Through the Garden Gate

Three for Thursday: Apples of My Eye

The 3 in 1 espaliered apple I planted last spring has blooms!  

'Anna' 

'Dorsett'

'Fuji'

2 out of 3 ain't bad, according to Meat Loaf, but the Head Gardener disagrees most strenuously.  She says when the 3rd looks as pitiful as poor 'Fuji', she cannot be elated at the beauteous blooms on the other two.  She's sitting me down at the computer today to research the care and feeding of fruit trees!

My Eyes! My Eyes!

I'm pretty sure this color combination qualifies as what my wonderful friend Gail of Clay and Limestone refers to as "Clown Pants".  Screaming yellow Texas Buttercups (Ranunculus macranthera), hot pink Toadflax (Linaria maroccana), Johnny Jump-Ups (Viola cornuta) and Lady in Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) do not a felicitous combination make.  They certainly are eye-catching, though!

Today, My Corner of Katy ...

Tomorrow the world!  

Yes, that's Spiderwort blooming profusely in front of a Redbud.  Remind me how pretty I thought it was in February when I'm digging out umpteen gazillion seedlings in July.

Same Time, Next Year ...

The front gardens at the end of February 2011:

The front gardens at the end of February 2012:

And that, my friends, is the difference between a harsh winter and a mild one here on my corner of Katy!

It's Alive!

Not only that, it's blooming!  This is Schizostylis coccinea, commonly known as Kaffir Lily or Crimson Flag, one of my impulse purchases in Seattle during last summer's Garden Bloggers' Fling.  I planted it out front in an area where I'd see it every day as I walked to the mailbox and could monitor its progress or lack thereof.   Hey, some people play the slot machines or craps ... I gamble on plants!  Since many of the links I found in a Google search were from the UK, I didn't really expect that the plant would do well here.  I'm happily surprised that it's thriving and even increasing - new fans are poking up through the soil.   

That spot of red in the lower left corner of the picture isn't the S. coccinea but another South African bulb, the subject of Wednesday's post.  I didn't expect them to be so similar in color or to combine so well with Pinecone Shrimp plants (Justicia brandegeana) and Salvia greggii 'Cherry Chief'.   I'm delighted that it worked out that way.  Long may the Crimson Flag wave on my corner of Katy!

A Bulb By Any Other Name ...

Lapeirousia laxa/cruenta?

Freesia laxa?

Anomatheca laxa/cruenta?

The Aftermath ...

Of the big dig, Friday's rainfall and the severe thunderstorms that rolled through my corner of Katy this morning:sticky, nasty, gumbo clay soil mucking up the front gardens!

AND rocks that were removed and then stuck back wherever ...

AND trampled plants ...

AND Mexican feather grasses replanted where my beloved Chocolate Daisies were ...

The Head Gardener and I are very cranky as a result of all this. True, the garden beds are in utility easement footage so it's the utility companies' right to dig.  What's really got our knickers in a twist is that the good soil and mulch we had installed, especially in the corner bed, was relegated to the bottom of the holes in that bed, leaving us clods of wet sticky clay.  The HG and I are pondering using the clods to make souvenir hearts to hand out at May's Garden Bloggers' Fling in Asheville.  We'd fling them at the pesky furry-tailed rodents but our aim's not that great!

Here We Go Again ...

The cable company decided to replace the existing cable running from my neighbor's cable box on his northeast front corner through his side yard, across the alley into the rose bed and the length of my side yard, then across the width of the property to the cable box on my southwest corner.  To do required the digging of 9 holes on my corner of Katy, five of which were in garden beds.  The carnage is not for the faint of heart ...

Big Easy Botany

Wandering through the French Quarter, a gardener frequently finds her eye drawn to the lush and colorful planters lining the wrought iron balconies of the ancient brick buildings. Yet those are not the vignettes that inspired and enchanted her then or now.  Rather it's the sight of moss-covered bricks, crumbling in age and festooned with tiny plants who have made the cracks and crevices of those bricks their home.

The gardener laughed out loud when she saw this Bidens alba.   Back in 2009 or 2010, she spotted it growing wild at a Katy garden center.  Thinking that such a dainty and pretty flower deserved a spot at Wit's End,   she pilfered a few seeds and scattered them on her corner of Katy.  She has since lamented that action ... B. alba seems to be even more prolific a self-seeder than the oft-mentioned Spiderwort!  Perhaps she'll try planting some on one of her walls nonetheless, just as an experiment.  She'll deadhead faithfully, of course, just as she has promised to do with the Spiderwort.*


Note from the Head Gardener: Oh, yeah, this is going to end well ...