The Pot Ghetto Lives On!

I've cleared out portions of the "pot ghetto" (crepe myrtles, roses of Sharon, etc.) by placing things in the garden, but just as quickly as I've cleared some room, new pots have sneaked in to fill the space.

Most of the new additions are seeds.  I've sown home-gathered seeds of purple coneflower, river oats, 'Autumn Sun' Rudbeckia, and more.

Then there's the small matter of 50+ daylily seeds... I wasn't planning to "do" daylily seeds, this year.  I've been saying that every year since I first started growing daylilies from seed, because it does take a certain amount of care and effort to keep them watered (but not drowning), weeded, etc. until they're big enough to set out in the garden.

But then the spring fever set in, and I started thinking about daylilies again and looking at photos... And I decided that it's a small investment that yields beautiful dividends for years to come.  I enjoy watching them grow, and it's such fun to have new daylilies to look forward to!  It is well worth the trouble of getting them started.

And so I ended up with 50+ more daylily seeds to plant.  (I didn't count the seeds, this year, but I bought them from the same eBay seller as usual, and he always goes over the number stated.)  This isn't all of them; not all of them had sprouted quite enough, but most were ready for potting.  They are totally random, but that's part of the fun.

This 'Shalimar Red' bignonia (crossvine) is really ready to be planted by the arbor-- later this week, once the weather improves!  The flower buds look like little balloons to me...

In this photo, you can see the small, purple beginnings of buds (bottom right) and the more mature, red-violet buds that are nearly ready to open (center).

Venturing away from the pot ghetto and into the garden proper...

I'm getting a little scared by the number of swamp sunflowers poking up in a few parts of the garden.  This is where I planted the first clump from Mom's garden.  They're really starting to take over, here...  I'm not sure how many to leave, but I'm definitely going to have to pull up a lot of these.  I don't think I'll bother saving them, because I can't think of anywhere else I want them growing, at the moment.

The purple oxalis continues to be lush.  I'm still not sure exactly where this plant wants to live.  Sometimes it looks completely content with life; then it withers down to nothing and looks terrible for a while before coming back again.  Maybe that's standard for this plant-- periods of dormancy.  Or maybe I'm just not consistent enough about giving it what it wants/needs.

The Knock Out roses are blooming.  (Here's the red, but the pink and yellow are also flowering.)

The 'Peggy Martin' rose (sometimes known as "the Katrina rose") is flowering prettily, too.  Still not covered in bloom, as in so many photos, but not bad.  There's quite a bit of leaf-spot, unfortunately, but I tend not to worry about that so much.  I think it's just a fact of life in this part of the world-- and if there is a way to fight it, it would probably be more effort than I'm currently willing to expend.

We also had our first flower from the 'Zéphirine Drouhin' rose I planted last year.  I didn't manage to get a photo before it fell apart, but maybe I'll be faster next time.  I did take the time to sample the fragrance, though, and it had a wonderful perfume-- very recognizably a rose scent.  I do hope it will do well and flower more profusely in years to come!

Let's see... What else?
I moved the cannas (a mixture of varieties with green leaves and red or yellow/orange flowers) from their old locations (where I planted them last year) to a few different parts of the garden, making room for other plants.

I don't know much about how cannas grow.  Parts of the tubers had already sprouted new shoots, but others had no signs of new growth.  Do cannas sprout year after year from the same part of the tuber, or does it grow out from one side and die back/no longer put out shoots on the older part of the tuber?  I guess it doesn't really matter, at this point, and I'll learn in time.

One thing I've already learned is that those little buggers grow a lot in one year!  They were much harder to dig up than I would've expected.  It's probably wise to be sure you want them where you plant them-- as is almost always the case with plants.  Too bad I make mistakes/change my mind so often!

Spring All Around

If it hadn't already been abundantly clear that spring came early this year, this weekend would have been full of clues.

We spent some time sitting pleasantly in the shade of a live oak on a record-breaking Sunday afternoon.  (It was record-breaking in nearby cities, at least.  For us, it was probably somewhere in the low eighties-- but our thermometer is broken, so I'm not sure of the exact temperature.)  The low humidity makes all the difference!

The carpenter bees have been out and about for a week or two.  There are quite a few of them, and they seem to be ignoring the bee traps.  I'm not sure if this is because the traps are old and need fresh wood to attract the bees or if the bees simply aren't in nest-building mode, yet.  Maybe they need to mate before they start looking for nesting sites...

Unfortunately, the wasps were also out, this weekend, and there are numerous ant beds popping up here and there.  (I'll probably try to poison them right before the next rain.  I'd rather not use poisons in the yard, but if the alternative is having anthills everywhere... I've tried boiling water and turning the water hose on them, as some recommend as an alternative-- mainly when they've built in/near our vegetable patch, where I won't use ant poison.  Sometimes it seems to help-- sometimes not.)

On a more positive note, were were able to have the windows open last night-- not something you can always do comfortably in February.

And then there are the visible signs of spring...

I don't know if this bird's nest in the loropetalum is new or from last year, but it gave me a spring feeling.  If it's new, this bird chose a beautiful spot to build, in the rose-tinted light that filters through those bright pink fringe-flowers!

The first of the spring starflowers (Ipheion) have emerged!
I think these are 'Jessie', planted around the older tea olive beside the garage.

They were already a bit spotted, because they'd been out for a day or two and had been rained on-- but still quite a pretty color.  Each flower is small-- roughly the size of a quarter-- but Ipheion is supposed to multiply fairly quickly, so when they get established, there can be a carpet of blooms that lasts for weeks.

(Looking it up again, just now, I see that some sources suggest morning sun/afternoon shade.  My source said "full sun", so that's what I've given... If they seem to suffer from too much sun, I might have to move them, at some point.)

We don't have many daffodils, but here's one of the few...  (Wish I knew the variety.)

The roses are already getting started for the year, too!  (I really did wait too long to prune them, so most of them missed out.  Maybe December is a good time to do it, this year, just to be safe...)

Here's 'Sunny', the yellow KO rose:

The double pink KO rose is not far behind.  (Neither is the double red, not pictured.)

On the arbor, 'Joseph's Coat' is on its third or fourth flower, already.  (All opening within the period of a week or so.)

On the other side of the arbor, 'Peggy Martin' has buds, but no open flowers, yet.  This rose has grown a lot since we planted it, but it hasn't yet bloomed magnificently.  Just a few flowers here and there.  I think this year might be better for flowers, since it's somewhat settled in.

The forsythia sage has put up a number of stems, which is encouraging.  Last year, I think there might have been only one-- maybe two.

The Japanese magnolias are still flowering, though the ground around this one is littered with fallen petals...

The same goes for the camellia...

This dianthus has lived well beyond what we expected.  I'm not sure how long it's been there... This has to be at least its third year, maybe fourth... I believe its sheltered location (just to the south of the garage, in full sun) has kept it alive through the winters-- plus maybe we haven't had the very coldest winters since it was planted... It's survived being the support system for multiple ant beds, too.  What a will to live!

Salvia purpurea, purple heart, dianthus:

And in closing, a random photo of purple oxalis (just because it's pretty right now):

More Signs of Spring

There are new signs of spring, every day.

The swamp sunflowers have started to colonize in earnest.  All these little rosettes have started popping up in a pretty wide arc around the parent plant.  I'll need to either pull some of these new plants or transplant them elsewhere in the garden.  This is definitely a plant that you have to stay on top of, if you don't want it taking over the whole flowerbed.  However, so far I haven't had difficulty removing it or restricting its spread by manually pulling it, unlike the worst spreaders.  (We'll see how it goes, this year.)

The newly-planted bulbs are sending up leaves all over the place!
This is a Spanish bluebell, which isn't supposed to bloom until late spring/early summer.

Canna lilies (pictured below), elephant ears, and white butterfly ginger have all begun putting up their first green shoots.  (White butterfly ginger seems early, this year.  All the other gingers are taking longer to emerge-- but I seem to remember that the latest one didn't come up until around Mother's Day-- in mid-May-- last year.)

More bulbs!
The thinner, grassier foliage is Ipheion (spring starflower).  The wider, taller blades are Gladiolus italicus.

This is Triteleia 'Queen Fabiola'.  Apparently some common names for this plant are "pretty face" and "fool's onion".  While I find the nickname amusing, I'm not sure why they'd be known as "fool's onion", because I've read that they actually can be eaten-- either raw or cooked.  I've also read that they tend to bloom when/after the leaves fade away, and the 'Queen Fabiola' variety has a fragrance.

These are wildflowers native to the Western U.S. (northern California, for instance), so they may not thrive here in the much more humid Southeast, but I guess they were worth a try.  They're planted in a sunny, sandy spot, so they're getting the best shot I can give them.

Most of the types of salvia I grow have already started sprouting new leaves.  On the left (below) is Salvia purpurea, which seems to have come through this mild winter with flying colors.  On the right is 'Blue Bedder' sage (Salvia farinacea).  (I think this will be the third year since I started it from seed, and it has been well worth that effort.  If these plants ever die out, I plan to start more.  They're reportedly short-lived, but I've been favorably impressed by them.)

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) has silvery-green signs of new growth, bog sage (Salvia uliginosa) never lost its leaves this winter, and I've shown a photo of forsythia sage (Salvia madrensis).  Even the 'Victoria Blue' sage has leaves.  (I say "even" because it has been kind of a weakling plant for me, dwindling and never looking particularly happy or healthy.)

The only sage keeping me on pins and needles is 'Pizzazz Purple'.  It's still early.  I'd just hate to lose that plant, because I loved it so much last year!  I plan to take cuttings earlier in the season, this year, and get a few new plants going.

A couple of lunaria (a.k.a. honesty, money plant, silver dollars) I grew from seed (from Nan Ondra's seed giveaway) have survived, even in their tiny little starter pots.  I'll find places for them in the garden, soon.  They should bloom this year, with luck.  This is one of those plants I've wanted to grow for a long time, so I'm curious to see how they'll do... Both plants are of the 'Corfu Blue' variety.

Lots of things are just now starting to leaf out.  I've spotted leaves on sky flower (Duranta erecta 'Sapphire Showers'), rose of Sharon, and (pictured below) butterfly vine (Mascagnia macroptera).

Some of the new Black Diamond crepe myrtles are covered in tiny leaves, while others are a little slower to start.

And the tea olives have really begun to be fragrant, starting last week.  It's strange... They've had flowers for a while, but you could only smell them if you deliberately took a close sniff.  Then, like a light switching on, their fragrance began to carry.  Wonderful!

The camellia is still in airy, delicate-looking bloom, too.

This afternoon, I spent an hour or two dealing with some plant clean-up.  There is much more to do, but it's still progress, and the sections I cleaned up look much tidier already-- though it's come to my attention that I'm nowhere near done mulching.  The early weeds are taking over!

The biggest visual impact was from the removal of an oddly placed branch of the large loropetalum (in the semi-shade garden).  I'd decided a while back that it ought to be removed, but it felt like a big move, because it was a sizable branch.  Now it's done, and I think it looks much nicer.  Having it out makes that one corner feel more open and "maintained", and I suspect nearby plants will look better for the extra room, come summer.  (No photos yet, sorry!)

Japanese Magnolias

We have two Japanese magnolias.
The one in the front is the younger and smaller of the two, though neither have (yet) grown into real trees, as they sometimes do.  

The flowers of the one in the front are the darker of the two:

The one in the back has lighter flowers.  The inside of each petal is markedly lighter than the outside, too:

I've noticed, driving around, that often plants bloom a little later here in our garden than they do in gardens not that far away. Is that an indication that our yard has a slightly cooler microclimate (certainly doesn't feel cooler in the summertime!), or is it more a reflection of variations in soil/water/fertilizer/etc.?

More Hints of Spring

The new oxalis (Oxalis tetraphylla 'Iron Cross') has put up new leaves, so I guess it was ok in the pot during those few cold nights.  (Phew!)  The plants are still very young and small, but the leaves are beautiful!

I don't think I ever managed to find a lucky four-leaf clover, as a child-- not enough patches of clover, not enough time, or not enough patience?-- but every single one of these has four leaves.  Do you think they're all lucky?  ;o)

Spring snowflakes continue to bloom.  That makes me feel lucky, too!

Donald commented that some of the new daylily foliage looks like tulip leaves.  I haven't had much first-hand experience of tulips because they don't grow well here (it doesn't get cold enough to chill them properly), but I've seen photos and illustrations.  I think new tulip foliage is usually fleshier than this, but there is a resemblance.

(Is that chickweed?  I think so... There's quite a bit of it around the flowerbeds, right now.  If I'm not mistaken, it usually dies back once the weather heats up-- only to replaced by other types of weeds-- but it wouldn't hurt to get out there and pull some of it.  That is, it would hurt my knees and maybe my back, if I had to kneel too long to pull it, but, well, you know what I mean...)

The remnants of the bog sage look skeletal and ghostly-grey in the early morning light...

The tea olives (Osmanthus fragrans) are in bloom, but most days, lately, the fragrance just doesn't "carry" very far.  It's there if you take the time to stop and sniff, though.

The new leaves of the "too-red" rose are probably the prettiest in the yard-- beautiful purplish burgundy.

I neglected to post these back when I took them-- January 20th.  There was a doe outside our fence that morning.  I sneaked a few photos through the window.  This is the first deer we've seen for a while.

One day, within the last week or so, we saw a handsome hawk perched (in broad daylight) on the new arbor (near the garage).  It's not the first time I've glimpsed a bird of prey either on the arbor or on our roof, but this time it sat still long enough for us to really see it.  There wasn't time to get the camera for a photo, unfortunately.

It's always a treat to see something wild like that, right in your own back yard.