MY GARDEN CELEBRATES NATIONAL WILDFLOWER WEEK MAY 2-8

The week of May 2nd is National Wildflower Week and I am delighted to share some tiny Texas treasures with my readers as well as some of my more boisterous blooms.
I have always had a weakness for the more delicate of our wildflowers so I was happy to see that for the first time the violet wood sorrel,  Oxalis violacea, has appeared in my garden. I'm sure readers are saying they have this plant growing everywhere but for me it is a joy to see this one plant has found a home in my garden. I would be happy to see it growing as a carpet.

It is growing beneath the unnamed clematis which I purchased from the Wildflower Center. It is of the group of clematis that share the name leather flower, possibly Clematis viorna.

 My entry courtyard is full of yellow blooms, Engelmann's daisy, Engelmannia peristenia,  being one flower of the more boisterous.

 I always try to gather up seeds before they fall but  some always escape. They will grow out of rock crevices and in the gravel.

My gravel garden is a perfect place for Zexmenia, Wedelia texana. Another plant whose seeds need controlling.

 The square but primrose, Calylophus berlandieri, is one flower I would be happy to see seed out but it never does.

The purple skull cap,  Scutellaria wrightii, and Blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum, mass together along the edge of the dry creek.

This same skullcap can be trimmed to form a low mounding plant.

Scutellaria wrightii in the sunken garden

 I just have a few standing wine cups, possibly Callirhoe leiocarpa or C. pedata. The flowers are on a tall leafless stem.

They are quite distinct from the trailing wine cup, Callirhoe involucrata, with its heavy foliage.

 

Another member of the mallow family, rock rose Pavonia lasiopetala,

 I am always on the lookout for plants that form tidy mounds. A chance seedling of gray vervain,Verbena canescens, pruned to form a mound.

 You have to get close up to appreciate its tiny flowers. It seeded in a few places and I have moved the seedlings into other areas.

I took a walk in my meadow today and discovered several delicate blooms. The first the Colorado Venus' Looking-Glass, Triodanis coloradoensis.

and Prairie brazoria, Warnockia scutellarioides.

Now that the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush have set seed it is the time for the yellow flowers to carpet the meadow.

Antelope horn, Asclepias asperula, in the meadow.

HAPPY NATIONAL WILDLFOWER  WEEK TO ALL MY READERS.

RED SKY IN THE MORNING

When I was growing up, and even though we only lived a 1/4 mile from the sea, I always heard my parents foretell the weather as, "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight, red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning" It would have made more sense if it had been sailors. The red sky in the morning usually meant it was going to rain. The wind would be out of the west picking up rain as it crossed the Irish sea and prepared to dump it on the coastal areas before rising over the Pennines. Wouldn't that be nice. Red sky in the morning here means it is going to be hotter than hell and no rain. Exactly the opposite. OK, enough Texas weather talk. So how is the garden faring after this delightful summer weather pattern, in May.

Cone flowers, Echinacea purpurea, are loving it.

They are positively in their element. I am so happy for these flowers. They seeds themselves freely and it is just a matter of not letting them take over.

They will even grow in gravel.

I let a few grow here and there to break up the expanses of gravel.

I'm more concerned about my Swan River daisy, Brachyscome. Clouds of blue, purple and white miniatures daisies are not long for this earth. They are already looking quite stressed. Still they have been beautiful for weeks and I would not be without them.
More reminiscent of a woodland meadow than a dry gravel garden, a clump of Oxalis has appeared from nowhere.

The Mexican feather grass is starting to show its age. Having enjoyed a winter growing in a pot and having produced its seeds for the year it is fast moving into its twilight years.