Most of us scoop up a bunch of pansies to get our annual color fix throughout winter and there definitely isn’t anything wrong with that. But there’s another option for you. If brilliant color in a cold tolerant plant is what you crave, take a look at the...
It’s coming, it’s really coming. The REAL cold weather is right around the corner. South Central Texas folks are certainly aware that the temperatures can rise and fall from day to day with no sense of a pattern. We get as much of a warning for weather...
Is there a picture that pops into your mind when you hear the word “xeriscape”? I know that when I first envisioned what this word meant, I pictured sparse, twiggy plants, with little to no color, sticking up out of dry dusty soil. Maybe an occasional green cactus...
A trip to the softball fields in Burleson, Texas this weekend had me running for my notebook to jot down my thoughts for a PSA blog this week. One look at the trees that lined the perimeter of the fields and i just knew I had to write a PSA on Cedar Fever, and the...
It’s tree and shrub planting season, y’all! Fall is the best time to plant, replace, and transplant shrubs in your landscape. Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens), also called Cenizo, just happens to be one of my favorites, so today I’m highlighting...
There’s a valid reason we tend to stress observing leaves as one of your most powerful gardening tools. Things can change in a day or overnight in the gardening world. Have you ever noticed one or two holes in the leaf of a broccoli plant and thought,...
During fall we get greeted by sunshine earlier in the mornings and treated to a soft glow as the sun winds down for the day. One of my favorite ways to experience the shift in the pattern of the sun is through the wispy fronds of ornamental grasses. Fall is definitely...
On Wednesday I got to sit in on another great Rainbow Gardens seminar and decided to offer you all a little recap. Today’s seminar was on planting wildflowers in San Antonio. Laura Jarvis walked attendees through the steps needed to successfully sow wildflower...
If you’ve taken our advice about fall being the best time for planting trees, shrubs, and perennials, you are probably chomping at the bit to get to planting. Hopefully you’ve done some research on which plants you want to incorporate into your landscape, where you...
Don’t you love how just the thought of the arrival of fall allows us to turn our attention to gardening again? And turn our attention we should! Planning for gardening tasks in fall should be a top priority for these next couple of months. These next few weeks,...
Urban pollinator gardens are a way to help build local ecosystems and support the biodiversity that is abundantly found within them. By definition, ecosystems are geographical areas where organisms (both living and nonliving) work together to create a communicable,...
Sometimes I feel that lantana gets a bad rap at the nurseries. Customers will come in asking for perennial, deer resistant, drought tolerant, low maintenance plants for their landscapes but then say, “but nothing boring like lantana”. What?! Here is a plant that...
You know how at the end of summer, plants look a little peaked and you are craving some color in your landscape but the weather is still too warm for cool weather annuals to really live comfortably? Enter the solution. Profusion zinnia is a great choice for...
More and more people are learning about Duranta being an amazing pollinator plant for butterflies and hummingbirds and I couldn’t be more thrilled. If you’ve never heard of this plant, or seen it in action, you are in for a treat today. I’m taking...
Mystic Spires Salvia is a fabulous butterfly and bee attracting plant to include in your pollinator gardens. The sheer number of blooms that this salvia puts out sends the pollinators into a dizzy frenzy as they visit each and every flower. Take a look at some...
Butterfly and pollinator gardens are hot topics, especially since we are on the cusp of the fall pollinator migration about to soar through San Antonio. Today I wanted to highlight a few of the amazing plants that live in our butterfly garden at our Bandera location....
Shrubs are an important part of San Antonio landscapes. Shrubs not only provide aesthetic beauty to you homes, they also can offer screening/privacy, shade, and some provide food (berries) and shelter for wildlife. It’s important to research the shrubs you are...
Water conservation is no joke here in San Antonio, Texas. It’s feast or famine in our neck of the woods. Conserving water might not be on our minds when we have a spring that is so wet and cloudy we struggle to get our tomatoes to blossom and fruit. On the other hand,...
If you want monarch butterflies to visit your garden this fall and spring, planting milkweed in your landscape is a must! Not only is milkweed a great nectar source for thirsty pollinators, it is also THE ONLY host plant that monarch butterflies lay their eggs upon....
What do you need to be ready for the fall garden season? A little prep and some forethought could be all it takes. The following article addresses a few timely gardening tasks in the landscape and in your vegetable gardens that will have you ready and raring to go for...
