Blooms for Good Friday

Let's take a peek at the Easter basket and see what's blooming this holiday weekend.

Bougainvillea

Foliage Follow-up: Gold Mound Duranta Brightens a Shady Corner

It's the 16th of November and time for Foliage Follow-up when bloggers highlight foliage in our gardens.

My pick for this month is the bright Gold Mound Duranta (Duranta Erecta 'Gold Mound') in the front yard.

Wordless Wednesday: Wilson!

Bright and Spiky for Foliage Follow-up

Today is Foliage Follow-up when Pam at Digging hosts blogger posts on foliage in our gardens the day after Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

Fall is the best time to get new plants in the ground and an opportunity to move plants that aren't working.  That's just what we did yesterday by replacing an existing Dasylerion wheeleri with this new Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge'.  The change certainly brightened up the mailbox strip.

D. Wheeleri, with its sphereical form of spiky foliage. is a favorite of mine but this one didn't work here.  It blended in too much, didn't grow well, and never looked quite right so it's been relocated to the back yard.

Here's the 'before' with the D. Wheeleri in the left foreground.

Now the "after' with the new Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge' in place.

Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge' is similar to the existing Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard'  with thinner leaves and the reverse variegation showing more green which which works well with existing plants like the Golden Barrel cactus (Echinocactus grunsonii) without being too much the same.

The Color Guard yuccas planted last spring have grown more than expected this summer and brighten both sides of the driveway and across the front adding spots of color when the salvias are not blooming.  The new Y. filamentosa is in the back right across the driveway.

The 'Color Guard' yuccas continue on the other side of the driveway where they are joined with a silvery agave, soft leaf yucca, another golden barrel cactus, and Texas native purple prickly pear cactus (Opuntia macrocentra Santa-rita 'Tubac').  Of course all these selections were designed to coordinate with the yellow street sign.  Do you think the city would notice if I repainted the pole to a creamy yellow?

Here's a better look the purple hue of the prickly pear which has become more intense as a cool front passed through this week.

These changes gave me the chance to try out my new wide-angle lens.  Previously it been a challenge to get an overall view of the yard since I had to break it into three photos each time.  With the new lens I can get more in the picture.

Here's the front hellstrip showing how the new yucca on the left fits in.  I could step back farther into the neighbor's yard, but the details get smaller. You can always click on a photo to enlarge it.
 

For more blog posts highlighting foliage in their gardens, check out the links in the comments section of Pam's blog Digging.

Hot Lantana for Summer Color

Throughout the summer New Gold lantanas and autumn sages (salvia greggii) brighten yards and commercial landscapes around the city of San Antonio.  It's no different here in my front yard.

Most of these lantanas were planted when the house was built about 18 years ago.  Even though they didn't come with tags I'm pretty sure they are New Gold Lantana as they bloom profusely and do not produce berries.  They take all the heat the south facing driveway throws at them and then some.

These lantana are also huge. The largest two at opposite ends of the island bed are 68" and 72" diameter which is about twice the mature size listed on the label.

Over in the hellstrip by the mailbox, red autumn sages (Salvia greggii) were planted here back in 1996.  About three years ago I added this red lantana.  It's a color match for both the red salvia greggii and the gold lantana.  The ladder you see is for my husband who was on the roof installing sun shades on the clerestory windows.  I always stay outside when he's on a ladder or the roof.  I spent the time enjoying all this color.

Existing Salvia greggii was divided and planted in the new bed along the street. The gold here is Four-nerve daisy because it blooms through the winter while lantana dies back. We still need to mulch here and that will be completed soon.

It's all tied together with Color Guard yucca and Golden Barrel cactus (Echinocactus grunsonii) like these by the power pole and street sign on the opposite side of the yard. Extra credit if you notice the similarities in my neighbor's landscape.   Love it when that happens!

We're ready for summer here as these hot colors will hold their own throughout the hot summer.

Valentine's Day

The newest addition to our growing cactus collection is this Golden Barrel (Echinocactus Grunsonii) purchased as a Valentine's Day gift to ourselves.  I was thinking of a rose bush, but this golden beauty was too nice to pass up.

Of course I'm not the only girl around who'd forgo candy and cut flowers in favor of a cactus plant.  The cashier oohed and aahed over it and said it was the best looking one she'd seen come through all day.  Where did we find this awesome specimen?  Wal-mart.  Yes, really.

Hardy to about 20F, It's rare that we get lower than that so I'm looking forward to adding it to the garden.  If it stops raining long enough to get some gardening done.

For those who prefer a more traditional Valentine's Day photo, this red Knockout Rose bloomed late last week.

And we did watch "As Good as it Gets" (again).