Window on a Texas Wildscape

Friday, April 21, 2023

Cactus saga continues

I am remiss in updating my blog on a neighborhood cactus that I thought was gone for good. Back in March 2012, I shared a photo of the beautiful cactus that grew behind us on a neighbor's property. Our sweet neighbor, who's in heaven now, told us to dig it up and plant it on our land. But I wanted it to live in peace right where it was. Then in September 2019, I noticed that the cactus was dying so I rescued the remaining pieces and potted them up. Later they went to live at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Fast forward to October 2021. Imagine my surprise and joy when I found a cactus descendant in our yard! How in the world did it get THERE? When I showed it to our late neighbor's son, he chuckled. "Looks like a bird planted it," he said. DUH, Sheryl! Yes, a bird sat on the fence and did its business. VOILA! – our own Missouri foxtail cactus (Escobaria missouriensis)!

October 2021

October 2021

April 2023

Eve's necklace close call!

In October 2021, James painstakingly planted and caged an Eve's necklace (Styphnolobium affine) that was gifted to us by Matt Murrah. The tree was doing pretty well, although one large branch had recently turned brown and died. Then came February's ice storm. We lost some branches in our yard but not that many. In the Meadow, we noticed that a limb on a neighboring live oak had cracked. Sure enough, in March it fell...right on the Eve's necklace and its cage! As you can see from the photo, the huge limb fell in the middle of the tree. The Eve's necklace's dead limb is on the ground to the right. Its surviving half is to the left. We'd thought maybe we could leave the tree uncaged. Nope. Neighborhood deer have been nibbling on the leaves.

Yesterday, James worked more than an hour to put another cage around the young tree. When Matt got an update on our Eve's necklace, he texted back: "Just think: if that sucker can make it through drought, oak branch attacks, and deer nibbles, it can make it through anything!" I'm sure hoping so, Matt!

A high-rise dilemma

Have you ever seen prickly pear growing high in the bend of tree? I have. Several times. But imagine our surprise when we looked up last year and saw a HACKBERRY growing in one of our big live oaks in the back! This is not good. It has to be at least 15 feet up there! I was hoping the recent ice storm would have killed it. Nope. James says he gonna pull it .... I'm not feeling too good about that either.

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Notes to myself

This morning, we dug up rocks from the western end of this bed to the arrow. I remembered that when we added on to this large front bed between the two live oaks, we didn't take out an existing rock border. Through the years, leaf debris had covered them up really well! There are still more under the mealy sages.

Front yard fun

Texas kidneywood

So we had two yard volunteers that we wanted to keep and plant somewhere. This morning, we were looking at beds in the front yard and from there .... the work began!

Above is a volunteer Texas kidneywood (Eysenhardtia texana), which we centered in a large bed of turk's cap, flame acanthus, rock rose, red galeana salvia and fragrant mistflower. We bought the parent tree in April 2015, and it's growing really well. Pollinators love the white flowers. Below is an evergreen sumac (Rhus virens), which I spotted in the back yard. We planted the parent plant in April 2014 also in the back yard. The February 2021 blizzard took a toll on it. Then James decided it needed to go becase because – alas! – it was growing too close to the house. I'd said I'd like to get another one and plant it somewhere else.... Then this little one showed up last year!

So we ended up joining two beds and planting the sumac there. We also spruced up an area where we put an iron bench. Fun!

Evergreen sumac

Salvia 'Victoria Blue'

This is the best year EVER for our salvia 'Victoria Blue,' which we purchased from the Arnosky Farmily Farms in 2008 or before. And it's in our front yard, which is frequented by deer.