Salvia 'Victoria Blue' (circa 2008)

(THIS WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MAY 2008; I tried to edit it and messed it all up) 

 

In the front yard, our little salvia 'Victoria Blue' is blooming.

 

 

 

 

 

Salvia farinacea
'Victoria Blue'

Blooms blooms blooms

'Autumn Colors' Rudbeckia hirta

Trumpet vine flowering like crazy.

James is trimming it back because it's getting BIG.

 

Crepe myrtle so lovely. Previous owners planted it.

Santolina, four-nerve daisy, mealy sage.

Hard to tell in this photo how much the salvias are blooming...

Lots of queens and monarchs arriving to nectar on the blue mistflower.

Texas betony, mealy sage and gray shrub sage.

Fall aster is already blooming!

And our rock rocks are beautiful, too.

Pretty in purple

More pruning today..as I was working on our 'Eyelash' salvia (Salvia blepharophylla), I noticed the pretty shades of purple on the dead foliage. Camera time!! 

This afternoon, I also pruned the turk's cap, blue mistflower and some lantanas. I need to look up and find out how or if chile pequins, butterfly bush and white mistflowers (fragrant, too) should be pruned. There's a lot to take care of!

Some gigantic salvias

Mountain sage
Planted as two little bedding plants in May 2009

Mexican salvia
Just planted in May 2010!

Catch up time...

Two Sundays ago, my cousin, Kristen Perkins, spent the afternoon with us. While we were out in the back yard, walking around, she noticed something on the ground....a VERY tattered, big moth, attracting an arsenal of ants. I gently picked it up, blew the ants off, then set it atop some turk's cap leaves. When I checked back later, it was gone.

Fast forward four days when I happened to spot ANOTHER moth of the same species, which I think is an imperial (Eacles imperialiso). I'm guessing that this one was a male who caught whiff of our tattered moth, who was a girl sending out super-duper pheromones. Moths do that to attract mates. A year or so ago, James once brought home an imperial moth from a ranch located 10 miles away, and we set it out in the Wildscape. We were amazed when, a few days later, another imperial moth showed up!

Isn't nature just amazing?


Below is a photo of the large piece of oak limb that recently broke off during Tropical Storm Hermine. We decide that we'd incorporate the chunk into our Wildscape. We're going to plant some plants in it sometime. All that dark stuff is lovely squirrel poop, which will be incorporated as well!

Our Mexican salvia (Salvia mexicana) is finally blooming!

And the fruit on our American beautyberry is absolutely stunning!

New additions for a special occasion

We had our fourth wedding anniversary Sunday (May 2) and drove into Austin to shop at the Natural Gardener. Needless to say, we celebrated in a BIG way with lots of new plant purchases. We also stopped by Texas Grown Plants, where we bought four more (I'll mark those below).

Take a look at our new additions. They all went into new beds that we're starting in the back yard. We want to eventually want to do away with what's left of the grass and have just flowerbeds and pathways. No more mowing. But we're talking about a huge back yard so it's going to take time.

Spiderwort
Tradescantia 'Purple'

Fall obedient plant

Physostegia virginana

Agarita
Mahonia trifoliolata 'Porcelein Blue'

Fragrant mistflower

Chromolaena odorata
(from Texas Grown Plants)

Mealy cup sage (white)

'Augusta Duelberg'
(from Texas Grown Plants)

Galeana red sage
Salvia darcyi (s. oresbia)

Salvia 'Nuevo Leon'
Salvia lycoides x greggii

Coral honeysuckle
Lonicera sempervirens(from Texas Grown Plants)

Crossvine
Bignonia capreolata 'Tangerine Beauty'
(from Texas Grown Plants)

Pigeonberry
Rivina humilis DIED

(This was one native plant on my wish list. I can't wait until it gets established!)

Lemon beebalm (horsemint) DIED
Monarda citriodora

Mexican salvia
Salvia mexicana

Died 2021

'Hot Lips' salvia
Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips'
(We have two 'Hot Lips' plants in the front yard that we planted
last summer, and they have already grown HUGE.)

Whew, this posting took a LONG time to compile and upload. But keeping a blog is a great way to document our Wildscape and note the changes, successes, failures and many wildlife adventures.

A walk through the Wildscape...

After a rainfall, life livens UP quite a bit in a Wildscape...............

Mealy sage
Salvia farinacea

Salvia greggi 'Salmon'

Evening rain lily
Cooperia drummondii

Can you find the lizard? This little guy was really camouflaged on the dead bougainvillea!

Texas spiny lizard

Deer tracks in the Meadow!! They've been struggling to survive in this drought and visit neighborhood birdbaths and ponds on a regular basis. They also eat our foliage!

Green June beetle
Mating time! They're flying everywhere!

Leadwort plumbago
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
I love these little blue blooms.

Mexican bush sage doesn't mind heat

While we wait for the rains to return, our three Mexican bush sages (Salvia leucantha) are blooming happily and profusely. I even found some tiny crab spiders lurking on the blooms.....

"Sage Advice"

We planted the long, green spikes with deep blue flowers two summers ago. The following spring, the plant sent up vigorous shoots and quickly bloomed. Originally, we’d chosen the plant for its striking beauty. Now we had another reason to feel enamored: It came back! ....

Thus begins my essay on salvias, which was published this month in Texas Co-op Power magazine. Click here to read the entire article.