It is officially spring in our part of Texas: the grape hyacinth has put forth a bloom. I rebuilt the bed last season, so am watching carefully to see how the plants do. The leaves survived the big freeze, which is encouraging.
Spring
Category: Garden
Terrarium redo
The mossarium I made in a case was not doing well. I tried adding a plant light and it was too much for some of the moss. After six months of steady decline, I decided to clean out the container and put in something else. I have a young African violet that I received from a friend that currently fits.
Garden redo
As much as I love Gregg’s Mistflower and the mass of butterflies that love the purple tufted blooms, the front garden bed was not the right environment. Even though it is one of the places in our yard that receives the most sun, it isn’t enough to keep the plant from bolting, growing too tall, and falling over onto the side walk. Mistflower also really doesn’t like being trimmed, it won’t flower if trimmed shorter, and the whole point is to flower.
Gregg’s Mistflower is native to Texas and self seeding, so in order to remove it from the flower bed, I first pulled up all the plants, then dug out the top layer of soil.
Tearing out the plants took about an hour. Digging down 3-6 inches across the entire bed took 5-6 hours. I put the seed heads in the meadow, where the sunlight is brightest, and I spread the dirt in the meadow and around the house in areas it was needed.
I am hoping this will also help with the chronic grass problem in this flower bed by removing the roots that kept coming up. I had one hardy hibiscus that was struggling in the lower light that I also replanted.
The next step is to fill the space with garden soil and mulch and plant different species.
Yes, it is December and I’m gardening. It is Texas.
Grape hyacinth bed
The grape hyacinths Dad and I planted in the new flower bed appear to be happy. We have growth both from the transplanted bulbs and the newly purchased bulbs.
It always makes me nervous when the grape hyacinths start growing in Fall, but for the last few years the cold doesn’t seem to bother them, and in spring they bloom.
Butterflies and skippers
I did not trim back the Gregg’s Mistflower this fall. It is now tall and gangly, but blooming and full of fluttering wings. We have many Queen butterflies, but I’ve spotted some others visiting the purple tufted flowers as well.
Gregg’s Mistflower is native to Texas and in proper light conditions grows to 2 feet tall. The front flower bed doesn’t get enough sunlight which makes the plants gangly and closer to three feet tall before it falls over and grows up again from the fallen stems. Since it is native, at the end of the season, and after a nice solid rain, I’m going to relocate these plants into our meadow, which does get a little more sun. They are self seeding and spread and the idea of a meadow full of butterflies is attractive. They also bloom in both spring and fall, making them a valuable source of nectar.
Critters and Craft 