April 15,2024 Cottage Butterfly Garden tour in Houston Texas zone 9a / 9b

[@GreenGranny]

My curly parsley acted like a bienniel so I would just hang in there with it. Those beautiful umbrel blooms made me crave everything that blooms like that so now I have dill and ammi. I put it on the calendar to try your carrot trick come fall. Your garden is beautiful! Thank you for the tour.

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you! I will try to keep that parsley alive through the summer! Maybe I’ll reap the rewards next year! 🤞 Oh, don’t you just love those umbrel blooms? Fabulous! The carrot trick is the easiest, and so fun when it blooms!

[@caroltrego1640]

Truly a butterfly garden. So many good comments from you in the video. Beautiful garden. Interesting comment about growing carrots with sticking them in the soil in fall. Thanks for sharing.

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you so much! Somewhere in the depths of my memory I recall that I have thirty-something larval host plants for butterflies in my area! It became quite the obsession during Covid!

[@Youdoingnothing]

I love how you incorporate native plants in your garden!

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you! It’s been so fun learning about all these plants that I had no clue about!

[@sandratraugott6522]

Your garden is so wonderful! I know I say that all the time but your videos and your voice is so calming and peaceful ❤️. Thanks for doing these!

[@JosTXGarden]

You are so kind! Thank you!

[@MissPiggyLilly]

So so pretty!!! I'm always afraid of overcrowding but I love the look! 🤩 San Antonio TX Zone 8b/9a

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you!! I definitely overcrowd in the spring- probably because I know most of the annuals won’t make it to mid-summer! Then there’s lots of room! 😂😂🫠 thank you for watching!!

[@marleneegan-hm7lr]

Everything looks so beautiful!

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you so much! 😊😊

[@kareninhtownmitchell9191]

Everything looks just gorgeous! I grew some Coral Nymph Salvia this year. I just adore them.

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you so much! I’m loving the coral nymph! I’m seeing such variations in my garden. I might eventually pull out the ones that have almost pure coral coloring (too close to breaking my no-orange in this garden’s color scheme rule! Ha!) and leaving the ones that are paler and/or have lots of white on them. It’s so prolific that I’m not even worried about editing out for color!

[@melaniemohler3634]

Limon Jewels of Opar tolerates part sun to shade. My first plant grew in a terra cotta pot in filtered light. It reseeded over a couple of years in other terra cotta pots and in the ground. Those in the ground tolerate a great deal of sun. I live in Kingwood, just north of Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport. When young, you can easily dig the seedlings to share. Once the plants grow larger, a thick taproot forms and is more difficult to successfully transplant. It grows without any special care. You should have it forever.

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you so much for the tips!! I’ll have to go out and dig up my seedlings while they’re small! I put a few in the ground in the front and OMG they got so big so fast, and are ready blooming. Meanwhile others I put in pots are still tiny! Hope you’re ok in these storms!!

[@monica_tamez]

Beautiful! I’m in Houston too, very much a beginner gardener, would love to connect!

[@JosTXGarden]

Hi! I’m on Pinterest as Jo’sTXGardener if you want to contact me there! Thanks for watching!

[@Fabdanc]

Jo, I got you beat on shorty cosmos. I have one about to bloom that I kid you not... 2 inches tall. All my self seeded cosmos that grew over winter are dwarves. I have two theories: cosmos prefer and grow larger when the soil temperature is much warmer; and/or, they don't like compacted soil and prefer fluffier soil to sink their roots into. I'm surprised you don't grow coleus. They are in the same order (lamiales) as salvias, so they have very similar flowers -- long spires of soft purple flowers that they put out forever. The bumblebees and carpenter bees adore them. I grew them from seed a few years ago, and they just reseed themselves.

[@JosTXGarden]

These cosmos are going to be the end of me. So beautiful but so frustrating! It’s hard when you’ve grown them before and they were amazing. I planted some in our extremely wild, just outside of College Station, garden 25 years ago and was engulfed in an ocean of five foot tall cosmos. Glorious. So when I get these little scrawny things, It makes me just want to lay down. I tried coleus a long time ago and could never get it started. From seed or pots from the nursery. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️ I should try again!

[@summerofstacey6676]

Hi! I’m a new subscriber and I live in Frisco, Tx. I’m looking for solutions for a deep shade spot, and I wondered how much sun your oak leaf hydrangea and four o’clocks get? (maybe a possibility for my shade area?). You have a beautiful backyard!

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you! Both the oak leaf hydrangeas and four o’clocks handle deep shade just fine here. My hydrangea in almost complete shade is smaller than the ones that get some dappled shade, but it’s pretty new and was already scraggly when I planted it last year. It’s blooming nonetheless. Hoping it’ll bush out this year! Thanks for watching!!😊😊😊

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Your garden is beautiful and burgeoning with life! Springtime down here is just glorious! 🤩🪻🌸

[@JosTXGarden]

Thank you! Spring is IT! I loved seeing your new bed! Hope your fingers are healing fast!

[@bridgetwilkins312]

Watch out with the Pearl of Opar. It will seed itself absolutely EVERYWHERE! You will get sick of trying to pull it all up!

[@JosTXGarden]

LOL I Can definitely see that problem! 🤣 there are like 30 in the gravel around where the pot was last year!

[@ddgardner5671]

What happens with the crocosmia after it blooms? Does the foliage die back?

[@JosTXGarden]

The foliage gets pretty ratty and definitely flops all over the place, but doesn’t die back unless it freezes. I tend to cut it back fairly hard when it gets too floppy.