Garden Blogger's Fling Austin 2018: Still Getting There

I have been posting about my Big Trip to The Garden Blogger's Fling in Austin, and I began with a post showing my first stop at Fling sponsor The Natural Gardener as a preview.  It was a good thing I took so many photos since it was pouring rain the next day when our group of 90+ garden bloggers arrived there for lunch and garden shopping.

My next stop along the way to the Fling was at fellow blogger Jenny Stocker's house to drop off native Poinsettia (Euphorbia cyathophora) seedlings.  You see I was packing a lot into my trip up to Austin even though it is only 75 miles from my house. 

Even though Jenny, who writes the wonderful Rock Rose blog, was expecting all of us for a tour the next day we agreed I should drop the seedlings off on the way up so I wouldn't have to carry them on the bus all day Friday.  I tucked the plants in behind a planter on her driveway and quickly tiptoed away so as not to disrupt their preparations for the Fling tour.  Of course I snuck in a few photos of their spectacular front plantings which looked very different from the last time I visited when Bluebonnets were in bloom.

After Jenny's I stopped by another Fling sponsor, Barton Springs Nursery, to see if they had Sparkler Sedge (nope) and pick up a few of my favorite plants.  Barton Springs Nursery is an excellent stop for Texas native plant fans especially since they carry many varieties in 4" pots so you can give them a try without a big investment.

Then we stopped for a walk through the beautiful Texas State Cemetery just east of downtown.  Interesting that things worked out this way since it was through discovering Pam's post on this cemetery at her blog Digging while doing family research that I first realized garden blogging would work for me.  It will take another post to fully cover this part of my trip.

Whew!  After a long day of stops Neal finally dropped me off at the hotel in downtown Austin and I checked in.  Just one of the many items of Fling swag were beautifully decorated cookies.  I chose Texas.  Looks like that heart might be on San Antonio.

The view from my hotel window amazed me.  I was born a few blocks from here but it didn't look like this back then!

Our first Fling event was a social and Fajita buffet at the new Austin Central Library designed by San Antonio's Lake|Flato Architects.



Their architecture is always stunning and evokes a special sense of place not present in the surrounding glass towers.

Our main sponsor for the opening event was Hortus TV, a subscription service for those of us who find the limited selection of good garden shows in North America a challenge.   With Hortus TV you can watch great gardening shows from England and even Australia whenever you choose.

Fling planners Pam Penick, Laura Wills, and Diana Kirby welcome bloggers to Austin.

After dinner we all headed to the rooftop garden to explore and socialize.



Check out that view.

Fantastic place to read.

And there is a garden way up here.

Lauren Lindsey of Ravenscourt Gardens chats with Jim Peterson of Garden Design Magazine.

So much high-rise development in what used to be a low-rise city!



On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the Congress Street Bridge to await the famous emergence of nearly 2 million Mexican free-tailed bats from the largest urban bat colony in the world.  It's worth pointing out here that the largest bat colony in the world with 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats is Bracken Cave just down the road in San Antonio!

Apparently this was not their night and we left disappointed after sunset.  Maybe with a front blowing in they decided to stick closer to home under the bridge.

All in all a fun day and the Fling had just begun!

Celebrating National Wildflower Week with Wildflower Center Tour

It's National Wildflower Week and a tour of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is a great way to celebrate.  In April my neighborhood garden club headed to Austin for a guided tour.  We had perfect weather and spring wildflowers were at peak, so the timing was perfect.

First though, finally spotting the resident Great Horned Owl near the entrance arch was an exciting moment.  This was my third trip to the center in the last two years and each time I managed to miss her.  Even better was having the right camera lens along to get the shot.  She's on the right peeking under the the curved sotol leaf.

Iris at the nearby pond.

Bluebonnets were in bloom just past the main courtyard.

They're always planted here, along with deep purple winecups.



We had a tour with Doug who presented a detailed history of the center and its architecture.



Jenny of Rock Rose blog also led another part of our rather large group and we enjoyed a visit to Jenny's own garden later in the day.  (Photo below by Janne Aubrey)

Into the demonstration garden area where Scutellaria wrightii was in full bloom.

Touring the Wildflower Center always prompts me to note which ones are currently growing  in my own garden like the Scutellaria wrightii, Dichondra Silver Ponyfoot, and Hesperaloe,

Evening Primrose and Prairie Verbena also grow in my garden but not in combination.  Something to try next year.

Penstemon Cobea, with its cute little glove fingers which I planted last year has returned.

The tank gardens were in fine form full of great native blooming plants.

Stock Tank ponds are fascinating visiting children

I always take plenty of photos of the plants and tags like this Texas yellow star so I can compare with plants I need to ID later.

Since I'm usually here a month later during National Wildflower Week it was a treat to catch the fleeting blooms of crossvine brightening this fence and other parts of the garden.

This bench, which typically blends into the border, is a stand-out when the crossvine is in bloom.

Native Wisteria in bloom.  I'm looking for this one, it's gorgeous!  

Better behaved than the commonly grown asian version.  Crossvine brightens the stone wall in the background.

Art on display in the gardens includes this exceptional stone sculpture which is available for purchase.



More crossvine on an arbor and the spot where we enjoyed our lunch in the courtyard.

Hill Country Penstemon blooms bright.  Mine is a little behind in blooming but it gets more shade.



And now for the main event, Texas Hill Country views and fields of wildflowers

These Blubonnets are a deeper blue than those I grow.



More of those views

Texas Persimmon I think.

On my own for a few minutes after lunch, the San Antonio Tower near the main courtyard beckons.  The website states that the tower evokes the old Spanish missions built along the San Antonio River.  Our guide told us that the tower was originally cut from the construction budget until generous San Antonians raised the funds to complete it.

Wild flowers planted in the stairwell include Four-nerve daisy and Fleabane.  I just love the natural, casual way the flowers are grown in these gardens.

View from the tower.

The path winds over to the Luci and Ian Family Garden which will be featured in another post.

Seeing the Wildflower Center at peak time and with perfect weather made for a very enjoyable day.

The Perfect Day to visit Rock Rose

Jenny already called it in her Rock Rose blog post:  a perfect day in her garden.  Way back in June of 2014 when I asked Jenny to be a docent for my garden club's tour of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center she also invited us to tour her own garden.  All of us.  Of course, I jumped at the chance and added it to our agenda.  Garden club meetings are the second Wednesday of each month so the date was fixed no matter the weather or Jenny's recent hip surgery.

It couldn't have been a better day.  We were greeted with masses of Bluebonnets at peak bloom.