Art in bloom

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Hanging Baskets

The muscadine will be trained to a single standard and then it can branch out on top. 

This hangling basket has calibrachoa callie rose. trailing verbena red, and euphorbia diamond frost

The basket below has bougainville, bacopa and lobelia

no vegetables in my garden!!

The bed below was started 3 years ago with the 2 clematis vines

and this is where my herbs call home. I have Italian parsley, lemon thyme, rosemary, greek oregano, lemon grass, chives, mint and will be adding basil and lemon balm soon. 

The bed is also home to some lillies, a yellow chrysanthemum, artemesia silver mound for year round foliage and bright orange geraniums. You also get a peek at the pink garden to which a clematis niobe was added yesterday.

The hanging baskets are 20" wide and weigh over 50lbs when soaked in water. I have added a drip irrigation system to help keep the plants alive over the summer. The plants chosen are heat and drought tollerant. let's hope they survive Texas heat.

I purchased a muscadine yesterday to train up one of the pillars to provide shade. Vine # 5. Hope it works!

The beds in the rest of the garden were dug last November. I have been slowly filling in the spots as I find the plants I like. In a few years this should turn into my garden oasis.

Back yard patio pots

Euphorbia "Diamond Frost"

Flameproof Winner Dallas Arboretum

Supposed to be a great filler plant 

Mandeville Parasol Crimson 

The updated Georgia mailbox plant. Grown as an annual in Dallas. Vines will grow to 6 feet and flower all summer

Looking for a tuteur to support the vine. I think the red and white should look real pretty, especially if I find a black metal teteur.

Last year, the back yard pots had passiflora Incense and Incarta; sweet potato vine, vinca and gompherena. The passies got eaten by caterpillars. I would catch the rabbits up on their hind legs eating the sweet potato vine and the rest of the plants didnt scream "WOW" as I just couldn’t water them 3 times a day in Jul, Aug and Sept.

So this year I have put in ...rephrase...dear hubby has put in a drip irrigation system. After researching many companies, I decided to go with Mr Dig at Home Depot. The kits is $12 and we needed extra tubing which cost $4. Will need a timer later but wally world has a cheap one. I don't need a Lexus of timers...just need a cheap one that works.

Now for the pots at the base of the pillars. I pulled out the petunia and was surprised to see BOTH passies growing back. I moved the Incarta to a trellis next to the fig tree (it has never flowered..maybe this year is it's lucky year) The Incense has been potted. Going to baby it a bit and see if I can get it to florish elsewhere in the garden as I really do love the flower and fragrance of it. So the pots now hold mandeville crimson parasol. I have a temp tepee for support. Going to look for a tuteur for it. At the base of the pot, I've planted another Euphorbia. Well with all the fuss this plant is getting I thought I would give it a couple of places to live. 

Clematis are blooming

Been busy admiring all the huge clematis blooms I have. I spent last weekend restringing the supports for the clematis as my Dr Ruppel was growing like ground cover and not vertical. It's still recovering from the neglect with a lot of the leaves and blossoms turned inwards. 

The Jackmanii (purple) above was planted in 2006 together with the Dr Ruppel. This is the best it's ever bloomed. May even reach the trellis this year. Both of these clems bloom on old and new wood. Type 2 pruning group. I am going to chop them both down after the spring bloom.

Last week, I bought a gorgeous deep burgundy clem at Lowes. No surprise it was mislabled. I think its a Niobe. 

Two clems I want to buy are both Type III's Sweet autmn and clematis avalanche which is a new one and Calloways has it for 60 buks