Mexican Bush Sage

“Bark at the Moonflower”

ESPatch Jun 6, 2011 18 comments

Oh yes, we’re under starter’s-orders and we’re off to a very classy start…poor Ron, a mandrake looking root AND an elephant butt comparison shot. I am not sure which is scaring him most?

We have had yet another week of hot temperatures in central Texas in tandem with some ridiculous humidity. My belt buckle (in reaction to the latest install I am executing) retracted one notch by Friday and my already full laundry basket is now officially out of control, yes best keep pulling that face Ron, I do every time I have to shimmy by it. It seems like the recent humidity has also triggered the Texas “barometer plant” to flush out its purple blooms all over town. Texas sage or…

Leucophyllum frutescens

also called purple sage, texas ranger, silverleaf, white sage, ash bush and sensia. Purple sage comes from shrublands on limestone slopes in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. This is one tough plant, it can face droughts, freezes, high winds, salt spray, hungry deer, and blazing heat and keep right on performing beautifully. It can also apparently make for a good container plant, though I have no personal experience with it in this capacity…do you?

The plant does have a tendency to get very large and leggy. I keep both of mine trimmed extremely tight to promote a denser habit and I remove their lower branches for better form.

I grow other plants like Mexican bush sage and rosemary to obscure and detract from this plants lower ‘bare’ areas.

And when they do bloom their soft purple blooms…

all manner of insects take advantage. The flowers are really unusual looking set against the silver backdrop of the foliage.

Some major events happened this week in the Patch:

Training wheels came off…

…and we got a new addition to the family:

Mmm, not quite,

but I can see some similarities.

Meet Kumo.

Like me he has an infinity for Mexican feather grasses,

and he is keeping the halflings very, very busy. I cringe every time his dashes across my central bed which houses my barrel cactus.

Damianita

Compositae Chrysactinia mexicana

seems to thrive in the current furnace, as you can see it is already on its second wave of blooms. This is a great native evergreen plant with a low mounding growth, the plants aromatic foliage is also a deer and rabbit deterrent.

Bristly sunflowers have also started to unfurl and spring into action.

attracting their usual band of garden outlaws:

Sunflowers are sometimes planted as trap crops for Stink/leaffooted bugs, providing superior food plants for the bugs while also attracting their natural enemies.

Umbrellas in combination with a sprinkler have been novelty items this week. Okay if you insist – just one more insect. This one would be perfect for Halloween.

Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle,

Labidomera clivicollis

Interesting visitor considering I have no milkweed. Does anyone have any experience with swamp milkweed here in Austin? This beetle comes in a quite a few color variations and looks like a really large ladybug. If you are interested in insects, bugs, snakes etc you should most certainly check out the great photography in this fine Missouri blog: http://mobugs.blogspot.com/

Life in my swamps and ponds has gone berserk of late. I thinned these water lilies out only a week ago and now look at them! They do make for fantastically nutritionally-rich compost bin fodder though, I am not complaining.

How they continue to fly like this never ceases to amaze me, though I can guess who is probably in charge of navigation.

Inspirational Image of the week:

Stay Tuned for:

“Oh Yucca”

All material © 2011 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Tickling Leopards”

ESPatch Feb 18, 2011 11 comments

I tickled this giant leopard moth

Ecpantheria scribonia

caterpillar into submission today with a feather, it screamed a tiny scream and thrashed it’s multiple legs,

before it submissively rolled into it’s customary protective posture, predominately displaying it’s brightly colored bands. Woolly bear or fuzzy bear caterpillars are often found in the fall and winter in Texas after they have left their food-plants in search of a dark and sheltered spot where they can hibernate as larvae for the winter, usually under a deep layer of leaves. When spring kicks in, these caterpillars will become active, feeding then fashioning cocoons out of silk and body hairs…

And what fine creatures these huge cocoons turn into…

The Great Leopard Moth.

Hypercompe scribonia

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The ESPatch has been very quiet of late, like it has had the wind knocked out of it with the recent harsh weather and is in a period of shock, denial and I hope complete recovery. Very few creatures are seen roaming the plains and I have witnessed distinct signs that the Naboo are once again heavily into their cannibalistic tendencies. Worst of all, the Botox lady has lost half her bottom lip to frost bite, she is totally devastated as you can imagine.

Remember this frozen scene?

These are my tropical Madame Ganna Walska water lilies, submersed under a rather thick layer of ice, not their preferred habitat of choice.

Oh yes, they came out the thaw looking a little shocked to say the least. While I pulled on the worst hit slushy pads, I happened to dislodge one of these sci-fi abominations…

“Number one, we need to try and establish communications…see what it wants, determine what its needs are”!

These very odd stems are affectionately known as, and casually referred to in the Patch nonchalantly as brains, as in…“Look dad, there is a brain!” “Oh yes, well spotted! 2 points for…” These reproductive lily pods rank up there as some of the strangest phenomena to grace the interior of the Patch pond, very primordial, and they never fail to induce a conniption when one unexpectedly decides to roll over the back of my hand. I cannot tell you how many times I have slapped and tore at my own hands when one accidentally alights on it.

Unwell, agaves.

Also looking very primordial right now are the remains of my agave americana. The recent freezes really took a toll on these once magnificent plants. All of the foliage has been decimated but the singular vertical spike dictates that the plant’s core still is alive and kicking. I trimmed back all of the soggy foliage to allow the plants to focus their energy on new foliage replenishment…these singular tusks, dotted all around the Patch look very odd, to say the least.

This one prematurely aged in the freezes.

At least the americana are doing better than my octopuses.

“Shaken, and most certainly stirred”.

No need for the gun here Roger! Out of all of the pups that I painstakingly planted from: http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2008/07/backyard-ocd/, very few have made it due to the last two years of harsh winter freezes.

I come across them dotted here and there, oozing onto the granite like beached mythical creatures.

Just when I thought that my Mexican lime tree could not get any brighter:

There is still some green in the branches so I am hoping I will not have to cut it back to the base like I did last year.

Even my satsuma is showing some strain this year, unheard of.

My Buddha’s Belly Bamboo also looks bad right now but it will quickly green-up come the spring’s warming temperatures.

On a brighter note…

all my small sedums breezed through the freeze with ease,

and the rising bluebonnets offer a visual reminder that color is once again around the corner. (Thanks Jenny).

And I am ready for spring. My trusty steeds have been having quite the workout of late implementing this design scheme:

The front has been simply re-structured to match the new back aesthetic…

And the back has had a bit of a nip and a tuck…

…the back beds are now fully prepped and ready for planting. The circular feature is the future home of an Arizona ‘blue ice’ cypress, what else! The two curved kidney beds will incorporate prostrate rosemary, a weaving line of bush sages and dotted dwarf miscanthus.

Last and most certainly not least:

Happy 6th Miss P. xxx

Stay Tuned for:

“Mad Birds and Englishmen”

All material © 2011 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.