Nursery Visit: Hill Country Gardens

It's been a while since I've visited Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels and even longer since I posted about all the changes taking place there.  That it had been too long was confirmed last week when Andrea, the owner, commented "it's been a while since we've seen you" after I responded to her Facebook post on weekend sales and seminars.

Hill Country Gardens has been an important native plant resource for local gardeners for more than 20 years.  In 2011, Andrea Sanger acquired the nursery from the original owner and has made many improvements in the last two and a half years while maintaining the focus on native plants.  In October 2012, Andrea's first anniversary celebration event was one of my first posts on this blog.

Foliage Follow-Up April 2012- Funny Face

Foliage Follow-Up is sponsored by Pam Penick at her blog Digging.  On the 16th of each month garden bloggers follow up Garden Blogger's Bloom Day with a post sharing foliage from our gardens.

For April I'm featuring my face planter.  This spring I planted her with color guard yucca and cordyline for a colorful tropical look.

When I spotted this face planter last fall at Hill Country Gardens I just had to have it.

Before deciding how to fill it I had a little fun trying out a few different hairstyles.  The first thought was that an ornamental grass would be fun in there so I tried a few.

Pine Muhly

Phormium, New Zealand Flax

Definitely boring, not what I had in mind.

I kept a pot of pothos in there for a few months.  Looks like a silly take on the classic laurel wreath or a giant chia pet.

Speaking of laurel, the bay laurel tree.  Different.  Hmmm, there's a problem though.  The back of the planter slopes so the wine cork mulch would roll off.

 
No wonder tropical color was the winner which is currently in my front yard, adding a bright spot and not matching much else there.

I originally purchased these plants for other spots in the garden and will need to transplant the yucca eventually. What's next?  Could be flowers in her hair or a beehive....so many possibilities.

Join Pam at Digging and other garden bloggers as we share foliage from our gardens.

Propagation Class - The Next Step

Some of the plants from the propagation class had developed very long roots and were ready to move on to the next grade level.

I was concerned the roots would dry out so yesterday I moved 28 of them to 4" pots and the rest will continue growing in the original cell tray for a few more weeks.

All of them will be brought indoors at night until it is consistently warmer.

It's a pain to carry stuff in and out so we have a plan for a screen house to winter over plants in the future.  It should be finished this summer, right after we finish updating the bathrooms and kitchen!

You can read about my trip to pick up the rooted cuttings here.

Taking the Two-Lane: Cow's Tongue Cactus

Yesterday I headed up to Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels to retrieve my cuttings from the propagation class I attended in November.  I took the back way along a series of two-lane roads which is much more interesting than I-35.

A recent post on Cow's Tongue Prickly Pear at Las Adventuras had piqued my interest and I wanted to stop along the way to take photos of some I had previously seen in a pasture.

Propagation Class - Hill Country Gardens

How often does a nursery let you run with scissors in their demonstration garden?  Take cuttings from any plant you like and they will help you root them.  Not too often, that's why the propagation class at Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels is so popular.   A deal too good to pass up, yesterday I had the opportunity to attend one of the classes.

The presentation table is ready for the class.  Great setup and refreshments added to the fun on a pretty day.

The table base is a greenhouse truss and the beautifully curved top is pecan, cedar, oak, pine, and cypress woods.  It's covered with plastic today for the presentation, I'll get a better photo next time.

Andrea, the owner, started things off with a demonstration on propagation methods and how to take cuttings.

Soft, green tip cuttings work best.  You can also root woody stems from plants like Rosemary and Lavender by removing the needles along the stem to expose the cuticle.

Then we were given a small bucket of water and invited to roam the gardens for cuttings to fill the 72 cells in our trays.   You can read  about the gardens in my previous post.  I also brought cuttings from home.  Hill Country Gardens provided the trays, soil mix, rooting hormone, tags, snips and, the most important element, their greenhouse with misting system.

After collecting our cuttings, we poked holes in the trays with skewers, dipped cuttings in the rooting hormone provided, and set them in.

No problem filling these trays with cuttings from the well established garden of Texas natives and adapted plants. 

After we filled our trays, we took them into the greenhouse where they will be misted every ten minutes.  This class will be given again on Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th at 1:00 pm each day, this table will be really full by Sunday afternoon.  There are also seminars from local gardening experts scheduled each day.

Around mid February we will get an email letting us know our cuttings are ready to pick up.  It's going to be so much fun to see how my cuttings turned out.

A greenhouse clearance sale was in progress and I picked plants on my list as well.  Another fun day and great special event at Hill Country Gardens.

Texas Natives & More

Long time customers of Schumacher’s Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels weren’t sure what to expect when it was sold last year. Turns out they didn’t need to be concerned, now known as Hill Country Gardens there have been a lot of positive changes in the last year.