Totally Texas -- Ready to spring up and bloom

It’s spring in Texas--which means the weather is great for getting outside and playing in the dirt. I’m talking about adults playing the dirt. Dirt’s not just for kids anymore, and a slew of local plant sales are here to cater to the down and dirty in all of us.

(Nothing against kids. They’re great excuses for getting that little red Radio Flyer wagon out of the garage. They’re also the right height to save parents and grandparents the trouble of bending over to set small potted plants in that red wagon.)

North Texas has lots of excellent plant nurseries. But what I have in mind are the garden club and nonprofit group sales, offering natives, the unusual, the rare-- plants it’s often not feasible for commercial nurseries to provide. And although I’m providing ending times for these, arrive as early as possible for best results. They go fast.

April 5 -- Daylily Growers of Dallas spring sale, 9 a.m. - noon, North Haven Gardens, 7700 Northaven Road, Dallas. For information, call 972-820-1131.

April 5 -- Keep Flower Mound Beautiful, Trash Off & Environmental/Health Fair, 8:30 a.m. - noon. Registration at Home Depot parking lot, 352 International Parkway, Flower Mound. Participating groups include Trinity Forks Chapter Native Plant Society, with more than 1,000 plants. See www.kfmb.org/home/going_green_matters_fair/.

April 5 -- Fort Worth Botanic Garden’s spring plant sale, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., 3220 Botanic Garden Boulevard, Fort Worth. Annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, citrus and more. For information see www.fwbg.org/.

April 5 -- A little further afield, but worth a trip, is Stephen F. Austin State University’s Garden Gala Day plant sale from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. At the SFA Pinewoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St., Nacogdoches. (Hey, you’re on your way to East Texas anyway for Canton Trades Days and Tyler’s Azalea Trails, right?) See plant list at www.sfagardens.sfasu.edu/.

April 11-13 -- Heard Museum plant sale, Hear Natural Science Museum, 1 Nature Place, McKinney. Opens April 11 with pre-sale from 4-7 p.m. for members only, April 12 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., and April 13 from 1-5 p.m. Memberships are available at the sale, for those who want to take advantage of the members’ pre-sale. Information, including plant list, at www.heardmuseum.org/plantsale/.

April 25-27 -- Texas Discovery Gardens plant sale, with adapted and native plants, including butterfly attractors. Members preview sale 4-7 p.m. April 25, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. April 26-27. At Fair Park (tell parking attendants you’re here for the sale to get free parking), turn right past the gate and follow the signs to the back of the greenhouse. For plant list and more information, see http://texasdiscoverygardens.org/plant_sale.php/.

May 3 -- Native Plants & Prairies Day, Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake, 521 E. Lawther Dr., Dallas, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Includes information and plant sale by Dallas Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. See http://ntmn.org/.

And for more native plant sales across the state, visit http://npsot.org/.

(Next Friday -- how are the bluebonnets doing? I visit Ennis, the Official Bluebonnet City of Texas, for news about the blues.)

Totally Texas -- Arboretum's Chihuly nights

My daughter wisely waited until the daylight hours got shorter and temperatures cooler to visit the Dallas Arboretum’s “Chihuly Nights” with her family. After all, the evenings glass sculptor Dale Chihuly’s works are on view are still school nights.

The boys had marveled at the giant sculptures made of colored glass during the daytime. But seeing them illuminated at night was like seeing them again for the first time. Normally we’d worry about mosquitoes on a nighttime excursion, but the evening was cool enough to wear jeans and long-sleeved shirts, and nobody came home with bug bites.

The Chihuly exhibit opened at the Arboretum in May and remains until November 5. Of course, you can see it every day, during that time, but it’s also available for night viewing Monday through Thursday. (Note: Thursday evenings, when the Arboretum also hosts concerts, are sold out through the end of October. No concert is scheduled for the final Thursday of the exhibition, November 1.)

Tickets for evenings without concerts are $20 for adult nonmembers, $10 for children, with free parking included. Because the Arboretum’s ticket office closes at night, please buy tickets in advance, at www.dallasarboretum.org/.

The Arboretum’s gardens at 8525 Garland Road in Dallas are open from 9-5 p.m. daily, and 6 -10 p.m. for the evening, with the last entry at 9 p.m. Food and beverage service is available, but there are picnicking areas available near the pumpkin village off the main walk, so we packed our own food in.

My most highly recommended photo site is A Woman’s Garden, with its numerous reflecting pools and view of White Rock Lake.

For best pictures, unless you’re a pro with a tripod, get to the gardens before things get completely dark. Be sure to catch views of the lake at sunset, making a colorful backdrop for the sculptures.

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Fall in Texas is festival time. For other upcoming North Texas activities, see “Fall festivals in the air,” August 31, 2012, at this site. And every second Saturday is a chance to check out East Texas artists. See “Art Jam on FM 279,” February 6, 2012, for details.

(Next Friday -- A trip to Edom’s annual Festival of the Arts.)

Totally Texas -- A century old and still beautiful

White Rock Lake, Dallas

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When I moved to Dallas, knowing little about the city, I only looked for a central location for work, a decent school, a church, and a few amenities.  I didn’t realize I’d also found a home within walking distance of one of Dallas’s greatest treasures, White Rock Lake.  The artificial lake, which opened in 1911 and became a city park in 1929, is celebrating its centennial this year with one hundred days of special events.

This coming weekend, May 7, the Dallas Running Club hosts a centennial half marathon from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. starting at Winfrey Point, 952 Winfrey Point Drive (with access from Garland Road).  Additional free events in May include a free family weekend of water sports presented by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department May 14, a Little League Baseball tournament May 14-15, a three-race centennial regatta May 21, the White Rock sprint championships rowing event May 22.  The regatta and sprint championships are free to watch but require fees for participation.  For additional information and participant registration, see http://www.whiterockboatclub.com/ for the regatta and http://www.whiterockboathouse.com/ for the rowing event.

Additional events continue into June, to mark the date in 1911 when the dam across White Rock Creek that created the lake was completed.  The festivities culminate in what the For the Love of the Lake organization calls the beach party of the century on June 25-26.  It expects to host more than five thousand people at the Bath House Cultural Center at 521 E. Lawther Drive from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. June 25 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 26.  The Dallas Arboretum, which overlooks the lake, will cap June 26’s festivities with a 7 p.m. concert.  Please see www.whiterockdallas.org for admission fees and additional information closer to the date.

Totally Texas -- a fairy tale without ogres

I’m beginning this blog about everything Texas in a place that feels out of this world – the Dallas Arboretum’s spring festival, Dallas Blooms.  Recognized by MSN.com as one of the greatest places in the world to see spring flowers, Dallas Blooms runs through April 10 this year.  The current theme is “It’s a Fairy Tale World,” with seven playhouse-like castles based on classic stories such as Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Rapunzel.  But for gardeners in Texas and the Southwest, the Arboretum, in the spring and all year long, is a place to experience beauty designed to deal with our alkaline black clay soils and weather that can change from icy wind chills to subtropical breezes within the same month.

The loveliness opens outside the Arboretum’s gates with a laser-brilliant display of tulips and other spring bulbs.  (Yes, we like color in Texas.)  Once inside, I usually turn right, toward the Paseo de Flores, the main walkway through the gardens.  I’ll detour to check the displays of native and drought-adapted plants and, at this time of year, some of the fairy tale displays.  One of these is the thatched-roof cottage from years past, now transformed into Jack’s house – as in Jack and the Beanstalk.

I’ll visit the toad fountain, where bronze statues of the amphibians spout streams of water.  Beyond the Arboretum’s trial gardens is the circular fountain donated by the late actress Greer Garson in honor of her husband, Dallas oilman Buddy Fogelson.  When my daughter visits with her twins, the only way to lure the boys away from the fountains is to urge them to roll down the well-grassed hill behind the gazebo on the White Rock Lake side of the Arboretum.  They’re never the only kids taking advantage of the soft turf.  Grass stains fade.  Memories last a lifetime.

Which brings us to another joy for the young in age or spirit – the “Texas Town” exhibit near the Arboretum’s entrance.  We’d get there first if we turned left instead of right at the entrance plaza.  The small buildings – think playhouses, not miniatures – include houses, a church and schoolhouse.  Nearby are replicas of early Texas dwellings, including a tepee, covered wagon and sod house.  Still tiny by today’s standards but big enough to let imaginations soar.

The Arboretum is located at

8525 Garland Road

in Dallas.  For more information, see www.dallasarboretum.org/  Let us know where your favorite places are.