Oh, so busy!

I think we've been liberated by the cool weather--it's been crazy busy time in the garden.

 

Manicure a la pipe primer

We went to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center's fall plant sale last weekend, and I ordered a bunch of bulbs from the Southern Bulb Company, plus I extended three zones of our irrigation system (with much digging, breaking of pipes, more digging, gluing, not fitting, recutting, regluing, and raking) and added some stake drippers to another zone.  Oh, and I added some lights to the pond's landscape lights.

Busy times.

Here are the new plants:

• Nimblewell (wonderful name, no?  Very Tolkienian. If only Aragorn had had access to a patch of nimblewell during the battle at Helm's Deep, the whole thing would have been over before the rain even started.  No need for Entish intervention whatsoever.)  It's a diminutive, rather blowsy little Muhlenbergia (M. schreberi) that I'm hoping will behave in a groundcoverish way. [Update: CA considers this an invasive weed.  But... the LBJ Wildflower Center wouldn't lead me astray, would they? Perhaps it's better behaved in Texas's less hospitable climate.]
• Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)
• Missouri violets (Viola missouriensis)
• Blue flag (for the pond - Iris virginica)
• Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) for a groundcover in the shade garden
• Chandler's craglily (Echeandia chandleri)
• Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica - and can I just say to this picture: Yes, please!)
• Grape hyacinth (Muscari neglectum) - a very promising specific epithet.  They are likely to be more or less neglected, so hopefully that's something they relish.  I imagine this is the species that one often finds naturalized in cemeteries.
• Chinese Sacred Lilies (Narcissus tazetta orientalis - unlike the N.t.o. in the link, my existing clump has bloomed faithfully and delightfully since they were first planted.  I bought more to plant a matching clump on the other side of the front bed.)
• Tulipa clusiana var. Tinka - a cute little striped species tulip.  Apparently, T. clusianas are sometimes referred to as "lady tulips," which is rather sweet--they are dainty-looking.
  
• Narcissus cyclameneus 'Jetfire' - I've always wanted to grow a cyclamen-flowered daffodil--I find their blown-back petals oddly endearing.
• Narcissus tazetta 'Golden Dawn'
• Jonquil (Narcissus jonquilla)