I finally got to visit Michael McDowell’s Plano prairie garden in springtime. Purple coneflowers were stealing the show.… Read More
The post Michael’s Plano Prairie Garden in spring appeared first on Digging.
I’ve visited Michael McDowell’s garden — aka the Plano Prairie Garden — several times over the past decade (see here and here; it’ll also be featured in my forthcoming book). My visits have always been in the fall, when purple spires of gayfeather turn Michael’s prairie garden into a Buc-ee’s rest stop for migrating monarchs. I’d never seen it in the spring until two weeks ago, during a mid-May trip up to Dallas.
Michael graciously said yes when I spontaneously asked to drop in with a friend. It was late afternoon on a hot spring day, and the front garden was dramatically backlit, illuminating the ballerina-skirt petals of purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia) and feathery stems of standing cypress (Ipomopsis rubra). Lime-green gayfeather foliage promises another spectacular fall show.
American basketflower’s woven flowerbuds…
…were opening into fringey purple flowers.
But the star of the spring garden was purple coneflower, its spiny orange cones punctuating the scene, its delicate pink skirts waving in the breeze.
Bees were enjoying them too.
A few black-eyed Susans added golden yellow to the mix.
Giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima) too. That’s Michael in the background.
I love this stock-tank planter by the front door, where metal fish “swim” through an “underwater” scene consisting of ‘Brakelights’ hesperaloe and ‘Blue Spruce’ sedum. The illusion of water with tough, dry-loving plants!
A gray hairstreak butterfly was nectaring on Mexican hat.
Purple coneflowers along a nearly hidden path
Graceful
One more
At last I tore myself away from the coneflower extravaganza and headed into the side yard, where I found cheery black-eyed Susans…
…and antelope-horns milkweed.
In the sunny back garden, salvia, nicotiana, and coneflowers make a buffet for pollinators.
Pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) and fleabane — a sparkling white combo.
A few more pale coneflowers
And the purple ones
Michael pointed out a new little bluestem cultivar he’s trying, ‘Twilight Zone’. I’m really liking the mauve streaks of color.
A wider view of the gravelly back garden, where a rebar bottle bush lifts the eye up as a tall focal point
Giant coneflower soaring skyward along the fence. I love its blue-green leaves.
The yellow flowers perch on impossibly tall stems.
A mockingbird came in for a drink at a birdbath in the purple coneflower.
A little closer
Gravelweed (Verbesina helianthoides)
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