Zanthan Gardens
Weblog of a Central Austin Garden

I mentioned that I love white Love-in-a-mist, Nigella damascena, for the way the flowers look like fallen stars caught in a mist in the meadow.

Last year Lancashire Rose gave me seeds for a double form she has. They began opening this week and they are just as enchanting but in an entirely different way. Some are solid and some are bicolor.

Nigella has the same growing habits and requirements as cilantro and larkspur. It is usually the last of the three to flower. For more information, see Zanthan Gardens: Nigella damascena.

“The flowers that bloom so sweetly wither and fall. Our human life, too, is fleeting. Today, again, I will cross the mountain pass of this uncertain world, and will not entertain shallow dreams or give away to drunkenness.” Iro no Ha. Translated by Francis G. Drohan. A Handbook of Japanese Usage. p. 90.

Dateline: 2010
The scent of honeysuckle and jasmine pervades the garden. The week began hot and sticky with a 90°F temperature recorded at the Bouldin station (4/23) and worse, overnight temperatures barely dipping below 70°F. Then a couple of fronts blew in bringing cooler temperatures but no rain. It was a beautiful week for spring cleanup.

I spent all week cutting back bluebonnets and cilantro. I let too much cilantro bolt and it dominated the meadow. As I cut it back, I reveal drifts of yellow (Engelmann daisy), pink (pink evening primrose), and blue and white (Love-in-a-Mist). The last I love best in white because at dusk it looks like little stars are floating in the meadow.

The oleander damaged in January’s freeze is producing new shoots from the ground. Some new shoots are also sprouting from old stems but I probably should cut them all the way to the ground so that it looks compact and bushy. The opuntia is putting out new pads but I don’t care if it never comes back. Both are a long way from flowering unlike this time last year.

The tomatoes are all setting fruit. The biggest and most prolific so far are ‘Jaune Flamme’. Both plants are waist high.

First flower: rose ‘Red Cascade’ (4/23), Trachelospermum jasminoides (4/25), Papaver somniferum ‘Lauren’s Grape’ (4/29), rose ‘Mermaid’ (4/29), amaryllis ‘Black Pearl’ (4/29).
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I was so happy when three ‘Lauren’s Grape’ poppies opened today. They are just the deep plummy color I hoped for. You can see the color better in the distant shot, especially compared to the blue/violet of the larkspur. ‘Lauren’s Grape’ is not the slightest bit magenta, or pink. It is not even the purple of the Louisiana iris ‘Full Eclipse’.

I cannot get the color to register correctly in the close-up.

2010-04-29. The color is very deep plum which doesn’t show true in the closeup photo.

The only downside is that today the wind was very gusty and it blew all the petals off the three flowers in about six hours. The nearby ‘Dorothy Cavenaugh’ poppies which had been open longer were not affected. It would be a pity after all the months growing ‘Lauren’s Grape’ to have them last less than a day. I hope some more will open tomorrow and last a bit longer. I want to plant a lot more of them next year…but they have to last more than a day in the garden.

2010-05-02. ‘Lauren’s Grape’ poppies on a cloudy morning at about 8:30.

Garden History

2010-11-26. Sow in the same place.
2011-11-24. Sow in the same place.

Dutchman’s Pipe Vine

Finding little treasures in the garden brings the same childlike delight as finding candy on an Easter egg hunt. There I am down on my hands and knees when under a leaf I discover my treasure.

The Dutchman’s pipe vine is a passalong. The original plant died but it sowed itself through the holes of a brick where I can’t move it. Swallowtail caterpillars munch it back when it’s about to bloom. And somehow, this Zone 9 tropical survived our 3 day hard freeze to come back bigger and better than ever.

2009-09-10. Dutchman’s pipe vine.

Seeds and seedpods of Dutchman’s pipe vine.

Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.

April 15, 2010

Carol dreams of May but April is when it’s happening at Zanthan Gardens. More plants come into bloom and more plants are in bloom than any other month of the year. And this year more than any other my garden is just a mess of color with no apparent design at all. The feral cats apparently find it quite frustrating. They make their own paths through the flowers and sit right in the middle of particularly large bluebonnet plants.

Two thugs, cilantro and Engelmann daisy, fight it out for control in the meadow. Most of the larkspur is in the front yard this year.

April is the month that Zanthan Gardens makes the transition from blue and white to a full spectrum of color. This year because of all the rain, it was even more blue and white than usual. The cilantro has taken over everywhere and the bluebonnets are large and numerous. In most years the bluebonnets have already begun to fade by now. With this year’s cooler, wetter weather, they’re holding on to their flowers longer.

2010 is a banner year for bluebonnets. They are just beginning to go to seed as the pink evening primrose comes into view. False dayflowers peak through the fence with their funny little faces.

New for April

• Allium neapolitanum
• amaryllis ‘Amoretta’
• amaryllis ‘Dancing Queen’
• Antirrhinum majus
• Diospyros kaki ‘Eureka’ (Japanese persimmon)
• Diospyros texana (Texas persimmon)
• Engelmannia peristenia/pinnatifida
• Eschscholzia californica ‘Mikado’
• Hippeastrum x johnsonii
• Iris flavescens (?) yellow heirloom
• iris ‘Incantation’
• Meyer lemon
• Nierembergia gracilis ‘Starry Eyes’
• Nigella damascena
• Oenothera speciosa
• Papaver somniferum “Dorothy Cavanaugh”
• Phlomis lanata
• Pisum sativum ‘Progress #9’
• Pyrrhopappus multicaulis
• rose ‘Blush Noisette’
• rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’
• rose ‘Prosperity’
• rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’
• Solanum jasminoides
• Spiraea bridal wreath
• Thymophylla tenuiloba (Dahlberg daisy)
• tomatoes (all)
• Verbena canadensis
• Vicia sativa (common vetch)
• viola (self-sown)
• yaupon holly

The love-in-the-mist will fill in when the cilantro fades.

Pink evening primrose is considered a thug in other people’s gardens but it is very prim compared to my real thugs.

Bearded iris ‘Incantation’ among the flowering cilantro.

Yellow heirloom irises and white ‘Ducher’ rose in a field of cilantro and poppies.

I had high hopes that these would be Lauren’s Grape but they are the pale salmon “Dorothy Cavanaugh”. Salmon is the gardener’s name for “orange”. They don’t look very orange in this picture but they do in real life especially compared to the cherry red peony poppies behind them.

The artichoke is about to flower. The bluebonnets are giving way to the larkspur. I replaced the entire front yard with larkspur which I can see from my desk.

Some people call these bicolor larkspur “bunny ears”. See the little white bunny face?

2010 has been a great spring for roses in Austin, too. Last Sunday @good_n_evil had us Austin garden bloggers over to look at her roses. Her garden is certainly inspiration to me to work a little harder. In fact you might as well just head on over there virtually and gawk. There’s nothing left to this post but lists.

Rose ‘Prosperity’ is the only rose still struggling to recover from the drought.

Between GBBDs

Several flower bloomed and faded in my garden between GBBDs and so didn’t show up in the inventory for either March or April.

• Hyacinthoides hispanica
• Narcissus triandrus ‘Hawera’
• Prunus caroliniana
• rose ‘New Dawn’ (A couple of flowers early in the month but none today. Gearing up for a big show in about two weeks.)
• Tulipa clusiana
• Ungnadia speciosa

Complete List for April

The list of all plants flowering today, April 15th 2010, at Zanthan Gardens. In 2010, 45 different plants are flowering which is about the same as 2007 (41) and 2008 (43). However, it’s much lower than 2009 (70). Many plants flowered straight through the 2008/9 winter because it did not freeze here.

• Allium neapolitanum (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• amaryllis ‘Amoretta’ (2010)
• amaryllis ‘Dancing Queen’ (2010)
• Antirrhinum majus (2010)
• Commelinantia anomala (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Consolida ambigua (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Coriandrum sativum (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Diospyros kaki ‘Eureka’ (Japanese persimmon) (2007, 2009, 2010)
• Diospyros texana (2010)
• Engelmannia peristenia/pinnatifida (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Eschscholzia californica ‘Mikado’ (2008, 2009, 2010)
• Hippeastrum x johnsonii (St. Joseph’s lily) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Iris flavescens (?) yellow heirloom (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• iris ‘Incantation’ (2010)
• Kalanchoe daigremontiana (Mother of Thousands) In pot this year. (2009, 2010)
• Lobularia maritima (2008, 2009, 2010)
• Lupinus texensis (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Meyer lemon (2010)
• Nemophila insignis (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Nierembergia gracilis ‘Starry Eyes’ (2009, 2010)
• Nigella damascena (2008, 2009, 2010)
• Oenothera speciosa (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Oxalis crassipis (hot pink) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Oxalis stricta (yellow flowering weed) (2010)
• Oxalis triangularis (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Papaver somniferum “Dorothy Cavanaugh” (2010)
• Phlomis lanata (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Pisum sativum ‘Progress #9’ (2010)
• Pisum sativum ‘Wando’ (2010)
• Pyrrhopappus multicaulis (2010)
• Rhaphiolepis indica (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• rose ‘Blush Noisette‘ (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• rose ‘Ducher’ (waning) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere‘ (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• rose ‘Prosperity’ (full bloom) (2008, 2009, 2010)
• rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Solanum jasminoides (potato vine) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Spiraea bridal wreath (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Thymophylla tenuiloba ‘Golden Fleece’ (Dahlberg daisy) (2009, 2010)
• tomatoes (all) (2007, 2009, 2010)
• Tradescantia (spiderwort) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Verbena canadensis (lavender wilding) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Vicia sativa (common vetch) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Viola cornuta (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• yaupon holly (2007, 2009, 2010)

And just for the record, these are the 45 plants which were blooming on April 15th in previous years that aren’t flowering today. Or should this be on a separate non-bloom day post? Some of them are dead and gone. Some of them froze to the ground this year but are slowly making a comeback.

• Aloe barbadensis (2008, 2009)
• Asclepias curassavica (overwintered) (2009)
• Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri’ (2008, 2009)
• Brugmansia (from Annie in Austin) (2009)
• Centaurea cyanus ‘Black Magic’ (2007, 2008, 2009)
• Crinum bulbispermum (2007, 2008, 2009)
• Datura (from Diana which overwintered) (2009)
• Duranta erecta (overwintered) (2007, 2008, 2009)
• Eupatorium wrightii (from Pam) (2009)
• Hesperaloe parviflora (2008, 2009)
• iris bearded ‘Strictly Ballroom (2009)
• Iris x fulvala ‘Full Eclipse’ (2009)
• jalapeno (2009)
• Lantana montevidensis (2007, 2008, 2009)
• Lantana x hybrida ‘New Gold’ (2008, 2009)
• Lathyrus odoratus ‘Knee-Hi Mix’ (2009)
• Lathyrus odoratus ‘Perfume Delight’ (2008)
• Lathyrus odoratus ‘Regal Robe’ (2007)
• Lavandula heterophyla ‘Goodwin Creek Grey‘ (2007, 2008, 2009)
• Lavandula stoechas (2009)
• Lonicera japonica (2009)
• Malvaviscus arboreus (2009)
• Mirabilis jalapa (2008, 2009)
• Narcissus jonquilla ‘Quail’ 2007
• Nerium oleander ‘Turner’s Shari D.’ (2008, 2009)
• Orchid (from Dawn) (2009)
• Oxalis pes-caprae ‘Scotty’s Surprise’ (fading) (2008, 2009)
• Polanisia dodecandra (2007, 2008, 2009)
• Retama (2008, 2009)
• rose white Lady Banksia (my neighbor’s but droops over the fence) (2009)
• rose ‘French Lace’ (2007, 2009)
• rose ‘Heritage‘ 2007
• rose ‘Mermaid’ (2009)
• rose ‘New Dawn’ (2007, 2008, 2009)
• rose ‘Penelope‘ 2007
• rose ‘Red Cascade’ (two small flowers) 2008
• ruellia (overwintered) (2009)
• Salvia farinacea ‘Indigo spires’ 2007
• Salvia greggii ‘Raspberry’ 2007
• Sedum album (2008, 2009)
• Setcreasea pallida (2008, 2009)
• tomatillo (2009)
• Trachelospermum jasminoides (2007, 2008, 2009)
• Tradescantia pallida (purple heart) 2007
• Zexmenia hispida (from Pam) (2009)

Dateline: 2006

You’ll think me a poor gardener when I admit that I didn’t even recognize a dandelion.

The other morning this bright spot of yellow caught my eye and I acquainted myself with this graceful, yellow flower. Consulting Marshall Enquist’s Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country, I find that it is Texas dandelion, Pyrrhopappus multicaulis, also known as manystem false dandelion.

As Karel Capek says in The Gardener’s Year, “A flower without a name is a weed, a flower with a Latin name is somehow raised to a state of dignity. If a nettle grows on your bed, label it “Urtica dioica” and you will respect it.”

The leaves do look like a dandelion’s, but it has a multiple stems almost 18 inches tall.

One source said that it is distinguished from the common by the having leaves along the stems. The dark anthers also sets it apart.

Two different sources say that it is a cool-weather annual. I’m glad it chose this week of record highs to bloom. I don’t care if it is a dandelion, or merely a false one, I think it’s lovely.

2010-04-22. Texas dandelion going to seed

Dateline: 2010
I can’t see the garden for the flowers anymore. I can’t get into the beds to weed them; I can barely find the paths. I guess it really is a meadow now, rather than a garden. Compare this photo with last year when we were in our second year of drought. Last year the cilantro was knee-high. This year it’s up to my shoulders, towering over and obscuring the bluebonnets and yellow irises. The yellow irises are all tall and twisty–just like in 2007, they really took off this week just as the Iris albicans faded. This year the bluebonnets are large and numerous–one of the best years ever for bluebonnets. Spring has been cooler and later this year. The larkspur and the Engelmann daisy (well-established last year by this time) are just beginning to open. The Naples onions are finally opening up but their white is indistinguishable from the white cilantro.

The roses, especially ‘Ducher’, ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’, and ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ are covered in flowers. In the shady parts of the yard, the spiderwort, false dayflowers, and baby blue eyes have hit their peak and just starting to get a bit leggy and collapse.

The damage by January’s hard freeze is clear in the brown fronds of the sago palm, the collapse of the spineless prickly pear, and the rotting leaves of the Agave americana variegata.

Early spring is over. The Texas mountain laurel no longer smells like grape soda. The spring bulbs, Tulipa clusiana, Spanish bluebells, summer snowflakes, daffodils, and grape hyacinths have faded. We’ve started having 80° days again and worse, above 60° nights. Sunday (4/4) I was too hot to sleep for the first time this year and Monday (4/5) we hit the week high of 87°. Wednesday (4/7) a front came in and it was dark with a promise (unrealized) of rain all day. The lack of rain was disappointing but least temperatures dropped back into my favorite 40-70 range again.

From the vegetable garden we’ve been eating English peas almost every night. After a few days in the 80s, they are no longer producing flowers. The lettuce and arugula are also getting a bit past their prime. Now that the trees are leafed out the winter vegetable garden is once again in full shade so it’s finished for the year. The pecans, the last trees to leaf out, finally are. Still sunny beneath them for a week yet. The tomatoes are enjoying their new home next to the driveway. On Sunday (4/4), AJM constructed a frame for us to put netting over it in hopes of foiling the squirrels this year.

First flower: Allium neapolitanum (4/2); tomato ‘Jaune Flamme’ (4/2); California poppy ‘Mikado’ (4/3); poppy not ‘Lauren’s Grape’ (4/3); amaryllis ‘Amoretta’ (4/4); rose ‘New Dawn’ (4/4); weeping yaupon holly (4/4); Meyer lemon (4/5); tomato ‘Azoychka’ (4/6); Oenothera speciosa (4/8); rose ‘Prosperity’ (4/8)–still not looking very healthy.

Dateline: 2009

2009-04-10. A view of the meadow from our roof. A lot less larkspur in the meadow this year and almost no bluebonnets.
One week out of 52 my garden looks just about as perfect as a dream and this is that week. I spend all my time wandering up and down the paths just looking at it. And smelling it. It’s a heady, dangerous feeling because it fools me into thinking that gardening in central Texas is like gardening in Eden. I forget about summer. I forget about 50 days of 100 degree weather. I forget about Austin’s 19-month drought. Instead I get sucked into bigger, more elaborate plans for future gardens and seduced by visits to local nurseries, other people’s gardens, and garden talks.
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• Muscari racemosum. Blue bottles. (aka, grape hyacinths. The “grape” refers to the way the flowers are clustered like a bunch of grapes, not the color.)
• Nemophila insignis. Baby blue eyes.
• Hyacinthoides hispanica. Spanish bluebells
• Lupinus texensis. Texas bluebonnet.
• Commelinantia anomala. False dayflowers. (solid blue and a bicolor)

Recently I tweeted about Suntory having GMO’d a “blue” rose. In response, @CarolineSays linked to a blog post by Chris Clarke Daze of Whine and Roses, which scoffed at the very idea that Suntory’s rose was blue. Lilac or mauve, maybe, but not blue.

In flower terms, “blue” is a pretty expansive color term–just like black, which typically is a really, really, deep red. So I decided to inventory my own blue flowers. Of course, the camera lies. Depending upon the settings in your camera, the setting on your monitor, or any number of other variables (photos shot in full sunlight, bright shade, full shade), colors are going to differ.

Massed, bluebonnets are a deep indigo or jewel-toned blue. (At least mine are. Some are a more pale sky blue.) Spanish bluebells look anemic beside them. Baby blue eyes are a hazy day sky blue. But in the photo they look almost lavender…or like my favorite crayon as a child “periwinkle blue”. In life, false dayflowers are an electric, aniline blue. In my photo, they have a reddish tint compared with the bluebonnets.

I wanted to see if some of the “lavender” blues looked more like blue when compared to flowers that I think of as purple in the garden: Texas mountain laurel, tradescantia, and verbena. And they do. The color of the Suntory rose seems similar to the periwinkle blue of the rosemary and baby blue eyes.

Purple and blue flowers blooming at Zanthan Gardens on March 29, 2010

So I’m not going to get on Suntory because their new flower isn’t really “blue”. Rather, I’m still disappointed that they think developing a blue rose is worth messing around with genetically modified organisms.

Almost every tree began leafing out this week. For many gardeners, daffodils and crocuses speak the language of early Spring. Redbuds and bluebonnets shout out this is Spring in central Texas. For those of us who suffer through Austin’s hot, dry, dusty summers that blinding green of unfurling leaves leaves us a little breathless. Spring green. Nope it’s not all cacti and cattle drives down here.

I’m never ready for the trees to leaf out in my yard. I can’t imagine life without them in July but in mid-March most of my annual are just sending up their flower stalks and the roses are budding. I want another month of sunlight. I want full sun all day at least until the nights stop dipping into the 30s.

2010-03-17. I never manage to clean up all the leaf litter from the red oaks before they start leafing out again. In the lower right hand corner you can see the severe freeze damage to my sago palm.

The red oaks and the cedar elms compete for first. The smaller trees–fig, Japanese persimmon, pomegranate, loquat, and vitex–all are sprouting new growth. Laggards include the ginkgo, the crape myrtles, and the pecan. The Texas persimmon, which lost its leaves for the first time in 14 years, is leafing out. Only the live oaks are marching to a different tune. They are “evergreen” but turn a disturbing brown in Spring as their new leaves push out the old, like a child losing milk teeth.

The trees aren’t the only ones wearing the green. Root-hardy perennials are finally proving that they survived January 2010’s hard freeze. Fresh little shoots appear at the base of the duranta, Mexican mint marigold, zexmenia, crocosmia, and gladiolus. Only the bulbine remains silent.

Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.

March 2010

The redbuds are Austin’s harbinger of spring but in 2010 it seemed they would never bloom. More than three weeks later than normal, on March 6th, I started seeing redbuds around town. After that, Spring cut loose. It was as if the other flowers had to wait for the diva to take center stage before making an entrance. Tazetta daffodils that are usually in flower in January bloomed alongside jonquils and large-flowering daffodils. The larkspur, which typically blooms a month after the bluebonnets, began blooming almost a week before.

Despite the devastations of record drought and freezes, the garden springs back.

Between GBBDs

Two stems of ‘Ice Follies’ daffodils came back after a couple of years of not blooming. I thought I’d lost them for good. I had divided them over the year and at one time had 8 groups.

Complete List for March 15, 2010

The list of all plants flowering today, March 15th 2010, at Zanthan Gardens. This is the fourth March I’ve participated in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Compare: March 2007, March 2008 (most floriferous), March 2009 (18 months into the drought).

• Commelinantia anomala
• Consolida ambigua
• Coriandrum sativum
• henbit
• Iris (unnamed blue)
• Iris albicans
• Kalanchoe daigremontiana (Mother of Thousands) in pot
• Leucojum aestivum
• Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’
• Lobularia maritima (white)
• Lupinus texensis (including a pink opening today)
• Muscari neglectum/racemosum
• Narcissus jonquilla ‘Trevithian’
• Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Monarque’
• Narcissus tazetta ‘Grandiflora’
• Nemophila insignis
• Nothoscordum bivalve
• Pisum sativum ‘Progress #9’
• Pisum sativum ‘Wando’
• Prunus mexicana (big tree finished, 2 small trees at height)
• Rhaphiolepis indica
• Rose ‘Ducher’
• rosemary
• Sophora secundiflora
• Tradescantia