I’ll be leading a tree identification walk for Central Texas Seed Savers. Our partners in this are Pease Park Conservancy and Treefolks. Join me to learn the names of our local trees, and learn how to collect seeds from them to prevent them from going extinct. Click on the image to register.
Fun Event Coming Up MAY 20 2023
The wonderful folks at St John Faith Community Garden are planning this garden fest! I’ll be there in the afternoon.
Big News: I’m on the radio! Introducing The Horticulture hangover Show
Hey, y’all, Colleen Dieter here. My friend Leah Churner and I recently started hosting The Horticulture Hangover on KLBJ every Saturday morning from 8-9 AM. It is a call-in show where listeners text or call us with gardening questions. You can listen live on the radio by tuning your dial to KLBJ 590 AM or 99.7 FM in Central Texas. You can also stream the live show here. Leah and I share our expertise and experiences to help listeners with common yard problems. You may already be familiar with our podcast, The Horticulturati, which Leah and I have been recording since 2020. We'll still bring you deep dives into topics on the Horticulturati podcast . If you subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform then the new Horticulture Hangover show will automatically appear in your feed. If you’re a longtime Horticulturati listener, please become a Patron to get early access to episodes and bonus material!
What’s a Horticulture Hangover? It’s when you buy too many plants at the nursery, and then you don’t have enough time or space or energy to plant them all!
100 Days of Hell, for the 20th Time
Spring is here in Austin! This will be my 20th spring season, last month (Feb 2023) I celebrated 20 years owning my business! I celebrated by asking customers and loved ones to sign a virtual card for me. Their kind messages warmed my heart, and they will sustain me this spring. Some of my industry colleagues refer to this time of year as "100 Days of Hell", when gardeners all over Texas scramble to get plants in the ground during our short spring season. I've done it enough times now to know I always start out bushy-tailed and energized by wildflowers, redbud trees and peach blossoms...AND I know by May 15 I will be needing a massage and a margarita as I mop the sweat from my face. My secret to surviving the spring season each year is to put kindness first, especially kindness to myself. My natural pace is tortoise-like. I have gotten plenty of grief over the years from strangers and loved-ones alike for my chronic mosey. But my wise self insists that hurrying is overrated and I can be kind to myself by embracing my slowness. Spring often forces us to hurry, but I'm stopping to smell the roses, literally, and also the Texas Mountain Laurels.
So I won't try to hard-sell you or tell you that you should hurry to make an appointment with me. But I am always here when you need me!
Another Winter Storm Disaster
I’m feeling climate crisis grief today. I made a collage of photos that friends, customers and I took since the ice storm that hit last week. One of the sadder collages I have ever made, I circled broken and bent branches along with wounds where tree branches broke off. The storm started a week ago today on Tuesday with cold rain. Wednesday more and more rain came and coated all of the trees and streets with ice. As hours went by the forecast got worse and worse, much worse than predicted. Very similar, in that aspect, to the Feb 2021 storm. Thousands of households in central Texas lost power including us. We also lost phone and internet for a couple days. Fortunately our power was restored after about 12 hours. Though the temps in our house we uncomfortable they were never dangerous. Many people still don’t have power today, the following Tuesday. By Friday all the ice had melted but the damage was so severe, things were not back to normal. I tried to shop for trees for a customer on Friday, as that was what I had planned for the day and I was eager to get back to normal. Many businesses including nurseries were closed due to power outages and severe damage. Many traffic signals were still out and lanes were blocked by downed trees and power lines. We had to cancel our Horticulturati recording because Leah’s power was out and my internet was still out last Friday. Nonetheless I was able to shop for and deliver all the trees I promised to my customers. Seeing the progress they are making in their yard really cheered me up.
I have heard a few people mention that tree pruning is key to preventing this kind of damage. I guess that is not an untrue statement. But it’s only one factor.
One of the most common trees in Central Texas is the Live Oak. They are semi evergreen so they have leaves during the winter (they fall off in March and then grow back right away). The extra surface area on these trees with the leaves collects more ice. Plus the weight of the leaves contributes to tension in the branches. Much of the tree destruction in the storm was on Live Oak trees. As much as I love live oak trees, they are over planted we need more tree diversity in our urban forest. I have a Bur Oak and Chinqupin oak in my yard and neither sustained any damage, because they have good branching structure and no leaves.
I’ve also seen a lot of damage on elm trees. Elm trees are wonderful natives and a crucial part of our local forests. They are prone to certain structural defects. Pruning can help prevent these trees from falling apart but eventually they’re all going to fall apart. We got half an inch of ice! No amount of pruning can stop trees from collapsing under that weight.
On Monday on my way to my first appointment I was drivin’ and cryin’. I was thinking about how much I love trees, and how much we need their help in the climate crisis. But at the same time the climate crisis is damaging and killing the trees. The trees are some of the best carbon sequesterers (is that a word?) in the plant kingdom, and having them in our cities cushions the impacts of most storms. But when a storm caused by climate change rips apart the trees…it’s depressing. Today we are expecting thunderstorms which will knock down most of the hanging branches left from the ice storm…may make things even worse. We’ll see!
On a happier note the ice storm did not damage any of my smaller plants. The warmer temps and being encased in ice prevented more cold damage. Some of the stuff that was damaged in December is fine after this one.
Got tree damage and questions? If you lost a big tree and need to re-do the landscaping underneath, that is one of my specialties. Make an appointment today before I get booked up in Spring.
Fruit Tree Scion Swap
I am very much looking forward to this! I helped plan one for Central Texas Seed Savers back in Feb 2020 right before covid and it was fantastic. At the end of the event I took home all of the leftover scions. I stuck all of them in my backyard randomly. A few months later I found a peach tree growing in the backyard. I completely forgot that I planted it. My husband had to remind me about the scions I stuck all over the place. That peach grew really fast on its own roots. It hasn’t made any fruit yet, but since this is its third year in the ground I hope maybe this is the year for fruit.
Peach Tree Chill Hours List for Texas
I get to design orchards for my customers now and then, and it is delightful. Inevitably these orchards include peaches, because everyone likes them and they grow well around here. One of the problems I have when I design an orchard is keeping track of the chill hours required for each variety of peach. So I made a list here for future reference.
What are chill hours? Any fruit that has a core or a pit e.g. apples, pears, plums, cherries, require a certain number of chill hours before they will bloom in the spring. This is one of several factors that the trees use to determine if it is springtime and if it is safe for them to start growing flowers and new leaves. Each variety of tree requires a certain number of hours of cold temps (seems like experts can’t agree how cold, whenever I read about chill hours the sources differ). So here in Austin, TX we get about 550 chill hours every winter. But places further north, like Denton, TX, for example, get about 800.
So what? Here are the implications. If you plant a tree that needs a LOT of chill hours in a place where the winter provides a low number of chill hours, then that tree will never know when spring arrives and might never wake up from winter dormancy. This happened a few years ago when I was caring for the urban orchard in the Mueller neighborhood (located at Manor and Berkman Drive). The higher chill hour varieties of peaches growing in that orchard didn’t start growing until June because we had a very warm winter. When they started growing the growth was very slow, each tree only had a few leaves and they didn't start growing new twigs until much later in the summer. On the other hand if you have a tree with low chill hour requirements growing in place where the winter provides more chill hours, the trees will start blooming and growing new leaves before winter is over. When another freeze happens it will damage or kill the flowers and you won’t get any fruit that year. This is happening this year in Austin with ‘Ana’ and ‘Ein Shemer’ apples and ‘La Feliciana’ peaches because they require low chill hours and we had a lot of very cold weather early in the winter, so they are blooming now (Mid-January). It is very likely that we will have another hard freeze that will kill those flowers and tender new leaves.
So what should home orchardists do? I recommend getting lower chill hour varieties because at least if you loose the flowers every few years the tree will at least break dormancy and be able to grow. You can accept that certain years you will not get fruit. I also recommend planting many different varieties requiring a range of chill hours if you have space, that way you can increase your odds of getting some fruit each year. You can also graft multiple varieties onto one tree. Also remember that if you live in an urban area the air will be warmer than rural areas, so lower chill hour varieties might work for you. For Austin I choose varieties with about 500-650 chill hours. For rural areas around Austin I try to go more for 600 hours. Sometimes it can be hard to find the varieties you are looking for in stores as they sell out really fast, so do the best you can.
Here’s a more academic explanation of chilling hours and a map of chilling hours by county in Texas.
Here’s a map of chill hours for the whole USA
Here’s my chill hour list for peach varieties. I got this info from Legg Creek Nursery and Womack Nursery. I will add more as I discover them. Happy Gardening!
Big Red 700
Bounty 800
Dixieland 750
Flavorich 700
Harvester 750
Indian Cling 750
Junegold 600
Loring 750
Redskin 750
Regal 700
Texroyal 600
Belle of Georgia 700-800
Sam Houston 500 (not cold hardy in severe winters in Austin- got severe cracking on north side of the trunks in Feb 2021 storm, had to remove some of these trees after the cracks got infected and couldn’t seal over)
Florida King 450
Earligrande 275
Tex King 400
Tropic Snow 200
Elberta 850
Tex Star 450
La Feliciana 550
Monroe 850
Ranger 900 (extra cold hardy)
Red Globe 850
Red Haven 950
Early Amber 250
Red Indian 850
Rio Grande 450
What’s Green Right Now?
UPDATE JANUARY 30- wanted to add a few more that I forgot from my own yard. Elderberry at my house are defoliated. French Thyme is green, oregano is green. Rosettes of verbascum are green and look wonderful. Cardoon, yarrow tops died in dec freeze but are growing back fast. Henbit was not harmed at all, cilantro seedlings look great, cleavers are green. Native wild onions and heirloom leeks and heirloom garlic were not harmed at all. Garlic chives, onion chives and I’Otoli onion tops died in Dec but grew back really fast. Most roses still have leaves but many of them had tender new growth that was killed on the tops. Rosa rugosa leaves all died but stems still alive (wonder if this is a positive adaptation for this one rose I know grows very far north).
January 30 we are having freezing rain right now and expecting ice accumulation for the next 2 days. Let’s see who is still green at the end of this week!
I wrote this blog so when I am designing later I can remember which plants are truly evergreen…
Deep Freeze On the way
Extreme cold can kill tropical and Mediterranean plants like citrus and loquats. Succulents that are not native to Texas will also freeze. Here’s a text exchange with a customer of mine explaining which species to protect and how to best protect them. I have a key lime tree I keep in a pot that I brought into my house to keep it warm. The most important thing is to make sure they are well hydrated and the rain we had earlier this week will help.
How many plants?
Here’s an email exchange with a customer of mine that addresses some common questions. I hope it is helpful or at least reassuring to you, dear reader.
Hello Colleen,I figure you are pretty busy right now with spring here. No hurry on these questions. I've had them for a while and am just getting around to asking you. We are enjoying some mild weather and love seeing what comes out day to day around here.
I listened to the Planting In a Post-Wild World podcast and purchased the book and read it cover to cover. (What a beautiful book!). The two things I took away from it were:planting more plants instead of mulching (I have heard you say much the same before.)designing with "drifts" vs creating areas of one type of plant. With regard to "drifts," I like the idea of it and the results, but you really have to be confident about your plant community harmony - and I'm just not there yet. It would be like me picking up a paint brush and trying to paint something on a canvas. I would almost have to copy a specific garden done like this to feel like I was doing it right. That being said, I have LOTS of bed area to populate here, so I could experiment in a small section. I could sow a prairie seed mix. I've put out a lot of seed, and haven't seen much for it, so I am still skeptical that seeds are really things that produce actual plants. Still quite mysterious to me.
With regard to mulch - here is my question. I would like to have less mulch and more plants. But I have a lot of bed area and I plant and plant and plant, and there's still a lot of space between plants. Things are still small. I'm introducing some "groundcover" like horseherb, frogfruit and lyreleaf sage. If I mulch right up to those, I worry that they will be discouraged from expanding (although my observation is that this does not seem to be the case with frogfruit - that stuff is strong). So I've been pushing back the mulch as the ground cover expands. That leaves soil exposed for a while, anyway. Do you think this is a good approach?
How do you manage the need for plants vs mulch?Hope all is well with you. Thank you!
Hi Connie- good to hear from you!
Re: plants v mulch. If you plant more plants closer together at the beginning it will look fuller and there will be fewer weeds, especially if you are able to plant larger size plants from the nursery. But as time goes by, usually about 3-5 years, and plants get larger and also spread via roots or seeds then you have to remove plants because it will look overgrown. So you can decide how much money you can spend on plants, how much weeding you want to do and how much editing/transplanting and removal you want to do later. It’s all maintenance just different types of tasks.
Wood mulch does inhibit the spread of plants as you suspect. But it also helps prevent weeds. Using leaves, especially chopped up leaves, is a better choice for encouraging the spread of good plants but sometimes can cause baby trees to volunteer. Pine straw and pecan shell mulch are also better for not inhibiting growth.
The sheer square footage of your place requires a huge number of plants.
Planting from seeds is always tricky as it is heavily weather dependent and they can’t sprout on top of mulch. They absolutely have to have direct contact with soil. Different seeds sprout at different times of year and often we plant seeds and they will sit for months or years until the conditions are right.
Ok I’d love to come out and do another consultation for you sometime!
Fruit Tree Notes
Winter 2021-2022 was warm-hot in December but then very cold in January and February with many freezes and most days colder than average for many chill hours. We had a two hard freezes in March with the last one on March 11 and 12, later than average. On March 7: Ein shemer and Anna apples were blooming on March 7 at Renee’s farm near COTA. Tex Star peach was blooming at Renee’s farm. La Feliciana peaches blooming at Ted’s house near Camp Mabry and Renee’s farm. Holland and Golden Delicious apples were not blooming yet at Renee’s. Pocahontas necatrine was close to blooming at Renee’s and White Delight peach was also close to blooming at Renee’s.
My Front Yard Experiment
Willy at Barton Springs Nursery mentioned the book “The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden” by Roy Diblik in a recent episode of my podcast, The Horticulturati. I read the book and the concept captured my imagination: create a landscape entirely with perennials that could be mowed. Roy Diblik developed this concept in Chicago and Milwaukee. Could I adapt it to Austin?
My backyard is where all the higher maintenance plants are like roses, herbs and veggies. The front yard had been a lovely, low maintenance butterfly garden for years but in the last few years the plants in front have been subjected to calamity. Some fungus, I think maybe ganoderma but not sure, swept through and killed a few rosemarys, a palo verde tree, two texas sages and amistad salvias. Winter storm Uri in Feb 2021 took half of the canopy of an medium size American Elm, and a wind storm the following May took the other half. My woold butterfly bushes never really recovered after Uri. At some point I had tossed a handful of common sunflower seeds out there and they basically took over, to my simultaneous delight and dismay. Other trees, like my Texas Mt Laurel and my Giant Fuyu Persimmon have grown and shaded areas that were sunny. Texas Redbud was going through a process called “retrenchment” which old trees do when they reach the limit of how tall they can grow. They start to have trouble drawing water up to their tallest branches and they start making themselves shorter. The tallest branches will die and the tree will grow new sprouts from the roots or lower trunk. So I cut the biggest trunk off the redbud and let the new sprouts grow up to replace it. So all that’s to say there’s been some major changes and the front yard is ready for an overhaul.
With all the high maintenance plants in the back I wanted the front to be very easy. My husband and I have successfully mowed some perennials in the past, like four o clocks, turks caps and datura. So Diblik’s concept appealed to me. It would be like a wildflower meadow but more “put together”, more intentional and maybe more interesting in some ways
I started working on the project this past fall. I started transplanting and removing plants that I suspect would not respond well to mowing like my ‘Red Lion’ hippeastrums and salvia greggiis. I also removed some agaves and other succulents.
One twist that the Austin, Texas climate tosses into this mix is our warm winters allow for certain perennials to have the opposite life cycle of typical perennials: the tops die down in the summer, and then grow back in the fall and winter. The plants then bloom in spring and go dormant after that in the summer. White yarrow, cedar sage, oxalis, violets and spiderwort are examples. So I decided to experiment with half of the front yard getting mowed in the summer and half the front yard getting mowed in the winter. The sunny half has the more traditional perennials and will get mowed in winter. The shadier half has the winter and spring blooming plants that will get mowed in summer. Here’s a plant list:
sunny side mowed in winter: Dallas Red Lantana, zexmenia, Henry Duleberg Sage, 4 o’clocks (they were there in the shade before the elm tree fell apart, gonna see how they do in full sun) walkers low catmint, greggs mistflower, Monarda fistulosa, purple heart and little bluestem.
shady side mowed in summer: white yarrow, oxalis, leersia monandra, webberville sedge, snowdrops, lyre leaf sage, dutch iris, texas bluegrass, mondo grass, cardoons. I had the cardoons in the back veggie garden and they take up tons of space and I don’t love eating them, but they look amazing so I am going to try to transplant them.
I bought most of these plants in early January as 4” starts from a wholesale grower. They have been wonderful but hard to keep alive in the pots during cold weather and they dry out fast. I got a great deal price wise but protecting them and watering them has been stressful.
I did not take Roy Diblik’s very wise advice of starting with a 10x14 area and plotting it out on paper as a grid. Instead, I mulled it over while falling asleep at night and then in the morning made bizarre notes to self about my ideas for the plant placement. And of course I took on the entire front yard at once which is like 50xhumongous and sloped. I also didn’t prep the area the way Roy advised, partly because I was not starting with a lawn which is kind of assumed in his boon. To my customers: do as I say not as I do, I guess. Optimally I would have sheet mulched with cardboard first and then planted one gallon plants. That would have made things way easier.
Instead I have been clearing existing plants while going along planting. The existing plants were mostly a wild invasive grass called rescue brome, cleavers and hedge parsley. This method was working pretty good until spring started and now the common sunflowers and other warm season plants are sprouting and starting to get taller than my little 4” transplants. I did take Diblik’s advice and got a Dutch Push Hoe which is wonderful so I will be using that on the unwanted volunteers.
I have been using the rescue brome, hedge parsley and cleavers that I pulled up as mulch around the new plants. That worked well until they started going to seed, so now I am pulling them and putting them in the city compost pickup bin so I won’t be spreading their seeds around. Now I gotta figure out what mulch to use because these tiny 4” plants have bare soil around them and it’s getting hot. I’m leaning towards either wood chips, tree leaves or pecan shell mulch.
Anyway in retrospect I wish I had sheet mulched to start with, and I wish I had waited ‘till spring and bought bigger 1 gallon plants. But I think even if I had done those things I probably would wish I had done something else differently too. The most important thing is I have been enjoying myself and the anticipation of how it will look in May when the warm season plants start blooming is thrilling. Ok more to come soon!
The photo here is from early March 4 2022 and is basically a ‘before’ photo though I had planted a few plants at that point already.
New Episode Out TODAY
Landscape Design as the “highest art”… it’s what happens when two landscape designers get liquored up give their opinions. Click below to listen or enjoy The Horticulturati podcast on any podcast platform.
https://www.horticulturati.com
new Zine and New Class
Let's Care for Texas Plants!
Your registration for this new class will include your own copy of my new zine series, "Let's Care for Texas Plants."
Class at The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center!
With the vast amount of information available these days it can be hard to pinpoint the best techniques when it comes to caring for Texas' native plants. That's why I've combined my 10 years of research and hands-on experience to introduce the perfect guide to Texas plants, “Let’s Care for Texas Plants."
Join me in a three-part series with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center as I'll guide you through care instructions and solutions for problem solving in your native Texas garden. Covering topics from my new guide, we'll talk about soil and grasses to trees and succulents, and more.
This class will combine my new guide with detailed techniques and demonstrations in the garden you too will learn how to care for a garden thriving year-round.
Both new and seasoned gardeners of all ages are welcome! Register today for your best native plant garden yet!
WHEN: Saturdays, February 12, February 19, and February 26, starting at 9:30 AM
WHERE: The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, 4801 La Crosse Ave. Austin, TX 78739
HOW TO JOIN: Cost is $45. This class will take place in person at the Wildflower Center. Space is limited and registration is required. Face masks are optional. Please review their Safety Guidelines before your visit. Register to join the class here.
I hope to see you there!
Thanks! Contact me anytime.
Colleen Dieter
GARDENING EDUCATOR
Hot off the presses
I just released a zine series. It's all about caring for native Texas plants. Order the digital or classic version here.
Copyright © 2022 Red Wheelbarrow Plants, All rights reserved.
Texas Gardening Blogs
Welcome, gardening friends. Interesting news, my blog was listed as one of the top 25 Texas Gardening blogs on a media aggregator called Feedspot. The internet is a strange place. I didn’t know anyone was paying attention! Pretty cool. https://blog.feedspot.com/texas_gardening_blogs/
Oak Tree Fun Facts
If you get to know me a little more you will learn that I love fun facts and trivia. I also love infographics. Here’s a cool one from Trees.com with facts about oak trees. Bur oak, Quercus macrocarpa is my favorite tree.
The infographic mentions eating acorns. I have eaten biscuits that my friend made with bur oak acorn flour. They were really yummy, quite hearty and filling. Making the acorn flour is a lot of work, you have to be committed. I have heard that the best way to get the tannins out is to put the acorns in a basket and put the basket in a stream or river where the water is running fast and tie it to a branch or a rock. As the water flows over the acorns the tannins get washed out. I don’t know how long it takes. Lucky for me, my friend made the flour and the biscuits so all I had to do was enjoy them. She used the method of boiling the acorns, pouring off the brown water and repeating until the water remains clear.
The infographic doesn’t mention one of my favorite fun facts, cork oaks native to Spain and Portugal produce cork. The cork is a layer under their outer bark that the trees grow to protect themselves from wildfires. Every 9 years or so, skilled harvesters trim the bark off with special tools taking care not to cut too deep to damage the inner vascular tissues of the trees. So they can harvest the material without killing the trees, unlike lumber. My floor in my office is made of cork. It’s relatively renewable compared to other building materials. Cork oaks occasionally grow here in Austin but not easily, my experience with them has been mixed. I think heavy clay soil, rainy weather and cold weather in the winter are all hard on them, but I’m not sure how our climate compares to their home turf over in the Iberian Peninsula. Enjoy the fun facts!
Plant Confusion: Esperanza Edition
If I were a character on the TV show Pose maybe my name would be Esperanza Edition….
Today my friend and co-host of The Horticulturati texted me and said “also can you help me figure out Esperanza's? There's Tacoma stans with the skinny leaf (the Native?), and the one with the fatter leaves that you most often see in nurseries (the more profuse bloomer). I've been trying to figure out the difference.”
All I know is the native one has a thin leaf, smaller flowers and stays shorter. The tropical one that I always just referred to as “the tropical one” gets much taller and has bigger leaves and more flowers. Native Texas Nursery, a wholesale only-grower, exclusively sells the native one. More often you see the tropical ones at the nurseries. There are cool cultivars with orangey-pink flowers with names like ‘Sangria’.
I write these types of blog posts for my own future reference and maybe someone else will find them useful too.
Ok so seems like they are all Tecoma stans, but they are all different varieties and cultivars.
Texas A&M and the LBJWFC Native Plant Database explain that the common names for all of them are Yellow Bells and Esperanza. The botanical name for the native Texas one is Tecoma stans var. angustatum. The tropical ones are Tecoma stans var. stans. [Which reminds me of the late pizza mogul and republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and his infamous and laughable “Uzbecky becky becky stan stan” moment of condescension toward “insignificant countries”].
According to the LBJWFC Tecoma stans angustatum native to Texas and Northern Mexico, it “is shorter, more drought-tolerant, and more cold-tolerant than some of the tropical varieties sold in nurseries”. The A&M article talks at length about the cold hardiness. In my experience in Austin they tend to do fine if planted in the spring so they have time to get established before facing the cold. They also resent overwatering after they are established so make sure to let them dry out between watering if you are planting them in clay soil. I saw one growing in the median between I-35 and the frontage road in Buda right near Cabela’s once, I presume it was wild.
Ok that’s it for now.
Mulled Persimmon Wine sangria
Leah came over today to test out recording the Horticulturati podcast in person in my backyard today. It was really fun and it felt safe to social distance outdoors with my gardening bud. I made this beverage in the crock pot to wind down our busy weeks.
1 bottle persimmon wine from Owen County Indiana where my dear husband grew up, a delicious gift from my in-laws
1 cup El Presidente Mexican Brandy
1/2 cup orange liqueur2 tablespoons brown sugar
Mulling spices- I bought some that come in tea bags from the grocery store if you can’t find that you can toss some cinnamon sticks, whole coriander, whole cloves, whole allspice and cardamom pods. Think pumpkin spice.
slices of fresh persimmons for garnish- I had my first harvest of ‘Giant Fuyu’ persimmons from my tree this week!
Put it all in the crock pot on low and heat it up for about an hour or put it on high for half an hour depending on your crock pot. It will change color from orange to brown when the spices infuse the mix. Then you know it’s ready. Ladle it Into mugs and add a slice of persimmon.
Eric made pear bread from pears I foraged and the mulled wine went great with that snack along with more persimmon slices.
Bulbs for Austin, more plants unconfused!
Here’s another blog post meant to “unconfuse” myself. I have been obsessed with bulbs lately and needed to list some good ones for Austin. But they have confusing common names so I can use this blog post to help me track which are which when ordering them. Hope it helps you too. These are all bulbs that I have seen “naturalized” in Austin- meaning that I have seen them growing without any obvious care.
Hymenocallis liriosme -
AKA Texas Spiderlily, Spring Spiderlily, Spiderlily, Louisiana Spiderlily, Western Marsh Spiderlily. I call them Texas ditch lily. These are the ones with white flowers, large, strappy leaves that grow in ditches in East Texas. They are fantastic in areas that are frequently wet and pair well with river ferns and sedges. They like part sun/part shade. They won’t bloom in full shade and they can get sunburned leaves in full sun. I planted them in the arroyo in my backyard that is mostly shaded with some afternoon sun and they are doing great.
Rhodophiala bifida- AKA Oxblood Lily and the much more charming name Schoolhouse Lily because they bloom when school gets back in session in September. Small clusters of dark red blooms on bare stems. The blooms look like small amaryllis. Apparently these are from South America and other species have different color blooms but I have never seen them around here in Austin.
Speaking of Amaryllis…Ok so what confuses me is they usually are sold as gifts at Winter Holiday time, but they bloom in early summer if planted outdoors and left to their own devices. Some varieties are more reliable than others, so research varieties as much as possible and look for heirloom types.
Lycoris radiada- AKA spider lily (see the confusion since the Hymenocallis shares a common name?), aka Surprise Lily… these are a pinkish red color with deeply divided petals and long stamens that stick out all over. They bloom at about the same time as the Oxblood Lilies listed above. I don’t like them as much because I prefer brighter colors. Speaking of brighter colors:
Lycoris aurea- AKA yellow spider lily, ok I haven’t seen this one naturalized anywhere but I am hoping it will naturalize at my house because that golden yellow flower in the fall makes me weak in the knees.
Agapanthus- AKA Lily of the Nile- “Lily of Denial” also works because people are always trying to grow these in too much shade. The like the same kind of light as the Hymenocallis listed above. A little tricky but when you get them in the right spot they are wonderful. They come in shades of blue and white. The blue ones seem to be easier to grow.
Ok more bulb descriptions to come!
Plants that Confuse Me- Mistflower Edition
Ok so when I try to design with mistflowers or order them from various nurseries they often have different names so here’s my attempt to clarify for my own future reference, but maybe it will be helpful to you too. Even the botanical names were changed on some of these in recent history to the confusion is real.
Mistflowers- all are native to Texas
Conoclinium coelestinum- Blue Mistflower- has non-lobed leaves and thrives in shade. Perennial groundcover type. Blooms all summer.
Conoclinium greggii- Gregg’s Mistflower- has deeply lobed leaves and thrives in sun and part shade. Perennial groundcover. Blooms all summer.
Ageratina havanensis- White Boneset- deciduous shrub with a weeping habit. Blooms white in fall.
Chromolaena odorata- Fragrant mistflower- has blue flowers, the entire plant is similar in shape and size to blue plumbago or flame acanthus, can grow in sun or shade. I treat it as a perennial in Austin, so I cut it down to the ground each winter.
Ageratum spp- Whiteweed or annual mistflower- Usually planted as an annual bedding plant during the warm season. Blooms all summer. There are many species and cultivars. Most are short but some are taller. All are native to the new world.