Recently in lawns and flowers Category
10:36 AM Mon, Apr 07, 2008 | Permalink
Cindy Brummer
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Bloom of a century
Aziz Laurent sent this photo in of a Century plant in the garden that is about to bloom.
Apparently this agave is about 10 years.
"I shall send a photo of the flower once it has opened," Laurent wrote.
I'm looking forward to that. Century plants are really impressive plants to begin with, but when you add that bloom stalk, it's just amazing.
I wouldn't say the bloom is all that beautiful in the traditional sense, but the magnitude and the time it takes to bloom make it gorgeous in my opinion.
Can't wait to see that photo, Aziz.
12:21 PM Fri, Sep 21, 2007 | Permalink
Cindy Brummer
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Let's play 'What's that flower?'
Oxblood lillies are popping up all over my North Austin neighborhood. |
The buzz in my neighborhood this week? The appearance of the Oxblood lily (Rhodophiala bifida).
You may have driven through Austin wondering what that little red bloom is that seems to pop up all over the place. I wondered that, too, when I first saw them bloom in my yard.
Oxblood lilies are not native to Texas. But they sure are pretty, aren't they? According to my research, they were introduced from Argentina to Texas by German immigrants. They bloom around September and they keep their green all winter long.
Continue reading "Let's play 'What's that flower?'" »
3:46 PM Mon, Aug 27, 2007 | Permalink
Cindy Brummer
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Black-eyed Susan surprise
I forgot I planted this.
It's a Black-eyed Susan variety, native to Texas. A couple of years ago I bought a bunch of plants for my front yard garden, but the Black-eyed Susans were leggy and old and didn't make it. I let them dry up and didn't remove the stems until I cleaned up the bed in the winter.
It wasn't until about a month ago, I decided to leave some "weeds" alone that kept popping up in that flower bed. Boy was I surprised when it bloomed.
Continue reading "Black-eyed Susan surprise" »
4:06 PM Fri, Aug 03, 2007 | Permalink
Cindy Brummer
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My garden enemy #1
I'm about to spend another weekend attacking what I believe is my greatest nemesis in the garden -- Bermudagrass.
I hate the stuff.
It gets into my garden beds and spreads like fire, choking out every other plant in its way. Nothing seems to stop it.
It just laughed at the plastic garden edgers with which I surrounded my beds. Someone suggested I soak newspaper and suffocate it -- nope. That didn't work. So, I tried cardboard. The grass just started attaching itself to the cardboard and finding weaknesses in it to claw its way through.
Heavy-duty professional landscape fabric seems to help, but I've found Bermudagrass will send out rhizomes (underground stems) under the fabric, searching for a place to poke through.
I'm not the only gardener frustrated with Bermudagrass.
Continue reading "My garden enemy #1" »
