Wild Roses

Wild roses don't grow very big or require much maintenance, like the roses grown by serious rose-growers. They are left to roam and ramble as they will. Wild roses have only five petals. Many of the flowers resemble apple blossoms with a pale center and pink petals. Aren't we fortunate to have these wonderful wild roses to add color to a meadow or a casual garden?

Crepe Myrtles Hanging Low with Heavy Blossoms

A feast for the eyes!

Crepe myrtles have busted out all over Houston - full of blossoms: Some are pink, some are white, and many are this raspberry color. Beautiful trees. I hope you get to see some this year.

Colorful Bedding Plants

Pink and white flowers, the names of which I do not know. The stems look like carnation stems. Long, slender leaves covered in raindrops... just for your enjoyment, dear reader.


Here are the colorful bedding plants that grace a public building in the neighborhood. The bright pink and the orange look stunning together.

Flores Silvestres/Wild Flowers

I was fortunate enough to capture these wildflowers along an area of W. Belfort in Houston before the county came along with their mowers and mowed them all down. I felt so sad when I saw that they had been cut down to the ground. Scalped, indeed. Their name escapes me, but I will research it and see if I can find out. They look a little like a daisy, a little like a black-eyed susan.

Wild Mushrooms

As gourmands ("foodies" to today's generation) know, mushrooms are a fungus/fungi. I try very hard to put that thought out of my mind when I am enjoying grilled mushrooms with a steak or some other dish. I found these wild mushrooms growing in my neighbor's yard, under a mostly dead bush, but with lots of shade and protection... which probably accounts for their vigorous growth. That, and the recent rains we have had. I am impressed with their petal-like shape, rendering them like a lovely white flower.

Gaillardia Grandiflora

What a fancy name for such an ordinary seeming flower that grows both as a cultivated plant and as a wildflower. These photos were taken of wildflowers in a field. The common name for this flower is "Arizona Sun" or "Blanket Flower." As you can see, there is some clover interspersed with the blanket flowers.

Lovely But Poisonous Oleander

Oleanders were always part of the gardens of my childhood. They make great hedges and many afternoons of my childhood were spent standing by my mother as she watered the oleander hedge. As part of my education, I was warned about the poisonous qualities of oleanders. I was even told not to stand under an oleander during a rain storm or allow it to drip on me.

The largest oleander I have ever seen was in my own backyard in Tucson, AZ. I would often cut it back but it would continue to grow, despite the arid conditions.

Oleanders come in several colors and there is even a dwarf variety. The small or dwarf oleanders remind me of my neighbors in Tucson, who had their backyard professionally landscaped. Dwarf oleanders were planted along one side of the house and in a few sporadic plantings. Their flowers were peachy-colored. Very pretty.

These oleanders are planted in a median in southwest Houston. They require little care and make the landscape quite graceful.