Cigar Plant October 28, 2012

Cigar Plant is in the Cuphea family (pronounced coo-fee-uh).  It dies back to the ground in the winter.  It is a good bloomer, it blooms heavily in the spring and fall with intermittent blooms through the summer.  The clump will get bigger each year.  Last spring I stuck a shovel right through the middle of my clump at my home in Houston and moved some of the plant to Burton.  It's doing fine in both places.  Very hardy.  The flowers look like lit cigars, see the close up photos below.  Very cute.  Cupheas have a lot of personality.  Some cuphea flowers look like bat or mice faces.  They are all bee, hummer, and butterfly friendly due to their yummy flute-like flowers.

Stinks So Good - White Mist Flower October 28, 2012

White Mist Flower stinks.  It's pretty when it blooms in the fall, but it stinks.  Insects are fiercely attracted to it, not the large butterflies, but the small skippers and other small insects.  They buzz and flutter over it all day.  Obviously it smells pretty good to them!

White Mist grows into a small shrub.  It is deciduous.  In a mild winter, if you don't cut it back, when spring arrives it will green up on the whole plant.  In a cold winter, when spring arrives, it will come up from the roots.

See the skipper in the photo above and below?

See the love bug in the photo above?

A Weekend at the Farm October 27-28, 2012

This weekend I planted some red cannas with burgundy leaves that were given to me by Janine Snapp.  I planted some in the spot in the above photograph, and I planted some in another area of the Star Garden.  I was looking for some height in this area, and Janine offered me these cannas that she was digging up in order to pour some concrete.  She also gave me some crinums.  Based on her description of the flowers, I believe they are milk and wine crinums.  Milk and wine crinums are true old fashioned crinums.  I partially created a flowerbed in which to plant them.  I don't have any soil right now, so I turned the soil over and mixed in a wheel barrow of compost  in an area I created with some landscaping strips.  I planted the crinums in that area. It will have to do until I get another load of soil and mulch.  I think it's the perfect spot for the crinums.  They will be shaded from the hottest part of the afternoon sun.  Thank you to Janine for thinking of me and taking the trouble to haul them to work and give them to me!    

• Soaked parsley and cilantro seeds overnight in water.  They germinate more easily that way.  Planted them in the Medicine Garden around the Venus Sweetshrub.
• Dug up some Flame Anicanthus that was growing in a path and moved it to another flowerbed where I had a big empty spot.
• Pulled up zinnias in the Star Garden and The Orchard.
• The daffodils are starting to emerge.  Very exciting!
• Moved 4 large shovelfuls of Mexican Sedum from the Star Garden (where I planted the cannas) to the Long Border. 
• Repaired the stone edge of a flowerbed in the back of the house and turned over the soil.  Seeded the area with Sublime Dark Blue Larkspur and Nigella (Love in a Mist).  It might be a little early to set out larkspur seed, but the soil was freshly turned - it was the perfect time from that perspective.
• Seeded the Star Garden with Nigella seeds.  The doves were all over it later that day - hope they didn't eat all of it!  Hard to get mad at the gentle doves. 
• Seeded a few spots in the Star Garden with Cambridge Blue Lobelia.  The seeds are like dust.  Don't know if I'll have any luck with lobelia, never tried to grow it before.  We'll see.
• Watered all my shrubs.
• Added compost to several beds in the Orchard and planted some Snowball cauliflower, some Snow Crown cauliflower, 1 Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage, 1 Copenhagan Market cabbage, and 3 brussel sprouts.
• Picked gallon baggies of okra and green beans.
• The weather was so beautiful this weekend.  I sat in the sun and read a book on Sunday afternoon.  No humidity, cool and sunny.  Such an amazing weekend!
• Fertilized all the roses.
• Deadheaded roses.
• The Zeolite Calendula seeds I sowed last weekend are starting to pop up. 
• Cut branches along the Boardwalk that were laying across the space where we walk.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded.  Always.

Okra October 20, 2012

This is my okra.
Okra attracts aphids.  They like the flower buds.  For this reason stink bugs and wasps are attracted to the okra.  In the photograph below there are 3 stinkbugs and a wasp crawling around on the top of the plant.  You have to careful picking the okra or you'll get a wasp sting on your face.

Okra is really fun and easy to grow from seed.  The seeds are large and easy to handle.  The plants grow fast, and they get really tall.  One can feel like a real gardener growing okra.  Very satisfying!  

In the photograph above you see a flower that is almost open, 4 buds, and one okra that is ready to pick.  Okra is in the hibiscus family.  The flowers are very pretty and resemble the flowers of the decorative (non-edible) hibiscus plants.

White Snake Root October 20, 2012

Snake Root is a fall blooming annual.  It will die after the first frost, but it is a heavy reseeder.  I started several years ago with one plant.  Now I have dozens of them all over the Shade Garden.  If they spring up in a good spot I let them stay.  If they spring up in an awkward spot, such as in front of another plant or in the path, I pull them up or spray them with herbicide.  Snake Root is very poisonous to animals that graze such as cows.  It's pretty, though.

Bottle Tree Alley

So, we are mostly finished with our bottle tree alley.  My husband and I both agree that the trees would look better with more bottles.  We will order one more box of blue bottles. 

This path through the gate leads to the Rose Garden.

Toad Lily October 20, 2012

Toad Lily (what a poor unfortunate name) is a fall bloomer.  The flowers are very exotic looking. 

It likes full shade.  I thought it had completely died last summer during the drought because there was no green on the plant at all by July, but here it is looking very healthy.  Toad Lily will die back each winter after the first freeze and return in the spring.  It likes a lot of moisture.   

Fall Zinnias!

These zinnias were all seeded from the spent flowers that I deadheaded and threw on the ground earlier in the summer.  All of these pictures were taken in the Orchard.  There is a continual flurry of activity with hundreds of butterflies and bees nectaring at the flowers.  It is something to see!

That white box is the bee hive in the background.