Garden Inspiration!

Do you need some inspirational garden ideas?  Well, feast your eyes on these photos taken at the Idea Garden located at the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden.  Lots of garden inspiration here!  Click on any photo to enlarge.

black coleus with red zinnias

Loved the crazy strands of this red Porterweed,
Stachytarpheta mutabilis  

Planting something red next to Variegated Tapioca,

Manihot esculenta 'Variegata',
really shows off its beautiful red stems. 

Another red stemmed beauty is this 

curcuma 'Red Emperor'

Another beautiful curcuma ginger in the middle of this planting.
From bottom left going clockwise around the ginger:
pink Texas skullcap, coleus, purple fountain grass, caladium

Reds planted here include pentas, firecracker bush, and red salvia

Purple salvias look great next to this tall black ornamental grass

Yellows include dahlia and lantana

How about planting purple and yellow together?  Gorgeous!

Black and yellow look nice together, too.

 This black elephant ears plant was another dark accent.

In this garden, colorful foliage is used as much as colorful blooms.

Here's a long view of the garden.

Very inspirational!

I hope you found something inspiring to use in your garden.  I know I did!

I'm joining May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Digging for Foliage Follow Up.

Cloud on the Ground

When my Iceberg rose blooms, it reminds me of a cloud.  A cloud on the ground.

Iceberg rose

Since this rose is so light and airy, it would probably benefit from a solid background.  Unfortunately, I don't have enough room for that.  But on my to-do list is to plant something in front of it to hide its bare legs.

Some Texans won't have Iceberg in their garden.  It has a tendency to get blackspot.  I love it anyway.

Mine seems to drop her leaves every spring, but she grows them back quickly, and she's as good as new.  I can live with that.  She doesn't bloom with bare stems, and she doesn't keep ugly leaves for all to see.  I have come to accept her spring leaf-dropping quirk, and she accepts my laissez faire gardening.

Iceberg rose grows in zones 5 (maybe 4) through 9 (maybe 10) and is resistant to mildew and rust.  She grows to about 3 ft x 3 ft in my garden.  This was one of the first roses I ever purchased, and I moved it three times before deciding to just leave it alone and let it be.  I felt like she had been tortured enough!

In return, she has turned into a beautiful white, shimmering cloud on the ground.

Thank You!

To the Fed Ex delivery man who came back to give me some Lycoris radiata bulbs, I want to say

Thank you!

The red spider lilies are blooming beautifully.  They are a delight to see, and I am thrilled to have them in my garden.

I know I promised that I would give you a rose cutting (non-patented, of course) in return, and I apologize for not doing that already.  I have not forgotten.

I am trying to root some cuttings now, and if they take, I promise to order something that requires delivery by Federal Express.  Then, I can make a delivery to you!

Lying Down on the Job

I returned from my no-internet-available trip, and I was anxious to see how the garden was faring.  This is the peak time for roses to bloom in Texas, and I was not disappointed when I drove up the driveway.

James Galway

But, that's not the point of this post.  This post is about things other than roses.  The things that were lying down when I returned.  :(

My little man.  Or, you may know him as the statue by the fish pond.  He blew down!  This is one heavy dude, and I was shocked that we had a wind come through that could blow him over.  It looks like the asian jasmine cushioned his fall.  I have not checked, but I'm hoping that he is not cracked on his underside.  For now, he'll just have to wait.

The wind also blew down my spiral obelisk.  :(

It is bent in places, and broken in others.  I looked online and it is no longer available for purchase, so I don't know what I'll do in this space.  I had two in a pair of raised beds, and so, in addition to figuring out what to put in these two spaces, I'll have to find a place for the one obelisk that didn't fall over.  I just hate it when my designs get changed by something other than me!

But, that design change will have to wait, too.

Souvenir de St. Anne

I can't worry about those things right now.  I'm busy enjoying the roses!

A Retraction

The gardener is gone!  She will be out of town for a few days, with no internet service, so I thought I'd jump in and let you know what I think about her!

I think the gardener owes us an apology.  She is not as good a gardener as you might think.  She bad-mouthed us bush lantanas in this post.  Just because I had a little case of powdery mildew.  I was soooo mad!!!  She actually called me lazy, lousy, and loathsome!

Well!  I was quite insulted!  I wanted to jump up and slap her!  But, of course, I am a lantana, and it's hard to jump up out of the soil.

Thankfully, she moved us.  About time!

She has been very happy this year to see that we are getting used to our new homes.  I think we are the star of the garden, but she just considers us a companion to her precious roses!  Since we bloom pink and yellow, she has planted a pink and yellow rose next to us.  Makes me sick!  Why not something purple?  Or something white?  Really!  She has no imagination sometimes!

Anyway, we now get lots of sun.  That was the whole problem!  She should have known that.  I bet she did, but she just decided to blame us instead.  Does she think I liked having powdery mildew?  NO!!!  And we haven't had any more since she moved us to a better area with MORE SUN!  HELLO!!!

Instead of bad-mouthing us, if she were to be fair, she would have informed you that we green up late in the spring so we aren't damaged in a late freeze!  And we bloom late in the year so we can feed migrating butterflies!  She didn't think of that, did she?  She just called us lazy!  Harrumph!

You just wait.  In a couple of years she'll write some silly post about how gorgeous her lantanas are, as if all the credit should go to her!

In case you get the wrong idea, we lantanas are usually a much cheerier lot.  We usually don't speak out against our gardeners.  But, if you bad-mouth us, be warned, we will demand a retraction!

Oh, no!

My flower carpet roses should be blooming like this:

Instead, most of them look a little bare of blooms:

What's going on?  Well, upon further inspection, I noticed this:

Deer tracks!  Oh, no!

What's Pink and Hairy?

Muhlenbergia capillaris, pink muhly grass!

Isn't it beautiful?  And so fun!

It's quite eye-catching when the sun's rays hit it just right.

I've just added some of these to my garden.  I wanted this area to be a focal point in autumn.  So, I decided upon pink muhly grass.  The problem was, they weren't available this spring.  They weren't available this summer.  Finally, they became available at the local garden nurseries!  I guess they didn't think they would sell until they were pink and fluffy.

Pink muhly grass will grow to 3 ft tall by 3 ft wide, and is hardy in zones 6 through 10.

Pink hair - well worth the wait!