plants: Lacey Oak Disease?

This is the second year in a row that I've noticed these yellow spots taking over the leaves on my pretty little lacey oak, Quercus laceyi. It seems like a fungus, but I can't find any reference to it online. All searches turn up info on the oak wilt, but this doesn't look like images of any of that. Does anyone out there have any clues?

text: Things We Love Vol. 1 No. 2

plants: Purple Beauty Berries

It may be 102 degrees out there in the shade, but these bright purple berries are a sure sign that fall is around the corner. (It may be a really long Las Vegas-sized block though, with a corner that's much further away than appears at first sight.) The American beauty berries have begun their purple show around the yard. This is a great native plant for shady spots, and really puts on a show in the fall before the birds come and snatch away all the berries. In fact, if these berries make it to fall, I'll be surprised. The mockingbirds love these berries, and subsequently have spread the shrubs around the yard.

spaces: Austin Before Hurricane Ike

This is what Austin looked like before President Eisenhower and the Interstates and cars took over our lives. So serene. So human-scaled. This view of East Avenue pre-I-35 is at about 19th Street, which is now called MLK. Look at all the cute houses and nice trees lining the avenue. I can imagine strolling down the street on a balmy summer eve. Sigh.

The larger building in the center of the photo and on the west side of East Avenue is Brackenridge Hospital on 15th, which has since been replaced. Teeny weeny downtown Austin peeks into the photo in the way right corner.

I try not to romanticize the past too much, but it would be so great to never ever have built I-35, at least where it is today. In my fantasy world, all the cars disappear in one wink of a moment, drivers fall gently to the streets, and no one is hurt. The Killing Machines are gone, and we go back to living and moving through our lives humanely.

Tons of cool images like this one showing other parts of Austin roads throughout history on TexasFreeway.com.

plants: Coneflower Seed Bombs

I'm a big fan of purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea. In my opinion, it's really difficult to have too many of them. They are beautiful when in bloom with deep purple-pink petals and bright orange centers, and they're a native of our prairies that has spread around the globe in the horticultural market. They also don't seem to require much babying, and are happy to spread around; two characteristics that I'm a big fan of.

But there is a time of year (NOW), when they start looking a bedraggled. The flowers are done and the seeds have matured, leaving these ugly black seedheads behind.

They make the garden look dead and kind of wintery. (Winter it is not.) Now, the finches love these seedheads, so if you have a mind to attract wildlife to the garden, they are perfect. In the fall, the little birds will perch on these black pompoms and pick out the seeds. I often leave them for the finches and call the mess beautiful a la Piet Ouldof, but this year, I have other plans...I'm using them as echinacea seed bombs.

Guerilla gardeners are fans of making seed bombs by mixing seeds and clay together, then lobbing them onto vacant property to spread the gospel of flowers. I love that.

Well, I think echnicacea has made this job quite easy, by creating perfect little seed bombs naturally. So this weekend I clipped off all of the seedheads and threw them into this plastic bag. Voila! Seeds ready to bomb.

The plan is to spread these around my yard even more, but I also can't wait to spread them around the greenbelt near my house. It is really wanting some purple coneflowers. And the finches will love it!

critters: Snowberry Clearwing Caterpillars

Isn't that just a beautiful caterpillar? I found this one and another munching away on our coral honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens) yesterday. First, I noticed the frass on the ground, and then looking up found the culprits.

This is really exciting! These are the larvae of the Snowberry Clearwing or Bumblebee hawkmoth (Hemaris diffinis), one of the most beautiful of the sphingid moths. It is one of the rare day flyers, and has evolved to mimic the bumblebee. Potential predators likely steer clear because they think they'll get stung.

I love the golden crown on the caterpillar's head. It's an easy way to recognize these.

The adults fly and reproduce two or maybe three times a year, and apparently the fall brood caterpillars might be brown instead of green. Here's a photo of an adult I snapped feeding on a Texas mountain laurel flower this past spring (iPhone photo, sorry).

So, if you plant a coral honeysuckle vine, you can help support these beautiful pollinators!