Signs of Spring

San Antonio is bracing for a few days of temperatures in the low 20s, but spring is not far off.



This is my neighbor's tree. Isn't it beautiful. It's a shade tree, but I haven't been able to identify it. The leaves are maplelike. They turn red and orange briefly before they fall.


This is my own silver maple in the back yard. I can see buds on a lot of branches, but too many others lack the swollen tips- a reminder that this tree's days are numbered. When the time comes, we're going to replace it with a Mexican White Oak. But for now, it's providing good shade from the west sun.


My hyacinth bloom is turning purple. I'm very excited to watch the process since this is the first season I've planted bulbs.


One more sign of spring: the buds on this Autumn Mini Joy sedum are about to break. That is, if tomorrow's freeze tomorrow doesn't damage them. Today the temperatures are in the high 70s. Tomorrow, we will yo-yo to the 20s, but it won't last long. The plants know. We've passed the threshold; most of the cold days are behind us.

Walking Joy

I was in the right place at the right time and found the last plants I needed for my new bed. Since March, I have been looking for an iris with strappy foliage. I was inspired by the Siberian Iris, but they don't do well in San Antonio. At the GVST booth at CPS Energy's Live Green Fest a few weeks ago, I bought two Walking Irises for $10.


I'm not familiar with Walking Irises, but I'm excited to learn. They can grow in part sun, which is good because my climbing rose is creating more shade than I anticipated. In the early spring, Walking Irises produce buds at junctures along the sides of the foliage. The buds swell and then unfold into silky flowers (click the link; you won't regret it) that last only one day. The plant gets its name because, after the flower shrivels, new leaves and roots form at the juncture. The growth forces the mother strap to bend to the ground, allowing the new plant to root in the soil, thus the "Walking" Iris.


You might have wondered from my first photo whether Bailey broke my Autumn Joy Sedum. 'Tis true. The plants were too small and her paws are too big.

Luckily, plant addict that I am, I always enter big box stores through the garden center and I found these Autumn Minies (minies, is that the plural?) for $4 each. Whoot!

So with my new irises and my replacement sedums, my bed is complete. Now I'm waiting for things to fill in. (And holding my breath to see how much shade the rose creates.) Click the photo if you want to see tags identifying each plant.

Bloom Day - October

They say that the real gardening season in San Antonio is the fall. My bloom day flowers are proof of that.


In honor of the cooler weather, here's Autumn Joy sedum. This is the first bloom cycle since I bought this plant.  I was expecting pale pink flowers, but I'm excited to see the red. I wonder if the flowers will turn pink when they open fully. Either way, I'm looking forward to running my hands across their fuzzy broccoli-looking tops.

 
In the same bed as the sedum, the asters are going strong while the moonbeam coreopsis are waning.


This coneflower is a late bloomer. I have three of these plants. Two bloomed on schedule in the summer, but this one is on its own schedule. It has two bright blooms while the other plants have brown, crispy stalks.


The last blooming plant in my new bed is black and blue salvia. Since it started blooming in June, it hasn't stopped. Sometimes it takes a short rest only to come back a week or so later.


Two of my edibles are in bloom. These peas already have full sized pods as well as little flowers that remind me of bonnets.


The blooms on the garlic chives have gotten so heavy, they've flopped to the ground.


In the front yard, the pigeon berry flowers have turned to fruit. If you're familiar with how nandina goes from flowers to berries, this plant does something similar.


Before the pigeon berries make their fruit, the flowers look like white cousins of the liripoe flowers - tiny blooms held close on thin stalks.


On my computer, the yellow centers of these purple shamrock flowers stand out. I hope that comes across on your screen too.


We do have fall leaf color in San Antonio, but don't look up; look at the groundcover. By the way, I saw at least 50 of these dwarf plumbagos in one-gallon pots at Wal-mart for $3 (half off). I resisted buying any, but maybe I'll go back for just three.


This prostrate rosemary makes me think of Christmas wreaths. I like the gray-blue-purple color of the flower. I need to paint a room. Maybe I'll match the paint to this flower.


Speaking of Christmas, the turk's cap has a holiday flavor too, like ornaments on a Texas Christmas tree.


I'm calling this a Lazarus mum. It was a table decoration at my 2009 National Night Out party. I put it in the compost, and it sprouted up in this bed. I guess it came up from seed.

The esperanza is another late bloomer. Everyone else's flowered all summer. These are its first blooms.


Finally, salvia greggii, a sure sign it's fall.

Happy bloom day. Head over to May Dreams to see what's blooming in other gardens.

Cousin Gunner

I find that people who love plants usually love pets. It's true at our house. Normally, the two loves complement each other like sugar and spice. But when your pet is a year-and-a-half old Labrador and her cousin Gunner comes to play, the combination is more oil in the Gulf - a total disaster.


To keep this Autumn Joy sedum looking full, I was going to prune it after it bloomed. The dogs must have known that I was having second thoughts so they nipped it in the bud, literally. Thanks girls.


Instinctively they knew that catmint blooms best when it's sheared back. To goad me into this chore, the pups gave one of my plants a good smoosh.


By herself, Bailey is an angel around plants, but when she's with Cousin Gunner, they are a set of Tasmanian devils.


After a puppy play date, most plants aren't any worse for the wear, but until the ones in my new bed get a little bigger, I'll have to do a better job protecting them.

Clearance Rack

The home improvement store isn't the place to find plant expertise, but it's a good place to find deals.  (It's the lack of expertise that creates the deals.)

On Monday, I found these caladium for $1 each on the clearance rack at Lowe's at the Rim. Their colors remind me of watermelon - an appropriate addition for the Fourth Of July holiday.

           
Tonight, I stopped at a different Lowe's and spotted these Goldmoss Stonecrop for $2 each. The plants look reasonably healthy and the entire clearance cart was full of them so I assume the problem was a lack of demand. After a Super Thrive soaking, they should be ready for my rock ledge.

A few weeks ago, I rescued four forlorn moss rose plants that were marked down to 25 cents. Looking at  them today, you'd never suspect they were on they were only days away from becoming compost fodder.

New Plants - Some for the Shade, Some for the Sun

One of the only plants that Travis requested for our yard is Foxtail Fern. So after church, we stopped at Rainbow Garden and bought two to go along with the volunteer fern that MomMom gave us while we were in Houston last week. I planted them near the front door next to the purple shamrock. The contrasting colors should perk up the shady area.


While we were at the nursery, we bought these creeping sedum. The tag says "sedum pachyclados 'white'." The foliage looks like tight, rich rosets.

I tucked them into the ledge between the patio and the gravel so that their texture can soften the transition. This is an arid, sunny part of the yard and it's difficult to water without splashing dirt into the gravel, but if any plant has a chance at survival, it's sedum.