BEGINNINGS of a TEXAS COTTAGE GARDEN: HAPPY APRIL GBBD

After three months of steady work, the Texas Cottage Garden is finally shaping up. I find inspiration from many gardeners and their gardens. You'll find many of these dynamic diggers & superlative shovelers on my 50 fabulous favorites links. But, alas, at some juncture we have to find our own way and our own style, and especially our own plants that seem to enjoy growing in our plot of earth. Hope you like the Texas Cottage Style. (And special thanks to Cindy at  My Corner of Katy...she has it perfected for those in the Houston area!)

The front yard with xeric agaves, herbs, and flowers in the front and moisture loving perennial flowers in the back.

A work in progress earlier this month

Cape Daisy ~ Euryops pectinatus

Osteospermum series 'Red Velvet'

Lavandula stoechas (I would not recommend this for Houston. I got it as an orphan.)

Salvia x sylvestris 'Blauhugel' (another orphan that may or may not make it here in the heat)

Close up of Salvia Blue Hill ( I hope it makes it! It's a lovely plant)

The gray green foliage of rue. I love this look and the pungent smell. It's a butterfly host as well.

This was a nice mix...native bluebonnets with  Helichrysum thianschanicum. I found some broken blue glass to sprinkle around for added flavor.

My new favorite  flower is Coreopsis grandiflora 'Sunfire'.

The cottage garden green beans are currently in bloom in our front yard. Funny, huh?

A close up of the green beans. They're pretty in their own right.

These Red Pentas are great with yellow and purple flowers and are wonderful nectar sources for butterflies.

These are great colors! Have some new ones just come out in recent years? Why didn't someone call me! LOL

Another new plant I'm trying (see label below). I saw it growing beautifully underneath dappled live oak shade at a Houston Presbyterian church and instantly wanted one. I have plenty of shade for these and I think it spreads by runners. That's OK by me! I love this plant since it goes well with wisteria and blooms all summer.

Here's the label for Indigofera kirilowii. Other sources say it's good for zone 9. That's me.

 I'll show you one bloom from the tropical garden in the back yard. This is the first time this Aechmea bromeliad has bloomed. It's about as exotic as they come. My wife loves it!

Finally an update on the feral cat that showed up in our garden last month. Here it is looking at a white-winged dove.

Turns out that it's not so feral.

It's no longer running away from us. We think at some point it was somebody's pet before being dumped in our neighborhood.

It's very sweet and it's getting along with our other cat so we now have two.

It's so tiny we named it Pip-Squeek or Pip for short. Our other cat is named Pepper or Pep for short.

So now we have Pip and Pep!

That's it for this month. April is the nicest weather month in Texas.

Thank-you Carol, at May Dreams gardens, for inviting us to share our garden flowers each month. Happy Gardening & thanks for stopping by our Texas Cottage Garden.

                                                                               David/:0)

MARCH, THE MAGICAL MONTH: HAPPY GBBD!

Carol, at May Dreams Gardens, invites gardeners near and far to share what's blooming on the 15th of each month. Here in Houston, March is indeed a magical month where everything goes into hyperdrive to bloom and flourish before summer's unrelenting heat. Let's take a tour:

The blooms of our little Box Elder tree shimmer and wave like a green cascade. (It's a blur because they would never STOP moving in the night breeze)

This perennial morning glory (Impomea indica) is currently on trial. The verdict is still out on whether or not to let it grow on the fence or to stop it before it takes over the garden.

The 'Pride of Mobile' Azaleas enjoyed this past week's 5.50" of rain and are just about bloomed out.

I have many volunteer native Redbud trees and they are indeed the cheeriest harbinger's of Spring.

The star of the show has to be Pittisporum tobira. The hundreds of bloom clusters fill the air with the scent of honey.

It was easy to sneak up on this Red Admiral butterfly. It hardly cared that I was there. Four of them were flitting about playing butterfly games and lapping up nectar.

St. Patrick's Day is coming and these shamrocks are in full bloom to greet the Irish holiday.

Most of my garden is always shady, so it's nice to see these horseherbs and yellow Wood Sorrel blooming between the stones before the trees leaf out.

 

Finally, I'll show you the latest on my front project. It's 90% complete. It almost looks good enough for one of those gardening magazines. Now if I could just finish pulling the last of those pesky weeds.

Well, that's it. Hope Spring has Sprung in your part of the world or the rain has turned on in Australia's Autumn season. I haven't a clue what happens in South Africa this time of year, but wish you some happy gardening as well.

Happy (Magical) GBBD!

David/:0)

THE TOP 10 PLANTS IN MY GARDEN FOR 2011

If you live along the Texas Gulf Coast and your garden is DEAD from the drought, try a few of these next year. My garden has a wet/tropical look in some parts, and an agave/dry tropical look in others. Here are my awards for this year from my garden:

FIRST PLACE: LEAST AFFECTED BY a WIDE RANGE OF CONDITIONS goes to:

the AGAVE family~ Agave americana

 Very beautiful with other plants and this cultivar has a nice curve to the leaves, not bayonet style like some.

Agave desmettiana 'Joe Hoak'

SECOND PLACE: MOST BEAUTIFUL LEAVES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR goes to:

The Neoregelia genus of Bromeliads

Pictured: Neoregelia 'Raphael'

THIRD PLACE: BEST GROUND COVER goes to:

Licorice plant Helichrysum petiolare (from South Africa)

FOURTH PLACE: BEST NATIVE TREE goes to:

Redbud~ Cercis canadensis

Bloomed, grew, and set seed despite half the normal rainfall!

FIFTH PLACE: BEST TROPICAL LOOKING TREE goes to:

Eriobotrya japonica~ Loquat tree

SIXTH PLACE: MOST ABUNDANT BLOOMER goes to:

Lantana montevidensis ~ Trailing lantana (see below)

Lantana montevidensis was never out of bloom from June to December!

SEVENTH PLACE: BEST HERB goes to:

Rosemary (many cultivars). It is VERY drought tolerant!

EIGHTH PLACE: MOST ENDURING BUTTERFLY HOST  goes to:

Aesclepius curassavica~ bloomed for months, got eaten to death, attacked by yellow aphids, and still looks good!

NINTH PLACE: PLANT MOST WORTH KEEPING ALIVE goes to:

Odontonema strictum ~ Mexican firespike

I had to water it, but the blooms and leaves respond quickly after wilting.

TENTH PLACE: PALM MOST TOLERANT OF SEVERE FREEZES, HEAT WAVES, DROUGHT, AND FLOODING goes to:

Livistona chinensis ~ Chinese fan palm

Happy Gardening and thanks so much for stopping by Tropical Texana

David and family

along with the chickens: Hoot, Gwen, Phoebe & Zeebee

(P.S. Marco the Rooster had to get a new home)

FOLIAGE FOLLOW-UP & GBBD: BROMELIADS STAND IN AS 'FLOWERS' IN A SHADY TROPICAL GARDEN

    A colorful photo of  bromeliads growing up a hillside in Costa Rica was my Eureka moment a couple of years back. The idea: that from a distance colorful bromeliads can stand in for flowers in a tropical shade garden. At once I started imagining these plants punctuating the all green landscape of my backyard. So...here they are! After many years of collecting, I'd like to show you some of the 'flowers' where no flowers can grow. The leaves of bromeliads form beautiful rosettes of color.
     To see more of what gardeners are doing, visit our hosts, Carol, at May Dreams Gardens and Pam at Digging who hosts Foliage Follow-up. These bromeliads can fit into both posts this time around. DIGGING and MAY DREAMS GARDENS are on my sidebar favorites and always fun to visit.

Happy GBBD & FOLIAGE FOLLOW-UP!

Neoregelia 'Florida Red Bands'

Aechmea blanchetiana

(protect from frost or it will be lost!)

Neoregelia hybrid. I like the apple green with pink tips!

                                                This is a purple & green Aechmea

Neoregelia with three colors. These become stronger in cooler weather.

One of my favorite purple Neoregelias.

Neoregelia 'Vulcan' hybrid. I love the speckles.

My favorite variegated Neoregelia.

A miniature Neoregelia mixes well with variegated Arrowleaf.

Neoregelia hybrid. The cooler weather gives it that reddish blush.

A red blushed Neoregelia with variegated Alstroemeria.

I bought this one at a Bromeliad Society sale and it was considered a failed hybrid. I love it since it grows very quickly and has some frost tolerance.

I hope you think about adding some of these easy to grow plants into your garden or indoors. They make great houseplants as long as you keep them filled with water.

Thanks for stopping by.

David/ :-)