From the Sperry Gardens: May 2014

I’ve never been completely sure when winter 2013-14 was going to be over. Just 11 days ago, there was threat of yet another late freeze in DFW (where we live), and for that reason, my tropical foliage plants were still in the greenhouse.

We’ve spent much of this week bringing them out into the landscape. However, my cast of characters has changed somewhat. Two months ago, both heaters in my greenhouse went down on the same night. It’s the first time that’s ever happened. I’m just lucky it was only for a few hours, and that it was only 28 outside. But I lost my big crotons, a couple of which dated back 30 years in our gardens, and I lost many of our sansevierias and a few other plants. The plants that you see are all survivors, and I’d bet they’re glad to see the outdoors for a while.

I use tropical plants for interest and color in our heavily shaded home landscape. As the years have passed, our pecan trees have grown larger and larger, and annual color has become extremely challenging. Some of my tropicals have colorful foliage, others have fabulous textures. We’ll be working them into little pockets within our landscape as this weekend unfolds. We spend several days every spring (usually earlier than this) getting this done.