Thursday, May 16, 2019

My sensitive plant

Awhile ago, I transferred my sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica) into a larger pot. It's growing on a window sill in our dining room. You might (or might not) recall my past post about the children's book I wrote that stars a sensitive plant as part of the plot. Anyway, I ordered some seeds (non-native) off eBay and germinated some. Alas, the first few tries ended with death. But finally I planted the seeds deeper in the dirt and VOILA–these two are still alive! Below are photos of the growth process.....I hope they bloom! 

Here's a funny story. My son and his wife, my daughter and her boyfriend, and my mother visited here in March for my birthday. Before my daughter-in-law left to go back home, she made a quick dash over to the window sill. She touched my plant, watched the leaves close, then tore off for the garage to join my son. I still laugh when I remember that scene. Everyone loves a sensitive plant!


The bigger pot

One good decision

I ran across this spiral notebook with notes the other day. It has to date back to 2007 or '08 when James and I first started putting in plants. At the time, I considered keeping a hand-written gardening journal. Back then, blogs were just getting started. I was nervous about having one of my own. But then I decided, why not? So I jumped into Window on a Texas Wildscape, and the rest is history, nicely archived in my blog posts.

But, wow, am I EVER GLAD and THANKFUL I decided going this route. I could have NEVER kept up with our plant inventory using a paper journal nor could I have searched for whatever I wanted to search as easily as I do using the search engine on my blog. PLUS, I couldn't have shared what I've learned along the way with YOU without this blog. Thank you for reading and listening all these years!

P.S. My notes also show how we weren't totally into native plants back then. So there's another good decision––we plant primarily NATIVES!

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Another garden tour


This morning, we hosted members of the Native Plant Society of Texas/Lindheimer chapter from New Braunfels. The weather was PERFECT for wandering through our gardens. Thank you for coming, Al, James, Peggy, Sara, Mickey, Bob, Susan and Jeff!




Monday, May 13, 2019

First a bee, then a nest, then....

Awhile ago, I spotted a bee and immediately dropped my limb debris. I walked over and discovered the coolest nest made of tiny pebbles. I took LOTS of photos of the bee, working away on the nest. Experts on iNaturalist so far say my bee is a member of the Tribe Anthidiini (mason, leafcutter, carder and resin bees). My bee is Dianthidium, specifically Dianthidium texanum. Here's a similar nest.






I walked back over to check on her and observed a SECOND bee hovering nearby. When she came out of the nest, he jumped on her. What was going on, I wondered. Well.....

A little hanky panky, that's what was going on.
 But not for long. He finished, then flew off. And she went right back to work. So interesting to watch! Not to mention the cool nest.

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UPDATE JUNE 13, 2019
Photos below show how she's enlarged her nest.

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UPDATE JUNE 19, 2019
Photos below show an entrance.




Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Indian-turnip

This morning, James drove me down RR 1623 so I could get some shots of this new-to-me species. It's Indian-turnip (Pediomelum cuspidatum), obviously a cousin to our famous Texas bluebonnet. Pretty, eh?



Monday, May 6, 2019

New additions


Welcome to our Wildscape! Additions from the Mostly Native Plant Sale in Boerne. 

Carolina buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana)
Mexican silktassel (Garrya ovata)
Purple horsemint (Monarda citriodora)
Texas honeysuckle (Lonicera albiflora)

Plus a Salvia greggi 'White'
Dragon's blood (Sedum spurium)
Crassula sedum (ride-along...looks like Crassula muscosa)





Another plant sale!

 
Last Saturday, the Cibolo Nature Center's Mostly Native Plant Sale at the Kendall County Fairgrounds opened to gray but dry skies. As always, James gamely escorted me there.


We got to see our friends from Natives of Texas nursery in Medina–owner David Winningham and Pablo. I always hear Pablo before I see him–I love his friendly voice and laughs!
One of my favorite booths is the one hosted by the Boerne chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. They always have a tremendous variety of natives, not to mention familiar faces.



One of my plants that I purchased at their booth included a ride-a-long. What was it? So a group of chapter members huddled together to come up with an ID for me. Finally they announced it was in the pepperweed genus of Lepidium.

We briefly parked our plant purchases here. 
Beekeeper Mike Mendez from Austin shared his passion with visitors. Kids especially loved his hive display.
 Adios until next time!