Wow! Great pics! Usually people just list what's blooming in their gardens, but this has quite the visual impact! I especially thought the furry one was cute! It looks like that ball has seen better days too!

I do like the swallowtail photo. Those pictures are so hard to get. So many times they're flapping their wings when they're eating. It is hard to snap the picture at the right time.

I'll just list what is blooming in my garden:
blue and red anemones
lyreleaf sage
Texas gold columbine
iris (even though my stupid dog laid on it and flattened it . . . it is one tough plant!)
winecup
verbena
snapdragons
four-nerve daisy
ox-eye daisy
roses - buds getting ready to open
oxalis - green leaf and purple leaf types
yellow coneflower
pink yarrow just putting out flower buds
bluebonnets
mealycup sage - getting ready to bloom
mystic spires sage - blooming in a container
miniature red rose in a container just starting to bloom

Very nice.

Your water feature looks great.

I was thinking, I have never seen "furry dog wood" like that.
The winecups are especially a thrill. I don't think any of mine survived the drougth.

Kristi, she has a furry flower just like ours -- I did not give her a start - did you???? Really pretty photos, and such a joy to look at ---- thanks !!!

Wow, really beautiful pics. Mine are all trying to recover from being under the snow for 2 days. Its so sad, everything was just starting to bloom.

I just posted some of these on another thread, but I'm proud of them, so what the heck?

I am so glad that the snow was not enough to stick here!! I freaked out at breakfast when I saw it. MY BLOOMS!!!!! (The BF thinks I'm a little nuts). Only thing that suffered from the cold spell was my basil, TG.

Snapdragons - are they annual here? I love them, but I hate planting annuals - kills me when they die.

Thanks for all the kind comments. I had to add the furry dog flower! I can't help it.

Cultivar is 'Roxy':
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Here is her sister cultivar 'Qira'(ok, not really):
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She loves to flatten the dianthus next to my trails, eat the chocolate mint and try to eat the bees (Crazy dog). The ball is really hers, but the Rox likes to carry it around too...

Sounds like you guys are plant AND dog lovers. Here are a few more... I just love these pics!

First summer with a pool:

After a swim:

The first day we installed 'the grass' (think she likes it?):

Moving to Texas:

jblaschke, BEAUTIFUL passion vines!! I used to have one in California that looked exactly like your Constance Elliott... but I didn't know anything more than it was a passion flower. I love it when it bloomed... it took over the whole back fence of our yard...

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the kind words, fairysoapgirl. I've become something of a passi obsessive in recent years--there are several species that thrive in Texas climate (varied tho it may be). The Amethyst and caeruleas are nice, but I'm really holding out for my Texas native incarnata to start blooming. The buds are set, but I've got probably another two weeks to wait before they flower. :-(

I love all your flowers and the colors..but I really enjoyed seeing them fur babies...they are sooo funny!
jb? Do the passion vines bloom all summer?

Dena

I see the kids are off to the nursery to buy mom more plants to plunk.
Did you see that perfect mulch? And those nice neat plants? And nice neat labels actually by the plant?
Makes me feel guilty, I haven't put down any mulch yet. I must be a neater gardener, I must be a neater gardener..

And why aren't your passion vines eaten up?
Very pretty pictures, thanks for sharing.
TallyHO!

Very pretty!!

We had a little silky that looked just like that.

Just precious.

jblaschke, I am glad I am not the only one who runs outside every day to see what's blooming!! Makes me feel like less of a nut.

Beachplant... My first time using labels - so, I am all anal about getting them right (capitals vs. non capitals, italics, font...) AND this is the first time I have ever owned a labelmaker. COOL toy. Thanks for noticing my mulch. GRIN... It took me a FULL 8 Hour day just to do the front yard. Man, that pile was big. Thankfully there is a company about 3 miles from where I live that delivers when ever I need it.

Anyone know what is up with Lavender around here? I had three Lavendula heterophylia (which they SAID would do great here). Two died and the last one has about two sprouts comming out of the bottom (aka barely surviving). Anyone have suggestions on a variety that will do well? I moved from California (Bay Area) and lavender grew like a weed - all forms, so this dying bit has got me in a tizzy.

Love the fur babies - love them!!! What a hoot that your Yorkie would go in the water, mine think it is too much like taking a bath (which they loathe).

denaw, the incarnata and hybrid "Incense" do indeed bloom all summer. As for the caerulea, Constance Elliott and Amethyst, I suspect they do, but they were small plants last year, and only put out a few flowers at all. After just one season's growth, I counted 22 blossoms--not buds, actual blossoms--on the caerulea the other day. And the other two have more than a dozen buds on each. I also have a Lady Margaret in a pot which has gorgeous maroon and white flowers--it seems to really thrive in the heat, although flowering has thus far come in bursts.

Beachplant, it's too early for a serious caterpillar infestation, although I've found a few eggs on the leaves over the past couple of days. Usually my Incense grows so fast, I just tranfer the caterpillars to that one, but the big ice storm in January hammered it really hard, and it's very, very slow on the rebound this year. Not sure what I'm going to do once the butterfly population goes through the roof in June...

Well, here I've had to move cats to my sacrificial passi's twice now

A few thoughts on lavenders are to consider Provence which has proven quite dependable in the Hill Country and there is a cottage industry of lavender farms around Blanco County and more starting up in Comal County. They do need excellent drainage and and are often done in raised rows or mounds to insure this. The heat and humidity of summer is the toughest thing other than drainage to contend with. I suggest not using an wood or bark type mulch but crushed granite or pea pebbles seem to do fine. The idea is to keep water from splashing the lower leaves and to have the surface contact with the lower leaves to dry quickly when it does, AKA the recent plentiful rains. Several of farms and individual gardeners lost plants during the summer floods of 2002 here and that can and does happen. I know there are others that have had good luck with some other types but I hope this gives you some of the key info and differences between Bay area lavender culture and many parts of Texas lavender growing.
Good Luck and Happy Growing
David

Nice photos-especially of your Roxy cultivar. That one's my favorite bloomer in your garden! btw-I'm in SL also! Maybe we can trade plants/seeds sometime.

sowngrow - I would love to trade - I love variety. I am just not very familiar with starting things from cuttings. In fact the only things I have ever done this way were a grape vine and a geranium. I am great at dividing (in fact, I just found that I have yellow flag iris in my pond and divided - although from what I read this stuff may be bad news). I have to find what propigates what way in the yard - a lot of these Texas plants are new to me. Let me know if there is something you are interested in... I'll do my best!! :o) PS. Have you seen Corsican Mint (Mentha requienii) anywhere???? I have checked Tinker Grove, Blooming Colors, Lowes, Home Depot, and Mike's within the last week to no avail. I finally have the perfect spot and now I can't find it!!!

Hitexplanter - Thanks for the advice. If my last survivor gets stronger, maybe I will raise him up in the bed. He is on a full-sun slope, so that there is never any standing water and the soil drains quickly, but something is obviously not right. I'll see if I can find Provence and give him a sister. Thanks again.

GORGEOUS pictures! Is number 10 an American Beautyberry? I've never really seen one up close, only in pictures and only with the berries. So I may be wrong on the guess. I'm stunned by the height on your salvia in the second picture. What do you feed your plants? ;) LOL I have the bicolor sage that you have in picture #18, and currently between my 2 plants, I only have 1 single solitary blue flower. LOL I also LOVE wine cups, always have (I think they might have been my fave wildflower as a child). Your pink salvia and white hydrangea are more favorites of mine. :) Thanks for sharing all this beauty!

I love your(what I think of as anyway...) Mostly TX native xeriscape! Whooo hoo FANTASTIC JOB! I wouldn't mind either of your gorgeous companions either! PJ

I posted before I thought, now I just see the *cat* post, lol
All of your plants are just beautiful, I love the colors
jolana

Nope-haven't come across Corsican mint, but I haven't been looking for it either. Mint is sort of a 4 letter word to me! My neighbor gave me spearmint a few years ago and I've been pulling it out half-heartedly as I love the fragrance, but dislike it's "spreadability".

The photos are just lovely, and the dogs are so cute! Thanks for posting a reminder of spring, as I'm still in winter here (snowing here today). I can't wait until we visit Texas this summer to scout out a place to relocate!
Trish :)

Come on down, dicentra !!!!!!

Thanks!! - I couldn't wait for spring and for all my 'sticks' to turn to flowers.

Lindseyrose - #10 is Indian Hawthorn 'Majestic Beauty'. The Victoria Salvia has FAR exceeded my hight expectations - 32" on the tallest spike!!!! I actually planted it in front of 'May Night' (you may be able to see it off to the right in the pic) which was supposed to be taller than the Victoria. Now you can barely see the poor little 'May Night'. I just fed it a general fertilizer right when things started to leaf out, but it is on a south westerly bed which gets strong morning light, afternoon sun and then shade in late afternoon. It really seems to thrive here.

The clumpy white flower is actually on a Viburnum 'Snowball'. They start out like the pic - a creamy green color and then keep opening until they are a spectacular white 'snowball'. Both of those are in the shade - one in deep shade and one in dappled. They both seem to be doing well.

I love the wine cups too... this is my first year with them, but they seem to be going crazy. I used these to replace a dwarf gardenia that almost bit the dust - North facing bed in the front of the house, and I think the sun was just roasting it alive. The wine cups and the Texas primrose are planted together there now and just eat up the sun.

Sounds like you have the standard (32 inch high) salvia farinaece(sp?) instead of the 'Victoria Blue'(12 inch high). I got some from a grower this year that I know are too tall to be the dwarf form so I had to pull the tags and relable them. We are all human and mistakes happen even with the best growers.
Still beautiful just positioned wrong :( for your purpose but what the hey. S... happens.
What is the other lavender that is hanging in there BTW?
Happy Growing David

Both of those furry plants sure are cute - what an odd pair, but I often see large dogs paired with smaller dogs. We have a bassett hound and a yellow lab - one smart and one not so smart. hee-hee!

I have a white passionvine that should start blooming any day now since it is evergreen. It has some large flower buds ready to bust open. The purple variety takes awhile because it comes back from roots.

What kind of roses are those red ones?

I was gonna say, I've got Victoria blue, and I *wish* they grew like that! Mine are short, more like the 12 inches that David mentioned. Also, their flower stems aren't bright purple (actually, they might be, but I haven't seen one in so long...LOL...that maybe I'm remembering wrong). Looks like maybe mine is going to work up the energy to make a flower here soon, so that will be nice. Y'all've heard me whine about my salvia plenty so I'll stop now. LOL

I love clicking on this thread again and staring at your plants, fairysoapgirl!

I just now noticed the lobelia - too busy looking at the fur ball, I suppose. Does it go south on you when the heat sets in? I have never been able to carry one through the summer.

I've got:

Bluebonnets
Dianthus
Petunias that came back from last year
Possumhaw holly if you look really close!
lantana
Martha Gonzales rose
Coralbean has buds
Don Juan rose
Mutabilis rose
New Dawn rose
Pincushion flower
Sugar snap peas
my lettuce and mustard--haha, but pretty!

Vicky's blog!

David (hitexplanter) - I am 99% sure that it is 'Victoria'. It originated from Magnolia Gardens Nursery who raise this variety as part of the "Plants for Texas" program - meaning that they are specifically meant to do well here. They said it would get 1 -2.5 feet tall, but I am learning that everything is bigger in Texas!! I went back to the nursery (shocking!!) and while I was there I looked at the remaining inventory of 'Victoria' thinking I may of had a stray but it looked the same as mine. They did have a common Salvia farinacea planted in their landscape, but it had lighter color flowers and was larger and less compact (scraggly almost) than what I have. If it gets any bigger, I'll have to do more investigating... The last remaining lavender is also a Sweet (Lavendula heterophylia). I cut back all the dead wood to the new growth and it seems to be doing ok at the moment. We'll see... Thanks for the well-wishes!!

denisew - They are an odd couple, but they love each other.
See:
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The red roses are Rosa Double Knock Out 'RadTKO'. Get it... TKO... ha ha... took me a while to get that one. They are growing like mad right now... I look forward to them blooming all summer. Here is a link for more infoÂ

carrie751 - I usually don't plant annuals, but this one is so beautiful, I just can't help it. This is the first summer I am going to try it. It is planted under my yellow Day Lily 'Stella De Oro', which is planted kind of under Nandina, which is under an overhang on our roof. This bed gets morning light, early afternoon sun but gets very bright shade in the afternoon SOOOOOOOOOO... I am hoping that it will do ok with our crazy sun. I'll try to remember to do a follow up when things heat up.

For those of you who are suffering this crazy wind and rain like I am, here are some pictures from yesterday (Memories... Misty watercolor memories)...
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David,
Here is a picture of what is left of my lavender:
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Yeah!! The sun is back:
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How long will the pansies stay???