The Artful Dodger

My Flying Pig from Mexico

 

I have driven past the shop on Westheimer that has these metal pigs lining the sidewalk countless times in the past year, but never stopped.  It was raining, or too hot, or I was too much in a hurry.  I finally stopped and picked this green one to set in my garden.  Since everything is withering in the drought, I haven't decided on a permanent place for him yet.  The pigs come in 2 sizes.  This is the smaller one and he's 13 inches tall.  I already have a concrete turtle and a hedgehog in the garden, and he's more in keeping with their size, so he seemed ideal.

The Roses are Blooming

My hardy antique roses are blooming despite the hot dry spell we are currently enduring here in Houston.  It hasn't rained nor have I watered them in weeks.  The grass is dying and the magnolia is drooping and we are under voluntary water rationing.  Since we're only 50 miles from the coast, the rationing usually stays west of us in Austin and San Antonio.  They are currently breaking out in wild fires.  But hurricane season has begun, so soon the torrential downpours should arrive and everything will turn green again.

My Hydrangea is Blooming

 

When I'm out of town and dependent on my husband watering my potted plants, they are in great danger.  I couldn't decide where to plant this when I got it last summer and left it in a pot among my spider plants.  Spider plants are tubers and can survive a great deal of neglect.  But this poor little hydrangea ( from the Greek hydra  meaning water) withered to a brown stump and I was livid.  But constant watering brought it back to life and it has bloomed its first bloom.  It started out white and is turning pink.  When I finally get it planted, I'll bury some nails around its roots.  I seem to remember that rusting metal will turn it blue.  And maybe it's just my imagination, but I seem to remember my grandfather pouring bluing into the ground at the base of the hydrangea.  I know my Aunt Pearl used to wash the linens with blueing in the water to make them especially white.  Do they even make bluing anymore?

Texas Lilac

 
My Texas Lilac is in bloom for the second year.  It's overcome drought and a hard freeze.  I thought I had lost it this winter, but it has sprung back from the brink.  I wish all my plants were native so they could take an occasional freeze and still survive our dry spells, torrential rains and 100+ heat waves.

Spring is Here!

 
When I left Houston 10 days ago, there wasn't a single blossom on the English dogwood and today it's covered in beautiful white flowers.  As I was out and about today I saw primrose everywhere and fragrant wisteria in many places.  The bluebonnets are currently in bloom, but I'm afraid the only ones I'll get to seethis year are the ones planted along the roads leading to the IAH airport.  I was just in Laredo, where the temperature was 95 most days, the hottest in the nation.  Tomorrow I leave for a week in Pennsylvania where the temperatures have been in the 40's.  I have to keep switching out my wardrobe, winter for tropical and back to winter again.  But traveling is fun, I keep telling myself!

Blooming Trumpet Vine

I've had a reprieve from the harsh weather of Harrisburg, PA.  Instead of staying 2 weeks in a row, I was able to come home for a week in between.  My yellow trumpet vine is in full bloom, just a few weeks after the unusual freezing temperatures we had here in Houston.  In prior years, it's been choked out by rampant air potato vines I made the mistake of planting.  Someone gave me an air potato years ago.  It grew and dropped plenty of little tiny rock potatoes, never producing one bigger than an inch in diameter, but every little potato produced a vine.  I think I was finally able to cull them all.  We've also had freezing temperatures for 2 years in a row after a 10 year stretch without, so that might have helped.  I don't know exactly what kind of plant this is.  I thought it was a forsythia, but they grow as a bush, not a vine.  The flowers are trumpet shaped, so I'm just calling it a yellow trumpet vine.

Squirrell-proof Tomato Cage

This lovely creation was our weekend gardening project.  It's about a 4 1/2 foot square made of pine and chicken wire, bolted to a raised planter.  It's our attempt to grow some tomatoes for ourselves and not the greedy little squirrels.  We shall see if the clever little creatures can find a way in.  I expect to turn on the backyard floodlight one night and see commando squirrels repelling from the trees with tiny little wire cutters clutched in their teeth.

Wild Violets

I am in the process of creating a shade garden in my side yard.  I've added some hostas, ginger and ferns and stepping stones in a curved path.  No grass will grow there, because it doesn't get enough sun and I've allowed the leaves to cover the ground to discourage any weeds. I was delighted to see that many wild violets have sprouted up throughout the garden and are putting out tiny lavender flowers.  Here's a close up of one of the plants.
 

Chinese Witch Hazel

After the hard freeze of December 4th, I wasn't sure anything in my garden was going to come back.  But the Chinese Witch Hazel or feather plant, as some people call it, survived unscathed.  It is covered with both leaves and flowers and seems to be so most of the year.  The flowers are a lovely purplish red and look great against the color of the brick.
 

My Tulips

Six weeks ago I finally got my bulbs in the ground in this new flowerbed I made around the base of the magnolia in my front yard.  Under the tree, they will get morning and evening sun but be spared the scorching noon day sun.  Even though I got them planted a few weeks late, they seem to be doing marvelously.  All the neighbors have come by to admire them.  Tulips aren't something you see blooming much in Houston.  Now the trick is to see if they will make it through their yearly life cycle and I can get them dug up and stored before the squirrels eat the bulbs. 

Descanso Gardens

While I was recently in Los Angeles, I got a chance to visit Descanso Gardens, located in the hills in La Canada, about 20 minutes north of downtown.  The 150 acre garden was built by E. Manchester Boddy, who was publisher of the LA Daily News at the time, on land he purchased in 1937.  It has thousands of camellias, which were blooming at the time I was there, a Japanese garden and a fern garden and cacti and more.  The succulent above looks familiar, but this one is about 15 to 16 inches across.  I've never seen such a variety of camellias - red, pink, white, yellow, simple, double, curled, feathery. It was amazingly beautiful.  And all set against a backdrop of mountains.

You might not expect to go visiting a garden when in LA, but Descanso is certainly worth a side trip. 

My Hibiscus is Blooming

My hibiscus is blooming - I think it's confused - it's supposed to be winter.  I got bulbs for red Alliums, two shades of lilies and forty yellow tulips at the Garden Club of Houston's 67th Annual Bulb & Plant Mart.  It's about time for them to go in the fridge for two months so I can plant them in January.  We have to fool them into thinking they've been through winter.

Altered Plumbago

 

Nothing much seems to be blooming in the garden except the plumbago.  After a veritable drought we've been hit with gulley washers.  For those unfamiliar with Texas-speaka gulley washer is a torrential downpour of rain heavy enough to wash out all the bayous, creeks, canals or gulleys, whatever it is you call them in your part of the world.  I got to playing with my photo editing software and altered the focus and color saturation on this picture.  I think it looks like the ones seen on old seed packets.

Caldwell Pink Antique Rose

 

One of my antique roses, the Caldwell Pink, is covered in 1 1/2 inch blooms.  The blooms range in color from very pale to medium pink and usually blossom on a limb end in clusters of 5 or 6 heads.  It's seems to thrive in Texas heat waves.

Texas Lilac

 

Here's the latest addition to the garden, a Texas Lilac.  This one's only about 2 feet tall, but just behind it in the neighbor's yard, there's one peeking over the fence that's about 9 feet tall.  They're a big bush that will be about 15 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide when mature.  It's probably too close to the fence, but we'll give it a couple of years and see how it does.  It's in a bit too much shade in this picture, but it has tall spikes of lavender flowers and right now Lilacs are blooming all over Houston.