A Visit to Dancing Oaks

Well, I must admit, I've been a negligent blogger lately. Since I don't get home until after dark, I have to take enough photos during the weekend to have anything to blog about...and sometimes that just doesn't happen! Luckily, I still have a backlog of things from last year to fill in the gaps.

As I blogged about last October, Heather (of Just A Girl With A Hammer) and I made a trip down to Wind Dancer to indulge in some plant-shopping. Since we were so close, we decided to hit up Dancing Oaks as well.


Sadly, by the time we made it to the nursery (enduring the Trail of Tears that Dancing Oaks calls their road), we only had 30-40 minutes to look around the garden, let alone shop for plants...so this will be a very brief tour!


The sun was perpetually in front of me, so every photo in this post will be DRAMATIC! This is Colutea x media (aka, Bladder Senna)...which was utterly jaw-dropping in the late afternoon light.


Just look at those cool seed pods! If it had to guess, I'd say this small shrub was fairly innocuous for most of the year...but WOW...if I had room, I'd definitely get one of these!


Of course, my eye always goes for the gorgeous grasses, like this Stipa gigantea...like beaten gold, this one.


As lovely as the blooms of Nigella damasca are, the seed pods are even better (IMHO). There is something fabulous about them...and that feathery, finely-dissected foliage is so nice.


At first, I thought the burgundy foliage in this shot was a Hibiscus...but in looking at it now, it is probably some form of Acer...what unbelievably saturated color...so perfect during autumn.


I've never been a huge fall of Moluccella Laevis (Bells of Ireland), finding them more of a novelty than anything else. The dried seed heads, however, are gorgeous...don't you love how those papery bracts catch and diffuse the setting sun?!?


Another gorgeous plant that demands a bigger space than I could give it, Lobelia tupa...I can't put my finger on what it is that I love about this plant...probably because it's EVERYTHING!


Another long-time love of my, Echinops (Globe Thistle). Again, I just love how the backlighting gleams off every surface of these.


I stopped in my tracks at the sight of this large patch of Catananche caerulea (Cupid's Dart)...the silvery seed heads seemed to glow from within...utterly stunning!


Yup...another shot...so gorgeous!


At this point, an employee reminded us they were closing soon...so we rushed about, looking at the plants for sale. I'm sad to say, we didn't have nearly enough time to search through them nearly as well as I would have liked...but I guess now there's even more reason to return this year :-)