July 2020

Thursday 2 July I finished the mowing today except the cemetery. Spent 1 h. 45 min on the highway. I am also weeding in the potager but not for long as it is so hot. Doing some watering especially the pots. Rain expected for the next week starting tomorrow. The armadillos have been at it near the entrance. I have just finished reading Caroline Dormon’s Flowers Native to the Deep South. I got the 1959 book at the auction of the Southern Garden Symposium last year. I had heard of her before. The book is not so great. There are no photographs to help with identification, just line drawings and water colors. The crepe myrtles are starting to bloom. Friday 3 July I got the cemetery mowed this am at 8 o’clock but still hot and I was soaked through. The areas mowed at the beginning of the recent mow need it again. And it is raining today. We need it. There is a good chance it will rain for several days. I notice today that one of the ‘dead’ banana stalks near the gallery was putting out a leaf! It took long enough. Tuesday 7 July Lots of rain the past several days so I have not been doing so much outside. Received the pot of white rain lilies, Zephyranthes candida, “a true autumnal… blossoms with late summer rains.” Per Ogden. A native of South America that lines the shore of the Rio de La Plata whose blooms led the Spanish explorer to name the river of silver. “Every storm from September through November stirs the clumps to flower.” I planted them in the drive bed next to the Scotch rose. I also dug to plant all the bulbs dug up by the hogs in the southwest corner, dafs and some lycoris. The wet soil is easier to dig. I put them in the front yard in front of the azaleas and crinums near the drive. Wednesday 8 July I see more pink Zephyranthes in the rear yard. The fall clematis is beginning to bloom. And the purple crepe myrtle, Catawba, by the well house has started to bloom. The Lilium formosanum, “known in the South as the Philippine lily,’ according to Ogden but I call it the Alabama lily as that is where I have it from. Today I am jomaxing the house. Is that gardening? The house and the garden are one. No? The weather remains hot and muggy. We have drinks under the fan in the upper hall instead of on the gallery. The ground is soppy wet, too wet to drive over. Saturday 11 July Well the wet didn’t last. Now watering again especially the pots. Temperatures in the 90’s and heat index up to 115, maybe. I moved a few pots to more shady areas and am watering to get ready to go to ILM for a week. Sunday 19 July I am back from ILM where I did a lot of weeding as the rain and sunshine there had everything overgrown. Larry gave me some blue iris that had been passed along to him. Here at HG we had rain on Thursday and the pot plants were not so bad but I did need to water them today. I also had a big harvest. Salad greens are waning but my best butter bean harvests yet here at HG. Lots of okra, green beans, field peas, and yes even lots of tomatoes. The new variety I bought late is producing and the early red cherry tomatoes still and the Sun Golds. I also made a trip to Plant Delights on Friday and enjoyed myself. Bought $166 worth of plants! No tax. 3 Rhodophiala bifida, Hill Country Red, 40.80 Belamcanda chinensis, Gone with the Wind, 17.00 (No name change yet despite the country wide cultural sweeping away of all things Southern, plus many other things once the mob got started.) Sprekelia formoissima, 17.00 Crinum Infusion, 23.20 Crinum hildebrandtii, Spring Starburst, 28.00 Mangave, Inca Warrior, 23.00 Zephyranthes Batik, 17.00 Monday 20 July Started today off with mowing. Lost a front wheel on the mower carriage but I can still mow. Also lost the top on my coffee cup. Connie picked up a load of sticks. Planting: Blackberry lily. Ogden says the old botanical name was Pardanthus. In the South long known as blackberry lilies. Most garden literature refers to them as Belamcanda chinensis, native of China. Recently DNA has put the title of Iris domestica. Jefferson had it at Monticello where he knew it as Chinese ixia. The plant is short lived but the fleshy roots develop offsets and the seeds often flower in the first year. Ogden speaks of the selection, ‘Hello Yellow’ but I have ‘Gone with the Wind.’ I planted it in the hot bed for starters. I potted up the Mangave for use on the patio. Tony Avant is fond of this hybrid, false agave or spotted multi-century plant. They are hybrids of agave and manfreda. I have Inca Warrier. Put it in rocky soil plus cactus mix. It was root bound and I tried to spread out some per Tony Avent. Zephranthes batik is a Plant Delights introduction from Indonesian rain lily enthusiast Fadjar Marta. It is apricot colored (It did in NC but here it looks more pinkish.) and when summer showers are plentiful it will rebloom. Ogden mentions Fadjar Marta but not this hybrid. I put it in the drive bed near the other Zephranthes candida that I planted a couple weeks ago. I decided to pot up the Aztec lily, Sprekelia formosissima. This dormant winter bulb from Mexico flowers in April, May and usually reblooms in the fall. I have 4 others in the hot bed. I have oxblood lilies planted in the two beds in front of the azaleas on the allée (which haven’t done well) and also in the drive bed. I will put these in the bed beside the HVAC. Plants here seem to do well. Rhodophiala bifida are native to Argentina and Uruguay. Ogeden says, “No other Southern bulb can match the fierce vigor, tenacity, and adaptability of the oxblood lily.” They make themselves at home in gumbo clay or impoverished sand. The plants send out thick, white roots that contract and pull them deeply into the soil, sometimes as far as 18 inches! The crimson flowers appear along with the first autumn rains. Tony Avent noted that in 2011 a group of major bulb experts and growers voted to name an old Texas heirloom clone, Rhodophiala ‘Hill Country Red.’ I bought 2 crinums which are both said to grow large. I think they should go next to the steps in the south lawn. I will protect them there from deer and rabbits until they reach the dimensions noted below. Crinum hildebrandtii ‘Spring Starburst’ is a Plant Delights introduction of the little-known African (Madagascar, Cororos Islands) native. It was discovered in 1875 but was unknown in living collections until 1989 when plantsman Dave Lehmiller received a bulb from the volcanic slopes of Comoros Island’s Mt. Karthala. It forms a 30” tall x 4’ wide, symmetrical clump. The 3’ tall blooms are umbrels of pure white, sweetly fragrant, appearing in May and June. Crinum ‘Infusion” is a monster according to Avant. 4’tall x 7’ wide clump. It is a cross of Crinum ‘Ellen Bosanquet’ x Crinum x digweedii ‘Gonzales’ from Florida crinum breeder Alani Davis. Blooms are bright cherry-red flowers starting in mid-July. Got a nice little rain this afternoon. Tuesday 21 July Since it rained yesterday I had to wait a little to start mowing. I noticed a daylily left in the allée bed that I had given up on due to deer and whatever eating the daylilies. I like the highway daylily beds in NC, but not to be here. I dug up a couple that I found, and along the way some small Lilium formosanum that I had seeded in the past and moved both to the cemetery along the sunny fence side that I find hard to mow as the fence braces stick out. I also after weeding in the wet heat, planted the old fashioned blue iris that Larry Hovis passed along. He got them from Ray Kennedy, his tenant. Ogden talks about them. “The tall bearded hybrids popular in other sections of the country do not wholly adapt to the South.” He notes problems with bacterial rots as one progresses South. “A few exceptional irises have proven themselves less susceptible.” The usual way to acquire these resistant varieties is as divisions shared by other gardeners or collected from old abandoned homesteads or cemeteries. Ogden talks about them as Iris germanica, the most prominent, a rich violet-purple. “In old catalogs it was listed as ‘Atropurpurea’ or ‘Purple King.’ During the 1800s collectors discovered the same variety in the gardens of Kathmandu and introduced it as ‘Nepalensis.’ Ogden says they can be seen in nearly all the old gardens. Is this what I have? Friday 24 July There is a tropical storm in the gulf bringing some rain off and on. I got in over 4 hours mowing yesterday and getting drenched during one section. I am trying to finish up today but have come in due to a shower. I don’t lack much and I think I can finish. Blooms now are the Lilium formosanum. I am using adjacent plants to keep them standing. I have them here and there, self seeded. I have got planted all the plants from Larry and Plant Delights except the large crinums. I am having trouble deciding where to put them. Reading Plant Delights planting guide I came across this advice, “We never recommend adding salt-based or liquid fertilizers to plants being put in the ground. Plants in the ground never need fertilizer. It is the microbes that you need to worry about…not the plants……Organic amendments can be added as needed.” Tony also talks about adding compost to the planting hole and breaking up the root ball and spreading out the roots. Thursday 2 July I finished the mowing today except the cemetery. Spent 1 h. 45 min on the highway. I am also weeding in the potager but not for long as it is so hot. Doing some watering especially the pots. Rain expected for the next week starting tomorrow. The armadillos have been at it near the entrance. I have just finished reading Caroline Dormon’s Flowers Native to the Deep South. I got the 1959 book at the auction of the Southern Garden Symposium last year. I had heard of her before. The book is not so great. There are no photographs to help with identification, just line drawings and water colors. The crepe myrtles are starting to bloom. Friday 3 July I got the cemetery mowed this am at 8 o’clock but still hot and I was soaked through. The areas mowed at the beginning of the recent mow need it again. And it is raining today. We need it. There is a good chance it will rain for several days. I notice today that one of the ‘dead’ banana stalks near the gallery was putting out a leaf! It took long enough. Tuesday 7 July Lots of rain the past several days so I have not been doing so much outside. Received the pot of white rain lilies, Zephyranthes candida, “a true autumnal… blossoms with late summer rains.” Per Ogden. A native of South America that lines the shore of the Rio de La Plata whose blooms led the Spanish explorer to name the river of silver. “Every storm from September through November stirs the clumps to flower.” I planted them in the drive bed next to the Scotch rose. I also dug to plant all the bulbs dug up by the hogs in the southwest corner, dafs and some lycoris. The wet soil is easier to dig. I put them in the front yard in front of the azaleas and crinums near the drive. Wednesday 8 July I see more pink Zephyranthes in the rear yard. The fall clematis is beginning to bloom. And the purple crepe myrtle, Catawba, by the well house has started to bloom. The Lilium formosanum, “known in the South as the Philippine lily,’ according to Ogden but I call it the Alabama lily as that is where I have it from. Today I am jomaxing the house. Is that gardening? The house and the garden are one. No? The weather remains hot and muggy. We have drinks under the fan in the upper hall instead of on the gallery. The ground is soppy wet, too wet to drive over. Saturday 11 July Well the wet didn’t last. Now watering again especially the pots. Temperatures in the 90’s and heat index up to 115, maybe. I moved a few pots to more shady areas and am watering to get ready to go to ILM for a week. Sunday 19 July I am back from ILM where I did a lot of weeding as the rain and sunshine there had everything overgrown. Larry gave me some blue iris that had been passed along to him. Here at HG we had rain on Thursday and the pot plants were not so bad but I did need to water them today. I also had a big harvest. Salad greens are waning but my best butter bean harvests yet here at HG. Lots of okra, green beans, field peas, and yes even lots of tomatoes. The new variety I bought late is producing and the early red cherry tomatoes still and the Sun Golds. I also made a trip to Plant Delights on Friday and enjoyed myself. Bought $166 worth of plants! No tax. 3 Rhodophiala bifida, Hill Country Red, 40.80 Belamcanda chinensis, Gone with the Wind, 17.00 (No name change yet despite the country wide cultural sweeping away of all things Southern, plus many other things once the mob got started.) Sprekelia formoissima, 17.00 Crinum Infusion, 23.20 Crinum hildebrandtii, Spring Starburst, 28.00 Mangave, Inca Warrior, 23.00 Zephyranthes Batik, 17.00 Monday 20 July Started today off with mowing. Lost a front wheel on the mower carriage but I can still mow. Also lost the top on my coffee cup. Connie picked up a load of sticks. Planting: Blackberry lily. Ogden says the old botanical name was Pardanthus. In the South long known as blackberry lilies. Most garden literature refers to them as Belamcanda chinensis, native of China. Recently DNA has put the title of Iris domestica. Jefferson had it at Monticello where he knew it as Chinese ixia. The plant is short lived but the fleshy roots develop offsets and the seeds often flower in the first year. Ogden speaks of the selection, ‘Hello Yellow’ but I have ‘Gone with the Wind.’ I planted it in the hot bed for starters. I potted up the Mangave for use on the patio. Tony Avant is fond of this hybrid, false agave or spotted multi-century plant. They are hybrids of agave and manfreda. I have Inca Warrier. Put it in rocky soil plus cactus mix. It was root bound and I tried to spread out some per Tony Avent. Zephranthes batik is a Plant Delights introduction from Indonesian rain lily enthusiast Fadjar Marta. It is apricot colored (It did in NC but here it looks more pinkish.) and when summer showers are plentiful it will rebloom. Ogden mentions Fadjar Marta but not this hybrid. I put it in the drive bed near the other Zephranthes candida that I planted a couple weeks ago. I decided to pot up the Aztec lily, Sprekelia formosissima. This dormant winter bulb from Mexico flowers in April, May and usually reblooms in the fall. I have 4 others in the hot bed. I have oxblood lilies planted in the two beds in front of the azaleas on the allée (which haven’t done well) and also in the drive bed. I will put these in the bed beside the HVAC. Plants here seem to do well. Rhodophiala bifida are native to Argentina and Uruguay. Ogeden says, “No other Southern bulb can match the fierce vigor, tenacity, and adaptability of the oxblood lily.” They make themselves at home in gumbo clay or impoverished sand. The plants send out thick, white roots that contract and pull them deeply into the soil, sometimes as far as 18 inches! The crimson flowers appear along with the first autumn rains. Tony Avent noted that in 2011 a group of major bulb experts and growers voted to name an old Texas heirloom clone, Rhodophiala ‘Hill Country Red.’ I bought 2 crinums which are both said to grow large. I think they should go next to the steps in the south lawn. I will protect them there from deer and rabbits until they reach the dimensions noted below. Crinum hildebrandtii ‘Spring Starburst’ is a Plant Delights introduction of the little-known African (Madagascar, Cororos Islands) native. It was discovered in 1875 but was unknown in living collections until 1989 when plantsman Dave Lehmiller received a bulb from the volcanic slopes of Comoros Island’s Mt. Karthala. It forms a 30” tall x 4’ wide, symmetrical clump. The 3’ tall blooms are umbrels of pure white, sweetly fragrant, appearing in May and June. Crinum ‘Infusion” is a monster according to Avant. 4’tall x 7’ wide clump. It is a cross of Crinum ‘Ellen Bosanquet’ x Crinum x digweedii ‘Gonzales’ from Florida crinum breeder Alani Davis. Blooms are bright cherry-red flowers starting in mid-July. Got a nice little rain this afternoon. Tuesday 21 July Since it rained yesterday I had to wait a little to start mowing. I noticed a daylily left in the allée bed that I had given up on due to deer and whatever eating the daylilies. I like the highway daylily beds in NC, but not to be here. I dug up a couple that I found, and along the way some small Lilium formosanum that I had seeded in the past and moved both to the cemetery along the sunny fence side that I find hard to mow as the fence braces stick out. I also after weeding in the wet heat, planted the old fashioned blue iris that Larry Hovis passed along. He got them from Ray Kennedy, his tenant. Ogden talks about them. “The tall bearded hybrids popular in other sections of the country do not wholly adapt to the South.” He notes problems with bacterial rots as one progresses South. “A few exceptional irises have proven themselves less susceptible.” The usual way to acquire these resistant varieties is as divisions shared by other gardeners or collected from old abandoned homesteads or cemeteries. Ogden talks about them as Iris germanica, the most prominent, a rich violet-purple. “In old catalogs it was listed as ‘Atropurpurea’ or ‘Purple King.’ During the 1800s collectors discovered the same variety in the gardens of Kathmandu and introduced it as ‘Nepalensis.’ Ogden says they can be seen in nearly all the old gardens. Is this what I have? Friday 24 July There is a tropical storm in the gulf bringing some rain off and on. I got in over 4 hours mowing yesterday and getting drenched during one section. I am trying to finish up today but have come in due to a shower. I don’t lack much and I think I can finish. Blooms now are the Lilium formosanum. I am using adjacent plants to keep them standing. I have them here and there, self seeded. I have got planted all the plants from Larry and Plant Delights except the large crinums. I am having trouble deciding where to put them. Reading Plant Delights planting guide I came across this advice, “We never recommend adding salt-based or liquid fertilizers to plants being put in the ground. Plants in the ground never need fertilizer. It is the microbes that you need to worry about…not the plants……Organic amendments can be added as needed.” Tony also talks about adding compost to the planting hole and breaking up the root ball and spreading out the roots.