The TEXAS COTTAGE GARDEN: 50 PLANTS THAT LOOK GOOD ALL WINTER (Part 1)

It's easy to love all the variety and blooms of a cottage garden in summer. But what about winter?

Does a southern cottage garden have to look like death warmed over for 3 months?

Well, the answer is a resounding NO!

My Texas cottage garden here in Houston in January.

Below are the first half of 50 plants I grow in a dry style (xeric) landscape in Houston. I took these photos in my garden during January on a rare sunny day. All of these garden gems can look nice down to 25 degrees F (US zone 9b) or -3.8 degrees C and some can take much lower.
We don't get many days as low as 25, so these plants should look good year after year.
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This past month the garden has endured a freeze of 24 F, a six hour frozen rain storm, and a day of snow and sleet with temperatures down to 29 for a third time. I'm amazed ANY PLANT can look alive after being covered with ice, but most came through nicely!

So, while your favorite flowers are sleeping, why not try a few of these to fill in the gaps. They'll give you something to enjoy during our southern winters.

David/:0)
NOTE: These plants could be tried in Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, The Rio Grande Valley, Galveston, coastal Texas, New Orleans and the delta region, coastal Mississippi and Alabama, and  Florida south of Gainesville and Jacksonville.
Names and descriptions are below the photo series.

Left: Lantana montevidensis (trailing lavender lantana)

Top: .maybe a form of Squill (this one has yellow flowers) Can someone help me name this one? :0)

Middle: Mangave 'Macho Mocha' ( I take this one in even though it could stay out...I love the leaves too much to risk it)

Bottom: Westringia fruticosa (smokey Australian rosemary)

Left: top plant Agave stricta (hedgehog agave); bottom plant Nassella tenuissima (Mexican feather grass)
Top: Salvia blepharophylla (Eyelash-leaved sage)
Middle: common parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
Bottom: Agave americana

Left: common oregeno (Origanum vulgare) Note: This is my first year to grow this splendid little plant as a ground cover. It stayed green through a hot summer and now through a cold winter.
Top: Aechmea 'Burgandy'
Bottom:  dwarf yaupon (Ilex vomitoria)

Top: Unknown bromeliad (probably Dykia choristaminea 'Frazzle Dazzle')
Middle: Kentucky Colonel Spearmint (Mentha cordifolia)
Bottom: Agave lophanta 'Splendida'
Right: Yucca gloriosa variegata (in foreground)

Left: Opuntia 'Old Mexico'
Top: Short-leaved Aloe (species unknown...my neighbor just calls it Mexican aloe)
Middle: Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Bottom: Gazania species

Large photo: Agave weberi
Top:white licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare)
Middle side: Agave geminiflora
Bottom right: Texas bluebonnet
Bottom middle: Gulf Coast Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris)
Bottom left: Walker's low catmint (Nepeta x faassenii)

MY TEXAS COTTAGE GARDEN for JUNE GBBD

Happy June 2013 Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!

And a tip of the trowel to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting!
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I have to say this is the best weather we have ever had going into a June bloom day.

A cool April & May have left many Texas gardeners with added vigor to face the June heat.

So let's go see our Texas Cottage Garden, shall we?

Could this Salvia be any brighter?  This is it's second round of blooms.

The front garden is filled with blooms right now.

The Rudbeckias take center stage with their huge yellow flowers.

This is a new one that I've never grown before. It's easily the best flower in the garden right now.

Here's another of my favorites...Coreopsis 'Route 66'

The yellows are balanced with blues like this Mealy Cup Sage.

Here it is with Gomphrena 'Buddy Purple'. I'm going to get more

Gomphrenas since they take the heat very well.

This is blue Plumbago with Russian Sage and Purple Angelonia.

This is my first time to grow Russian Sage and I LOVE IT!

Tall, powdery blue and spiky!

I'm also trying out this tiny aster-like flower in between agaves.

This is a Brachycome from southern Australia.

Great little plant!

This bed is part two of the Texas Cottage Garden and is a work in progress.

The little Brachycomes are in the front next to our native pink Skullcap.

Melochia tomentosa is blooming in another bed. It can even bloom in filtered light.

Behind the cottage garden are the taller Plumerias. They are finally blooming after years of waiting!

Sadly, this Alpinia ginger is in my neighbor's yard and their garden and bungalow are slated to be bulldozed

this month. I may have to dig up a sprig as a garden memory.

Another shot of the Rudbeckias and other flowers. I worked hard to only use yellow, blue, purple, and hot pink this year.

A view with the wall and Agave garden in front of the cottage garden.

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Well that's it for this month. If we have a normal summer with rain, then July GBBD will be even better.

If we get a drought, all bets are off and we hunker down until it's over.

By the way, my photos are copyright free to all gardeners who wish to use them.

If they end up in a magazine or Pinterest, email me.

I'd be honored.

texanagarden@gmail.com

Thanks for stopping by!

David/:0)

'CORA' VINCA IS CALLING AND I'M LISTENING

Not long ago if you planted a vinca in Houston you were giving it a death sentence. Tiny white crosses would need to go along with your periwinkles. That all changed with the 2008 introduction of the Cora series; a strain that is resistant to aerial Phytophthora (click to read the hilarious article by Steve Bender!)
 I've been very reluctant to grow these ubiquitous, 'everywhere you look'  plants, but that all changed as of today.

Isn't this beautiful?  It's by a landscaper we have here in Houston. And it's not in a home garden. It's in a small park on the corner of Bunker Hill and Gaylord Street near Memorial City Mall.

With the addition of a couple of native grasses, agaves and some rock walls you'd have a nice cottage garden.

And those red flowers in the front are? 'Cora' vincas.

There are seven colors in the series. And, if you're like me, you won't rest your trowel until you try them all.

Vincas are not my favorite flower, but this pink with a white center along with a number of shades of lavender and violet have caught my interest.  

Here's the lavender. I really like this with the feathery, silver gray Artemesias.

This combo alone would be worth keeping these Vincas around. I think I might be over my Vincaphobia.

The 'Cora' Apricot blends well with reds like this scarlet Penta.

The white looks nice with anything. I've got it by some silver plants.

This one's called Vinca 'Titan Punch'. Where are my sunglasses?

The lowly Vinca blooms all summer and asks for nothing special. I think with some creativity and if I use them sparingly, I can get them to blend in with my cottage garden look. We shall see.

They look fabulous with yellow Melampodium and both like heat and humidity.

The upright, delicate Angelonias could round out this type of garden.

Here's the purple variety of Angelonia I've planted up at our church gardens.

My gardening Pastor still has a bad case of Vincaphobia so I'll just have to pray she starts to like them.

(Or I could just sneak some into the beds!) LOL

Vinca 'Apricot' in a pot adds a bit of charm. Most of my early summer garden has finished blooming, so Vinca might be one of the few that will bloom all of July and August.

In closing, I'll take you back to that landscape that changed my mind.

 Here's some graceful Angelonia and a yellow Melampodium

 flowing between purple Loropetalums. This is quite a feat to have this much blooming in mid-June here in Houston.

Yep, hot, humid Houston might actually become a city of flowers!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you got your flower fix for the day.

And if you've already grown these, please tell me if they made it through the summer. Thanks.

David/:0)

Welcome back, Vinca!