Easter Egg Colors Abound

Easter weekend in San Antonio means local parks are filled to the brim with family campouts.  The tradition is generations old and families begin arriving on Thursday when park curfews are lifted to hold their regular Easter cookout spots.  A local website features a fun montage of photos on the techniques employed.  Saturday brings Easter Egg hunts taking place all over the city.   My own garden is bright with Easter Egg colors so let's see how many colors I can find blooming during Easter week.

We'll start out front with Claret Cup Cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus), a native beauty which enjoys wide distribution in Southwestern states including Texas.

Planted several years ago as one tiny pup, it will eventually form a three-foot hedgehog mound covered with bright blossoms each spring.

Bright yellow Damianita at the foot of Agave ovatifolia.  I'm pleased with the performance of this evergreen native which replaced 'New Gold' Lantana last year.

Iris purple just says Easter.

Orange Mexican Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) brightens up a front corner with Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' in the background.

Deep pink Salvia Greggii in the streetside garden.

More golden color from Four-nerve Daisy (Tetraneuris scaposa) nested in fresh green Flax Lily.  Four-nerve Daisy is an evergreen repeat bloomer making the list of easiest plants to grow in my garden.



Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana) blooms gradually turn from pink to red.

Yellow Caesalpinia pulcherrima is a bit hardier and blooms earlier than the red variety.

I've had a challenge keeping Globe Mallow (Sphaeralcea munroana) alive in my garden.  With encouragement from gardening friends I planted another last fall and so far, so good!

Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum) is another easy care native plant I'm trying in the sunny tank garden this summer.  Blackfoot Daisy blooms throughout our mild winters.



Typically an annual, the Hyacinth Bean Vine (Lablab purpureus) continued to bloom throughout our mild winter.  Planted by accident (I thought it was a different plant), I'm looking forward to seeing how it does in August heat on the full-sun arbor.

Larkspur with their upside down bunny ears.

Bright orange Nasturtium will be finished soon.

Bilbergia Nutans produces gorgeous, delicate blooms.

Now that's my kind of Easter Basket!

With all these blooms, no need to hide Easter Eggs to find bright colors in my garden.

Happy Easter!

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day April 2014

It's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and time to join Carol at May Dreams Gardens to share flowering plants in the garden for April.  It has turned unseasonably cold again this week befitting this wacky winter which means the blooms have been slower to arrive.  Still there are some old reliables and new ones to share so lets get started.

Claret Cup Cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) or hedgehog cactus is native to West Texas, the cup-shaped red flowers brighten up the spring garden each April.

At the Plant Swap

Spring is for swapping plants.  Our little group of about 25 - 30 avid gardeners meets twice a year to swap plants and share advice about gardening in San Antonio.  It was chilly (50F), cloudy,  and windy this past Saturday when we met at a local park but we're not just fair weather gardeners so we persevered and the sun came out eventually.  I've been attending four years and hosting the swap for the past two years.  I'm still trying to figure out how everyone seems to go home with more plants than they brought!

Here's Tally setting up her trades, she makes the four hour trip from Galveston to visit with us and share plants.  Her garden was wiped out by Hurricane Ike in 2008, yet she always has so many plants to share, especially crinum and hymenocallis bulbs you can see on the bench in front of her.