Bees Galore!
There is nothing I love more than seeing all the activity of bees and flys at work at my plants. This afternoon, there were at least 4 bumble bees / carpenter bees buzzing around my Esperanza and Duranta, and a number of native and honey bees on the yellow flower I can't identify. I tried to follow the bumble bees back to their hole in the ground, but I never was able to.
Clouded skipper
I saw this guy fluttering around the garden. I really like his double set of wings. It seems that Flame Acanthus is a larval plant for this. So woot!
Getting ready to bloom
This week, the yellow flower that I still have not confidently identified (cowpen daisy, maximillian sunflower?) is in bloom, and the frost weed and white mist flower are getting ready to bloom. I always coincide (or hope to) the blooming of the white mist flower with the arrival of Monarchs. Hopefully they coincide this year!
It's Alive!
I had thought my Post Oak, purchased in 2018 and planted in my solar garden, was dead. But I was roaming around the garden this week, looked under the Mutabilis rose bush, and saw it growing! For a plants that is 6 years old, it is embarrassingly small. I know it is a slow grower, but it is not bigger than the day I bought it!
And the garden has grown around it, so it is in pretty deep shade, so I doubt its growth will accelerate But hey, it's alive!!
New Plants
Sideoats Gramma
Bouteloua curtipendula
I purchased three small Sideoats gramma. i am trying to introduce some native grasses into my bed, as they provide good food for birds.
2-3 ft stems with purplish, ot-like spikelets. The basal foliage often turns shade of purple and red in the fall
Water Use: Medium
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry , Moist
CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium
Drought Tolerance: High
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Medium-textured, well-drained soils. Disturbed, igneous, limestone-based sands, loams, and clays.
Conditions Comments: Often found growing with Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), but doesn't compete well with very tall grasses.
Use Ornamental: An attractive grass good for wildflower meadows, prairie restorations, and garden accents.
Use Wildlife: Provides bird food, nesting material, and cover, as well as graze for mammals.
Conspicuous Flowers: yes
Attracts: Birds , Butterflies
Larval Host: Green Skipper butterfly, Dotted Skipper butterfly
Deer Resistant: High
Blue Gramma Grass
Bouteloua gracilis
Only 12-14 in. in full flower, this is among the shortest of the native ornamental grasses. It is fine-leaved and produces blue-green seedheads which are suspended horizontally like tiny brushes from the tip of each stem. The plant turns tan when dormant. Blue grama grows in bunches in the south, and as a sod-former in the north and at high elevations. It is a perennial.
Water Use: Low , Medium
Light Requirement: Sun
Soil Moisture: Dry
CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium
Drought Tolerance: High
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Well-drained, low organic content, gravelly soils or sandy loams, clays. Calcareous or granitic.
Conditions Comments: The most drought-tolerant native turf grass, more so than Buffalograss. Can survive with as little as 7 inches of rain annually. The drier it is, the less likely it will be to form a solid mat by rhizomes; it will stay in separate clumps. For this reason, it is often mixed with Buffalograss and/or wildflowers for a solid cover. The taller you let it grow, the less water it will need, because its roots will be shaded.
Use Wildlife: Graze, Seeds-granivorous birds
Conspicuous Flowers: yes
Interesting Foliage: yes
Attracts: Birds , Butterflies
Larval Host: Skippers
Kidney wood
Eysemhardtia texana
I already have one of these plants, but couldn't remember. I think it is one of the two plants growing in my street bed. Now, I have a second :) It can grow big, so i will have to think about where I want a large plant...
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