What's New

Long ago, decorating the house for the holidays was quite different. Creativity and ingenuity were key words! The tree was cut from the field and lovingly placed by the hearth, popcorn was strung as garland, homemade ornaments hung in great abundance and pinecones of all sizes filled every niche. Boughs of fragrant evergreens were strewn across the mantle and a handmade wreath graced the front door. All this green was quite lovely but it needed something...it needed a POP! Being in the south, we don't get quite the same spectacular fall color show as our northern neighbors do, but we do get to enjoy the Holly family's 'turning of the berry"! Pride of Houston Holly is a widely used, multi-purposed, prunable joy in our southern gardens. Tiny little green berries stay hidden all year awaiting Nature's subtle signal to plump up, redden up and be seen!

It's all about texture with Seagreens! The unique, arching, lush foliage in that lovely deep bluish-green color is what we use to anchor our landscape designs, to gift them heft and importance, to grab the eye. Our eyes are initially drawn to two aspects in a landscape, blooming color plants and dark green foliage plants.

As southerners, the beautiful Mimosa tree is quite often the first tree we came to know by name. As children we were captivated by the leaves that closed up at night as if by magic and the soft, fragrant, puffy pink flowers made us sneeze as we tickled our noses with them. Brought to the U.S. from Asia in 1745, this tropical looking tree took gardeners by storm and, as a result, the Mimosa is found all over the country where it is widely planted as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens. The deciduous tree forms a broad crown that provides highly desirable dappled shade in the hot summers and full sun in the winters. Mimosas burst into full bloom May through July bearing clouds of sweetly fragrant, hot pink, pom-pom like blossoms that are real attention grabbers!

Years ago, the only place we saw these odd and exotic plants, was traveling through the great southwest or in Mexico on that family vacation! Now, as water issues are becoming such a concern in the green industry, plant hybridizers have really focused their talents on one of the most diverse group of plants in the marketplace today! The Agaves. Agaves are no more simply the old century plants we all recognize. Creekside offers an incredible array of very carefully selected colorations, textures and ultimate sizes. From the large attention grabbers to the smaller, decorative agaves that shine in potted patio displays or rock gardens!

We are happy to release a very nice crop of young Texas Wild Olives, aka Anacahuita or Mexican Olives! This ornamental member of the Borage family has highly attractive dark, soft, ovate leaves about 7" long by 3" wide. The small evergreen tree gets 15-30' by 10-16'. Atop this little jewel are clusters of the lovliest white, funnel-shaped flowers we have ever seen. Yellow throated and 2-3" across, they resemble delicate white crepe paper and bloom throughout the year!