Fall Flowering Bulbs

Three bulbs that produce showy flowers that appear in my garden when the rains return in the fall are spider lilies (Lycoris radiata), magic lily (Lycoris squamigera), and oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida). The most common spider lilies are red, however if you search you may also find them in white, yellow, peach and pink. Magic lily is the tallest with good sized clusters of pink trumpet shaped flowers. Oxblood lilies can be planted to create a spectacular swath of red.

Not only do these bulbs produce beautiful flowers but they are really easy to care for. As long as they are not being overwatered, they will come back for you year after year without needing you to do anything else to them after setting them in place. (In fact, mine never get any supplemental watering in my north Texas garden.)

If you know someone with a large clump of one of these bulbs and if they would be willing to share, you can divide them in the spring. You can find info on how to do this in a previous blog post.

Time to Tuck in Some Winter Annuals

Seasonal color change always used to be a challenge for me. I couldn’t bear to yank out summer annuals that were still blooming their hearts out late in the year. However if I waited until they were killed by the first freeze, their replacements were more difficult to find and didn’t have a chance to get established before really cold weather, so they didn’t bloom much until spring. Thankfully now I know I don’t have to choose between a rock and a hard place. My winter color now gets tucked in without disturbing my summer annuals.

Here in North Texas we are still a little over a month away from our first average killing frost. Pansies, snapdragons, Johnny Jump Ups and dianthus can be found currently in nurseries. This time of year I like to buy them in six packs or 4” square pots. I find that I can tuck in plants this size without disturbing my summer bloomers. By planting my winter annuals now, they can coexist with my summer annuals until they get slimed by that first freeze. By then my winter beauties will have become established and add that needed color spot to an otherwise mainly dormant flower bed.

The photo above shows newly planted pansies tucked around existing Spanish moss rose.

Wolves in the Garden

Or at least spiders that hunt like wolves by running down their prey. I have seen individuals of these large brown spiders for many years around my garden and pasture. Late last summer a momma and hundreds of her babies hung out in one corner of my pond circulation pump box. Just this week I disturbed one of these spiders while I was weeding. It wasn’t the spider that I noticed first however. At first I thought that I was seeing part of a hatched robin’s egg. Then I realized that this turquoise or robin’s egg blue object was being dragged by a large brown spiders of the type that I see frequently. Once I realized that this object was attached to the spider’s abdomen, I surmised that it was an egg sac with hundreds of tiny spiders in it. This was intriguing so I got my camera and decided that I would research these spiders further for this week’s blog post. (This female spider froze in an attempt to blend into the background once I stopped weeding.)

It turns out that these spiders are a variety of wolf spider, the Texas Rabid Wolf Spider (Rabidosa rabida). While the name sounds intimidating, I have found them to be shy and nonaggressive when I come across them. A couple of sources disagreed with my observations but most agreed that they are not aggressive unless handled roughly or cornered. The wolf spider is nomadic, hunting during the day. While I haven’t witnessed it yet, they are said to wait or stalk their prey before running it down. They are not afraid to take on prey larger than they are. Their bite is venomous to their prey, insects and sometimes other spiders, but it is not considered harmful to humans, dogs or cats, although some people wrote that their bite feels like a bee sting. Females are larger than the males with their body reaching up to 2 inches in length and a leg span easily reaching 4 inches.

After the female with the egg sac that I photographed decided that she wasn’t in danger, she proceeded to tuck herself under some mulch and leaf litter in my garden. I plan to leave that little patch undisturbed long enough for the babies to hatch. After they hatch, the mother will carry them on her back until they can fend for themselves.

I hope that next time you see a large brown striped spider that makes you think of a tarantula, that you will be able to recognize it from my photos and let it be. (The dangerous brown recluse spider is only as big as a quarter and it isn't hairy like the wolf spider.) It can help you take out hungry grasshoppers and other insects that would otherwise take out your plants.

What’s in Bloom – July 2012

As the weather dries out and the heat kicks in for summer, it can be a challenge to find plants that are willing to bloom in these conditions. Two perennials native to some of the U.S. that take the heat and keep on blooming are blackfoot daisy and butterflyweed.

Blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum, makes rounded mounds full of white flowers with yellow centers. These plants are very drought tolerant. In fact, you can kill them by overwatering them or planting them in soil that does not drain well. They really don’t like “wet feet”.

Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa, is also a waterwise plant. I find that it can tolerate a bit more water than blackfoot daisy. It produces clusters of small orange flowers sporadically throughout the summer. This is also an important butterfly caterpillar host plant. It can take being chewed on, so if you spot some caterpillars on your plants, leave them be.

You can find other native and adapted waterwise plants in my Texas Stars photo album.

Dependable Daylilies

Some of the most dependable non-native plants in my landscape are clump forming hybrid daylilies. Daylilies are adaptable to a wide range of conditions and hardiness zones. In catalogs they are often shown as adaptable from zones 4 through 9, however some daylilies can be even be found for zone 1 or up to zone 11. Some cultivars have been developed to withstand colder winters, drier conditions, etc., so it is a good idea to source your daylilies locally if possible or read the mail order descriptions in detail to see if a particular variety is likely to do well in your area. And oh my, the different varieties that are available! You can find short through tall, early to late blooming, and evergreen to name a few different characteristics, each in a rainbow of colors. Some of my favorites are the very ruffled edged varieties whose edges are outlined in a contrasting color.

One word of caution however, there is one species of daylily that was introduced to the US 100-200 years ago that while well adapted (good), it is very invasive (bad). It is known as the common orange daylily or Hemerocallis fulva. This plant spreads aggressively, in my experience, by underground rhizomes and will quickly form an ever widening dense mat that crowds out other plants. I definitely discourage its use, but with so many other amazing hybrids of adapted, non-invasive daylilies available, this is no hardship.

The daylily varieties that I have in my zone 8 garden are very dependable bloomers. I have early and late bloomers as well as others that will even rebloom. Daylilies are very drought tolerant. I have found that the darker colored flowers will fade some in direct afternoon sun. While daylilies do need a half day of sun to flower reliably, you can plant your darker colored ones where they will be shaded in the afternoon to avoid this. Each bloom only lasts one day, however the plants send up stalks with multiple buds that open over a long period. All in all, my hybrid daylilies are beautiful, low maintenance and very well behaved, increasing in size very slowly and don’t threaten to take over their neighbors.

If you are not currently growing daylilies in your garden, I encourage you to try this low maintenance beauty. Be forewarned however. You can become addicted to continually adding new varieties once you realize how easy they are to grow. Your garden could become overrun with them, not because any one plant takes over but because you keep finding different beauties to add to your garden. If for some reason you have no room in your garden for daylilies, you can still enjoy their beauty through my photographic art daylily images on bookmarks, note cards and matted prints.

Waterwise Gardening

Recently many areas of the US have experienced more severe than normal droughts. Last year’s drought in Texas even damaged some locally native plants. What can a gardener do to have a chance at pulling through their garden in a hot, dry year?

There are many resources available for tips on this subject. One of these is my article “Summertime Gardening” on pages 18-19 of last summer’s online De-Stress 4 Life magazine.

For those of you that are local to Arlington, TX a free “smart yard” symposium with some speakers addressing this issue will be held at Arlington City Hall and the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market this Saturday, March 31, 2012. Information about speakers, times, etc. for the symposium is found on the Green Source DFW website.

I will be a vendor this Saturday from 8 am - 1 pm at the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market with some of the native and adapted plants that do well in my north Texas garden. If after listening to the speakers and visiting my booth, you still need some direction to help you implement a water saving garden plan in your yard, I’d be happy to discuss my garden coaching services with you.

Texas Natives for Your Garden – Sage n Gaura

The berm that I have planted mostly with Texas natives has been alive with lovely pinks, blues and purples from the blooms of native prairie onion, spiderworts, phlox, mealy blue sage and guara for a few weeks now. While the first three plants listed only bloom during the spring, the mealy blue sage and the gaura will bloom on and off through fall, although their heaviest blooms for me are during springtime.

Mealy blue sage is a perennial whose clumps will expand and new ones may form for you from seed. Slight variations in flowers and flower stem color occur in the seed propagated new plants. The sage plants in the photos of this post are offspring from seed of plants that I dug with permission from a ranch in Cresson, TX. Many wonderful additions for your garden can be found in uncultivated areas. Before collecting any plants from the wild, please make sure that you have the property owner’s permission and that you are not digging any endangered species. You will find cultivars of mealy blue sage available in many nurseries.

While gaura is native to Texas, the pink variety as well as the white one in the accompanying photos are store bought cultivars rather than native transplants. This plant is often referred to as “whirling butterflies” in the nursery trade.

Even though my area is experiencing drought conditions, these Texas natives are holding their own and blooming wonderfully without any supplemental watering. I do keep the garden mulched to help conserve water, however planting the correct plant for your area goes a long way on cutting down or eliminating your garden’s water needs. Additional native and adapted plants from my North Texas garden can be found in my Texas Stars photo album on my Facebook business page.

Is Your Garden Ready for Spring?

Ready or not, the spring equinox is almost here in the northern hemisphere. I’m ready for winter to be over, however I still have a few things that need cutting back pdq now that it is almost here. I have trimmed back the majority of my perennials as I should have by now, however I tend to leave my ornamental grasses till the last minute because I enjoy the look of them even through the winter. It is time now though, if you haven’t done so, to make way for new growth on perennials that die back to the ground each winter.

Spring arrives, according to the calendar, on Sunday, March 20, 2011. Those of you that live in the northern tier of states might think this talk of spring seems a bit premature, however those of us in North Texas have been noticing signs of the coming spring for several weeks now. Spring bulbs have been blooming, fruit and ornamental trees have been flowering and many other trees have begun to leaf out.

Here in North Texas, we do need to be careful not to jump the gun in planting tender vegetables or annual flowers because even though the first day of spring is after our average last freeze date (March 14), our actual latest freeze recorded was on April 13. (However if you wait to plant some tender things such as tomatoes until then, things will heat up so fast that your crop is likely to be less than if you planted now.) So just be prepared with the row covers (A lightweight sheer curtain or sheet is a reasonable substitute.) or individual plant protectors such as purchased or handmade wall o waters to protect your “babies”.

If you have a case of spring fever and need some help channeling your gardening urges to produce the results you want, please contact me to see if my garden coaching services can be of assistance. Happy gardening!

Dividing Fall Flowering Bulbs

Have you promised some of your fall flowering bulbs to a neighbor or are you hoping your friend will share some with you? When you transplant them will make a difference to the likelihood that they will bloom again next fall and not skip a year. It is important to understand their habits so that you move them at the correct time.

Many fall flowering bulbs, such as spider lily, autumn crocus and oxblood lily, emerge in late summer or early fall with showy flowers on leafless stems. When the flowers are mostly done blooming, leaves will emerge around the flower stalk. After the spent flower stalk is removed, the strap-like leaves will continue to grow. After the leaves reach their full size they will provide some evergreen color over the winter and persist into the spring.

Sometime during the spring, the leaves will begin to yellow and die back. It is important to wait until the leaves have died mostly back before dividing them so that the bulbs will be properly fed and mature enough to move and have a good chance of blooming again next fall. If you move them too soon, even if you plant them right away, you will get leaves but not necessarily blooms during the next fall.

The photos in this article are of the same spider lily clump. The first is of the blooms last fall and the second was taken recently. The bulbs are almost dormant as evidenced by the yellowing and the brown and dry leaves. This clump is still a little small to divide however. More bulbs will develop over time to make the clump larger.

When your fall flowering bulbs have multiplied enough to divide, I recommend using a spading fork. You are less likely to knick a bulb than with a shovel. If you have waited until the bulbs are mature, there will be little or no roots left on the bulbs and you can keep them in a mesh bag and transplant them later. If you have harvested them too soon as evidenced by lots of roots, you should replant them in their new spots as soon as possible.

Happy Harvesting

Watch the Butterflies

If you are looking for another nature themed family outing, be on the look out for a live butterfly exhibit coming to your area. Visit a local butterfly attraction to enjoy seeing and learning about these lovely creatures and possibly get motivated about attracting them to your garden with nectar, water sources and host plants.

A friend of mine convinced me to take a break for my birthday recently and visit the “Butterflies in the Garden” exhibit at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. This exhibit is open daily this year through April 4th. Many tropical butterfly species fill the conservatory. You will find them flitting through the air, perching on flowers or just hanging out on the greenery. I have included a couple of the many photos that I took during my visit.

If you do not live close enough to take advantage of this wonderful exhibit, check with your local arboretum or natural history museum to see if they know if and when a similar exhibit is scheduled to come to your area. While visiting the Texas State Fair the last couple of years, I have strolled through a butterfly exhibit garden that was staffed with volunteers to point out the caterpillars and butterfly eggs that were on the host plants in the garden. Adult butterflies could be seen flitting in and out as well. Many different opportunities may await you in your community.

So, take a moment and check out your local butterfly watching prospects. You’ll be glad you took the time to view these jewels of the air.

Feed the Birds

Watching wildlife in your yard is an enjoyable pastime. Two of the best ways to attract wildlife to your yard are to provide food and water. This can be achieved through plant selection and well placed feeders and water sources. With their high degree of mobility, birds are an easy critter to attract to your landscape and the variety of sizes and colors are a joy to behold.

While you can purchase and maintain hummingbird feeders, you can also plant small trumpet shaped flowers to attract these tiny aerial acrobats to your yard. These plants will also provide color for you to enjoy. Three of my favorite hummingbird attractors are autumn sage, agastache, and anisacanthus (hummingbird bush). For a bright spot of fall color, before the birds discover it, American beautyberry is a good choice. Several species of birds enjoy these bright magenta berries.

There are many hardscape ways to provide food and water. Water sources can include bird baths, ponds, and fountains. There are many good bird feeders available in the marketplace. If you would like to provide both at once, a “teacup” bird feeder might be a good choice for you. These small combo feeders and bird baths are great for an intimate setting just outside a window. Hang them from a limb or a garden shepherd’s hook so that it is visible from a window. You will also want to place it so that it is easy to refill and clean.

Add a little wildlife magic to your landscape with these suggestions. The combo feeder and bird bath pictured is available from EDCCollective. The name of one of its recycled components is the “Magic Garden series”. It is suspended from brass components for years of rust free use.

Winter Garden Clean Up

If a killing freeze has turned sections of your garden from vibrant to drab, you need to do a little “winter cleaning” for the look and health of your garden. Annuals that have turned brown need to be taken out and perennials that go dormant over the winter need to be clipped back. Not only will this maintenance make your garden look better, but it can improve the health of your garden by removing hiding places for pests to spend the winter in. This is especially true for beds of asparagus.

After pulling out the dead annuals and clipping back the dormant perennials, you may discover some winter weeds that need to be pulled. Once you have completed these tasks, it is a great time to freshen your mulch. It is easiest to do now, when there are no plants to mulch around. If you are in a part of the country with mild winters, you may even want to put in some pansies or snapdragons.

The photos accompanying this article are of a portion of one of my front beds. Annual cosmos predominates in shades of yellow and orange during the summer, right up to the first freeze. After the freeze, the now brown plants were taken out and the ripened seeds scattered back into the garden for next year. I added a layer of no float cypress mulch before putting out my polar bear holiday decoration. I will put in some cold hardy annuals along the edge of the walk after the holidays.

"Summerize" Your Garden

With portions of the U.S. having just experienced freeze warnings it probably seems premature to be worrying about getting your garden ready for summer. Many articles are written about getting your garden ready for the winter, however for those of us that live in areas with hot, predominantly dry summers, “summerizing” could be even more important than winterizing your garden. I recommend focusing on three tasks; weeding, planting and mulching.

While I will pull a weed anytime of the year, this is an especially good time to do so while there is still some natural moisture in the soil. Getting the entire weed out is easier and the disturbance this causes will be less traumatic to nearby plants. Many weeds have not gone to seed yet, so you will be reducing next season’s weed seed load as well.

If your late winter/early spring annuals are getting tired, you should replace them with summer color now. This will give the new plants some time to get established before the heat hits. If your spring annuals still look good, you can get some 4 inch summer color and sneak them in around your existing plants instead of ripping them out. This will give your summer color time to get established and still enjoy your early color until it gives out.

Most important in this list, mulch! Mulch does a lot for your garden. It helps keep the moisture that we have in our soils from evaporating, reducing the need for supplemental watering. It provides “air conditioning” for your plant’s roots by keeping the soil cooler. It helps control weeds and makes those that do come up easier to pull and it helps improve the texture and composition of your soils.

If you attend to these three tasks now, you should enjoy the benefits of a lovely and easily maintained garden all summer long.

Designing for Easier Landscape Maintenance

Inside corners are no fun to mow. I used to have one that was bounded by the driveway to the east and a fence surrounding a utility area to the south. With a car usually parked along the edge of the driveway, mowing involved a lot of back and forth, tight turns and paying attention to which way the wind was blowing so the car didn’t get covered with cut grass.

In these situations, I like to use a landscape bed to round out the inside corner. However, this area was also a well trafficked area just outside the garage walk door. I didn’t need to install a landscape bed and have a path beaten through my plantings.

One handy trick for areas that you are having trouble visualizing a solution for, is to lay out a garden hose to help define the space. I laid one out with gentle curves and adjusted it until I could drive my riding mower along it without having to stop and back up. I also delineated a path through the proposed bed. My family evaluated this layout for a couple of weeks to make sure that we had a design that met our needs. (It is much easier to adjust a garden hose than a flagstone path.)

Once we were comfortable with the layout, we rented a sod cutter for removing the grass. Then we installed edgestone pavers along the border of the bed. (These are great for making curves.) I like to install a flat solid edging between the lawn and the edgestones. I find that this makes it easier to maintain a clean edge and keep the grass out of your bed. I used black plastic edging with a large bead at the top for the sides of the path. The path was constructed with flagstone that was “grouted” with decomposed granite. After this we installed the plants and mulch.

This area is now much easier to maintain. Added benefits include the reduction of thirsty lawn grass and more camouflage to pretty up my utility area.