Double Rainbow - Rainbow Gardens #1

As part of Support Your Independent Nursery Month hosted by Pam Penick at Digging I'm visiting some of my favorite San Antonio nurseries.  This week brings a visit to Rainbow Gardens  #1 at 2585 Thousand Oaks Drive in north central San Antonio.  We're fortunate to have two Rainbow Gardens locations and last week I wrote about visiting Rainbow Gardens #3 on Bandera Road northwest of the city.  It's interesting to note how different these two are.

Rainbow Gardens #1 has more appealing signage and entrance than Rainbow Gardens #3.

  A geodesic dome houses the checkout and garden shop area

  
Rainbow Gardens is the San Antonio Express-News "Reader's Choice"  gold winner for 2011.

Several small gardens such as this fountain display area greet customers

Autumn and cool weather annuals under a large oak create a bright welcome at the entrance to the nursery area

A big display of perennials nearby

Talavera Pottery and garden ornaments 

Colorful glazed garden spheres

Love these terracotta spheres

Rainbow Gardens also has a huge selection of glazed and terracotta pottery as well as metal planters.

The main aisle is where most of the huge selection of native and xeric plants are displayed along with water garden plants.  There's a greenhouse for shade plants and tropicals.  On the left lots of trees, shrubs and roses are available.

This beautiful Bonsai display is the domain of Maria who has been a fixture here forever.  She's semi-retired now and works only a few days a week.

Ornamental grasses are straight ahead down the main aisle and were on sale.  The area was almost empty so no photo, but I did load up my wagon with some good buys.

Well, hello there Mr. Fox!

Now crossing to the other side of the garden we find Texas Mountain Laurel Sophora secudiflora 'Silver Peso'  which I've been considering for a full sun area by my fence.  These should be transplanted small unless you excavate the site.

 Large size succulents on display

Giant hesperaloe, an option for along my driveway

Yes, I'm taking you along on a shopping trip.  Back to the front through the metal arch planted with bright zinnias

A closer look at the zinnias, enjoying fall color where we find it here in south Texas

Out front to load up my purchases and explore the garden along the road.  Lindheimer's senna has easily survived the drought and the ocotillo is sprouting along the stems.

Dahlberg daisies are looking good too

Agave and yucca anchor this west facing roadside garden, tough and durable in a harsh environment.

If you're interested in visiting a Rainbow Gardens location and live north of San Antonio, the Thousand Oaks Drive store is more convenient to downtown attractions.  If your plans include Sea World or Fiesta Texas, then the Bandera Road store is easily accessed from FM 1604.  While both locations have great plant selections and service, the Bandera Road location has been updated recently and is a nicer spot for families to explore.

You can also take a look back at my post on Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels from the first week in this series.

San Antonio Herb Market

One of my favorite annual garden events is the San Antonio Herb Market held at the Pearl Brewery in mid-October.  It's an excellent opportunity to stock up on herbs and learn about growing and using herbs as well as other gardening subjects.  This year's market was held on Saturday, October 15th celebrating their 20th year.

The Pearl Brewery is near downtown and anchors the north end of the Riverwalk known as the Museum Reach.

The market is set up in the parking lot and is always well attended. 

San Antonio Water System was a sponsor and employees were on hand to answer questions about water conservation.  Other groups included the Bexar County Master Gardeners, The Gardening Volunteers of South Texas and the San Antonio Herb Society.

There were plenty of vendors and a large selection of herbs and related plants.  These containers are ready to go at the Nature's Herb Farm booth.

Long lines for the checkout at Nature's Herb Farm, a good thing to see

This booth  is showing succulents

Colorful succulent wreaths

This large succulent hanging basket display from Burns Nursery
attracted attention

The container display also at Burns was charming

The Antique Rose Emporium had a booth with roses for sale

This year's featured speaker was Susan Belsinger who gave an excellent presentation on using herbs in cooking.  After Susan's seminar I headed over to the adjacent parking lot for the Farmer's Market held each Saturday at the Pearl Brewery.

"Please play on the grass," no lawn here so...

here's the grass you're invited to play on

Pearl has created a park in the parking lot and a favorite place for gardening inspiration.  Ornamental grasses along with drought tolerant perennials are planted in islands within the parking lot and the perimeter.

A look at some of the rows of booths here and a group of Pumpkins on display.

 A very nice day to sit and enjoy the band

 

And a great grouping of ornamental grasses behind the band.  This is one awesome parking lot.  I'll be back on a quieter day for more photos of the Pearl parking lot park and the plantings along this section of the Riverwalk.

Somewhere over the Rainbow (Gardens) #3

October is Support Your Independent Nursery Month hosted by Pam Penick at Digging.  I'm joining in by posting about my favorites here in the San Antonio area.  Last week I posted about Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels.  This week's choice is Rainbow Gardens #3 on Bandera Rd. northwest of the city. Rainbow Gardens has two locations in San Antonio and I visit both of them often.

October 9th, Before and After

When landscaping you hope your "after" photos look better than the "before" photos.  It did not work out that way this year.

Last year on October 9, 2010,  I took a photo to document progress.

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.

Rock-Oak-Deer?

It's all there in the title photo-the rocks, the oaks, and the deer in my backyard.  Those are just a few of the gardening challenges here on the north side of San Antonio.   Like the game rock-paper-scissors we're never quite sure which will prevail.  We’ve made a lot of progress improving our landscape in the past three years, yet there is still much to do.

There is also much to share.  While researching ideas for our own landscape, I found gardening blogs to be an excellent resource.  Most of the bloggers I follow are in Austin and other cities.  While there are many similarities in plants and gardening styles, San Antonio has a lot to offer too.  That's where this blog comes in.  In addition to sharing progress in my own yard, I will also highlight gardens, gardeners, and garden events in and around this beautiful city of San Antonio.  I'll post interesting things I see along the way as well.

We have a lot of visitors to the yard each week and I'll share those photos too.  This guy recently dropped by to check out the menu.

Good evening, a table next to the roses please!

This first post wouldn't be complete without acknowledging Pam Penick at Digging.  Thank you Pam for your inspiring blog and the enthusiasm with which you support garden bloggers everywhere!  Pam has declared October "Support Your Independent Nursery" month so my first series of posts will focus on local garden centers.