"Salvia & Cactus Bed" in Stages

'Kay--so here's one of the beds we put out in the front yard--both to add interest to a really big boring yard, and to reduce mowing space (NOT that there was much to mow when we arrived. The first pic shows the bed right after we put it in, early to mid October. The big green thing on the left is a Crossvine that the previous owner (my mother-in-law) had planted to hid the gas meter; everything else is new. The foundation plant is a Centennial crape myrtle (red and 12-15 ft max), on either side of that are two big ol' gallon-sized pink muhly grasses that we purchased upon making a road trip to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center's Fall plant sale--which is great since they sell natives and native-adapteds only. The rest of the planting is largely sages/salvias in shades of red, a Texas Red quince, and a few dwarf yaupon hollies.



Here's a close-up of the pink muhly grass in flower. We saw a bunch of it blooming at the Wildflower Center and said, yes, both of us, "we gotta have some o'dat!" This grass blooms late summer and through autumn--which is great around here!


Here's me, transplanting a micro- mini rose ("Cinderella," white) IN JANUARY! Look, Ma, no sleeves! Tucked it in amongst the salvias... I had also planted Spring bulbs in most of the beds in Jan.

Next pic is the bed in March. Everything is starting to bloom, and whatever went dormant or died back is leafing out. There's one yellow species tulip there, but what shocked me were all the plants that I'm used to not getting going until the summer-- there's the salvias growing and blooming, dianthus, and pink Gaura (which later got bugs and was ripped out, but still really pretty in spring, and I still have one in another bed).

The cute miniature red amaryllis bloomed in April, and was either one I brought with me in the move, or was mailed to me by the obliging Annabelle.

Below are some close-ups from April: Red Autumn Sage (salvia gregii) and a cream-colored miniature rose; followed by a red miniature rose and blue Drummond's Skullcap. The next month the Cactus started blooming, which you can see, along with the bloom-stages of the other plants in May in the post on the Cactus. In any case--we wanted to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to all of our flower beds, and I have to say that this one is particularly successful--butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees all love the red salvias and the roses.