Gardening Holly Grove 2017

Gardening Holly Grove 2017



18 December 2016



The ginko leaves have all fallen. We have had some temperatures down to 28 or so. As the priest said this morning “ We were in Key West last night and this morning we are in Alaska.” It was 79 yesterday and the high today was about 40.



I have picked a salad. The lettuce does well. The banana leaves are all frost bitten as are the cannas. It is winter. More camellias begin to bloom.



22 December



It has been cold and I have been inside by the fire except when Lanny and Susan came up on Tuesday and I went out and got some camellias for the table and some nandina berries for the hall table.



It is warmer today but rainy and cloudy. I got down to the potager and dug the sweet potatoes, some small ones. The deer/rabbits had eaten the tops so what do I expect. The peanuts had lost their tops too but did produce some. The ground is really too wet but I needed to do it.



I also weeded the area next to the east fence under the pine tree, and planted the fava beans. Again no till. The last leaves have fallen a week ago at least. Planted not so close this time. Reread the Williamsburg garden book on how to do them.



Friday 30 December



It’s cold again and I am inside by the fire. Listened to Felder this morning. I usually wonder why, since I rarely learn anything. He did interview someone on the coast about herbs. Tarragon and lavender do not grow well here which I knew. If one insists they may partially succeed. Sage is also hard since the leaves are hairy and humidity is bad.



I am looking at seed books for this coming spring. Pine tree is still the cheapest but does not have some seeds I want. I dream big this time of year. White Flower Farm wrote an introduction revealing the secret that Amos Pettingil was a nom de plume and they were quitting the ruse. They have been in business since 1950. I have used them a lot in the past but they are expensive. And today shipping costs are atrocious and can cost more than the item.



I am spreading more composted hay and manure this year. Also the fireplace ashes today. Pulling weeds in the potager a little at a time. The lettuce I planted as plants has been doing nicely.



The mirliton sprouted more than the recommended 5” so fast. I have potted the two ‘Plaquemine’ fruits. These I got a couple weeks ago in New Orleans at the farmer’s market. The lady said they were heirloom but didn’t have a name but she was from Plaquemine Parish. I have them in the annex as birds eat on plants in the greenhouse.



I have been doing some work outside this past warm week. I have done several burn piles but did not get a one cleaned up entirely. Working some in the beds weeding, some in the patio, some in the drive bed, some in the potager.



5 January ‘17



We are expecting a hard freeze this coming weekend so I am doing a few things: more pine straw on the crinums which have been trying to come out in the warm weather we have been having. I also put a light layer of pine straw on the broad beans that are just coming up. I have pushed the citrus near the annex wall—the warmest part of the patio. Will probably harvest all the citrus before we get to the 25 or 21 predicted.



The sasanquas are about gone and many japonica blooms are out. The purple lantana on the drive bed still has blooms despite the yellow ones being gone. And all around the narcissus are in bloom.



I have been cleaning out gutters and putting the leaves on the blueberry beds as recommended by Highgrove as the leaves form acid soil which the blueberries like. I was rereading some of the book and they have several points to make about compost. Felder says just pile it up but I think a little care and a better product can be produced.



The N. cantabricus I planted at the SW corner of the house is in bloom. Lovely small hoop petticoats in white at the edge of the white garden and at the edge of the walk where they can be enjoyed. Ogden says, “One of the real garden opportunities available to Southerners comes from an odd group of dwarf narcissi native to the hills and mountains of the western Mediterranean.” These are the hoop petticoats. Perhaps too small for the park but we will see how they do by the sidewalk. So far, so good.



19 January



The temperatures dropped to 19º two nights in a row about 10 days ago. I went to Honduras for a week. Cool there too in the mountains.



Here I am looking at brown. All tropicals are brown, the citrus included. How much is dead I will see. Have clipped the asparagus ferns. I forgot to move them in. The oleander are burned. Minimal camellias. Some have opened up again. Even the narcissus were burned. I have received my seed packets. Need to do some cleanup. Will be in ILM next week and then to Malaysia for about 10 days. That’s mid February so will need to start in earnest.



Sunday 22 January



With the warm---and the lots of rain nature is beginning to think spring. The Soulangeana is in full bloom. Forsythia was starting to bloom in East Feliciana. More camellias are opening. The Alabama camellia plant has a bloom---I think RL Wheeler which I thought we had there in Gantt. RL Wheeler is a product of Wheeler’s Central Georgia Nurseries, 1949.



I am off to ILM for a week and then Malaysia for 10 days so when I get back maybe more vigorous gardening.



Wednesday, 15 February



It’s cool today. Last few nights drinks were on the gallery. Tonight I am building a fire. It has been mostly warm for the last two weeks. The President Clay azaleas at the entrance are in full bloom as are the pink coral bells. The dafs continue to open. The snowdrops are in full force. The Dutch iris in the drive bed are blooming. The pear on the north is out of bloom and has leaves. The soulangeana is also out of bloom. The pear on the south is in bloom. Many of the formosa azaleas are beginning. The ginko is budding out. The blueberries are budding. The forsythia is in bloom but not that good this year. The best was two years ago. The Anna apple is in bloom. The citrus that survived are budding out and one has blooms. This is all very early.



I am mostly working in the potager this week. I have planted all the peas and replanted the stuff that was lost with the deer last fall. I am doing some February chores: fertilizing the citrus with the organic fertilizer, pruning the grapes which I have not done before. I bought some more strawberry plants (Camarosa from the Natural Gardening Company). I have tried strawberries twice before sans success. I haven’t used this company before but the price was right. They looked alive on arrival so we’ll see. Camarosa is a June Bearing variety, developed for southern locations, places with mild winter climates.



I have planted more peas than usual: old sugar snap seed; a new edible podded pea, Cascadia (recommended for earliness); two types of shelling peas or English peas, Knight (recommended for large pod, early) and Tall Telephone, an 1891 heirloom (tall and late maturing; and Velarde, a Spanish soup pea from Native Seeds.



I have added rat tail radish which I have grown in the past.



I am trying to add more fertilizer: composted manure and hay from inside the shed and compost made in the garden and mulching with hay. I am planning to turn my compost pile more diligently this year. Try once per week. This makes compost faster than Felder’s method of just letting it sit.



The only thing to harvest now is cilantro. The favas are alive. We’ll see if I can produce any. I did once about eight years ago.



Monday, 27 February



Back from a week in Wilmington. Azaleas fully out here and have been making photos today. Connie compared photos of last year and said the date was exactly one month later! Dafs mostly gone as well as the camellias. They have not been as good this year but the azaleas are better than last year. A couple of roses are in bloom. The snow drops are still good. The President Clays at the front are over. The Feliciana Republic azalea (Republic of West Feliciana, 2010, a Buddy Lee hybrid Indica) is good for the first time. It is a pink somewhat like George Tabor.



No rain last week but rain today. I planted Yukon gold potatoes yesterday, bought in ILM last week, one peck at $7.50. I also bought some red onion sets. The peas and other things in the potager are up. I transplanted into larger containers some sungold and Cherokee purple tomatoes. Planted old seed of Pruden’s purple and Moscow (from Tucson) tomatoes. Planted left over sweet potatoes to try to produce slips. Soaking parsnip and celeriac seed.  Planted left over winter rye from ILM in the pastures where the tubs of protein made the ground bare. The cows prefer what grass is growing to the hay.



Connie has booked the annual meeting for the Southern Garden History Society in Kentucky. Will we get in? We sent in the money as soon as we got the brochure but it sat in the mailbox since last week.



Friday 3 March



Cool the last two mornings. We have had a little rain. The azaleas are fading and the dogwood in the allée is full. Most of the old dogwoods are dead. The cows are just not eating the hay—they want the grass. I am able to get to digging and cutting and spraying along the south farm road fence and some shrub borders.



Thursday 23 March



Have been to the Arizona Inn for Tinsley’s wedding. Brought back some succulents which were the flowers on the table, the cake and in her bouquet. We’ll see if they survive. The aloes will I feel sure.



We’ve been busy; besides the trip, Connie had a breast bx and has had the mass excised and will need radiation and chemo, so I have been with her for some of this.



The azaleas have left; the dogwood leaving. There has been locust but they do not show so much here at HG. I keep killing thistle, mostly in the fields. Mowing is needed, especially the highway but I have been spending my time working in the potager. We are eating salads daily of ginko, nasturtium, violet, lettuce, spinach, arugula, beet leaves, radishes.  I have been pulling weeds (clover to the cattle) and hoeing and then putting in tomatoes (my seedlings and Clegg’s), and peppers (my shishito and Clegg’s other). Put out the Plaquamine mirliton today. Planted more potatoes: Adirondack red and Irish cobbler. Planted more strawberry plants: early glow and jewel. The earlier strawberries have little berries.



Putting out plants on the patio, slowly. Potted up some marigolds from Clegg’s into the viola pots which are dying, partly due to lack of water.



The yellow iris are blooming at the pond. Some roses are in bloom. And there are still daffodils.



Thursday 30 March



Cooler this am than it has been in a week—58, also rain.



I have been mowing. The highway really needed it and just south of the house but other areas not so much but mowing neatens things up. The highway took a lot of time particularly due to trash.



The St. Joseph Lilies, Hippeastrum x johnsonii,  are blooming nicely. I need more for the south drive bed especially. Could possibly use in south lawn beds. The foliage there of the crinums gets eaten though. A couple in the hot bed would be good this time of year. Brent and Becky’s and McClure and Zimmerman don’t have them.



The well house is covered in color with the pink cluster roses (name unclear) and the mock orange from Alabama which I brought here, (Philadelphus coronaries). It does so well here and makes such a show maybe I should spread it around.



The dewberries are almost in.



The pecans are budding out. The plum has finally budded out. I think the pink dogwood is dead. Why? One apple tree has not bloomed or budded but maybe it is still alive. The pawpaws are blooming again but yet to produce one.



Friday April 15



Harvesting salads, some peas, favas, lots of dewberries. Back to planting in the potager. Moved all the plants out of the annex after jomaxing the rear gallery.



Monday April 24



Plants confused. There are still dafs and the flowering almond is in bloom. The early roses gone and the yellow iris at pond. Lots of magnolia blooms on highway. The glads are in bloom. The pink dogwood finally leafed out. Not getting a lot of rain. Cool yesterday and today into 50’s---a change. Back to high 80’s by the end of the week.



Still salad greens, lots of edible podded peas and lots of shelling peas. First blueberries. Still lots of dewberries.



Tuesday May 2



Had a good rain Sunday so I am back to mowing.



I did the altar flowers Sunday. Connie decided I could do them and we wouldn’t have to pay the florist. I went out Saturday morning. We have a lot of glad Dalenii but the orangy color would not go with most things and I did not have enough yellow or red. I used white glads, white nandina buds, some white roses, pink clusters, and the red Louis Philippe, added some garlic blooms and buds, verbena, blood and wine crinum, oak leaf hydrangea, variegated asphidistra, gardenia. I guess that is it. They looked pretty good. The altar guild, however, left some dead Easter lilies along with the living.



Mrs. James Hendry is blooming. Looks very good. I should buy more. I bought this one last year and planted in May from Southern Bulb Co. ($30). Ogden says Henry Nehrling introduced Mrs. James Hendry in 1915. He says it multiplies at a steady pace. We’ll see. He mentions Alamo Village as another older one in Southern gardens. In the next paragraph he mentions the Luther Bundrant hybrid, Jubilee, another beautiful blush-colored crinum but not yet widely grown. These are @ $20 but there is a discount from Brent and Becky if ordered by March 1^st. Should do this next year.



I have needed to trim the azaleas on the allée for a couple years. I did it and cleaned out the HVAC area. Cutting back and weeding is the name of the game here.



Reading on Gardenista this AM about not mowing close to trees to leave a ‘necklace.’ They were not fond of this. Here it only means weeds and trees unless we have a thick necklace of asphidistra or lirope. And one cannot mow close to old live oaks due to the roots.



The yellow daylilies are good in the patio. Some also on the alée.



A rose by the well house is good. I used some for the altar flowers. It forms clusters and the blooms are fully double white with a tinge of pink in the bud. I think it may be Blush Noisette, 1817, produced by Philippe Noisette. The Louis Philippe is also in bloom. A China from 1834. The Jeanne d’Arc, 1848, Noisette climbing on the plantation bell is also doing well this spring. The Chestnut Rose, before 1814 is putting out some blooms. This one has an interesting story: William Roxburgh, assistant surgeon to the East India Company, came across this rose in a garden in Canton, China, 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 and quickly traveled on to America. It is also known as the ‘Chinquapin Rose,’ and the ‘Burr Rose.’



For some reason I have not done well with roses here. The best spot seems to be the rocky soil between the drive and the well house.



Friday 12 May 



Raining this morning. I have finished mowing after the last rain including the cemetery this go round. This past week I have made great inroads into three burn piles. They just simmer for days and eat a lot into the logs.



I am also working in the potager, weeding which I dislike, still planting. I have the potager more planted than perhaps ever. Still harvesting salad greens but radish seed pods and edible podded peas for crunch. Turnip greens and mustard for the pot of greens. Dug some potatoes, not much there. The peas are waning also. I have had favas, one or two at a time to go into the salads. Not a good year for them either. I have only had one good year. The secret??



The white glads in the potager provide cut flowers. The rose, Blush Noisette (I think), is great this year. Crinums blooming----a large clump in the front pasture. The cannas are beginning. Not so much the Indian Shot. The daylily in the patio hot bed is good. The lantanas in the drive bed are good. Some lantana and daylily in the allée and for the first time several coreopsis. The glads Dalenii are fading. The althea are starting to bloom. The white Queen Anne’s Lace does well in the white bed. Noticed one stokesia bloom.



I have been cutting back foliage, etc. from the well house. The large white small flowered rose appears to be dead. All for the good, that. It is huge, blooms some only in the spring. Takes up too much space for what it gives.



I have cleaned the annex’s south gutter (leaves to the blueberry patch to provide acid compost) but will wait for the north one until the trees are trimmed. We have contracted with a local man to cut back trees from the house and annex plus clean up some in the allée; pile them and organize on the big tree in the north rear. All for $2,500. I trust this will do a lot to clean up around here. I think I can handle the rest of the downed trees in the park.



Monday 15 May



Working in the potager, weeding, harvesting, watering and still harvesting salad greens, pot greens, peas. Saw my first green beans.



Still planting: Arikara sunflower, collected by Melvin Gilmore from the Arikara tribe at the Fort Berthold Reservation. First offered by Oscar H. Will in 1930. Grown for its edible seeds. Plants to 12’ and flower heads to 16”; luffa; more summer squash, Caserta, new to me, 1949 All America Award as an exceptional Zucchini.



Many milk and wine crinums in bloom on the allée and the pasture. The gloriosa lily blooms for a second year. I have it in a pot by the well house and it climbs into the camellia there by the door.



My burn pile near the cows watering trough continues to simmer, amazing how much of the big logs are slowly burned. It flashed into flame in another area where I had piled branches. It was a long burning log that caused me grief when about three years ago a wind caused the pasture to fire and brought out the fire department.



Tuesday 30 May



Back from Wilmington. The first order of the day was harvest: essentially the last of the spring peas, green beans---lots of them, salad greens, pot greens, jalapeno peppers, sungold cherry tomatoes, potatoes. I grew the sungold plants as recommended by some tomato expert as one of his favorite for taste. I didn’t realize it was a cherry tomato! But it is producing nicely so maybe a good choice from The Natural Gardening Company. They say it is one of the most popular tomato introductions of the last 20 years. I did find one zucchini. The parsley is doing great. The blueberries are starting. I so need to weed!

I just bought some eggplants from Clegg’s and have put them in pots on the patio to see if they will avoid the whatever bug they get in the potager. I can’t find any sweet potato slips anywhere.



Drinks on the front gallery are suffused with the smell of gardenias, the cape jasmine my father spoke about as being by the front steps of their Mississippi plantation. The gardenia, Gardenia jasminoides, is said to have been first planted in the South in Charleston in the mid-1700’s. Two of my plants just beside the steps are G. thunbergia, the hip gardenia, which I rooted from Rosedown. It was a lot harder to root than the usual gardenia. The view down the allée is now so open after the trim by the tree men.



The crinums are doing nicely in bloom. Also the lantana in the drive bed. The hibiscus on the north side of the annex are doing nicely and should do better now that the trees have been cut back.



Still getting white glads in the potager to cut for the house.



Cannas are blooming but not as good as in other years. There are coreopsis. I saw one stokesia in the white bed. They have never been good. The pale daylilies in the white bed are in. Roses sprinkle around. The oleander are in bloom but not like they are in New Orleans---too cold here in winter or not enough sun where I have mine. My marigolds are doing well in the pots and the pansies are still here and the snapdragons. The basil keeps trying to bloom.



Saturday 10 June



Finished mowing about a week ago and with the rain last week it is in need again. Will wait until we return from ILM in about 10 days.



I have been working with one of the new burn piles. It has progressed all week but the huge logs are still there. Trying to clean up around it. There are pools of sewerage where the tree fell/bulldozer sank in.  I am planting Louisiana iris and put some water hyacinths in yesterday. Get some bulrushes. What else? We’ll see how this works.



Working in potager. The green beans have slowed. Dug all the potatoes. Got several. Harvesting pot greens and salad greens but the lettuce is essentially gone and the rat-tailed radishes. Lots of arugula. Not much in the way of cucs and squash. I have green onions and carrots which have been great sautéed in olive oil. The sun gold tomatoes are great and several Creole tomatoes. Tons of blueberries right now. I have had more vegetables than usual but lots of weeds which get the best of me.



Not getting much done in the park but some cleanup.



Monday 19 June



I am having my best year in the potager: lots of blueberries, the figs have started (birds getting some), pot greens, salad greens, especially wild arugula (no lettuce and the radish seed pods have gone), tomatoes, green beans, okra started, more shishito peppers, onions, carrots, a few cucs and squash. Picking all this takes time. Picked the telephone pole pea seeds, weeded the bed and planted field peas, Tohono O’odham.



The park is in much need of mowing; awaiting rain. It has only been three weeks. Red crinums in bloom. The gardenias are going.



Friday 23 June



Lots of rain off and on the last couple days—tropical storm Cindy. Cleaned out the gutter on the north side of the annex and jomaxed the whole north walls; used the truck plus ladder against chimneys to reach (mostly) the apex of the main house. Weeding in the north house border, potager, drive border, herb garden, patio, etc.



Noticed for the first time the princess tree, Paulownia tomentosa, blooming. I planted it several years ago and it has not done well. Supposed to work in Zone 9. I also saw my first paw paw, Asimina triloba----fruit that is. I have about 3 trees which have bloomed before but no fruit.



Some crepe myrtle flowers. Also a few pink zepharanthes in the west lawn.



Thursday 29 June



Read yesterday in Gardenista about no-dig gardening. A place in England was doing this in an old potager and quoting Charles Dowding’s Vegetable Journal as the British expert. I have read of this idea of protecting the micro structure of the soil in ‘Stockman Grass Farmer’ and began in my potager last spring when I couldn’t dig. Connie and I weeded a plot and used a hoe to make a row to plant peas. It was successful and I have been using the idea since. It saves a lot of work and no more weeds than before. Getting rid of the tubers of the Florida betony by digging was not working anyway.



Mowing again the very high grass but yesterday it is raining again. Trying to weed as well in beds and potager.

I seem to have a bigger harvest in the potager of everything this year. Why? I am still not getting out enough manure and compost and mulch.



Friday 30 June



Rained all day yesterday---I think more rain than last week with the tropical storm.



Out in the potager this AM and finished picking the blueberries from yesterday. Still a ton of green beans (purple in one case) to the consternation of Connie. More tomatoes. Some funky looking figs. ? the weather. And the birds are eating them also. They ate all of them last year. I had so many figs in Alabama and here---!!!???  The mirleton vines are going wild---never had so many vines. Hopefully the slightly raised bed will help with all this rain.



The crepe myrtles are blooming, especially the white Natchez, also the old pink ones on the north border.



The white yarrow, Achillea millefolium, are still blooming. I didn’t realize how long a season. A few cape jasmine blooms linger. Had another white glad in the potager that I cut. The lantana is good. Cannas here and there. The pansies are fading. The marigolds are great.



Connie and I look at the green park (grass and oaks) from the front galleries during drink time. It’s what a lot of rain can bring here in the deep South.



I did use this recent rain to burn one of the big piles in the northwest lawn. I am paranoid since I caught the pasture on fire a few years ago.



Wednesday, 5 July



I did get my mowing finished this week and have taken the mower in for its yearly service plus work on the wheels on the carriage.



I have done little other outside work as the temperatures are in the 90’s and the heat index in up to 111.



Saturday 8 July



Storm this AM. I meant to harvest plus cut flowers for the house as Daniel and Tinsley are coming this afternoon. It is not to be just yet. The storm is not a short one. It started about 5 and it is now 8.



Came back from NOLA yesterday with some palm seedlings, Canary Island date palm I think. Watered pots as things on patio were wilting. Need to move some to cooler spots as we will be in ILM next week. The tractor is at the John Deere getting its annual servicing plus new wheels for the mower carriage. They need to order those so I will not get it back until about 10 days when we return from ILM and will need to mow again. The highway and other areas mowed first are already in need from previous rain. And with this several inches will be quite high by then.



The burn pile was still smoldering last evening after a week but will be out this am.



Plants Delights Nursery is having a sale and an open house next weekend. I proposed a trip to Chapel Hill to Connie and she readily agreed when I mentioned eating. She made a reservation immediately at Lantern.



I am reviewing the possibilities for purchase. Sale is good as the plants are expensive and then shipping is ridiculous. I have some agaves from there and crinums that I have documented. I have more agaves and yuccas—were these from Arizona? I don’t have labels so I need to check. The agaves ideally spend the winter inside so as not to have them with too much wet/cold. But they do not need watering in the summer. Crinums are good plants here overall but some have problems being eaten by maybe rabbits I think. Some areas are involved. Others are not.



And there is Camellia Forrest Nursery to visit as well. Let me check what I can get there.



Tuesday July 18



Back from ILM. Some rain while we were gone. Some pot wilting but not a great deal. Grass is very high and mower parts are not in so no mowing yet.



Harvested the last of the blueberries; figs gone; tomatoes waning; getting okra, field peas, corn; still manage to pick a salad. Oh, so many weeds.



Crepe Myrtles are getting better. The Alabama lilies are starting, Lilium formosanum, sometimes listed as a variety of the similar, but more tropical L. philippinense. It is known traditionally in the South as the Philippine lily per Ogden.



I did go to Camellia Forrest Nursery and bought a ginko for $20. It is about 2-3’ high. And 3 camellias: 1. Adeyaka (a CF introduction), bright red, medium-sized , single flower, blooms early to mid-season. Lots of yellow stamens. It is the model for the Camellia Forrest logo. Upright compact habit. $20.

2. Black Tie, medium-sized, formal double very dark red, early to mid-season. Bushy upright.

3. White by the Gate. Medium sized formal double white, mid season, upright and vigorous, Originated at Hyman’s Nursery, Lafayette, LA, about 1950. I had one and lost it. Larry Hovis said it was a recommended one by Henry Rehder.



I will report all these and wait perhaps another year before putting out in the landscape.



At Plants Delight open house I expanded my agave, yucca collection and crinum collection, also a spotted asphidistra, and a hardy windmill palm.

1. Yucca flaccida ‘Golden Sword’, Golden Sword Hairy Soapwort ($14.40), z 4a to 10b. Southeast US native. Clumps 36” wide, 26” tall. I will plan to pot and put in the patio
2. Agave potatorum ‘Eye Scream’, Eye Scream Century Plant ($20.80), tropical, Mexico, 8” tall. It came from a grower in Thailand in 2008. Wide blue leaves edged with a wide border of creamy gold.
3. Trachycarput fortunei ‘Charlotte’, Charlotte Hardy Windmill Palm ($14.40), z 7b to 10b, China. 20’ tall. Found on Ridgeway Dr. Charlotte, NC in late 1970’s. This one I will pot up but ultimately it should go to ILM.
4. Crinum x digweedii ‘Mahao’, Mahon Crinum Lily ($20.80), 7b to 10b, 30” tall hybrid origin. Found crinum from customer, John Mahon, of SC. A cross of C. scabrum x C. americanum that closely resembles Crinum ‘Bolivia.’ 3’ x3’ clump. Bloom opens white with central red stripes. Starts mid-August to frost. Fast offsetting.

Ogden talks about this one. He notes the Nassau lily may be reasonably surmised to be a child of C. americanum and C. scabrum, a cross officially named C. x digweedii in 1820. But he further notes that C. zeylanicum has sired striped hybrids with C. americanum: ‘Maureen Spinks’, ‘Southern Belle’, and ‘Blockade Runner’ are named varieties, officially known as C. x baconi and are less cold-hardy than the Nassau lily.

So what have we? Crinums are about as confusing as camellias though not quite as many of them.

5. Crinum x baconi ‘Bayou Belle’ ($20.80) 7b to 10b, 36” tall, hybrid. A Marcelle Sheppard hybrid of C. americanum var. robustum and C. scabrum.
6. Amarcrinum ‘Fred Howard’, Fred Howard Amarcrinum, 7a to 10b, 24” tall, intergeneric hybrid of Amaryllis belladonna (from South Africa) x Crinum moorei. Favor heat and strong sun and are nearly evergreen in mild winters. Ogden says, “It’s one of the finest flowers any Southerner can hope to bloom.” A flowering stalk lasts for a month in the hottest season.
7. Aspidistra mushaensis ‘Spotty Dotty’, Spotty Dotty Cast Iron Plant. ($15.20), 7b to 10b, 26” tall, Taiwan, a 1993 collection from Crug Farm in the central mountains of Taiwan. Pizza-like purple flowers in September.

Thursday July 20



90’s and humid so ‘feels like’ 100’s. Read a piece in Vanity Fair about heat index---impt. Dangerous to work in. I work 15 minutes then come in for a break.



I have planted the aspidistra and the tumeric ($11) I got at Clegg’s yesterday and repotted all the other plants I bought.



I’m cataloguing my agaves, yuccas, and other desert plants that I have in pots. Some are old, some I harvested in Arizona and some I bought in Tucson and now several I have from Plants Delight.



The orange gingers, Hedychium, are blooming near the rear gallery. The lily of the Nile didn’t again this year and the daylilies there either. An apple tree is blooming. This has been a funny year. The banana in the potager is getting quite large.



I am trying to pull weeds, mostly grass, in the drive bed. It is in bad need of a weed but the heat keeps me from weeding as well as laziness.



Friday 21 July



Got the tractor back ($900) and started mowing. Bad armadillo damage on the north side of the allée. Only found a few bulbs up. Apparently they are looking for insects, not bulbs. At least I hope. They have dug up a lot.



Watered the pots. Used the cow’s hose as it has more power.



On the patio the orange lilies, Lilium henryi, are in bloom, not showy. They need more room. The sweet autumn clematis, Clematis paniculata, is starting. The white dahlia is blooming.



Tuesday 25 July



It has rained all day the last two days so nothing outside. Today cloudy, therefore somewhat cooler than the recent 90’s but still humid. I went to the potager to harvest this AM: peas, green beans, okra, a few tomatoes (they are waning), and enough greens for a salad, shishito peppers and jalapeño.



I have been transferring ajuga from under the great oak to around the sago on the top of the drive. The ajuga there has done well and I am expanding it so the mower can turn this corner and no weeding needed. I moved some near the camellia to the south of the front gallery. I think this would also be a nice place.



I am weeding grass and putting the St. Augustine in the bare spots in the north that the tree trimmers left. Some of the bahia is going to the pastures where there are bare spots. If we have more rain all this may take root.



I need to get back to mowing but the ground is very mushy due to the significant rain we’ve had.



Friday 28 July



I have been weeding early in the morning in the flower beds and mowing bit by bit later in this heat---‘feels like’ over 100.

Crinum erubescens, South American Swamp Crinum Lily that I have from Plant Delights has bloomed in the allée bed.  This white bloom was beaten down by the rain. Plant Delights calls it a classic pass-along plant of the Deep South.



The Lilium formosanum are in full glory. They light up the ‘hot’ bed now as I go to the annex in the early morning.



There have been some pink Zephyranthes grandiflora in the rear yard. Ogden says they are natives of tropical America. It does not set seed so I need not worry about mowing a spent bloom but I do detour the mower for one in bloom. Ogden says this one is the most common after Zephyranthes candida which is a true autumnal. I reread Ogden who has a lot to say about these small bulbs. May try to get more. They need sun but maybe not in the grass.



In mowing in the hayfield this afternoon I ran over a faun! Never saw it. Chopped up like the snake I once ran over. It must have been quite young and small. I saw a doe in that field earlier when I was mowing. She should have moved it I guess. They do a lot of damage here but it is still a bit sad. I had first thought it was an armadillo but they do not come out in the daytime.



Saturday 12 August



I need to mow because of all the rain but it is too wet. I did finally get the cemetery mowed yesterday---the highest I have seen it. Took me about 45 minutes. Now trying to weed the area. The wet ground is good for weeding. Although the temperature is not as high (80’s) the humidity keeps me from doing a lot, especially when the sun is out. And the rain every day also stops work.



I have weeded a good deal around the house but not so much in the potager. There I wade through the weeds to harvest. The sun gold tomatoes continue to perform, a must repeat. The shishito peppers have also been good, another repeat. My green beans, Louisiana purple pod and rattlesnake are still at it. I get a few of the speckled butterbeans. Why do they produce so little and basically only late in the season? My pink eyed purple hulled peas are slow again but the whipporill is again good and the new big red ripper is productive. These need better staking.



The okra are good this year. Again the squash and cucumbers did little. The bitter melon has good vines but no fruit. I need pollinators I think. Should I buy a bee hive?



Salads are mostly wild now. The arugula is going as have the parsley, dill and fennel. I use violets, perilla, grape leaves, mint, basil, wild purslane, find a few mustard leaves, amaranth, the ornamental sweet potato leaves.



I have been rooting ornamental sweet potato plants, crepe myrtle.





Sunday 13 August



Today is hot, 90’s, sunny and no rain predicted. The sweet autumn clematis, Clematis paniculata, in the white bed is in full swing and is covering the trellis as best as ever.

But just doing the harvest in the potager this afternoon is a sweaty one and had me running to the fan in the annex to read and cool.



Tuesday 22 August



Rained again last night. Raining some most days. Started mowing again Sunday, first the drive; the car is dragging; then started with the highway----sooo high!



Brought some asphidistra from ILM so am putting them around a tree or two. Trying to get a lot done before we leave for Mexico is a couple days.



The autumn clematis is in bloom. The ginger is blooming; has been good this year; not so the agapanthus. There was a pink zephryanthes in the back yard. No crinums in bloom and the deer are eating the foliage. I see one or two doe in the park and a tiny faun but big enough to run with his mother. The deer are also eating the sweet potato vines on the patio. The marigolds have been good all summer. The alamanda is doing as well as it has ever done. There are althea blooms but not so many. The rain has beaten the crepe myrtle blooms.



The eggplant on the patio continues. Have biter melon in the potager. It grows in the hot humid tropics and produces in the fall. Hope now to add this to my sub-tropical potager as that is the climate here in the summer. The Whipporill peas are good as usual. The pink eyed purple hulls are gone and more sparse than I would have liked. The big red ripper was good but now very flagged. The okra does well and the sun gold tomatoes still produce. My shishito peppers and jalapeño are also producing. The Texas bird peppers are doing well a second year including a volunteer near the potager gate. We also had some green beans still and a mess of butterbeans. When I get back from Mexico in about 10 days when we start going every day to Baton Rouge I will begin to plan for the fall garden. I had a nice one last year until the deer mowed it to the ground.



More of the big magnolia has fallen.



Thursday 31 August



Picked the first lycoris in the rear yard! Looked at last years note. They were at peak at the end of September. And we have an oxblood lily, Rhodophiala bifida, blooming for the first time. Only one at present. I bought 2 plants from Weisinger last year and planted in summer. The deer are eating foliage of the crinums nearby. The oxblood do not spread by seed. I need to buy more and more fall bulbs. Coconut lilies, Schoenocaulon drummondii, are a desire. Ogden says they are native.



The ground is very wet. We’ve been in the Yucatan and I don’t know exactly how much it has rained but obviously a lot. Today is windy and rainy as Hurricane Harvey moves north just west of us.



Harvest okra, some peas, shishito, jalapeno, eggplant. The potager is soooo weedy.



Hosing off the rear gallery of the love bugs which have been awful this year. The galleries also have mildew again but we can wait as we have some more hot humid weather. And more urgent needs, mowing and weeding.



Monday 4 September



Bought kale, collards, broccoli and 2 sorrell plants from Cleggs last Friday and have put them in the potager with a shovel-full of compost and hay mulch. The NOLA garden advice said retailers have plants now but October is a better month. I’ll see how these do and plant more in October. I looked; I planted the first of October last year and had a nice looking fall garden until the deer feasted. I have 2 does roaming in the park and eating but the fence has been fixed in the potager.



I am weeding in the potager. The only thing producing well now is the okra. I think the extensive rain has done some of the plants in. Weeding in the ‘herb’ garden, weeding on the patio, weeding around the well house.



I am trying to mow. The lycoris are coming and I do not want to mow after they bloom. I have also a couple of zephyranthes, white and pink. I saw some next to the oak trees at Grace yesterday. Could I plant under some oaks where mowing would not bother? I am also having to pick up a lot of limbs and sticks before mowing. Little by little I hope to get the job done. We are here for 6 weeks while Connie gets radiation.



Tuesday 5 September



I decided to read Ogden again about Zephyranthes and check my bulb catalogues. I think I shall buy some of the classics from Brent and Becky and some nice crosses from Plant Delights. These should be planted in beds so as not to be a problem with mowing.



I am also looking at the seed catalogue to order fall seeds before October. It is more fun making plans than pulling weeds in the humid heat---and it is only 80’s here. Also frequent checks with the weather station. Hurricane Irma is in the Atlantic and as of now is coming to the area between Florida and Cuba----turn north or west into the Gulf. It is a cat 5, 180 mph winds, as large as the state of Texas. The worst storm ever in the Atlantic.

Peckerwood has a tour this coming Saturday. I guess they weathered Harvey ok.



The Callicarpa dichotoma, beautyberry, is in berry, better than I have seen it in the past.



Sunday 17 September



No rain so I have had to spend time watering. The cool weather has ended as well. The new brassicas in the potager are struggling I think in the heat despite the fact I planted them in the semi shade of the banana.



More lycoris are blooming primarily in the sunny areas. We went to Natchez yesterday and they had several lycoris at the plantations we visited. At Selma the azaleas were in bloom. I think the stress of the heavy rains of August.



We have a crinum blooming in the drive bed. And a mauve sasanqua. Lots of yellow leaves which I think maybe stress of rain and now drought. I broke a branch of the white dahlia and brought in a nice bloom. The solidago is about ready to bloom. The new ginko is yellow. Due to growing elsewhere, stress from repot and rain and drought?



I have finished mowing except the highway. Got it done basically before the lycoris came up.



Sunday 24 September



It has been a hot dry week, no rain and 90’s. I have done some hedge work, pick up sticks, started mulching the fig with the leavings of mowing the orchard. And have picked a few figs. And while back there found several mirliton. I thought it too early but no. Okra is still good. After weeding and watering have had more shishito. But I do need to water. I have planted the peas for fall giving them two months before the first frost. I hope for cooler weather soon. The eggplant on the patio produce but not lavishly but more than I have ever had planting it in the potager.



The lantana on the drive in another flush. There are more sasanquas and the one at the corner of the well house, Sparkling Burgundy, is in bloom. The lycoris are fading. I think if we can have some rain more will come.



This year has seen repeat blooms on the gardenias and the daylily in the patio. The pink ginger continue to bloom and some blooms on the north side hibiscus. The Texas Star puts out a bloom now and then. The tropical pink hibiscus is blooming.



I gave Jen Brian a slip of the day glory in the highway ditch that she admired last year. I have it from Peggy Eiland of Andalusia.



Wednesday 4 October



The solidago is in bloom so have planted the fall garden. Put in edible podded peas a couple weeks ago. No rain so irrigating.



Okra is good. Getting the Tepary beans. Shishitos still. Picked biggest mess of butterbeans. Peas gone.



In the fields the Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium is blooming and in the ditches along the highway, the wild sunflower, Heliopsis.



I am still mulching, and cutting along the highway fence row.



Monday, 16 October



Maybe fall has arrived. A rain and cold front last night. 58 degrees this AM with a breeze. This weekend we still had 90 degrees.



I am presently working on, and hope to complete this week, the eradication of vines, etc. in the HVAC area. I haven’t done any clean out in a few years. We did have the oak trimmed this past spring. I need to completely eradicate the ivy and honeysuckle so it will not overgrow the units and that means all in the fenced area. There are some roses on the west side that live but have not done anything. Will the eradication of their suffocating ivy help? I do have a lot of trouble with growing roses here at HG. There is an old red rose at the corner from Stuckey days that continues to bloom every spring. It does well. I planted a Lady Banks a couple years ago and it is growing but not as vigorous as I might like. I want to plant podocarpus to form a sheared hedge in front so when the boards go there will be a screen for the HVAC units. With the ivy gone will the west border be a place to have a flower border? The east side has a large old camellia and the large ivy ground cover area that I can keep in check with the mower on all except the west side but I think I can manage that. I am focused and must spend all my working days this week to get this done. I am taking the vines to use as mulch/ground cover in an area in the front pasture that has some erosion issues with the cows walking in the paths there.



I have been doing well with getting the potager in shape. It is mostly weeded and the peppers began to produce again. The okra continues. I have had some peas and butter beans, an occasional bitter melon, and am having a few mirliton with the tremendous vines that the two plants produced. Had a few figs in the last month. I pick salads most days but all wild: grape leaves, violet leaves, ornamental sweet potato leaves, wild purslane, bits of wild arugula, Texas pepper, mint, basil, and maybe a little Mexican tarragon, garlic chives, oregano, sage.



The fall plants are coming up that I planted the first of October. I last week put in more collards, Tuscano kale, and broccoli. They look better than the catapillar chewed leaves of the ones I planted the first of September----wait later to plant next year. The peas I planted mid September are pretty good in the east shadier area but not so in the west sunnier area.



The many lycoris I usually have under the oaks did not bloom in the hot dry September. The leaves are now up so this was a poor year for lycoris bloom. The Mexican terragon is starting to bloom. It did not do much last year. The early white formal camellia Japonica has put out a couple blooms. The mauve sasanqua have been ok; the white have not yet started. My one oxblood lily flower was eaten by deer.



We have two does and one faun at least that I can almost walk up to. I am seriously thinking of buying a gun and having some meat this winter. Saw Deering at the Wildlife Festival in Woodville last weekend and she volunteered her husband to help me gut and skin the deer. I looked on line about guns this morning. I don’t need a license to hunt on my own land. I need to put some pressure on the deer in the park.



I am also planning to dig up the patio bed. The solidago look good for a brief period and I can still have but not so much and reduce the cannas as well.



I want to plant my new ginko and get some small live oaks and a Chinese pistache (Cleggs has one.) for fall color. I need to add some more trees even though I will not live to see them mature.



Wednesday 18 October



Still working on the HVAC area and the adjacent azalea and camellia bed. Using the leaves for mulch on the beds in front of the house.



The Physostegia virginiana, obedient plant, I brought a few years ago from Wilmington is in bloom for the first time. It must not like its location as it hardly is the vigorous grower that it is supposed to be.



I cut yesterday a nice variegated camellia Japonica from the north bed---unusual to bloom this early; only one bloom.



I had planted some sternbergia last year and was hoping for some September bloom and now mid October I’ve had no bloom and see no leaves either.



Friday, 20 October



Well as I drove down the drive today there were two sternbergia in bloom!!



Ogden says they bloom with the September rains. They are named for Count Caspar Sternberg (1761-1838), an accomplished German botanist. Parkinson’s Paradisus and Hortus Floridus of Crispin de Pass (1615) identify these bulbs as autumn daffodils. They do belong to the amaryllis family as do Narcissus. Crocus are from the iris tribe. Some contend that Sternbergia is the biblical lily of the field. There is a tradition that Jefferson was the first to import them to America.



I mowed the cemetery today to get ready for All Saints. Manured the roses, crinums, and the camellia. Raked hay to mulch. Weed. The roses do not do well. The camellia is ok. The azalea is doing well and the cemetery vine, Vinca minor, dwarf periwinkle, myrtle. The China berry fruited but even now they are dark so not for Christmas decorations. The crinums are being eaten by deer, rabbits, which? The sangria crinum struggles to live. The Carolina yellow jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, vine is good. This is the state flower of South Carolina.

I have finished the HVAC area and the azalea/camellia bed adjacent and have finished weeding and mulching the trees in the rear yard/orchard. There are blooms on the plum, duh. It had no plums this year.



Plants Delight has a 20% off on some plants. Need to order 6 to use the cost of postage and this negates the savings. I didn’t complete the sale. Maybe later this weekend. I like to go but can only go on certain open days and the cost of gas, etc. would be more than the cost of postage.



Sunday 22 October



A big storm last night---all night. Lots of thunder and lightening and wind. 6-9” of rain. The pots on the back gallery filled up with water.



A possible freeze next weekend but looks more like maybe high 30’s. I started bringing pots in today, some of the more ‘precious’. I always hate this time of year.



Southern Bulb Co. sent me my lycoris aurea and I planted today---4 bulbs in the drive bed and 4 bulbs west of the HVAC. I saw the leaves of the ones I planted south of the house last year. (Couldn’t find the sternbergia today?!)



Ogden says the Lycoris aurea was the first lycoris cultivated in American gardens. They are common about the old Spanish city of St. Augustine and presumably have grown their since colonial times. It was one time known as L. africana but its subtropical homelands are China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Floridians know these flowers as hurricane lilies. In Mandarin they are known as hu di xiao---suddenly the earth smiles. They are more susceptible to cold than the red type. The foliage can wither in hard freezes and this inhibits blooming. I need to mulch well. The ones near the house from last year should be safer.



The old garden strain largely disappeared from the nursery trade following WWII as the Japanese began sending and labeling L. traubii as aurea. L. traubii has wider, more flattened petals. With buying the bulbs from Southern Bulb Co. where the bulb rustler is the owner maybe I am getting the older variety.



The L. radiata bulbs probably came to North America before the beginning of the 19^th century but early records are few. The heirloom strain is different from those now in the trade. They are triploid and therefore sterile. The old form are L. radiata var. radiata. After WWII Japanese growers began selling L. radiata var. pumila. These are diploid, produce flowers a couple weeks earlier. So grow both to extend the season. Do I have the old type? I suspect those here were planted by Georgia Williamson in the 1960’s. But they are so widespread I wonder if they have not been here longer.



Some white sasanqua are now starting to bloom.



Monday 30 October



We had some more rain while I was gone to ILM last week. 35° Sunday morning according to my I-phone. I see no signs of frost damage anywhere today. It is quite cool but warming up this week.



A good harvest in the potager today: greens for a salad and a mirliton (which I like to cut up for crunch in the salad when they are tender), two bitter melons, a few peas and butterbeans (They have been poor producers this year and Connie so likes them.), okra, shishito, jalapeño, one fig, the little yellow tomatoes, eggplant.



I bought two camellias from the Transplanted Garden in Wilmington. They were so cheap. 1 gallon pots @ $12.99. I got a Betty Sheffield Variegated, 1956, introduced by Georgia’s Thomasville Nurseries, a sport of Berry Sheffield, 1951, a seedling of Mrs. F.L. Gibson. This seedling was planted in 1944 and grown by Mr. A. B. Sheffield of Thomasville, Georgia. The other was Sadaharu Oh. This is a Tama-no-ura seedling named for the Japanese baseball hero, the Babe Ruth of Japan. Tama-no-ura, 1975 was found growing in the wild by a charcoal burner in 1947 in Tama-no-ura, Fuku’e Island in Nagasaki Prefecture. Nuccio’s Nurseries of California introduced it into the US in 1975. Sadaharu Oh is of a similar color and is probably related.



We went to Rosedown last night for a party put on by the Friends of Rosedown and got 3 seedling live oaks, Quercus virginiana. I potted them up today and will keep them in pots through next summer. I think they will do better that way. They will I hope please someone at HG in a couple generations.



I am back to weeding. I am in the north beds and clearing out, I thought to plant the 2 new camellias, but I find I put some there last year. They still need the clearing out and a mulching. I also found some poor daylilies which I moved to the new area next to the HVAC. I think this north border was probably planted more than a half century ago when the Williamsons were here but it could have been earlier. It was sunnier then I think.



I found the wild azaleas that I planted years ago, two at least. The tag was still on one---Florida azalea, Rhododendron austrinum, a native. Odenwald says the flowers are flame colored and are highly fragrant, occurring in early spring in great numbers “in full sunlight.” Maybe I should move it?



Saturday 4 November



Just back from NOLA. Planted the M&Z bulbs I received Thursday: Chinese Sacred Lily and N. jonquilla. Planted both near the HVAC area that I cleared rather than in the lawn.



I go to Ogden to see what he has to say. A many-flowered daffodil is still a narcissus to most gardeners. In the South N. jonquilla are common and jonquil is the customary term for a yellow daffodil. The true jonquil (Narcissus jonquilla) is a tiny, golden flower that appears in scant clusters atop slender, jade stems. The leaves are rounded. Some arrive in January or February but more regularly in March. The bulbs I received are sending up foliage so I thought it best to get them in the ground.

The Chinese sacred lily, or ‘Grand Emperor’ is a first cousin of the paperwhite and similarly valued for forcing. They originated in the Mediterranean but went to China centuries ago. There the fragrant flowers are picked as decorations for winter festivals. They are subtropical. Their January flowering season puts them at risk from cold. Ogden says they work south of  a line from Austin TX to Charleston. We’re there.



Last week I worked after the rain to pile blocks into the ravine washed out near the mailbox---and I unstopped the culvert that makes the heavy rains such a problem. I also planted my Ginko from Camellia Forrest of last summer and one of the new camellias---Betty Sheffield. And I weeded some other camellias and put out the bamboo stakes from ILM. Does it help protect from the deer? I like to think some.



Friday 10 November



It’s been a cool week with highs in 60’s and lows in 40’s. A little rain Wednesday night. I have been working on the camellia beds north border, highway fence line, south farm road fence line (where I also planted 3 self rooted Cherokee roses), and some on the allée. From the north border I have transplanted some small daylilies that don’t bloom in that shade, and some narcissus that get dug up with my weeding. If I had time I should move all of them as they also don’t bloom in that shade.



I have finished fixing the ravine by the mailbox. And having found a source of gravel in the ditch I am patching holes in the drive. It’s slow work.



The cows broke into the hay this week. I guess they don’t favor the green that is left in the pastures, although John Leake thought we had plenty of green grass yet.



I have started moving the pots inside, slowly. It is such an onerous task.



The potager yields pot greens, salad greens. There are still okra and a few field peas. The mirliton is producing. Hopefully the frost will hold off.



The narcissus are coming up all over the place.



I have found the Sternbergia foliage, about like mondo grass as it was said by someone.



Reading the Camellia book by MacOboy again. Should plan to try rooting again following his instructions next summer. Pick out some of those in the field in Woodville, maybe.



Cutting camellia flowers to enjoy in the house. Built our first fire yesterday and had drinks by the fire last night.