Spring coming and going

This is where my garden is now. The snapdragons that I purchased last fall have finally sprung into bloom. I like to leave casual elements in my garden as well as the more organized plantings. The coriander is extremely casual popping up where it feels like it. I let it seed every year because I like the frond-like foliage and the delicate white flowers. It compliments the more rigid structure of the snapdragon and adds life as it waves in the breeze, (at least to my eyes). This is my purple/white/gray garden although I find it very hard to stick to the theme. So there are some almost blues, some pretty obvious pinks and lots of shades in between. But yellows and obvious reds (except for berries) are out and I can stick to that.

This is a clump of dianthuses? (what is the plural of dianthus?). The pink is a shocking pink and the flower has bloomed for months. It's in the multi-colored garden and I have reservations about it but it is a really sturdy plant and seems to take whatever comes it's way climatically. That is worth a lot in Texas in my present state of partial local horticultural knowledge. So it will stay for the time being. Once I get the garden more established I hope it will get toned down by other plants around it.

This dianthus is in the white/purple/grey garden because it has lovely grey foliage. It's one I picked up in the big box stores when I first moved here, and has proved indestructible so far. It is gradually getting crowded by other larger plants so I will probably move at least some of it next fall. It just steadily keeps getting bigger year by year and tolerates whatever comes its way. I could with slight exaggeration say that it was this plant that gave me the desire to continue trying to garden here. This is so unlike any other environments that I have gardened in that I was beginning to despair in the possibility of ever getting a garden to grow.


These Betilla are over now but as you can see they did bloom. This is their second year and they seem to be doing well. I first saw them at Mayfield Gardens and loved them but my first try didn't work out. A series of accidents befell them and the position was a little too dark so they eventually gave up the ghost. I found another plant at Lowes, much to my amazement, and it has done well. I hope it continues to spread until it can make a more visible clump in the garden.
Waiting for plants to get larger reminds me of how time is an important quality in the garden. It seems gardeners need to be able to patiently wait and allow the plants to do their thing but they also need to understand when a plant needs emergency water, what stage of wilting demands a response. We go from watching and waiting to resuscitation as an immediate response. Time seems to slow down to an almost imperceptible pace or speed up as a flower unfolds and blooms. Then there are the different plant times, the annuals, the biennials and the perennials all of whom operate on a different time scale. The seasons also mark time with differing plant behaviors. It's a miracle that it all comes together (at least sometimes) and seems to perform fairly regularly.