From High Country Gardens in spring 2018.
Stachys coccinea 'Mountain Red' - Texas betony
From High Country Gardens in fall 2019
Added more between 2020 and 2023 but several did not take
Expectations:
Silver Carpet is a non flowering lambsear. The one thing I never liked about lambsear in the past has been the ungainly flower stalks. These won't have any tall flowers at all (or rarely).
They'll take dry shade and don't want rich soils. In this dry climate I won't have to worry about foliage rotting. They should spread and spill over the edging.
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Red Texas betony looks a lot like a salvia. |
It can get big and sprawly. It can take dry soil after it is established and it likes shade.
Experiences:
Experiences:
I put four of the 'Silver Carpet' along the front curve of the potting bench garden. These have been stellar from the beginning. Lush and blue and beautifully formed, spilling over the front edge of the garden.
In the first year all four of these Silver Carpet fuzzy blue lambsears bulked up a lot, and by spring 2019 each clump was already big and lush.
I added the red flowered 'Mountain Red' stachys, or Texas betony, to the dining room window garden in 2019, tucked in between the fescue grasses. In 2020 I put two in the back of the potting bench curve where it is quite shady.
A very different looking lambsear. It takes constant shade. In 2021 the one in the dining room window garden was blooming beautifully behind the transplanted Japanese maple. The two in the potting bench curve struggled and I took them out in 2023.
The red flowers of the Texas betony are a nice red.
Velvety, soft, and cool blue, they go nicely interspersed with golden Japanese forest grasses.
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| August 2020 |
But in 2020 one in the middle got yellow spotted leaves and declined terribly. One nearby also got the spotting but did not decline so much.
All summer the worst infected one looked awful -- apparently it was fungal damage from water on the leaves -- and yet the others were fine. All are in similar conditions for rain falling from the aspen above. I carefully hand water from underneath. The one just looked like rags.
Advice was to cut back the limp tattered leaves and let it regrow, but I didn't do that, until finally in October I clipped it all back, took it out. In 2021 a second one succumbed, but I transplanted it when the garden under the aspens was expanded and cut back all the foliage.
By 2023 they all looked god and I divided some of the spreading edges to plant more.
By 2023 they all looked god and I divided some of the spreading edges to plant more.
I added the red flowered 'Mountain Red' stachys, or Texas betony, to the dining room window garden in 2019, tucked in between the fescue grasses. In 2020 I put two in the back of the potting bench curve where it is quite shady.
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| July 13, 2021 |
It started blooming in early June 2020, and is a long lasting bloomer, absolutely all summer.
In 2023 I dug the strugglers from the potting bench curve and put one near the patio flagstones under the privet and another in a pot to transplant into the dining room garden when it gets some size.