African Hostas March 25, 2017

African Hostas multiply very rapidly.  Spring is their season.  When they emerge after winter their leaves are spotted with liver-colored spots.  Then they send up shoots of white (insignificant) blooms that the bees really love.  The spots disappear eventually and the leaves are solid green.  They are very cute.  Because they multiply so rapidly I have them growing everywhere - the Greenhouse Gardens, the Medicine Garden, and in a big bed behind the house which I fenced off because the armadillos were constantly turning it over.

 Bert stuck our old teapot and coffee pot on a stand and made a little sculpture in this bed.

Weekend at the Farm March 25-26, 2017

These are the first of many larkspur blooms.

It rained on Friday evening, but it was beautiful weather all weekend.

• The daylilies I ordered online from Roots and Rhizomes arrived last week, so I spent all day Saturday planting them in the Orchard.  It was a 48 Tetraploid Mix of pastels (it was a good deal, but I don't know the name of any of them unfortunately).  Planting 48 daylilies took me all day.  Digging the holes, filling each hole with water to get some good moisture in there, planting them, covering them with soil and watering them in real well.  I also bought a pack of 6 red tetraploid daylilies whcih I'll plant tomorrow.  While I was in the Orchard I weeded, and I had a truckload of mulch so I mulched wherever I weeded.  I was working near the bee hive, but the bees never bothered me a bit.
• Sunday I loaded the cub with mulch six or seven times and worked in the Boardwalk beds.  I cleaned up the area where the peach gingers are growing and mulched it out.  And I cleaned out the area where the butterfly gingers are growing and mulched the area.  There were lots of leaves to clear out (I keep some of the leaves in there to rot, but I rake out most of them when I have mulch to lay down).  I was clearing out the leaves with my hands around my Spanish Bluebells and - boom - copperhead.  I saw it just in time.  Bert shot it - I can't have those things so close to the house.
• I cut back the dead debris off some of my Pam Puryear Pink Turks Cap along the Boardwalk.
• Watered all the plants in pots around the pool and in the Star Garden.  
• Watered in the Rose Garden and some of the beds in the Star Garden.
• Weeded, weeded weeded.
• I planted a pack of 6 red Tetraploid mixed daylilies from Roots and Rhizomes, also in the Star Garden.
• Sprayed herbicide in the driveway, the Rose Garden, the Vegetable Garden, the Shade Garden, the Medicine Garden, the Greenhouse Gardens, the Orchard, and the Star Garden.  Whew!  Well, I won't be back for two weeks or more, so I needed to get that done or the weeds will be too tall to kill before the Crawfish Boil.
• Headed home Sunday evening.  

Clyde Redmond Iris March 25, 2017

These iris spread so fast I don't know what to do with them.  I have stuck them all over the Star Garden, the Rose Garden, I have them growing in a bed at the entrance to the Orchard, the Long Border, etc.  I run hot and cold with these iris, but right now I'm loving them (but it's tiring having to dig them up when they get crowded and find homes for them).  

Peggy Martin, Climbing American Beauty, Climbing Pinkie March 25, 2017

Peggy Martin is trained on a piece of chain link and American Beauty and Pnkie are trained on conveyor belts that have been secured in the ground with cement.

Peggy Martin is just beginning her bloom cycle.  She is a once blooming rose - she may spit out a few more blooms throughout the year,but not enough to call her remontant :

Climbing Pinkie will bloom throughout the growing season, but the spring is always a wonderful time for roses.

Climbing American Beauty is not having a great year, I'm afraid I didn't treat her very well last year - not very generous with the water.  But she hung on.  She's blooming, but I've seen some better years.  This is a once-blooming rose, great smell.

Here are the two climbers that are growing on the conveyor belts.  These are both relatively young roses, Cl American Beauty was planted three years ago, and pinkie was planted a year ago, maybe two.  I expect amazing things from these two roses as they mature.  I plan to join the two conveyor belts together with chain and train the roses across the chain some day.

Moss Verbena March 25, 2017

The Moss Verbena is in full bloom right now.  It spreads by seed and it will root along the leaf nodes.  I started mine with seeds, and now it is all over the Rose Garden and the Orchard.

Johnson Amaryllis March 25, 2017

I have these amaryllis growing in six or so spots in my Rose Garden and my Star Garden.  I look forward to them every year.  They don't last long!

My Observations of the Weekend March 25-26, 2017

The Sweetness daffodils in the Daffodil Border are on the wane, but they were so pretty for about a month.  Once they have completely stopped blooming I will cover the area with leaves I've been raking up into a pile behind the Vegetable Garden to suppress the weeds.

The Johnson Amaryllis are in full bloom in the Rose Garden, so pretty.  I remember very well the amaryllis blooming in my mother's garden in Houston.  She had a big group of them in one of the front beds, and in the spring they made a big show. I have Johnsons planted in several other beds, and although their stalks have come up the blooms have not yet opened.  I've always found it interesting how the same plants can act so differently depending on where they are sited, water differences, etc.  Lycoris bulbs that I dug up from an old house in Pasadena bloom much earlier than bulbs that were sourced from my zone 8b area.  I've read that eventually that timing difference fades.

Several months ago I started some seeds in flats, two of the varieties were Catmint and Nicotiana.  I got them mixed up and thought the Catmint was what survived.  But I can see now that the Nicotiana survived (they look completely different, I'm not sure what took me so long to realize!) which I'm thrilled about.  I love Nicotiana.  Naturally, thinking it was Catmint, I planted it in the wrong place, but I will happily enjoy the inconvenience of walking around it all summer just to smell that wonderful scent.  I also sowed some directly in the ground in the Medicine Garden, and it has sprouted.  In Texas, because we have such a long growing season, sowing seeds directly in the ground rather than starting them indoors is preferable, but I enjoy having something to do during the winter months.

The Rose Garden is ablaze with flowers - the purples of Clyde Redmond iris, moss verbena, Homestead Purple Verbena, penstemon, and Verbena on a Stick, roses of pink, yellow, and red, bright yellow coreopsis, red amaryllis, yellow daffodils, red phlox, white Ox Eye daisies, and bluebonnets.  It's something to see right now!