Cheering for the Survivors

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Meredith

Because of all this house painting I’ve been doing, I’ve had to rely on the kids to help water, and I was starting to experience garden and blog withdrawal symptoms. So today I got out the camera and trekked around the yard getting my scheduled watering done and snapping a few pictures along the way. I also took another veggie class this morning (more on that in a separate post). So I got my infusion of “green” this morning. And as soon as I finish blogging, I get to go back to… you guessed it… painting. Houses are big! Even small houses!

Today I honor and recognize my yard’s truly amazing Survivors. In our Texas heat wave, really every plant that still has chlorophyll is a survivor, but some of my plants have overcome some of the worst situations to keep on growing despite the odds against them. I give you… the Survivors.

The Challenge: Being gnawed to the ground, dug out, dragged across the yard, trampled, peed on, or otherwised abused by THE DOGS

There are numerous survivors here, including our sweet remaining Mexican Redbud and Hop Trees, and others. The Goldenball Leadtree shown here survived not only the dogs chewing it in half, but the fire ants that made a colony in the original planter (I had to survive those fire ants, too, because I found out about them the hard way). I can’t wait to see blooms on this little guy, by the way. Little golden puffballs!

The Challenge: Growing in the side yard, which means being in a place that is so low priority on the watering scale that they often get forgotten.

Lucky for the sideyard plants, I’ve been rinsing my paintbrushes out there (fyi, we’re using eco-friendly paint), so they are getting more water than they are used to, and they are using the opportunity to grow, recover, and even bloom. I have several survivors of this challenge, but here are pictures of Salvia “Indigo Spires,” Flame Acanthus, Turk’s Cap, and Inland Sea Oats. The Inland Sea Oats also have been mowed over several times when we thought they were long gone or something else.

The Challenge: Surviving where others have failed

My first Chile Pequin simply struggled to grow, and I assumed it was because it needed more water than I could regularly provide. But after it died, I bought another and planted it in similar shade a few feet away, in the neglected side yard. Though it gets even less water than the first, the new one has grown to about a foot tall already.

The Challenge: Thriving despite being told, “You’re too old”

Our house was built in 1971, and we’ve lived here 14 years. We have two huge Arizona Ash Trees in the front yard, and we were told five years ago that the trees were at full maturity and would die at any time. Well, they continue to do fine, so well that they once again have blanketed our sidewalks and yard in golden leaf-like seeds. We never water the two trees, which a neighbor suggested might be why ours do well where others have died off. Regardless, we thank them for their shade.

The Challenge: Being a tree planted in late February as opposed to fall/winter, and then surviving what we think was overwatering

Lacey Oak is one of our favorite trees, and our tiny one just recently caved to the heat and abuse by dogs. But this other beauty of a tree was planted a little late in the season in the front yard, and we were determined that it would not die to transplant shock or heat. But after a few months, we became concerned at the number of leaves turning brown or partially brown. At first we thought it needed more water, but now I think it was overwatering that might be cause. We backed off on the watering, and it’s hanging on. Grow, baby, grow!

The Challenge: Surviving despite our best efforts to (purposely) kill it

We’re NOT cheering for these, by the way. There are some plants that keep growing back despite how hard you try to kill them off — weeds, of course, Bermuda grass, and so on, but in this case I’m referring to Chinaberry and Gum Bumelia.

Chinaberry is an exotic invasive, and it grows from any little bit of root you accidentally leave in the soil, and of course from the numerous berries. The neighbor’s mother tree has been removed, but we are still trying to dig out shoots from a root so deep we can’t get to it, and others growing out from under the air conditioner. This next time, I’m pouring on the vinegar.

The Gum Bumelia is a Texas native, and it made me a little sad to remove the ones growing directly behind the house, but their spines are exceptionally long and hazardous, and they blocked us from having any other use for that area right by our patio. Even cutting them down led to numerous spines in the dirt, and we had to pull many out of our shoes and sometimes (ouch) feet. I can’t get to all the culprit roots, so I’ll try vinegar on these, too.

The Challenge: Being the tiniest plant to survive several TX freezes in a season, with some winter-wise TLC

This Yellowbells, or Texas Esperanza, plant was a tiny little 4-inch guy that was planted just before a series of freezes in central Texas. My efforts (watering and covering) to keep it and its neighbors apparently did the trick, because they all survived. Is that an assassin bug in there? I hope so. Be good bug, not bad bug.

The Challenge: Surviving being a tree planted in full sun in the heat of the summer

We couldn’t resist buying this big Mexican lime for such a cheap price, and then we realized how perfect it was for a bright spot by our patio. We decided to take the chance and plant it and not to get too mad at ourselves if it didn’t make it. It’s actually doing pretty well, and its leaves let us know when it needs water. I even got to pull a lime off it, though it was probably already growing when we bought the tree.

The Challenge: Making a comeback despite being near death when finally getting put in the ground

Again, numerous survivors here, but one of my Rose Pavonias (Texas Rock Rose), a Gaura, and a Basketgrass (Nolina) got photos taken. The Nolina doesn’t look like much, but trust me, we’re happy to see some green.

The Challenge: Staying alive in full sun as tiny seedlings until another growing season began, and then finally starting to grow

My son’s mixed bell pepper seedlings, planted in a recycled recycling bin.

The Challenge: Being overshadowed by towering plants, but blooming once those died off (the Na-na-na-na-na Challenge)

That would be one of our Pink Skullcaps, accidentally sandwiched between the tall kind of Zinnias since spring.

The Challenge: Surviving the worst we can throw at a plant, short of acid

Perhaps the winner of all winners should be my very first Dutchman’s Pipevine, which has survived being dragged across the yard by the dogs, having its leaves completely stripped by dogs and roofers (in cleaning up their mess), being drowned, being underwatered, being smothered by a foot of leaves, being transplanted multiple times, and more. It is now hopefully in a permanent spot, alongside more of its kind, with something to challenge it to grow taller.

There are plenty of other survivors in my yard that also deserved their tales told, but it’s time to paint. 🙂

I end with a picture of Loki, doing what he needs to survive…

The Ever-Growing List

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Meredith

Lookee, lookee! Something new is on my sidebar. It’s a list of all the plants in my garden. Click there, or click here, and take a look!

It’s a work in progress, and as I add new plants, so will I add to the list. But at long last, I finally got off my tush and, well, sat on my tush, and typed up the list of plants. I’ve only finished adding scientific names for the Texas-native plants, but I will catch up on the others. Any other errors are purely accidental!

Flower Anatomy

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Meredith

Ahhh, the Texas Rock Rose (Pavonia lasiopetala). Such a favorite. It’s also known as Rose Pavonia and Rose Mallow. This gorgeous perennial is native to Texas and Mexico, but it is part of a larger family that has species native to various countries. Texas Rock Rose loves limestone-filled clay soil and doesn’t mind the drought, which is good because I have plenty of both. And the little flowers really stand out against the limestone rocks of my pond and my stone house, looking like a miniature hibiscus or wild rose. But each individual part of the rock rose is as beautiful and fascinating as the rest. And as it turns out, the rock rose is a great plant to use for a lesson in flower anatomy.

Texas Rock Rose, like other flowering plants, is an angiosperm. In this case, it’s considered a short-lived flowering perennial.

Each young bud is surrounded by green bracts, or modified leaves. The long, skinny bracts start out parallel to the bud, but then open up to reveal a whorl of green wider modified leaves called sepals.

You can see that the whorl of sepals is in a group of five. The sepals form a star when they open. The rock rose shows off this star shape again and again. It’s a rock star! (Did you just groan? I heard that.)

Despite my bad joke, the fact that the flower parts are in multiples of five is actually important. This indicates that the rock rose can be classified as a eudicot, one of the groups of angiosperms.

When the bud opens, the sepals are almost flat. They remain to protect and support the flower. Being green, they also contribute to photosynthesis. Together, the whorl of sepals is called the calyx. A star-shaped calyx. 🙂

One reason I am drawn to this star theme is because Texas is known as the Lone Star State, making the star shapes in the flower very appropriate. But who can resist the way nature can produce such a perfect five-pointed star again and again?

As the sepals open, you begin to see the pink within. In this picture you can see a closed bud, an opening new bud, and an existing flower that has closed up. The rock rose flowers react to both temperature and light — they will close up in the hottest part of the day and when it is dark.

When the bud opens to reveal the flower, you can see the whorl of five pink petals. This whorl is called the corolla. Some corollas are fused, but in the rock rose, the five petals are distinct. The rock rose also only has a single whorl of petals — some other flowers have a double whorl. The calyx (sepals) and corolla (petals) together form the perianth.

The bright pink flowers help to attract pollinators to the reproductive unit of the flowers. The rock rose flower is “perfect” in terms of botany; it has both male and female parts. Plants like these are also called hermaphroditic, or bisexual. They can self-fertilize or be pollinated by insects or wind, or at my house by getting brushed up against by dogs.

It’s hard to miss the bright yellow pollen of the rock rose. But if you look closely at the pollen, you will see that the grains are clumped at the end of tiny pink filaments. The anther at the end of a filament produces the pollen. The filament and anther together form the stamen. The filaments are attached to the stamen tube, or staminal column, seen here as a white cylinder. All these parts together form the male part of the flower.

It is interesting to note that the plentiful pollen of the rock rose is sometimes gathered for its Vitamin E and other health benefits.

In the rock rose, the female structures are mostly hidden inside the staminal column. The female structures are collectively called the pistil. You can see the sticky stigmas protruding from the stamen tube. Some stigmas have little hairs on them. The stigmas are at the ends of the female tube, called a style. At the base of the style, the ovary contains the ovules, which in turn contain the female egg producers.

The pollen lands on the stigma and germinates, growing a pollen tube down the style to the ovary and ovules. The sperm travel from the pollen down the pollen tube to fertilize the eggs within the ovules. And with a number of divisions, a seed is born! In the case of the rock rose, I understand the plant is a happy seed producer, to the dismay of some gardeners. At the moment, I don’t mind if it spreads some. I have room.

In this photograph, you can see that some pollen grains have landed and adhered to a couple of stigmas.

Turning attention to the green portion of the plant, the lightly-toothed, velvety leaves of the Texas Rock Rose form an alternate pattern on the stem. I find it interesting that a single bud and leaf “stem” from the same node on the main stem.

I recently added another species of rock rose to the garden as well, Brazilian Rock Rose (Pavonia braziliensis). If it starts to gets out of control, too, I’ll give priority to the native variety. Pretty white flower, you have been warned!

The burgundy center provides quite the contrast to the white corolla. The petals are larger than that of the Texas Rock Rose, giving the corolla a more rounded appearance. From the back (see the crumpled petals in the background), the petals have a similar pink vein to that of the Texas Rock Rose.

Hey, even the burgundy forms a star shape!

Whatever the flower parts, whatever the species, the rock rose is beautiful. Dare I say, it’s a star.