variegatagal – Page 65 – gardening in zone 8a tx

First plant purchases of 2016

…and also the first plant purchases for the new house.

We’ve begun to landscape our front yard. The plan is to wind a flagstone path up to the front door, around the front beds and landing at the yard fence door.

Part of the yard plan includes extending the flower beds about 2 feet deeper as well as the larger north east corner bed, and finally creating a new bed against the north wall of the house.

First purchase of the year found us at Shades of Green in Frisco. We had gone there to check out the nursery and hunt down ideas for a feature tree. My first impulse at any garden center is to look at their salvia selection. I was pleasantly surprised to find a good number of autumn sages, i.e. salvia greggii, especially the Teresa cultivar, in stock. At Calloway’s in North Dallas, the stunning variegated lavender Meerlo caught my eye.

New Home, New Yard

Unexpected Colors

This is a tribute to the unexpected colors and finds in the garden. From the single bloom spike on the Lemon Coral sedum, to the Magic Carpet spirea that I thought destroyed due sprinkler repair; the unnamed iris (purchased in October 2012?) that found itself among Mariposa Skies, Immortality and various Dutch irises, and the lone Valentine dianthus specimen that survived.

Blooms, Buds and Sprouts

Front Bed Colors

Early April blooms! Tulipa clusiana Tubergen’s Gem makes a surprise reappearance. Look at those crazy columbines! Evidence of the Dahlberg daisies amongst the verbena. The Emerald Snow lorapetalum is drenched in white. The begonias in the sidewalk bed are also making a comeback. The Mardi Gras abelia is making some vertical leaps. And my new Hort Couture Lion Fish coleus and Sunset Velvet Oxalis from Calloways are getting comfortable in their new home.