Gardening Holly Grove 2014

Gardening at Holly Grove ‘14

Mid December ‘13

I start my year with the Ginko which passed quickly this year with the hard frost on the night before Thanksgiving.  We continue to have cold weather and frost---I think more so far this winter than all of last winter.

I did manage to get a few plants in the ground to take advantage of winter rains to establish roots to carry them through the summer.

I bought two plants when I visited Williamsburg this past summer.  They have a nice display garden and sales onthe Duke of Gloucester Street. I also bought a book on vegetable gardening, Vegetable Gardening, The Colonial Williamsburg Way by Wesley Greene.  It is one of the best I have seen about this subject especially for southern gardening.  I like the way they suggest planting dates by what is in bloom instead of specific dates on the calendar.

Sourwood, Oxydendron arboretum, is a slow growing native tree growing up to 40 feet. In early summer it produces fragrant creamy white flowers in drooping racemes. The leaves turn scarlet to scarlet purple in autumn and is the reason I bought it.  I put in along the south farm road next to the fence (which helps protect from deer. The Red Chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia is another native with fall color both in berries and leaves.  It is a colony-forming deciduous shrub growing only to about 10 feet.  It was also planted on the fence line next to the south farm road.  I am hoping to get more color for the fall in the park.

I have tried broad beans almost yearly and have had success only once.  The Williamsburg book suggests planting when the last of the fall leaves are falling.  That would have been a couple of weeks ago but rain, travel, etc. have conspired to delay but I am putting out the seed today.  I did think to dig up the plot earlier in the fall before the rains started.

I put Lespiedeza, Little Volcano, near the forsythia, along the allée. I hope to improve the beds in this area where there is a break in the trees but the deer keep thwarting me. This plant I bought in October at the Southern Garden Symposium in St. Francisville.

I picked up some plants in Wilmington at the Lowes that were on sale in October.  I planted the Crimson Queen Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum dissectum, across the drive from the other Japanese maple that I planted last year.  These may be a little too shady.  We’ll see.  Another attempt to get some fall color. I planted the Camellia sasanqua, Leslie Ann, a white trimmed in mauve, south of the drive at the edge of the south lawn. I thought the bloom quite nice when I bought it.

I also put out a Woodville Red that I had purchased this past summer south of the house.  This is part of my quest for old camellia varieties but a special quest in that this one has a history in Woodville. I have not been able to find the specific garden or person who introduced this variety.  The American Camellia Society records it as having a large peony form, strawberry red bloom, midseason.  They note it came to Woodville Mississippi in 1822 from Europe.

I had pulled up some physostegia from a garden by the sidewalk on Castle Street in Wilmington and I put this out in the border of sorts that I have created under the front gallery.  Physostegia virginica, Obedient Plant, False Dragon Head is a native of the mint family.  I grew it at Belvidire and liked it there.  I had that cutting from Mrs. Heflin’s in Big Rock, Tennessee but lost the plant in my moving. It can be invasive.

I put out the Dorsett Golden apple that I had bought at Naylor’s earlier in a cage in the orchard.  I already have an Anna (Israel), a low chill apple (200 hours).  Dorsett Golden from the Bahamas (1964) is a Golden Delicious (1890 West Virginia) seedling requiring less than 100 chilling hours. This year I think we will have sufficient chilling hours for some of the other apples.

I also put out the Mitsch jonquils, Quail, and Falconet, a tazetta-jonquil cross, 100 each on the south side of the allée near the beginning.

The nasturtiums I planted in a pot are now blooming (one bloom).  They and the pot marigold are doing well but I move the pots inside for the freezes.

In the potager I dug some sweet potatoes.  They keep well in the ground but with the vines cut down by frost they are harder to find.  I also dug more Jerusalem artichokes which I like best in a soup recipe Connie found.  I picked a mess of greens (collards, turnips, and mustard) but rabbits or perhaps chipmunks have cut off a number of plants. I know there are chipmunks in the potager and elsewhere and they have an omnivorous diet.

We are ending up the satsumas we pulled before the Thanksgiving freeze but the Kumquats are ripening for our morning citrus.

A big rain last night and warmer.  I am doing some weeding. The Japanese climbing fern that is such an invasive weed here I dug again from the north side of the house and I am pulling privet and small trees as I go about doing some planting. I put out 3 Podocarpus macrophyllus, Japanese Yew, near the HVAC of the annex.  I think podocarpus is one of the best plants for a hedge where one doesn’t want lots of suckers and spreading.

I am planting more camellias that I have kept in pots over the summer. In the north lawn somewhat near the house I have put in my second Woodville Red. Dahlohnega, a small plant with open upright growth has a pale yellow formal double flower late in the season.  This was developed by Walter Homeyer and the name is a Cherokee word for gold. I like the name and will wait to see how well I like the yellow color.  Pride of China is a red japonica.  Henry Rehder of Wilmington told Larry Hovis that White by the Gate was one of the best japonicas to have and I bought one, a formal double white. I elevated a camellia plant that I thought too deeply planted and found an old label, Guest Star, a formal double pink.

We are getting some camellias to bloom despite the cooler than usual weather.

December 24, 2013

Last week I cut a cedar and put it up and decorated it.  Connie doesn’t particularly like the prickly cedar but they are free and I can usually find one that looks pretty good.  I cut the holly that needs to be trimmed by the walk and made a wreath for the gate and also used rosemary that needed to be cut next to the well house along with the holly for the two door wreaths.  A red ribbon on each and I am done; nothing special.

Last week in the warm period I also put out the azaleas that I had bought and also the ones I had rooted—mostly azaleas from the Lazarus that I pulled up with some roots.  I want to add mostly the old Indicas and they are hard to find.  Encore is all the thing in the market. I did manage to root a Rosedown pink and a Grace lavender and have put them out.  They are old but unnamed. I had also bought on sale in Natchez: Fashion, a Glen Dale hybrid (1935, BY Morrison of Glen Dale Maryland developed 450 cultivars to be a more cold hardy replacement for the Indicas.), Snow and Pink Pearl (Kurume hybrids to the US from Japan about 1915) and Pink Camellia, a Carla hybrid (from an azalea breeding program at NC State and Louisiana State Agricultural Center in 1982).

The paperwhites are blooming but have not peaked yet. Although we had a couple of warm days and a rain we are back in a cold spell.  I have the citrus in the southeast corner of the patio to warm during the day and I have covered them at night. We continue to have the coldest winter that I can remember but apparently hardly a record.  The Baton Rouge TV station reported that in 1989 at Christmas there was a three day period where the temperature did not rise above freezing and 4 degrees was recorded in McComb. No thank you.

11 January 2014

We’ve had some cold weather: 18 one morning and one day hardly above freezing all day. I put the citrus inside. The paperwhites are lying flat. All the camellia blooms frozen and brown.  Even the leaves were ‘wilted’ one morning.  The ligularia leaves have wilted.  All the shell gingers are brown.  No blooms this coming summer as they bloom on second year stems. We’ll see what else has damage.

As it warmed I got back out to weed privet, etc. from around trees and in beds.  I put out two chinaberries that I had growing in pots. Chinaberry, Melia azedarach, is an Asian native coming to England perhaps before the 16^th century but cultivated by John Tredescant the Younger (1608-1662) in 1656. In Europe it was known as the bead tree as monks used the seeds in making rosaries. It arrived in North America during Colonial time and first offered for sale by an American nursery when listed in William Prince’s 1790 ‘Broadside of Fruit Trees and Shrubs’ as “Pride of China.” It was also known as “Pride of India” and something I found interesting; it was widely planted in the South as a street tree. “Its streets [Savannah] are planted so thick with the Pride of China that the small dark houses are hardly seen,” wrote Henry Barnard in ‘The South Atlantic States in 1833, as Seen by a New Englander, 1833.” Closer to home the ‘Port Gibson Herald’ in 1857 stated, “This beautiful shade tree, under whose wide-spreading branches the Southern People spend so much of their leisure time in the hot summer, is truly to them one of the greatest blessings of Providence. 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.” Well adapted to the hot, dry summers of the South, the chinaberry remained a popular shade tree through the antebellum period, after which its use and popularity rapidly declined.  It is widely naturalized now but not as obnoxious as many Asian natives that have escaped cultivation. This information I found last year in Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South, James R. Cothran.

I also planted a new bay tree, Laurus nobilis, that was given to me, in the herb garden.  I have had one in a pot for years for culinary use but need to have a spare.

24 January

Snow! We continue to have cold weather; have had since the end of November. Oh, there are some warmer days but more cold than I have seen since we moved here. The snow is only a heavy dusting but it continues to sleet.

I looked at last year and noted that the Roman hyacinths were in bloom in November.  The paper whites and camellias were doing well in December and January. Not this year! The camellia buds that have the audacity to bloom soon are brown from freezing. The paper whites are mostly lying down and more plants are in the brown mode.  All the gingers, the ferns, and even some of the ardisia are brown. There is damage noted on the satsumas. We’ll see how the cold plays out.

I have bought potatoes in Wilmington for when the weather improves. There is nothing in the potager. The rabbits or chipmunks have eaten the greens.  The broadbeans have come up partially. We’ll see.

It is so continuing cold I am not even getting much done with azalea bed cleaning.  I like the temperature above 40° to work outside.

The citrus I have had a good deal of time in the well house and in the cellar.  Need to get it out of the cellar to get some sun.

I have a fire going and maybe today I will complete my orders for summer bulbs and a few roses. I check with Scott Ogden about which bulbs should do well and am only ordering old roses that should also do well.  I really do not have a good place for my roses.  I’ll keep thinking.

3 February

Still cold! I looked back on last winter. I really didn’t start anything in the potager until mid-February so except for the lack of blooms we are not so far behind after all.

I did place orders for bulbs with McClure and Zimmerman and with Brent and Becky’s Bulbs to get their discounts and also ordered from the Antique Rose Emporium.  Shipping costs so much with the roses I need to think of a stop by when we go west this summer. They are not far off the I-10.

Last week in February

We spent two weeks in New Zealand on the north island. It is subtropical with some frost. Gorgeous big hydrangeas, and agapanthus which was referred to as a weed.

We came back on the 19^th to warmer weather here at Holly Grove. I have tried to find the driest days to dig in the potager: Yukon Gold potatoes, Sugar Snap Peas, Wando English Peas, some red potatoes, mulched the asparagus bed.

The daffodils are doing well. The Soulangeana is starting to bloom but another frost later this week may thwart that.  Others in the area are in full bloom. I see a little of the Redbud.

I have been tidying up the patio: trimmed the hedge, redid one of the ponds with its overflow of papyrus which was significantly killed back. Cut back other dead foliage. Will see what we lose.

I have moved the citrus out---for good I think. It is in the warmest place on the patio. I will need to move them again in the heat of summer to a bit cooler area so they will not dry out so quickly.

The first week of March is winter again.

 Cold, rain and even on the 4^th we had an ice storm. It was rain all day which froze on the trees. By afternoon they looked beautiful but were in danger of breaking. The rain has kept me from doing anything significant in the garden.

March 7, 2014

The sun finally came out again; I think for the first time this week and it is Friday. I put out the camellia and azalea fertilizer on all the camellias and azaleas that I have planted. There is deer damage on most of the camellias and some of the azaleas.

The roses I ordered from Antique Rose Emporium came yesterday and I planted today (@ $18.95 plus $14.47 for shipping!). I put the China, Hermosa (1840) in the cemetery and the Noisette, Reve d’Or (1869) in the tepee next to the south steps. I had one at Belvidire and really liked it. The famed Southern nurseryman Thomas Affleck of Natchez, Mississippi and Gay Hill, Texas, said of Hermosa in 1856, “Still one of the best…and nearly always in bloom.” Hopefully she will perform here 50 miles south of Natchez.

The Soulangeana blooms are brown from the ice and the daffs are damaged but still look ok. Most of the old ones are campernelles  (a hybrid between Narcissus jonquilla and other wild daffodils). Scott Ogden talks of his favorite, an antique called the campernelle (N.x odorus). It originated from southern France, Spain, and Italy. He further notes that the campernell is another one of those gratifying old garden mules discovered by some alert flower lover of ages past. Clusius recorded it in 1595, and Parkinson discussed this variety in his Paradisus, The other old dafs here at Holly Grove are Lent lilies, the wild trumpet daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus. The Lent lily is a wild European daffodil introduced to the South by early settlers. Lent did begin this past Wednesday. Another group of multiflowered daffs is I think Grand Primo or Grand Monarque per Scott Ogden. They bloom late February or early March. In the 17^th century this cultivar was known as Grand Monarque. Scott Ogden says Californians say that the real Grand Monarque only occur there and the Southern flowers are another ancient selection, Grand Primo.

The Ides of March

I hope last week’s light frost will be the last. A nice spring rain today. The live oaks are budding out. The red buds, Cercis Canadensis, are at peak. Some of the early daffs are fading but the snow drops are at their peak. And this year for the first time the forsythia (Lynwood Gold) is nice. The deer failed to destroy. They were planted in 2006; that’s eight years waiting for a show. Fed our last bale of hay to the cows. I noticed some early azaleas out in Baton Rouge yesterday and the Carolina Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, is colorfully yellow along the roadsides. The white iris and the white daffs are in bloom on the patio. The daffs are Thalia, a triandrus from 1916, Division 5. They bloom yearly but late season.

Bruce Lewis who bought Allendale, the home of a number of camellias from the collection of Ben Jones, told Polly Rosenblatt of Main Street that the Johnson property on 24 E. had been sold to the gas station next door, and the Johnsons were friends of Jones  so there are some old and rare camellias on the property. Maybe Main Street could move them to public property. I went to look and supposedly one is a rare old and large Marion Mitchell that Magnolia Gardens’ experts have seen and said should be saved. If it is the one I think they mean I have one at Holly Grove. I googled it and it does not appear to be so. Camellia names are difficult to keep track of.

1 April

I have just finished the first mow—not everything, just the highway which was in much need and the allée, the lower farm road, and the parking area. I checked. Last year I did the same only a couple days earlier.

We have been in North Carolina the last week and things have changed. The daffs are mostly faded as is the redbud. The new Quail daffs on the allée are still a spectacular bed of yellow. The white iris are at their peak and it’s their best year to date. The forsythia are fading but Caroline Darden even called and asked what that spectacular yellow was along the drive! The dogwoods are at peak. The ginko has green leaves. The oaks have mainly pollen. There are new leaves on the ligularia. Some azaleas are open: coral bells and a white, maybe snow. There are a few red open in the north border that are probably President Clay and the Republic  of West Florida that I purchased in 2010, the 200^th anniversary of that Republic founded just south of here in the Felicianas, the first successful revolt of a Spanish colony in the New World. It is a nice pink and said to be an Indica bred and named for the Republic of West Florida. I need to try to propagate it so I can have a better show. It was almost lost the first year when a tree fell on it.

Mrs. Grundy in his (I say his because he is a retired English teacher writing under the nom de plume of Mrs. Grundy.) column in the Andalusia Star News usually starts with flowers in bloom and this week he mentioned dewberries. They are indeed in bloom but not what I talk about until the berries come in. There are some yellow wildflowers that I can’t find in Ritchie Bell’s Florida Wild Flowers so can’t name. I tried googling and think it is Butterweed, a member of the aster family with many petals on the aster- like flower. Hairy Vetch, Vicia villosa, is in bloom and I like its blue flowers. Crimson clover with its red bloom is the prettiest of the clovers. And the thistle is beginning. I try to get rid of most of these as they are not helpful in the pasture but they can be pretty.

The President Clay azaleas at the entrance are in bloom. I have outlined places for 9 more to make a dramatic entrance and early azalea bloom. Someone said the Afton Villa reds are really President Clay. I took some more cuttings of them when I was there during Pilgrimage. We’ll see. The main show of Formosa are not yet open.

I have also driven up and down the allée looking for places to plant more daffs for next year. Always looking for ways to improve for the future.

I cut a branch of a dogwood to grace the center table in the back hall since we had guests coming. The tree is mostly dead. I still don’t know why the dogwood trees here have been dying—old age or disease? But the two in the azalea beds in the front yard are great this spring---we need more! Our visitors commented on the beauty of the dogwood that I had cut.

The McClure and Zimmerman summer order has arrived.

The Crinum asiaticum is tender. It does not do where temperatures below 20° are a regular feature. I would say that is not the case here even with our recent cold spell but I planted the bulb a little deeper and will mulch heavily in the winter.  Scott Ogden calls these the St. John’s Lily and notes they are gigantic on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. He notes they are native of the Indo-Pacific and were brought to the Gulf and Caribbean in the 16^th century. It is white in bloom and I put it in the white bed on the patio where I hope this 4” potted plant will reach its touted 5’ height and 7’ spread. It propagates readily from seed according to Ogden.

I have also bought three more crinums from them. C. x herbertii ‘Schreck’ has white petals with cherry-red stripes, much broader than ‘Stars and Stripes’ according to the garden catalogue.  Scott Ogden notes the milk and wine lilies are the most familiar garden crinums in the South. They are descendants of C. bulbisperum and C. scabrum which imparts the red stripes. Dean Herbert originated the first milk and wine lily in 1819 and his achievement is commemorated in the  name Crinum x herbertii which applies to any hybrid of C. scabrum and C. bulbispermum. These hybrids rarely produce seed.

I also have Crinum ‘Sangria’ which has dark purple leaves with rosy-pink blooms. Ogden only shows a picture of the foliage.

The last new crinum is Crinum x powellii with pink blooms. Ogden notes when Crinum moorei is bred to other crinums, whether striped or plain, the offspring usually develop self-colored flowers, rather than a milk-and-wine pattern. This can be seen clearly in the numerous pink or white forms of C.x powellii. Like the C.x herbertii hybrids, these crosses of C. moorei and C. bulbispermum are hardy workhorses among crinums. Their tapered, lush green clumps of foliage man be seen in many older gardens.

I also ordered one lycoris squamigera ‘Magic Lily.’ Scot Ogden notes it is ideal for the gardens of the middle and upper South. So perhaps some special attention of providing it with a cooler summer locale. The one near the south lawn steps that I saw flower one year seems to be gone. Ogden notes that Lycoris squamigera is an old garden selection known as the magic lily. He says it multiplies swiftly into substantial clumps. He recommends a naturalistic treatment in a woodland setting. Like the triploid Lycoris radiate this strong-growing species enjoys an extra set of chromosomes, which fuel unusual vigor. Genetic evidence suggests that these were acquired through hybridization. It appears to be a garden ‘mule’ descended from a cross between the straw-colored L. straminea and the rosy pink L. incarnate. Whether this mixing occurred in nature or in the forgotten garden of some oriental flower lover, no one knows. L. squamigera reportedly came to America with a certain Dr. Hall of Bristol, Rhode Island, who grew the flowers in his garden in Shanghai, China, prior to the Civil War.

I bought two crocosmia for the hot bed. Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora emberglow, a burnt orange-red and C. x crocosmiiflora Star of East, cream centered tangerine. The common name montbretia commemorates French botanist Antoine Francois Ernest Coquebert de Montbret, who accompanied Napoleon on his invasion of Egypt in 1798. Gardeners still attach his name to a lovely old hybrid now classed in Crocosmia. The old montbretia of Southern gardens ranks as a first-class border flower, thoroughly hardy and undemanding according to Scott Ogden. And the corms multiply rapidly. This vigorous exotic from Aftica descends from an 1882 cross made by French nurseryman Victor Lemoine, of Nancy. The parents of the hybrid were the orange Crocosmia aurea and the rich crimson C. pottsii. Botanists gave it the name C. x crocosmiiflora. Ogden calls ‘Star of the East’ a good hybrid. I plan to add them to the ones I have brought from Scotland. But I need to keep in mind that crocosmia masoniorum (including ‘Lucifer’) fail to bloom in the South after the first season.

Another ‘hot’ plant I hope to use to improve my hot bed is Kniphofia ‘Fire Dance’—a bicolor with bright yellow transitioning to orange-red. They are also known as torch lilies and red hot poker.

I have noticed the first few blooms of the yellow pond iris, iris pseudocorus.

The tung oil tree in the west lawn is in bloom. The tung oil tree, Aleurites fordii is a native of China and was imported to Florida in 1905 and planted in a cemetery in Talahassee. In 1936 one half of the 50,000 acres cultivated was in Mississippi. In 1941, a 10,000 gallon rail tank car was shipped from the mill of LO Crosby and Sons at Picayune, Pearl River County Mississippi to Chicago. The bulk of the American tung oil production was from the 1930’s to 1972. Hurricane Camille and cheap foreign production essentially ended the American production. The nuts are valuable in the paint industry and the tree is ornamental. It is fast growing and is classified as a weed in Florida.

April 14, 2014

The butter cup, ranunculus species, is blooming in my pasture but Joe Brian’s fields are full of it. It is beautiful but the cattle do not eat it. The Cherokee rose, R. laevigata species, (1759 from southern China) is blooming along the roadsides. I have one plant growing in a spirea on the south farm road at the cross roads.

I am mowing and got out in the north lawn and saw some blooms I have been missing. The tung oil is in bloom there. Also the white racemes of the Black Locust, Robonia pseudoacacia, highlight the northern border. I completely missed them last year.

Also in the north lawn is the Gladiolus byzantinus ‘Alba’ which is quite dainty. Most gladioli are African but the old-fashioned Byzantine gladiolus is scattered about Turkey and the Mediterranean. Dioscorides began the tradition of calling them corn flags and they may be seen growing in fallow cornfields around the Mediterranean. ‘Alba’ is  a white sport of Gladiolus byzantinus and is found in some older gardens in the South according to Scott Ogden. In Europe he notes this lovely gladiolus is raised for the cut flower trade. The ‘Alba’ blooms before the more common purple corn flag.

I also appreciate the very dark red peony form camellia in the north border at the far west. The newly planted Dahlonega (from Camellia Forrest) has a very nice bloom. Camellia Forest notes it was developed by Walter Homeyer and named for the Cherokee word for gold. It is a very pale yellow. Macaboy’s Encyclopedia of Camellias note the date as 1986 and called ‘Huangda’ in China. He says it originated in Macon Georgia by WF Homeyer.

Most of the young camellias have been nibbled on by deer but are putting out good new growth.

I have noted that German irises do not do so well here but I have a nice clump of pale yellow with lavender falls in the drive border.

The first rose to bloom is the yellow Lady Banks (1824). I have rooted a couple and they are getting big enough to put on a show on the HVAC fence and south of the well house. Connie says it is her favorite. A couple blooms of Louis Philippe (China, 1834) are open.

The small white flower, huge rose bush, is blooming. I don’t know where I got the cutting. It belongs off by itself somewhere.

The mockorange, Philadelphus coronaries, is blooming. I think it looks a bit like a rose especially in the rose border where I have it by the well house. Elizabeth Lawrence calls it ‘old sweet syringe.’ It is an old southern favorite.

The fancy ladies (as Felder Rushing calls them), the azaleas are beginning to fade although the hallmark of Holly Grove, the Formosas are still looking pretty good. The very dark red I have on the drive at the front of the house, is showing and aptly named ‘Midnight Flare.’

Even a few daffs are blooming: the ‘Pippit’ near the Chinese Fir and a white just north of the entrance gates that I have never seen bloom before.

I have been digging in the potager as the ground dries but planting may yet be early. The pecans are budding out but T° in the 30’s are predicted after this rain front comes through! Surely not a frost. I have been bringing out the tender pot plants---too soon?

The TV said Baton Rouge set a new record of 38 degrees and that is what the thermometer read on the rear gallery here at Holly Grove (Wednesday, 16 April). That was yesterday and it is still cool. A high only in the 60’s today, at least 10 degrees below normal. I think the cold wind on Tuesday that preceded the cold snap was as damaging as the actual temperature.

Mowing along the south farm road I noticed the nice bloom on the red chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia, that I bought last year in Williamsburg. It is supposed to have nice berries and “reasonably good fall foliage color” (per Neil Odenwald) and if it does I need to add several more along the pasture fence.

Mowing along the allée I also notice the spike blue flower that has been there in the past. I had thought maybe this was a camassia but looking at my bulb books for ordering early for fall planting I think I found this in Brent and Becky’s Bulbs---“hyacinthoides-flowers here in April/May with bluish-purple flowers on 12-36” flowering stalks; native to Middle East; heirloom 1585.” The picture and size matches mine. They have this listed under scilla. There are several clumps but only one flower and I don’t remember seeing any blooms last year. With this new name I relooked in Scott Ogden. Hyacinth squills, Scilla hyacinthoides, persists indefinitely in Southern gardens, but rarely blooms without coaxing. He recommends lifting bulbs annually as the foliage yellows in early June and replanted in the autumn in rich well-prepared ground and watered generously through April.  I passed over this section before because there was work involved to get blooms.

My spring order from Brent and Becky’s has arrived. I have put the Bishop of Llandaff dahlia in the hot bed. Ebony foliage and garnet red flowers read the entry. A pre 1900 heirloom which I think will add nicely to the hot pot.

Also for the hot bed I have added 5 Lilium henryi—tangerine colored blooms. Ogden says that Lilium henryi is a fine garden lily in the South. This species was introduced by Dr. Augustine Henry, an Irish physician and forester who explored central China and Taiwan in the late 1800’s.

The Crinum x powellii is pink so is going to the bed in front of the house. C. x powellii is a cross between C. moorei and C. bulbispermum. Scott Ogden calls them the workhorses among crinums.

May 6, 2014

I have been gone and am behind. We did go to the 81^st Historic Garden Week in Virginia. The best landscapes were associated with the two 18^th century homes on the Northern Neck Tour in Richmond County. They had not maintained their formal gardens and I can understand why. But the formal terraces at Sabine Hall were marked out in paths and are crying for an energetic gardener. Though I read that in 1777 the owner, Landon Carter, was distressed with the previous year’s drought with his flowers so planted the terraces in turnips! Early American formal gardens leaned heavily on vegetables, fruits, and berries---the practical. This I read in Southern Garden History Society’s publication ‘Magnolia’ which is online and I have been perusing the back issues for the last few days when I take a break from the garden digging.

On the road to church Sunday I particularly notice the roadsides covered in white privet bloom. Perhaps it is pretty but privet is such a weed I hesitate to appreciate the bloom.Chinese Privet, Ligustrum sinense, is one of the most common invasive, volunteer plants in the United States, especially in the South according to Neil Odenwald. A big mistake! This introduction from China is the bane of the garden, park and farm here at Holly Grove. There is no way I will ever get rid of it. It spreads by runners, grows rapidly and the birds carry seeds all over.

St. Joseph lilies are in bloom here. The Shasta daisies, the achillea, Coronation Gold, and the coreopsis are in bloom on the patio. The Magnolias on the highway have blooms. The indigo, Indigofera kirilowii, which froze back in the winter is flourishing and blooming.

The Gertrude Jekyll (David Austin, 1986) roses that I transplanted to the foundation of the house are in bloom.The Zepharin Drouhin (Bourbon 1868) in the cemetery is nice. On the south farm road a rose I rooted and put out several years ago is in nice bloom but I can’t fine the name. The Scotch rose, Petite Pink Scotch, R. spinosissima, on the south drive bed is perhaps its best ever. This one I had a Belvidire (Pender County NC) and I think got it from Tryon Palace. I was found in 1949 by Jackson M. Batchelor of Willard NC. It was growing in the garden of a 1750’s plantation on the Cape Fear near Wilmington. The Chestnut Rose, Rosa roxburghii plena, from before my time in the north lawn is at its best this year. Stuckey’s climbing dark pink cluster on the potager fence is blooming, this one maybe not its best year. The small pink cluster rose from Opp is a big show on the east side of the well house. Another rose there which may be Blush Noisette (a Noisette from 1817) is nicely in bloom. The huge bush which I think is Maman Cochet (Tea, 1893) is also in bloom but with damage from the humidity. Salat, the single spring blooming red, has finished as has Lafter,(Hybrid tea, 1948, developed by Dr.Basye). Dr. Stuckey’s red (?tea) by the HVAC fence is nice again this year. Pink Grootendorst (Rugosa, 1923) repeats well each year and I like the carnation like blooms.

In the white bed, Iceberg (Floribunda, 1958); Jeanne d’Arc (Noisette, 1848); and Lamark (Noisette, 1830) are blooming.

Pat Aplin’s rose from Gantt, Marjorie Fair or Red Ballerina, shrub, 1978, is blooming in a couple places but not at its best this year.

I have bought some asparagus fern for my hanging baskets. They are drought tolerant so even in a hanging basket I can be gone for a week or more without severe wilting that I was getting with the potato vines. I have also added some petunias and some marigolds in pots and in the beds.

I am very behind in the potager so am concentrating planting there at the moment. We have not had any rain in more than two weeks and now the ground rather than being too wet is hard and dry. I am irrigating the plants already out. We have had our first snow peas and this year we have some fava beans. The book, Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way, which I purchased last year and though gave good practical advice, advised planting broadbeans, fava beans, when the last leaves fall. I was a little late and we have had a much colder winter. What is the reason for success this season when I failed the last two or three years. The only variety I have found available is Windsor but there are others in Europe. Peter Hatch, director of gardens and grounds at Monticello, called the Williamsburg book, “a steaming hot bed of garden wisdom.” Also harvesting arugula, lettuce, beet greens, kale and collards.

 In the wild harvest we have had poke salat and the dewberries have started. I had never heard of dewberries until a few years ago. I had thought that all were wild blackberries. Dewberries are in the genus Rubus and related to blackberries but are small trailing rather than upright brambles. They have thorns but also fine red hairs on the stems. I ate poke salat, American Pikeweed, Phytolacca Americana, as a child. It is common in the rural South. Connie doesn’t particularly like it and we had a visitor who is a native here and about our age, and said he had never eaten it but he had heard of it.

I have been chopping thistles out of the pastures. There seems to be a lot this year. I need to be hard at work weeding as well but back to the potager.

11 May 2014

A good rain was had by all on Friday and Friday night. We were in New Orleans where the Oleander was putting on a good show and St. Charles flooded and we stressed about the car being flooded as we made our way back to the quarter. My oleander, Nerium oleander, on the south of the well house freezes every year but the one on the patio on the south of the gallery is starting to bloom. I have a nice red I rooted from the Arizona Inn in Tucson last year. Where shall I put it. I am thinking maybe in large pots that I can set next to the hot bed but take inside for the winter. Do I want another pot to haul inside?

Back at Holly Grove the heat is palpable but the plants are growing. I have mowed the cemetery and done some weeding. The freeze damaged bay bush, Laurus nobilis, in the herb garden is putting out new leaves and there is some of the lemon grass, Cymbopogon citratus, that is coming back. Madalene Hill in Southern Herb Growing says it will survive 10° if heavily mulched. I have potted up several basil plants and we are already eating them. Picked the first English peas, Wando (1943, “….the most productive pea for late sowings where heat is a problem.” Southern Exposure Seed Exchange).

23 May

Back from 10 days in Wilmington where I bought some more purple petunias to go in the fern baskets. They look good and also in a blue pot with a red pineapple. I also pulled up a white achillea to try to start in the white bed.

The hot bed is blooming more. The daylilies have started; the coreopsis is still going; the as yet small achillea are blooming and the lantana. The potato plants, ipomoea batatas, are coming out and other things are growing.  I have the chartreuse or light green one (probably ‘Margarita’) which has overtaken things in the past, and have added the red or purple one. One red Indian shot is in bloom, the only red flower at the moment. The leaf roller catapillars are somewhat of a problem. I love the name, apparently given as the seeds resemble shot.

The cape jasmine are in bloom; mine, as yet, has not climbed and made a show as I know it can. The red and white striped Milk and Wine crinums are blooming. And the south lawn cape jasmine is covered in bloom. The magnolias are blooming, especially the ones along the highway. And the parrot glads, Gladiolus dalenii, are beginning to fire. They are so bright.

The potager produces greens for the pot as well as the plate, snow peas and English peas. The blueberries have started.

I rotated the cows. Yes, that is part of grass farming.

Also new is the annoying hum of the male circadas. It’s been 12 or 13 years they say. Fortunately it is not constant all day. Some are wearing ear plugs when out. It’s not that bad here.

We had a soaker just before I left but it is 90’s, hot and we need more rain. I started mowing anyway with all the dust it produces.

On Saturday 24 May we went shopping in Baton Rouge. At the Red Stick market I bought some nice jalapeno pepper plants and some habanero plants. Connie wanted some more types of peppers.  We made a haul at Naylors.: coleus, ‘redhead’ for pots on the patio, sorrel, Rumex acetosa, which I like in salads but have had trouble keeping in our hot summers, savory, Saturejaa montana, (at least I think it is the perennial winter savory but it was not labeled, society garlic, Tulbaghia violacea, (well known in old-fashioned Southern gardens according to Madalene Hill in Southern Herb Growing), more peppers for Connie, serano, Ancho, more Jalapeno (Goliath) and Gypsy which I grew from Arizona seed last year, eggplants,’Banana’ and ‘Fairy Tale’, two tomato plants said to set fruit in the heat, hyacinth bean, dolichos lablab, and a pomegranate, Punica granatum, ‘Wonderful.’ My last pomegranate, both here and in Wilmington, died. I was reading that pomegranates are long lived and drought tolerant. What went wrong with mine?

So for the last three days I have been mowing and putting plants in the garden between breaks to get out of the 90° heat. As I mow I notice all the weeds, weed trees, etc. in the fence rows and azalea beds that need to be worked on---sometime. I also see things happening in various parts of the park that I don’t often visit. The wild black cherry, Prunus serotina,  near the cemetery is in fruit.

May 27 was a big storm. Ponds full but a huge pecan in the lake pasture is down. A job to be sure but that’s firewood for this winter when I can get it cut. While I was out checking the downed tree I saw the wild garlic in bloom; not wild but escaped from cultivation. When the seeds are mature I will dig some for our use.

I finished mowing today. Eleven hours total. Mowed the dead leaves of the lycoris but most of the daffs are not ready yet.

5 June

I’ve only got a few days between the recent trip to Charleston and another one to Wilmington. We had a lot of rain during our absence so the thing to do is pull weeds. The lawn needs mowing again but I’ll let it wait. I am pulling weeds in the  patio every time I go out---clippers in the back pocket. I bought a couple of garden related books in Charleston. Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden gives me some sound advice, “I never walk into my garden without my clippers in hand.” We did a whole day of touring gardens, ‘Behind the Garden Gate,’ open through the Garden Conservancy’s National Open Days Program and the Charleston Horticultural Society. Mrs. Whaley’s garden is now in the care of her daughter but was open the previous weekend. My favorite garden was that of The Philip Porcher House which is now the home of Louise Pringle Cameron, the author of several garden books about Charleston. I bought one from her that day which she signed. She is a cousin of the McNeils of Elms Court of Natchez! They had the best stand of St. Augustine I have seen and there was her husband, Dr. Price Cameron standing on the rear steps telling us how to walk on his lawn, do not stop, do not walk where someone else has walked!! All the gardens were so neat and tidy, something I shall never achieve. One garden was not ready for a tour. It was not cared for or planted for the tour. Why was such a garden on the tour? All the rest had structure and bloom for the season.

The last two days here at Holly Grove I have been alternately working in the heat on the azalea bed under the Ginko which is infested with mostly briars and cooling off in the annex reading the books I purchased in Charleston. Today I mowed the cemetery and weeded and mulched there.

The ‘hot bed’ in the patio is full of bloom. The coreopsis is still doing well, the cannas, the marigolds, the lantana. The red perilla, Perilla frutescens, is growing. It self  seeds readily. Another round of the Milk and Wine Crinums look good and the Gardenias are also full. The dying bloom turns a cream before finally dying and someone in Charleston asked about the Gardenia with flowers of two different colors?! The purple petunias in the blue pot with the red pineapple is looking particularly good. Multiple varieties of plants in pleasing combinations are in vogue now and White Flower Farm now devotes a lot of space to these plant combinations. I am new to this. It mostly involves annuals in pots so not what I spend a lot of time on but it can add very nice color in spaces near the house. My pots still need to be somewhat drought tolerant as I am often not here to water if there is no rain.

June 14: We return from a week in Wilmington to discover  that there was a big storm several days before. Trees were down in Liberty gave us our first clue. A huge deciduous oak on the northwest of the house was down. Called Joe Brian; he lost a barn with tin all over the pasture. On further looking, the big oak had knocked off a huge branch of one on the trees in the north border. A nice old cedar in the north border was down. And another huge tree in the ring pasture is down but I haven’t been back to check that. And needless to say a lot of smaller twigs and limbs all over the place. I have taken the chainsaw to some of these so they can be moved. So most of  this week will be debris removal to the burn piles and mowing. The grass is high.

The magnolias are blooming, the gardenias, the hydrangeas, the althea, Hibiscus syriacus. Along the roadside and other places elderberries, Sambucus, are blooming. I don’t have any blooming but elsewhere the mimosa, Albizia julibrissin, is in full color; a weed tree but pretty. Around the patio the pink oleander, Nerium oleander, the lily of the Nile, Aagapanthus orientalis, the ‘white’ (really pale yellow) daylilies in the white bed along with the shasta daisies, Leucanthemum. I think I have the cultivar ‘Becky’ which White Flower Farm says originated in Atlanta and is an excellent shasta daisy for the South. The potted white Angel’s Trumpet, Brugmansia arborea, has bloomed and the night blooming cereus. The hot bed has the coreopsis still and the daylilies and cannas and lantanas and marigolds. The 4 o’clocks have started and the crocosmia I brought from Scotland are starting to bloom. Color is also coming from the red and chartreuse sweet potatoes and the perilla and the red leafed plant from Oman, Hotel Al Bustan. The yellow waterlily flower almost gets lost with all the surrounding foliage. The potted ixia is starting to bloom. The yellow mum is in full color.

Along the south drive we have the chaste tree, Vitex agnus-castus. There is a pink one in the south lawn. There are glads blooming and the garden phlox has started. The lantanas are doing well.

I am also ordering spring bulbs so as to get the 10% discount for ordering early. From McClure and Zimmerman I have ordered Mount Hood, Trumpet, Division 1, for the white bed; Ice Follies and Saint Keverne, both large-cupped, Division 2, but said to do well in the deep South which I will naturalize in the lawn; Falconet, a Tazetta, Division 8,for the hot bed.  I have also ordered tulip Saxatillis for the front bed and tulip Clusiana Tubergen’s Gem for the hot bed. I also ordered 2 single early tulips to pot up for Wilmington since the house is on the Azalea Tour: Diana, white, heirloom 1909, and Keizerskroon, scarlet and yellow, 1750, also described as fragrant. These will have to be pre-cooled and then potted up. Hopefully they will bloom on time for the tour?

21 June

I am finishing up mowing which is including the hayfield in the north front. I should have mowed it earlier. It is so high I have to elevate the mower carriage and still it pulls on the motor so much that it heats up and I have to stop to cool it. I have had to have Connie help me with all the debris from the storm and we have several large burn piles ready for the fall and some firewood for the winter fires. And I haven’t really started on the 2 large trees down.I hope to get John Baxter to help some with the chainsaw work and he can take home what he cuts. But somebody had a tree to fall on a drive and paid to have it cut away and gave John that wood.  With all the trees down in the area I suspect he has plenty to choose from.

The potager is producing bountiful green beans, lots of blueberries, lots of arugula of both kinds. I am digging potatoes which I should have done a few weeks ago.

It is not the season but I just bought The Garden Diary of Martha Turnbull, Mistress of Rosedown Plantation by Suzanne Turner and was reading about the first camellias there. 23 March 1841 was the first mention in her diary of ‘Camilla.’ Turner notes that camellias were first imported to England in the first half of the 18^th century. She notes it is believed that the French botanist André Michaux was the first to bring the plant to North America when he planted it in his nursery in Charleston, SC, in the late 1700’s. The date of the earliest camellias in this area is debated, but an ad in the ‘Louisiana Courier’ from 3 Jan 1832 that “Camellias—the most splendid of flowering shrubs…in several varieties,’” appears in an ad for F. Newman, No. 200 St. Claude and 34 Esplanade St. were available in New Orleans, having been received in a shipment from Tennessee (?).  In 1823 the New Orleans paper noted that a plantsman William Smith advertised in December as an agent of William Prince, proprietor of the Linnean Garden near New York. This is where American camellia growing first centered, perhaps. There is an earlier reference to camellias at Rosedown earlier where a receipt for a plant order made by Daniel Turnbull of St. Francisville of William Prince & Son, date 11 April 1837. Among the plants listed, primarily fruit trees, are five camellia plants, one of each of the following species: Chandler’s Superb Striped Waratak, C. insignis, C. coccinea, C. fimbricata, and C. myrtifolia. The same invoice lists azaleas, including indica, “Splendia hybrid,” and”Blue or Cerulea.”

July 3, 2014

We spent a week in Tucson with the car reporting 117 one day. I thought when we got back 4 days ago that it felt hotter here with the humidity. It had rained while we were gone so I started to pick up sticks and to mow. Another big wind and rain last night so more limbs to pick up from that. Most of the high grass is bahia, Paspalum notatum. It is a native of South America that was brought to the Southeast through the port of Pensacola in the 1920’s. It is not as good as summer forage as bermudagrass and dallisgrass. Speaking of forage, Joe clipped the pastures while we were gone.

I brought some plants and seeds back from Arizona. In Tombstone is the world’s largest rose, a white Lady Banksia which came from Scotland in 1885. It is spread over an arbor that covers over 8,000 square feet. I paid $5 to see it and $15 for a cutting. I haven’t decided where to put it yet. I took some more oleander cuttings from the Arizona Inn, a double lilac/purple. I also took a variegated agave. At the native seeds store they were having a sale. I bought and have potted up: Asclepias subulata, desert milkweed ($8); Yucca elata, soaptree yucca ($5); Agave parryi var. huachucensis, Parry’s Agave ($5); and Dasylirion wheeleri, desert spoon ($5). All are hardy here but in pots maybe I should protect in the winter. Last year I lost a cactus from Arizona and some of my agaves. Tucson is hot and dry but usually doesn’t much frost. I bought some seed as well: runner bean, Aztec white, phaseolus coccineus, from Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico; and Chittepin (Texas) which is a native chile, this one from Wimberly on Edwards Plateau, west of Austin. It is noted to freeze back in winter---does that mean it will come back? I have planted these. I visited the botanical garden and collected several seeds which I have planted. I will report if any come to fruition. I also took a  succulent from the La Quinta in Kerrville TX which was growing in a pot. I think it might work in my shallow bowl pot.

We are having a bumper crop of blueberries, lots of green beans, the first pink eyed purple hull peas, and lots of arugula for salads to which I add violet and ginko leaves.

The red crinums are now blooming. The nice pink by the drive bloomed while we were gone.

In the white bed we have white glads and shasta daisies plus the pale yellow daylilies. The white dahlia is blooming.

In the hot bed we have the Bishop of Llandaff now blooming. It has dark red foliage. The cannas, the mums, and still the coreopsis. Have to cut back on the lantana and the 4 o’clocks which are blooming so the ponds can show.

The lily of the nile, both white and blue are blooming in the tropic bed along with the pink oleander.

Some of crepe myrtles are beginning while elsewhere they are in full bloom. I’m not sure why mine have been timid.

With the rain recently I have been weeding. Weeding is difficult if we are dry. Weeding in the potager which is full due to the rain and weeded the daylily beds along the allée. They have some grass but a lot of horse nettle and briars, both of which have roots that are often broken when pulling and therefore come back. The daylilies have had less damage this year from deer and one lantana and one coreopsis has remained. I seeded more coreopsis. I note in reading recently that Coreopsis lanceolata is the Mississippi state wildflower. Who knew? I shall hope to transplant some of the offshoots of the coreopsis in the hot bed.

I also read in ‘Southern Living’ that Festiva Maxima and Sarah Burnhart are good peonies for the South. Can I grow them? I googled. They need 400 cooling hours and some put ice on them in the winter to help with this. Plant very shallow with only morning sun. Early blooming varieties are best and perhaps the singles. Wayside seems to be the only place with reasonable prices. Tree peonies need less cooling but are more expensive. I may try on in the front of the house.

The end of July

The rain has continued this summer. That’s good for the pastures and the cows but I am mowing again. I had the tractor serviced for about $700. That’s high but I have used it a lot in the last eight years that I have had it.

I have decided to use the chain saw daily to whittle away at all the trees I have down. I did get most of the potager weeded the first of the month and I daily weed in the potager and the flower borders and the herb garden. I have put out another rosemary that I rooted. I think the large one in front of the well house may be in a spot too wet. We eat a lot of rosemary and I need another bush in advance.

The blueberries continue. Now having figs. These are the LSU variety, a green-yellow one that I do not like as well as the brown turkey. It takes about five years for the trees to get going so I may need to wait about the brown turkey. Beans are plentiful and the peas (Whippoorwill, that Jefferson grew and Pink-eyed-purple-hulled) are in. The okra has also started. I have had a good crop of White Pearman apples. These date from about 1200 in England. The low chill Anna died. Maybe I need both to take advantage of whatever the winter may be. I planted another Anna last fall from Naylor’s. It is ok.

The purple petunias that I loved in the hanging baskets and the blue pot are still going but a little ratty. The lilies in the hot bed have bloomed but have been lost in all the other foliage.

The first of the Alabama lilies (Lilium formosanum) are blooming.  A lot more are getting ready.

The first week of August

I finished the mowing last week---9 days, 11.5 hours and where I started needs to be mowed again. We have been having some rain but no great amount. I hope to wait later in August to do my last mow. Need to mow before the lycoris start to bloom. I looked back and in 2013 the lycoris started the last of August. Last year they bloomed at the end of September.

The Alabama lilies are at their peak. The night booming cereus, Hylocereus undiatus, has bloomed but was lost in the lilies. The fall clematis is in bloom and there are shasta daisies are also in bloom.

The potager is on my list every day to weed. The green beans continue to produce. Picking field peas, okra, tomatoes, peppers and arugula. I hope to manure and compost my fall planting area---to find the time!

When the ground is wet I try to work on weeding, including the privet etc. in the azalea beds and around the trees. And my clean-up activities also includes working on all the downed trees in the park and in the pastures.

9 August

It is hot with ‘it feels like’ 100 degrees. So I am not getting as much done as I would like outside. And it hasn’t rained in a while so I am having to water in the patio.

Some blooms from the tropicals: What I thought was a kahili ginger is I think another cultivar Hedychium, name unknown, but a nice yellow.  The white flowered butterfly gingers, Hedychium coronarium, I have in the white bed but it is too dry for them to do well. The curcuma survived the winter but I have seen no blooms. Curcuma longa is the edible ginger of commerce and Scott Ogden says we can grow it. I may have to try. I have bought ginger before in the store and only once got some to start in a pot. I didn’t think it hardy. It died. I am not overly fond of curcumas as the blooms get hidden in the foliage.  Someone in St. Francisville had a lot of curcuma blooms to decorate the table after the funeral of Marjie Blake. My curcuma has colorful leaves, at least. My variegated shell gingers, Alpinia zerumbet, is good for its foliage as the plant does not bloom on new growth.  I also have Alpinia nutans, bought as cardamom, which has cinnamon-scented leaves, but no blooms and no cardamom. I also have blue ginger, Dichorisandra thyrsiflora, which is not a true ginger. It is native to Brazil. I have it in a pot and have had it bloom in the past.

The golden trumpet, Allamanda cathartica, prospers and blooms in a pot on the terrace steps. The jungle flame, Ixora macrothyrsa, also in a pot is blooming nicely in a pot near the hot bed.

The white angle trumpets, Brugmansia arborea, bloom intermittently. I have them in pots and they are hard to keep watered but I have not had good success with having them in the ground over the winter.

My bird of paradise, Strelitzia reginae, has never bloomed for me. And my Bougainvillea glabra rarely bloom. And my Coffea arabica survives but I have never seen a bloom or a bean.

The frangipani which I have in several colors and which I brought back from Hawaii and the Far East bloom but not like they do in Asia. At least they are tolerant of drought in their pots.

My hibiscus also bloom but not with abandon.

I have an Arabian jasmine, Jasminuum sambac, in a pot and it blooms with abandon off and on.

I have a night blooming jessamine, Cestrum nocturnum from New Orleans where it did well on Barracks Street. It is in the ground here and comes back after the winter but it does not flourish not bloom. I need to work on it. Or maybe just enjoy it in NOLA.

Something has been eating my sweet potato vines and killing them and the past two years they had been so prolific as to be a pest.

The coleus are still colorful but my very pretty blue/purple petunia has gone to pot. The ones in the hanging baskets are just so-so.

I have put out in the tropical bed a banana from my New Orleans collection. I don’t think it will be the weed here that it is there as it will freeze back in the winter. My flowering banana is flourishing in the bed but no blooms and no blooms of the ones I keep in pots.

The golden dewdrop, or pigeon berry,  Duranta erecta, are in bloom. They bloom but not to my satisfaction nor berry well either.

25 August

Although we have had no rain for a couple weeks and are dry on top, the rain from the past has the grass still growing and the ponds full. I mowed the highway and the west lawn before going for a week to Wilmington and came back to that needing mowing as well as the rest. I have started and am mowing a little each day but it is hot (the hottest, humidest, week of the year) and dry and dusty.

It is also too hot with heat indexes beyond 100 to do much outside. I have potted up the magenta oleander that I rooted from the Arizona Inn. Need to water the pots in the patio and gallery. The Alabama lilies have finished. The fall clematis is still in full flower. More crepe myrtles are blooming but I think mine are sparse. Felder suggested that some varieties are better for flowers and others for bark, etc.

The potager is producing field peas, green beans, and okra. We have had luffa, peppers, tomatoes, arugula. The cucumbers and squash are just not setting fruit. And the chipmunks (I think) have eaten the tops of the second planting of okra, the sweet potatoes, and peanuts. What to do?

I have manured and composted beds to get ready for fall planting. The solidago has not bloomed yet. Still too hot to plant for fall. I shall probably wait until mid  September when I return from England.

I have not had time or energy to work on the privet, etc. around trees and in azaleas or to cut on the fallen trees recently. It really is a job for the fall and winter.

14 September

We have just returned from the south of England and have new ideas about the garden. But the abundance of rain this summer suggests I mow one more time at least. I want to mow before the spider lilies, Lycoris radiate, bloom and I have just a few days before we go to Wilmington. Ah ha, as I started to mow I found the first few buds of lycoris---I mowed around them. The goldenrod, Solidago, has not yet started to bloom but the Joe Pye Weed is in full swing in the pastures. A slight drop in temperature yesterday, cloudy all day with temps in the 70’s . I could maybe start the fall garden but will have to wait at least another week when I get back from Wilmington.

My blue pot with purple petunias is blooming again after I cut it back. The petunias in the hanging baskets are dead---never did great.

30 September

Just returned from the Devon conference in Winchester Kentucky. Made me want to paint my fences black. And I need to rotate pastures better to grow my grass pastures.

I was able to put out the collard, broccoli, kale and Swiss chard plants in the ground before I left---and the chipmunks haven’t eaten them---yet. I am back in the potager trying to get the rest of the fall/winter garden going. The Williamsburg book I have been listening to says these vegetables should be planted when the goldenrod blooms and that is now.

The spider lilies, Lycoris radiate, are great around the park; maybe it’s their best year. And the goldenrod, Solidago, are getting ready to burst forth. A few sasanqua blooms are to be seen. The roadside ditches are full of perennial sunflowers, Helianthus species.

I have been searching for a Tibouchina since I saw one at White Flower Farm in Connecticut years ago. I did have one that did well outside in Alabama but I lost it when I tried to move it here to Holly Grove. I found one at Naylor’s recently and have put it in the tropical bed next to the back gallery----princess flower, glory bush, Tibouchina urvilleana.

I have also moved the potted blue ginger lily, Dichoridandra thyrsiflora, to the tropical bed and the plant looks good there but it may be too sunny. It also should withstand a freeze even though it is a Hawaiian native.  We’ll see.

The bower vine, Jasmine pandorea, continues to bloom well this year. Maybe another plant for the tropical bed----but still in a pot.

The red pineapple/purple petunia in the blue pot again looks great.

At Great Dixter in Sussex, Cristo massed pots around his front door----foliage and flower. I shall work on this but it requires for me plants that can stand a little drought when I am away. I would like to let the hedge around the patio get taller and maybe add gates to the two entrances. But can the brick beds support all this growth without more water?

While in the pasture I found a white hardy ageratum, Conoclinium coelestinum. I have never seen a white one before. I pulled up one of the plants and transplanted it to the white bed.

31 October

We just returned from New Mexico where the cottonwoods, populus fremontii were a fantastic yellow! It is like a whole river of ginkos. Some color is beginning here but not the drama of New Mexico. The popcorn trees have the most color and this year I am noticing the Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, in the trees with its orange color. The sasanquas are in bloom.  The yellow mums are in full swing and the Mexican tarragon, tagetes lucida, is abloom. It is also called the Mexican marigold. I looked up the cottonwood and perhaps I could grow populus deltoides. They grow fast along river banks and would be great fall color.

I am moving pots inside today. The next two nights will be in the low 30’s. Frost? We’ll see.

11 November

About two months with little or no rain so most looks dry/brown. The sasanquas are in full bloom. The first Japanica which may be an old Alba Plena has a few blooms. There is an occasional rose. The purple lantana are in bloom but the yellow are mostly gone. The satsumas are ripening. I have bought some violas and pansies from Naylors and have put in pots—some color for the January tour.