Meet our madrone child!

Mike and Kerry Prochoroff

Last summer, I interviewed Mike Prochoroff of Dripping Springs for Landscapes magazine about the native Texas madrones (Arbutus xalapensis) that he raises. He calls his nursery The Madrone Way. I so enjoyed the time I spent with him and his wife, Kerry, at their remote ranch where an existing madrone colony provides the seeds that he meticulously germinates in his greenhouses. After our interview, Mike emailed me and said that he wanted to give me a madrone (germinated by Mike in 2013) for our Wildscape. Oh, my, what an honor!

Last Sunday morning, Mike and Kerry came by with the madrone child, which is about four years old. Mike looked at our yard and advised us on the best planting locations. Then he gave James detailed instructions on how to plant the tree. After they left, James got right to work.

Per Mike's directions, James first dug a hole that was 16 inches deep and 36-by-25-inches wide. Mike said the hole needed to be at least twice as deep and wide as the biodegradable fiber pot (8 inches high and 6-by-6 inches).

To check the site's drainage, James poured a gallon of water into the hole. Half an hour later, he checked to see if it'd drained. That's what you want–good drainage. Madrones hate wet feet.

Most of the water drained, but to be on the safe side, he worked up a sweat and busted up the limestone rock that was down under. Later, he went out to our land northwest of town to gather up a 5-gallon bucket of juniper (cedar) needles. In their native caliche soils, madrones often germinate and grow beneath junipers.

The next day, James prepared a base mix, which consisted of 3 gallons of caliche, a couple handfuls of juniper needles, and 2 gallons of compost. Then he poured the mix into the hole. The depth measured 4 inches.

Before setting the madrone in the hole, James slashed the sides of the pot with a box cutter.

Before the big moment, I gave my new friend a BIG hug...

Then into her new home she went! To allow for optimum drainage, we made sure the top of her pot was an inch above ground level.

James filled in around her with a mix that consisted of fresh soil (no clay), juniper needles, and several handfuls of caliche. All done! And all told, James must have spent more than five hours working on this very important project. Mike said our madrone will be a demonstration experiment to see how these biodegradable pots perform. In the meantime, we will give her a gallon of water once a week, unless it rains.

Welcome to our Texas Wildscape, little madrone!

Sphinx in slow mo

 White-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata)

 And SURPRISE! My young Texas spiny lizard friend!

Interesting moth

I'm a bit behind in posting these photos from March 6, but here they are finally. Meet what could be a half-wing moth! The Bugguide.net experts nailed the ID, not me. See what they think.

New additions

Texas prickly ash (Zanthoxylum hirsutum) from our native plant friends, Ron and Linda Chang.

This week, we FINALLY planted some gifts that we received at our anniversary garden party last April. I honestly don't know why we didn't get them in the ground last year, other than we just couldn't decide where we wanted them. Even yet, we still have one (guajillo) still in the pot because we're undecided. In the meantime, meet our new additions plus some flowering non-natives. 

Heartleaf hibiscus (Hibiscus martianus) and pipevine from friend Melody in San Antonio.

Anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides) from Master Naturalist friends Jerry and Linda.

One tomato plant ('Sweet Chelsea') and dianthus ('Dynasty Mix' and 'Amazon Neon Duo') purchased from the Arnosky Family Farms. The 'Amazon' variety lives a couple of years and blooms blooms blooms, no matter if it's hot or cold outside.

Sphinx moths and swallowtails

Right now, we're having a LOT of white-lined sphinx moths and pipevine butterflies in our Wildscape! This evening, we counted seven or eight moths nectaring on our salvias. For the past week or so, I haven't even tried to count the pipevines. But we see some every day in the gardens, and they've been depositing eggs on our pipevine plants. Oh, and last night I saw a juvenile robin taking a bath in one of our birdbaths! It's BUSY around this place!

Look what James did!

So some neighbors, Butch and Linda, a few years ago gave us two vintage Blanco street signs before they moved. James stuck in our storage shed until he figured out a use for them. Bingo! He came up with a brilliant idea of installing them in our Wildscape! Aren't they cool? Cindy at K&C Supply in town suggested that he use recycled pipes, which he did. Looks great, James! Thank you thank you thank you!

Stock tank refresh

Check off another project from our to-do list! Yesterday, we freshened up the stock tank. We didn't do a complete water change-out and tank cleaning, but we did pull out plants for trimming.

I tidied up the lemon bacopa (it really smells citrusy!), which spread over to the water lily pot.

There's a ham in every family.

Next we worked on the horsetail rush. Man, does it put out the ROOTS! But somehow, it survives all the hair cuts, year after year.

As best as I could, I siphoned out the stringy algae gunk. I only caught on gambusia, but we got it out of the net in time.

Ta da! Much better! See the one gambusia swimming over the rock (left bottom side)? In a few weeks, we'll take the dwarf water lily to nursery to have it divided. I haven't have that done since April 2014. Yikes! It's been THAT LONG?