Skip to main content

The Moment

Every gardener's had one - that moment you see a plant that's irresistible even though there's no room for it, it's probably going to freeze dead its first winter, it's exotic and you now have a native plants only policy, or some other perfectly good argument that is somehow easily dismissed until you get past the check out area and are on your way home with the plant.   Of course, we have the willpower of an addict when presented with our drug of choice.

I experienced such a moment last summer when I stumbled upon some fairly pitiful 6 foot tall trees that were labeled Bauhinia mexicana and priced at a mere $5.  They had seriously outgrown their nursery pots, likely had circling roots, definitely had yellowing leaves, BUT they were only $5 and they were supposed to bloom pink!  How could I not?  My garden is already home to four other Bauhinias, all with fairly small but lovely white flowers.  Needless to say, within an hour my guilty pleasure had been lovingly and hopefully planted near its family members.

Yesterday I experienced another kind of moment - the one every gardener lives for.  I was taking pictures of the rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) in bloom.  This in itself was "a moment", as I love this plant but never had any success until the tiny transplants received from Jenny at Rock Rose established themselves over the winter and only yesterday popped into bloom.  As my family says this time of year, that would have been enough.

But then, oh my.  I turned around and literally gasped.  That pitiful specimen purchased last summer had produced this ...


Four inches across and spectacular, with many more buds poised to stun me again with beauty.  Now I know for certain why Bauhinia is called the "orchid tree".  And I'm unrepentant for my impulse buy in spite of all the reasons against it.   Yes, the tree may freeze next winter, I may not have rid it of all the circling roots, it was probably mislabeled, and it's not a native - but just look at that flower.  
Definitely worth the $5, wouldn't you say?





Comments

Rilly said…
it's absolutely gorgeous...I'd say you more than got your money's worth.
katina said…
Very nice - looks a bit like guara...
Cristy said…
Definitely worth every penny. And maybe it will surprise you and grow. Love sometimes does that to plants in the garden--gives them new life that no one expected.
Layanee said…
I would say you owe them some money dear heart! I saw Bauhinia at Disney world this past February and it is pure delight. Oh, yes, garden addict, how many did you say you bought?
vbdb said…
Layanee - only got the one but it's putting on a show. As one flower fades, another opens. It's making up a little for those impulse purchases that died before they could get planted.
Anonymous said…
Absolutely beautiful.
Bob said…
That is one stunning bloom. Lucky girl.
Annie in Austin said…
Your bauhinia is absolutely gorgeous. Henry Mitchell's advice that "Temptation is the Mother of Excellence" seems true in your garden....
So stay unrepentant VBDB!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose
vbdb said…
After reading your comments, and enjoying the flush of new blooms that appears each day to replace the faded ones, I am even more unrepentant for my impulse purchase. Thank you for your support!

Popular posts from this blog

Ho-hum to Habitat: My Path to Native Bees - Resources

San Antonio's Festival of Flowers will resume this Saturday, June 3, 2023, after a break of three years.    I've been given the opportunity to share how I garden, as well as a general overview of our native bees.   A link to a Google doc containing my handout (the info dense slides from my presentation) follows this list of resources.  Note that if you didn't attend, some of the handout pages may not make complete sense.     Hyperlinks to more resources: https://www.wildbeestexas.com/ https://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/jha/research/native-bee-communities https://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=TX_central https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/BeginnerBeeFieldGuide_11March2022_LowRez.pdf https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/nongame/native-pollinators/bumblebee-id.phtml https://www.pollinatorphotos.com/ https://www.homegrownnationalpark.org/       https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yOIlJFjzgAlhc5nfTXkqrVutPxWHLwfQ/vie

A Plant with Purple Leaves

There are a couple of groups on Facebook where I lurk and occasionally dip my opinion into the fray.  They're places where people with knowledge of unbelievable scope can be observed, deftly identifying this obscure native plant or that scraggly left-behind orphan found in the backyard of a newly purchased home.   One such backyard orphan recently was posted in need of identification.   If it were a native plant, two people on "Texas Flora" would've named it within minutes.  Even the taxonomy of those impossible grasses is typically put to rest in seconds.  Not so with this poor guy.   At first I was fairly certain it was one of the purple leafed basils, maybe 'African Blue'.  It's fairly impossible to find it still thriving in a Texas January, but two plants in my yard are still hanging in there.  They even look like they'll come back if we don't have a deep freeze before spring.  BTW, this basil has one heck of a botanical monik

Ho-hum to Habitat

  For lack of a better way to reach everyone in person and online who attended my presentation to Williamson County Master Gardeners on 08 May 2023, I'm posting a handout here.  These are only the slides that were particularly info dense, so forgive the lack of context if you weren't an attendee.  Note that the list in the handout is only suggested for Travis and Williamson Counties - the Wildflower Center will have suggestions tailored to your specific location, and NOT just in Texas! These are live links to some of the items shown:  The Wildflower Center , The Jha Bee Lab , NPSOT's plant lists by Texas region , NPSOT Wilco ,  and finally, Lynne & Jim Weber (their books are available at your local bookstore & on Amazon.) T here's a world of other resources, too!  Check out Sam Drogge's incredible photography at the USGS Bee Inventory , follow Heather Holm on Facebook and read her books, follow Carol Clark on her blog "Carol's World" .  Seri