A COMPRESSED SEASON

I have decided that we are having a compressed season this year. I noticed that flowers that normally bloom in February did not bloom until March. I can't speak for the weather in January because we were traveling but February was much colder than usual, especially the later part. We had plenty of fall rain which germinated the wildflowers but that cold February brought an abundance of vegetative growth. My bluebonnets are much taller than usual.

You wouldn't believe that a dry creek runs through here and there are stepping stones leading to the front gate. The bluebonnets are hiding the downed live oak leaves for now!
And I definitely remember saying "No bluebonnets in the sunken garden next year" I daren't even show you a picture of the English Garden! Yes, you can have too many bluebonnets.

Or that the walkway around the side of the house to the side gate is impenetrable. That's Lady Banks' rose hanging over the wall.

Early March came brought a lot of weather ups and downs. Warm days followed by a killing frost, for those of us who garden on the edges of the hill country. Tender new growth, on lots of plants, was zapped overnight. No Mountain Laurel blooms over here this year and probably no pomegranates. But mother nature was ready to make up for it with a nice rain followed by day after day of 80° temperatures. All at once everything wants to bloom. Daffodils bloomed, were buffeted by winds and heat. They lasted only a few days.

These tiny rock garden daffs, with their string-like foliage are having a great bloom season but it is cut short by the heat.

Clumps of Crow Poison ( False Garlic) Nothoscordum bivalve, are attractive when in clumps but an intruder when they come up among other plants. Because they grow from a bulb they are difficult to eradicate.

Here's a new visitor to the garden. Scarlet flax, Linum grandiflorum. It's an annual but it is putting on a stunning display. I bought 3 small plants in the fall but only one has really thrived.

Here's its native cousin, the prairie flax, Linum lewisii.

Large clumps of Texas beargrass, basket grass, Nolina texana, are also flowering. Their creamy white blooms attract lots of bees.

Iris, California poppies, blue eyed grass, columbines, gaura, pink primroses are just a few of my later blooms making an earlier appearance. I just hope we get a little rain this weekend to extend the bloom time.