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.