavonia mix in with the white mistflower.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: September 2013

Happy Bloom Day! Been a while since I've done any blogging...or much gardening. It's still basically summer here, but the drought-tolerant plants have continued to bloom through the heat. Here's a look at what's blooming this weekend in my garden, and be sure to visit May Dreams Garden to see what's blooming around the world.

Firebush has been a huge bee attractor
Gaura floating above the artemesia
Gregg's Mistflower

Front garden tumbling over the straight edges, as usual
Candy stripe cosmos (the only cosmos seeds that grew in the curb strip)
Mystery volunteer...might be my favorite volunteer ever

Globe mallow, blackfoot daisy and bronze fennel blooms

Globe mallow and blackfoot are curb strip champions! (Sadly, so is the spurge in the bottom right...trying to get a handle on it)

Backyard: Thryallis, bronze fennel, zinnias, fireworks gomphrena and lemongrass

Fireworks gomphrena

Bluebeard has started blooming again (anticipating fall, perhaps?)

Orange shrimp plant shaded by the unstoppable angel's trumpet

Kidneywood with a trumpet vine background

Black and yellow garden spider (apparently the zigzag is made by the female when a male is nearby)