A PERFECT DAY FOR VISITORS

When visitors come to my garden at this time of year I really like them to come early in the morning. That's because there is no shade and when the sun beats down the flowers tend to sulk. So when I learnt my visitors this week would arrive around 2:30pm I was worried for how they would find it. I need not have worried because the sun never came out and made for a really nice showing.

Sunken garden with bluebonnets, blackfoots, skullcaps.

California poppies, bluebonnets

Hinckley's columbine, corn poppies, 

 The Zephirine drouhin growing in the corner grew from a root of a potted rose that was in the corner. She is the most spectacular of the 3 Zephs. I have and has never been watered or fertilized. I let her do her own thing which is exactly what a rose likes.

Zephirine drouhin

 My visitors got to see both my Lady Banks roses. I bought a cutting of the  white Lady Banks rose, Rosa banksiae x banksiae from the Rose Museum in Tombstone, Arizona. The original rose was brought there in 1885 and was a cutting from the original rose brought from China by a Sir Joseph Banks expedition in 1805.

Lady Banks' rose

My yellow rose in the front garden was at its peak this week and what a show with her clusters of tiny double yellow flowers.

Another big bloomer and at its peak this week was the cross vine, Bignonia capreolata, tangerine beauty. Would you know there was a greenhouse hiding under here? This is the very same vine that I cut back down to the ground 2 years ago. As I pulled out a root from a standing position I fell backwards and ended up being unable to move for 3 days. I have to cut it back again this year but a cut-back is all it is getting.

Everyone got to see the Claret cup cactus. This clump had 20 blooms this year.

And in the herb garden the culinary sage was a mass of purple blooms.

I had a few ladies question me about the tiny plant pots on top of the bamboo canes. Do you know why they are there? So I don't poke my eye out!

Yes, my visitors couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

GARDEN BLOGGERS BLOOM DAY APRIL 2014

Welcome to my April garden for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day hosted by Maydreams Gardens. It is a gorgeous day here in Texas after yesterday's lashing rain, wind and hail and the threat of a frost last night. Thankfully it never got down to 32°. There is a mighty clashing of colors going on out there.

Eyes down to the Claret-cup cactus, Echinocereus coccineus.

Eyes up to Zepherine drouhin. Both are putting on a spectacular show.

Of course the Lady Banks rose is also in full bloom right now although somewhat smaller in bloom size this year.

 My yellow Rosa banksia 'lutea' is enormous compared with the white one.

I purchased this white one at the Rose Museum in Tombstone, Arizona, which boasts the largest Lady Banks' rose in the world. It came originally from Kew gardens as a cutting and this is a cutting from the Tombstone rose. I have it planted on the fence behind the pool; not the best place as I have to continuously cut it back.

While on the subject of white roses this white Knockout lights up the English garden.

Along with the lovely fragrant Felicia.

There are lots of native plants. The yellow Missouri primrose, Oenothera macrocarpa.

And the square-bud primrose, Calylophus berlandiera, along with bluebonnets in the sunken garden.

Gulf coast penstemon, Penstemon tenuis.

And my ever blooming chocolate daisy, Berlandiera lyrata.

Rose campion, Lychnis coronaria.

Mock orange, Philadeplhus X 'natchez'

The sweetest smelling stocks, Mathiola incana.

The cross vine, Bignonia capreolata back again on the greenhouse.

Beautiful heads on my multiplying onions, Allium cepa.

Blue flax, Linum lewisii

 An unknown tiny rock daffodil with wiry stems. Planted several years ago this is the first time it has bloomed. It must have liked the extra chilling.

Orange mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua.

There are poppies galore, and columbines and so many more flowers in bloom. Come back again later this week and take the long tour of all the gardens enjoyed by a visiting garden group today. In the meantime visit other garden bloggers sharing their blooms on the mid April day.

TAKE A TOUR OF OUR COURTYARD ENTRY GARDEN

Yesterday the garden hosted a lot of visitors. First in the early morning a friend and her out of town guests and then in the afternoon Marty Wingate brought a group of garden enthusiasts from the Seattle area on a Texas Bluebonnet tour. In the morning they visited Tate Moring's garden, followed by lunch at the Grove and then on to visit our garden. Those of you who have visited this garden know that we always bring people in through the side entry off the driveway. Maybe you would like to follow them.

The entry deck is where many of my overwintered cactus and succulents get to spend the summer. Not too much sun and when the sun does reach this garden it is filtered by the large overhanging live oak.

How fortunate that the queen was out to add her greetings. She has been indoors for a while because I did get rather tired of her incessant waving and banished her indoors. She has help from a solar panel in her ever present handbag. I would never have a gnome in my garden unless I was given one, as I was with HRH. Just a bit of a joke.

The Whale's Tongue agave is going to make the first impression. You see her before you even walk up the steps. But then eyes will be drawn to the sound of water coming from the disappearing fountain.

It's a favorite place for the finches and cardinals to come for water. You may recall having heard the history of the fountain. We found it in the alley behind our son's house in Dallas. The hexagonal piece of concrete once held a post, so the square hole in the center, with a couple of cross nails, was just perfect through which to feed the water. We had always had a water feature here but it was just a piece of limestone rock with a well positioned hole we had found in our wild areas. This was enormously heavy but the two of them managed to get it into our truck and somehow David, single handed, got it in place.

To reach the gravel patio you have to cross the little stone bridge.

 Someone standing at the entrance yesterday said it was like Beth Chatto's gravel garden. What an enormous compliment that is.

Among the bluebonnets are pink and purple skull cap, Scutellaria wrightii, creeping germander, Teucrium cossonii Claret cup cactus, Echinocereus  triglochidiatus, square-bud primrose, Calylophus drummondianus and blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum. No irrigation here.

You must smell Zephirine drouhin. She is the most fragrant of roses and as you bend over you will catch a glimpse of the flower stalk on the Mangave 'Macho mocha' I hope this doesn't mean the end because I don't see any pups and this one, a pass-a-long form Pam Penick at Digging, has taken a few years to achieve this size.

Sit down for a minute in the shade of the umbrella. A humming bird may come by to sip nectar from the Texas betony, Stachys coccinea, behind you.

Texas betony

I am definitely going more xeriscape on this side of the garden. Partly to reduce the work and to enable me to remove all irrigation. These plants will have to go it alone.

As you turn back Lady Banks' rose comes into view. She will be getting a big trim back after she finishes flowering, to give more light to the understory plants.

It isn't the easiest of gardens to visit because there are all kinds of plants growing in the gravel and if you know me you know how protective I am of those little seedlings. After all, they may be next year's plants. Hope you enjoyed the tour of this garden.

THE ROSES ARRIVE

Over the last few days Zepherine drouhin began to open blooms. This cerise, thornless, climbing rose has the sweetest fragrance. On the front courtyard wall, where we frequently drink our mid morning coffee and eat our lunch, who could not pause to take in her sweet perfume.

She wins me over again every year. There is always some point at which I say I am going to remove her but then spring arrives and once again I let her stay. I really need to learn how to prune her to the best. She is very vigorous and has this tendency to send out side shoots which grow forwards instead of laterally. 

In the same garden, another thornless rose, the Lady Banks, Rose banksiae 'lutea' No fragrance but a reliable rose which covers her branches with clusters of pale yellow blooms every April. This year the blooms are smaller than I have ever seen them, due in part to our droughty winter and spring. So little rain has fallen that flowers everywhere are smaller than normal. At least she tried. I think that next week it will be Felicia's turn.

OH! THOSE PINKS

Today it is raining and the temperature has dropped 40° overnight. I just cancelled a garden group who were to visit today. I have time on my hands.
Monday was the last day for the blooming of the one flower on my ladyfinger cactus, Echinocereus pentapophus. She has bloomed not stop for 6 days. I shall really miss her.

But taking over is rosa 'Felicia' (1928) Felicia is a repeat flowering Hybrid Musk rose. She is the sweetest rose with clusters of pink flowers which perfume the garden with a baby powder fragrance. I cut this rose right down in February but next year I think I will try to have her grow on some kind of support. Her thin branches have difficulty in holding up the weight of her blooms and I think she would look better as a pillar rose. Because of her modest size she is also well suited to growing in a container.

The other sweet smelling rose, but growing in a different garden, is Zepherine Drouhin (1868). Although described as a repeat bloomer her main bloom time is in the spring when her clusters of cerise flowers perfume the air.

I have three of these roses. The original, in the front garden, never performs as well as this one at the back of the pool garden. As I have mentioned before, this rose appeared after I removed a potted cutting standing in this particular spot. It is in full sun and the branches are allowed to arch and grow in a spontaneous manner. Tension on the branches results in the best blooming with branches studded with blooms along their length. I have another potted rose in the herb garden. She has no flowers this year. All were cuttings from the original rose in the front garden.

They can keep an eye on each other through the archway.

BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU WALK

If I have said this once I have said it a thousand times. Is it any wonder. And what happened to the resolution that I would keep the pathways cleared this year?

I can't help that the rose Zephirine drouhin happened to start growing right at the top of the ramp. We can't use this entrance any more. Even without the rose the bluebonnets bar entry at the bottom. This ramp was supposed to make it easy to get the wheelbarrow up into the garden!

And do be careful as you go round this corner, please.

I wouldn't even try to walk this way.

Or this.

It's getting tough to get to the water barrels.

And those bluebonnets are taking over in the English garden once again.

And soon you will have to jump over the trailing wine cup. Ah, well. Maybe next year.