In the Garden

Just a few pictures of what's happening in the garden now. We're getting a line of storms coming through tonight so these flowers won't be looking so hot in the morning. 

Garden Update - Lady Banks Rose

This is again, like the wisteria, one of those plants that doesn't do much for most of the year, but in the few weeks that it does - good lord, it's just amazing. Thankfully, this rose graces the front of my house and as we're just coming out of winter, every day that I see it, it makes me smile. Damn skippy, spring is here. Lady Banks will hang out for a few weeks, but they are the weeks that somehow I need it to be here - that transition from winter to spring - real spring - not that got cha moment that we have in February. So here it is, my Lady Banks - she's mess, but she makes me happy every March. 

Ain't she a beauty?

Thankfully no thorns.

Window from the exterior

Window from the interior - pretty cool

Garden Update - Wisteria

Boy, March is such an interesting month in the garden. Everything takes off. Leaves sprouting, bulbs blooming, everything getting greener. Here is an example. On March 14th the wisteria was just in buds and then by the time I returned from my work trip - guess what, the blooms had started.

Wisteria buds - 14 Mar

It seems one day the buds just appear - like out of no where. It's pretty cool really, but it will only get better as time goes on, and my sneezing will get worse, but I'll gladly pay that price for open windows and flowers blooming. When the cluster of flowers start to open it's well worth the show. This is what reminds you why it's worth it to keep the plant around all year just for these few weeks.
Besides that, it's damn near impossible to kill the thing. This vine was in a pine tree that was taken out by Hurricane Ivan (2005) and even though we had the stump ground and I expected the wisteria to be a casualty of the grinding too - nope, not to be, happily for me. We have had to give it something to grow on though. It has a re-bar frame underneath everything that you can only see in the depth of winter. It's my version of sculpture. It's pretty cool.

Wisteria bloom - 19 Mar

Wisteria from bud to bloom 

Wisteria

Weather today:Temp: 79˚

Humidity: 48%, breezy and lovely.

Spring seems to be ... um...

... here. 
It's 72˚outside and sunny with a slight breeze and yes, this is still February. This week several other things beyond temperature have started to show that spring is certainly on its way. Here are the signs so far. Let's hope no late freeze messes this up. 

Clematis

This is a lovely purple Clematis that's been in the ground only a year (need to find the name - again).

Daylily sprouting

Most of my daylilies stay during the winter, but I have a few that die down and then come back. It will be time to be on aphid patrol soon. That seems to be a problem when they first sprout, but this does not cause any lasting damage. 

Hydrangea

Out the back door - a beautiful purple when it blooms

Hydrangea

One of two hydrangeas in pots that will be put into the garden this year.

Lady Banks Rose

First bloom and new leaves on the Lady Banks Rose. Thank goodness it has no thorns since I had to squeeze through many vines to get this photos. Lady Banks only blooms once, but for three to four weeks it's stunning. 

Rose

One of the heritage roses I have in the front garden. It's right under the Clematis. They are good friends. 

Strawberry

I have three strawberry pots and keeping the birds away from the strawberries as they mature is a total PITA, but worth it for the Boy. I don't eat them. 

Violet

This violet was here when we moved here and spreads easily in the shady parts of the garden. Some consider them weeds, but I don't. 

Camellia in bloom

Camellia: This sweet camellia was in our backyard when we bought this property. It is large, probably 13 or so feet tall and was perfectly shaped. When all the pines went down during Ivan, the camellia lost it's back half. It looked perfect from the front, but completely flat from the back. Even after all that damage, it still looks great and has filled in since the 2005 storm. Here is a beautiful bloom photo I took today. 

It is December 5th and what did I find growing in my garden ...

December Tomato

Tomatoes - yep, that's right. I had no idea that the remnant of a tomato plant that I thought had long been singing with the great choir invisible is still in production even though we've had three (count them, three) nights where it's been below freezing. 
How am I to explain this? Neglect, pure and simple. I figured it was dead but hadn't take the trouble to pull it or the basil or zinnias out of the ground yet. So my reward is my first ever and probably last December tomato.

December Tomatoes

Surprise ... there were two more when I went to pick the first one. I plan on letting them ripen on the counter (which I have to do w/all tomatoes no matter what time of year because of the mockingbirds) and see what they taste like. They are certainly not beautiful, but a lovely surprise nonetheless. 

First Hummingbird ...

I had my first hummingbird in the garden this evening. Of course, I didn't have a dang camera, but I expect he will be back. He found the purple hyacinth vine flowers very interesting. Yipee - hummers... 

The flowers of the vine are impressive, but I love the pod even more. This year's plant just sort of showed up from seeds from last year. They are tough vines. They start of with the first few leaves kind of raggedy, but that's no big deal. It's vigorous, so it needs something tough to grow on - I use our six foot chain link fence and I still have to keep it in check from taking on the roof line of the house. Great vine though -- just lovely. And ... hummers.... Next time I'll get a picture of the little bugger.

Daylilly Day - 10 May 2010

First Daylillys of the year - at least for me. This seems really late to me, but I'll check the books and see what I have*.  They opened early this morning so they are not quite at their best at 6:00pm, but finally the first one. I have hundreds of daylilies and know not a single name - I'm not that type of gardener -- there are some plants I bother learning the botanical name, but not many - maybe that's a new project for me... Like I need another one. 
I have daylilies that sprout baby plants off their stems when they bloom - proliferations. It's a super easy way to increase your population easily. I also have decent luck planting the little black seeds and I've never needed to refrigerate them - that seems silly for a plant grown on the gulf coast.  Other things in the garden (top to bottom, duh): Stokesia, low roses (Katy Road I think), Oregano in the Herb Garden


*4/15/2008; 4/8/2009

Currently Blooming

Rose from my next door neighbor who took a cutting from her grandmother - how cool is that? MotH dug this up as it was a runner that had rooted itself. Lovely purple.
Top = Apple Blossom Amaryllis; next Easter Lily and last purple Clematis (whose name I never remember)

Rain

Finally Rain. It's about time. This is the driest spring I can remember, but after the wettest winter - so go figure. Nice and steady and slow - rain, I mean - okay, who has their mind in the gutter?
Poor Dog 1 hates thunder - he's not scared - oh, hell no. He wants to take it on... right out in the yard. But.. he's a bit of a polly prissy pants about getting rained on (pool = okay, rain = not so much). So that doesn't go so well.  Dog 2 will stand outside in it - he doesn't even seem to care that it's raining or that he's about to get struck by lightening. 
Well at least it's raining and we really really needed it... thank goodness.  

Blooms in the Garden - late March

Sparaxis (orange and white) - I planted these about 4 years ago and they still come back, though perhaps a bit less, year after year.

Lady Banks Rose Cluster - They don't smell like anything, and they have no thorns, but just once a year they look glorious. 

Lady Banks Rose from inside the bay window in the kitchen.

 

White Irises of unknown origin - beautiful every year - and almost always a surprise - they just appear one day and hang on for a couple of weeks - a nice addition to the rose bed. 

More photos to come as April is here. 

Spring?

It's hard to believe it, but I noticed the leaves are starting to bud out on the trees in the parking lot of the office. Does it always happen this early? Or is it because we've been comparatively mild since the 13 day long hellish deep freeze at the beginning of the month? Now we just have to cross fingers for no serious freeze or all that will be for nought.


The daffodils are blooming, but that's normal. We have daffs that bloom here in December. We're expecting more rain. We've had way to much for the fall/winter, I can only imagine when the spring rains come what it will be like.

Breaking the (only) garden rule

I broke the first and perhaps only rule of gardening - I didn't bother going out into the front garden for weeks. You see, when you go out into the garden, daily is best, you see little things that you can deal with or make note of that needs to be dealt with on the weekend. You can pull a few weeds or tie something up or maybe water a plant that looks a little blah. Well, in not doing that for much of the summer, I have created a huge mess to clean up. The weeds that need to be pulled are incalculable, the confederate rose needs to be trimmed and the leaves from it raked up because they are smothering some of the plants below. Seeds need to be collected or at least distributed for next spring. Hell, I even managed to let a knock-out rose die -- how the heck did that happen?


The back garden fared a little better. Largely because parking there means I have to come in contact with the garden there more often, though most of the time, in a rush. I let the zinnias take over the vegetables and then didn't bother to dead head the zinnias so I'm expected zinnias in the veg garden again next year - my justification that they attract pollinators doesn't really work if you let them tower over the okra so the okra doesn't get enough sunlight to produce.


So in going to the house via the front I have realized the error in my ways... must. work. in. garden. Or risk feeling like a sham as a master gardener.