I am sure a lot of you have Queen Anne's Lace, but this is my first year. I only have the one plant but it is putting on a show for me! It is also another host plant for the Black Swallowtail butterfly.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants & Wildflowers, part 18
My goodness Sheila! it is amazing that it can stand up at that height, how tall do you think it is?
Well it is staked at the base because it fell in the rain /wind storm we had this past week. I just went down and had DH help measure it and it is 7 foot 7"!!! It should be really putting on a show by this weekend.
The Queen Ann's Lace is so beautiful I love the delicate flowers, if you let it go to seed you will have many next year.
When I first started gardening with native plants I found a field of Queen Ann's lace here in Arlington in an empty lot, and I have always loved the airy look of those flowers.
Of course I didn't know that it isin't native to the U.S. so I was overjoyed to have found it.
I got some seed at the appropriate time and have had it ever since. It is not considered an invasive in Texas, and I try to keep it to a minimum, but if it was considered an invasive I would have get rid of it, since I am not supposed to have a Texas native plant wildscape and have Texas invasives in the yard.
I took this picture of the underside of a bloom. Just a beautiful design!
Yes it is, very beautiful.
My Hill Country Aster, Aster oblongifolius, is not going to wait for fall this year. This is the first bloom, but others are getting ready to follow. BTW, where does this one grow wild? Haven't seen it in the wild around here!
UGH!!! Commelinas! Pretty as they might be they are a nuisance in my yard. They grow everywhere and if I don't pull them completely out - as in if I leave a broken piece on the ground - they will set roots down again. It's a never ending battle to rid my yard of them. Round-up just makes holes in the leaves - it doesn't even make a dent in the root system. Sigh....
I've seen the usual blue, lavender and white ones in my yard. Am too busy being mad to truly notice their subtle beauty. Perhaps I'll change my evil rid-my-yard-of-that-weed attitude and just give up the losing battle. Eventuallly they will die down but I always know they'll show up again!!!
~ Cat
ps...stepped outside to photograph them and there was nothing but the blue ones blooming. Go figure!!!
Linda, the usda site shows them growing in these counties
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Texas&statefips=48&symbol=SYOB
but I ma sure it is in more many places that.
Mine is having a few blooms here and there too.
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Cat, Commelina can be quite stubborn, but in the right place it can be very nice, it is just we don't like it crowding our other plants out, right?
I don't have much trouble with the Widow's Tears. It has its place and doesn't get enough moisture to run rampant here. It's been a couple of years since I've seen it as happy as it is right now! That shade of blue....just adorable!
Grrrrrr :o)
It is a pesky plant here but guess it does fill in the flower beds. I have a lawn sprinkler system so I guess that is why they thrive. I found a small white blooming flower when I was walking around the yard early. Looks like Mickey Mouse ears :o) The white do get as big and full as the blue ones but this was from an area I used round-up on. As you can tell - it didn't bother the plant at all :o)
Am learning to live with them...begrudgingly most days. Now if it were a larval host plant for butterflies I'd be jumping for joy.
~ Cat
Also took a photograph of a normal blue one and a paler blue - this one is not quite lavender like others I've seen.
~ Cat
Cat, that white one is just adorable.
well I have all kinds of things coming up. I only know a couple of them and only 'think' I planted a couple of them.... It is interesting to see what comes up new.
This little flower came up. It is the most beautiful of all of them I think. I only have one though.
I have seen these before and I have about a doz so far.
this one I haven't seen before and I have only a couple of them.
this one looks a lot like the first one but is in a different place and is low to the ground while the first one is very tall.
Very nice Nada, good to hear from you.
Love that blue!
Pretty colors! The first looks like some kind of larkspur, I think. Good to hear from you, Nada. How are you doing these days?
Hi all, when do 'Texas Blue Bonets' bloom in your garden? I sewn some seeds in a container a few weeks past. They have germinated, but remains small for me. Like to hear from y'all.
Bluebonnet seeds are best sewn in the fall. They overwinter as rosettes and bloom here usually starting in March. This spring those that bloomed at all by the roadsides weren't exactly showy because of severe drought here. Don't know what your little plants will do, but if you can get more seeds plant them in fall.
Lily_love, Bluebonnets bloom depend on the rainfall and warmth. They start earlier down south, and a bit later up north, of course. They can come as early as late February or early March, but typically they're going good in April, with a few stragglers into May. Usually you can get good Easter pictures with the bluebonnets. Usually you sow bluebonnets in the Fall, as the heat of summer is going away. I've heard as early as August, but also as late as November.
EDIT: stranglers -> stragglers
This message was edited Jun 1, 2009 9:03 AM
Thanks Carl and Linda. I'll try them again in the Fall. :-) I so enjoyed your thread.
Lily_love, see this page at Texas A&M Ag Extension. Gives tips, reasons for fall planting, and other interesting tidbits:
http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/flowers/bluebonnet/bluebonnetstory.html
Carl
Very good link, Carl.
Carl, thank you for the great link. I bookmarked it for later referrence.
Still have no knee. Still in the stupid wheelchair. But I'm alive. As sick as I got there for a while that was in question. I'm just taking one day at a time.
Yea that blue is beautiful. And so bright. I wish I had more of them but hopefully it will reseed for next year.
Here's an albino Guayacan, Porlieria angustifolia. Usually these have blue to purple flowers. They bloomed heavily about two months ago, but are spitting out a few more flowers after recent rains.
Very neat, are these plants that you are showing us at your home?
Yes. These are all pictures from my yard. The yard is mostly densely shaded with centuries old live oaks, but there is an area with more sun and a few big Texas persimmon. This is what I call the "dry garden" with cactus, agaves, succulents, yuccas, etc. Most of my soils are very shallow and stony with bedrock a few inches to a foot down. Here and there I have built up the soil. Most of the rest of the yard is dominated by shade tolerant subtropicals. One long bed had semi-shade and is more devoted to flowering perennials. Here's another photo from the dry garden with a little-leaf form of Texas Purple Sage, Leucophyllum frutescens, I think. May be another species. It was collected by Lynn Lowrey who gave it to me. I am not sure where Lynn collected this. He was all over Texas and northeastern Mexico. I like it for the dry garden for its open form. It has never formed the dense ball that other Leucophyllums do. This is the plant's natural habit. I only prune out dead wood and nip a branch now and then to keep it back from the path. The leaves are tiny and not so grey, more sage green. It might be a form of L. langmannii. It is different from any other Leucophyllum I have ever seen.
Here's a close-up of the flower of the little leaf Leucophyllum.
Very interesting shrub with pretty flowers, it looks like you have a great looking yard.
Josephine.
Thanks, Josephine. It's my pride and my therapy.
Eric
I feel that way about my yard too Eric, it gives me so much pleasure, gardening is a great vocation, I think of it as much more than a hobby, it is more like an expression of my love of nature.
Josephine.
Eric, I just love those Guayacans! I tried to rescue one from near where Bandera Rd. crosses Leon Creek, but it died...I felt so bad! They put a housing development there years ago. It was so lovely there before that and I'd go there and just wander around and feel a peace I have trouble finding in any developed areas. Some places I just feel so close to our maker. I'm afraid I seldom feel like that in a church. I don't really like the Cenizos that people prune into dense shapes like the round ones. But most are managing to bloom in spite of it right now.
My shed area project is going well...considering I'm doing it in whatever time I can spare. The seeded grass is up and growing and the clumps of grass I transplanted are fine. I've got some of the other plants planted. One 4-foot live oak the guys building the shed had dug up and moved up there had looked dead for quite a while...then just as I decided to get rid of it and put something else there...it started coming back up from the roots. Oh well. The Lacey Oak is planted, the Texas Mulberry, the Liatris, a Texas Redbud, some forbs, etc. BTW, the Liatris Patrob gave me had a HUGE root on the larger of two plants. I was amazed, because I didn't know they got that big. Will have to get some cedar stumps out, so I can plant more things.The weather has been pretty good! Considering we're supposed to be in a really bad drought, the rain has been pretty nice, not very large amounts, but coming along often enough..even got 4/10 of an inch last night. But we're in summer now and I know it'll be difficult to keep things going. Maybe I should wait until fall to plant more. Hopefully it's going to look real nice once I get finished. Oh, I really should get rid of some poison ivy over there also.
I am glad things are working out well for you Linda, it is so much fun to start a new project and see it flourish. I would like to convert my whole front yard to native plant beds with no grass, but it would be a humongous project, we shall see, maybe if we do it one piece at a time it will be manageable.
OK, it's not native to Texas. Or at least not the modern boundaries of Texas. Plants don't pay any attention to political borders. Russelia rotundifolia 'San Carlos'. It was collected in northeastern Mexico. It's a real showoff when it gets a bit of moisture. Blooms in waves, then rests and repeats several times a year. Almost always has a few flowers. Evergreen here. I have photographed it repeatedly and the color never seems to be accurate. It may be one of those refracted light colors that are perceived by the eye, but not the camera.
Here's a close-up of the flowers.
