WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE ABOUT AGAVES, CACTUS AND SUCCULENTS

I am heading into the agave, cactus and succulent phase of my gardening life. The evidence is right there as you climb up the steps to enter through the side gate of my garden.

It is perfect place for these plants. A few hours of direct sun and several hours of filtered sunlight under the branches of the live oak tree. It is one of the few places in my garden where there is filtered sun. One lucky plant gets to sport the clay collar I found at a yard sale.

When visitors come to my garden I invite them to come in through the side gate. From there they can pass through the front courtyard garden and out through the main gate and around the outside of the house into the back gardens.

Look at the variety of shapes and textures in this plant grouping. Small cactus and euphorbias look better when they are grouped together in a wide-mouthed pot or with others.

Small agaves in hypertuffa pot.

Fireplace grouping.

Strawberry jars make great pots for these plants.

My weekend acquisitions; Candellia, Euphorbia antisyphilitica. That's a handy plant to have around!

But the biggest statement of all comes with the large plants situated in the landscape. On the right, Yucca rostrata, sapphire skies

Paired with plumbago which is having its best year ever.

There's a little experiment going on here with the soft leaf yucca. It was a tangle of offsets and dead leaves. I am hoping that the plant will respond to the cut back and take on a new life. Otherwise I will be looking for a replacement.

Structural plants are needed to give height and statement in the garden and none do it more beautifully than the agaves. And no agave makes a bolder statement than the Whale's tongue agave, A. ovatifolia.

Two of these beautiful agaves live in the front courtyard garden.

This is just the tip of the iceberg!

CENTER PIECE OF THE SUNKEN GARDEN

The soft leaf yucca, Yucca recurvifolia blooms for the second time and lights up the fall garden.

NEW DAY, NEW BLOOMS

I'm beginning to think that the garden is not saving anything for April, May, June and the rest of the year.

Today the blooms on the blue-eyed, Sisyrinchum grass opened.

They weren't too noticeable among the bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis,  and purple skullcaps, Scutellaria drummondii,  until evening. Late afternoon/ evening is their time.

The first claret-cup cactus, Echinocareus trichochidiatus, opened. Unlike many of the cactus blooms they have a life span of several days.

The white wine cup, Malvaceae Callirhoe involucrata, seen here sandwiched between the square bud primrose, Calylophus berlandieri, on the left and the alyssum on the right is a much more mannerly wine-cup.

The trailing wine cup may have a more stunning bloom but it is also can be very aggressive in the way it smothers everything in its path. Try digging it out when it has taken a firm hold between pavers. It has a large turnip shaped root. It is easily transplanted and very drought tolerant.

Clouds of damianita, Chrysanctinia mexicana.

In the evening light the soft leaf yucca, Yucca recurvifolia,  gets ready for the evening moth invasion.

RAIN DROPS ON YUCCAS

There is not a gardener in central Texas who is not celebrating the arrival of the first rainfall in months. 2" fell in my garden in the last 24 hours. My plants are happy, the soil is happy I am ecstatic. Never mind that we had to cancel our Sunday walk around Lady Bird Lake.

Last night I pulled all the succulents out in the hope that we would get that promised rain.

The baby kalanchoes decided ti was time to strike out on their own, falling on stoney ground. I gathered them up and put them on the soil.

After a good drink I pulled everything back under cover to dry off.
Everyone is happy.

GARDEN GOINGS ON

This is the first preying mantis I have seen this year and boy was she/he doing a dance. Wouldn't keep still jigging back and forward. I decided she was doing a rain dance because she was heading towards the sprinkler on the vegetable bed. Even the mantis is excited about our 40% chance of rain this weekend.

Then as I walked along the path and, what I can only assume was, a male monarch, swooped in onto, what I can only assume was, a female monarch and then began a violent, frantic, thrashing,  frenzied jig. Really!

Eventually things calmed down enough to get a clear picture and they eventually flew off together.

Earlier that morning, when I was inspecting the bloom on the yucca I noticed a leaf footed bug in one of the flower bud axils. He was so dozy I was able to pluck him off and dispose.

Nothing is going to spoil this bloom. Time is getting closer.

SHOOTING FOR THE STARS

The other day I was out doing my usual early morning inspection when I noticed this. A flower forming on my soft leaf yucca, Yucca recurvifolia.

I'll swear that flower stalk was not there yesterday. Surely I would have noticed it.

But then again, just like the flower stalk on the agave this flower grows at an enormous rate. The good news is that the plant will not die.

These photographs were taken on each morning for four days. Here we are today.

How many days until the blooms open? Less than a week I think. This is one yucca that will flower because it is protected from wildlife. All my yuccas outside the walls have their flower stalks nipped off before they open.