Peggy Martin April 29, 2022

 I have Peggy Martin growing in two places.  I have her trained (and very well I might add because Peggy's canes are extremely soft and flexible, also if you can't train a rose on goat wire you should really just pack it in and give up) on an arbor that leads to the Long Border path next to the Rose Garden.  And I have her growing over a fence along one edge of the Rose Garden.  She is a once blooming rose.  You might get a random bloom here and there during the summer or fall, but don't count on it. She will tip root, so it you want to give away roses to friends, just let one of the branches fall to the ground.  In a very short time it will root and you can dig it up and pot it. 

Climbing Pinkie April 29, 2022

 Another of my climbers that is unruly and untrained.  I prune the laterals pretty well, but I don't wrap the canes around the structures.  But Climbing Pinkie looked pretty this morning, in full bloom.

 

Vacation April 14 - 25, 2022

 

Easter long weekend with Blake and her kids and Luke.  Nathan and family, Mom, Dad, Nancy and Lisa came for Easter Sunday.  Egg dying, egg hunting and lots of food for 3 days!  Then work through the week getting ready for the annual crawfish boil.  Then the boil on Saturday and cleanup on Sunday and Monday.  Whew!

• Arrived on Wednesday at noon.  I immediately checked on the Rose Garden - the armadillos had found their way in and roughed everything up.  We closed a gap - no idea if that is where the problem is, but it is closed.
• I weeded here and there.  
• Watered some of my new plants in the Star Garden.  They looked fine, but I watered them anyway.
• I got a few mosquito bites while I was out there - already?!
• Thursday.  Up early before day light.  No armadillo activity in the Rose Garden, but one got under the wire in one of the front beds and tore everything up.  
• I worked in the Star Garden for part of the morning.  I weeded, mulched and raked.  Armadillos are getting in there, but their activity has not been as destructive as in the Rose Garden.  
• Next I worked in the Vegetable Garden.  I weeded and mulched. 
• Moved on to the White Garden.  Not much weeding required since it is my newest garden.  I mulched here and there.  This garden was mulched last season, so I only did some spot mulching.
• The birds were singing their hearts out all morning.  The weather was cool and it was very pleasant. 
• I worked until 2:00 then stopped to go to the grocery store.  On the way to the grocery I stopped at the Daylily Farm on the side of 290.   I've always wanted to stop there and buy some daylilies.  It was an interesting one-man shop.  I bought 3 Kalita ( an orangy with pale yellow throat), 3 Laughing Skies (a spider type with lavender tips and yellow toward the throat), 3 Edna Slover Memorial (pale pink), 1 Baby's Angelic Face (cross bred by the owner - pink), and he gave me 2 gift fans of Patriotic Beauty (a spider type with wine red tips and yellow toward the throat).
• Friday.  Up early before day light.
• I planted Edna Slover Memorial in the Medicine Garden.  I was told this variety is fine with no hot afternoon sun.  And I've always wanted daylilies in the Medicine Garden.  In Chinese medicine eating the unopened buds relieves depression.
• I planted Kalita in the Star Garden right at the front fence. 
• I planted 3 Laughing Skies in the bed at the entrance to the Rose Garden.  And he gave me such large divisions that I broke away a couple of fans and planted them in the Carefree Beauty bed.
• Friday, Saturday and Sunday - family time. 
• Monday.  The next four days will be really busy.
• I walked down to the Orchard first thing in the morning to see what I was up against.  It looked really good fortunately.  I weeded for a bit, but most beds are really heavily mulched, so weeds are not coming up yet. The sprinklers are not turned on down there because one of them needs to be repaired, and I saw that my new peach tree that I planted last winter has died.
• Watered my Texas Kidneywood by the Vegetable Garden and the Tenaza in the Shade Garden.  I try to baby those 2 native shrubs.  I should have been babying my peach tree.
• I planted Patriotic Beauty daylilies in the Rose Garden next to Old Blush.
• I spent most of the day in the Medicine Garden mulching the Barbados Cherry beds.  I scraped leaves out of all 3 beds.  I cut back the Barbados Cherry shrubs.  Raked.  Pulled up horsetail reed and Elderberry where I didn't want it.  Smoothed mulch where armadillos had disturbed.  
• Watered in the White Garden.  My white Cypress vine seeds have all sprouted. 
• I drove in to town and bought a new sprayer.  I sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden, the Shade Garden, the Vegetable Garden, and the Star Garden.
• Tuesday.  I raked in the Shade Garden.  Cut away plants growing in the paths.  Picked up fallen branches.  Dumped all the debris in an erosion spot.  Spread one of my very last wheelbarrows of mulch.  The mulch is almost gone.
• I used chicken wire to stake some blue salvia that is almost in full bloom, but has gotten huge and wants to lean into the path. 
• I dug up a white mistflower for the plant swap even though I won't be able to go.  I will give it to Debra to put in the swap.  
• I dug up a ginger from a path and planted it near the others in the Star Garden.
• Raked the Star Garden.  Cut back the red shrimp plant.  Pulled up spent purple phacelia.  Pulled weeds.  Dumped the debris in an erosion spot.
• Did a little raking in the Greenhouse Gardens.  
• Wednesday.  I worked in the Rose Garden.  I raked, pulled weeds, watered my roses in pots.
• Thursday.  I worked for a bit in the Rose Garden staking things and cutting away plants leaning into paths.   But mostly it was a day of cooking.
• Friday.  Pre-party.  Gretchen, Keith and Beckett from New York, Mom and Dad, William, Cody and girlfriend, Josh and the girls, Tommy and Sandy, Nicholas and buddies.
• Saturday, the crawfish boil.  Biggest crowd yet.  12th annual.
• Sunday.  Cleanup and resting and saying goodbye to the campers.
• Monday.  Rested, headed home to Houston in the evening after dinner.

Sweetspire April 21, 2022

 Well I smelled my sweetspire for the first time after growing it for a decade in two different gardens.  It smells really sweet!  I don't know why I've never taken a whiff before.  I guess I'm just not stopping to smell the flowers.  This is a great shrub for a woodland garden.  It has an arching growth pattern which is nice in an informal, woodsy garden.  It is evergreen, and in the spring it is covered with white flowers.

Cajun White Lightening Louisiana Iris April 21, 2022

 This is a Louisiana iris that I have growing in my water tank in the Water Garden.  This is the first time it has bloomed since I bought it.

Flowers Blooming in the Rose Garden April 19, 2022

 Daisies, blue salvia, pink roses.

Poppy

Red poppies and Tall Poppy Mallow in the little wild corner of the Rose Garden. 

Gaye Hammond rose

Dahlberg Daisy

Moss verbena and Mexican sedum

Johnson Amaryllis

Cramoisier Superior rose.

Belinda's Dream rose an blue salvia

Gulf Coast Penstemon

Ox Eye daisies

Tall Poppy Mallow.

Flowers Blooming Now April 19, 2022

 This is a Louisiana iris just about to bloom. It is in the water tank in the Water Garden. 

Madame Alfred Carriere rose

Madame Alfred Carriere is a climber, this one is growing in the White Garden.

Colonial White verbena in the White Garden.

Pretty blue bearded iris, probably Victoria Falls.

Blue salvia and white salvia in the Star Garden, not quite in full bloom.  The flowers will be more pronounced in a couple of days.

Snowball Bush - still very pretty.

Galactic Gold beardeds.

Columbine

African Hosta - these little blooms don't open, this is as good as it gets.  But they are very pretty when massed.

Columbine, Ox Eye daisies

Columbine

Pretty little bearded iris, I don't remember where I got my start of this.