What's Blooming Now - Cassia corymbosa April 22, 2012

This little tree or large shrub is a larval food source for the Sulphur butterflies.  I have always considered Cassias to be late summer bloomers, but I guess I was wrong.  This particular variety seems to be fairly cold hardy.  I had another variety, and it was really large (never wrote down the name of it).  It was growing in the yard of my Houston home.  Three winters ago, when the weather stayed below freezing for several days, it died.  This past winter was not as severe, but it definitely gets colder in Brenham than Houston.  Anyway, so far so good. 

A Weekend at the Farm April 21-22, 2012

I thought we would have had some rain when we arrived on Friday evening because the weather was moving east and we got a lot of it in Houston.  But there was no rain in the gauge.

• I spent hours pulling up the dead poppies and pouring seeds into gallons baggies.  By Sunday I was tired of the whole process and was just throwing them into my red wheelbarrow and dumping them in piles around the perimeter of the property.  The important thing was to keep the billions of seeds from falling into the flower beds as best I could.
• I planted 4 Agastache 'Acapulco Orange' in Max's Garden. 
• I planted 4 Bee Balm in the Long Border. 
• My perennial Ageratum is blooming in the Long Border!  I'm excited about that.  I pulled up plants that are growing around it so that it won't be choked out.  I wasn't aggressive enough, I should have pulled up more.  It's the Verbena Bonariensis that is running rampant throughout the Long Border.  And the Tickseed is pretty thick too.
• I dug up the last of the Yukon gold potatoes.  I cooked some of them in a stew.  Homegrown potatoes really do taste better than the ones in the grocery store.
• Weeded in the Vegetable Garden.
• Sprayed herbicide around the flowerbed borders in the Star Garden.
• Sprayed fungicide on the Hollyhocks.
• Spread Nicotiana seed in the Infinity Garden that I collected from the plants going to seed.
• Planted 25 Oxalis 'Iron Cross' in Max's Garden.
• The plums and peaches are growing larger!  A few of the blackberries are turing reddish. 

What's Blooming Now - Tuber Vervain April 15, 2012

I grew this Tuber Vervain from seed.  Tuber Vervain is a perennial that spreads from underground runners and from seed.  It is vigorous, so be careful where you plant it.

What's Blooming Now - Sea Star Sedum April 15, 2012

 How cute is this!  Sea Star Sedum is really fun.  Sedums are 'shoes and socks' (or front of the border)plants.  There are many varieties of sedums, all unusual and beautiful succulent plants.  Worth researching and putting in your garden.

A Weekend at the Farm April 15 - 16, 2012

 It tried to rain all weekend, but it never really made it.  Sprinkled on Sunday.

• The plants I ordered from Brent and Becky's Bulbs and White Oak Nursery arrived this week, so I was able to bring them with me and plant them.
• Planted 75 Moonlight Caladiums in the Shade Garden and along the Boardwalk. 
• Planted 100 Oxalis tetraphylla 'Iron Cross' in the Shade Garden, along the Boardwalk, and in the shady part of the Star Garden.  Oxalis are four leaf clovers.  They are fun little plants to grow because they are - well, four leaf clovers!  They multiply vigorously.  I have another 100 to plant, but I gave out.  I'll plant them next week.
• Planted 3 Francee Hostas in the Shade Garden.
• Planted 3 Abiqua Drinking Gourd Hostas in the shady part of the Star Garden.
• Planted 10 Mojito Colocasia Esculenta along the Boardwalk and in the Shade Garden.
• Moved an Autumn Sage that was growing in a crack in the rocks over to a bed in the Star Garden.
• One of the sprinkler zones is not working.  We'll have to get someone out to take a look at it.  Unfortunate.
• Dug up some of the Yukon Gold potatoes in the Vegetable Garden.  They are so cute!
• Pulled up the last of the carrots.
• Made a salad for dinner Saturday night with baby arugula from the garden and lemon/anchovy dressing.  Delicious.
• Fertilized in the Star Garden with some liquid fertilizer.
• Weeded the Vegetable Garden.
• Picked several big bouquets of Sweet Peas to bring home. 
• Staked a holly hock that fell over.
• Spread Nicotiana seeds across a flower bed in the Infinity Garden.  My Nicotiana is going to seed, so I pulled some of the seed pods off the plants and sprinkled them all around.
• Deadheaded roses in the Rose Garden. 

What's Blooming Now - Larkspur April 15, 2012

Larkspur is easily grown from seed.  In my zone 8b area it should be sown in October / November.  Sowing Larkspur is as easy as throwing it on the ground.  I don't prepare the soil at all.  All the Larkspur growing around my place is from seed that dropped to ground last spring.  I did not plant any new seed.  It is so pretty and makes gorgeous cut flower bouquets.   

Cnidium

 Cnidium is a Chinese stimulant and aphrodisiac used to treat impotency. It is also used as a vaginal wash against trichomoniasis, and to treat scabies and fungal diseases. I purchased the seeds from Richters.  They have a huge selection of medicinal herb seeds. 

Horehound

Horehound is an evergreen perennial.  I grew mine from seed.  The leaves and stems can be dried and used to make tinctures, syrups, teas, and lozenges.  Horehound is a good cough medicine, but it can also be used as a vermifuge, a digestive, and a sedative.  It can be used to treat fevers and malaria as well.

Pyrethrum

Pyrethrum, common name Painted Daisy, is used in the garden as an ornamental perennial.  But the flowers also are made into a very strong insecticide.  The stems and leaves can also be used, but the center of the flower is the most powerful part of the plant.  The plant parts should be dried and ground into powder to make insecticide.  Pyrethrum can be interplanted with vegetables in the garden because it is a very effective insect repellent as well.  The live plant is not toxic to insects.  My pyrethrum is growing in partial shade, so I don't get many flowers.  The other useful plant in the Tanacetum family is Feverfew.  Feverfew is very effective treating migraine headaches and menstrual pain.

What's Blooming Now - Heritage Rose April 7, 2012

Heritage is one of my best smelling roses.  This rose was bred by David Austin.  Iceberg is in its parentage which always makes for a good rose - Iceberg is a great bloomer.  Heritage has very few thorns and forms a very shapely, rounded shrub. 

What's Blooming Now - Sedum Mexicana April 6, 2012

I really like sedums.  They are really good "shoes and socks" plants.  If you have tall plants in the garden, sedums work well planted at the base of the plants to cover the soil.  They transplant easily, just scoop up a trowel-full with a little soil and stick it in the ground wherever you need something low-growing.  This sedum is evergreen which is great.  Some of my other sedums, such as Sea Star sedum, disappears in the heat of the summer and then reappears in the spring.

A Day at the Farm April 6, 2012

Came up Thursday evening and left on Saturday morning for the lake.  Easter with the family.

• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden.
• Planted some clumps of butterfly gingers that I dug up from the flower beds in Houston.  I planted several clumps  in the Circle Drive and several in the Boardwalk Garden.  The Pinecone Gingers have finally started popping up out of the ground, so I dug up some of those in the Houston beds as well and planted them along the Boardwalk.  I have worked hard moving gingers. They should look really good in Burton.
• I moved a Pavonia from the Blue Mist bed to the Boardwalk Garden where it will get more sun and more water.  I think it is a variety with spots on the flowers that came up from a random seed.  The plant died years ago.  If it's a seed from the Rock Rose I already have growing, I'll be disappointed.
• Repaired some places where armadillos rooted up the clumps of gingers that I planted last weekend.
• Deadheaded in the Rose Garden.
• Cooked some parsnips from the garden Friday evening for dinner, sliced and browned in a little butter.
• Added a sprinkler with timer in the Greenhouse Garden.  Now I won't be so saddled to the farm every weekend just to water hard to reach places.

The Rose Garden for my Daughter Blake

The Rose Garden is dedicated to my daughter Blake, my bud of beauty, bonnie flower. No hothouse rose is she. She is a wild rose found growing in the bramble. A rare find.Above, this is Chorale rose. The picture does not do the color justice. It is the very palest pink. Chorale makes beautiful buds.

The above picture and the one below it are Grandma's Yellow Rose. This is a true yellow rose. It has really come around with all the rain. It's gotten shrubbier and taller.

This is Chrysler Imperial. What a great smell. A very sophisticated rose smell. Really nice.

Chrysler Imperial again.

This is Dame de Couer. I have 4 red varieties of rose shrubs in the garden. Cadenza, Valentine, Chrysler Imperial, and Dame de Couer.

Shown in this picture are poppies, larkspur, Dahlberg Daisies, and Dame de Couer Roses. Below is another picture of Chorale.

Some Paul Redman irises in front of Cadenza.

Poppies and Chorale.

A beautiful blue iris.

Belinda's Dream - probably the best rose for a landscape if you want to stay away from the Knockouts.

Above is Lady Hillingdon. It has a unique color which I like very much. Below are poppies and Chrysler Imperial in the background.

This is Valentine rose above and Belinda's Dream below.