Antique Rose Emporium, Last Part

Posted on December 7, 2016 by wedd4780

One last look from our visit to this fabulous nursery.

The old weathered sign expresses the feel of this place.

A pot of Begonias next to an Agave.

They do a good job of just mixing in all sorts of plants.

Don’t know what this plant is. It looks tropical and is shaded by the tree. Lovely.

Roses everywhere. In the springtime, this is the place to come and smell the roses.

This section is playful.

The rabbit in the wheel barrel with plants spilling out of pots is delightful.

The plants with the purple flowers behind the scene look like Philippine Violets (Barleria cristata).

Wood Ferns, Philippine Violets, Cigar Plant: this breaks the rule that plants with the same watering needs should be planted together. Now I don’t feel so guilty for doing the same thing.

Mike Shoup, the owner of the nursery, presented some new roses that they now sell. Although the backbone of their business will always be antique roses, he says that producers are coming out with bushes that have some of the same characteristics of antique roses: such as fragrance, diverse forms, and hardiness.

I’m sure his presentation increased the sales that day. I know I couldn’t resist one of the new roses.

A Salvia Greggii with white flowers.

The purple grasses look like Napier (Pennisetum purpureum), which are perennials that will return in the spring in most of the state.

I don’t know what the purple flowers are, but this picture was taken to show the trellis behind them. Several different types of of trellises are scattered around the gardens. I think this one is made of bamboo.

This small dead tree is used to hold up a climbing vine.

Any ole stone statute can be used as an accent.

Even the public restrooms are in a unique building. The hedges on the left serve as a privacy fence for the usual line of women awaiting their turn.

Great use of large clay pots.

Succulents for sale are displayed on an old cart.

Antique Rose Emporium had its origin in selling rescued roses from cemeteries and old home sites. Now it is a wonderful garden with a very diverse display of plants and a joy to visit.

“Despite our many differences here in America and around the world, when we meet in the garden we find ourselves united in our love of nature, beauty, and the sheer awesomeness of life.” Old House Gardens

Cooler Temps

Posted on November 1, 2015 by wedd4780

Twenty degrees makes a world of difference. From 95 degrees to 75 degrees recently has perked up everything. It’s nice to have the weather match the calendar.

Also, we were blessed with six inches of rain.

Turk’s Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) is a winner. It was named a Texas Superstar by Texas A & M in 2011. And that it is.

Pictures of the garden really points out flaws. In this photo I noticed the Hackberry tree growing in the Salvia Greggi. I have since cut it down. Behind the salvia is hardy Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) and several different rose bushes.

In front is Double Delight rose, then Tropicana rose with tall Knock-Outs in the background.

Purple Aster didn’t perform very well this year because it needs to be divided. I’ve read that should be done in early spring.

The dead pods on the Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) are beginning to bug me. I was leaving them as food for birds this winter. But I decided to cut the heads off and leave them in the flowerbed. Then the stems can be eliminated. That way the birds can forage on the ground, and the dead plants are not an eyesore.

The Strawberry Gomphera (Gomphrena globosa) bloomed in the spring, hot summer, and now into autumn. Even though they are small, their bright color gives a great bang for the buck. They also reseed generously.

Mexican Petunias (Ruellia simplex) are still going strong.

They don’t bloom with a great mass, but the delicate tubular flowers on the ends of tall stalks are pretty.

Cannas have revived with some red flowers.

Blue Mist Flower (Conoclinium coelestinum) fuzzy puffs continue to draw butterflies.

A few flowers remain on Pink Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri), but leaves have dropped off.

Duranta (Duranta erecta) is a hot weather plant but has seemed to like the cooler weather. Love it.

What is prettier than these clusters of tiny purple flowers?

Several potted plants still look good:

Russian Sage, Turk’s Cap, and Kolanche in pots provide some color.

Finally, the Bougainvilla has a few blooms. Don’t know what the problem is, but thes are the first flowers this year. Probably didn’t fertilize it.

African Bulbine’s (Bulbine frutescens ‘Orange’) flowers wave in the wind. All of these potted plants will have to go into the shed for the winter.

Hibiscus is looking good. The wet weather is agreeing with it.

Love the color of the flowers.

This tropical Hibiscus has been in this pot for eight years. The beautiful flowers make it worth hauling into the shed each winter.

Ice Plant will die back during the winter. I used to always have a start inside, but it has come back from the last two winters, so that doesn’t seem necessary.

Purple Oxalis (Oxalis triangularis) or False Shamrock has been in this pot for years.

Last week I was working at the Brady Master Gardener’s Butterfly Garden. I thought that Monarchs had already passed through this area, but I was obviously wrong.

I love Maxamillan Sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) with lots of flowers on each stalk. They grow in the bar ditches around here.

The cooler weather is great, but it also means winter will be here soon and flowers will be gone. But winter is what makes spring so special.

“Holding a grudge is letting someone live rent free in your head.” unknown

Tour of Austin Gardens

Posted on October 22, 2015 by wedd4780

Last weekend we traveled to Austin for the Texas Book Festival and for the Inside Austin Gardens tour. This post will focus on the gardens or more specifically, plants in those gardens.

Originally, I had planned to get sweeping views of the gardens. Most of the yards were fairly small, but the crowd of people in them made it almost impossible to get the kind of pictures I wanted. So I focused on plants that I like or would like to know more about.

The tour was billed as “gardens by gardeners”. To me, this means that the design and work was done by the garden owner. But of the six gardens, half were professionally landscaped. All of the pictures in this post are from one garden. This gardener designed her own garden but also designs for other people.

Philippine Violet (Barleria cristata) is obviously a tropical bush. Austin is a warmer cold tolerance zone than we are. So this would have to be a pot plant here. That’s true of so many of the plants that I coveted.

Beautiful plant.

~~American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)~~ Mexican Beautyberry (Callicarpa acuminata) is a understory shrub that doesn’t tolerate freezes. But I sure do like it.

The Inside Austin Gardeners put labels in all the yards but not beside all the plants. These labels were very helpful.

Yellow Yucca (Hesperaloe Parviflora Yellow) is a slow growing succulent that like the Red Yucca should not be overwatered. It seems to have fuller blooms when the plant is smaller than even a mature Red Yucca.

Mexican Honeysuckle or Coral Honeysuckle (Justicia Spicigera) should be able to survive here.

Cute garden art. Foxtail Fern (Asparagus densiflorus) is behind the snake. That’s a container plant here.

Don’t know the names of these plants except for ~~Gopher Plant~~ ~~(Euphorbia biglandulosa)~~. It’s the small succulent in the pot to the side of the main plant. That’s actually Ghost Plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense).

The larger plant is Paleleaf Yucca (Yucca pallida).

These pots, that are made from galvanized metal culvert pipes, are sold in at least one Austin nursery.

This home owner loves what I call prickly plants. She has some really large ones that I didn’t get a picture of.

This ground cover was used in a large area instead of grass. In fact, there was no grass in this whole yard.

I think this is a salvia. This is Amistad Salvia.

Also, don’t know the name of this ornamental grass. It’s ‘Vertigo’ pennisetum.

A special thanks to the home owner Pam Penick who read this post and was kind enough to provide the correct information for some of the plants I misidentified or didn’t know the name of.

Silver Ironweed (Vernonia lindheimeri v. leucophylla) is a Texas native, but I don’t know if it will grow in our 7b zone.

There are lots of different muhly grasses in Texas. Most have showy plumes. This should have pale purplish-gray ones in autumn, but maybe it’s been too hot.

Pam, the home owner, has a popular blog. A beautiful garden all around the house – probably my favorite one on the tour.

“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” – Brian Gerald O’Driscoll