Weekend at the Farm January 27 - 29, 2017

This weekend I had four daffodils blooming.  I guess they are confused about the hot-cold-hot weather.

Arrived Friday morning.  Cleaned the house.  Josh, Blake, Sam and Charlie came for a visit and spent the night on Saturday.  Weather was perfect and the kids were adorable!

• I had three Nikko Blue Hydrangeas and a Julia Child rose to plant.  I got to work after the kids left.
• I planted the three Nikkos in the Medicine Garden.  That garden needs more anchor plants.  I think (hope) that the spot I planted them has just the right amount of sun and shade.  I used my compost to fill all the holes, and I used the soil that I shoveled out of the holes to fill a spot in the Rose Garden where I made a narrow bed.  I'm going to dig up my China Chiffon Althea next weekend and plant it in that narrow bed.  It doesn't get enough sun where it's growing now.  
• I planted the Julia Child rose in the spot where one of my Dame de Couer roses died.  The owner of the Arbor Gate recommended this rose.  It's a yellow rose, and although I have one (Graham Thomas) I really wanted another one.  Graham hardly ever blooms for me even though I feel like it's in the right spot and gets the right amount of nutrients.  I used compost on my Julia Child rose as well.
• I spent a lot of time digging up plugs of Homestead Purple Verbena and planting them throughout the Star Garden, the Rose Garden, and I planted four plugs down in the Orchard which I have not done yet.  Even if I do say so myself, I am doing some amazing plantings.  The spring will be so incredibly colorful (if no disaster strikes - like marauding hogs or foraging deer or rabbits or weird unexpected freezes...).  While I was in the Orchard I watered the four roses and my orange tree, three-in-one apple, and Mayhaw.
• I spent the whole afternoon watering in the Rose Garden to keep all my plugs alive that I planted last weekend.  And I weeded.  I also watered the Daffodil Border which I have not done yet this year. 
• I loaded the wheelbarrow with mulch and mulched the ginger bed in the Star Garden.  I watered all my Philippine Violets (Barleria cristata) that I planted last month.
• I raked out part of the Long Border where pine needles and leaves were covering up my spreading Butter Pat Chrysanthemum - I don't want to lose that treasure!  Watered it for good measure.
• The day was so beautiful, and the weekend was so pleasant, I hated for them to end.  

Multiplying Butterpat Chrysanthemum January 22, 2017

I bought a small container of Butterpat at the Round Top Herb Festival last spring  The yellow flowers in the fall were beautiful and numerous.  It is spreading by underground stolons with little leaves appearing far away from the original container.

 I need to cut away the long bloom stems that look like dried sticks.

 It has spread through my iris.

 This little fellow in the photo below is growing outside of the flowerbed.

Weekend at the Farm January 21 - 22, 2017

This is frost-covered Homestead Purple Verbena.

Arrived Saturday evening after attending Oliver's 3rd birthday party.  Sunday was extremely windy but not unpleasant.

• Saturday I only had time to take a walk around the gardens and take note of some things I wanted to accomplish on Sunday.
• Sunday morning I raked in the Infinity Garden and dumped the leaves in the compost pile.
• I fertilized the sage and sorrel plants that I planted in the Kitchen Herb Garden a month or so ago.
• Watered my Baleria cristata plants that I planted a month or so ago, used the cistern water.  I hope they make it after the hard freeze we had last week.
• I spent some time transplanting some Verbena Bonariensis seedlings from paths in the Rose Garden to beds in the Rose Garden and the Long Border.  I love those tall, beautiful spikes of purple in the garden.  Huge butterfly favorites.
• I dug up a clump of Dawn Pink Canna that was growing too close to a mallow in the Long Border.  Replanted it nearby, closer to the rest of my Dawn Pinks.
• For several summers I have been annoyed by a bed of Indigo Spires that leaned out into the path, and I am forced to constantly stake it and cut it away.  So I dug up three clumps growing right at the edge of the bed.  I replanted them in the Long Border. 
• Filled the cub cadet with mulch and mulched the Indigo Spires bed.  Drove down to the Orchard, pulled weeds and mulched over the spots I cleared.   My Lider #9 Satsuma looks pretty bad.  It might not have made it through the hard freeze we had.  There's a little bit of green in the stems.  We'll see.  For that matter, my Joey Avocado isn't looking very good either.  I have it in a pot in the Vegetable Garden until the trunk forms some bark.  I don't know if it made it either.
• Overall, things are coming along.  My bee balm is really spreading in the bed where I have the Venus Sweetsrub planted.  The Butter Pat and Country Girl mums are spreading like crazy in the Rose Garden and the Long Border.  The Homestead Purple Verbena that I transplanted all over the Star Garden and the Rose Garden has really taken off.  And the Philippine Lily seeds that I spread in the fall have all sprouted in the Circle Drive beds.  And the asters that I put in the ground last March have spread - good fall color.  And, I am excited to see that my Peachie's Pick Stokes Aster seems to be coming back.  I bought two of them at the Round Top Herb Festival last year, and they died from lack of water, or so I thought.  But one appears to be coming up. 
• I spent the afternoon transplanting more Homestead Purple Verbena from paths to various beds while I watered in the Rose Garden.  Raked a bit here and there.
• I adjusted all the sprinklers.
• Grey kitty was here on and off.  He spent the night Saturday in the laundry basket, ate breakfast, then disappeared.  He had been in a fight at some point because he had a half-healed spot on his head.
• Overall a pretty productive day in terms of working towards a floriferous spring.

My Plant List for Brenham, TX Zone 8B

In my garden I have many varieties of plants growing. And just as long a list of plants that have died, quite frankly. I am not including in this list the ones that didn't make it, but it happens - the wrong soil, the wrong light, the wrong water, voles. Besides what I listed here, I have sown many varieties of wild flowers, many of which come back every year. I also have a culinary herb garden, a medicinal herb garden, and a vegetable garden with plants that change seasonally.

Shrubs:

• Oak Leaf Hydrangea
• White By the Gate Camellia - white doubles
• Debutante Camellia - double pinks
• George Taber Azalea - big pale pink singles
• Spirea - Spirea cantoniensis 'Lanceata' - white
• White Snakeroot- will die back in the winter, but it reseeds heavily, likes shade, it is poisonous and will come through a cow's milk and poison people (as well as kill the cow) - pretty in the shade, though!
• Morningstar Sweetspire - Itea virginica - likes some shade, white flowers in the spring
• Coralberry - good shade plant, not very dense, purple berries in the fall
• Giant Ligularia - Ligularia tusilaginea 'Giant' - it blooms yellow daisy-like flowers if we get a late freeze.  Wonderful foliage - huge leaves
• Thryallis - yellow flowers
• Pavonia Hastata - a rock rose with pink flowers, deep pink throat, will produce lots of seed and seedlings
• Barbados Cherry - pink flowers, can take some shade
• Kiowa Blackberries - huge blackberries
• Pam Puryear Pink Turk's Cap - not as floriferous as the red, but pretty and unusual, can take shade
• Red Turk's Cap - Native
• False Indigo - Amorpha fruticosa - purple dangling flowers, likes some shade
• Japanese Rose - Kerria japonica plenifora - yellow double flowers
• Double Pink Althea - my neighbor gave me a cutting
• Satin Marina Althea - this althea has single blue flowers - gorgeous!
• Single White Althea
• China Chiffon Althea
• Blueberry Smoothie Althea
• Strawberry Smoothie Althea
• Minerva Althea
• White Pillar Althea
• White Mist Flower - Eupatorium havanese - late summer bloomer, insect magnet
• Banana Shrub - banana smell permeates the garden, great plant for a Scent Garden
• Sweetshrub 'Venus' - Calycanthus hybridus 'Venus' - white flowers, unusual
• Sweetshrub - Calycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'
• Bottlebrush Buckeye - Aesculus parviflora, extremely slow grower, I don't recommend unless you plan to live to 100
• Spicebush - Lindera benzoin - larval plant for the spicebush swallowtail
• Mexicali Rose - Clerodendrum bungei - invasive but pretty
• Pink Vitex agnus castus - the pink color is rare
• Blue Vitex
• Snow Storm Beautyberry
• Hojo Santo - Rootbeer Plant
• Mock Orange
• Elderberry
• Yuletide Camellia 
• Nikko Blue Hydrangea
• Strawberry Bush - also known as Hearts-a-Burstin because of the fruit it produces
• Yellow Strawberry Bush (myrianthus and nitides)
• Bear's Breeches - Acanthus mollis - a shade lover that throws up a big flower stalk in the summer. 
• Coral Delight Camellia
• Royal Velvet camellia
• Junior Miss camellia
• Pride of Oregon hydrangea
• Texas Kidneywood - Native
• Beautyberry - Native
• Anacostia camellia
• Goji Berry
• Buttonbush - Native
• Bee Bush - Native
• Velvet Leaf Senna - Native
• Eastern Blue Star - Native

Trees :

• Red Buckeye - Native
• Mexican Plum - Native
• Mexican Buckeye - Native
• Eve's Necklace - Native
• Santa Rosa Plum
• Beauty Plum
• Ison Muscadine - my male grape vine
• Black Beauty Muscadine - my females
• Almond Verbena - the best smell ever
• Sassafras - beautiful fall color, early spring yellow flowers and a medicinal
• Southern Crab Apple
• 3-in-1 Apple tree - Anna, Dorsett Golden, Einshemer
• Paw Paw - Native
• Sugarcane Jujube
• Celeste Fig
• Becnel's Smith Fig
• Retama - native with pretty pinnate leaves, yellow flowers and bright green trunk
• Witch Hazel - native, yellow flowers
• Parsley Hawthorn - native, white flowers, parsley-like leaves
• Fragrant Mimosa - native, pink puff ball flowers
• Pineland Wattle - Native
• Guajillo - drought tolerant, flowering
• Cat's Claw - Native
• Simpson's Stopper - more shrub than tree, white flowers and fruits that are attractive to wildlife
• Desert Willow - Native
• Arroyo Sweetwood
• Summer Chocolate Silk Tree - gorgeous foliage
• Dersertnyi Pomegranate
• Two Winged Silverbell - Native
• Arkansas Oak
• Maple Leaf Oak
• Blue Japanese Oak - Quercus glauca

Roses:

• Belinda's Dream - one of my favorites, pink, full flowers, good scent, full shrub
• Bermuda's Kathleen - no scent, flowers start deep pink and fade to white so that 3 different colors will be on the shrub at the same time, gets really big
• Blush Noisette - wonderful smell, flowers in clusters, very pale pink
• Ballerina - small pink single clusters
• Champney's Pink Cluster - good smell
• Mmle Franziska Kreuger - my best bloomer
• La Marne - very pretty shrub, very good bloomer, the flowers are deep pink, but in the summer they are almost white due to the heat
• Madame Antoine Mari - pink
• Valentine - red clusters
• Mrs. Dudley Cross - pink and yellow blend
• Perle de Ore - good scent, pale coral flowers in clusters
• Peggy Martin - dark pink vigorous climber - will tip root vigorously
• Marie D'Orleans
• Archduke Charles
• Caldwell Pink
• La Vesuve
• Louis Philippe
• Madame Joseph Schwartz
• Zepherine Drouhin
• Mutabilis
• Martha's Vineyard
• Maggie
• Marie Pavie
• Old Blush
• Cinco de Mayo
• Beverly
• Gaye Hammond - quickly becoming a favorite of mine, very free-blooming, yellow
• Enchantress
• True Passion

Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes:

• Rolf Fiedler Ipheion - deep blue flower, very low-growing, good for naturalizing in the lawn
• Persian Berry Bearded Iris - pink and ethereal
• Avalanche (Seven Sisters) Tazetta - great smell
• Erlicheer daffodils - wow, what a scent, wonderful
• Shenandoah Canna - pink flowers, not a good multiplier for me, maroon leaves
• Tropical Sunrise Canna - peach flowers, multiplies rapidly
• Dawn Pink Canna - pinkish, on the orangey side of pink, maroon leaves, medium multiplier
• Picasso Canna - bright yellow with red spots
• Scarlet Wave Canna - red flowers, good multiplier, green leaves
• Red Cannas with burgundy leaves given to me by Janine Snapp
• Tropicanna Canna - wonderful striped orange-y foliage
• African Hosta - Drimiopsis maculata - good for shade, excellent multiplier, has to be divided every couple of years, flowers are insignificant
• Daisy's Delite Canna - small clear red flowers, wonderful green seed heads, likes shade, good woodland plant
• Amaryllis 'Aphrodite' - white
• Conjuration Bearded Iris - purple and yellow
• Victoria Falls Bearded Iris - blueish purple, it bloomed last week - strange!
• Missy Prissy Bearded Iris - pink
• Galactic Gold Bearded Iris
• Clyde Redmond Iris
• Yellow Rain Lilies - Zephyranthus citrina
• Freesia Laxa
• Dancing Queen Amaryllis - orange and white, stunning
• Russel Manning Rain Lilies - pale pink
• Pine Cone Ginger - interesting "flower", very dramatic in floral arrangements
• Byzantine Glads - Gladiolus communus byzantus - hot pink species glads
• Naple Garlic - Allium Neapolitanum - white, makes seed
• Spanish Blue Bells - hyacinthoides hispanica 'Excelsior' - the biggest flowers of the Spanish Bluebells
• Blood Lilies - awkward-looking greenery, fantastical red flowers
• Iron Cross Oxalis
• Colocasia 'Illustris'
• Colocasia 'Black Stem' - both of these are really interesting.
• St. Joseph Lily - red, old garden favorite
• Montbretia - orange, good multiplier
• Naked Ladies - Lycoris Squamigera - pink, stem pops up with no greenery around it and the leaves grow after the flowers die
• Maximum Butterfly Ginger - same as above
• White Butterfly Ginger - the most wonderful smell
• Peach Ginger - don't know the name of it, dug it up from the garden in Houston  Flowers are twelve inches long, really special.
• Mojito Colocasia - pretty, strong grower 
• Muscari negectum - blue flowers
• Spider Lilies - red spidery flowers, also called hurricane lilies due the timing of their bloom period
• Campernelles
• Easy Ned Day Lily
• Strawberry Candy Daylily
• Sangria Crinum
• Crinum Powelii 'Roseum'
• Oxblood Lilies - red
• Oxblood Lilies - pink
• Snowflakes - Leucojum aestiva 
• Double Campernelles / Narcissus odorus pleno
• Geranium Narcissus
• Kinkaku Ginger
• Ice Follies 
• Sofia Iris - yellow falls edged in white, white standard
• Sentimental Rose Iris - Pink falls edged in peach, peach standard
• Deliciously Different Iris - pale peach falls edged in darker peach, dark peach standard
• Gaelic Jig Iris - very pale, almost grey color
• Sweetness - 1939, vigorous
• Trevithian - 1927, good multiplier
• Saint Keverne - 1934
• Thalia Sun daffodils
• Martinet Daffodils
• Falconet Daffodils 
• Who Needs a Prince iris
• Over Alaska iris
• American Classic iris
• Ocelot iris
• Badlands iris
• Fall Fiesta iris
• Bollywood iris
• Inwood Daylily
• Summer Nocturne crinum
• Ellen Bosanquet crinum 
• Stella de Oro daylily
• Always Afternoon daylily
• Dancing on Air daylily
• Heavenly Angel Ice daylily
• Siloam Double Classic
• San Antonio Rose Amaryllis
• Kalita daylily
• Laughing Skies daylily
• Edna Slover Memorial daylily
• Baby's Angelic Fave daylily
• Patriotic Beauty daylily
• Sternbergia

Perennials and Reseeding Annuals:

• Chinese Bloodroot - disappears in the heat of the summer, returns in the spring, likes shade
• Bartletts Bee Balm - pink
• Salvia guaranitica - blue
• Indigo Spires
• Mystic Spires
• Mellow Yellow Hibiscus - sprawling hibiscus with dramatic yellow flowers with burgundy throats. Will produce seed.
• Sedum mexicana - low-growing, mat-forming succulent, yellow flowers, good shoes and socks plant
• Prairie Aster - Aster oblongifolius - love the blue flowers in the fall, sturdy
• Homestead Purple Verbena - deep purple, will take root along the stems
• Dahlberg Daisy - pops up everywhere, low growing, yellow flowers, pretty ,lacy leaves
• Japanese Holly Fern
• Southern Wood Fern
• Feverfew - stays green in the winter, pretty white flowers - small but profuse, medicinal herb, heavy reseeder, seems to do well in dappled shade as well as full sun
• Columbine - love it! blue, yellow, red, likes to be on the edge of sun and shade, reseeds very well and the plantlets are transplanted very easily
• Maximillian Sunflowers - the perennial sunflower, tall to 6 feet
• Swamp Sunflower
• Coral Nymph Salvia - plant it once and you will have it forever, coral pink and white flowers, prolific reseeding annual
• White Nymph salvia
• Black seeded Moudry Grass - pretty seed heads
• Pink Muhly - misty pink seed heads in the fall, leaves are needle-like
• Verbena Bonariensis - pretty electric purple/blue flowers, very tall (five feet) and airy, heavy reseeder, tender perennial
• Lambs Ear - white is always good in the garden, Helene Von Stein does well for me
• Nicotiana 'Indian Peace Pipe' - white, fragrant
• Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' - great dead-of-summer bloomer
• Red Salvia Greggii - pretty tough based on how often the armadillos root around them
• Lady in Red Salvia - annual, heavy reseeder
• Mexican Salvia 'Santa Barbara' - no white spots, pure purple spikes
• Pink Autumn Sage - pink and shrubby, evergreen unless it gets cold for an extended period
• Hardy Ageratum 'Wayside' - purple perennial form of ageratum, invasive
• Butterfly Plant - orange flowers, throws off seed on silken threads, larval food for the monarchs
• Ox Eye Daisies - stays green in the winter, and I love daisies - such happy flowers
• Obedient Plant - pink flowers, spreads and is hard to pull up
• Spiderwort - blue flowers in early summer, pretty silver-gray foliage
• Wild Onion - white flowers, edible
• Blue Mist flower - a different variety - gets enormous
• White Mist Flower - all insects are crazy for it!  They swarm it when it's in bloom.  The blue mist has a much longer bloom season
• Native Orange Lantana
• Yellow Lantana - lantana attracts butterflies
• Red Yarrow
• Zinnias - mine come back from seed, when you deadhead, just throw the flower head right into the flowerbed. It will break up on its own and reseed.
• Gulf Coast Penstemon - blooms in the spring tubular flower clusters. Heavy reseeder, will colonize quickly. Short bloom season
• Firespike - I have the pink and the red varieties
• Red Shrimp Plant
• Creeping Jenny
• Indian Pinks - Spegelia marilandica
• Many varieties of Rosemary
• Butter Pat Chrysanthemums
• Country Girl Chrysanthemums
• Philippine Violets - white 
• Phlox - the old fashioned hot pink variety 
• Phlox John Fannick - very long bloom time
• Henry Duelberg Salvia - a blue perennial re-seeding salvia 
• Inland Sea Oats
• Pyramid Bush
• Fruity Pebbles Lantana
• Various varieties of Bandana series lantanas
• Trailing White lantana
• Trailing Purple lantana
• Colonial White Verbena - I have wasted years on Homestead Purple, I wish I had discovered Colonial White long ago.  It is amazing.
• Passalong Pink verbena (the very, very most amazing verbena I have found to date)
• Toad Lily
• Russian Sage
• Chili Pequin

Vines:

• Wisteria - Wisteria sinensis 'Purpurea'
• White Coral Vine - a stunner, looks like a wedding
• Cypress Vine - reseeding annual vine, very pretty greenery, small tubular flowers of white, pink and red that close up in the afternoon
• Hops Vines 
• Yellow Butterfly vine
• Alamo vine
• Sweet Autumn Clematis
• Coral Honeysuckle (native)
• Chinese Honeysuckle (invasive - I grow it in a bucket) 
• Grandpa Ott, Pearly Gate (an amazing selection - highly recommend), and Heavenly Blue morning glories

Day at the Farm January 2, 2017

Arrived in the evening.  Bert was already here.  Stayed on Monday and drove into town on Tuesday morning.  Fever and cough, but I powered through it.

• The cub cadet won't start, and it's not the battery.  I helped Bert push it up into the trailer so he could drive it into town.  
• We have had at least one hard freeze, and all the vegetation is brown.
• In the morning I raked up some pine needles and filled the big wheel barrow with them.  I was going to push it down the hill and cover a spot in the Orchard, but I couldn't get up the energy to do it.
• I cut back a bunch of dead canna vegetation and dumped it in the woods. Did some general cleanup in the Star Garden.
• I dug out the morning glory tree in the Star Garden because it is so unruly and the branches lean out into the walking paths.  I think I stuck the root ball into the ground somewhere, but I can't remember where since I am writing this a week after I did it.  I replaced it with a white-flowering sweetshrub called Venus that has been growing in a shady spot in the Medicine Garden for about two years.  It will get more sun, and it has a better growth habit. 
• I watered my newly planted Baleria.
• In the afternoon I wheeled the pine needles down to the Orchard and mulched along the grape arbor.
• Several hundred of my daffodils are up and there are already a few paperwhites blooming.  The 500 I planted recently will take a while longer before they emerge, new plantings always take a while. 
• Grey kitty did not show up all weekend, I feared he was lost or had moved on since we had not gone to Burton throughout the long holiday season.  But Bert said he showed up on Tuesday morning after I left to drive in to town.

Weekend at the Farm December 17 - 18, 2016

Arrived Friday evening. Jess and Nathan had dropped off their dogs and gone to Austin for some wedding festivities.  They spent the night Friday and Saturday night with the kids.  The kids were the ring bearers.

• Fallen leaves everywhere!  Saturday, after the kids left for the wedding in Austin, I raked some leaves.  I dumped them in the unfinished area in the Star Garden.  I didn't get very far, maybe half a dozen wheelbarrows full of leaves.  I'll try again tomorrow. 
• I watered my collards and mustard greens in the Star Garden and all the new Baleria cristata plants I put in last weekend.
• Sunday - stayed in the 20s all day.  Brrr.
• I raked a bunch of leaves and dumped them in the area I'm working on in the Star Garden.
• I watered all the beds in the Rose Garden.  Watering helps plants get through cold weather.
• Drove into work on Monday morning.