My Wisteria's Blooming!
Thought I'd share with the group what it looks like today (cloudy out today). I didn't install this arbor or this wisteria. They were already in place & 
two large plant trunks are intertwined nicely at the house side. But how I do love wisteria, so it was a real factor in this house choice, I can tell you. I have only gotten 1-2 dozen blooms each of the last two seasons we've lived here, but I'm hopeful, with regular fertilizing, it will improve over time and be as spectacular as I know these vines can look. I germinated two dropped off seeds last year and planted the seedlings in a pot on the fence side that are tine runners about 2-3' long. Hopefully they will move up and over to meet the mother plant at the Texas Star in the middle in a couple of years. Then it should bloom much more heavily. 
Last edited: 11 March 2017 19:12:33
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Mine's way off flowering; probably another month or so. I just hope my OH didn't prune all the flowering spurs off!!
Blooming gorgeous Peggy and absolutely love your arch with its Texas star
Thank you, ladies, all. I had one many years ago when we lived on Galveston Island. Installed a steel pole to let it climb up. It was lovely when we sold that house and moved to the other side of the causeway. I just kind of let that one drip off over the pole, umbrella like.
I frankly dislike the American trend of putting fences in the back gardens. I think open yards facing one another is much more civilized. I think I must have been British in my "previous life". I was so in my element when we did a 6-week driving tour in 1980. Almost hated to come back home. LOL I much prefer an open look, both in the front yard and back as well. But since this fence is shared with my neighbor's property, not much I can do really. Americans are so hung up on privacy fencing. Grrrrr.
My front yard fully exposed.
Those two shrubs in my last photo are Texas Mountain Laurel. I love those trees. I just shaped them up into 3-trunk trees a couple days ago. They look like this now and below, their blooms only last a few weeks in Spring. They draw butterflies, bees and smell like bubble gum. Do please excuse the unsightly privet hedge that ordinarily wraps greenly around the base of the front porch. I just cut it back 1' last week and hasn't had time to bud out yet. It will though, as I did that last year, too. I don't like hedges to block my view of the street and my neighbor across the lane's lovely, treed yard.
Actually I have two huge plantings/beds out front that were designed & planted by the previous owner, Julie (they tell me she is a Master Gardener). My husband hates mowing around obstacles, so he prefers I confine my plantings to out-of-the-way spots or inside already-defined beds. I welcome any and all ideas for improving the look with more color. Here are some photos looking into the front yard. The 1st photo is of the lamp post bed on the left side of my yard, front view. Although in need of some serious weeding, it has some open space at the rear (seen in 2nd photo) that cries for color that will stand taller than the Rosemary bush out in front of the bed. I thought about a orange/gold Pride of Barbados or a Texas Purple Sage "Lynn's Legacy Cenizo". Both are lovely perennial shrubs that just keep on giving much color year after. The greyish-green sage is evergreen with violet blooms; the Barbados reminds me of mimosa tree leaves, has orange, gold and yellow blooms and is deciduous. They both will get tall enough in 1-2 years to be seen over the big Rosemary shrub in front. Those are two Crepe Myrtle trees (pink and white) in the rear of the bed. That is a VERY old rose climber (base/scion is the huge dark thing on the ground left side of bed) that virtually lies on the ground and then Julie trained it to climb the adjacent crepe myrtle tree. You can only just see a few of the blooms higher above if you look closely. I should also mention I planted a dwarf Peach and Dwarf apple tree on the front edge of this bed where they will get full sun. Won't see much action there for a few years, but the Peach blooms were bright, quite large and dark pink on this little yearling.
Now to the right side of the front yard. We laid in this new curved sidewalk to the rear garden, adding a pass through gate. We lined it with river rock, but it would also welcome a flower edging, I think.
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And lastly, the main bed on the corner of our property. Therein is a gigantic 20' mature Red Bud tree (currently in bloom), a young violet Althea (Rose O' Sharon), several bamboo Nandina (with red berries at present), Aspidistras at the base of the larger trees, Giant Liriope at the front bed edge and some ground ivy here and there. There is a monstrous wild, climbing pink rose at the left of this photo, near the back garden gate. More than once it has totally engulfed the walkway to bar passage. I'm going to "arm" my body body and get in th
Last edited: 12 March 2017 16:01:35
That last photo didn't show up. Guess my post was too long. I plan to remove the monster rose bush between the trees and the fence to about 2' tall, limiting the runners it is allowed to produce from now on. It gets out of control in just 1 season! Engulfs the sidewalk and gate, totally barring passage. It has thorns nearly 3/4" long at the base, so I'll have to wear armor to get up to it to cut it lower. Plan to install an arched arbor for it to climb over the sidewalk and hopefully one day drip over into the back garden as well. Bought a yellow Forsythia to plant between the two front Liriopes clumps and I thought perhaps some blue salvia or sage in one of the bard edge spots. Some Ornamental Kale might do nicely in bare spots, too. Any other thoughts?
Last edited: 12 March 2017 16:09:25
Peggy I love reading about and seeing pics of your gorgeous home and gardens. How I dream of a porch/ verandah ?
I wouldn't like to suggest any plants for you as have no idea what would live well in your climate. I don't know if you have heard of Rachel Ashwell, an interior designer in Texas? But she has lovely grounds around her property which may give you some inspiration ?
Thank you, BeausMum. I love the veranda, too and have enjoyed it this past year. My last house not 8 blocks away was a local limestone house, but it only had a rock, open courtyard. Nice little veranda out back though and lots of shade there to enjoy.
Weather wise, Central Texas really has mild Falls and Springs, averaging 45-50ºF at night to 70-75ºF afternoon highs. Only in Jan and Feb. do we see the mercury dip into the 30's and 40's most nights. I winter over freeze sensitive plants indoors and make sure they are in moveable pots. We get the rare temp in the 20's and teens in winter, but seriously it does happen but 1-e times a season.
Mostly what I have to worry about in Central Texas is plants must be able to tolerate drought and heat. We go for long stretches in Summer without rain, so lots of costly watering is needed. But honestly, I can go out and water in the morning and the searing summer heat can dry out a potted plant before 2pm. some demand watering twice a day in the heat, and some leaves will still "cook off" with frequent watering. We had one summer with triple digit heat for 90+ straight days. It was so bad people lost well-established shrubs and even trees that year, the flowers were the least of their worries. I lost 3 of 7 boxwood that year, but they were only 2' young ones. So more importantly the plants must be able to stand daily 90F-100F searing summer heat from June to the end of September or mid-October. To my way of thinking, the heat/drought issues are more problematic than freezes. So heat-tolerance is my major criteria in plant selection. No fragile nambie-pambies for my garden.
My this week's project is to get out and cut away all the browning, dying leaves on the aspidistras surrounding my treed in that last photo. With my bad back, and on my hands and knees, that will take me a few days for sure. But I'm slowly making some progress on putting "my signature" on someone else's garden designing and handiwork. I planted a couple of clumps os East Friesland Sage out front ins some bare spots yesterday. Planted some germinated "Heavenly Blue" Morning Glory under a trellis out back yesterday. And my Wisteria out back has put out a bunch more blooms this week.
Last edited: 18 March 2017 15:47:04
The older I get, the worse my typing. Sorry about my typos.
We're predicted to be in the high 70's and low 80's for 6 days straight, so lots of good garden time for me. Good thing, as my Banana Magnolia and Peruvian Lily just arrived and I will need to get them planted tomorrow. Have some other nursery arrivals to plant as well. I moved a Giant Liriope clump today. It had grown so large it was blocking the automatic watering nozzle's ability to water the Big Garden out back. In its new home, it won't be a problem anymore and the water will disperse better. I'm plum worn out now. LOL It was a huge clump and had some deep roots intertangled with the roots of the adjacent Yaupon Holly tree. Been meaning to move it for 2 years and it's finally done!
The hubs has been in hospital the last 4 days for a "rapid heartbeat", but they got it under control with an electroshock procedure called a Cardioversion (his 3rd in 2 years now for A-Fibrillation, or an unexplained irregular heartbeat) since all medication attempts to pulll it down weren't touching the 1356 BPM. He's now back down to 70-80 BPM and feels normal again. Poor thing had and awful upper respiratory infection on top of that and felt just awful. They're letting him come home this afternoon with a bazillion discharge orders/requests for follow-up appts with his two cardio docs and his regular primary care doctor.