Bonnie and Ken Pfeil’s front-yard flower garden is blooming more than a month ahead of those darling buds of May, thanks to recent rains and the retired couple’s hard work preparing for the growing season.

“This doesn’t come easy,” said Bonnie as she surveyed their handiwork.

The bluebonnets are blooming adjacent to the fading red flowers of winter-loving snapdragons. The garden also features the yellow blooms of Hinckley’s Columbine, African iris, red salvia and the purple-blue Mexican sage that thrives so well in this region.

The giant liriope will take its time to bloom, but the chrysanthemums and the sky blue plumbago will be coming along before too long.

“We started cleaning out the garden months ago,” Bonnie said.

The Rev. (retired) Samuel Grier Gottlich was busy picking out fully blooming bougainvilleas last week at Joe Tocquigny’s Green Gate nursery, located at 990 South State Highway 123 Bypass. He said he plans to keep them in their 3-gallon pots, one on a birdbath and one near the swimming pool.

“The interesting thing about Joe is that if he doesn’t think you will take care of a plant, he won’t sell it to you,” Gottlich confided.

Tocquigny was busy directing customers to various plants, recommending a Satsuma Seto orange tree to Nancy Smith, who enlisted the aid of Green Gate gardener Buddy Landrum to help her load it into her vehicle.

“There are so many facets to gardening,” said Tocquigny. “One person does landscaping, other people plant things to be enjoyed for a short period of time. There are people who specialize in cacti and succulents, and there are the serious vegetable gardeners.

“You can’t imagine all the tomato plants we’ve sold,” Tocquigny said of this year’s run on the local nurseries.

The nurseryman recommends a couple of books that focus on the variety of plants that thrive in the brutal seasons that characterize this region of Texas.

“I hate to sell people stuff that won’t grow. But there are many plants that are well worth the money and will thrive with a moderate amount of care,” he said.

Tocquigny recommends that gardeners prepare themselves with “The Best of Texas Landscape Guide,” published by the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association. The book includes a plant adaptability map for Texas, and discusses everything from trees to shrubs, ground covers, roses, perennials, annuals and other gardening subjects.

Another good book is “Native and Adapted Landscape Plants, an Earthwise Guide for Central Texas,” published by the Texas Cooperative Extension and the City of Austin.

The book highlights trees and other plant choices that are suitable for a garden, with an eye toward using less water, fertilizer and chemical controls in Central Texas gardens.

A good source for seeds is the Willhite Seed Co. of Poolville. Customers can log on at willhiteseed.com to order hybrid squash or tomato seeds along with a variety of other vegetables, flowers and herbs. Tocquigny said the seeds from Willhite are superior to the little packages sold in retail stores.

“Anybody can order good seeds, and many serious gardeners do,” Tocquigny said.

Across town, at Maldonado Nursery Landscape and Irrigation, 3011 U.S. Highway 90 West, nursery manager Susan Knight said few people are opting to plant the easy-to-grow Gerbera daisies that sat in the sunshine in the nursery’s flower display section.

Local growers are snapping up big trees this season, including live oaks, Monterrey oaks and the bountifully blooming crape myrtles that Maldonado’s stocks in abundance.

“Every year it’s different,” Knight said. “People are buying geraniums, petunias and begonias. With the Gerbera daisies, most people pamper them to death.”

Gardeners are also going for annual favorites, such as vinca, periwinkle and marigolds.

“Annuals are what a lot of people are doing at this moment,” she said.

Knight said that Maldonado’s just moved through its “Spring Fling,” when gardeners make the mad rush to the nurseries.

“It’s really not too late for planting, it’s still cool,” Knight said.

And now is the time to think about planting herbs, as they are just coming out to the nurseries.

“This has been a gorgeous spring, the prettiest spring I’ve seen since I’ve lived here,” Knight said.

source : seguingazette.com