Features

Each year as my color design guru son James orders plants for use at his client’s homes, from those that look like historic cottages to palatial garden estates, those on the waterfront to those considered mountainous. The one color that I can be guaranteed that will be in heavy use is white.

In my own experience, growing a friendship is much like growing a healthy plant.

No longer will trays of flower transplants create a mess, a sore back from picking them up and cluttering the garden shed with thoughts of future use. Thanks to Eco+ Grande Pots, we can now simply pull four tabs and plant them and the pot, a true ecological wonder.

I am a proud product of Texas Public Schools, from first (there was no public school kindergarten in the 1950s), and now that I’ve earned two graduate degrees in education, I can say with some authority, the professionals who taught me were experienced, dedicated and fulfilled as educators. They were mostly all great teachers.

A display at the recent Young’s Plant Farm Annual Garden Tour caused quite a stir not only within the industry that day, but on my Facebook page as well. I would like to take credit, saying it was my beautiful photography but to be honest when you look at a planting and say something like Holy Wow or Oh Wow, it is always the plants. The display was really a trifecta of award winners that just happened to come together and the Crème de la Crème was Blue Mohawk rush or juncus.

Like you, my heart has been with the victims, their parents, children and the people of Uvalde. My mind struggles with how such a horrendous act could have ever been conceived – and, honestly, I question how such a terrible mission was ever envisioned by a person with so little life experience.

The persona usually emerges during the birth of a woman’s first child. It’s been described many ways: the motherly instinct, a woman who is unapologetic for her choices when it comes to her children. The Urban Dictionary’s definition is: “A mom who can be cuddly and lovable but also has a ferocious side when it’s necessary to protect her cubs.

The Ladybird Lemonade is an idyllic groundcover in this setting with Vermillionaire cuphea, Luscious Citron lantana and ColorBlaze El Brighto coleus.

New in garden centers this year are a couple of Ladybirds. When you see the name Ladybird associated with a plant you can assume a few things, native DNA, great for the environment and most likely Tough-as-Nails.

Some say life in the good ole days was a lot easier. Maybe so. At least folks had a well-worn life script to follow.

Our Taste for the Tropics just got a lot larger this year as Proven Winners has added five new Hawaiian Ti varieties under their Proven Selections label. This brings the Cordyline group to a total of eight selections. Most of us have never seen a named variety of Hawaiian Ti known botanically as Cordyline fruticosa or Cordyline australis.

The Cover of Life by R.T. Robinson has been extended over Memorial Day weekend with performances on May 27, 28 and 29.