Barton Springs Nursery: Supporting sponsor of Austin Fling & native plant supplier

Do you listen to your heart cart? I do, and it's always saying, "Fill me up!" when I'm at Barton Springs Nursery.

Barton Springs Nursery specializes in native Texas plants that can handle our challenging climate. Unlike most nurseries, Barton Springs grows many of the plants they sell, which means their plants are Texas tough AND the nursery can offer them in smaller -- i.e., more affordable -- pot sizes. That gives you permission (as if you needed it) to load up your cart with even more plants.

The plants are grown at their wholesale location -- the farm -- which is perhaps best known for its extensive rows of beautiful, blue-green Yucca rostrata. You'll see that this shimmering Koosh ball of a plant is popular in Austin when you're here for the Fling.

Barton Springs Nursery makes sure that their sales staff has a love for gardening and a love for Texas plants. They'll never just say, “Uhhh, I don’t know,” in answer to a question. They know the plants they sell. Also, the plants are clearly labeled with the common name, botanical name, mature size, and a descriptive paragraph of growing information that reads like it was written by your green-thumbed best friend.

Inside a bungalow that houses the gift shop, you'll find charming and unique gift items, tools, seeds, bulbs, and more. Throughout the nursery, you'll find beautiful pottery and garden art. They also carry a full line of organic products for the garden.

And hey, it's a fun-loving, pun-loving place too. Their green nursery carts sport handwritten word-plays like "Total Eclipse of the Cart" and "Carte Diem!" I always pause over the cart selection and pick the pun that best suits my mood.

We're proud to be partnering with Barton Springs Nursery, and we thank them for their support! 

Barton Springs Nursery

Visit:

3601 Bee Cave Rd.
Austin, TX 78746

Call: 512-328-6655

Store hours:

Mon-Sat  9 am to 6 pm
Sun 10 am to 6 pm

Find us online:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Barton Springs Nursery Wholesale has a Facebook page too!

Vivero Growers: Supporting sponsor of Austin Fling & great shopping stop

If you're looking for stunning specimens and a virtual rainbow of native and adapted plants, Vivero Growers Nursery is the place to go.

We're honored to have Vivero Growers as a Bloom-level sponsor for the 2018 Garden Bloggers Fling of Austin.  An Austin wholesale and retail landscape nursery, Vivero Growers specializes in larger landscape material, specimen sizes, as well as unique items.  Unlike some other nurseries, Vivero grows the majority of its perennials, natives and adapted plants, right on site.  It also offers an impressive selection of succulents, agave and cacti.  

Approximately 6 miles past the “Y” in Oak Hill on Highway 290 West, Vivero is a plant lover's delight. Michael Cain and his wife, Katherine, own and run Vivero Growers Nursery.  The staff is always friendly, knowledgable and helpful.

The nursery is filled with vignettes of plantings, pairing just the right things for color, texture, contrast, size and overall WOW factor. 

This planter by the office door with a donkey's ear kalanchoe, silver ponyfoot and other succulents is a perfect example. 

Katherine's talent in creating exquisite succulent planters and container combos is inspiring.  They will help you pick the perfect plants to make your own planter, or you can buy one of Katherine's creations.  

I'm like a kid in a candy store when browsing the rows and rows of perfect plants.  And, I always leave with much more than what's on my list.

The last time I was there, I was excited to find one of my favorite plants, Leonotis leonurus, or Lion’s Tail. 

The beautiful plants grow tall stalks with bright orange blooms at intervals up the stalk. The display here pairs it next to the regal and velvety spires of Mexican bush sage.

The almost-round blooms look remarkably like the tuft of fur at the end of a lion’s tail, hence the name.

All the plants are healthy, thriving specimens, clearly well-cared for. Everywhere I turned there was a sea of color.  

Around every corner, you will find plant treasure — including many new varieties of plants that I’d never seen before.  From trees to perennials to  succulents, Vivero is an amazing local nursery and we are incredibly proud that they are partnering with us in support of the Garden Bloggers Fling of Austin.

Make note of the plants you fall in love with while touring the Austin Fling gardens, you'll find most of them at Vivero.  Be sure to include time during your stay to visit Vivero Growers -- you'll be really glad you did.

Vivero Growers Nursery

Visit

12000 Highway 290 West

Austin, Texas 78737

Call: 512.587.4476

Store hours:

Mon thru Fri 8:30-6, 

Sat 9-6, Sun 10-5

Find us online

Vivero Garden Blog

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery: Supporting sponsor of Austin Fling

When I made my first container pond 17 years ago, I bought two goldfish, a dwarf water lily (still have it today!), and a small bubbler pump at Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery, which had opened for business just the year before. A bigger container pond and a disappearing fountain later, I still shop there for all my water gardening needs.

I've also gotten a lot of non-pond plants there. Hill Country carries a lovely assortment of garden plants that thrive in Austin's challenging climate. And don't even get me started on their tempting selection of agaves, cactus, and other succulents for dry gardens and container gardens. 

Hill Country calls itself “the most unique and complete garden center in Central Texas":

"True to our name, we have several show ponds in a variety of styles, from naturalistic moss-boulder ponds to an elegant formal pond, and countless water features and fountains are displayed throughout the nursery. We are also a complete nursery, with annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, and all the stuff that goes with, except we do it a little cooler!"

Hill Country has made exploring the nursery grounds a garden-like experience, and it's a great place to take photos, as I can attest. On any given day, they tell me, a photographer can be seen poised over a pond, waiting for a water lily blossom to fully open or a dragonfly to sit still, and a group of artists regularly comes to the nursery to sketch or paint.

Those who love accessorizing their gardens will find unusual pieces of metalwork, rain chains, blown-glass ornaments, a rainbow of ceramic pots, and make-you-smile garden art like these orange ceramic grenade vases. Hill Country specializes in fairy and miniature gardening accessories and plants, and they will ship anywhere.

We're proud to be partnering with Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery, and we thank them for their support!

Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery

Visit:

1407 N. Bell Blvd.

Cedar Park, TX 78613

Call: 512-563-1050

Store hours:

M-F 9-5, Sat 9-6, Sun 11-5

Find us online:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Pinterest

Articulture: Supporting sponsor of Austin Fling & Happy Hour happening!

You'll be climbing the walls -- to see the inventive plant displays hanging on them! -- when we visit Articulture Designs for a Fling-closing, Texas-style happy hour with live music, BBQ, margaritas, and more! Articulture is our generous sponsor for this event, and we'll relax -- or you can dance if you want to -- in their tree-shaded back-yard event space after our final afternoon of garden tours. This is how Austin likes to kick back, y'all -- outside under the trees, with a cold drink in your hand, food on the table, and music in the air.

Founded by "artrepreneur" Monique Capanelli in 2009, Articulture's current boutique/garden space opened in January 2016. The turquoise shop has become an Instagram hit with locals, who find photo-ready vignettes at every turn. Articulture continues to be best-known for Monique's custom living walls (you must see these pics) and vertical gardens for both residences and commercial installations. From massive, irrigated systems to easily spritzed air plant walls, Articulture has been at the forefront of vertical gardening since 2009.

Of course there will be a chance to shop! "The boutique is full of unique treasures, including home and garden decor, premium vessels, specimen plants, and signature Articulture living walls, plantscapes, and living furniture," the manager, Dante Dominick, says. "It also serves as a showroom full of innovative and customizable design ideas. We also host classes in our garden that are very popular, like 'Make Your Own Mini Living Wall,' 'Create Your Own Terrarium,' 'Mount a Staghorn Fern,' 'Macrame a Plant Hanger,' and many more." Articulture's additional services include landscape design and event decor.

If you're an out-of-towner, you'll be interested to learn that Articulture offers online shopping too. "While our online store has a fraction of the wide inventory in our boutique, there are still about 100 items, including handmade Articulture creations," Dante says.

You can even give someone a membership to one of Articulture's Plant of the Month clubs, ensuring that a new succulent, air plant, or cactus is delivered to their home each month.

I notice they carry the Desertscape line of glasses, trays, and tea towels that my sister has given me as gifts in recent years (totally nailing my style). Check 'em out if you find cactus and armadillos adorable -- at least when they're not poking you or digging up your garden.

T-shirt design at Articulture

Articulture's back-yard event space is available for weddings, parties, and corporate events, all while operating as a zero-waste facility. "We’ve hosted events of 200+ guests that generated only five pounds of landfill waste," Dante says. "Our zero-waste philosophy permeates every facet of our business operations. In addition to our zero-waste commitment, Articulture gives back to our community through donations to a wide variety of causes and organizations. Our philanthropic efforts generally focus on causes that support the environment, woman entrepreneurship and/or equality, and anti-discriminatory causes in general."

So there you go, Flingers -- a good-hearted company, a creative little shop to poke around in, and a back yard party to enjoy!

Articulture Designs

Visit: 6405 Manchaca Rd., Austin, TX 78745

Store hours:

Tues-Sat, 9am-6pm

Sun, 11am-5pm

Closed Mondays

Find us online:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Pinterest

Lucinda Hutson’s Texican cottage garden: Austin Fling tour

El Jardin Encantador -- the Enchanting Garden -- reads a hand-carved wooden gate in Lucinda Hutson's garden. When you step through, prepare to be enchanted.

Lucinda's Casita La Morada (little purple house) stands out even among the tropical-fruit-bowl hues of neighboring houses. For 41 years, she's lived in her 1940s Gothic cottage, transforming the small front, back, and side yards -- even the driveway! -- into a series of courtyard rooms lush with a profusion of flowers and colorful Mexican folk art. Designed for entertaining, her exuberant, one-of-a-kind garden is a fiesta for the senses.

Our Lady of La Tina, the bathtub goddess that protects the garden

Having grown up on the Mexican border in El Paso, Lucinda absorbed the unique "Texican" culture of the region and imported it to Austin.

"My garden allows my guests and me to go south of the border without leaving Austin," she says. "My bright purple house is surrounded by outdoor courtyard theme gardens: a Mexican mermaid grotto, a raised kitchen garden, a salad 'bar,' a deck for salsa dancing and fiestas, and a tequila cantina. Throughout, one finds whimsical folk art, colorful mosaics, and a wild array of plants: edibles, exotics, aromatics, herbs, colorful flowers, and kumquat trees."

Lucinda is a garden, food, lifestyle, and spirits writer and speaker, and the author of The Herb Garden Cookbook (in print for 27 years) and ¡VIVA TEQUILA! Cocktails, Cooking, and Other Agave Adventures.

As one of our generous sponsors, Lucinda will have a book-signing at our Sunday happy hour -- where we're pretty sure we'll be serving up a tequila cocktail or two! -- and it'll be a great opportunity to pick up her popular books (¡VIVA TEQUILA! especially makes a great gift) and tell her how much you loved visiting her garden.

Because we're sure you will.

Follow Lucinda online:

Website

Facebook

¿Qué Pasa?: Lucinda's blog

Lucinda's books & how to order