Lavender Woes?

What is happening to our big luscious lavender shrub?? For some reason, the lavender has decided to start killing off branches. What was once a sprawling happy flowering shrub has--over the last 2 weeks--started dying back. What gives? Too much rain? Perhaps the shock between the rain and the heat is overwhelming it. I can't figure it out. It's clearly been very happy in its place for many years. Maybe its time is done...oh i hope not. I would miss the smell of lavender greeting me every day in the back garden, and new lavender plants are notoriously difficult to get off the ground and running. Speaking of, I decided that maybe the problem was that it never looks to have been pruned, which means it's pretty woody. So, last weekend, I pruned all the growing flowering tips off in hopes that I could save it. Still, large branches seem to be wilting and turning a bad gray color.

If anyone out there in the ether reads this and knows what's going on: let me know!

Glacial Time, Glacial Beauty

It's always struck me that the garden, or landscape in general, is anathema to our current quick culture pop deluxe. I grew up with the TV and fast food, and these and other things breed a need for instant gratification. Don't like it? Flip the channel. Gardening and growing takes time, sometimes a lot of time. You can plant a tree now and not see it come to full fruition for 30-50 years. To think in these long terms--growing seasons and years--is like working on an oil painting that will never dry.

So, our recent trip to Glacier National Park heightened this feeling even more. In the park, I became keenly aware (over five days time) how things were shaped in the landscape over millions of years. Rocks, soils, plants and animals all evolving together--changing together--over the major and minor shifts in climate .

One of the coolest things about learning more about native plants, both here in Texas and in Wisconsin, is being able to recognize those plants and their relatives across the American landscape. In Glacier, I recognized species (or relatives) of many--baneberry, snowberry, geranium, paintbrush, lupines, hawthorn, cottonwood, aspen, rue, anemone, aster... Many more plants than that were totally new to me.

It was an exciting and awe-inspiring place, but I don't want to go on and on about it. Here's a slide show (an experiment) of just a few of the plants, rock formations and bugs seen at Glacier. (By the way, we did also see grizzly and black bears, moose, marmots, big horn sheep, mountain goats...a true American safari!)

The Ginger Flowers?

This is all I've seen from the crazy ginger plant. Is this all we get?

Queens of the Garden

I stepped out the other morning and happened to spy the dark chrysalis of a Queen butterfly hanging on the haberdleaf hibiscus. I knew it was a Queen (Danaus gilippus) immediately, because the chrysalis looked much like the it's sister, the Monarch, and because I'd randomly seen a Queen caterpillar wandering around the hibiscus stems a week or two ago.

A few minutes later, and this beautiful male Queen emerged. (You can tell it's a dude because of the black spot on his hind wing. From this spot, the male sprays pheromone into the wind for the lusty ladies.)

FYI, in the Danaus butterflies of North America, there's the Monarch, the Queen and the Soldier. Those entomologists...

Basil Beauty

The height that the basil grows here in Austin may never cease to amaze me! (This is probably about 3 feet tall.) I've learned that the herb does much better planted in the ground--I definitely don't have to water it as much as the basil planted in pots. I better make some pesto soon...maybe this time I'll try it with walnuts. Mmmm.

Ginger Bud

Okay, I'll admit it: I was a little hasty last fall when I started pulling out all of these tropical looking plants in the back herb garden. They were taking over a bit and competing with the much-adored lavender. As I pulled them, I realized that they were ginger, something I'd never before seen in the green and growing form. So, I put the roots in pots and hoped I could turn them into potted plants. Well, that failed.

But thankfully, my evil spade missed some of the ginger in the garden (by the wall of the house).

Now, one of the plants is sending forth this amazing set of artichoke-looking flower buds. Actually, it's more like a pine cone. Well, either way, it's a Fibonacci sequence based beauty. Simply gorgeous. I wonder what the flowers will look like? How long they will last?