National Wildflower Week 2020

National Wildflower Week is always the first full week in May and usually ends on Mother's Day.  The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center used to celebrate with a wonderful tour of Austin gardens which focused on native plants and wildflowers but they discontinued the tour a few years ago and I couldn't find much information out there.  I did find the following quote on a holiday calendar website.

"...commemorates the colorful blossoms that bring our landscapes to life. Whether they are on mountainsides, pastures or our own back yards, wildflowers create habitat, help conserve water and reduce erosion."

I'll celebrate with a tour of the colorful blossoms that bring my "own back yard" to life each spring.

We've had a bit of everything during our spring wildflower season in South Texas.

This week Greenthreads (Thelesperma filifolium) hit their peak so we'll start in the front garden.  Their seeds originally blew in on the wind or floated down the street on rainwater and I just let them grow.  We never water or cultivate them in any way.  A combination of annual and perennial, they will fade in the summer and return in the fall.

Texas Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) are amazingly resilient even after they were hit by a light frost in late February.

They weren't slowed down a bit and bloomed beautifully on schedule.

I've been pulling their spent stems and spreading the last of the seeds this week.

While we're on the subject of blue flowers, Heartleaf Skullcap (Scutellaria ovata) are pretty blue flowers which only show up in the spring.  The gray foliage will soon die back and the roots bide their time underground until next spring.  If I accidentally dig them up when dormant I just tuck the roots back under the soil and no harm done.

A recent addition are Texas Bluebonnets in the front yard, mostly around the Yucca Rostrata.  We pull these as soon as they scatter most of their seeds.  Bluebonnets for all their blooming beauty are ugly seed setters.  Bright yellow Damianita is a native wildflower as well though this plant seeded over from a purchased plant so it is cultivated.

Our May wildflowers had a close call with a neighbor's lawn service.  I found this note on my door one recent afternoon.  He was obviously at the wrong house; actually, the wrong street entirely.  There has always been confusion over street names and numbers here because the street name changes on a curve which is not so obvious and the numbers start over.  You can see the curve in the Yucca photo above.   All the houses in the background are on a different street.  The intended recipient's house has the same number and is just up the hill about a block away.



When I called they advised me that he did not spray anything on my yard.  Our security video confirmed that he did not spray.  An App 3 mix has weed killer and fertilizer both of which could kill our native Buffalo Grass "lawn."   

Weeds?

Let's see what he saw that day.

Gaillardia pulchella or Blanket Flower

Monarda citriodora or Beebalm

On video the lawn guy was seen scratching his head and looking confused by this scene. 

We've had ongoing problems with burnout streaks in our Buffalo Grass and now we think it's possible weedkiller is flowing downhill through our yard to the creek during rains.

I mentioned Bluebonnets are ugly seeders and the brown spots in the photo below are Bluebonnets going to seed.  Not something we want to leave in the front landscape for weeks.

The cat prefers wildflowers to a perfect lawn too.

Happy Wildflower Week and Happy Mother's Day too.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day February 2017

What blooms in South Texas in February?  Quite a few plants, especially this year with above average temperatures most days.  And this year one of my favorite plants that usually doesn't bloom until March is already in full bloom.  That's why I'm joining in with Garden Blogger's Bloom Day this month.

Texas Mountain Laurel (Sephora secundiflora) surprised with early blooms despite a couple of deep freezes and a long run of cloudy days.

Love those grape-scented blooms.

Still emerging

Cooler weather should help the blooms last for a while.  Some years the heat does them in.

Covered with bees ....

.....even though the camera could only get one at a time!

More blooms on this pretty February day

Blackfoot Daisy is a reliable survivor of hard freezes.  It barely slows down and begins blooming quickly again.  Even better is seeing this native plant shrug off our summer heat while blooming away through July and August.

 Ditto Four-Nerve Daisy

Golden buds on a red barrel cactus promise the first blooms on this plant since I planted it about three years ago.

Succulents kept under wraps during the coldest nights bloom early like this Echeveria.

Kalanchoe daigremontiana blooms on a stem so large it dwarfs the plant

Rosemary thrives in my garden and commonly blooms through the winter

Suprisingly similar to Rosemary are these Silver Germander blooms

Bougainvillea were stuck in the garage during the freeze.

Mexican Honeysuckle is another plant that seems to have powered through the freeze on the northeast corner of the garden.  Sparsely blooming, but still it counts.

Purple Oxalis hiding under stems of perennials

Meyer Lemon blooms forming fruit already.  I made a Lemon Cheesecake in December with last year's fruit.

The first wildflowers are Prairie Verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida)

and Greenthread

Buds forming on the Texas Bluebonnets mean blooms will be here soon.  You might have to look way down in there to see it.

Turns out there are quite a few blooms this February.  Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is hosted on the 15th of each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Bluebonnets for Bloom Day March 2016

We have Texas Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) blooming in the garden this week.  Bluebonnets reseed prolifically and we also collect the seeds each year for fall planting just to be sure they turn up where we want them.

With their bonnets of blue they are a welcomed sign of Spring and our Texas state flower.

Except they're not always blue as in this rare white bloom.  While non-blue blooms are the exception the hue can range from white to pink, deep purple and even burgundy red.

Two white blooms emerged from one plant.  If white flowers are pollinated from nearby blues chances are the seeds will produce blue blooms next year.  With at least two white blooms there's a small chance we can have more white ones next year.

To up the odds on getting white flowers next year we tried cross-pollinating the white blooms with a Q-tip.  Just an experiment, but we had to give it a shot.

Look closely and the lower flowers have slight blue tint.  On the right you can see centers of the blue flowers turn red as they age allowing pollinators to find the freshest flowers by their white centers.  On the left, one early bloomer is already producing seeds.

In March it's all about the wildflowers and Texas Bluebonnets are my favorite so I'm linking with Garden Blogger's Bloom Day at May Dreams Garden, so be sure to check out what other garden bloggers are sharing.

Gone Junkin' in Round Top Part 2: JG World HQ

We're on a "junket" to Round Top, Texas and Texas Antiques Week.  In my last post we drove down through Round Top past miles and miles of stuff until we spotted the "can't miss it" pink suburban known as "Large Marge" and turned in through the winged gates for Junk Gypsy World HQ, the home of the Junk Gypsies of TV fame.

Wildflower Wednesday April 2015: Wildflower Walk in the Park

It's Wildflower Wednesday when bloggers are invited by Gail at Clay and Limestone to post on wildflowers in our gardens.  I'm pushing the rules a bit this month with flowers from a local park.  On Monday I joined members of the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas for a wildflower walk in Phil Hardberger Park led by Wendy Leonard, park naturalist for the City of San Antonio.

While the masses of wildflowers lining Texas roadways in the spring are legendary, Wendy focused on the smaller flowers growing in restoration areas of the park.

One crowd favorite was the Pincushion Daisy (Gaillardia suavis).  It's a (mostly) petal-less flower with a wonderfully spicy fragrance that lends it another common name of Perfumeballs.

GBBD March 2015

It's spring and time to get out in the garden to....weed.  We've had so much rain this spring, weeds have taken off.  With our last few years of drought I almost forgot about that part.  Fortunately our March blooms feature some of Texas' most popular native plants and a few others from the garden which I'm sharing for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden.

Wildflower Wednesday: April Wildflowers

This week I'm joining Gail at Clay and Limestone for Wildflower Wednesday.  Wildflower Wednesday is a special opportunity to track the progress of the wildflowers I am establishing in my yard.

It's amazing what happens when you put out the welcome mat for native plants and flowers.  For example, these Indian Blanket flowers (Gaillardia pulchella) or Firewheel surprised me by blooming this week.

Wildflower Wednesday: Lupinus texensis

The arrival of our Texas state flower, the Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), is always time for celebration during the month of March.  Today I'm joining Gail at Clay and Limestone for Wildflower Wednesday.  The extended drought across Texas means 2013 has not been the best year for bluebonnets in the fields and along state highways.  These in my back yard have been watered during dry spells to help them bloom.

Plant ABCs: L is for Lupinus texensis

The obvious choice for the letter "L" in my series on the ABCs of Plants in My Garden is our Texas state flower Lupinus texensis or Texas Bluebonnet.

This past spring I wrote several times about this beautiful native wildflower so I won't repeat, but I'll add a few photos while linking back to previous posts.

The mild winter and rainy spring produced the best crop of bluebonnets in years.  So beautiful were these displays I devoted an entire post to bluebonnets for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in March 2012 and another for Wordless Wednesday.

Bees were the subject of their own bluebonnet post also in March

A follow-up post detailed collecting and preparing bluebonnet seeds for planting.    The seeds we didn't pick up have already produced seedling rosettes in the garden.

This post has been a good opportunity to consolidate information on Texas bluebonnets and enjoy the memories of a beautiful spring 2012 during the current  mid-summer heat.

I have also added a tab at the top of my blog with the list of featured plants in my ABCs of Plants in My Garden series.