I wanted to add more rain lilies to my front landscaping. They'll probably grow just a bit before the leaves die from frost, but otherwise, I wanted lots of surprises and rain lilies in the spring.

I also have been wanting more columbines but didn't realize the seeds need to go through a winterizing period. I always buy the seeds in spring and plant them in ground but see hardly any result. This time, I have prepared them and will try them with fall-planting also.

And also, just because the daffodils seem to do well as returning flowers in my yard, as well as coming up early enough to remind me that spring is on the way, I also will be adding more daffodils to the landscaping also.

Finally, just because I wanted to make use of my purple queen plants before the frost kills them for the year, I am taking many cuttings and putting them down everywhere I can think of. Anything that makes it next spring will be a joy and wonder to see.

I'm planning on mostly greens and some root vegetables if the weather holds out another month.

the fall garden
citrus trees and bamboo at my brothers
stuff from last weeks swap

Tally Ho!

I am west of austin and I garden a dry xeric alkaline rocky garden , I have very little water to spare so my choices are all about not watering and what is native.. This fall I gave up on the vegetable garden to focus on my land. I have planted 10 Texas Buckeys, An elbow bush, Garya, escarpment black cherry back in the valley. I have been seeding out a bunch of saved wildflower seeds., I dug up a bunch of calylophus and snakeweed broom and moved that back into the valley. The butterflies love the broom. I planted two salvia reglas, Namibian sage, 2 Salvia melisodora, 6 Muhlenbergia 'Pink Flamingo', 6 Agave ovatifolis, 3 agave striata 'Live Wire', 3 agave potrerana , 3 Veronia lindheimeri var leucophylla (silver leafed). I have been planting starts of Oenothera macrocarpa (silver leafed) .

I need to plant 3 apache plumes, 2 artemesia filifolia, 1 artemesia silver king and a pot of artemesia silver queen. I have a texas ranger 'thunder cloud" , a blue paloverde tree , I think I am overwhelmed. Where did all these plants come from!!!!!!! I have a BUNCH of blue bluestem that I have grown from seed, OH, I planted 2 out of 4 Sacaton wrightii grass. 2 more to go. I have a bunch of seedling nolinas and yucca baccatas and hesperalo funifera that needs going in.

Texas Ranger is mailing me a box tomorrow and I am off to the swap on Saturday. I am out of control!!!!!!!!!

I do most of my planting in the fall. Where I mess up is I buy plants all year and keep them alive and then when cool weather rolls around, I am throwing dirt and gravel this way and that and digging holes everywhere.

Wow Mara! What a wonderful collection of plants adapted to your site. I love it. What fun! Work -- yes, but fun work.

OH

After a trip to Huntsville, Al I came back with 'Catlin's Giant' Ajuga, 'Samural' toadlily, 'Fire Island' Hosta, 'Blueberry Sundae' spiderworth, 'Pink Fountain' Gaura, 'Southern Comfort' Heuchera, 'Fire Spinner' Iceplant, creeping raspberry, peacock spike moss, 'Josephine' Clematis, 2 packages of tulipas and 1 package of crocus (last three are chilling. We are in East Texas so I have hope for most of them.

Well the box came in and Now I need to dig holes for Stipa capillaries 'Bridalveil', Deer Muhley, Pine Muhley, ring muhley a 6 more Apache plumes. The digging will never end. I did plant a Coralbean (Erythrina herbacea) today before I headed into town. Every time I look around , there are more and not less pots. I hope the plant swap will clear out some , but I always bring home a carload for the carload I take. MY husband is getting tired of the totally out of controlled pot ghetto.It has progressed to pot favela statusâ¦â¦Truly, I am not obsessed.

My fall planting (El Paso area) (in addition to the ones I already mentioned in the ID the volunteer thread):

--one Arizona rosewood and a Mexican Redbud tree for front side strip. I do hope the Mexican Redbud does well!

--for the back: a sotol, two agave parryi (and two more pups from them), and . . . 3 regal mist muhly.

Good god Mara where did you find 6 ovatifolias? Just wanted to remind everyone that the botanical gardens are having their sale this Saturday.

I have been collecting them from East Austin Succulents and some from Great Outdoors in Austin. Some are 5 gallons and some were tiny and I grew them for a year and one was the yearend sale at High Country gardens. I have been buying things for awhile and growing them in pots and now is the big push for the year. I love Ovatifolias . That are such a good match for my land. I am going for that "drift" of them. I want more of this 4 footer. It is 1 out of two. I planted these years ago and they have taken 12F and and all that drought with NO water. Cold and wet? easy! I want them drifting through the trees.

That drift you have planned with Ovatifolias among the oak trees will look like a series of photos I saw that a guy took of them growing wild on hillsides among trees in Mexico. They were magnificent. Do you know the set of photos I'm talking about? I searched, but couldn't find them. They were linked from a blog several years ago, or maybe from the Cactus Forum.

Do you get any offsets from your Ovatifolias? I don't think they offset often, but one at Antique Rose Emporium had a pup.

Your photo is beautiful, little red flags and all ... :-)

Ragna, those photos that you are talking about were my inspiration. . I know the photos well. They are bookmarked. I would love to get somer boulders but they don't fit in the back of my car. No A. ovatifolias do not offset.

I would like to do another drift of Agave montanas on the other side of my bridge. I used to have 10 montanas waiting to go into the ground but they got nipped by the winter. I think I have three of 4 now. That is a beginning. But I need to take out the poison ivy first. So much to do.

Here is a link that might be useful: Inspiratioal Agave photos

Ovatifolias or whales tongue agaves don't pup but they supposedly put out bulbils on their flowering stalks. We have alot here at the botanical gardens but there still juveniles. My recently got some from YuccaDo and there babies. Have you tried Parryi, Maria? Tight artichoke like rosettes.

I had a few A. parryi truncatas that were putting on size and the wet cold got them last winter. That hurt. I had had them 10 years. I still have one that is hanging on. I have started a A. parryi huachensis that has some striping in one leaf. I have made my soil MUCH faster draining. sometimes, I feel like I am piling rocks with a tiny bit of gravelly dirt in-between. ( for the A. victoria regina and A nickelsai (sp?).I have a Agave striata that blooms four or more stalks every year and keeps pupping off the stem and one does not see the parts die. It just keeps going. . Great plant. another bullet proof plant. I took seed off of it and have started about 50 plants . TINY TINY right now. It is making more seed right now. Almost ready to split.

I have killed my fair share of agaves, so I try to stay with the hardier ones. No Burnt burgundies, Coloradas , gemniflora, and the like. I have learned my lesson. Stick with the tried and true A striata, A. proto-american, A scabra. Athracknose is a bugger in our winters. A. Montanas are very susceptible to it. I am sticking with the agaves from North eastern Mexico. They are more comfortable with moisture.

Mara, that's it! That's the whale tongue agave wonderland. Wouldn't you love to have some of the variegated agaves he shows in the photos? I've looked at those beautiful photos so many times before and have now bookmarked it.

Roses, perennials such as salvia Gregii, Bluebeard, perennial sunflower and abelias.