The garden receives attention at this time of year that it does not receive at any other time.
It is not because of the blooms on the yuccas. And it is not because of the cactus or the bright yellow blooms of four nerve daisies. It is all because of the bluebonnets.
The bluebonnets make the difference. Is there anyone in Texas that does not love bluebonnets? Passersby that never comment about my garden will comment about the bluebonnets. Cars creep by so the occupants can get a good look. Mothers sit their children on the curb in front of the bluebonnets to take their picture.
I said this before and I believe it is true: having a familiar and beloved flower in my garden, like the bluebonnet, helps to bring about more acceptance of my lawnless landscape.
I think the bluebonnets are the main reason I found this sign in my front garden last week. My garden was actually selected for the neighborhood Garden of the Month award! I never thought that would happen. I even nominated my garden last year at the peak of the fall bloom. There were more flowers blooming then, but no bluebonnets.
I have a few bluebonnets blooming around my bottle bush in the back garden. I think I may start calling the bottle bush a bottle bluebonnet instead. In fact, I will label it a bottle bluebonnet for the upcoming tour.
Ha ha - very clever marketing for your prairie-in-place-of-lawn movement. You're absolutely right about the bluebonnets. People walking by our house (where the lawn went "missing" years ago) stop when the iconic blue flowers appear, and seemingly go back to blindly passing by after the plants go to seed. I'm hoping to capture a little more attention with datura later this year, but until I get more of a mass of those growing will probably have to be satisfied with my own singular obsessing over their striking white flowers.
ReplyDeleteSure happy those Blues are in place for your tour, however. A bloom in time...
The datura are another big attention-getter for me too. I wish someone would come out with a dwarf variety that does not reseed so much.
DeleteI wonder how many people go away and decide to change their landscape. Maybe if you told them NO WATER! We all love bluebonnets but I will be the first to say. A garden can have too many! Not yours of course.
ReplyDeleteWell, a little water. You do have a lot of bluebonnets and they look so nice when they are in bloom. I know I would not want to clean up after that many once they go to seed.
DeleteI like the idea of bluebonnet outreach. And dubbing your bottle tree/shrub a bottle bluebonnet is a clever idea.
ReplyDeleteEven though I've often thought it misnamed, maybe that's the reason the Wildflower Center is named Wildflower Center and not Native Plant Center, despite the fact that the garden is not specifically about wildflowers. People just love them.