March 10, 2016
March Madness
Patience is the gardener’s best ally. Such is the case when—at last—my few Iris nada passalongs exploded into a colony of fans.
Mainly I’m attracted to their evergreen structural power on Blackland prairie soil. Once the trees leaf out, they’re content in morning sun/afternoon shade. Actually, they’ll scald if given too much sun.
I hit the big time jackpot this year with butterfly-like flowers flaunting every stem.
Gladiolus tristus arises on long, slender stems that suddenly erupt into soft, elegant flowers. I’ll cut it back when it browns up, hoping for a third year in 2017.
It’s unbelievable, but I lost a few native spiderworts this year. Luckily, I got a good enough crop for the bees.
Normally, spiderworts are among the earliest late-winter bloomers. In this crazy year, they weren’t so alone!
Looks like I may have lost a few long reliable Dutch iris, too. These guys arrived weeks early, so there’s still hope.
I totally lucked into this placement against Mexican honeysuckle. I figured the iris would fill the blank spot when the Mexican honeysuckle was freeze-dormant. Instead, this.
Fluffy, gentle little Narcissus ‘Abba’ hunkers down among all the March madness.
Freesia laxa is still blooming its heart out against Billbergia x ‘Rubra’ and baby blue eyes about to pop.
Even my firecracker fern (Russelia equisetiformis) didn’t freeze back this winter. Already, they’re spouting tubular blooms for any hummingbirds or butterflies hanging out.
Find out more about firecracker fern.
And I can’t resist one more picture of native golden groundsel (Packera obovata) against the Billbergia in another bed.
I’m almost finished with pruning, but saved this eyelash salvia (Salvia blepharophylla) for last. I hated to lose that luscious purple but wanted to encourage new growth while there’s still a chance of rain.
On the road, I spotted this bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa) at designer Casey Boyter’s.
I’ll be pruning dead or rambunctious canes out of mine soon. Find out more about bamboo muhly and all our Plants of the Week.
At The Natural Gardener last year, here’s an inexpensive way to beef up those tomato cages with T-posts and bamboo.
In case you missed it, this week we repeat our fabulous Water-Saving Gardens show!
Thanks for stopping by! See you next week, Linda