It's time for Late Winter PRUNING

The ice has melted in North Texas, so let's sharpen those pruners and get busy in our gardens!   It's pruning time...

Click 👉 here for my Late Winter Pruning newsletter 

for tips to get your garden ready for spring growth!

Happy pruning!!!

Toni :-) 

Note:  If you have any questions, please post them on my Facebook or Instagram page.   I have disabled comments on my blog because of issues in the past.

Fall Newsletter 2021

It felt a little fall-ish this morning, and the arrival of the oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) tells me that it's not just wishful thinking playing tricks on my mind.   

Fall is a great time to get back in our gardens and tackle the projects we've been avoiding because of the summer heat.     

Here's my latest Fall Newsletter to help you get started.

Happy gardening...

Toni 

Late Winter Pruning

 LATE WINTER PRUNING 2021

Late January through the end of February is THE time for pruning most shrubs, trees, perennials, and ornamental grasses in North Texas, Zone 8.   

Here's my latest -- click here 👉-- LATE WINTER PRUNING Newsletter  with how-to tips to tackle all your garden pruning to get ready for spring growth.  

Happy pruning!

Toni :-)

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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

Fall is a busy time in the garden in North Texas.   

Here's the latest

"Diggin' in the Dirt" Newsletter  

with tips for your fall garden.

Happy Gardening...

Toni :-)

Fall Leaves an Impression on Winter

Usually the leaves fall before the snow flies, but this year it was just the opposite.   When our weather went from balmy to brrr in just a matter of hours, the freezing rain and sleet fell before the trees had a chance to drop their leaves.

My neighbors' pretty Shumard Red Oak

At first the winter scene was rather impressive, but then in no time at all the white stuff was littered with fallen leaves.

 

Even though the temps remained at freezing or below for an impressive number of hours, the ice started to melt where the leaves were lying, leaving their impression in the frosty surface.

The leaves didn't make a lasting impression, because thankfully now that the temps have increased,  winter's brief presence is dwindling fast.

Now all I am left with is the carnage after the freeze.  Everywhere I look, the plants seem to be saying, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"

My beloved giant leopard plant,
once impressing me with its large shiny leaves...

... now looks like a deflated parachute!

The elephant ears are a big pile of green mush over a big pile of ice.  

Not too impressive, huh?

I'm not too impressed with the skunk-like odor 

of the frozen society garlic either.

I am, however, very impressed by the spicy fragrance that the Mexican mint marigold gives off even in its less-than-impressive condition.

And I'm also impressed at the resilience of the little plant they call... 

...a "pansy" 

If this leaves you with the impression that I don't much care for winter, that's just about right.    On the other hand, icy cold days do force me to stay inside and at least make an attempt at getting more organized.     And any time I can get a little more organized...well, that's pretty impressive!

For a look at some other impressive foliage, 

visit Pam @ Digging for Foliage Follow-Up.

Toni :-)

Lost & Found

Since we have had a couple hard freezes recently, there is not a whole lot of color to be found in my garden this month.  So I thought I'd share some pictures from our recent trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area in the Texas hill country.

 Lost Maples State Natural Area is located in Vanderpool, Texas, and contains the state's largest stand of Bigtooth Maples east of the Guadalupe Mountains.

We found the maples.
We found fall color.

Bigtooth Maples (Acer grandidentatum)

I think we missed peak color by about a week, but it was still very pretty.  Now granted, those of you in the northern US are probably scoffing at what we call fall color, but in Texas we take what we can get.

The beautiful blue skies just made the fall colors all the more spectacular.

Sycamores are sometimes mistaken for maples.   Their leaf is a similar shape but much larger than the Bigtooth Maples in the area.

The hiking was not for sissies!  Some of the rocky grades were very steep.   
Did I mention we were in the HILL country?



When we stopped from time to time to catch our lost breath, we found these cute little lizards scurrying around.



The view we found when we reached the top at 2200 feet made it all worthwhile. Some of the views had me wondering if we had gotten lost and wandered out of Texas.

We found creeks and ferns ...

... and ponds

And, of course, my favorite ... rocks.

On one diversion off the main hiking trail we found ...

... The Monkey Rock!

Look familiar?

We found some of the tree limbs were covered with ball moss
(Tillandsia recurvata)

Ball moss is a small epiphyte that clings to the limbs of live oaks and other trees in southwest Texas.  It is a member of the bromeliad family and a relative of Spanish moss.  Since ball moss does not take nutrients and water from the trees, it is not a parasite.

Speaking of balls, here is my husband's idea of fall color in the hill country.
Greens and white.

 He has been known to lose a few of these little white balls in the sea of green from time to time.

Back home I found a little bit of maple color, as well, but with our very dry and very warm autumn, the maples lost their colorful display all too quickly.
.

Like I say, in Texas we take what we can get.  

Wherever you live, I hope you find some time this holiday season to get lost in nature's beauty.

Toni :-)

North Shore Memories

On vacation this summer, we stayed at a cabin on Caribou Lake along the North Shore area of Minnesota.  Here's the view from the dock where we watched the sunset every evening and felt the cool breezes blow and heard the call of loons in the distance.    And I bid farewell to my 40s.

I greeted my 50s with a hike to waterfalls at Cascade River State Park.  The water is the color of root beer because of the minerals in the soil and decaying vegetation.

I saw this wildflower all over the North Shore area.


I believe this is called Fireweed (Epilobium angustofolium)

I am not sure what this groundcover is called, but the bright red berries caught my eye as we walked along the trail.

Update: Bunchberry (cornus canadensis)







I had to stop and pet the moss because it fascinates me.   You don't see a lot of moss growing in Texas in the middle of August!

I know this picture does not do it justice, but I tried to capture the beauty of the peeling bark of the white birch trees along the trails.

I call this next picture "Growth Through Adversity"

We all encounter hard places in our lives.   We can only hope that we grow through them and in the end we stand tall and strong, right?

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; 

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge

Psalm 18:2

For you have been rooted in Him 

and are being built up and strengthened in the faith 

Colossians 2:7

This old spruce tree was a little large in its midsection, and through the years it has grown a few more lumps and bumps.

H'm...come to think of it, 

that's just about how my 50-year-old body feels right now :-)

These large trunk nodules are called burls

Even the golf course was beautiful,
with rolling hills, rivers, boulders, and trees.

And flowers, of course.

These simple yellow wildflowers were especially beautiful with Lake Superior in the background.

We enjoyed our break from the Texas heat
along the cool shores of Lake Superior.

I brought back memories...

...and a few rocks :-)

Toni