Gardening 2016

Gardening Holly Grove ‘16



It’s time to begin the new year. The Ginko is almost at peak. Today is the last day of November 2015. There is some color about----mostly yellow. The yellow/red/mostly orange Chinese Tallow shows the best color around here.



Dan Gill of LSU wrote a blurb for ‘The Advocate’ listing plants for fall color in south Louisiana: green ash, sweet gum, crape myrtle, ginko, southern sugar maple, shumard oak, red maple, Japanese maple, flowering pear, Chinese Pistachio and shrubs: sumac, Virginia willow and deciduous verburnums. My crape myrtles are not very colorful nor are the two Japanese maples I have planted. I still plan to add some of these.



I have received my Brent and Becky order today: narcissus Avalanche, also called seventeen sisters, c. 1700; hyacinthoides, hispanica ‘Excelsior’; muscari neglectum.



Ogden says of the Spanish bluebells, “The flower that comes to mind for most Southerners when squill is mentioned is Spanish bluebell or wood hyacinth…..long known……as Scilla campanulata….[then] to the genus Endymion, and more recently to…Hyacinthoides hispanica.” They multiply under trees. “This old Southern favorite is one of the finest spring bulbs for naturalizing in woodland, and will even succeed in the dark shade under live oaks….They have been popular since Elizabethan times and came to the South with the earliest settlers.” He further notes that the related English bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) needs cooler, damper conditions than the South can provide.”  I plan to put these under the oaks on each side of the drive just past the cross roads.



I also go to Ogden for the muscari. “…the little blue muscari, known fondly as the blue bottle or grape hyacinth. These modest yet bright blossoms are in all the old lawns. They spread quickly by bulblets and seed….The dark green, wiry leaves come up in the fall, so the clumps make an obvious green tuft all winter…..the standard muscari of commerce seldom naturalize in the South…The more usual muscari imported from Holland are forms of M. Armeniacum, which bloom well the year they are planted, but seldom persist in the South more than a season or two afterward.” The “old grape hyacinth of the South” known as M. racemosum or M. atlanticum to past authors, are now better known as M. neglectum.” I planted 50 among the plantings in front of the house.



The n. Avalanche (17 Sisters) were very large bulbs. I put them near the drive north of the house in front under the oak, and in back among the lycoris west of the HVAC. I put out 19 and saved 6 for 520 Orange. Ogden tells the story that the manager of Tresco gardens on the Isles of Scilly, T. Dorrien-Smith discovered an old narcissus growing in a rocky crag along the seashore. It appeared that the bulb had tumbled from some old fields above. He registered it as ‘Avalanche’ in 1955. “It is probably one of the three hundred historic tazetta narcissi listed by Dutch nurseries during the nineteenth century—which of them, it will never be known for sure. In old Southern gardens, similar yellow-centered narcissi are sometimes called seventeen sisters, and nurseries often use this common name as an alternate for ‘Avalanche.’ Narcissus fanciers have also suggested that this clone may be the same as ‘Compressus’, another antique florist variety….For Southerners ‘Avalanche’ offers all the gaiety of the true ‘Grand Monarque’ on a thriftier, more robust plant…..flowering comes in late February or early March.”



The patio is pretty bare, however, the pot of marigolds is still very good and the violas are good, just not enough. The purple lantana is still good on the south drive. I also saw the first paperwhite. The sasanquas and the japanicas are out in force.



Salad greens and pot greens still strong. Picked sorrel for a tart. Broccoli tomorrow.



I have been picking up sticks, chain-sawing downed trees and also making a fire brake around the big downed oak on the northwest.



2 December



Rain all day yesterday and now turning cooler though no frost is expected this week. I went around this morning taking photos for Christmas card use. There were a lot of camellias especially Japonicas that are in bloom. The scattered nandina berries look good. I made several shots of the ginko but part of it is still green and a lot of the yellow leaves carpet the ground. There is little else in the way of fall color. The Chinese tallow trees have mostly lost their leaves.



Connie picked the first Satsuma this morning. We have 3, just like the mirleton. Poor year for citrus. There are only a few fruits on the potted citrus. They suffered from the wooly ageldid which I think is the culprit.



Friday 4 December



A light frost this morning on the roof  tops. 32° on the rear gallery.



I read the Southern Garden History Society summer publication on line. They do a good job. We are planning to go to the meeting in Charleston in April and will join I think. Although their publication comes out on line it is way after the fact. But I read a nice article on dafs by Greg Grant of Center Texas. He notes Narcissi are members of the amarillis family, native to Europe and the Mediterranean and consist of >fifty species. Our climate here in the South is primarily wet-dry, not like the warm-cold of Holland.

He notes that botanically they all belong to the genus Narcissus named for the son of Cephissus and Lirope. “Unfortunately this is an oversimplification for the diversity most gardeners come in contact with. The American Daffodil Society refers to them all as daffodils which once again is a deceptive oversimplification. They even divide them into 14 different categories which in my humble opinion is an over-complicated for the average gardener.” He notes that in some parts of the South people refer to them all as jonquils. He divides them into three fairly distinct categories:

1.      Narcisus, the polyanthus flowered N. tazetta, blooms early, small cups, white or creamy white, powerfully fragrant.

2.      Jonquil, hybrid N. jonquilla, clusters of small yellow cups, strong sweet fragrance. Jonquilla is a corruption of Juncus genus with similar rush-like foliage.

3.      Daffodil, N. pseudonarcissus, mostly yellow with one flower per stalk, a large trumpet with little or no fragrance.

I read Gardenista daily on line. A recent comment from Tim Callis, a Cape Cod landscape designer, “You should never turn your back on wisteria.” It is rampant in my garden in Wilmington and is also rampant on the north border here but that is a pretty wild area anyway. Another note to bear in mind is “prune grapes and fruit trees after President’s Day.” Is this for the North or South?



I am working on my seeds for next year. I have ordered some from Native Seeds and am looking at Pine Tree and Seed Savers Exchange. I have organized and shelled and otherwise prepared my saved seeds. I need to look at what I have and need from Naylor’s. I have used Naylor’s squash and cucumber seed with less success than I have had with some ordered so I am going to order some more this year.



With the weather sunny and not too hot (or cold) I am working on my borders, pulling privet mostly. I did pick up trash on the highway. Someone has mowed since I last did and chopped up the cans and other trash which makes for more difficult harvest.



10 December, Thursday



The weather has been nice this week. I did burn about three piles—hardly a start. And I have been cleaning out the fence and trees on the S. farm road. Today before the rain predicted for this weekend I have been digging in the potager. It is still wet despite no rain for about 2 weeks. I have planted some mâche. I like it but find it hard to grow. Brigetta first gave me seed in Wilmington in the 80’s. It does reseed but gets lost in the weeds usually. I tried to plant it in the asparagus bed but again lost in the weeds. I also planted some garlic that I got from Naylor’s and had forgotten to plant earlier. There were also some few old shallots and garlic sets (whatever they are called). And I planted some bunching onions, Tohyono O’odham I’toi (elder brother), a mild shallot like bulb brought to southern Arizona by the Spanish.



The main reason to dig was the fava seed. I rechecked the Williamsburg garden book, “Plant in late November when the last leaves fall.” The last leaves fell last year in the end of November but they are just now ending this year. The ginko still has most of its leaves.



11 December, Friday



Before we leave for Wilmington on Monday I put out the rest of the daffodils that I had—Falconet (a tazetta-jonquil cross). I put 12 bulbs in the hot bed. I already had some. I did a little revamping. The canna are ok. They bloom well but are bothered by leaf rollers and they spread, crowding out other things. I removed some. I removed the Bishop of Landaft. Dahlias are not for HG. I stored the bulbs and will try in a pot in an area with less heat than the patio. I moved some alocasia that I brought from Alabama and will take to Wilmington. I replanted 3 lilies that I found. They did bloom last year a little. The knifofia lives but makes no attempt to bloom. I did not find any crocosmia but I did dig into some daffodil bulbs.



Ogden says the Lilium henryi is a fine garden lily in the South. We shall see if I can provide it an acceptable place.



23 December



We have had a couple light frosts but mostly no cold. The temperature is to reach near 80 this week---and it’s raining. I have not been doing much gardening. I have done one burn pile since returning from ILM and more work on the south farm road fence.



We have lots of camellias and narcisus in bloom and a rose and some azaleas. The pansies are good and my one pot of marigolds still provides color. I had to rejuvenate the Christmas wreaths with this hot weather. I never did put up a tree. There is always so much to do without the extra day of putting up a tree. We usually don’t have visitors but Tinsley is coming this year on Christmas day. Connie has been using the benne seed I grew for wafers and also in some collards. We have salad greens and pot greens.



24 December



I found a web site devoted to ginkos. The site lists ginkos all over the world. The writer gives the largest in the world as the Li Jiawan grand ginko King, about 100km west of Guijang China. It is 15.6 meters in diameter. The picture shows the heart of the tree to be dead and missing. He notes the oldest in the US is in Bartram’s garden in Philadelphia, planted in 1784 from William Hamilton of the Woodlands. The Woodlands’ trees are gone. (I can’t seem to find the size of the Bartram tree.) The largest in Pennsylvania is in Lancaster Cemetery, measuring 21’ (263 “) in circumference. Another in Pennsylvania is in the Tyler Arboretum, Lim Co. PA, measuring 254”. The website lists a lot of trees but doesn’t give dimensions of all. But the Pennsylvania trees seem to be the largest and the only ones I have found to date to be larger than the Holly Grove ginko. The largest in Virginia is on White Marsh Plantation in Gloucester VA, c. 1820, circumference 4.83 m. There is a large one in the Vicksburg Military Park. I’ll have to visit and measure.



25 December



We are expecting company today---Tinsley. So I have been cutting camellias. With this warm weather there are tons of blooms. I also cut a bouquet of Louis Philippe and cut some narcissus.



It is still raining intermittently and I can’t get much work done outside. I have worked on the fence along the south farm drive. The bob-wire fence is a kind of modern ha-ha, but only if I get it free of privet and Chinese tallow trees.



4 February 2016



I am gardening from the gallery at this time. After New Year’s we went to Wilmington where on 6 January I fell and broke my right acetabulum and pelvis. Surgery was 13 January to reconstruct. I spent the next two weeks in the hospital and rehab and am able to walk toe-touch. We returned to Holly Grove on the 29^th. There had been a hard frost to brown all the tropicals still on the patio. But I can see narcissi in the north rear; the Japanese magnolia is in bloom so we have had some warm weather. Some snow drops are in bloom. I can see several camellias from the gallery. The pasture looks pretty brown. The temperature that weekend was in the 70’s. Moved the asparagus ferns back to their hanging positions. Connie watered the pots. At least one croton in the annex has all dead leaves. I had feared I would be away so long, lots would be lost. I can’t water or lift any of them and cannot dig in the potager until at least April, if then.



I have done a lot of thinking about the garden here. I do hate to move pots around and water can be a problem. I have said this before. I need to edit, streamline. But I go to a nursery, get a catalogue, or something shows up online and I have the urge to buy and plant. I have plenty to do to clear the downed trees and keep the azalea beds weeded. I don’t mind mowing but I can’t until I can use both legs.



Connie did harvest 2 blood oranges and 2 satsumas. That is all this year. No kumquats for the first year. I need to fertilize my pots in February.



15 February



The biggest hail storm I have ever seen with nickel sized hail came down for several minutes this afternoon.



Connie dug (kind of) and planted sugar snap peas yesterday and also dug some Jerusalem artichokes. We have been having kale salads and some collards.



21 February



The weather continues relatively warm---no frost. The snowdrops are peaking. The jonquils (yellow cups) are now beginning to bloom. The muscari (50) have bloomed in front of the house but not very showy---not this first year anyway. And the tommies are hardly visible. I planted them near the house to be seen but then we don’t enter in the front.



The trees are beginning to leaf in NOLA and the azaleas are coming along in St. Francisville.



3 March



The weather for the next 10 days does not show any frost so an unusually warm winter and last frost date was sometime in February.

I can see the pear blooming in the north yard. I’m gardening from the porch. I saw the redbuds from a warm evening drink time on the front gallery the other day. They are so high up in the tree canopy that they do not show much. The daffodils continue and the camellias.



Connie is doing some watering of pots and she did plant English peas this week but most of the yard work will have to wait until I get off the crutches the first of April and we’ll just have to see how much I can do even then.



We have the Norwood Women’s Club coming to tour in April. Can I get things a little tidied up?



Monday 14 March---views from the gallery



Cloudy this AM but sun yesterday after many days of a lot of rain---several inches.



The pear no longer has blooms but the red bud does. Felder said Saturday that the red bud blooms are edible and taste like raw peanuts. Maybe we will use them on the Easter deviled eggs---if they last. The Carolina Jasmine was all over the trees last weekend on the way to Grace but not this week. The forsythia in Gurley is starting to bloom but ours not so much. The oaks are leafing out and the Ginko was open after the rain. The Formosa azaleas are beginning. Others are already open. The dafs (Falconet) in the patio hot bed look good. The calendula are blooming. Could use more dafs I guess. The tea olive is full in bloom. The plum and one apple are in bloom. The citrus on the patio are leafing and budding. I can see the red flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) in bloom by the potager fence.



Tuesday 15 March



Last evening as I sipped my wine on the front gallery I saw the dogwood out front beginning to show. This morning there were white iris in bloom in the white bed on the patio.



I have been waiting for the roofers to put the rear gallery roof on before starting to put the plants out on the gallery and the patio. They are here this morning. Frost is almost assuredly over so this can begin----only I can’t lift so Connie will have to do this until April.



I have in my mind to start some starflowers (ipheion uniflorum) here at Holly Grove. Reading Ogden I see that they multiply  “at an amazingly rapid pace by offsets, seed, and droopers….These South Americans readily naturalize on almost any soil.”



Saturday 19 March



Blackberry winter (Felder says the blackberries bloom but I haven’t seen that yet and this would mean dewberries anyway here.)----temperatures to be in 30’s in a couple of days.

We (Connie) did bring out some plants on Thursday. Some have died of the lack of water.



The 17 sisters by the drive near the rear gallery have been good. They are fading. Maybe another to repeat.



The Formosas are peaking and I think much better than last year. We did pilgrimage yesterday. Rosale’s park is neatly mowed. I need to do some neating-up----mowing but also downed trees and limb removal. And still getting privet et al out from around trees and from azalea beds.



Tuesday 22 March



Temperatures around freezing the last two mornings with a light frost on the roofs. I don’t think any damage.



We went to Afton Villa Sunday for a book signing of Afton Villa, The Birth and Rebirth of a Nineteenth-Century Louisiana Garden by Genevieve Trimble. I believe our Formosa azaleas this year look better than Afton’s! The book does describe the oldest azalea in the garden as the Afton Villa Red or the Pride of Afton being on the left side of the parterre on the first terrace. Dr. Robert Lewis took cuttings in the early part of the twentieth century and planted these along the drive which is the finest feature of the garden in my opinion. I still need to root some cuttings for myself. One commentator has stated he thinks these are just President Clay. I like the red color better than the purple Formosa.



Also on Sunday Ann Newton loaned me a copy of One Writer’s Garden, about Eudora Welty’s home in Jackson, MS. There is a section on Camellias, Eudora’s favorite plant. “The first recorded specimens of C. japonica to arrive in England were the white ‘Alba Plena’ and an unnamed variegated type, transported in 1792 by East India merchantmen. By 1800 camellias had made their way to the eastern US….by the late 1830’s a grower in the Boston area listed 150 varieties. A decade later, Philadelphia was the leading camellia center in the country.”



“The last half of the nineteenth century saw a decline in camellia cultivation…..The International Camellia Society completed a forty-year project of camellia nomenclature in 1993 with the publication of the two-volume International Camellia Register.”



“Camellias regained their star status in the 1920’s and 1930’s…..The founding in 1945 of the American Camellia Society…”



The bloom time of the camellias is almost over here this year at Holly Grove.



Another item of note by Eudora: she called the N. tazetta ‘Avalanche’ “Presbyterian sisters,” not “seventeen sisters.”



As Chestina Welty got old and unable to garden, Eudora did less as well, “I’ve fallen back on camellias and bulbs…”



The forsythia that was ablaze in a recent year hardly was noticeable this year---due to lack of cold?



Friday 8 April



I have been walking for a week now---with a limp. We got back Tuesday night from Wilmington and Greenville for Mary’s funeral. I have been doing a little outside every day.



The azaleas were gone. A few dafs, camellias, are still in bloom. The yellow pond iris are in bloom and a few roses have opened.



I have gotten to the potager. Picked a couple salads: some lettuce, arugula, sorrel, wild violets, and ginko leaves. Poke salat. The peas are growing that Connie planted. I put out 4 big boy tomato plants I bought in Wilmington. Weeds are everywhere. Looks like the mirleton did not make it.



The mower started and I began which included a lot of stick pick up. I had part of the highway mowed yesterday when I got stuck in the ditch. Broke 2 ropes before getting the mower free and then a fluid line broke so Richlands came by today to pick it up. Will get its yearly oil change and new blades which I failed to do last year. Will I get the tractor back in time for the Norwood Women’s Club tour? Connie postponed it a week because of the funeral and yesterday, the original day of the tour, we had no electricity all day.



I continue to get the pots out and on the patio. I use Connie, the wheel barrow, the dolly or a combination to move the heavy ones.



I am trying to clip off dead stuff and pull weeds in the patio beds. I am clipping the box hedge which I had meant to do much earlier. I bought the organic camellia/azalea fertilizer and also some citrus fertilizer at Farmer’s Supply in Wilmington. I have put out some on the citrus on top of the ashes and manure. They are coming out and most have blooms. I still have the white bug which I am hand picking as I do not want to put on the oil spray while they are blooming. The Satsuma in the lawn is full of blooms. My Anna apple bloomed (as did the plum) but the new Dorset has only a couple leaves. Maybe it is still alive but it certainly will not pollinate the Anna.



I have gotten the fall bulb books and am looking for more. Ipheon. The scilla (hyacinthoides, hispanica ‘Excelsior’) at the crossroads are in bloom. Not a big show. Buy more. Maybe the yellow paperwhite to make the hot bed earlier. The Falconet bloomed ok. The tulips are small and kind of lost when they finally bloom. More Avalanche.



Monday April 11

I am trying to dig in the potager and plant before the rains come this week. Still no mower so not tempted to finish that job. I am not trying to get out all the Florida betony, just dig the ground up. Not sure if getting the betony out does any good. It certainly returns readily enough. Bending and especially kneeling are difficult but spading is not. I am trying not to do too much.



Plan to clean the rear gallery today and bring the plants out of the annex.



Friday 15 April



Got the mower back on Thursday for about $700! And I have been mowing since. Lots of wild onions to assault the nose and eyes. The wildflowers: butter cup, some white daisy like flower and verbena look almost too good to cut. Lots of curving around to leave the narcissus and lycorus foliage.



I went to Naylors and got some plants this week and got some out---tomatoes and peppers, then too much rain.



The Norwood Women’s Club met here yesterday. I cut some camellias still here, the last. Also some narcissus, Louisiana iris, and the yellow pond iris (probably at peak). The mock orange (Philadelphus cornarius which I have from Gantt) are at peak and there is the white cluster rose from Alabama that grows so large. Also some pink roses from Alabama (Opp’s small pink cluster, ? Champney’s pink cluster), Louis Phillipe, and Fortuniana which I have from Belvidire. Robert Fortune, a young Scot undergardener found the rose in Canton, China and introduced it in 1845. It is closely related to the Banksias having the same cascading habit and extreme vigor. I had one St. Joseph’s lily to cut.  The Lamark and the iceberg in the white bed are blooming. The large pink (Maman Cochet or Mrs. RB Cant) is also blooming but it is too humid and the blooms are not so nice. The yellow achillia in the hot bed are beginning to bloom.



The satsumas are loaded with blooms. There are more blooms on the paw-paws than have been there before, but I still haven’t produced any fruit.



I got the rest of the pots out from the annex. A couple dead from the neglect this past winter, but minimal loss. I had Connie to help me lift some.



Monday 25 April



I have been gone to Wilmington (where the season is later and some azaleas were still in bloom) and Williamsburg. Had to leave there due to Lanny’s illness so not much to say about plants or the garden conference we had gone to attend. The interstate in eastern Virginia was wooded up to the very edge of the verge. I liked it.



We came back via New Orleans where the oleander hedge along I-10 W was in beautiful bloom. The oleander here have not yet opened but before long. The ones from the Arizona Inn in pots are also going to bloom. The weather is a little too cold usually for mine not to have frost damage and therefore bloom problems the following year but we have had a mild winter. The Parkinsonia at Mrs. Stream’s in NOLA is in full and glorious bloom.



More roses are blooming. I cut some Laughter for the house. The St. Joseph Lilies, the amaryllis, Louisiana Iris are in bloom. In the white bed all the roses are in bloom plus some Shasta daisies. The hot bed has the recently planted marigolds, achillia. The yellow banana bloom is still beaming out. The pot of yellow iris is good.



In the potager we had our first snow peas, pot greens, and a salad: arugula, lettuce, sorrel, violet and Ginko leaves, a few kale, chard, and perilla.



I found a notable quote in on old ‘Architectural Digest’ by Robert L. Green writing about his farm in Pennsylvania. “So I try to be satisfied with my successes, rather than think longingly of the impossible. Not a bad maxim to extend to the rest of one’s life, either.”[1]



I can’t get to the potager to plant more as I have to fix fences. The burnt post at the front corner gave way and required a major overhaul. And as I was stopped at the farm gate to get out and count cows I let the truck roll through the fence which I now have to repair before I can rotate the cows back. I did stop the truck before it went into the pond.



Monday 2 May



After I fixed the fence had to go back to New Orleans. Then rain last Saturday, Sunday and now today. So no digging in the potager. I have cut some bent over glads (parrot glad, or Natal lily, Gladiolus dalenii) for the house and am transplanting my basil to pots. I have seen a crinum scape, a bloom on the walking iris.



Tuesday 3 May



Today seems to be rose day. I transplanted rooted cuttings that I did last fall to pots: Archduke Charles (China, <1837), Cherokee (Species, 1759), Pink Grootendorst (Rugosa, 1923), Heritage (Shrub/Austin, 1983). The Pink Grootendorst blooms for me here and looks like a carnation. Many of the roses I grew at Belvidire and Alabama are not doing as well here. The Cherokee is a native of China and was introduced to America early and is now naturalized here. It is especially nice along the Mississippi and Louisiana highways in early spring. I like it and it does not sucker like the Macartney Rose which is a weed in my pastures. I only have one Cherokee and hope to spread it around the park so it can grow into the trees. Earl Macartney (1737-1806), a British diplomat brought his rose from China to England in 1793. It came to the US, 1805-15.



The old Chestnut Rose (Burr Rose, Chinquapin Rose) from China, 1824 is making its best show this year in the north lawn near the back gallery. The one by the well house blends in with the other roses there. The Chestnut rose was found growing in China’s Szechwan province in 1864. William Roxburgh, assistant surgeon to the East India Company came across this rose in a garden in Canton where it had been grown for generations as Hoi-tong-hong. He sent it to the Calcutta Botanic Garden, from whence it reached England in 1820. The old red tea type plant from Stuckey at the north back entrance has bloomed well again this year. The yellow Lady Banks (R. banksiae lutea, 1824) that I planted at the HVAC fence, lives but has not flourished. This is one of Connie’s favorite. I have another in the cemetery. I also planted the white Lady Banks (R. banksiae alba plena, 1807) near the front gate on the pasture fence. This cutting is from Tombstone where the famous rose there, planted in 1855, covers 8,000 square ft. Mine is doing ok, I think. I was working on the fence there last week and broke off some so I put them in a pot to try to root.



The white roses in the white bed have been good: Iceberg (Floribunda, 1958), Lamarque (Noisette, 1830) and Jeanne d’Arc (Noisette, 1848).



The roses around the well house have behaved more vigorously than any at Holly Grove. But I do not have names. The pink tea type on the corner is not as good this year. I am thinking this may be Duchess de Brabant (Tea, 1857). The robust pink cluster climber that I think I got from Opp may be Seven Sisters (Species). There is a Lafter (Hybrid Tea, 1948) that is almost smothered by the Seven Sisters and the Crepe Myrtle. The one in the drive bed still does well. I cut a bud for the house today. There is a large shrub rose with white double rose clusters with a tinge of pink in the bud. It is wonderful this year.



The two Gertrude Jekylls (David Austin, 1986) on the east and south of the house are doing nicely.



The Pat Aplin (really Marjorie Fair, shrub) on the south farm road fence and in the drive bed are again doing well.



None of the roses by the south steps is doing really well. I transplanted several from the front lawn last fall where I did not like their performance. Some survived; some died. None are in bloom as of now. I had a great Reve d’Or (Noisette, 1869) at Belvidire but mine here just sits.



The Fortuniana (R. x fortuniana species, 1845) by the front gate continues to do pretty well. It needs more sun. It is named after its discoverer, Robert Fortune, a young Scot undergardener who found the rose in Canton China.



The Louis Philippe (China, 1834) remains good in the drive bed. This rose was developed in France by the rose breeder Gueirn in 1834. Texas statesman, Lorenzo de Zavala, collected this plant during his 1834 stint as Minister to France and he planted it at his home in Lynchberg Texas. Also in the drive bed is the Petite Pink Scotch (found). It was found in 1949 by Jackson M. Batchelor of Willard NC. It was growing in the garden of a 1750’s plantation home on the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, NC. I got mine in Wilmington.



In the cemetery the Zephirine Drouhin (Bourbon, 1868) is a good size bush but no bloom yet. The Spice rose I have from Monticello is in bloom and is a nice small shrub. The Hermosa (China, 1840) I got in 2013 from Antique Rose Emporium is alive but just. The famed Southern nurseryman Thomas Affleck of Natchez and Gay Hill Texas said of Hermosa in 1856, “Still one of the best…and nearly always in bloom.” This is not what I have.



The Madame Alfred Carriére (Noisette, 1879) in the south lawn does not perform well either.



The small pink cluster climber on the potager fence is not as good as when I first came but it survives and blooms. I think there is one on one of the azaleas in the north allée. Volunteer or planted when? I just noticed it last year.



The white oleander south of the well house which usually gets hit by frost is blooming this year and the pink by the back steps is starting.



The coreopsis, lantana, indigo are blooming.



Friday 20 May



I have returned from Wilmington after turning the beach house to summer rental. No rain while gone but as soon as I came back. And rain again yesterday and last night. Not that we don’t need it but planting in the potager continues slow. I did manage to put in Whipporill this week. I am using a minimal till method since I lack time and energy to try to get out all the rattlesnake weed. It has seemed to work with the peas which are producing better than ususal. I also managed to mow the back 40---very high. I had done the highway before I left.



The roses are mostly gone. The daylilies are blooming—in the hot bed, the pink near the steps and some on the allée (which have been hard to get going due to the deer). The oak-leaf hydrangea has spread in the south drive bed and are in full bloom. The white achillea, some Shasta daisies, Confederate jasmine and brugmansia are blooming in the white bed.



There are 2 blooms of parrot lilies (Alstromeria psittacina, from Brazil). The indigo has spread nicely under the old Vitex but may overtake the Alstromeria.



I read recently ajuga is invasive. I never had it so in Wilmington but the ajuga I transplanted under the sago at the south drive bed is spreading---great by me.



The yellow yarrow is making a show and the reseeded coreopsis are starting. I cannot get it except where it wants to seed. My marigolds seem to be doing well. I have cut off the old blooms of the amaryllis.



Today I put up a long strong pipe west of the well house to hold the wild grape and trimmed it back. This should work. I weeded there too. The warm winter has the lemon grass doing very well. The red yucca have never bloomed but I keep hoping one year---maybe this year. And low and behold the ‘dead’ avacado is budding out. The Abyssinian gladiolus (Gladiolus callianthus), better known as Acidanthera, is coming out in one pot but not another. The pots of dahlia have come up. Where to put them to get them to perform this summer? Or if they even will? I will buy no more dahlia bulbs no matter how great they look in England.



The parrot glads are ending. The corn flags didn’t bloom last year and I guess are not blooming this year. Is the group in too much shade?



I did get an email from southernbulbs.com, Chris Wiesinger’s business. I had not ordered any bulbs for this summer since I was indisposed when the time was right but I succumbed today.



I bought 2 oxblood lilies. Scott Ogden uses the name Rhodophiala bifida with the reasoning that they are natives of Argentina and Uruguay and therefore he defers to the Latin American specialists. He notes, “No other Southern bulb can match the fierce vigor, tenacity, and adaptability of the oxblood lily.” He notes they are of most value when shaded from strong sun. “The oxblood lilies in Southern gardens constitute a special strain. These heirlooms rarely seed, but they do multiply quickly from offsets.” They are especially common in old Germanic communities of central Texas. As Wiesinger does business bulb hunting in Texas I suspect this may be the best source.



Wiesinger was also offering the Texas spiderlily, Hymenocallis liriosme. Ogden notes, “from Mobile Bay westward to Texas, the most abundant spiderlily on the coastal prairies is Hymenocallis liriosme. This early-blooming species is distinctive for its yellow-centered, frilled cups. Ogden talks of the Hymenocallis spp. “Like crinums, these easy-growing flowers are characteristically Southern……Common names….include spiderlily, basket flower, crown beauty, Peruvian-daffodil, and chalice lily. In Latin America they are often called flor de San Juan (St. John’s flower) a name widely applied to any fragrant , nocturnal bloom.” I do not know which varieties that are here at Holly Grove. Perhaps they are the common spiderlily of Southern gardens, Hymenocallis ‘Tropical Giant.’ Ogden notes, “most of the cultivated hymenocallis in the South are old heirloom flowers, originally brought from the tropical shores of the Antilles and the Spanish Main. The early explorer Oviedo initiated the long garden history of these bulbs when he encountered his first lirios blancos growing on beaches near Porto Bello, Panama, in 1535.”



I further ordered another crinum, Mrs. James Hendry. This bulb Ogden says “ranks among the most beautiful and rewarding of Southern perennials.” It was introduced by Henry Nehrling in 1915.



24 May, Tuesday



It is hot this week---high 80’s, up to 90. But I am trying to plant in the potager every day. Mow for about an hour. I am mowing over the spider lilies and the snow drops (yes, I know that these are the summer snowflake—Leucojum aestivum..)



‘Southern Living’ recently said, “Only television shows and people with deep pockets have instant gardens. Real gardens require patience, perseverance, experimentation, and a sense of humor. Once you have a vision for your fantasy garden, be smart. Take it one area---one room---at a time.”



I did 4 burn piles the other day at the huge downed tree in the north yard. Connie said she couldn’t see anything different.



Saturday May 28



I had to water pots and potager yesterday. We have clouds and threats of rain but not yet.

Continue to mow some each day.



Cut more white glads for the hall at HG. Also cut for a flower arrangement at Grace tomorrow: canna, indigo, white and pink oleander, white and yellow yarrow, purple hibiscus, lantana, verbena. (I’m not a flower arranger---just stick them in. But this time was bad. Some of the flowers wilted by the party the next day and one commentator said that the arrangement had seen better days. A good flower arranger would have known which flowers would last.) Milk and wine crinums, cape jasmine, and magnolia also in bloom. There are a few coreopsis and the daylilies are good.



Monday May 30



Finished mowing over a period of nearly a month. The first mowed needs cutting again. No rain, and I am watering pots again this morning. The first night blooming cereus of the season and the first ever shell ginger to bloom during my time at HG.



Thursday June 2



Lots of threats of rain but none to speak of. I have watered the potager x2 and need to water some pots every other day. Temperatures near 90 most days.



The hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) are blooming, a mophead on the front and another on the north side with both pink and blue blooms. The two lacecaps are on each side of the north steps. The hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus), Rose of Sharon are in bloom in the shade of the north of the annex---the single lavender and the double pink. The double purple from Belvidire is in bloom on the east of the well house. My Texas star native red hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus) has not yet bloomed. I have it in a pot so I could use it in the hot bed but it stresses for water. I need to transplant it somewhere where I do not have to water it.



I have mowed the cemetery finally but did not pull weeds. The ground is too hard. I did fertilize with cottonseed meal and mulch and water the crinum sangria and the rose Hermosa, both of which are struggling.



I continue to weed and plant in the potager. The spring peas are gone. But the green beans, rattlesnake and Louisiana purple pod are in full production. I am also weeding the blueberries and they are starting to produce.



Monday 6 June



The last few days have brought the much needed rain but oh the humidity!



The daylilies in the white bed are in full force. They were bought as white but to my eye they are yellow---pale but yellow still.



Yesterday we drove to Naylors. We had $6 in coupons. It is of course not the time to buy seed or vegetable plants. I need something for the big pot at the front walk but I haven’t found anything. I did buy a kumquat. My old one did go ahead and die. It came out after the hail storm but gradually died. The new one is Fortunella crassifilia, ‘Meiwa.’ My citrus book says that it is probably a natural hybrid between Fortunella margarita and F. japonica. The book further states that it is grown in China and Japan but rarely seen elsewhere. It is more cold resistant than either of the parents and has larger, sweeter fruit. It is grafted. It has many blooms and many fruit. The instructions say to grow it in its present container for 2-3 years, then a 10 gallon container for 2-3 years, then permanently in a 25 gallon container. They talk about hardy to 30º but I think maybe more. I think I had F. margarita, ‘Nagami’ also known as the oval kumquat. Besides kumquats and satsumas the citrus I like most is the Meyer lemon. I have two variegated lemons that do not look especially nice nor do they produce good fruit.



Thursday 9 June



I have mowed the highway. With my new pasture app I have determined that is about 2 acres. The park including the hay field is 15 acres. I have just finished mowing before the last rain and all is in need but we go to NOLA today for Luke’s birthday and then to Wilmington for a week so will mow on return. I did take the shears to clip the weed in the ditches I can’t mow. I have started putting logs in the holes to try to get this able to mow again. Since my last time getting stuck I am more leary of these areas.



I was out this morning to pick blueberries---they are in full swing. Plus a few blackberries in the potager and some raspberries. The raspberries do produce some each year but they spread out and are difficult to control.



As I was out I decided to pick the salmon amaryllis seed in the drive bed and plant them. We’ll see. Ogden says large bulbs can be swiftly raised from these papery black seeds, so long as they are very fresh. They need to be outside in bright shade and humidity.



And as I entered the well house the Gloriosa superba ‘Rothschildiana’ had several blooms in the sasanqua where it has climbed. I sat it out and left it just beside the door and it has been producing vines galore, not like last year’s poor performance with minimal vines and no bloom. Ogden notes that they originate from subtropical Africa and India. Rothschildiana originates from Uganda. They are dormant in winter and need a dry season but grow well on rich soil and summer moisture. I think I have found a place for mine. I had one in Wilmington in the ground for years but it never did well and maybe bloomed once. I tried to move it but lost it. Ogden also says the seeds will slowly germinate.



I also noted this am a nice show on the dark red oleander from the Arizona Inn. The double pink is newer, bloomed but not as well. I need to pot it up when it finishes blooming.



I have noted for the last couple weeks white crepe myrtles in bloom in St. Francisville. I have one on the south farm road that is in good bloom but no other crepe myrtles yet.



Tuesday 21 June



I am back from Wilmington and mowing. The Bahia grass seed heads are nearly waist high! We did have some rain while we were gone. I have mowed almost all the daf foliage, most is dead but some have a lot of green still. Joe has clipped the pastures and they look much better. I still need to clean up downed limbs.



I reread A Southern Garden by Elizabeth Lawrence while I was in Wilmington. It was a good reread. She talks about her gardens in a personal way with a lot of comments about her plants, not plants in general. I did get an idea that I need to add more daylilies—even if the deer like them.



Blooming now are the hibiscus, some daylilies, vitex, the red crinum, more crepe myrtles, the lantanas, cannas, hydrangeas, indigo.



In the potager I have tons of blueberries, green beans, field peas, the first okra, tomatoes, peppers especially gypsy and jalapeno, salad greens of amaranth, sorrel and arugula. The plums are gone.



I am placing my bulb orders with McClure and Zimmerman and Brent and Becky’s Bulbs so as to get the early discount.



My acidanthera in pots is now up in both pots. This is also known as the Abyssinian gladiola. It was collected in the mountains of Ethiopia in 1844 and introduced to America in 1888 and featured as brand new in ‘Garden and Forest’ magazine. Formerly Acidanthera but now classified as gladiola callianthus.



Monday 27 June



The heat is oppressive! It is low 80’s this morning and I am only standing holding the hose to water the pots and other patio plants and am dripping in sweat. Rain is to come tonight and maybe the next several days but some of these plants can’t wait.



I have finished another round of mowing with the exception of the cemetery. It started after a rain and ended up quite dusty. The days are to mid 90’s and the heat index 100. Today the heat index may be 110.



There is phlox in bloom and the red crinums are blooming. The Shasta daisies are in bloom in the white bed with the daylilies continuing there. The Texas star is doing nicely but in constant need of water in its pot. I should plant it out---maybe I can put it in the hot bed and dig up some cannas. Why have my lily-of-the-Nile not bloomed this year? It is past time.



The crepe myrtles in New Orleans and St. Francisville are full out and I have more coming on.



The blueberries are in full tilt. The green beans are good. The okra has started. I have had a few pink-eyed-purple-hulled peas. The peppers are in and the tomatoes have all been harvested. It is necessary to get them started early so they will set fruit before the heat sets in.  I have put out some seed of shishito peppers. We ate them at Cochon and found them in the New Orleans market and the grower said she got her seed from Johnny’s. I ordered, $3.95 for the seeds and $4.00 for shipping!! They are nice peppers for roasting and eating. I need to grow them but I will have to provide my own plants from seed. I am buying tomatoes and most peppers and eggplant from Naylors.



Friday 2 July



Oh it is hot! And humid! Temperature on the rear gallery was 96 yesterday. I have just returned from 3 days in Nashville. Emergency water some pots on the patio on the arrival night. Then soak all the next day. I am still harvesting blueberries, green beans, okra is good, the PEPH are scarce. Tomatoes gone. Some peppers are ok. I have a few big blackberries. But the news in the potager is the big limb and I mean big. It busted the rear fence in 2 sections and smashed a large section of garden. I have taken the chain saw to parts in the potager and am trying to get that organized. I need to mow the highway but not really time right now. I can only work a little at a time due to the heat. There was no rain as predicted this week so the land is dry.



The shishito peppers and the amaryllis are up. The crepe myrtles are opening up more.



Sunday 3 July



Reading this morning that this begins the Dog Days of Summer, 40 days of hot, humid weather with little rainfall according to the farmer’s almanac. Its name derives from the Greek. Sirius, the dog star rose with the sun at this time. Well it is already hot and humid and rainless here for the last couple-three weeks and will continue a lot longer than 40 days.



I started over on mowing---mowing the north highway this afternoon despite the 95°. The dust was worse than the heat. I will mow through July since we have several trips to separate the work and then mow in August before the lycoris and then hopefully stop. I can rationalize that it is too dry to mow---even if the grass is high. The seedheads of Bahia seem taller than usual.



Friday 15 July



I’ve just returned from admiring the West Texas Desert and the arid gardens of Tucson. The Sonoran Desert is full of plants.



The highways of Houston and San Antonio have been planted with oleanders of various colors and sizes mixed in with pines, crepe myrtles and other now green plants---possibly spring bloomers. Looks good.



Here at home the grass is high and there are a lot of limbs down. I’m only here for a short time before going to Wilmington so will not get it all done. I did go to the potager this morning and harvested a ton of long beans---possibly more than I have ever produced, altogether; some jalapeno, a few green beans and a green salad.



I have repotted the plant I got in Bali which has not recovered from lack of water this past winter. We’ll see if I can save it.



Took one cutting to root: desert willow, Chilopsis linearis (related to Catalpa) and seed of mesquite (Arizona Inn) and Parkinsonia, Desert Museum (at one of the nurseries).



I also visited 2 nursuries recommended by the folks at Native Seeds and bought 6 plants: 4 agave: Agave Parryi truncata, artichoke agave; Agave bracteosa, squid agave; Agave lophantha quadricolor; Agave Victoria raegina; and Texas sage, Leucophylium laevigatum, ‘Lynn’s Legacy,’ and Desert Spoon, Dasylirion wheeleri. I am repotting these. They are all hardy but may be best to bring in during our cold wet winter. The pots can be used to mark the steps on the patio and in the front and will not suffer from drought while we are gone.



The last week of  July



We’re having a lot of rain and the grass was already high. I am getting in some mowing off and on. Having to pick up a lot of sticks. Even got the chainsaw out to get some bigger ones. At least it means less dust. But oh the humidity!



I have tried some to weed in the potager but it is out of hand. Had a bounteous crop of long beans this year—the best harvest in years. The green beans and PEPH peas did not produce much.



The Texas sage has rebloomed nicely. The patio is full of the Alabama lily as I call it, Lilium formosanum, traditionally known in the South as the Philippine lily according to Ogden. I cut some rose colored zephyranthes to keep from mowing them. I think these are the Zephyranthes grandiflora from tropical America. Ogden says these do not set seed so no problem with cutting them. The bottlebrush gingers, Hedychium have begun to bloom. The Lilium henryi in their second year in the hot bed are blooming but lost in the foliage around them. The spiral ginger in the pot next to the steps, (Costus spp.) has its terminal floral cones. And some blossoms emerging. They are not really very showy.

The hibiscus are blooming still but not the Texas star.



3 August, Wednesday



I have been mowing but the heat/humidity have been oppressive.



Another reblooming of the Texas sage. Is this the way it works? Odenwald says the plant thrives in very dry, sandy soils and full sun. “It is intolerant of the wet, humid conditions of the South.”



The tropical spider lilies are blooming in the shade of the drive border. I went to Ogden and think this is “the common spiderlily of Southern gardens, Hymenocallis, Tropical Giant.” Ogden says “most of the cultivated hymenocallis in the South are old heirloom flowers, originally brought from the tropical shores of the Antilles and the Spanish Main. The early explorer Oviedo initiated the long garden history of these bulbs when he encountered his first lirios blancos (‘white lilies’) growing on beaches near Porto Bello, Panama, in 1535.” Ogden notes that “since no honest botanical name is forthcoming for the venerable spiderlilies of Southern gardens, the most acceptable and least confusing tag to apply to these cultivars is an old horticultural one, ‘Tropical Giant.”



My newly planted (2015) Crinum erubescens is in bloom also in front of the azaleas on the allée. Scott says this old garden plant is recognized by many collectors as Crinum americanum ‘Robustum’ but is really the South American C. erubescens. They are similar but erubescens grows in ordinary garden conditions but americanum needs to stand in water if it is to bloom.



The Princess Flower, Glory Bush, Tibouchina urvilleana has bloomed. I have tried to have this plant for years since I first saw it as a standard at Litchfield Connecticut many years ago. I did get a plant to do well in Gantt Alabama but am having more trouble here?



I went to New Orleans this past weekend. So hot. We went to Longue Vue Gardens for the first time. They are orderly and well kept. But the heat was so oppressive we spent only about 15 minutes in the garden before going inside with the air and tour the house. August is a free month for museums in NOLA if you belong to one.



Back at Holly Grove I finally finished mowing the south part of the highway---a hayfield. And I did the northwest corner that I had delayed because it had a lot of down limbs and was not very visible.



I have also been in the potager. I weeded a section and dug it up---the whole bed as opposed to what I have earlier done this year due to my injury. I planted some seeds from Tucson, Native Seeds. These are things to be planted with the monsoon rains in Arizona. We are expecting a lot of rain this week so somewhat similar.



I had success with Tepary beans last year. So I have saved seed---Phaseolus acutifolius, Santa Rosa White, an old collection from the Tohono O’odham village of Santa Rosa.



I am trying some sweet corn, Guarijio Red from Sonora Mexico to be grown only with the midsummer rains due to day length requirements.



I also have a squash, cucurbita argyrosperma, Tohono O’odham ‘Ha:l mamat’ which is prized for the immature fruits like summer squash or when mature as winter squash. I have had bad luck with my squash this year. I think they need more manure or compost.



And lastly I planted a few left over seed of Hopi Black Seeded Sunflower, Helianthus annuus. I planted some last year and it did well but the saved seed I planted earlier this year did not do well.



And I put out my shishito pepper plants.



Our hay man, John Leach, called and is going to bring some hay, only about 17 bales at present.



Saturday August 20



A lot of rain was an understatement! We had 2 feet of rain last Friday. Sharp’s Creek overflowed the road down at Joe’s. My mailbox was washed out. It was like a tropical storm but without the wind. The rain continues as pop up showers some days. Crosby was flooded and Baton Rouge and some of the surrounding Louisiana Parishes.



We left for Wilmington on Monday so have been gone all this past week.



I went to the potager and the okra had been eaten, plants too. I saw some footprints in the open ground---deer?  A first. Maybe walking through the down fence. The peas are not producing well. The new plantings are coming up but we will see if we have had too much rain.



I need to mow but leave Monday for South Africa. Some things are going to have to wait. I did take the logs I put around the mailbox (the MDOT took them out rather than cover them with gravel) and put them in the big holes in the highway ditch. I think it needs a load of gravel too. It has gotten so I cannot mow in some of these areas. So I did take my clippers and trim the weeds around the holes to neaten things up.



I see great crepe myrtles blooming along the highways but mine do not put on as good a show. Perhaps lack of sun for some?



The night blooming cereus has 2 blooms. The white dahlias are blooming but I noticed one bloom completely covered in love bugs. They are back but not real bad yet. I noticed a few lycorus at Grace last weekend but haven’t seen them here yet. Something has eaten the red potato vine about half. They were all eaten one year.



Saturday 3 September



Back from spring in Cape Town. We leave for the Red Devon Conference in Iowa on Wednesday. So try to get the park mowed before we leave. There are a very few lycoris up so no problem for mowing. The heavy rains have made the grass quite high. I mowed the highway with the mower carriage lifted as I usually do with the hayfield.



Felder this morning was back from England and was complaining of the heat and humidity and circadas. No circadas here but the rear gallery was black with dead love bugs and they are flying all over the place.



Some rain while we were gone I think as no plants lost but pots have had to have a pour.



We saw some great gardens in South Africa. It is naturally rich plant area. The hotels all had landscaped parks. I had found one, Cellars Hohenort, on Gardenista. We ran into the creator, Jean Almon, on our tour one morning and she gave us a brief tour. I recognized her from the web. Are you the lady who lives here? No, you must mean Liz McGrath (who owned this and other hotels.) No, I mean the creator of the garden. Well, yes, that is me. I have been here 26 years and she works with 5 other gardeners. I have gone back and looked at the web article. She is 84 years old and works with her jewelry and dressed as she could go to tea---but with her wellies. A couple of the wineries had large kitchen gardens. And we visited the National Botanic Garden at Kirstenbosh, the ‘most beautiful garden in Africa’ as it is billed. They had a lot of strelitzia in bloom, mostly a yellow flowered one they had developed and named for Mandella. It was early spring so a lot of later flowers were not yet in bloom. There are a lot of clivia in bloom but not all. There are a lot of agapanthus but not yet in bloom. There are a lot of roses but a little early for them too. They do have some camellias and a few azaleas. I saw only one small clump of dafs. But these are not native and they have such a plethora of native plants that they can do with those alone. The Cape does not have freezes so many plants there that I cannot grow. I bought a book on Kirstenbosh and they talk about foreign invaders just as we have here.



Seeing the gardens of the Cape I am determined to clean up the park here---the downed trees and the privet and other weeds in the beds, around trees and in the fence rows. It will be my life’s work. And I am always dreaming of adding plants. But they should be things that will do well here.



Tuesday 6 September



Finished mowing except for the hayfield and the cemetery has not been mowed in many weeks. There are yellow jackets there and I am leery but need to try when I get back from the Iowa Red Devon trip which starts tomorrow. Joe has mowed more than half of the lake pasture and both it and the pond pastures need a clip so the bad stuff is down and the grass can grow some before frost. Grass farming has done well this year with sufficient rain and not so many cows to overgraze. I have done better with rotating pastures also this year.



More lycoris out today. I looked at last year and they were good between the 9^th and 16^th of September.



The pink camellia azaleas I planted under the oak near the potager are blooming nicely, better than spring. The white crepe myrtles are still good. Lantana ok. A rose here and there. I noticed a lot of satsumas on the tree in the west lawn. The pomegranets, the pawpaws have done nothing. The persimmon tree has one little one---this is not their year. The black walnuts are turning yellow.



Friday 16 September



I have returned from a week trip to the Devon Conference in Dubuque Iowa. Lots of corn fields stretching across a vast landscape under a big sky. A good discussion/presentation of Alan Williams of West Point MS about healing the land---herd grazing to improve the land and therefore the grass, forbs, and then the cattle. A lot of talk about no-till farming to preserve the soil structure and mycorhizza.



Here at Holly Grove it is still warm. I finished mowing the hayfield. High and thick and the mower would overheat. Joe finished clipping all my pastures and also Jareau’s. They look good. I have a lot of privet, Chinese tallow, and wild orange and smut grass that the cows just don’t eat and are not herded densely enough to trample. The cows do eat some privet but not enough. At Grace I got into a discussion over an evening glass of wine about unruly plants. The other guy was particularly angry with Kudzu. I don’t fortunately have a problem with it here.



We have been having some rain so I am now trying to weed. I have worked on the patio and a little in the potager. I need to get it ready to plant for fall.



Not many lycoris this year? Not yet anyway. The solidago is about ready to start. The northern highways had a lot of wild sunflowers that looked good. I learned a little about the tall grass prairie that they are trying to re-establish in some areas.



Sunday 18 September



Big rain last evening. I am trying to weed while the ground is wet but it is still hot and muggy. More lycoris are up, I see.



Got my 10 Sternbergia lutea, from Brent and Becky’s Bulbs yesterday. Today planted between the Chinese fir tree and the drive. Is it a good place? I read Ogden and  Wiesinger to see where to plant. Ogden talks about the shade of big oaks. Wiesinger says part-shade to full-sun. It needs to dry out in the summer. He also notes, “limited to areas with particular soil types in the middle and deeper South.” Sternbergia lutea, autumn crocus, winter daffodil, Mt. Etna lily, yellow autumn crocus, the Biblical ‘lily of the field’ is a Mediterranean native. Named after Count Caspar Sternberg (1761-1838), a German botanist, the bulbs flower after the arrival of September rains. Early references such as Parkinson’s Paradisus and Hortus Floridus of Crispin de Pass (1615) identified these bulbs as ‘autumn daffodils.’ Sternbergia and narcissus both belong to the amaryllis family and crocuses are members of the iris tribe, therefore the term daffodil may be appropriate. Ogden notes that Thomas Jefferson (my hero) was the first to import Sternbergia to America. They can be found in the neglected borders of old homesteads. The old ones have slightly smaller blooms and narrower leaves that those now offered in the Dutch trade, which I no doubt have bought and planted.



While I was in the area I noted the leaves of the Oxblood lily, Rhodophiala bifida, were showing that I had planted in the summer. One may have had a flower stalk but broken off—or eaten off.



I am looking at my seed catalogues. What to plant in the fall garden? The solidago are about ready to bloom---the sign to plant according to the Williamsburg book.



Sunday 25 September



Watering pots in preparation to go to ILM for a week. No rain in about 2 weeks and still 90’s every day. Maybe this week a little cooler.



The lycoris are out in full now. I went around making some flower pictures a couple days ago---the lycoris, lantana, strawberry bush, a crinum, the luffa, a night blooming cereus, the alamanda, the ginger which have bloomed nicely this summer, the Texas sage which has had another flush.



I have spent the week pulling weeds in the potager---get ready to transplant and seed when I return from ILM. Saw some color on the solidago today. Also saw a bloom or two on the sasanqua.



Tuesday 11 October



Just returned from Wilmington. We spent a week there and barely a few days here before returning to take care of things there with Hurricane Matthew.



During  our first return we stopped at Naylor’s only to find it no more. The flood had devastated it and they had closed. The sign said they had merged with Cleggs and we went there. I bought broccoli and collard plants but no kale was to be had. I got these out with my no spading method: dug a hole with the trowel and back filled with compost. Didn’t get any more done before we left.



Still no rain here so I am watering pots and the potager. I planted seeds of Vates collards, beets, mustard and turnips. It is still in 80’s so a little warm yet.



The golden rod, solidago, is in full, the sasanquas are blooming more---the purple by the south driveway and sparkling burgundy by the well house. The gingers have been good this year but have given up. The sweet olive has rebloomed.



The bulbs from M&Z have come.



Monday October 17



Hot, 88°, dry. But the highway grass is so bad I am mowing the worst of it. The Johnson grass (I think) gets very high and I have to take the shears to it at our entrance in the gulch.



I have enjoyed the Friday and Saturday Southern Garden Conference in St. Francisville. I won a Southern Living plant collection October Magic Camellia, Ruby. It was in a tiny pot and I repotted it and will not put it in the landscape for a couple years. I bought  2 plants of those recommended by Heidi Sheesley, owner, Treesearch farms near Houston who was giving the first lecture:



Adina rubella, Chinese Buttonbush, deciduous to 8-10’, spiky round creamy-white flowers early to midsummer which give way to small brown fruit clusters, full sun to partial shade.



Hymenocallis riparia, Mexican River Spider Lily. Prefers moist but somewhat drought tolerant once established. Ogden does not mention it. He does talk about Mexican species and mentions the Tarahumara Indians bulbs of their local lirio del rio.



Andrea Wulf gave two lectures on American and English 18^th century gardeners. Mrs. Trimble at age 95 did a great job on her Afton Villa book lecture.



I found that I needed to re-water my pots after the two days gone. I have been gradually seeding the fall garden and coming back from NOLA last week I stopped at Cleggs again and this time they had toscano. I also got some violas and some snap dragons (which did well for me last year in ILM). I also got a new thyme plant---lemon this time. I put all these out and watered the potager again. Maybe some rain later this week.



Friday 21 October



Fall has come; at least the temperatures have dropped from high 80’s to the high 50’s this morning. I put on a long sleeved shirt to go to the potager this morning. We had a nice rain after about a month or so of none---1/4 to ½”. I did get the rest of my fall garden planted yesterday before last night’s rain.



I planted some ardisia, Ardisia crenata, Christmas Berry, a couple years ago under the oaks at the front gate. I had the seed from Oakley. I thought they had died but I think I have found a couple left but not tall and no berries, certainly not spreading. I looked it up in Odenwald: no berries until plants are 3 yrs. old; needs generous organic matter and leaf mulch.



Tuesday 25 October



We have dried out again but the temperatures are better.



I meant to finish the highway mowing but it is too dry again. I did mow the cemetery; oh, so high. I hadn’t mowed it since maybe July. No time, plus I was concerned about some yellow jackets that bit Grace Bunker and me when she was visiting this summer. Fortunately I did not run into any. I have been weeding and mulching also---getting it in shape for All Saints. A picnic in the cemetery again this year? The Crinum ‘Sangria’ lives but does not flourish. I think it needs more water. The rose, Hermosa, also survives but it does not flourish either. The azalea, a Formosa, is doing well as are the other crinums. The Asian jasmine, Trachelospermum asiaticum, is spreading. It would be nice to replace mowing with it; maybe in time. I also see some lycorus that I didn’t know was there. The Chinaberry, Melia azedarach, has berries this year as well as the one in the potager. Will the berries last till Christmas? Thanksgiving? I like the golden berries for decoration. Alice Hovis grew up with the tree in the yards of the poor and thinks of it that way. I find it interesting that it was used extensively in 19^th century street plantings. Odenwald says it “was one of the most widely planted deciduous trees in the South prior to 1950.” It is also known as the Pride of India or Pride of China. Daniel Lee et al in ‘The Southern Cultivator, 1857, said “There is an inviting and welcome look about the refreshing shade, and we hold that man is a misanthrope indeed who loves not the China Tree…Truly the China Tree is a great tree---the pride of the south, as well as of China.”



I am also trying to spend some time in the potager and have weeded a good deal. Harvesting weekly luffa. The jalapeno and gypsy peppers continue. And the self seeded arugula is good and I have harvested a mess of greens and some kale from the recent plantings.



We have had a Satsuma. The tree had 3 last year and many this year. My mirleton all died! Why? Poor luck with the field peas this year and even the pole beans seemed short lived. Again no squash. I think I need more compost and manure.



The deer have been in the park much lately. Hungry in this dry time.



I have now seen a white sasanqua and the colored have fully bloomed out. The farfugium near the steps has bloomed.



John Leake delivered the last of the hay yesterday, 45 bales in all. The cattle were at the trailer nibbling. The pastures are dry. Last week’s rain was just not enough.



Thursday 27 October



Potted a sage from Clegg’s. Most of my herbs in the beds west of the well house died this year. I think from too much water. I thought I would try the sage in a pot. I have not had much luck with it otherwise for several years.



I wanted some more Tuscano kale and collards but none to be had at Clegg’s.



Bulbs arrived from Southern Bulb Co. 4 grand primo for $10 and 2 Lycoris aurea ($10), the latter I planted on the south side of the house. It is less cold hardy than radiata and Ogden suggested the south wall of a building. Ogden says that the first lycoris cultivated in American gardens may well have been the golden Lycoris aurea, for these bulbs are common about the old Spanish city of St. Augustine and presumably have grown there since colonial times. Its homelands are the subtropical provinces of China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Floridians know these as hurricane lilies. The Mandarins called it hu di xiao---suddenly the earth smiles. It appears after the autumn rains.



Ogden says that no finer flowering bulbs are available for Southerners than the old narcissi now known as ‘Grand Primo’. We will see what I have next spring. I am hoping it matches with some of the old narcissi here at HG. At $2.50 each I can’t plant many.



After going to New Orleans yesterday and painting in the courtyard and after having the new stairs built, and since I am going more often, I thought to take some of my non hardy pot plants that don’t need so much rain so I repotted the strelitzia, dividing it in two and will take one pot. It has never bloomed for me. Maybe it needs some fertilizer. I am also taking one of the palm grass, Curculigo capitulata, palm grass or the pleated aspidistra, one curry plant, one queen sago as I used to know it (Zamia furfuracea, Cardboard Palm) and some recently rooted chartreuse potato vine.



28 October, Friday



Harvest a good mess of greens. The broccoli and collards plants are good. Harvest one shishito pepper (they have not done well) but more gypsy and jalapeno, some sesame, another luffa. I also harvested 3 ears of the Arizona sweet corn. The butterbeans are just not filled out. The seeded fall garden is coming up. I need to continue to water. The wild arugula is doing well.



Tuesday 1 November



I finished weeding the cemetery and manured the plants and mulched. In time to host the London artist, Thomas Gregor McGehee and Angéle Parlange. We had the South African wine and some dishes that Connie fixed. I found a white ginger for the table we set up there.



The cattle association notes a hay shortage due to the drought. We really need rain. I water the patio and potager. I have been cutting and pulling the solidago which has finished blooming. There is color in the popcorn trees and some others.



Monday 7 November



Cool this AM. Put on long sleeves to water the pots. No rain yet but some expected today/tomorrow.



Saw the first japonica in bloom---the white one on the north side which is also a red later. More white sasanqua blooms.



The collards, broccoli and kale look good with irrigation. Have finally harvested some butterbeans. There are some sesame, and tepary beans.



Tuesday 15 November



Deer!!!! Went to the potager on return from a week in ILM----the deer have eaten all!!! The collards, broccoli and kale were doing great. Had arugula and turnip greens and other things coming up. The peas were doing well. All gone. The front gate was ajar and of course the back fence is still down. So got the chain saw out and cut more of the tree and also the one on the ring pasture fence. Now to try to fix the rear fence. Maybe I can replant the collards and kale if I can find plants. Too late I think to replant the other stuff. The deer have devastated the hymenocalis in the drive bed.



No frost yet, maybe this coming weekend. But no significant rain either. I did bring some yellow pansies from ILM to pot up.



Friday Nov 18



I have repaired the potager fence and replanted from Cleggs: Toscano kale, cabbage, lettuce. No collards available.



Today is the move inside day for plants.



Wednesday 23 November



Some rain! We haven’t had any significant rain since the 11 August flood. We had a frost on the 21^st on the roof and the fields, not on the patio. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the ginko has not yet turned.



I have been doing some weeding in the potager and elsewhere but weeds are hard to pull out of concrete soil. I did finally clean up some limbs and repair fence to the ring pasture.



I took a walk yesterday to the south end of the farm. I had not been since my fall in January. There was some deepening of  Sharp’s Creek with some trees fallen in and in a couple areas some sand on the pasture where the water came out of the deep creek. The concrete crossing was ok and there was water running in the creek. There was still water in the west pond south of the barn. No significant damage I don’t think from the flood. It is still pretty land. Some nice large live oaks. I need to measure and try to register some of our biggest. I keep putting it off.



I have cut one camellia japonica for the visitors tomorrow and plan to fill a bowl for the table with some sasanquas. The white sasanquas are good now. As I go around the park I see all kinds of deer damage.



I have pots of pansies and violas that look good on the steps. The agaves and yuccas in pots are still good. I will have to move as the weather gets cooler and wet. They have done well in the pots even in the drought and I have not watered them.



The Satsuma tree has a good harvest if the deer do not get. Some lemons and limes on the citrus in pots. The new kumquat we are eating. It is sweeter. Fortunella crassifilia.



Started planting the bulbs that have arrived. I have been waiting because of the hard ground. The rain today was not enough to really make the ground soft, however.



Narcissus cantabricus from Brent and Becky’s went to the south end of the white garden bed near the sidewalk. Ogden says they are the earliest blooming of these miniatures (late fall or early winter). This pearly white blossom is native to both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar.



I put 5 new Avalanche (seventeen sisters) on the north side of the house in the Ardisia bed. I liked the ones I planted last year that bloomed across the drive from the back steps.



Narcissus tazetta, Grand Primo (Grand Monarque). Ogden, “Certainly no finer flowering bulbs are available for Southerners than the old narcissi now known as ‘Grand Prim..’ They are by far the most vigorous, persistent, and floriferous members of their genus….continue flowering indefinitely, never requiring division or resetting….bloom late in the season (late February or early March).” I found the bulbs for sale with the Southern Bulb Co. but expensive. I put out 4 west of the azalea beds along the drive in the area where the old tree had been cut. I think this may be the same bulb that is on the south farm drive. We’ll see in spring.



24 November, Thanksgiving Day



Cut camellias for the guests for today: dining table, living room mantle and table, bedroom mantle. Larry texted he cut my deep pink sasanquas at 520 for their dinning room table.



Putting out more bulbs. M&Z sends a few free bulbs usually not for this climate but maybe this time. They sent Tulipa tarda (dasysstemon), a white tulip with no cold period required from central Asia, described 1933, but Ogden doesn’t mention it. I put it next to the cantabricus right next to the walk.



6 yellow hoop petticoats, N. bulbocodium var. conspicuus, from M&Z. They state it increases rapidly once established, whatever that means. Native to Portugal and Spain. I put them near the SE corner of house under the light pink crepe myrtle. Ogden, “The most abundant and vigorous of all the hoop petticoats, Narcissus bulbocodium var. conspicuous, finishes the flowering season in late March or April. This showy type is a good doer in the South….a superb bulb for naturalizing in rough grass.” He further notes that “this one has been in gardens for a long time and is probably the form Jefferson had at Monticello.”



Ogden shows a picture of the hoop petticoat with Ipheion uniflorum so I put out the spring starflowers, Ipheion uniflorum, introduced 1832, near the hoop petticoats. This is the species not the improved named selections. Ogden notes they are from Argentina and Uruguay. He says they “multiply at an amazingly rapid pace by offsets, seed, and droopers.”



While I am out in the front yard I keep looking at the ginko. Is it getting more yellow?



25 November, Friday



The weather is nice these several days, warm days and cool nights, sunny. Back to putting out bulbs today.



Erlicheer. Ogden relates Erlicheer from New Zealand where it and other old tazettas are still raised as cut flowers, to Grand Primo. He says it has the same vigor and appears to be equally permanent. Dutch growers market it as a narcissus for summer bedding. They dig them in the fall and store them in warm, dry rooms over winter to simulate a summer baking. Since it is a double I put them near an entrance and planted the six large bulbs near the crepe myrtle north of the back gallery steps.



N. jonquilla. Ogden, “In the South nearly any yellow narcissus may be affectionately pegged as a jonquil….for Narcissus jonquilla and its hybrids have long been the most prominent of their race.” But “Narcissus is the botanical name for the group, daffodil the common name, and jonquil a name for the small species, N. jonquilla.” “Narcissus jonquilla and its relations inherit tolerance to dampness…..Their native haunts are centered in Spain and Portugal but extend to southern France and across the Mediterranean to Morocco. In these sunny countries moist, cool spring seasons give way to long, warm summers, and all of these bulbs receive a good baking.” “The upright leaves, rounded in cross section, provide inspiration for the specific epithet (jonquilla means ‘little rush’).” I planted 24 south of the drive before the azalea beds.



N. x odorus, single campernelle. Per M&Z “An old-fashioned favorite often found naturalizing in southern gardens.” Ogden, “The larger jonquils common to the South are actually old hybrids between Narcissus jonquilla and other wild daffodils. The favorite of all is an antique called the campernelle (N. x odorus). It originates from southern France, Spain, and Italy……Campernelles provide more springtime gold in the South than any other flower, and they have done so since the earliest days of European settlement….More delightful and suitable bulbs for naturalizing could hardly be imagined.” These 24 bulbs also went just south of the N. jonquilla.



I have been poor in identifying what is where in the past though I have tried. I need to so I can see what I like most, what does best, what spreads. Come daffodil season I need to go out and make notes and plan for the next year as to what and where and note when I order where I thought these bulbs should go.



I think the ginko gets better every day but the guests left this morning. I showed them a picture of last year’s ‘flowering.’



I wrote an article for Connie about mirliton today and re-researched the planting of same. I think maybe I learned some things I need to pay attention to: drainage, feeding, large space for roots, place to climb. I think the trellis back of the potager might be a good place. Now to find local heirloom mirliton since Naylor’s has closed.



Monday 28 November



Windy and up to 3” rain expected so I decided to put out some plants.



I planted the Adina rubella, Chinese Buttonbush, I bought at the Southern Garden Symposium in the upper bed of the south lawn to replace a dead rose. It can tolerate flooding and dry shade, or full sun.



Roses have not done well here at HG but I did root some last year. The rosemary died next to the well house door, probably from too much rain. So I planted two Pink Grootendorst, rugosa, 1923; Archduke Charles, China, prior to 1837; Heritage, David Austin shrub, 1983. I have had more luck with roses around the guest house.



I put a holly fern, Cyrtomium falcatum, that I found as a seedling in Wilmington in the south drive border on the shady east side. There was a pot of Boston Fern, Nephrolepis exaltata, so I planted it under the shrubs, and I moved a Japanese painted fern, Athyrium, that I had put out on the north side of the annex, which has been taken over by Lirope, to the same shrub border.



I planted the 1^st breath of spring, Lonicera fragrantissima, in the white bed at the corner of the house. I had this from a planting I had made at the Lazarus House in Wilmington. I really like its early fragrant bloom.



I planted Sawada’s Mahogany from Camellia Forest in the north bed near the native azalea. This dark red flower with white petaloids was rediscovered by Bobby Green according to David Parks. They have been in business for 37 years. I pot their small camellias up a pot size and keep for a year before putting them in the park.



Kosaku Sawada came to Mobile Alabama in 1914 and started his Overlook Nursery in 1918. In 1916 he married Nobu Yoshioka who brought as a dowry a chest of camellia seeds from Japan. When the US government tried to confiscate his nursery during WWII his friends and neighbors came together and so strongly defended him that he was left alone. With sons named George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, who could be more American?



Bobby Green came from Chicago to start his Fairhope Alabama nursery in 1932.



Thinking that this north border by the fence is less likely to be bothered by the deer, I walked further east and found a place for another, Tama Americana, also from Camellia Forest.

Tama Americana: A seedling of Tama-no-ura has a broad and distinctive white border on the rose-red peony form flowers, early to mid season blooms are medium. It grows slowly to a bushy plant. Macoboy: 1993, Nuccio’s Nurseries of California. Japanese epithet ‘Tama’ is bejeweled. Tama-no-ura was discovered in the wild.



I have decided the early formal white camellia japonica on the north lawn is Alba Plena. Alba Plena is one of the oldest camellias in cultivation. Early Chinese manuscripts call it Ta Pai (great white). It gained its present name in 1792, when it was imported by a Captain Connor of the British East India Company, and thus became the first double camellia seen in the West. Macoboy says it blooms very early and that is mid November here. My plant later in the season has some red blooms.



There is another double white blooming at this time in the north border.



I looked at the sasanquas I have. I have more than one Yuletide which blooms nicely this time of year. Yuletide, 1963, Sp. Vernalis. It originated by Nuccio’s Nurseries of Altadena, CA.



Sparkling Burgandy, 1957, is one of the first to start to bloom. It is a cultivar of C. hiemalis and was raised in Louisiana.



These two are at the well house so I get to see them frequently.



There are two Kanjuro, 1954, on the allée that I planted early on and they are covered in blooms this year..



The surviving (of deer) Mine-No-Yuki, 1898, is still small due to the deer and not blooming. A pure white double with lots of flowers on a bush. It received the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit in 1964.



The big old sasanquas in the drive bed are either a purple or a white. The purple is described as a rose pink. It is Azuma-Nishiki, 1885. It has a distinctive bloom so I think this identification is good. There is a large one also in the north border. The white is a semidouble and could be Setsugekka, 1898.



I think the dark pinks in the upper part of the border is possibly Autumn Surprise, 1966. Those two were probably planted by Stuckey.



Another fall bloomer that I planted but lost the name located at the east end of the azalea allée has a distinctive white bloom and I think it may be C. Yuhsiensensis, found on Mt. Yuh Shan in Hunan in the 1960’s. Some have this as a synomyn of C. Grijsii, found in Fujian in 1861 by the Dutchman CFM de Grijs.



Tuesday 29 November



Not a lot of rain yesterday but more expected. I have planted two palms and two loquats that I brought from ILM.



I have also planted Alba Splendens, the white, semi-double flower of this ancient variety is medium to large. This Italian cultivar was first listed in the Jacob Makoy et Cie Nursery Catalogue in 1849. I put it in the south lawn near the beginning of the azalea allée.



In the north border I planted two more from Camellia Forest.



Kumasaka, 1695. One of the oldest camellias in continuous culture was clearly recorded in Japan back to 1695. It was exported to the West in 1896 by Tokyo Nurseries. A medium size bloom of deep rose pink from rose form double to peony-form.



Royal Velvet, semi-double large flowered red, 1987 from Nuccio’s Nursery.



Wednesday 30 November



A very good rain last night.



Back to planting. A camellia with lost tag with the CF plants but they seem to be all accounted for. Put it on the north border west end and put a rooted azalea on the other side of the oak. I think this is an indica from the Lazarus. Cleaned out the privet and smilax from the area. Also putting out bamboo stakes that I can only get in the ground when it is wet. Does it help with the deer?  I put out another camellia, labeled AL, just east of the pear tree.



A pink perfection is in bloom. Another camellia is in bloom SW of the HVAC. I have it on paper as Peter Pan but that it is not. The bloom is similar to Jessie Burgess, 1960, rose colored semi-double with a silvery blue cast. Originated by RV Burgess of Savannah. It is early flowering but the bloom is not the 6” as described. This is a plant that I planted and I remember the name Jesse Burgess.



4 December



Two days of rain. The west pond is overflowing. Cool. I watered the plants in the well house. A hard freeze is expected later this week and I will need to move more plants before then.



I bought 2 mirlitons from the NOLA farmer’s market. They were Louisiana heirlooms that this lady had been growing for a long time but no name. She farms in Plaquemines Parish so the Plaquemines mirliton. I have them in the kitchen to sprout. I will pot out when the sprout is 5” and then to the garden after frost in a raised bed.



NOLA.com says citrus should not be more than 5 hours in mid to low 20’s or the fruit will freeze.



5 December, Monday



Rain continues. Drought definitely over.



9 December, Friday



Two days ago I moved the rest of the pots inside in preparation for temperatures down to 25. That may have to end. I hurt my back and it still hurts limiting my activity and I have had a cold and therefore am staying out of the cold wind. Yesterday we finally encountered sunshine. It is sunny today but cold this afternoon, 45º, but only down to 30 this am so not a hard freeze. The bananas are still green even in the potager. I have picked all the peppers in the garden, a last mess of butterbeans and a salad of lettuce, a little arugula and kale with some nasturtium leaves. We have lots of satsumas that I can leave on the tree a bit longer.



I did put out some more pine straw a few days ago and cut some camellias. I tried to identify some of the nice old ones we have. A large pink peony form double, in the south lawn may be Marie Bracey, Spellbound, 1957. I figure the old camellias here were planted by Georgia Williamson in the 1960’s so must be that old. There are so many cultivars, finding the right name is to me impossible. My book has over a thousand entries but hardly all. I can find nothing to resemble the variegated red/white or the large white semi-double in the south lawn.



I think the ginko probably reached its peak about my birthday, 6 December. It still has most of its leaves.



I have received my first copy of ‘Magnolia’ the magazine of the Southern Garden History Society. It is summer 2016. Am I receiving a back copy or are they behind?

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[1] Nov 1977, p. 145.