Welcome!

Welcome to austinagrodolce … My family and I garden with more intention and enthusiasm than allocated budget or overall design plan. It shows. Wildlife populations don't seem to notice our lack of cohesive design, they just like the native plants here. It seems by growing local we've thrown out a welcome mat. Occasionally, we're surprised at who (and what) shows up.



Friday, March 28, 2014

The flowers that bloom in the Spring, tra la!



We've established the annual appearance of Bluebonnets leaves me weak in the knees.   However, human nature being what it is, after the first few weeks of anticipatory breath holding, once the blue blooms kick into high gear, I find myself beginning to cast around, looking for signs that anything else is similarly responding to longer days and warmer temperatures.

And anything else most certainly is.  Specifically, Oenothera speciosa.  The pink evening primrose.

Some say wanting pink primrose in your garden represents a case of needing to be careful of what you wish for.  Massed pink primrose plants can be cantankerous, seemingly wanting to seed in and send runners wherever you don't want them. Left to their own devices they are content to jump out of beds into lawns, paths and planters.  They are much easier to get started than they are to contain or get rid of. They are sometimes considered invasive by those with more orderly tendencies.

Aloe bloom stalk rising above massed Primrose blooms-to-be.
Also under cover, at the base of this stake, a Bulbine struggles to reemerge while this tiny anole observes.
Orderly?  Not me.  What strikes others as invasions appears to me as natives simply doing what they do best.  Given their tolerance for heat and drought I welcome these persistent ladies wherever they may roam.
After all, despite their boisterous tendencies to elbow competitors aside, the pink primrose is a boon to native bees and other pollinators.  Past that, I am and always have been deeply smitten with their blooms.

Because oh!  Those flowers....I've sought them out and loved them since I was a child.  Each one only lasts 24 hours. If it weren't for the oak poison pollen so abundantly in the air I'd be out as many of those hours as I had the light, watching their pink skirts swaying delicately in the breeze.

 




4 comments:

Rock rose said...

You have a wonderful bluebonnet display and as for those primroses...How I was tricked into buying a packet of seeds is another story. St Louis is one thing, Austin another. It's lovely to see life stirring in the garden. It's a time of year when every day brings something new to stir the gardener. Happy spring to you and your garden.

TexasDeb said...

Thanks for dropping in, Jenny. I understand my love of primroses is not necessarily widely shared and that's OK. I'm happy with them here in the spot they dominate (which is good because I'm no longer sure I could get them OUT even if I wanted to.). Happy spring right back to you!

Tina said...

Nice show happening in your garden!! So glad things are perking up--finally there will be something for the butterflies, bees and others. I love the photo of the anole and the bloom stalk--classic anole pose!

TexasDeb said...

Thank you Tina! I nearly missed seeing the anole - I was reaching over to pull that stake out to keep it out of a photo when I realized that, as usual, I was not "alone" in the garden.