I couldn't help but smile when I read this. They are talking about bluebonnets, our Texas State flower.
"While it may be a myth that picking the beautiful blue flowers is illegal, conservation is crucial to preserving these delicate native plants"
Delicate native plants indeed! Not where I live. And I do believe the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center would agree with me on that. That is why they are smart to make a dedicated bluebonnet patch within their garden because otherwise the plant would just take over the whole garden.
That is exactly what happened in all of my inside gardens. I am asking myself why did I let this happen again because I have learnt from experience that if I let them grow in here I will spend hours pulling them after they are spent. Not to mention the poor plants which struggle to grow beneath them and how it impedes walking through the garden. For the last three days I have pulled hundred, piling them in various places under the trees. If they ripen, all well and good, if not then I still have hundreds more whose seed I can collect for places where I want them to grow. It was imperative to remove them before the rain came....and it di. 4.2" over three soggy days.
Ah! The other plants in the gravel can breathe again. The skullcaps, Scutellaria sp.blackfoot dasies, Melampodium leucanthum, mealy blue sage. Salvia farinacea. These much more mannerly plants who will only occupy a small area. I am more than happy to have them brighten up the larger expanses of gravel.
An occasional ruby crystal grass or Mexican feather grass.
My absolute favorite fro this gravel garden is the purple skullcap, Scutellaria wrightii, I prune it to a more rounded shape in the spring and scatter the seeds around in the fall.
The other players permitted to remain in this garden are ruby crystal grass, Melinus nerviglumis, Mexican feather grass, Nasella tennuisima and a modest amount of love-in-a-mist Nigella damascena.
I will remind myself next year that this is the look I prefer and certainly saves days of work.
I love looking at your garden! I have some crushed granite walkways in my garden and would like to add some of those concrete balls. I believe I remember that you and David made those. I have tried searching to find where you described the process but I cannot find it. If I am remembering correctly, would you please help me locate the post?
ReplyDeleteYou can find the instructions here and if the link doesn't work look down the right hand side to Garden Decor.Good luck finding the glass globes! https://wwwrockrose.blogspot.com/2018/06/i-think-ill-make-some-more.html
DeleteThat does sound like a major chore! But, if I'd been hit hard by the arctic blast or a similar weather catastrophe as you were, I think I might permit anything that could spread that joyfully to do just that. I hope you're able to collect seed to spread these beautiful flowers were you want them. I spent a good part of the weekend thinning my Mexican feather grass, which is a rampant spreader here. I think I'm going to have to remove them in some areas altogether as they're just too much to manage.
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