A Garden Evolves
Mild temperatures in December have created a path of winter green in the garden.  Of special interest is the bed that greets neighborhood strollers as they travel down our street.  This garden was planted in 1998, with small plants, many of which Ann Marie had propagated from other plants in the garden.  Over time it has evolved, the site proved too harsh for some plants and others of interest have been added.  In particular, in the past year a corner with yarrow has had more drought tolerant plantings added.  Mulching this area required creativity.  While the appearance of a pea gravel mulch would be attractive and prevent the rotting of the succulent additions it also would wash down the slope of the garden and wind up in the street during heavy rains.  Fortunately good friend and horticulturist Henry Flowers came to the rescue with a suggestion to plant thyme as a living mulch.  Ann Marie is gradually arranging a patchwork of interesting thymes that will provide cover for the soil but also allow seedling poppies, larkspur and nigella to return each spring. Seasonal additions to this bed are rat tail radish plants, borage and chamomile.  Growing the interesting rat tail radish in the vegetable garden last year, Ann Marie decided to liven up the winter front bed with its slightly out of control branching and butterfly attracting flowers. Learn about some of the new plants.

Rat Tail Radish                                Raphanus sativus ‘caudatus’
Normally grown for the tasty seed pods that spice up stir fries, this has proven to be an attractive and unusual winter garden plant.  It does not form an enlarged root the way conventional radish plants do, but rather sends up 3-4 foot tall branching bloom stalks that seem to wave at passers by with fingers of four petaled white flowers edged in lavender and bright yellow stamens.   The leaves of this member of the Brassicaceae Family have a "ruffled" shape and a cheerful green color.

Aloe ‘Blue Elf’
This hybrid aloe was purchased at the 2006 Herbal Forum at Round Top and  has not yet survived an Austin winter.  It is reportedly hardy to 20 degrees F.    It is a dense growing aloe with bluish leaves and lovely orange and yellow tubular flowers.

Pregnant Onion                               Ornithogalum longebracteatum
Another interesting drought tolerant plant added to the garden in 2006 is what Ann Marie had known only as a houseplant.  The so-called pregnant onion is not an Allium at all, but is a member of the Liliaceae Family whose large, smooth skinned bulb grows on, not in, the ground.  Despite its name, this is not an edible plant and all parts are considered toxic!  The common name is derived from the bulblets that form under the skin of the bulb.  These are easily removed and placed in soil to form new plants, or will drop naturally and root. Native to South Africa is reported to be hardy to 25 degree F but has survived for several years in the gardens at Festival Hill  in Round Top, TX.  This fall it put out a tall blooms stalk with striking white and green star shaped flowers.  One interesting tidbit - a friend of Ann Marie’s remembers that as she was growing up in Southern Indiana a gift of this fun plant was a "must have" at  baby showers.

Ghost Plant                                         Graptopetalum paraguayense
These succulents are native to northeastern Mexico are hardy to 15 degrees F and have thick gray leaves arranged in rosettes forming what look like stone flowers.  They have spread quickly to create low growing bouquets of these rosettes.  They are easily propagated and often root when a single leaf falls to the ground.  The true flowers of this plant are far less spectacular than the leaf rosettes, in the spring stems of small off white flowers arise from the rosettes.  The are in the Crassulaceae Family