HOW TO DO IT WITH WILDFLOWERS

The front courtyard garden is blooming with Texas native wildflowers and has entered its most floriferous season. Using short season wildflowers in the landscape requires some structural specimens as well as hardscape. We are fortunate to have some great agaves that do the job well.

Under the whales tongue agave, A. ovatifolia, the once blooming flowers of Tulipa hummilis, have been replaced by flowering purple skullcap, Scutellaria wrightii, and yellow blooming square bud primrose, Calylophus berlandieri. The skull caps will bloom all summer if given a trim back after flowering.

And on the other side beyond the Mexican feather grass is the damianita, Chrysactinia mexicana with its aromatic, fine-leaved shrubby foliage.

Of course the bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis, being an annual will soon be gone but the accompanying blackfoot daisies, Melampodium leucanthum, will bloom all summer and will be at their best in the fall.

Blackfoot daisy

The claret cup cactus flower, Echinocereus triglochidiatus, is one of my favorite. The flower is longer lasting than many cactus flowers.

In a shady corner, and there aren't many in this garden, baby blue eyes, Nemophila phaceliodes.

A few seeds gathered from some flowers on an unbuilt lot and I now have several clumps of Barbara's buttons, Marshallia caespitosa. They are perennial but when summer comes the foliage dies back only to appear again in late winter.

Lyre leaf sage, Salvia lyrata, pops up all over the garden and would make a great ground cover with its attractively pattered leaves.

One of my favorite places to sit in the garden is in the breezeway between the garage and house There I can enjoy the view of this part of the garden with flowers and bubbling water feature. Yesterday I watched the wrens flying back and forward building a nest in-between the pots on the top shelf of the cactus theater.

Such messy builders but such fun to watch.

I hope you are enjoying spring in your garden wherever you are.

A FIRST EVERY DAY

You walk around the garden and spot the first bloom on the ....... I'm sure you could easily fill in the blank. Surely every gardener shares this experience. And spring is the time when every day seems to bring that 'first flower' experience.
Here are some of my first flower experiences this week and most of them natives.

First I saw the bud then overnight a flower on the Ladyfinger cactus, Echinocereus pentalophus. These flowers last for at least 3 days and usually arrive in succession.

The blue gilia,  Giliastrum rigidulum. More commonly found in west Texas but I found one small patch growing on my lot and was successful in moving it to a place where I can see it and enjoy its beauty. It is almost at eye level so cannot be missed. It usually opens in the afternoon. Do you see the weevil? Not the dreaded agave weevil though.

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolium, seeds among the gravel and between the pavers. As does the Engelmanns daisy which has seeded alongside.

the pink evening primrose, Oenothera speciosa. Oh! Yes, it will run wild but that' fine. A quick pull here and there will keep it under control.

Baby blue-eyes, Nemophila phacelioides. I only have a little patch of shade and that's where they grow.

Everyone else may be able to grow the spiderwort, Tradescantia sp with ease. For me it is a rare event.

What's that I see through the shower window? It's the first blooms of the Anacacho orchid tree, Bauhinea lunarioides.

And the cross vine, Bignonia capreolata. has found tis way 20' from the mother plant.

And I have a mental block on what this plant is called. Help me out will you, please? Update. Thanks to Lyn for the id of Pavonia lasiopetala if I remember the species name correctly.

And wood sorrel, Oxalis.sp. For some it is a weed, for me I am happy to have just a few flowers in this shady corner.

Oh! How I love that morning, spring-time stroll around the garden. There will be more tomorrow, I'm sure.