Touring Peckerwood Garden Part Two: Residence and Dry Gardens

We're continuing the tour of Peckerwood Garden in Hempstead, Texas just about two hours east of San Antonio.  Part One covered the expansive arboretum and shady woodland garden.  Now we've arrived at the gardens near the house.

We left off with a glimpse of a brightly blooming azalea through the trees.  Rounding the turn toward the house it comes into full view.  Rows of trimmed azaleas along a foundation or bordering the lawn are a familiar spring sight in my hometown of Houston. With so few flowering plants in the garden just one solitary azalea allowed to grow full among the trees makes a strikingly bright accent.

Peckerwood: That garden with the funny name

Peckerwood Garden.  It's an odd sounding name unless you are familiar with its story.  Named for Peckerwood Plantation in the story Auntie Mame, it's home to John Fairey, artist, architect, and plant collector, who has been instrumental in bringing many popular spiky plants to market.  He and plantsman Lynn Lowery made numerous plant hunting trips to Mexico in the 1970s and 80s.  For many years a private home and garden for Mr. Fairey it's now a public garden and beneficiary of The Garden Conservancy Open Days program.

In late March we arrived for one of Peckerwood Garden's Open Days tours.  Spiky entry garden is courtesy of well-known mail order nursery Yucca Do founded by John Fairey on the site.   Peckerwood acquired the property several years ago when Yucca Do relocated which added 20 acres to the gardens for a total of 39 acres including parking, offices, and greenhouses which are now used by the Peckerwood Garden Conservation Foundation.

Wildlife Wednesday August 2015

One of the first things I do upon arriving in the kitchen each morning is look through the back windows to see what's going on in the yard.

That habit paid off beautifully yesterday morning when I spotted this Barred Owl looking back at me from about 30 feet.

Good morning!

Visiting The Antique Rose Emporium: Part Two

Last spring we visited The Antique Rose Emporium, a retail and mail-order nursery, about two hours east in Brenham.   My previous post toured most of the plant sales area and part of the demonstration gardens.   Now we'll take a look at the rose gardens which are available for weddings and private events.

Rose bowers are the most striking features in this section of the gardens.  As impressive supports for climbing roses they are similar to the famous bougainvillea bowers at The Getty Center gardens in Los Angeles. 

Touring The Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham: Part One

Now that my garden is nearing summer dormancy it's time to catch up on posts from last spring.  When The Antique Rose Emporium in San Antonio closed a couple of years ago visiting their Brenham location became a higher priority on my list of must-visit nurseries.  In March I got my chance while visiting my sister in nearby Chappell Hill.

A cool, wet spring meant we were there just before most of the roses reached their spring bloom peak

The garden celebrates in Red, White and Blue

It's the Fourth of July and time to display the colors and celebrate the Red, White, and Blue from my garden this week.

Kicking off the festivities with a first-time bloomer and current favorite plant Heartleaf Rosemallow (Hibiscus martianus).  I purchased this native hibiscus from Medina Garden Nursery about 18 months ago and the deer loved to eat the buds (but not the plant) so it never bloomed until we fenced the deer out.

Wildlife Wednesday Celebrating One Year for July 2015

This week marks one year of Wildlife Wednesday posts hosted by Tina at "My Gardener Says..." and I've learned so much by trying to identify all the flying, flitting and crawling things I photograph.  I'm joining Tina to celebrate with a survey of some of the wildlife which visited my garden in June.

In an earlier post about Clammy Weed I noted pollinators seemed to ignore it and now several years later this easy care native plant plays host to a Digger Wasp or Blue Wing Wasp.