Three for Thursday: Aloha

It seems appropriate that this rose bloomed today. 'Aloha' was one of the first roses I purchased from Antique Rose Emporium. I did so at my late friend Amy's urgent insistence that I truly NEEDED this rose.

It's especially appropriate today because I spent several happy hours with Amy's daughter and her family: 10 yr old Eamonn, 8 year old Ethan, almost 5 year old Evan and 4 month old Chloe. I gave and received a lot of hugs ... each time I did, I felt that I was holding a little piece of Amy as well. We visited a local park and it made me smile to see trees full of noisy young grackles, Amy's favorite bird. I can never look at them without thinking of her. Most people see grackles as the nuisances they can be, but Amy loved them for their spirited conversations and street smarts. And if you really listen to them, you begin to appreciate the nuances and amazing variety to their chatter.


It was a delightful few hours and I came away with a heart full of Aloha, in the truest sense of that word.

Wordless Wednesday: La Paz Amaryllis

Follow the Fellow Who Follows The Foliage ...

The Head Gardener promises that if you say that three times really fast, good things will come to your garden. (To those who scoff, she says it's just as likely as your receiving good luck from forwarding an e-mail to 10 people in 3 minutes.Or 3 people in 10 minutes.)

So it's the day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and I'm following the fellow gardener who follows the foliage, Pam at Digging. I ankled it around the garden this afternoon, foraging for photo ops while dodging raindrops. The first thing that caught my eye was the intricate pattern of foliage and buds on this Queen Anne's Lace.



The Virginia Sweetspire was a forlorn sight until a few days ago, when the new growth emerged. There are tiny spires of blooms coming on now, too.



This is one of the two Japanese Maples I bought on clearance at Houston Plant and Garden World late last fall. Watching the new growth emerge has been exhilarating.



Look at how beautiful these leaves are!

The ferns have unfurled new fronds of vibrant spring green.



The poppies are proof that you don't need blooms to be beautiful.



Back in September I bought bulbs at a nursery in San Antonio for Chasmanthe floribunda, a South African native with yellow or orange blooms (I bought 5 bulbs of each color). I had it in my head that they were a summer bloomer so I was surprised to see this bloom spike accompanying the striking architectural foliage. The HG did some research and informs me that I was either (a) clearly delusional or (b) appallingly lackadaisical in my approach to planting them. They were an impulse buy, that much I'll acknowledge. And I am wishing I'd learned a bit more about them before I planted them. The information I've found indicates that they prefer to remain undisturbed once planted. Leaving things in the first place I put them is not my strong suit. If I decide I'm not happy with where I've put them, I'll do my best to channel Tim Gunn and "make it work".

Marching On With Bloom Day

Although we're way behind compared to last March's Bloom Day, I'm very grateful for the blooms that I do have. I was downtown at the Chronicle most of today, adding plants to the database and lamenting the sad state of our gardens with garden editor Kathy Huber. We also discussed the fact that a prime opportunity for Houston area gardeners to replace some of our dead plants is coming up on March 26th & 27th when Mercer Arboretum hosts March Mart, its biggest plant sale of the year. I have a serious case of plant lust after hearing about some of their offerings.

After spending all day writing plant descriptions, my wordsmithing muscles have been flexed about as much as they can handle, which is why this GBBD post is more of an overview than an in depth report. The collage shows a bit of what's blooming this month on my corner of Katy. (Click on it for a better view.) Here's a more complete accounting:

• ROSES: Madame Antoine Mari, Madame Alfred Carriere, Mrs. Dudley Cross, Reve D'Or, Marie Pavie', Souvenir de la Malmaison, Old Blush, Mutabilis, Gartendirektor Otto Linne, Hermosa, Louis Philippe, Cramoisi Superieur, La Marne.
  
• BULBS & IRIS: Narcissus 'Grand Soleil D'Or', Leucojum, Freesia laxa, small white Iris, Amaryllis 'La Paz' (inside)
  
• TREES: White Redbud, Sinojackia, Redbud
  
• ANNUALS: Bluebonnets, Linaria/Toadflax, Alyssum, Violas, Dianthus, Snapdragons, Kalanchoe, Larkspur, Delphinium, 21st Century mix Phlox
  
• PERENNIALS: Verbenas, Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue', Engelmann's Daisy, Spiderwort, Louisiana Phlox, Australian Violet, Salvia 'Teresa', Salvia greggii, Salvia macrophylla
  

It's going to be interesting to see what's blooming in April. I haven't even seen buds on the poppies yet, the bluebonnets are just getting started and most of the larkspur aren't big enough to start forming buds. There's a lot to look forward to, I hope!

Thyme Out

I took a break from the garden today and went gallivanting with my mother. We traveled on down the road a piece from my corner of Katy to the tiny community of Cat Spring for their annual Antiques & Garden Show. Although it was a small show, it was a lovely day to be out roaming the gently (VERY gently) rolling hills of Central Texas. Right now only a few Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja) can be spotted and it's clear that the flora of the area is still feeling the effects of a long hard winter. In a few weeks the wildflowers for which the area is known should be in full and glorious bloom. Stands of Drummond Phlox were blooming on one memorable stretch of road and I came home convinced I must find a spot for such a planting. I didn't take my camera with me, dang it, so am unable to share their beauty. Although I didn't buy any antiques or yard art, I came home with two Rose-Scented Thyme, one of which is pictured above. They have a slight but pleasant aroma of rose-scented geranium. I'm experimenting with thymes as ground cover in some areas of the gardens. They look great right now but the real test will come in a few months!

Tomorrow is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and I do intend to participate when I get home from my day at the Houston Chronicle. I may even break out my new camera for the occasion!

It's A Good Thing ...

I have beautiful blooms in the garden to take my mind off things that go wrong ...

Sport of Mrs. B. R. Cant

because I'm thoroughly and utterly disgusted by the Suncast tumbling composter which I showed y'all a few posts back. Two weeks to the day after it was assembled and filled, one of the bolts holding the tumbler to the frame broke, causing the tumbler to tumble right off its frame. The cause of this unhappy event? I gave it a push to tumble the contents. Yep. It broke doing exactly what it is allegedly supposed to do. The Executive Producer took a look and opined that bolt replacement was not an option. Since that meant I'd be returning it to Lowe's, it was necessary to empty the bin of its contents (no easy task in the skewed position it had assumed). I neglected to take a picture of the composter in its broken state, and by the time I'd finished I was too dirty to do so! I cleaned up just enough to be presentable, loaded the pieces in the truck and returned that sucker.

I cannot say I would recommend this composter to anyone. It was assembled according to the instructions provided, which were adequate for purposes of assembly. However, the instructions for use post-assembly were minimal at best. Although the bin could be locked into one of six positions, no reason was given or suggestions made as to the advantages of one position over another. The only instruction was to lock the barrel in the upright position after each use.

Once the bin was filled, it was impossible for one person to lock the bin into another position from the upright position. The weight of the filled bin made it too difficult to put the bin in a new position and hold it there while moving the bolt into the appropriate hole. The position holes were drilled into two metal plates which were meant to lie flat against each other but were pulling apart from the strain. The carriage bolts used to secure the bin to the frame were also clearly not sturdy enough to hold the weight of the filled bin: one of those broke and the other was near breaking point. Since I had rocked the bin at most once or twice a day over the two weeks I had it, it had not been overused.

At $99, I thought this tumbling composter was a real bargain: clearly it was no bargain but a cheap imitation of sturdier and better constructed models. (The Head Gardener gives it 2 Green Thumbs Down and has given me a stern lecture on impulse purchases.)

Another bloom on the same rose ... I feel better for looking at it!

Friday The Head Gardener Rose Early

Another beautiful spring day was ahead of her and she wanted to get cracking! She had a LONG list of things she wanted us to accomplish today and although we didn't get to all of them (the woman has unreasonable expectations, as well as an exaggerated opinion of our abilities), we managed to knock a few of them off the list and had fun in the process. Here's a few of today's activities:

• Took pictures of a few things we wanted to share, one of which IS our fuchsia! True, we've only had it a week but isn't it gorgeous? And the name is great: Voodoo. It's doing that voodoo that it do so well!
  
• Planted tomatoes: 2 Sun Gold, 1 Green Zebra, 1 Jaune Flamme.
  
• Planted peppers: 1 Mucho Nacho, 1 Golden Summer, 1 Giant Marconi.
• Pulled weeds. And more weeds.
• Dug up and replanted 2 Crape Myrtles that were given to me at GWA to trial. Berry Dazzle and Razzle Dazzle were so small that our winter was pretty tough for them. I mean, they're basically sticks still. I'm hoping they'll settle in and grow because they're dwarf varieties that would fit nicely in the back border.
• Dug up and replanted the Flirt Nandina. Its red hues are better suited to the front gardens.
• Discovered new growth on one of the Durantas I thought was dead, Sweet Memories. I'm glad it was that one!
• Went a little wild and crazy with a four ounce jar of paint that we were supposed to be testing for application on the fence. We did manage to test it in a couple of spots and determine that it's not the color we want for the fence. It's a damned fine color for other things, though. Pictures eventually (if you watched FAWLTY TOWERS, that last word must be said with a Spanish accent.)
• Searched in vain for the wire brush to soften the results on one of the items that we wailed on.
  
• Gave the tumbling composter a few spins. We are not sure we're happy with this Suncast version. It's designed to rest in one of 6 positions but it's impossible to change the position once it's filled. There are 2 plates with holes through which a bolt shoots to hold the bin in place. The weight of the contents is pulling those 2 plates apart and not allowing the bolt to be repositioned. It might be possible with 2 people operating it (that would be 2 people other than the HG and me ... I need to get the Executive Producer out there to help.)
• Moved a few Penstemon seedlings out of the rock path into spots in beds.
  
• Took pictures of the tulips so we could share them once more before they shatter. This is Monsella. Is she not sublime?
• And this is Prinses Irene. I'm telling y'all, and the HG is unanimous in this, there will be a LOT more tulips planted at Wit's End in the future!

Back to the list ... dang, I can't remember what else we did ... I know there was more than this one last item. The Head Gardener and I are both too tired to remember! Our final chore of the day: pruned the Persian Vitex. We're both surprised this small tree wasn't more cold hardy and are in discussions about what to do next. We love the shape of the trunk and would hate to have to cut it back to the ground. The remaining limbs need to be checked for live wood before we do more pruning. Here's how it looked at the end of the day.


That's it behind the ladder, I know it's a little hard to see. By the way, this is the one where I created the rain garden underneath to keep myself from hitting my head on the low hanging limb. Guess what I did today????!!!!!!!!!!!!! The HG laughed at me ... I laughed at myself. It's beyond being annoying, it's just plain funny that I can't keep from bumping into it. I'd hang something from the limb but I'd just hit my head on that, I'm sure.

Stay tuned for Saturday's update on the fate of the Persian Vitex and more!

Three for Thursday: Phlox

It's that time of year, y'all ... I have become a gardening fool, a veritable whirling dervish of planting and weeding and planning and scheming. So if my posts are brief for a bit, bear with me. This Thursday's subject was suggested to me by the Head Gardener, who is all aflutter to see buds on two of them.

The Phlox pilosa so beloved of Gail at Clay and Limestone is coming back nicely after having been transplanted last fall. Will she prove to be practically perfect on my corner of Katy, too?

Below is Phlox pilosa 'Forest Frost', a white blooming variety that has really taken off for me. It's proven very easy to start from cuttings, a trait that the Head Gardener and I both applaud.


Then there's Phlox divaricata, the wonderful spring bloomer with blue-purple flowers and a tidy creeping/mounding habit. You can call it Louisiana Phlox or you can call it Woodland Phlox ... we call it delightful!


That's it for this Thursday ... the HG is tapping her foot and looking impatient so I'd best get back out there before she goes HoJo on me. That's another funny story I need to share sometime.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Bradford Pear

It's almost enough to make me forget their bad habits the rest of the year.

To Do List for Tuesday

"Let It Go" by Kelly Rae Roberts