This past week heralds the arrival of the daylilies. The Dallas Stars are a vigorous bunch of daylilies planted in the front bed that can endure periods of part shade. Our newest arrivals are nearly yellow with a hint of pink. The past few weeks have also seen the crape myrtles blooming full blast. Not to be outdone, our first Desperado Sage is covered in bright lavender pink blooms, that contrast well with the silvery gray foliage.
A work in progress. Note that the Loropetalum has shed most of its vivid purple colors and gone green for the high summer.
I rearranged the blue garden this past weekend, moving the Oertel’s Rose Common Yarrow and the 2 straggling Nepeta faassenii (catmints), to make room for some new tenants. I had found a white plumbago at the local Home Depot so I had to snatch it up to pair with the Imperial Dark Blue. Also I picked up two purple leafed Oxalis triangularis to add some drama to the bed, 4 Serena Angelonia (2 purple, 2 white) to give the bed some vertical lift. I had some leftover dianthus that hadn’t gotten planted from the last flat I bought; 3 picoteed purple dianthus for some contrast. I’m hard pressed however to find any blue flowered summer plants within the 1-2 foot range. I’m less inclined to plant annuals, but it seems that is all that manages to flourish in the heat right now. I’d like to find more Felicia daisies and/or these Tropical Breeze verbena.
We finally got around to visiting North Haven Gardens and discovered that it deserved its reputation for being a fantastic source of unusual and uncommon plants. They had a vast selection of plants, trees and shrubs, many of which I desired to take home. One particular eye-catcher that immediately made my wishlist was a dwarf variegated bamboo, Pleioblastus fortunei, which unfortunately they were out of stock on. Aside from the Angelonia that we purchased, we also picked up 2 Golden oregano and 1 Hot and Spicy Oregano, which was truly a surprising tongue-tickler.
Lessons learned about Texas gardening: don’t plant in June (through September) unless you want your new plants to fry. It’s generally good advice to refrain from summer plantings because the new plants rarely have had enough time to establish root systems to weather the scorching heat. It’s also not a good time to experiment unless one has disposable cash flow for it. So I’m skeptical that the impatiens we put out in the part shade front garden will survive the heat.
It is however a good time to get mulching. Any ground left bare should get a liberal cover of mulch to protect them from losing too much moisture this summer.
Meanwhile, it’s time to think about those fall plants by perusing the catalogs. The honey wants a new crape myrtle, and it appears that Petit Jean Foothills Nursery has a nice visual rundown of the most common cultivars available in the trade. There is of course crapemyrtles.com (supposedly the most popular site for such things) but the poorly-designed site gravitates toward selling dwarfs and provides little info on other cultivars. Another site provides a download of some of the newest cultivars out in the market. Of course, the most comprehensive site would be an agricultural database such as the Texas A&M archives or University of Arkansas Agricultural Division.
A resource for Texas-tested and approved plants is PlantsforTexas.com. Their plant list contains some very hardy plants that can weather the harsh climate. Most of these plants are recognizable and frequently used in Texas landscapes, so it’s a great site for shopping for future specimens.
For seasonal annual color, the A&M list found at this location provides some good recommendations for the Texas garden.
The spring show is wrapping up…the last Navona lily wears its white crown in a garden bed that is gathering itself for 100+ degree weather. We had made the mistake of laying out some pots of new impatiens that we purchased at Strong’s Nursery on Saturday only to discover that the sizzling heat had baked the flowers off by Sunday.
The plants that we had positioned in the newly prepped herb garden also suffered from the heat. I fear that the pineapple mint suffered the worst, perhaps irrecoverable. The rest perked back up, especially the ornamental peppers, after liberal watering. We also added a few more plants to the herb garden: 2 Thai basils, one Sweet Basil, another Lime Basil, three types of peppers (Fresno Chili, Bonnie Bell, and one whose name I forget at the moment). I also took two of the lemon thyme cuttings and transplanted it into the bed.
I also planted a recently acquired Mint Julep Calla lily under the shade of the burgeoning Hot Lips salvia sitting in the courtyard flower bed. What was once barely a foot high is now a rounded 3-foot specimen of green. It is currently in between flower displays, but I hope it will perk back up soon.
Lastly I planted the Imperial Dark Blue Plumbago by the fence, sharing the bed with the struggling Nepeta and the newly-budding yarrows. Time will tell if the plumbago can stand the partial shade conditions.
Speaking of shade, the crape myrtles providing most of the cover to our corner flower beds have started blooming. In the front yard is a light pink specimen. The myrtle in the courtyard, nearest the fence door, is a “lavender” or purple variety. The other myrtle hasn’t staged a reveal yet, but I’m betting it is purple as well. This revelation was a lot more pleasant than expected–I was dreading that the myrtles would be of the Pepto-Bismol pink shade. Lucky us!