Debutante Camellia December 9, 2012

For some reason I am very proud of this camellia.  I planted 3 of them in November of 2007.  Two of them died.  Camellias are famously slow growers.  Several times I have seen elderly couples in nurseries buying tiny little camellias.  I want to tell them that they will both be dead before their camellia is taller than their knee.  But I don't!  

 Camellias have very specific needs.  They need shade and acid soil.  I have alkaline soil.  But I planted them anyway.  Two of them died after a few years, but this one looks like it is fairly happy.  I have visions of it being 20 feet tall, covered in hundreds of blooms.  That is 15 years away, and there are numerous  calamities that can befall this little shrub along the way.  But if it makes it, it will be beautiful.

 Camellias are not only slow growers, but to add insult to injury, they are very difficult to propagate.  That is why, when they were first introduced from China, camellias were plants that only the wealthy could afford.  The Chinese were making green tea from the leaves of the Camellia Sasanqua for centuries before camellias were brought to Europe and ultimately to America.  My camellia is not a sasanqua, it is a japonica, and therefore, not the famous herbal camellia plant.  

A Weekend at the Farm December 7 - 9, 2012

Saturday was traumatic.  My husband went hunting.  He shot a deer, but he didn't kill it.  I had to help him search for the poor thing.  We searched and searched all through the woods, I found some blood several times, but we never found the deer.  We went back to the house to get the cub cadet and drive around hoping to scare it up.  Sure enough we scared it.  It lurched into the trail, both front legs broken.  No gun!  He left it at home.  I raced home to get the gun and raced back with it.  My husband shot him and put him out of his terrible suffering.  I was traumatized. I couldn't do anything for the rest of the day. It was horrible.

I spent most of Sunday shredding leaves with my awesome leaf shredder.  I spread the leaves in the Boardwalk beds.  There are still billions of leaves to shred.

Filled the new bed in the Rose Garden with soil.  Seeded it with Johnny Jump Ups, Sublime Blue Larkspur, and Red Corn Poppies.

Spread seed in the Orchard, did some weeding.

Deadheaded roses.

Planted some Royal Blend Sweet Peas in the Long Border along the mattress spring trellis.

Watered the shrubs.

Watched butterflies.

Mulched both of my new passion vines.

Finished mulching the really weedy part of the Long Border.

Spread seed in the Long Border.

Moved a shovelful of Mexican sedum from the Star Garden to the Long Border.

Pink Firespike Dec 2, 2012

This is the first year my Firespike has bloomed here.  Prior to this year the first freeze has knocked it back before it had a chance to bloom.  Note the Zebra butterfly in the photo above.  

Firespike likes some protection from the sun.  Bright shade or morning sun is best for this plant.  It is a fall bloomer.  There is a red blooming variety as well, but I prefer the pink.  It dies back with the first freeze and comes up from the roots in the spring.  It get quite tall in one season.

Firespike roots really easily.  I took some cuttings from my plants in Houston, stuck them in some water for a couple of days, then I stuck them in the dirt here in Brenham.  They rooted with no problem.

A Weekend at the Farm Nov 30 - Dec 2, 2012

This is a Queen butterfly.  It is one of several milkweed butterflies, the Monarch being the most well known.  They are plentiful right now in my garden, sometimes 4 or 5 at a time hanging off a butterfly weed or a salvia.  This Queen is in the Shade Garden, sipping nectar from a flower of a Giant Ligularia.

It was another beautiful weekend with great weather and no humidity.

• I received four shrubs in the mail from Woodlanders.  Two Sweetshrub (Calycanthus x raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine', a Sweet Olive (Osmanthus fragrans 'Fudingzhu', and a Sweet Olive (Osmanthus fragrans aurantiacus.  The sweet shrubs have burgundy colored flowers that can smell very sweet, but scent is variable on these plants, and it's possible to get one that has no scent.  Obviously that would be a blow, I'm buying it for the good smell.  But only time will tell.  They are only sticks right now.  I might not get a bloom for several years.  I planted one of the Hartlage Wines in a bed next to the entrance to the Greenhouse that I made several years ago that currently only has Columbine growing in it.  I had a Sweet Olive growing there, but it died in the drought last summer.  I extended a bed on the other side of the Greenhouse and planted the other Hartlage Wine.  Both spots get regular water now, so they should be pretty self sufficient.  I planted the Fudingzhu in a bed that I built next to the path that leads to the Boardwalk behind the house.  Sweet Olives are evergreen, so they are good plants to locate near the house.  The aurantiacus was placed in a bed that I made last weekend next to the back gate.  I already have one growing in a bed on the other side of the gate, so they are a pair now. 
• Spent time on Saturday building a bed and expanding a bed.  Didn't do much else on Saturday because I wasn't feeling well.
• Repaired the stone edging along the back of the house.  My husband put up a gutter along the entire back of the house to stop the erosion in the flowerbeds, so I reset the stones and filled in the spots where the soil had eroded away.  That took some time.
• Shredded leaves. Leaves!  Leaves everywhere!  I shredded about ten bags of leaves and it looked exactly the same as it did before I started.  That's ok, though, because I love this time of year.  This is how I gather mulch for all my gardens and how I get a huge start on my compost for next summer.  I need the leaves!  It's a lot of work though.  My back muscles get really tired. I love my awesome leaf shredder, the best Christmas present I ever got.  Spread shredded leaves in the beds along the Boardwalk.
• Deadheaded roses.
• Watered shrubs.
• Watched butterflies.
• Cut away dead vine debris off the arbor at the entrance to the Rose Garden.  It was blocking the growth of my daffodils.
• Partially cleaned up a section of the Long Border.  Needs more work. 
• Spread seed in various places - Corn Poppies and Johnny Jump Ups.
• Weeded, weeded, weeded
• Marvelled at all my bulbs popping up.
• Planted some bulbs that I unearthed when I was planting my Althea cuttings several weeks ago.  I don't know what they are.  I planted them on their side because I couldn't tell which side was up.     
• Lovely, lovely weekend.