Four-nerve daisies Archives

What’s Blooming Now

Posted on April 22, 2016No Comments

This is the only way to make concrete look good. With Four-nerve daisies (Tetraneuris scaposa) mixed in with Dwarf Coreopsis (Coreopsis auricular ‘Nana’) at the base of my Texas Whitebud tree and a backdrop of sundrops, who will notice the concrete?

Today is blooming Earth Day, and I have some bodacious beauties to share with you. I took these photos about a week ago thinking the predicted week of rain would destroy their beautiful massing effect. The sun’s back out today, and they have fortunately recovered. Though I’m glad I shot them earlier on a cloudy day, because these particular areas do not photograph well in full sun. Dappled shade would be ideal, but these flowers are either in full sun or full shade. For more photos of the blooming bits of my garden, click the link below.

Landscape & Gardening

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.