Click👉  HERE  👈 for a link to my 

SPRING NEWSLETTER 

with tips and to-dos to get your landscape ready for spring!!

Happy gardening!!

Toni :-)

SPRING NEWSLETTER

Signature Gardens  - Spring 2020

Buds are forming, daffodils are blooming, and weeds are growing!    That means SPRING is SPRINGING in North Texas!

Here's my latest SPRING NEWSLETTER with reminders for getting your garden in tiptop shape for the busy growing season head.    I hope you find it helpful.

Follow me on Facebook at Signature Gardens for the latest garden updates and notices of upcoming garden tours and plant sales in the DFW TX area. 

Happy Spring Gardening!

Toni :-)

Late Winter "Diggin' in the Dirt" Newsletter

'Molly's White' Frostkiss Hellebore

It is time once again for late winter pruning in North Central Texas. 

See my "Diggin' in the Dirt" Newsletter for tips to tidy up your garden and get ready for spring!

Happy pruning...

Toni :-)

Blooms & Beyond: Year-Round Color for Your Garden

Wondering how to have year-round color in your garden?   I recently gave a presentation to the Grapevine Garden Club on this topic and the video was posted to YouTube.   Click HERE to check it out!

The plants mentioned in this talk are geared toward the Dallas/Fort Worth area in hardiness Zone 7/8, but if you live in other parts of the country, maybe it will inspire you to think through the seasons and how you can add color to your garden with plants that are hardy in your area.    Click HERE to see the plant list.

Below I've listed the garden centers and resources I mentioned in the presentation.

Here's to hoping you have something colorful in your garden all year long!

Toni :-)

Grapevine Garden Club
grapevinegardenclub.com

Stegall's Nursery & Plant Farm
stegallsnursery.com

Metro Maples
metromaples.com

Neil Sperry
neilsperry.com

aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu

TCMGA
tarrantmg.org

Fort Worth Botanic Gardens
fwbg.org

Spring-Time in a Bottle

I thought I'd bottle up a little bouquet of spring for this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day to show you what's blooming in my garden this cold February day.

Pictured are 'Ice Follies,' 'Fortune', and 'Grand Primo' Daffodils, as well as Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata) and the tiny white blooms of my earliest blooming spiraea called 'Mellow Yellow.'   The foliage of the spiraea emerges lime green after these sweet little blooms fade away.

I sure wish you could smell the 'Grand Primo' daffodils 

They are so fragrant!!

Narcissus tazetta 'Grand Primo'

My spring-time in a bottle has inspired me to rewrite an old Jim Croce song....

If I could save springtime in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every bloom
Till Eternity passes away
Just to share them with you

If I could make spring last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every bloom like a treasure and then,
Again, I would share them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To post the pictures of the blooms
Once I take them
I've looked around enough to know
That daffodils are the ones I want to grow
in springtime 

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!   

Visit Carol @ May Dreams Gardens to see what's blooming around the world.

Toni :-)

2012 Review of a Favorite View

Les from A Tidewater Gardener has encouraged us to post some of our favorite photos from 2012.   Offering a little bit different take on the subject, I decided to post a photo from each month of one of my favorites views in my garden last year.

In January I installed my new fountain to the front beds after having a large crape myrtle removed.  This picture shows more of the fountain than the beds, but you can see that my garden is mainly dormant this time of year.

Apparently in February I was too busy building my new potting bench to take a picture of my garden, so this is a picture from mid March.  The garden is starting to wake up with wildflowers and perennials.  The turf grass is starting to green up and the daffodils are beginning to bloom, signaling that spring is here!

This photo was taken in late March.  The grass is nice and green now after spreading compost over the lawn.  The wildflowers are really growing, and I see the poppies are just beginning to bloom.  The Columbines near the fountain are lush with foliage but no blooms yet.  The 'King Humbert' Cannas are starting to pop out of the ground.   'May Night' Salvia and 'Bath's Pink' Dianthus are early blooming perennials.

In April the poppies and larkspur are in full bloom.  The Columbines are now in bloom, as well.   In the right center of the picture I see the Byzantine Gladiolus are blooming.  Ox-Eye Daisies, Calylophus, and Salvia farinacea are also in bloom.

By late May the Cannas are full grown, the Bee Balm is in full bloom, and the Summer Phlox are just beginning to bloom.  I can see the 'Walker's Low' Catmint blooming in the upper left of the photo, also.

Now in mid June the Summer Phlox are in full bloom.  Also blooming this time of year are the peach daylilies (near the bird bath)  that were a gift from a friend many years ago.  The Cannas, Coneflowers, Catmint, and Salvias are in bloom now, too.

In mid July, as the Summer Phlox is fading, the Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' is blooming strong.  All of the Salvias are in bloom, and the Cannas are standing tall.  The fountain is becoming engulfed by flowers in the front and by the foliage of Caladiums and Wood Ferns in the shady spot behind the fountain

In late August, the Rudbeckias have gone to seed, but the Salvias are still going strong.  After being chewed to smitherines by grasshoppers, I cut the Cannas to the ground and they are starting to regrow.  The 'Hameln' and 'Karley Rose' fountain grasses are starting to plume.  Yellow and orange color from reseeding annuals of Melampodium and Cosmos add summer color.

By mid September, the Cannas have recovered from their cutting, adding bold foliage to the garden again.  The garden is still full of color through Salvias and reseeding annuals, but it is somewhat faded after the summer's heat.   You can see that the sidewalk is wet from welcomed rains after a long hot summer.

Color returns in October as the temperatures start to cool.  The 'Regal Mist' Muhly grass near the bird bath is taking on its trademark pink cloud of plumes. The Lindheimer's Muhly is also starting to plume.  The Cannas are putting on blooms again.  The pink Salvia greggii, one of my favorite perennials, is in full bloom now.   Mexican Milkweed was in full bloom to welcome the Monarchs, but unfortunately I did not see many this year.   The fountain is barely visible as the ferns continue to grow.   October was really one of the prettiest months in my garden this year; however, it was also one of my busiest months, so unfortunately I did not post any pictures of my garden this month.

In late November, the garden starts to move toward dormancy.  The 'Fire Dragon' Shantung Maple tree in the upper left has taken on fall color as the garden begins to fade some.   That crazy Canna is still going strong, as are the Salvias, the workhorses of my perennial garden.

And finally, at the end of December, after several hard freezes and snowfall over Christmas (sorry, no photos since I was out of town during the snowfall), the garden has taken on its winter bones and texture, and the turf grass returns to dormancy.  After cutting back some of the spent perennials, the fountain is visible again.

I hope you have enjoyed this year-long look at one of my favorite views of my garden.     As 2012 is fading out of view and we look ahead to the new year, I wish you all a very happy 2013!

Happy Gardening in the New Year...

Toni :-)

Backyard Bling #4 - Luxury Tweet

I've always loved the look of a dovecote birdhouse perched above a long sweeping border of perennials.

Several years ago on a trip to Wisconsin to see my family, I purchased this decorative "dovecote style" birdhouse for about $20.  And if you've ever priced an English dovecote, then you know that that was such a screamin' deal that I could not pass it up.

I placed it among the perennials in a long sweeping bed in my backyard.  

Good to go, right?

This birdhouse has served me well, giving me photo ops even in the dead of winter.

Well, you get what you pay for, 

and let's just say this birdhouse has seen better days.

It lasted about five years, so I would say I got my money's worth out of it.

Since my garden was on tour this spring, I decided a renovation -- make that demolition -- was in order.    Every time the wind blew, I knew this poor little birdhouse was just one step closer to being a pile of rubble on the ground.

So to the internet I went in search of a new birdhouse.   I may have been swooning over the English dovecotes, but the price was just as dizzying!   I kept looking and finally came across Hatterashouse.com.   I found just what I was looking for, placed my order, and within just a few weeks, I received this lovely copper-topped birdhouse!

This picture was taken in April when the 'Little Henry' Sweetspire was in full bloom.

As a side note, the Red Admiral butterflies just loved the Sweetspire this spring.

This birdhouse is not all bling.  It is move-in ready!    I sure hope the birds like their new home as much as the butterflies loved the blooms below.

Now the birds can tweet in luxury :-)

Toni 

My Little Field of Poppies

Every spring I await the bright red blooms of the somniferum poppies in my garden.  Usually they start blooming in early to mid April.  This year they started on March 26.   Here are a few pictures of the poppies at peak bloom over the last couple weeks.

The poppies mingle with the salvias, larkspur, California poppies, and ox-eye daisies.

 I am always in awe of the amazing detail of God's creation.

The poppies are going to seed all too quickly, 

but even the large seed pods add interesting texture to the spring perennial bed.

Did you know that poppies are a symbol of remembrance?   

Click here to learn more about this beautiful flower's special significance.

Every year when the poppies bloom, I remember my sweet friend Mary Nell who gave me my first poppy seeds.   They are a gift that keeps on giving.

Sadly there won't be many poppies blooming for the garden tour in a couple weeks, but as they fade away, the summer perennials will be picking up the slack.

I've been busy getting my garden ready for the tour.   Stay tuned....I'll be posting about a little backyard "bling" I've added to my garden this spring.

I hope you enjoyed the poppies as much as I do every year!

Toni :-)

Heads and Tails

Okay.  Can somebody please tell me what happened to March?

In my last post I was anxiously awaiting spring's arrival, and here it is already the tail end of March!  I've been so busy with work that I can hardly keep my head above water.  

And  I can't seem to make heads nor tails out of the crazy weather we've had this year.   Winter was more like spring, and now spring is starting to feel a whole lot like summer.  

I sure hope we are not headed for another summer like last year!    If I think too much about the summer of 2011, I might go into a tailspin and get my tail feathers in a ruffle, so I just need to keep my head on straight and enjoy this Spring before it passes me by.

While I've been working my tail off,  my garden has been blooming its head off.   So let's head out to the garden and show you what's been going on.

The wildflowers are putting on their annual show.

Larkspur

Bluebonnets

California Poppies

Somnifera Poppies

Pink Bluebonnets

More spring blooms...

'Tahiti' Daffodil

Bearded Iris

Ox-Eye Daisy

Lots of lush new growth in the front perennial garden.  

The fountain is bubbling again after a winter break :-)

The maples in the backyard are full of spring color.

I will show more pictures in the coming days, but right now my tail is dragging after another long day of gardening, and I need to lay my weary head down to sleep.

Would you like to bet it's going to be a great year for gardening?   

What'll it be.....Heads or tails?

Until next time...

Toni :-)