Howdy folks,
In response to some different comments in this thread.
The problem with Oleanders is an incurable ( at the moment,
according to A&M pathology lab )disease has moved into the Austin area
centered around the Steck neighborhood that is killing them off and
will likely spread. If you do an advanced google search on "Skip
Richter oleander disease" his PDF file article pops up with all the
details.
Skips view, that I agree with is that there is no sense in spending
time and money to increase the host population of this plant in
Austin. Talking to the folks at Green Grow, there was a big debate
about including the plant in this list given the problems, but since
color was so hard to get with deer resistant plants they included it
anyway.

The kindergarden trip to the Zilker botanical gardens went well.We
had one partially soaked kid, which isn't too bad out of thirty. We
saw a black and yellow banded snake which, if we got it straight, it's
"Red and yellow, fine fellow, red and black get back, jack" or maybe
the other way around, but we kept our distance. The purifying wall
basin spigot was clogged up in the Japanese garden, I was sorry to
see. In the Roses just about everything had shut down except for the
Caldwell Pinks, one of my favorite Roses. There was also a massive
amount of black spot everywhere which surprised me, but I've never
been crazy about their choices in that garden.

The kids picked up quick on the question , "what is missing in the
"Dinosaur garden" you see in the other gardens ?" I was proud to see.
The Xeriscape gardens were in fair shape, but the big problem
they can't get around is that there is so much shade in that garden,
and a lot of the plants could use more sun.

take care,
Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com

that reminds me, for the person who asked about our location, actually
my wife the webmaster and I created our site after I retired from
working retail plant sales here in Austin, and the site is mostly to
stay in touch with my customers I've developed over the years, and in
addition, and part of my motivation, to get to write about issues that
I had to whisper about behind the bosses back when I was working for
others, like "Do you know what's in that box of Ironite you are about
to buy?", or "It's a hundred degrees, go home, and don't even think of
planting."
I don't have any grand, garden.com ambitions, but it keeps me busy
and in pocket change.