Texas Garden Tour June '24 Part 2 | Gardening in Texas Heat | Perennials and Natives for Texas

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. This is part two of my backyard garden tour and we're also going to be including bits and pieces of the front yard today just to show you some of the updated plants and flowers that are in bloom. If you missed the first part, please tune in. I'll put the link at the very end of the video. So I'll explain why I have to split the videos up in a bit, but in the meantime be sure to watch part one. I don't want you to miss all the exciting blooms going on right now. My name is Dawn and I garden in zone 8b. If you're new to my channel, thank you so much for joining me in my garden today and I hope you'll consider subscribing and if you're returning, I'm so glad that you are back. I hope you guys enjoy today's tour. All right, stay tuned. It's really those long, long videos. They're so hard to edit so it's just a lot easier for me to chop it into when I have so many video clips to put together. It's hard to stay organized. I always admire people who can put out those long videos because it is a lot of work to get those things edited and published. So anyways, let's go ahead and start here. I think I wanted to show you guys the Proven Winters Perfect Storm in full bloom. Look at this gorgeous display of flowers and I'm so excited because they're the same thing. I think if I mentioned earlier if you guys caught that, I wasn't sure if they were going to be the same plant. I tend to buy things when they're not in bloom and I never know until it blooms if it's actually what I purchased. So anyways, it is and I'm super excited about it. The white flowers look incredible in front of the greenhouse. So just back here highlighting these cute greenhouse baskets this year. I think I showed you a close-up a little bit earlier. So super, super cute. But this bed has been about a month now and not much has changed. Just a few more blooms have opened up but there's some purple skullcap that I have propagated from my other one along the wall there. This widgeolia is looking beautiful. It's put on a little bit of growth. But other than that, it looks the same. The tickseed is opening up some blooms. My foxglove, not foxglove, phlox looking beautiful. The germander does have a little bloom. I'll show that to you. And then my gregsmist, that is all transplanted from the other side of the yard. We're not getting enough sun where they were so I cut them back and transplanted them to this spot. I think they'll be a lot happier here. So I'm not expecting that much growth but if I get it that would be fantastic. The butterflies love the gregsmist. So all right, so coming around and you will see the little girl I was talking about. Doesn't she look so cute next to the hydrangea? I love it. The pots are looking spectacular. That white petunia is getting lost back there. All right, you saw hyacinth bean vine. So excited and I see a little bitty bud that, look, a little flower has come out. Like an orchid. I don't know if you guys remember but I sowed these seeds. These are from Baker's Creek. This I think it's called blue-eyed vinca. But anyway, this is how I grow my vinca after I sow the seeds. I like to just plant them all over my yard and then fill them into my containers when my other things start to die. So I think my petunias probably don't have much life in them but I just come over here and I grab one of my vincas and I can get them planted to replace my more, you know, I would consider my spring plants just because, again, these a lot of these petunias may survive but a lot of them just crisp up. So did I highlight the creeping jenny? It is starting to drape and look so pretty. I've been trying to keep it trimmed so that they can all just kind of catch up and drape around the same time. All right, so all along the wall I have white mistflower. It's a Texas native. I have four and in between those I have parsley which I had originally planted or grew from seed. I sowed them direct sowed and really I did it to host butterflies but they've turned out to be evergreens and so I've been trimming them into cute little balls. So it's an added bonus that I now have parsley and they just look so cute. The mistflowers do not have any blooms yet and then look I have volunteer zinnias coming up. All right, let's see any blooms. No blooms. All right, so I'm coming around the backside and this is sneezeweed, y'all. It's such a strange name for a native but I don't know if I like it or not. I'm just not crazy about the color green. I think it very much looks like a weed. It's so easy to grow so I'm on the fence about keeping it. Look at this beautiful salvia. This is rhea. So this is an annual and don't get me wrong I love my perennial salvias but sometimes the color out of these these annuals is so vivid and it lasts all season and that's one of the benefit of being salvia. So it's why I like to have them around my yard but I do, again, I have tons of perennials but insanely, insanely blue. So this bed is west facing and not much can take the Texas afternoon sun. This Texas sage here, I love it but it's gonna get pretty big and I really don't want it growing out into the sidewalk but I wouldn't mind it growing upwards to block the sun and heat on the windows. So I'm actually considering training them up into small trees. What do you guys think about that? And I just want to highlight my rose tree because it's doing so good. I don't know if you were able to tune in to some of my previous videos earlier this spring but the rose tree fell into the pool. Y'all, we had these crazy storms, typical Dallas, Texas storms and my tree blew over and I woke up one morning and it was in my pool. It weighed like, I don't know, it felt like 300 pounds because it was full of water. So yeah, it was pretty devastating. Anyway, one of my amazing subscribers suggested putting the support poles into the ground and it has worked because we've had some really, really bad storms and it has stayed put. I previously had the support poles in the pot with the rose so those just went down into the pool with it. So this is working and I am thrilled and this rose is a beast and I lost the tag and I don't remember what kind of rose it is. So in the container, I do want to highlight because everything in it lived as well. Let me come around and I've got some gorgeous scavoli that is draping down the side. I just put some cascading vinca because I do think my petunia is going to conk out pretty soon. This one gets afternoon sun and those that get afternoon sun just tend to get crispy. So some coleus and then this vinca that I just have to keep trimming because you don't want your vinca rooting into the ground below, just FYI, because it will take over. But it is beautiful in pots. Over here, the pincers are looking fabulous. All right, let's go around with a few more of the containers. We have some coleus and dichondrifols. There's some blue evolvus and a creamy yellow petunia and the gorgeous gorgeous deep pink hibiscus. We were able to overwinter this hibiscus last year in the greenhouse so it's exciting to see it full of so many blooms. And I should mention if my petunias start to look spent like these here, I do start to just place with heat loving annuals. This is purslane, a cute little hot pink flower or I add some cascading vinca. Then over here, beautiful beautiful beautiful. I love the peach gerberas. I love gerberas. I know they keep blooming for me all summer long so they are a winner in my garden. All right and in this Rose of Sharon container is Supertunia Vista bubblegum. This one looks super super healthy and along the side here I did place some cascading vinca just in case and when this petunia conks out. And then I have some blue evolvus and then the Rose of Sharon. This one that recedes so pretty every year. All right now let's come around here and look at my autumn joy sedums and then my more waterfall baskets, my pentas. We're heading to my container garden but look how big they have gotten. Oh I love it, love it, love it, love it. And my mom got me this sweet little snail angel and beautiful little pot there with the dragonflies. Isn't that sweet? It kind of, it kind of, your eye tends to focus up here and not all the little junk pieces I keep down there. I keep the strainer for the fountain, some neem oil and just all kinds of interesting things. So hopefully this is doing its job up here. Do you guys do that? So I am back here in my container garden and it has developed so beautifully over the past month or so and my roses look like they have a few blooms. So I'll go ahead and give you a few close-ups and it's such a serene area. Just all impatiens growing. A new guacamole hosta back there. A few hostas. And I'm trying things in the ground again. If you're new to my channel, this space, the mole loves to hang out back here and this is why it became a container garden. We were not able to put anything into the ground that could live because the mole just had so much fun. I keep it here since this is Mr. Mole's territory. He loves to run along the porch right here. I think all the water from the pots, he just kind of lives all up in here. So pretty. They usually start puckering out pretty soon and that's kind of when I start replacing them with some vincas. But I want to give you a close-up and this crape myrtle has started peeling as it gets bigger and the trunk is just spectacular. And so even if I'm not even admiring the blooms, the trunk is worth admiration in itself. You can see it has scale really, really bad. See that? Look at that. All up and down the trunk. I'm having a problem with all of my crape myrtles. So I just get a brush with some Dawn dishwashing soap and just kind of brush and spray it and it tends to help. It's just kind of a pain because it just easily comes back. Dragonwing begonia, foxtail fern, and then this is another Japanese maple growing up into my crape myrtle, my beautiful Natchez crape myrtle. All right and then moving around along this wall we've got holly ferns that that's another staple in my Texas garden. They will grow where nothing else will. And then my leopard plant and then y'all look at my cute fountain. This was a gift from my kids for Mother's Day. My son picked it out. Is that so cute? So I'll have a show on this putting this together. Along another Japanese maple in the corner. My Dr. Poppel climatis is filling out beautifully and then it looks like I have some blooms up here in the corner. Okay and then coming around I have here, this is an Arabian jasmine. This was my great-grandmother's plant and it is so fragrant. It smells like a magnolia and gardenia combined. I can smell it all the way. Probably I am about four feet from it right now and I can smell it. It's heavenly. So my dad gave this to me about a month ago. It's been passed down from my Aunt Bonnie to my dad and then to me. So she seems pretty happy where she's where she is. So I'm gonna let her stay put and it's kind of spread out. But this is a transplanted hydrangea here so it's getting its root system established. This is a double-play doozy. I cut it back so I'm expecting a whole flush of new blooms. Dragon ring begonia with an impatient. All the impatiens are under my beautiful blood good Japanese maple. Back behind this beautiful impatient is the Persian shield. So pretty. All right and then the Sorry the sun has come out. It makes it a little bit harder but gorgeous gorgeous rose. It does like to snow in my fountain. But yeah I just keep a strainer back here and clean it out every day. Sorry you guys had to see that but all right and down here there's some lemon thyme. Yummy and the smell is oh divine. I came to drape over my little frog. All right Moonlight in Paris. She's got quite a few buds that are getting ready to open. Back here is Blue Skies supertunia with Humberbina and then I've got the Hyacinth vine. I'm training it all along the fence back here. And then down here is just an annual salvia mixed in with Pink Scavoli. And again just Hyacinth vine all the way up. And then here's just another view of my maple. All right let's head to the front and see what's in bloom up there. All right so I'm in my front. I just want to give a quick run through of some of the things or just update some of the plants since my tour not much has changed since my last tour. So this is the holy grail. Again look at the foliage. I mean I can just grow this for the foliage but this thing is incredible. The size of the blooms guys. It's wow. And then one of my little cone flowers survived and she's in bloom. So cute. This is Luna Rose back here. Pretty in its own right. The foliage is uneventful but still very beautiful. And then the Mystic Spires. All right here's another shot of the Mystic Spires looking gorgeous. And then I'm excited my Augustaki. These are from seed but I've been keep cutting them because again I want a full plant and not necessarily just two stalks shooting upright. And it looks like they're putting on a few blooms. So they're delayed but like again I'm okay with that. This is their first year so I don't want to do much but train a nice full plant. And then my Monrovia Rose is back into full bloom. Look at the sweet pink. Lots of blooms everywhere. And then moving my Denim and Lace was a success because it is blooming more than it has in years. So it was obviously just not getting enough sun under this oak and now it gets full sun pretty much all day. All right guys and the showstopper is this Jolt Cherry Dianthus. This thing has been blooming since I planted it non-stop. Look at this. It is so vibrant and it's more of a deep fuchsia than a red but it does again it looks red. Homestead Verbena. Very pretty. So the same with this early Flamingo Phlox. This is still blooming. This has been blooming for oh I don't want I want to say like eight weeks. So I have been deadheading it and as quickly as I deadhead it it makes new shoots. Look at all the new shoots coming up. It's been a constant. So I do have Cleome. I know people say it's Cleome. So however you say it. Re-seeding all over this garden. I'm so excited. So I have three right here. They just keep multiplying y'all and I want my Blue Juniper to be more upright. So I am keeping it wrapped and I'll probably do that for the first year or so just to keep those branches in tight and if I have to prune it I will do that but I really want it to be more upright than to fall down or let the branches fall. I don't necessarily want it to take up a lot of width. And then my Midnight Masquerade Penstemon filling in. So again you want to be patient with perennials. I'm gonna give those guys about three years. But this Liatris is spectacular. I think this is the Proven Winters variety Amazing Daisies. I just deadheaded them. You can see all the seed heads which were so cute on the plant y'all. It just looked like little tiny balls of yellow. So I actually kind of had a hard time cutting them off but I would like for them to come back and rebloom and they may do that for me. And I also harvested a little bit of seed. Not that I have space for more. Look at my Lisianthus. It is such a beautiful flower. Gorgeous. And then the bluest blue of these Scavoli flowers. I love Scavoli. It's another annual that thrives in the heat. So they are filling out nicely especially with the Begonia which is super pretty. And the Begonia and Ornamental Kale mix is looking very pretty and neat. I love that. I don't know how the caterpillars have managed to stay away. I see a few of them have been eating. For the most part they're still looking good. All right and then coming around behind all of the Begonias are these beautiful double orange Sherbert Daylilies. Filming on overcast days is just so much easier. So let me come around and then we've got lots of drainage projects going on. Things that we probably should have done 20 years ago. So this is a new section for the drainage that we're having serious issues with in the front yard. And I've got a video, an episode that'll be coming out showing you how we've got this done but it does look fantastic. Coming around so everything that's just in full bloom. And then I've got a couple of gold antennas that we placed some petunias that were spent. At my expense the petunias were not the problem. The problem was all those terrible rains we had. This area, this bed drains forward and so there was just too much moisture on the roots of the petunias. So I when I dug them out I added tons of expanded shell in there and hopefully that'll help keep the roots off of the lantana so they don't get root rot. And my White Queen Caladium Showstopper. Look at that. Gorgeous. Making a flower. And then look at the size of these wire caladium. So beautiful. So they're just on either side and then the sweet little salvia spikes are growing up into the caladiums. I love that look. You know the petunias they struggle in the heat but moisture is a big issue. So they love their roots to dry out in between waterings and I think in this bed they have a better chance because it's surrounded by tree roots. There's a big holly here and a big magnolia here. So in the other bed they tend to sit more in the water which is not good for petunias. And so yeah I am constantly working on that but that's why I think I see more success on this side. And also these just get morning sun and maybe a little bit of afternoon but the ones in the back get full afternoon sun. Then that's a big struggle here in Texas. That afternoon sun can be super super harsh. And then over here is my Lime White Standard. It is so beautiful and the blooms are just getting bigger each day. But I put it in a pot this year. They tend to struggle here. The heat in the summer they get pretty crispy and ugly. So I feel like I can control its environment a little bit more if it's in the pot. I can get it out of sight if it gets to be too hideous. But yeah I can also just control the moisture levels. And since hydrangeas like to have lots of moisture the moles tend to love them. And so if I have hydrangeas in the ground and they're getting a little bit more water the moles love to get into those roots and those areas because it gets the earthworms stirring. And that's why moles love to be there. So yeah I might have more success this year. And right off my driveway I have Texas Rock Rose. It's kind of reseeded all over my rock garden over here. This bed stays pretty dry and gets full sun. So I have a lot of Texas natives here. This is Salvia gregei. It's a bicolor salvia. And then some amazing artemisia. I'm just kind of wanting it to fill out. There's a dead tree right there so it's hard to plant anything. But these should get and spread this entire thing. And then that's a purple fountain grass and I overwintered that in the greenhouse. So brought it back it gave it new life. So this is the other area of drainage in our yard. We had to make this one bigger so we made it we extended it wider and deeper when we installed the other one which is right up there. So we just moved it further out here into the bed and then further out or further under the magnolia I should say. Right there. So now it's pretty pretty wide. I wanted to just take you around this way and show you how pretty all of the colors are looking from this angle. And then the white crepe myrtles in bloom. I realized that I was supposed to show you my zinnia bouquet. Some of the zinnias that I harvested. So all this is most of these are the well actually all of them are the florets. There's some liatris in here and then all of this celosia is the spun sugar. Look how cute it is. See all the I love it for the spiller. Isn't that gorgeous y'all? And then before I filmed this look what I did. Y'all be so proud of me. I went and snipped a coneflower. So anyways let me just keep showing you these beautiful zinnias. Here's a little bit of the lesser catmint. So dainty but look at the creamy peachy tones. Oh my gosh they're so beautiful y'all. All right and that is it all the way around. I think I've shown all of them to you. So anyway stunning bouquet. This is one of the reasons I love to garden is to be able to make arrangements like this any day that I want. Did I show y'all this one? And then this one. Oh and then look a second coneflower. I did it to a coneflower. Y'all proud of me? Since my first video a few of my sunflowers have opened up. So this is the Pro White series from Johnny Seeds. So beautiful. Also this amazing candle lily has opened up. I just want to show y'all the orange. I know a lot of people don't like orange in their garden but I think it's amazing. Again I am not growing it for the flower because the foliage is a showstopper. It's a real reason. And same for this one. So this is a different variety I guess. I thought it was the same when I picked it up. It's more of a yellow bloom. And this is Twilight. Beautiful blooms all over it. I'm gonna put the link to part one right here so be sure to watch. All right guys we'll finish with my favorite view and I just want to say thank you for visiting and hanging out with me today in my garden. If you like the video give it a thumbs up and again I hope you'll subscribe. It definitely helps my channel grow and I would appreciate that so very much. Anyways you guys have a great day. See you in the next one. Bye.