Happy Spring (or, the Swearin' O' the Green)

It is officially Spring!

I've had no luck with Indian Paintbrush but early appearing Tropical Salvia provide a substitute pop of true red.

In this part of the country, it is also Sneeze Season for anybody with a nose that objects to inhaling air laden with tree pollen.  It can be a true conflict.

With no real winter weather, these Turk's Caps are getting a head start on the season.

Tropical Salvia are usually still establishing rosettes after dying down to the ground over winter.  This year they are playing right along with the Springtime regulars, adding their subtle shades to the palette.

The desire to breathe freely through my nose without sneezing mostly keeps me indoors, but the exuberant show of wildflowers inevitably draws me back out.

Temperatures are all over the place.  90 degree highs one afternoon are followed two days later by highs in the low 70s.

Henry Duelberg salvia wilts in the heat.
  

From behind closed windows or out in person, it is a lovely time of year.

Our area ducked recent bouts of violent weather but lost out on chances for the rain that accompanied it.  Native wildflowers are stepping up to the plate, doing their best to shine with what little rain they get, at times peeking out over fallen leaves.

Evening Primrose nods over Live Oak leaves, soon to be followed by pollen catkins.

It is dry for March but water wise native plants don't care.  They see their opening, they take their shot.

In response, pollinators are everywhere.

In our area, having bees in your bonnet is a good thing.

Some of them too tiny to see from afar and easy to miss even close up.

This is a no-ID twofer.  Don't know the name of this little flowering plant, and can't positively ID the tiny bee visiting!
UPDATE:  Thanks to Tina (and family!) over at My Gardener Says for an ID boost.  The blooming plant is Golden Groundsel (Packera Obovata) and the tiny bee is likely a Ceratina or Perdita ignota.)

Metallic green sweat bees hover and finally alight to sample aloe vera pollen.

Another tiny bee, a bit less flashy, this one visiting Common Yellow Woodsorrel.

Much larger solitary ground and structure dwelling bees are emerging as well. This one spent hours visiting a Mountain Laurel in full bloom.

Not only bees, but butterflies are appearing.  Painted Lady butterflies, Vanessa cardui, are daily visitors.

This Painted Lady butterfly has seen better days but is clearly a bit of an escape artist.

Iconic Spring in Texas.  Painted Lady Butterfly resting on a fallen Live Oak leaf near Bluebonnets.

Not to be outdone, flower spiders are moving in early, establishing their "gotcha!" launch pads, ready for any fly-bys or sap sippers exhibiting more enthusiasm than experience.

Until I was editing this on my computer, I'd missed the spider hiding just behind unopened milkweed buds. Probably exactly the plan, hiding in plain sight.

Area lizards stake out sunny spots.  Posing for potential mates...

Pole dance anyone?

or stretched out impressively, warming bodies chilled by overnight lows.

Local rock star - a Texas spiny lizard

Nests and nesters abound. It is a busy time and procreation is in the cards for the lucky.

Two Carolina wrens spent days getting this nest tucked up right over our main egress to the back deck.  We've switched to a different door for the duration, hoping to disturb as little as possible..

Paper wasps are building everywhere, requiring constant trips to procure needed pulp.  This bench must seem like a real jackpot resource wise.

Leaning in, wasp style.

Weather assisted or assaulted, the persistence of life is in beautiful evidence everywhere.

I thought I'd gotten all this Bristly Mallow out.  Clearly that was an optimistic assessment, but I'll enjoy the flowers for a few more days before going after this aggressive ground cover.

Happy Spring to you!  May all the blooming, nesting, buzzing, chirping days yet to come be filled with joy and beauty, wherever you are.  

Support Wildflowers (on Cars!) (for Free!)

It's true.  For just a few days longer you can support wildflowers and the LBJ Wildflower center, through the Texas DMV!

While you may read the statement above and conclude that I am crazy (I probably am, but not for this!) bear with me.  What I'm proposing is so easy it won't require you to even leave your chair.

Between now and Friday, November 21st, you can visit the State of Texas DMV site and register your preferences for a batch of newly proposed specialty license plates.  One of those plates, the first specialty plate offered up for public approval in this particular group, features wildflowers.

If approved, a portion of the fee for the plate ($22 out of the total $30) will be distributed to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center to  "increase the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes in Texas".

You don't have to buy the license plate, you don't even have to register any information to vote your preferences. You simply visit the page, scroll down to the choices section, select the "I like it" button for the wildflower plate and submit your vote here at this site.  Boom.  Done.

How easy was that!  Now go have yourself another cup of coffee or tea and put your feet up for a while.  Then get out there and cover those plants you forgot about last night before tonight's hard freeze hits.

What?  You didn't forget to cover any of your tender plants last night?  Well, we sure enough did.  All that misty wet yesterday lulled us into a false sense that the lows were going to be plant friendly overnight.  And as the mercury is hovering at thirty degrees here currently, I'd say we were sorely mistaken.  I'm not sure how many hours below freezing the plants have already endured, the resulting browning to come will let us know how wrongfooted we've gotten.  And it isn't even Thanksgiving!

The "forgetting to cover" mishap occurs for us every year at some point in the season, just not usually so early on.  We consider it a bit of Darwinian overlay, a long range natural approval (or rejection) process around the plant choices we've made for these spaces.

Just another wonderful feature of wildflowers...they seem to take our winterly swings between above and below freezing temps in stride.  Here's one last peek at some blooms from last year, coming after an especially cold winter, just to remind you how forgiving native plants can be.  

Pretty, yeah?  I think so too.  Now get yourself over to the Texas DMV before the end of the day Friday, and vote for wildflowers.  On cars! For free!

Border skirmishes

Recently a regular commenter to this blog (Hi Kris!) asked me: how do I keep the mint that is growing in a couple of beds here under control?

The short answer?  I don't.  Mint is only one of a number of uncontrollable plants I have mixing it up in the garden beds here.  My approach is to put bullies in close proximity to each other and hope their aggressive tendencies work to keep each other in check.  Here, the photo that triggered the comment.

In this bed close to our house, there is the mint, a mixture of native wildflowers, a few seasonal vegetables, and at least one native ground cover which other gardeners might classify as "a weed".   The mint has been growing here for years, having originally escaped from a pot.  I dig and pull it out liberally to make room for other plants, knowing more mint is always in there somewhere and will find its way back into the mix.  I can't eliminate it but by the same token, I don't have to worry about accidentally killing it by cutting it back or digging runners out.  And that's fine by me.

These wildflowers (bluebonnets, pink evening primrose, prairie verbena) and native ground covers (predominantly wood sorrel) all have a tendency to take over for part of a season and then go dormant and/or seed out.  They each in turn will fill the empty spots created during the others' dormant spells. All I have to do is keep an eye out for those transitional moments when one plant must yield to the other.  At those times I yank and clip fearlessly as needed.

As is often the case here, this riot of competing ground covers wasn't anything I planned in advance. I had open areas I didn't want to spend money on mulching or simply watch helplessly as they filled with weeds, so I "allowed" these aggressive plantings to provide the weed suppression mulch would otherwise.   The zietgeist here is very Garden of Least Resistance.

Their days are numbered

I take a similar approach with oregano and purple heart in another bed just down the path.  The two non-native ground covers are both troopers, taking heat and low water as well as torrential rains in stride.  The purpleheart grows faster than the oregano does - a lot faster.  It also disappears down to the roots once the weather gets cold, while the oregano stays put with a plant mass aboveground year round.

I think of the oregano as a rock with the purple heart functioning like a wave against it.  You can see how the purple heart is both attempting to grow up over and insinuate itself under and through the established oregano.

I love you, goodbye.

For now at least.  Neither purpleheart nor oregano grows here spontaneously, so both will be replaced eventually soon by some combination of native plants. For the moment they continue to keep each other's borders in loose check as the seasons shift, and while preparations are yet underway I have pollinator approved, attractive coverage.