Garden Holly Grove 2020, February

February 2020



Saturday 1 February

At least the sun is out and it is not so dreary. I was walking Tattie yesterday and found in the northwest corner of the yard several patches of narcissus and lycoris and I have decided to liberate them from the shrubby border back into the lawn so today I am cutting away at the bushes of privet, old limbs and lots of grape vines. I have left this growth of privet near the fence with Jareau’s so as not to have to look at what might come there. At present Joe runs cattle there and everything looks except the crappy old house. It is unlivable but the old man is in a nursing home and I doubt the property will be sold until he dies. Who will get it then?



The walk with Tattie also led me past the beginning to bloom magnolia soulangeana. Pretty early. I am also seeing some pear blooms.



We have had several south Indian dishes this week with my curry leaves, Murraya Koenigii, Kadi Patta or sweet neem. I got my plant from my visit to south India, I think from a place we stayed on the Malabar coast. It has thrived and seeded several other plants. It is one of the few plants I have smuggled in over the years to still be with me.



There is a place with about 100 yards of forsythia on the way to St. Francisville. They are trying to bloom as is mine but I think this is a shrub for further north. The early spring Cressleaf Groundsel, Senecio glabellus is blooming. I think the best of its common names is butterweed.



Tuesday 4 February



I am working on a bit still on the north fence border. Finished the one azalea bed of the tree sized privet. I am also planting peas. Looked at the Williamsburg book. Plant peas when the snow drops bloom. No freeze predicted in the next ten days but Friday morning 34° predicted. 70’s today. Looks like rain and it is predicted tonight and tomorrow.



Wednesday 5 February



I did get some hay mulch moved to the beds in back of the potager and the well house where I have spread old magazines. Then the thunder storms started. During a break I walked Tattie and the soulangeana is at peak. And nearby the crimson candles has a lot of nice blooms! One white kurume azalea has several flowers. More pear blooms.



I did seed my tomatoes. It will allow about 6 weeks to the time to plant out. I am growing Sun Gold F1, a yellow cherry tomato that was recommended several years ago as tasting good. It has done pretty well for us here. Recently I read that some good tomatoes for the hot humid world are Arkansas Traveler ( Heirloom 1890’s. “An old Southern heirloom esteemed for high yields even in drought and high heat.”), Cherokee Purple (A Tennessee heirloom from the Cherokees.) which I have tried before, and German Johnson (heirloom pink treasured in the Carolinas and Virginia.).



I am trying to root the Tombstone white Lady Banks and the Fortuniana I brought from Wilmington. Fortuniana, 1845, R. x fortuniana species. It is named after its discoverer, Robert Fortune, a young Scot undergardener who found the rose in Canton. It is closely related to the Banksias having the same cascading habit and extreme vigor. It is so good it is used a root stock for grafted roses.



Monday 10 February



Warm, hot even, but rain to come. I am trying to finish up the hay mulch on the rear of the potager.



There was a 31° morning last week but no damage seems to have been done. We were in NOLA and leaves are coming out there.



This has been a good year for the narcissus and the daffodils. The soulangeana (Magnnolia x soulangiana, Oriental Magnolia, Japanese Magnolia, Saucer Magnolia) has perhaps been its best. The forsythia will maybe prove to be good.

I have seen an ipheon under the oak in the rear patio area. I should add more there.



Monday 17 February



Back from Mexico City. Some neat parks. Blooms seem primarily to be Jacaranda. Driving out from New Orleans the trees are leafing out.



Here at Holly Grove it is wet and gloomy and cool but spring is trying to come. More green appears in some shrubs. A few azalea blooms especially the coral bells. The snow drops are pretty much at peak. More camellia blooms and dafs. Some of my peas are up. Spring weeds are rampant. The soliel d’or in the hot bed is in bloom. The redbuds, Cercis canadensis, are in bloom. But they are so high up it is easy to miss them.

Somebody said in the local ‘Woodville Republican’ that the pecans have not leafed out so winter is not over. Everyone knows that there is no frost after the pecans leaf out.



Stopped by Kleggs this morning. They have tomato plants. I did buy some lettuce and a parsley plant. Got my azalea/camellia fertilizer and one of the same brand for my citrus. Citrus should be fertilized in February I have read. I bought 3 red geraniums for pots to sit on the hot bed wall. They are supposed to be drought tolerant. And I bought a Magnolia macrophylla, big leaf magnolia. I read it takes 12 years to bloom. I may not make it. Kleggs suggested planting as an understory this far south. It was first discovered near Charlotte NC by Andre Michaux.



I did put out wood ashes from the fireplace in the potager.