Coral Bells Archives | smallrooms®

What’s Blooming Now

Posted on March 31, 2016No Comments

Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’ (the purple flowers) the will send it up blooms before it produces new leaves.

Spring has sprung here in Dallas. Unfortunately a lot of the blooming perennials I showed you last year didn’t make it after last year’s weather extremes and some bad luck. I’ve replaced some of them this past fall, but most will have to be purchased this spring when they become available. What has been replaced is doing very well. Because of our mild winter with no freezing temperatures, the root systems were able to grow the entire winter and are now well established. But it will take another two years to get to where their predecessors were before last spring’s El Niño killed them.

Landscape & Gardening

Prolific Spring Bloomers

Posted on April 22, 2015No Comments

Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue'. The popular common name for this plant is the Pincushion flower. Even though all my scabiosas are blooming profusely now, I was amazed that they even had some blooms this past winter. In fact, they never did stop blooming. — Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’. The popular common name for this plant is the Pincushion flower. Even though all my scabiosas are blooming profusely now, I was amazed that they even had some blooms this past winter. In fact, they never did stop blooming.

Shot over a two week period, these images are being posted just in time for Earth Day. It’s taken three years of hard work, patience, trial and error, and I have often wondered if it was in the stars for my gardens to become fully realized. Finally, there are results. This spring has rewarded me with loads of foliage and blooms. There are still areas (I call them “death gaps”) where additional and/or new replacements are required, but on the whole it’s reassuring that I haven’t wasted so much time, effort and money. In late June, I’ll photograph the gardens in their entirety, but in the meantime while the plants are filling in, here are photos of individual bloomers.

Landscape & Gardening

What’s Blooming Now

Posted on May 1, 2013No Comments

These coral bells were planted six weeks ago.

Heuchere villosa ‘Beaujolais’, commonly known as Coral Bells, were chosen to replace the purple Wandering Jew (Purple Heart) that did not survive its first year in this location. Since the Wandering Jew did manage to come back this spring in a shadier portion of my garden, I can only guess that this unsuccessful small patch received too much sun. Additionally, I have chosen not to continue planting seasonal annuals. So the Coral Bells have been planted as perennials to replace the annuals and Wandering Jew.