AM I LOSING MY MIND

Of course I came back from Arizona, after my visit to the Wallace Desert Garden, besotted with agave and cactus. Which would have worn off somewhat if I had not dropped by a big box store yesterday and found their agaves and succulents on sale. 30% off and most of them were not even expensive to start with.

Could I resist? Well, no of course not. Here they are. Some may have to stay in pots because they are probably not hardy in my garden. They say hardy cactus but I see plants labelled as such in even the best nurseries. Probably most are hardy to 20 degrees but Austin, on occasion, will drop well below that.

I have been planning for some time to reduce the plantings in the garden and to have more in the way of structural plants. Yesterday I concentrated on one area above the sunken garden which was over run with mealy blue sage, ruellia, Savia gregii and all manner of other seedy plants. I amended the soil with pumice and gravel and planted the first of my finds Agave bracteosa. Also known as the octopus or squid agave, it is hardy to 18 degrees. It has soft leaves which are spineless. There seems to be confusion as to whether this plant dies after flowering. One reliable source says it does not. I planted this specimen this morning and plan to grow blackfoot daisies and skull caps around the base. These are two of the lower growing plants.

I can see already that this next spring is going to have a bumper crop of wildflowers. In the gravel covered front garden Wright's skull cap, Scutellaria wrighii has seeded in abundance.

Damianita has also made a surprise appearance as this has only happened once before. I recognize the narrow leaves and the characteristic smell of the foliage.

There are hundreds of blackfoot daisy seedlings. Of course the weeds are there too. I will have to remove most of these seedlings.

The cooler days have brought the yellow ice plant, Delosperma nubigenum, back into flower alongside the purple alyssum. .

Pink crystals ruby grass, Melinis nerviglumis, is flowering for the second time this year. I would not be without this annual grass which never grows above 2' The foliage kept its color throughout the heat of our terrible summer.

Stay tuned for my visit to the Wallace Desert Garden.