Fool Proof Summer Color

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Jay White

Summer is a tough time for me. As someone that likes to be out doors, the oppressive summer heat makes it a whole lot less enjoyable for me to be outside. While the heat is a bit of a problem for me, I can adjust. I can always get up earlier or wait until the evening to do my gardening chores. My plants, on the other hand, are stuck wherever they are and they have to either adjust to the heat or die. Since our extreme climate makes it impossible for many of the beautiful flowering plants that we love to grow in the spring die by July, it can be a bit of a challenge for we Texas Gardeners to keep our beds and borders looking alive, vibrant and inviting.

A few years ago I was talking about my search for no fail summer color with my buddy Morgan McBride of Tree Town USA. Before he started selling trees, Morgan worked as a landscape maintenance supervisor for over 20 years in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. According to Morgan, the businesses he serviced wanted attractive landscapes at the lowest cost possible. To fill these requirements, he relied on three very common plants to ensure colorful commercial landscapes throughout the hottest parts of summer –sweet potato vine, purple fountain grass and lantana.

After my visit with Morgan I realized I was looking for color in all the wrong place. Instead of trying to brighten my beds with colorful annual flowers I should get my summer color from the many of the perennials that do well for us despite our oppressive summer heat. Thanks to his advice I have finally come up with my short list of Texas tough plants that will reliably provide tons of low maintenance and low water color in your summer landscape.

Foliage Plants

Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) – Purple Fountain Grass is one of many grasses that do well in our climate. However, it is the only one that will add a lovely burgundy color to your landscape. Combine that striking color with the lovely and graceful flower spikes and you have a very showy and useful plant that can be used in mass, as a specimen and even in pots.

Purple Fountain grass is so versatile that i grow it in pots.

Sweet Potato Vine (Ipomoae batatas) – With its rapid growth rate and varieties that come in colors that range from almost black to the brightest chartreuse, there is no better way to bring a lot of color to your summer landscape than with this cousin of the edible sweet potato. Sweet Potato Vine is incredibly easy to propagate and it tells you when it needs water. If you want more vines simply snip off a piece and root it in water and if you see your vines wilting, give them a little drink. Sweet potato vine is great as a ground cover, spilling over a wall or tumbling out of a pot. If you live where winters are cold and wet, you can dig up the tubers and store in saw dust for next year. Otherwise you can leave them in the ground for years of beautiful foliage.

Coleus (various species) – I love coleus and grow several varieties every year. Coleus are one of the few plants that you actually have to work very hard to kill. Coleus can take a lot of drying. If you forget to water your coleus they will wilt down pretty quickly. However, you can take some very wilted coleus, trim them up a bit, water them and watch them miraculously bounce right back. Coleus work as well in the ground as they do in pots. Group them together for a very colorful display.

Artemisia (var Powis Castle)- Artemisia is a woody perennial plant that is known for its gray, feathery foliage and its distinctive smell. There are many artemisias out there but the variety Powis Castle is the best one for most of Texas. Powis Castle loves full sun, high heat and well-draining soil. A single plant will create a silver mound that is three feet tall and five feet wide in a single season. With its lovely silver-gray color, Powis Castle is the perfect companion for plants in a variety of colors. It is lovely when paired with pink Knock Out roses or pink antique roses like “Old Blush

Powis Castle artemesia has lovely silver foliage that pairs well with a wide range of plants. Here is pairs nicely with “Hotlips” salvia

Setcreasea purpurea ‘Purple Heart’ – In my mind, Purple Heart is one of the most versatile, yet underutilized plants in the Texas landscape. Talk about color! This plant is all purple! While it does get lovely, small, pink flowers in the spring, Purple Heart is used for its lovely purple foliage. I love this plant and I grow it in mass as a ground cover. While it can get aphids and spider mites it is a mostly carefree plant that loves full sun and crowed conditions. Purple Heart will spread rapidly by sending out runners up to 3’ long. Plus, it is so easy to propagate. If you want more purple heart just break a piece off, stick it in moist soil and it will root. Truly an awesome plant for bringing lots of color to your landscape!

Nothing brings in more intense color to a summer landscape than a mass of Purple Heart

Flowering Plants

Lantana – There is really nothing bad to say about lantana. This mounding perennial starts blooming in the spring and blooms and blooms and blooms well into winter. Right now I grow a yellow variety called New Gold. However, I have grown many others through the years. One of my favorites is a red and yellow variety called “Dallas”. Lantana is the ultimate hands off plant. While I water, most varieties will survive on annual rainfall. If you water it occasionally, it will reward you with flowers for six to eight months of the year. Then, when the freeze does finally get it, just cut it back to about six inches and wait for spring.

If lantana can thrive in the middle of an HEB parking lot, it can certainly thrive in your yard. In my opinion lantana is the most versitile, tough and pest free color plant you can use in your Texas landscape.

Salvia greggii-There are many salvias that thrive in our climate. One of the more colorful and more reliable is Salvia greggii. Salvia greggii is a woody, bushy perennial that gets about three feet tall. Its upright braches are covered in little muted green leaves. However, the little flowers of this hardy plant are what make it a standout in the summer garden. Salvia greggii comes in many colors including red white and pink. However there are other variants available. A red variety called Cherry Chief is one of my favorites. However, I am also found of a variety called Hot Lips. Salvi greggii is a mannerly bush that stays where it is planted. Besides its almost year round flowering, the best thing about Salvia greggii is the fact that hummingbirds absolutely love it.

Salvias are great color plants for Texas. Many of them are native to the Southwestern United States so they bloom all summer long on annual rainfall.

Gomphrena (Bachelor’s Buttons)– Talk about a showy plant! Gomphrena grows into three foot mounds of foliage that are covered with round, button like flowers. You can find gomphrena in most colors. I have a lot of yellow flowering plants in my yard so I use two shades of purple. Gomphrena is a self-seeding annual. That means if you leave it alone the seeds from those hundreds of flowers will fall to the ground and remain dormant until spring. I like this plant because it does not really start blooming until most of my other flowers have faded. Look for blooms in June and enjoy them until the first good freeze.

I love gomphrena. This Texas Tough self-seeding annual blooms just as things begin to really heat up and then keeps blooming right up to the first freeze!

Celosia (Cock’s Comb) – When you are a gardener you just kind of assume that everyone knows as much about plants as you do. Each year, my celosia reminds me that this is not true. I guarantee that each time I use celosia in an arrangement someone is going to ask me what it is. Celosia comes in two types – the big velvety brain like varieties and the plume type. I love them both. I grow several colors and several varieties. These unusual flowers are also self-seeding and, like gomphrena, the start to bloom in June and then go all the way up to the first freeze.

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by. The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

A Garden Visit with Carolyn Williams by Patty Leander

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Jay White

Reve d’Or’ and ‘Peggy Martin’ roses spill gracefully from a trellis in Carolyn’s backyard. ‘Peggy Martin’ is the rose that survived Katrina (see postscript).

When Jay told me at the beginning of the year that he wanted to start a regular feature on gardeners from around the Lone Star state – not necessarily professionals, he said, but regular people who just happen to have a garden instinct and a green thumb – I immediately jotted down the names of several people. Right near the top of that list was this month’s featured gardener, Carolyn Williams.

Carolyn and her husband, Michael.

Hailing from a line of Texans five generations long, Carolyn has a certain credibility and contentment in her role as a gardener. She is not just a good gardener but a fun gardener, with a deep love for her family, her roses and tomatoes, her Texas roots and her Longhorns.

A labor of love – the garden cottage that Michael converted from an old cinder block storage area.

Our paths first crossed in the spring of 2000 while attending the training course for the Travis County Master Gardeners. At the time Carolyn was the office manager and travel coordinator for the University of Texas Longhorn Band. Can you imagine the logistics involved in such a job? From booking travel and lodging for the band to locating misplaced uniforms, she shepherded thousands of students through the frenzied and demanding season of marching band and football, all the while lending a supportive ear to their queries and quandaries. And as fate would have it one of those band kids was my oldest daughter, Katie, who earned a spot on the UT drumline in the fall of 2004. During those years Carolyn would occasionally lend ME a sympathetic ear; but as quickly as I could voice a concern over Katie’s studies and other responsibilities outside of band, Carolyn would calm any worries with comforting assurance of the organized, cooperative and capable environment of the band family.

A peek inside the garden cottage reveals items recycled from work projects, salvaged goods and freebie finds.

When she retired they had to hire two people to take her place – that tells you that Carolyn is a take charge, get-it-done kind of person, and after retiring from the Longhorn Band she eagerly began to transform her backyard, utilizing the knowledge gained as a Master Gardener to give her garden new life.

Crushed granite paths invite you into the garden to explore or just relax

As Carolyn says, “It’s so much better when you have a garden that sings to you rather than one that moans to you.”

Name: Carolyn Williams

Location: Austin, Texas

Years gardening: 50+, started helping my grandmother in her garden when I was young.

Years gardening in this garden: 37

Favorite thing to grow: Spring – roses & tomatoes; fall – salvias/sages/roses, etc.

Serious business – a tomato tasting in the garden cottage.

Best growing tip: Learn what grows naturally or easily adapted in your area! Amend your soil with compost every year. Keep records and learn from your mistakes.

Best pest control tip: Empty all water in the summer for mosquito control (somewhat), pick tomatoes when they first start turning pink or the birds/squirrels will eat them. If you have deer, make sure you research what plants they (mostly) will not eat.

Best weed control tip: After a rain and/or watering an area, pull up weeds in order to get the roots out or you’ll just have to redo a week later.

Biggest challenge: To maintain a large yard/garden and try to improve it along life’s path.

The four openings of the “Medicine Wheel” herb garden, built with salvaged bricks from an old Texas ranch house, represent birth, youth, maturity and end of life.

Favorite soil amendment: Compost always first, followed by a good overall fertilizer.

Preserving your harvest: This year I put up some Purple Hull peas and by the end of summer I will put up some fresh tomatoes to use for soups/stews during the fall and winter. Always freeze cut-up basil & oregano with olive oil and then pop them into freezer bags. Great for using throughout fall and winter!

Favorite advice: Gardeners make great friends to share life’s bounty with!

A view from inside the cottage shows Carolyn’s favorite thing about the cottage project – the heart with their initials carved by Michael.

Postscript: Though Carolyn bleeds orange, I believe she has a little soft spot for the Maroon and White. The beautiful ‘Peggy Martin’ rose that survived Katrina would never had made it to the retail trade – and Carolyn’s backyard – without the concerted efforts of retired A&M horticulture professor and rose expert Bill Welch. Read the story here: http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/southerngarden/PeggyMartinrose.html.

And she would not have had the opportunity to become a Master Gardener in the spring of 2000 if it hadn’t been for an Aggie – Skip Richter – Travis County’s Extension Horticulture Agent at the time. With an earnest desire to become a Master Gardener, Carolyn contacted the organization to sign up for the spring class only to be told that it was full. Because of her UT obligations taking a fall class was not feasible so she contacted Skip to plead for a spot in the spring class, explaining her involvement with the Longhorn band. This was just a month or so after the Aggie Bonfire tragedy in November 1999, and when Skip realized Carolyn’s connection with the Longhorn band and their moving halftime tribute at that year’s post-Thanksgiving game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rLj3vw5fwI) he arranged for her to take the class. A wise decision on his part as she went on to lead the organization as President and continues to be actively involved 15 years later. As I said, she is a get-it-done type of person, with a kindhearted and gracious spirit – just what we need more of these days.