Hollygrove gardening March 2020

March 2020

 

Tuesday 3 March

 

Returned a couple of days ago from ILM. Lots more azaleas open, especially President Clay at entrance. Could use some more there. Also coral bells and snow. Many formosa     are coming out. More redbud. Dafs still good as are the snowdrops (aka snowflakes, Leucojum spp.). Leaves coming on the ginko and have started adding them to salads. Most of camellias going or gone. The forsythia fading, not particularly good anyway. The pink West Florida Republic indica looks good.

 

Warm the first part of the week and I am out working. Put out some sweet potato slips in pots. Potted up a couple tomatoes and replanted some.

 

Taking the winter protection off the citrus, fertilizing and repotting some that are full of tradescantia. I think this uses too much water in the summer. Did all but 2 which have fire ants and will need more work.

 

Wednesday 4 March

 

Rain has started. Did the trash pickup on the highway this morning. After moving the citrus pots with fire ants around several times, they were ready to work with so I finished my repotting and weeding and fertilizing.

 

Monday 9 March

 

Looks like spring is here. Had drinks on the upper gallery last night (but moved in later due to the wind) and saw the one remaining dogwood I have was about to bloom. More azaleas are opening. Saw a number of Cherokee roses on the drive to church yesterday.

 

The leaves are mostly off the oaks and the new leaves are coming out---and the pollen coats the floors and cars.

 

Planted in the potager yesterday, lettuce etc. Rain tomorrow expected.

 

I am cleaning up the patio and starting the first bit of bringing pots out. Got some limbs picked up in the park, lots left to be done. Also cleaning out a section of the north fence where a privet tree fell over. My burn piles are high.

 

Saturday 14 March

 

Time to stay home and enjoy spring at Holly Grove. The corona virus has cancelled most things: Pilgrimage in St. Francisville, the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, the SGHS meeting in Virginia is still up for grabs. Will the Chelsea Flower Show go away also? It is 2 months off.

 

The tung oil trees are in bloom. They have a very nice flower. Cut one for the upper gallery table for drinks tonight. The dogwood is in full flower. We look at it as we sit on the upper gallery every night. The temperature is 80’s each day. The yellow iris at the pond are now blooming also. A few camellias are throwing out their blooms. Peter Pan (1951) is a nice one I planted a few years ago. Nice good sized bush. Several dafs are also still in bloom. Noticed the red bud is fading. The indigo is starting to bloom.

 

Went to Clegg’s yesterday and bought some plants: cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, jalapeno, and purple long eggplant (again in pots this year). I am now putting all out in the potager except the eggplant.

 

Have slowed moving out pots in that my back is hurting some. Little by little should be my moto.

 

Tuesday 17 March

 

Rain today. We actually need it. It will help in the potager. I did two burn piles yesterday.

Have been carrying pots outside, all now out of the annex.

 

Bought some daffodils from Southern Bulb, still in the green, different. Put them out today. Narcissus odorus, the campernelle, from southern France, Spain and Italy. Ogden says “Campernelles provide more springtime gold in the South than any other flower.” Narcissus jonquilla, native to Spain, Portugal and southern France and across the Mediterranean to Morocco. Ogden says “jonquil is the customary term for a yellow daffodil.” And Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’, which Ogden says, “certainly no finer flowering bulbs are available for Southerners than the old narcissi now known as Grand Primo.” I bought them since they were on sale for one dollar a bulb, much less than their usual price.

 

Wednesday 18 March

 

Started the day with the highway trash pickup as usual for Wednesday.

 

Every day try to get rid of some thistles---lawn, highway, pasture. Kick, hoe, stomp.

 

The black locust, Robonia pseudoacacia, is in bloom. Sometimes I miss it as it hides in the tree canopy. The prettiest bloom now is the tung oil tree, Aleurites fordii. Some hide in the north tree canopy as well but some nice specimens is the west lawn. The tree is from Asia and an attempt was made to produce tung oil commercially here in Mississippi. Odenwald does not like them for landscape because of the poisonous and littering nuts. I think they do nicely here in the park.

 

I’m still slowly moving plants out of the well house.

 

The allée formosas are fading after yesterday’s rain.

 

Dafs still in bloom in the hot patio bed and a nice yellow daylily, Black Eyed Stella. It is a very nice bloom but short. The beds on the patio are full of spring weeds.

 

Connie liked the blue flowers that are now in masses. I had to look them up. My new go to book for weeds is Weeds of the South by Bryson and DeFelice that I purchased at the SGHS a couple years ago. The blue flower is Lyreleaf Sage, wild sage, Salvia lyrata. This is doing better than my squill under the oaks, some of which are in bloom.

 

The squawweed, butterweed, ragwort, Cressleaf Groundsel, Packera glabella is still in bloom.

 

Thursday, 19 March

 

Trying to get all the pots out today. It’s warm and rain is expected.

 

Saturday 21 March

 

Picking salad every morning: lots of violets, ginko leaves, grape leaves.

 

Fertilized the young azaleas and camellias with near 3 bags of Holly Tone. Try to fertilize the new camellias every month this year.

 

Saw a rare occurrence or rare for me to see. The wild pink azalea ( Pinxter azalea, florida pinxter, piedmont azalea, R. canescens) in the north border was blooming nicely. I planted several, years ago and I think this is the only survivor.

 

Tuesday 31 March

 

Went to Wilmington last week where the azaleas were at peak. On return here all are gone. A few dafs and camellias are still there. The mock orange, Philadelphus coronaries, is at a peak all over the front of the well house. It has spread considerably in the last 15 years. The St. Joseph’s lily, Hippeastrum x johnsonii is making a good show. Ogden tells us that Henry Nehrling in 1888 found this bloom when he traveled to Houston and he wrote a treatise on it. It was introduced in 1799 or 1910 as the earliest of all amaryllis hybrids. It was raised in a Lancashire garden by an English watchmaker named Johnson. Johnson has used Hippeastrum species from South America to create his hybrid. I also have some other amaryllis in bloom. And a rose here and there. The yellow Lady Banks by the HVAC is doing pretty good this year. There are several white iris still in bloom.

 

The lawn is full of  Lyreleaf Sage, wild sage, Salvia lyrata which actually look better than my planted Spanish bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica. Ogden says the bluebells multiply even under dark shade of live oaks and are one of the finest spring bulbs for naturalizing in woodlands. We’ll see if that is true for me. So far after a couple years not so much.

 

I am in the midst of mowing, a little bit day by day. It is early but in need. I yesterday did 4 burn piles, finally getting rid of one after 2 or 3 years. They do go slow when I am trying to burn a big tree.

 

It has been warm with not so much rain. A small bit this morning to put down the dust while mowing, and a cold front has made a jacket necessary to work out as opposed to the short sleeves I have been wearing.