Children of the Corm: A Charleston Garden Blog

Camellia "Pink Perfection"

2012-02-11T18:24:00.001-05:00

For a Charlestonian I have a shocking disregard of the local popular plants. I hate canna's, I don't grow meyer lemon trees or tea olives (yet), I dug up all the lantana kicking and screaming, and I own only one straggly camellia, a sasanqua, that while beautiful as can be, has scale so bad that I cannot get rid of it...after trying for three years. I even broke down and used the evil stuff after the soakings in neem had no effect. No dice there either... scale can get to such proportions that it can never be eradicated. Sasanqua's are known for it.

Sasanqua off of the front porch in December.... lots of bloom almost no leaves!
Sorry for crappy quality...apparently I couldn't be bothered to open screened door.

The camellia, unfortunately, is going to die from this, and I think this is the year I'm going to put it out of its misery. I already have 2 cuttings going so that I can keep the mystery cultivar though, because it is a very early bloomer (October) and blooms the same time the roses do in the fall, which is fantastic. I actually prefer sasanquas in form, truth be told.

Even my scale has scale on the few remaining leaves

But, now that I'm working on the parking garden, which has a combination of half-day sun, and full light shade areas I have a space in which to add a few large bushes where they will have room to grow. I've already placed 10 or so daylilies up near the front where the sun will shine, as well as a Carefree Beauty rose bush. On the left side, by the white picket fence (you honestly can't get away from white picket fence-lines on my property) I've finally landed a few azaleas too. What the area really needs are some large shrubs to hide the other neighbors hideous blank wall and the cars, and that is indeed the topic of this post, should I every decide to get to the point here.

Now, you might be wondering how it is that my one house can be surrounded by so many other houses, and you'd be right to wonder! In Charleston, because it was built when we used to cook over open flames, the kitchens were often housed in their own building, as were carriages, and even the in-laws, if at all fiscally possible. This means most of the properties have dependencies, and most have long since been split into separate residences for us hoi palloi. So anyhow, this explains it. Both my house, and the one next to me, with the massive garage on the shady side of my garden, each are part of old urbans 'estates' that have dependencies. Between me and my neighbors original properties there are six total houses, on very deep lots. The lots here, tend to be very narrow and have no front yards (zero lot lines), but are about 3 times as deep as you'd expect. One of these days, I'll have to draw it out for you, particularly as I start gardening on some of the 'shared' spaces. (i.e. they are getting all my pink knockout roses that I want to replace with something else). This also explains why there is such an abundance of fencing. Good fences, as they say....

Now, to the point, finally: camellias. As a rose lover you'd think I'd be all over these things, and I am, just they are expensive and I am slow to dig big holes. But I have been planning on lots of camellias eventually, once I get around to some good shady spots. Plus, they really are 25 to the block in every single color imaginable so I honestly can look out my living room windows and see some without having to plant anything. Who was it that said something about incorporating the 'borrowed' views?

I brought my first camellia home today though, and its a beaut! The local nursery's around here are chock a block with varieties because the bushes are so popular, so it was actually difficult to choose just one, but recently coming to peace with myself over the "buy large plant and wait 6 months to plant because dread digging the hole which takes hours" syndrome, I have decided that I can only buy one at a time. If I plant it, I can go and get another. Seeing as I'm not one of these people who wants another of the same kind, this really has no downside.

This is camellia "Pink Perfection", a japonica with nearly perfect flower form. The buds are huge and heavy, the leaves larger than average, and the hole digging is going to be a doozy (its in a 7 gallon pot). This is a relatively easy to get cultivar, supposedly a prolific bloomer, but very susceptible to root rot, so I hear, so not a good choice for clay soils. My sand for soil on the other hand... will still need sphagnum to keep the thing from frying, I'm sure.

Here's what I hope mine looks like in years to come.

But for today, it still looks pretty good. Though, its hole is not dug yet!

Throwing In The Towel and Lifting The Spade

2012-02-06T07:43:00.001-05:00

Workday!
As the sun wains on today, it is 76 degrees outside. Mild with a light breeze. A top 10 day of the year, weatherwise, and on a Sunday to boot.

This morning with my coffee, I was sitting outside and taking a look at the roses, which I hadn't pruned at all, and...they were all breaking dormancy! Those that went into dormancy, that is. Marie Pavie has been blooming throughout the winter, in total shade. So, I threw in the towel and pick up the trowel and decided that today was first real garden day of the year. I probably worked for 5 straight hours out there!

The remains of the blooms from Marie Pavie

I planted the bulbs that have been hanging in the refrigerator (southern solution to no frost), hard pruned the roses, raked up the leaf cover, put several bags of compost and mulch all around, and potted up the stolen rose cutting which is now on its way to bush-dom.

Rosa "Church Heist"

And finally, after sitting out there in their nursery pots all winter (I don't know how it is I don't kill more stuff doing this), I planted the Encore Azaleas out in the parking garden. That process is an hour in itself, because it involves digging through the gravel, then sawing out the roots of various trees both dead and alive to make some room. Then of course importing some decent soil mixed with sphagnum so that some water is retained. Then, planting time. I often wonder what it must be like gardening someplace that hasn't been an urban center for hundreds of years and doesn't have mature 70 foot trees all over the place? Are there places with fertile workable soil? Really? Anyhow, the parking garden is a big work in progress. Mostly still the work part, with a lot of the progress forthcoming. One thing that is looking pretty good is the 'hedge' of liriope outside the garden gate leading to the parking garden. It gives me hope that 2 years from now the parking garden will be looking as established, and not, well, like this second picture.

"Evergreen Giant" Liriope along the driveway... looking good even in winter

New Azaleas looking very small in their new home

My garden, still mostly sleepy, has turned a big corner in the past week... the no going back corner. Our average 'last frost' date here on the peninsula is Feb 11, but things are way ahead, and if we get a freezing night this year I'm hoping its not til next December. I think the latest ever is March 8, and thats a full month from now, so fingers are crossed. It is hard to imagine though, as the entire winter has been in the 60s and 70s minus a handful of days. Snowflakes are up, muscari nearly there, and even the tropical brugmansia has unfurled a few leaves.

Early Pink Trees and Daffodils

2012-01-29T12:21:00.000-05:00

Well, things are blooming a month early. I have spied with my little eye white Lady Banks starting to bloom and the saucer magnolias are out full bore at this point. We haven't had even what we would call a winter down here, and I can't help myself... I'm delighted. Nothing like a few extra months of 60s and 70s, no?

Here's a few pictures from around my neighborhood yesterday, come take a January walk with with me:

On the sidewalk..those Lady Banks are about to break

Saucer Magnolias are VERY early...

Of course the camellias are out too

Daffodils about to break through crazy vines

And here's a more wintery looking picture, taken on my walk to work a morning last week when it was actually foggy in Charleston. Thats a pretty rare occurrence here, anything resembling fog usually burns up by 5am in the summer, and its usually too breezy in the winter when the correct atmospheric conditions are at hand. It happens less than once a year, I'd say. This little lake down at the corner (an old mill pond back in the day) provided the perfect showcase. The night before I was sitting on my upstairs porch watching it roll in, thick as a blanket.

Love & Hate Relationship With The White Garden

2012-01-03T22:30:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite colors to wear is white...despite the pale skin and fair hair. Maybe not the best suited but, to me, it either looks sharp and cool, or dainty and girly. I probably own 10 white sundresses. Or maybe 20. 2 white suits, and a few additional white jackets.

Now my house has absolutely no white walls. Not a one. Blue, green, even Tiffany blue and purple brown, but no white. I would never, how boring, I think.

So in the rest of my color world its all very clear... very black and white (wink!), but in my garden I cannot make up my mind. I both love and hate white flowers in the garden.

Love, for example, is cohesive, dreamy and like my favorite white sundress:

But the ugly side (reality) is what stops me from planting much white in my garden:

The issue is that having a moon garden would be something worthwhile for me. My garden is at its best in March, April, October and November, when the days are short and it is twilight most weekdays before I get a chance to enjoy. But those dead white flowers. ick. they kill me. Nothing dies in the garden quite so ugly.

{please excuse the above use of these photos, they have been stolen off the web as inspiration many moons ago and I have no idea who to attribute them too. If they are yours, please let me know!}

How To Root Stuff Every Time

2011-12-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

I suspect every gardener has their thing... something that seems to come easier than to most people. Just like real life, I guess. You can't be good at everything, but every so often you realize that you indeed do know how to do some stuff.

As most of you know, I have just entered my 3rd year as a real gardener. You know, with dirt and all, and I have made a lot of mistakes. There is only so much you can learn from books and advice... eventually you just have to plant a plant, see it die and realize that it just isn't the right plant for the space!

Now in this short amount of time I have noticed that indeed I have a knack for something. To the tune of 100% success at doing this with absolutely no failures. I suspect, like much of 'skill' it comes down to a little bit of skill and having the natural circumstances be ripe for the doing.

I can root things. Any things. I hear and read about so many people having trouble rooting things such as roses or camellias and I just can't imagine why because, like I said, no matter what I try and root, it roots. Always. I know there are lots of competing opinions on how to do this, but I'll just add in here how I do it and why I think I'm so successful at it.

What you will need:
-cutting
-small clear plastic container
-roottone
-sphagnum moss
-gallon baggie

First I start with the clear (see-through) container in which to root... something small that will easily fit in a gallon baggy. I like to take the bottom of the either small milk containers or 16 ounce soda bottles... cut either about 3 inches deep and put a few drainage holes in the bottom. Nothing fancy and bigger is not better. Either for the cutting, or the container. Take it and run in through the dishwasher. The reason we want clear is because we want to see when the roots get established without the guesswork.

Second, after the plastic container has come out of the dishwasher, fill it to half an inch of the top with straight sphagnum moss. Not a mix, not with a little compost, not dirt. The reason for this is we are about to create a permanently extremely humid moist environment and we need a 100% sterile environment. For rooting purposes, the little plants do not need nutrients. I know that there is a lot of debate on the web about this, but let me repeat, I have 100% success this way, so I know this won't be the limiting factor.

Okay, water your container thoroughly, and leave it for a minute or two in the sink to drain a bit. Now, go find a pencil and stick a hole in the middle of the container about 3/4 of the way down.

Next, pick up your root cutting, which should be sitting in water at this point. Make a little diagonal cut at the bottom. The cutting doesn't need to be more than about 5-6 inches tall. Remove all the leaves but two. Dip the just cut tip into roottone and immediately stick in the pencil hole and snug up the opening if there is space. I have never not used roottone so I don't know how much help this gives, but hey, its cheap, and if it ain't broke....

Final step: Place the entire thing in a gallon zip lock baggie, and leaving as much airspace as possible, zip it up. Thats it. You will not unzip it until it is a rooted plant. Period. Not once. Don't do it. I'm serious. Leave it alone.

Pretty easy right? The other piece of the puzzle is where to put it. And it needs to be in a bright spot with absolutely no direct sun. Not even for 2 minutes, or you have created an oven. Mine all grow in my kitchen window which stays in moderate temperatures between 68-78 degrees throughout the year, and is opposite a wall that gets good sunlight, but almost all light coming through the window is reflected off of that building. It works great. If you grow orchids successfully, you'll realize that this is the same quality of light. The holy grail of "rooting stuff" light.

Most things root in between 2 and 5 weeks. Once I see roots in the container, I give it a few more days to grow a bit more, then I take it carefully out of the bag. Often, you'll also be clued in from the new growth on top. Water it and let it drain thoroughly, and then place it back, bagless, in the same spot for the next few days. Check the dirt moisture every day and make sure it stays moist. After these 2 or 3 days to acclimatize to the reduced humidity it is time to plant your new little plant in a bigger container. I usually move up to the standard small nursery pot (5 inches) and fill with regular dirt, around the sphagnum and 'rootball' of the new plant. I leave it in its place in the winter, or move it out into the outdoor shade during the rest of the year. After a few weeks out in the shade, and keeping it extremely well watered, I move it to part sun, and then a few weeks later to where I think I want to plant it. And voila. I usually keep mine in successive containers until about 6 months old, but I'm not really sure that it matters that much. I have a Zepherine Drouhin out there that I planted while still in twig status and it's done just fine.

I guess a final note is that the cutting should happen when it best suits your climate, and clearly the plant that the cutting was taken from can't be in a dormant stage. For some of you, thats most of the year, others, only small periods of time. I have taken cuttings from pieces ending in a flower, one that had just finished blooming, and right before blooming. I have had a mophead hydrangea root from the flowerhead and stem alone! I see no difference at all in the end result, so I suspect all those rules are made up to explain away why this or that cutting didn't take.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-23T20:43:00.000-05:00

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas, and eat lots of bad-for-you stuff. I hope for no cats in the trees, a warm fire in the hearth, and snow in places that can handle a white Christmas without causing city services to shut down for a week (like, not here please).

I wish for a perfect weather year for all of us for 2012, and wonderful perfect flowers, with well behaved bugs and a massive reduction in the squirrel population at my house through divine intervention. I hope for rain for Texas and less rain for NJ, and a new year with no hurricanes, tornadoes, nuclear power plant melt downs, floods, or earthquakes. I wish for peace.

No matter how many times I take this picture she looks like an evil dictator..
But Merry Christmas anyway.

So Merry Christmas to you! And may all your dreams come true. (unless your dreams involve squirrel proliferation).

Last Call

2011-12-01T07:14:00.000-05:00

Its the December garden saying goodbye til February, giving this gardener a little break from watering and weeding and clipping, and some time to daydream and plan and get the ol' garden fantasy juices flowing so I'm totally jumping the gun come Spring, and primed for another season.

Most have died, save a few roses and the evergreens. We are 'supposed' to have a 40ish degree night here about a week from now, so all the begonias are heading indoors for another harrowing indoor season with the cat. The last of the roses, have set their very last buds till spring too.

Bermuda's Kathleen, Last Gasps

Who'd ya think? Unstoppable, in full shade

Marie Pavie with the Star Jasmine

Marie Pavie, the most floriferous for late Fall, beating even Knockout

Sharifa Asma, being huge as only fall can create here.

I am gorgeous, and I smell good

Sharifa Asma, barely opened one. Baseball sized blooms in the perfect weather.

When Good Yards Go Bad

2011-11-25T06:46:00.000-05:00

I'm loving this "bad" theme here lately, so I think I'm going to start a sporadic series focusing on something I think a good deal about while shaking my head. Bad yard taste. And let me stop the hate mail here... I'm all for personal expression: garden gnome check, flamingo or two, check, wild garden for lawn check. But there are some things, I believe, that happen out there to yards, that we can all agree is just.. well, there's no nice way to say this: an abomination.

So here is my first entry to the "When Good Yards Go Bad" series, its worth clicking on to get the full effect:

Replacing all grass in front yard with Yaupon...hell yeah, all of it!

I give you not two, not three, but 4 rows of yaupon holly (and a short 5th if you look close), with rows three and four having no space between each other or between row 2. And even the two rows originally meant to flank the front walk are close to growing together. And lets not forget there was money changing hands for someone to turn this entire front yard into meatballs. I kid you not folks, these people, in a highly affluent neighborhood, have decided to fill their entire front yard with meatballs. I couldn't even get the other half of them in the same picture. They have another double row leading down the path to the back yard. I only wish I could get the whole effect on camera like you can if you happen to come across this place in town.

I love hedge, yes I do.

Easy Plant Spotlight

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

I get no pleasure out of gardening being hard. None whatever. I know there are a few of you out there who really do buy plants that require tons of work just because they require tons of work, but the most of us end up getting these pain in the butt plants because they are different and pretty and not something you see growing in everyone else's garden.

So, after a few years of hanging out in the garden blogosphere, I have come to notice that one of my killer, "so super easy its silly" plants that I inherited from my Mother the very first month I started gardening, NEVER gets mentioned. I mean, at all. Like my mother and I are two of the handful of people who are growing it on Earth. So, for some of you, do I have a treat for you: a plant that is a piece of cake, super 6+ month blooming flower bonanza that requires no care, grows in pots, or in the ground, or inside, along with other things, or by themselves, and comes in various colors... oh, and likes shade.

Courtesy of Grumpy Gardner

And its actually a rhizome/tubery thing that you can practically just throw anywhere and shove some dirt over. Have you guessed yet?

Its called achemines. (ah-kem'-ma-nees). Mine are the non hybridized originals that come with dark green leaves and dark purple flowers, but now they come in light pink, and medium pink, and every sort of purple, yellow and white. And I saw one on the web that was white and purple.

Mine started out as one small pot of them, hanging out in the shade. The next year I thought, hey, lets plant some of these as dress shoes around another plant, and after another winter when the annual partner died...then there were two pots. I upgraded the original pot to a large pot, which completely filled itself with them in a few months and bloomed all summer and most of fall. Apparently I must have left a few of the tubers (they are small), in the original pot, and now I've got yet another pot on the rise.

The Original

I let mine die back in the winter as I can leave them outside. I think anyone north of here would have to pick up their pots and bring them inside (just out of the hard freezing), but that would be the extent of your work for the year on them. As I understand it, you can even just bring them into the house and keep them a bit watered and they'll bloom all year long. My house plants have said I suck at house plants so I don't even try.

So obviously, if you live in zone 9a and higher I wouldn't plant them in the ground as naturalizing would probably be an understatement, but otherwise I can't think of a more charming, profuse, AND DIFFERENT, shade loving plant. Makes great hanging baskets because it's habit is about 1-1.5 feet but also the edges tend to sprawl over too as they get heavier, in a small pot this works well, and I have a circle stake in the middle of the big pot to help keep things rounded in the center.

Name: Achemines

Hardy: Zone 9a/8b

Type: Rhizome

Setting: Bright shade. Does not like direct sun, will scorch leaves

Blooming: Late spring til mid fall.

Watering: average, to slightly below average

Multiplies quickly

Bad Things (Part II)

2011-11-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a research paper that has held me up, my anxious garden friends, not jail. Though post graduate education is sort of like jail, come to think of it. It seems to take forever to get out, and once you are out, you're not quite sure you can integrate into the real world.

So just a quick recap, for those of you whom I can't induce to read the first part (hint), Bad Things, Part I, exhausted from staying up the night before, due to the arsonist, and returning home with a fresh new pair of pruners, the protagonist of this tale turned down the path of (mild)evil and decided to liberate two cuttings from their bushy homes in front of a non-abandoned church mid service..........

Before I continue, just so you can get a clearer picture of the circumstance, you need to know that I too am one of those people WHO NEVER DO STUFF LIKE THIS, not because I'm afraid of jail (that never even crossed my mind, you people really are a wee anxious, I must say!), but because I am a rule follower by nature and fall apart if I get caught doing anything. I don't even tell white lies well. So when I tell you my heart was pounding because so far all signs had pointed to this being a bad idea, I'm not kidding: it was pounding.

I looked to the left, I looked to the right, and saw nobody looking at the miniature parking lot with one extra administrative space, noticed nobody that looked like church personnel, then slowly, stealthily snuck into the spot. Finally, I was committed.... or was I? I had this herky jerky feeling as I put the car in park.. this was WRONG! Now, not only was I about to borrow rose cuttings, but I was also PARKING ILLEGALLY! This crime was growing exponentially! Its like lying, you cannot just tell one lie! Now I understand how people become career criminals... it can happen in mere seconds. Rose Rustling the gateway crime.

And, what if the m.i.a. church person came? I'd be trapped, potentially by a man of God, and then be forced to lie on top of stealing and trespassing and illegal parking! Caught up in this moral quagmire induced anxiety, I put the car back into reverse and started to leave. I really did, but just as quickly I reversed positions and said out loud to myself "Jess, people park in other peoples spaces all of the time.. nobody ever died of this, what is wrong with you!? Just get the (badword) roses already, you could have walked here 3 times over in this amount of time!" and then pulled once more into the space and turned the car running lights off. Good grief, already.

Now, let me tell you something, having a Prius has more advantages than gas mileage for those sneak-thief oriented individuals. It is totally silent if you are going under 10 mph or so. Meaning I could hide the black car in the dimly lit space, totally on, but not looking or sounding like it, and then run out pruners aloft, get the rose cuttings, run back in, throw it in reverse, and peel out silently in seconds flat. Its probably the best getaway car ever made, come to think of it, so at least I had that going for me. I looked up and down the street for a car that looked suspiciously like a church mobile, and seeing none I gave myself 30 seconds, and I was off at a trot, like a pro, clicking back the pruner safety as I ran.

The bushes, which are about 7-8 feet tall were encased in shadow, and looked nothing like their daytime counterparts. I couldn't see one stem from another. "Ah, this is finally going well, ya big wussy" I though to myself as I reached for the large bush to position the pruners. Snip. One fell into my hand. I reached in again, feet poised for the getaway, grabbed the bush and .... OOOOOWWWWWWWWHHHH! I looked at my bloodied thumb. The bush had meted its justice. I had a mega gash in my thumb from what could only have been the worlds largest and sharpest ultra-thorn. This by far was the worst gardening injury I have sustained thus far in life. I am totally not exaggerating when I say it could have killed me. Yes I am, but I want drama. And holy crap: now I had left DNA on the scene! All those years of watching CSI were for naught...I am the worst criminal ever!

Run away, run away! I took my one cutting, thumb in mouth, and ran back to the Prius, and peeled (silently) out of the parking lot. I didn't look back until I had reached the corner, the cutting tossed on the passenger seat not even in the carefully retained water.

I would love to tell you that somehow I lost my pruners in this attempt because it would be both fitting and a wonderful story ender, but sadly it wasn't the case. I made it home, 45 seconds later, no fuzz on my tail. Safe.

But there is a lesson in here somewhere, a real moral to the story, and just in case you haven't figured it out, this entire tale is to let you all know so you don't make the same mistake I did:

Do not pick roses in the dark.

okay okay, just kidding... and I know, I know. I did a bad thing.

Bad Things

2011-11-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

So, I did a bad thing. No I didn't litter or hurt anyone or any animal, but I did permanently borrow something. Without asking. Yes, it has taken me a while to work up to the deed. I pass by the tempting place frequently enough and just keep on walking. Sometimes I pause, but nothing more. But something happened this evening when I was driving home from Lowe's after purchasing ANOTHER set of hand pruners, having, I assume, thrown yet another pair out with the yard waste. I keep doing this. Trim trim trim, bag up for city compost, can't find pruners two days later. But as I was saying...

You see, I couldn't stop thinking about them, having seen them resplendent a few days ago on one of my walks. Outside a church that will remain nameless. Two of them, encroaching on the sidewalk, as they were. Taunting me.

And there I was driving home, in the dark, with sharp new pruners in the passenger seat, and a half filled bottle of water I stopped drinking abruptly when the bad deed crossed my mind. And just like that, I decided: I was going to do it. I was going to steal two cuttings off of the most magnificent rose bushes in all of downtown Charleston, under cover of darkness. Super double sneaky style.

And there's were things started to go not as planned...

It all started with this whole cover of darkness premise. Because the time had changed just 2 days previous I had this false sense of lateness. Also I hadn't slept well that night because there's a mad arsonist in town burning houses down in the middle of the night for kicks and having so far burnt 82 houses in the past 8 years without our top notch PD even having a clue, Monday at 4am another house was alight not two blocks from me. But lets not get me started on the arsonist here. Talk about bad things grrrr. So anyhow, I was driving the extra few blocks to the target flora, and as I approached the street (urban, buildings on both sides), I realized there were people all over the (badword) place. I checked the clock. It was precisely 6:22. (badword)! Now fortunately there was still a lot of darkness, because Charleston is just one of those places that tries to keep every block just light enough to film a Vampire movie. So my nerve held.

And then problem #2 became apparent. The Church WAS FULL of people too! On a Tuesday. Argh.

And then I realized the most troublesome fact thus far... because it was after 6, but not very far after 6, the evening parking restrictions were lifted and there wasn't a spot to be seen. I mentally backtracked. (another badword)! I hadn't seen any parking spots for many many blocks. Argh. Plus there were 4 unsuspecting cars stacked patiently up behind me, as Southerners inexplicably have the power to do, as I crawled past the church bushes casing them. I turned around looking at my options. My mental picture of rolling up to the church pruners reaching out of the car and lop lop was withering. But I also knew my puritanical other identity which usually rules when not exhausted and carrying pruners would never let this opportunity happen again. I knew it was now or never. My heart rate ratcheted up as I saw someplace to park... right between the two church buildings in one of the 5 spots labeled "xxx Church Staff Only. Violators will be Towed.

{to be continued}

No Longer In Zone Denial!

2011-10-29T14:23:00.001-04:00

You know when most people say that, it means that one winter finally came and got them and now they realize why it is that they are indeed in Zone xx. Well, haha! I was right and NOT in zone denial. The Zoning authorities were. Since I moved here I have thought again and again that despite my Zone 8b official rating, I am in Zone 9a. Not so much by what freezes here in the winter, but what WILL NOT UNDER ANY circumstance grow here through the summer. You of temperate zones might not notice, but many many many garden plants end their 'hot' zone at 8. Now technically Plant zones really are more about the freeze, but still, I have been extremely suspicious.

And now, all I can say is: I could have told you this three years ago. The peninsula of downtown Charleston is in zone 9A. The new area plant zoning map:

Sure, its the world's smallest zone area ever, but I KNEW IT! Plus, in 3 years, including one of the top 10 'coldest' on record for the area, my yard never got below 26 degrees. Last year the lowest was 32. Only for 2 days. SO there! We are regularly 5-10 degrees warmer at night in both winter (yay) and summer (ugh horrible), than 5 miles in any direction from home.

Now I have go tell all the lemon trees and brugmansia trees around town the news so they stop having to justify their existence.

Still Life With Cat and Drill Cord

2011-09-05T17:56:00.000-04:00

A Plant Combination Idea

2011-08-26T14:33:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here inside today, waiting for the (thankfully only) outer bands of Irene to whip my little garden to a smushed up mess. All the potted plants are inside though, and my statue is tipped over to the ground so it won't come out of this looking like the Venus de Milo or Winged Victory. I have potted roses inside, so the house smells quite lovely. However, Siggy went absolutely bonkers last night which resulted in the Garfield-ification of several plants. (sigh)

What goes on when you are upstairs sleeping....

Anyhow, back to the point, while I was moving in my pots yesterday I was looking around at what was fried to death and what was really working, and it dawned on me that I had a really good plant combination going on out there:

Rose bushes and 4'oclocks. They both love the full sun, and just as the bottoms of the roses get a little blackspotty and lose leaves, those 4 o'clocks are growing taller and filling in every available space underneath. Plus they tend to sprawl outwards a little underneath, which is nicely hidden by the sturdy rose stems. Of course right at the moment I can't take a picture so you'll just have to trust me, but here's one from about 2 months ago where you can barely see a white one coming in under the roses. Sorry that's the best I've got from inside here.

I have spent the past 2.5 years slowly trying to select only the dark pink 4 o'clocks out of original seed packets I put down and its slowly starting to work out. I still have some whites too, which are nice at night, but I've eradicated the yellows. I also steal seeds from the sidewalk 4 o'clocks that I see that are the fuchsia pink color. It is a near 100% match for the 'red' version of the knockout rose and, well, I'm telling ya! Its a good combo for the late summer garden. Mine reseed easily and they require no care, but don't also seem to mind the extra water they get by being with the roses.

One thing I will say though, they really do need full sun. I have some planted in part sun and its just not the same. I'm thinking 6+ hours minimum. And for those of you who haven't been near them before, they have a distinct smell at night which I love.

I hope everyone in the path of this storm has a nice safe weekend.

Just give me something to talk about...

2011-08-16T12:38:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick stop by to say I'm still here and will pick up my regular blogging shortly. Its mega summer here and just like last year, July and August produce next to nothing to talk about (as all I do is try to keep things alive and try to stay indoors as much as possible!)

Anyhow, September is coming and I'm starting to imagine good things. Talk to you all very soon!

Image Courtesy of Shorpy.com

Love ya, Jess

You Know What I Hate?

2011-07-08T18:47:00.003-04:00

I have a problem in my garden. Last year, it was a little problem, something was cutting round and oval holes in fleshy new rose leaves on my Madame Alfred Carriere rose climber. I did a little research because the evidence is pretty specific... I mean really? How many bugs cut perfectly round and perfect little oval holes in your plants?

There is just one and I can tell you who does it: Leaf cutter bees. They use it to create nests to grow more leaf cutter bees.

This year, in March, when all the new leaves were leafed out, they did it again, and much worse this time, decimating 100% of the new growth on the MAC rose, and also completely decimating all the new growth on the Carefree Wonder rose. But, I sighed, they are good for the garden otherwise, and its just the first flush of leaves so I'm going to let it go. Well, ahhemmm! Those little bastards DO IT EVERY 2 months on the dot. This is the single thing that does the most destruction to any plant in my garden. And it has to stop NOW.

It actually is rather aggravating as I'm going around looking for solutions to this problem and every website keeps saying, "aw but the little things are great pollinators, aw, be THANKFUL they are in your garden." I feel like smacking those authors. And frankly, IT IS COMPLETELY A LIE that chemical insecticides won't kill these little creeps, because they will, and frankly, its one of the reasons that they think the bee population might be going down. Though I think this might be gross speculation (experts will tell you they are stumped as to what is actually causing this, as bee's lived quite fine through years of DDT), I'm personally not a fan of killing off bee's myself, and I'm pretty sure insecticides in any form for any reason isn't the greatest of ideas.

But people who should know better need to stop talking out of both sides of their mouths. And lying about it saying, 'oh, they don't eat the leaves, they use them as nesting, so insecticides won't do any good' is an insult to my intelligence. And frankly it can backfire too, when lets say someone thinks that they are going to use insecticides to get rid of some other garden pest and then it wipes out the bee population. No insect needs to eat a pesticide for it to be effective, they nearly all work on contact. Its why they highly recommend you wearing gloves when handling the stuff - they're pretty sure you aren't going to drink the stuff, but its dangerous to get it on you.

And when is the last time you received a rose from the nursery with 100s of little round holes cut out of the leaves? Right, never huh? So there IS a solution, and it isn't live and let live!

Anyhow, this madness has got to end, because my carefree wonder shrub, in a half a day has lost 50% of its leaves. We have a long growing season here, and the bees reproduce every 60 days, so we cannot live in peace, because they obviously don't understand when enough is enough. And no, I'm sorry, if any bug or disease was completely defoliating your plant you would not think warm and fuzzy thoughts about these cute little creatures. The balance of rose leaves vs leafcutter bees in my garden is not sustainable, as they are going to kill the damn roses.

So does anyone have a good effective suggestion before I go and actually pesticide the hell out of these two roses? I really would prefer not to pesticide even two plants, but I need this to stop. The Mac rose is a climber and it isn't reasonable to 'cover' it. And searching out 'rotted' wood and removing it is laughable too, I live in Charleston, land of faded grandeur and glorious decrepitude. Everything is rotting, constantly. I'd have to pull out the neighborhood.

Oh, I'm young and angry today.

A Walk In The Woods

2011-06-28T09:20:00.003-04:00

Enjoying their lovely summer weather, everyone in the garden blogosphere (particularly those in New England and real England) keeps posting about their wonderful jaunts into the woods, and all the ferns, and ladyslippers and cute flowers they keep encountering on the way. I can imagine the temperate air with the breeze in my face, and I can smell the damp leaves and hear the brook in the background.

But here, I can't. I drag out my air machete to chop through the air so humid it now has atomic weight, the high pitched buzz of mosquitos sings in my ears and the sweat is dripping down my...everything. The air is completely still, and let me check, oh hey not bad, 97 degrees.

But still, for the blog, I too must go for my walk in the woods. I don my alligator repellent tshirt, and head out in my trusty black car (I bought this car before I became a card carrying member of the South, OBVIOUSLY), and I zip over a bridge. (Click all pictures to enlarge to pretend you are here with me - trust me it makes a difference.)

(Hey, I'm serious! do it!)

Ah, the woods!

Marguerite (my post inspiration) commented last post that its easy to forget how different each of our climates are, because as things are all relative, we all complain about the cold when its cold to us, the hot when its hot to us. I also stubbornly plant a garden thats not really all that indicative of what a lot of people grow around here. Ick canna, be gone!

Anyhow, the woods here are beautiful in their own way, sort of a vampire way, its true, but still very beautiful and they are filled with cool stuff too. Not hills, dales or valleys mind you (the highest point around here for 500 miles was that bridge we crossed to get to these here woods, at a whole 30 feet)... but we do have ruins!

As hard as it is to believe, vestiges of the civil war still exist around here and this one, at least, has taken on a roman ruin quality.

Okay, moving along, lest the mosquitos give us some fell disease, what else do we have... oh, swamps! The word sounds awful, and we are now supposed to use the politically correct 'marsh' (which doesn't sounds any more appealing to me than swamp, and like the swamp cares what we call it), BUT they are also truly very pretty. And more filled with wildlife than anyplace else I've ever been, this side of East Africa.

Our swamps are filled with cypress and tupelo and the water is stained black because of it. Not that you would want to go swimming in it anyway... there is no such thing as fresh water swimming around here, unless its lined with blue plastic. All freshwater is inhabited by alligators and really mean turtles. I'm not kidding. Those cute little things can kill! They have dinosaur claws too. There's also these fish that jump backwards out of the water, called mullets, and well, they probably can't hurt you, but you know what they say.. you are definitely a little backwards if you're caught sporting a mullet. So for life, limb and social acceptance, its just best to steer clear of the fresh water altogether.

So, there you have it. My little walk for today is complete. I hope you enjoyed it, cause I don't plan on going without AC for this long again until late September when it gets back to being a great place to live around here!

Beyond the Picket Fence

2011-06-26T13:31:00.001-04:00

With a few exceptions, which can only be completed when it cools down, and of course some tinkering, the garden in the white picket fence is chock full. For now, I can do no more. I still have to replace the hedge screen hiding the hideous and huge furnace, which also requires replacing the fencing there, but that will be done when I can be outside without risk of heat stroke, severe dehydration and possible death. It involves digging up privets, digging a bunch of post holes and doing this amongst a front row of roses which I don't want to dig up if I don't have to. So, yes, definitely putting that off. Its funny, I almost never take pictures of that view, because despite how pretty the roses are, the rest of it is such an eyesore I pretend it doesn't exist. But the dang photos don't seem to have my brains ability to edit out all the stuff you don't want to see.

So anyhow, instead of doing this, I'm moving on to the next garden at Chez Children of the Corm, what will be hereafter forever known as 'the parking garden.' Here is the inaugural 'before' shot. What lies here now is a very large pecan tree, some runaway lirope, and while now underground, a seriously beautiful amount of Summer Snowflake (Leucojum Aestivum). These have populated this area en masse pre-Jess, and bloom in February, one of the very first things out of the ground. The rest of the space, and even under those weeds, all around the tree is gravel. I've mentioned that this house used to be a college rental and there are still many vestiges of these days, like encasing a tree in said gravel.

My plan, which is ill-formed at best is this: plant things that are extremely drought resistant. My second plan is try not to do too much damage to all the summer snowflake bulbs hidden there. My third plan is that I need to get that gravel up, and it is a doozy of a job. However one that can happen 30 minutes at a time each morning. Because of the compacted gravel it cannot be shoveled, and even the hand trowel doesn't get too far. Its all about the hand cultivator and the hand.

Final plan is I got my mom to donate a host of drought tolerant daylilies when she divided them. Woohoo, and I accepted delivery a few days ago. This area gets only morning sun, so we'll see how that goes, but I can envision a swath of daylilies here next year, can't you? Isn't my Mom cute with her little labels, knowing how I can't stand not knowing what things are? She's made them waterproof for me so I can just stick the stick in right beside the plant when done.

Famous, at last!

2011-06-23T22:38:00.000-04:00

Well, as of a few hours ago, and without my knowledge until my blog statistics went through the roof, my statue became famous because it showed up on the front page of Apartment Therapy. Yes thats right, this picture was snagged and if you check right this second, you'll see its still on the front page if you scroll down. (here's the direct link)

As a longtime reader (and former NYC resident) who has been reading that blog since infancy, I am smiling like a cheshire cat. And for those of you who followed the statue selection saga you know how I agonized for a year about trying to find a statue that would be tasteful.... well this article is about just that, tasteful garden statues! Pshew... I fell in the right category.

Yay. Here's the winning pic again:

10 Shade Tolerant Roses

2011-06-16T12:26:00.001-04:00

Standard rose lingo has most of us believing that to grow a rose you need 6 plus hours of sunlight. We'll I'm here to tell you it just isn't so! Many many roses will do totally fine with less than 6, and some frankly with less than 4 hours of sunlight. One of the unusual benefits to growing these shade tolerant types is that they tend to also be disease resistant types as well. This is a huge benefit because one of the disease proliferating agents to roses is too much shade, so its all for the good, and make sense that if the shade isn't stressing the plant, it won't contract the diseases.

Sharifa Asma

I actually grow quite a few roses at my house which out back gets ZERO direct sunlight from Nov-Feb. March and Oct, the shoulder months, moves from 2-4 hours, and then the late spring, summer and early fall months I get varying amounts of sun (from 4 to 8) depending on month and garden position. Living in the city, my garden deals with shadows from buildings, mature trees and fence lines. Anything that wants to live here also has to contend with fierce root competition. And yet, my roses really, for the most part, have no issues. And it is a total wives tale that roses need sun in the winter too. They are DORMANT then. Yep, totally no activity, so no, they don't need sun. Ask anyone who lives up north where the roses either die back to the ground, or they live close enough to the poles to be getting less than 4 hours of dim light a day, and they can tell you... roses grow just fine when the sun returns.

Knockout

Here are some shady rose rules:

Rule number one, is pick the right roses, and they aren't hybrid teas. Period. Sorry.
Rule number two is that once blooming roses tend to need less sun as a whole than remontant (reblooming) or perpetual roses. Having one of these in your garden is generally worth it, because the once a year show tends to be beyond spectacular.
Rule number three is hybrid musk roses, as a class, are more shade tolerant than others.
And Rule number four, they have knockout roses growing in the medians of the highway for a reason.

Okay without further ado, here is the list of roses I know you can grow successfully in under 6 hours of sun, because I do! A * marks a rose I know can make it perfectly fine in even 3-4 hours of sun, as I have them growing in such conditions.

Ballerina - probably my favorite

1)Ballerina, Hybrid Musk* (seen blooming like mad in less than 3 hours of direct sun)
2)Any of the Knockout Roses, Modern* (seen blooming in almost no direct sunlight!)
3)Marie Pavie, Polyantha
4)Madame Alfred Carriere, Noisette (Climber)
5)Carefree Beauty, Modern* (mine lives directly beneath a large pecan tree, still covered in blooms)

Carefree Delight

6)Sharifa Asma, English Rose (this rose is new to me, but seems to be doing best SO FAR in part sun vs full sun.. the blooms and leaves do fry easily)
7)New Dawn (Climber) (this does fine in 4-6 hours, but definitely doesn't bloom to potential with less than that)

New Dawn

8)Carefree Delight, Modern
9)Eden Climber, Modern(Climber)
10)Lady Banks Lutea, Species

Carefree Beauty - super drought tolerant too.

Marie Pavie

Considerations about my garden: There is no spot in my yard which is dense shade, or even medium shade. Even zero directly light is pretty bright out there (light shade), because I live in the southern US. This makes a difference to some degree. No rose will bloom in deep shade. Some roses, on the margin will get blackspot in the shade more frequently than it would in the sun. I do not have major blackspot issues in my garden, and I 100% attribute that to smart rose choices, because my climate is primo ideal for it, and I have had other plants with blackspot like fungal diseases. I do get powdery mildew badly during the summer on non resistant plants (phlox and beebalm primarily), but my roses so far have been immune. However, all of my roses are on a drip irrigation system or are in containers where the water situation is heavily managed. Obviously, some of these are warm zone only roses, but not all of them.

Madame Alfred Carriere Climber - Z8+

Something I cannot comment on, though maybe others can, I don't have a big bug problem on the coast here (the mosquitos are only after us I'm afraid, and the palmetto bugs aren't after anybody they are just gross), so I have no idea how likely these are to have major bug infestations. I've never seen a thrip or a spidermite in my garden, for which I am eternally grateful. Outrageous humidity all year 'round does have its privileges. Okay, so yeah, thats the only one... so far no Japanese beetles either. Just too much concrete for them in the urban zone, is my guess. I do have a perpetual slug problem, but none of the above roses are affected. I think there is just too much else that tastes better out there.

Do any of you have some good suggestions for the not only 'shade tolerant', but 'shade is swell' rose bush varieties that you have tested with your own eyes?

Lady Banks

Coneflowers In The Heat

2011-06-01T11:12:00.000-04:00

I think those of us in the South can officially say that Summer, full blown, is upon us. It hasn't rained in two weeks, the steady breeze (WIND!) we have 6 months of the year has disappeared entirely, the sun is shining with nary a cloud, the dew point is in the 80s and the temperature is in the 90s. Nothing quite like those first few days of waking up at 7am to sullen 85 degree temps and climbing to put a shock to the system. After a lovely Feb-May, my garden is now soon to be entering the "just hang on to life until September" portion of the year. This is payback time.

Though I can't totally enjoy them like I do the flowers that bloom in the spring (its been too hot + humid, even in the shade, to sit outside the past few days), my coneflowers are stars of this time of year, and really through til October. They are amazing flowers.

Merlot Coneflowers At Twilight (from last year)

Some in Charleston say that echinacea purpurea is more like an annual here, but that hasn't been my experience, and I'm not sure why that would be the case? We certainly have fast draining soil!

I have three varieties in my yard. The first up and currently most bountiful is Kim's Kneehigh, which is about waist high. Seeing as I put it up front in my garden, idiotically following the plant tag, I'm probably going to have to move this at some point. The stems are a bright green and the flower petals are an almost fluorescent pink. They are highly reflexed within the first two days of opening.

Kim's Knee High Coneflowers In Profusion Outside Now

Coming up next for me, and showing its first several blooms are the Merlot. I have two of these, but one of them I accidently weeded the first leaves. Oops. It is definitely a noticeable setback, but it still lives! These flower petals are more of the traditional coneflower pink, but the stems are nearly black looking and the eyes are blackish too. The large flowers don't reflex all that much and remain primarily straight daisy shapes.

First Flower Of The Season For A Merlot Varietal

My final variety, Prairie Splendor isn't blooming yet. The leaves came out about a month later than the other two varieties, and is just now starting to bud. From memory I believe this to be the totally traditional coneflower. The nice thing about this is that it created a baby! Now the baby is right in the middle of the beebalm (haha take that beebalm, beating you at your own game!), so I'm not sure how well thats going to work, but we shall see.

Merlot, From Last Year, Flower Faces Up Close

Aside from human weeding damage, the only other issue I've had with them is that the slugs get them. I have a bad problem with slugs here and certain plants they love. One of the plants had a seriously slow start thanks to being mowed down by the slugs, and the others all have some tattered looking leaves to show for them. Not sure what I'm going to do about these slugs. I've killed hundreds of them and there seems to be no end in sight.

Waaay Taller Than Knee-High (see Salvia at right for knee-high plants)

Garden Changes By Nature

2011-05-19T20:42:00.002-04:00

From last year, when the garden was a foot deep heap of magnolia leaves and a few japanese holly ferns, til today that little world is a different place. It actually looks.... pretty. Unfinished, still, but pretty.

The back garden before I owned it

Another view of the back garden before I owned it

But some of the most breathtaking changes are ones that have happened without me. Last year when I started shoveling out dirt for garden plants, the dirt was like a dry silt, mixed with some broken concrete pieces of a project gone awry from years past. It didn't even look like dirt. 2 healthy doses of compost manure last year, and always spending the time to amend every hole intended for a plant has lead to each shovelful this year containing worms. You build it, and they will come. It is amazing to me, as I don't know how they figure this stuff out so quickly? Wormy scouts? I mean, they don't have eyes!

Within minutes last year of planting flowering perennials, I had bees happily roaming from flower to flower, doing their life's work. Now, I can sort of understand how they might have come across flowers in the once barren wasteland. "Fred, you aren't gonna believe this... I was just zooming back from the Ashley sunflowers and took a small detour because there were a couple of suspicious birds, and remember that old place to the left of Ashley? The one where you accidently mistook that half buried beer can for a tulip (snicker)? Well, there's flowers all over the dang place... come on, before anyone else finds it.

"Oh come on now, Pete, I was just over there not two weeks ago... I think you need to lay off the pollen beer."

By fall of last year I was graced with butterflies and moths, had met my first two snakes, had a close encounter with a curious hummingbird, and my garden became a happening spot for carolina anoles far and wide. Every day the lady teenaged lizards are putting on coconut oil and basking in the sun. They sigh those lovely southern sighs as they watch the hunkie older males take down mosquitos with their strapping tongues.

Sometimes these little things take your breath away. Its like they have come to visit me, because they like me, they really like me. As ridiculous as this all sounds it does make me very happy to know that they wouldn't be here except for me rolling out the green carpet for them by wanting a garden.

Fun With Layouts

2011-05-13T19:51:00.004-04:00

After spending what totaled a disgusting amount of time, I was finally able to put together a floorplan of my back garden space. It might be another year or two before I create the other two (front garden, parking garden) unless I get a lot faster at this.

Double Click for Larger View

Anyhow here it is! This is what I prattle on about over and over and over and over. But I figured it would be nice to see the entirety, which is impossible in a picture. (click to make a reasonable size). The best I can get is from the guestroom window.. I am not climbing a tree to get the opposite view! This is the garden inside the white picket fence, and the liriope in the beds right outside the picket fence.

Click For Larger View

I spy with my little eye:
-8 rose bushes and 1 climbing rose
-1 jasmine vine
-12 monstrous liriopes
-4 ugly varigated ligustrums whose days are numbered and who will be replaced by boxwoods and roses
-2 tree like chinese ligustrums
-1 palm tree
-5 hydrangeas
-2 potted japanese maple trees
-2 nelly moser clematis
-3 holly ferns
-1 autumn fern
-1 large fatsia bush
-1 sum and substance monster hosta
-1 beautyberry bush
-lots of sunny perennials on the southern exposure
-little grill
-1 tree stump, from sayonara to southern magnolia
-godawful furnace, and much less conspicuous heat pump
-lots of creeping mazus on the way up the path to the statue (who is conspicuously missing - I can put in a compost pile, a dog house and storage locker, but no statue...some programs are not brilliant)

A Visit To An AARS Test Garden

2011-05-05T14:51:00.003-04:00

The All American Rose Selections committee each year recommends what it considers to be the highest quality roses that have been introduce to the market during the calendar year. Most years there are between 2-4 different varieties which get the AARS stamp of approval which takes into account novelty, form, color, aging quality, fragrance, habit, vigor, repeat ability, and disease resistance. Each year in 10 sites across the USA these roses are planted and watched to garner the rating.

Temptation

I happen to live about 70 miles away from one of these test gardens, at Edisto Memorial Gardens, located in Orangeburg, SC. At this AARS test gardens, along a lovely stretch of the Edisto River, they have maintained nearly every single winner since 1940, along with other donated heritage and old garden rose varieties. These donated OGRs are healthy in this area, including a large variety of Noisettes, a class originated in South Carolina.

Looking over a sea of Opening Night, 1998

So what's it like to come upon hundreds of varieties of roses winners, planted in drifts of 30-50+ of each variety? Its overwhelming! I started out taking a picture of each and every one, and made it through about the first third and gave up, deciding to take photos of only those that struck my fancy after that point (and more than 300 pictures).

Donated Noisette

It is interesting to see these 'best of' selections en masse, both because you can see how styles have changed through the past 70 years, and you get to see what types of roses regularly are winners. There is no doubt that the AARS favors hybrid teas and floribunda roses above all others. Recently though, shrub roses have begun to pop up in the ranks on a regular basis (such as Rainbow Knockout, 2007). They also have a huge soft spot for the graduated color roses, those that go from white to pink to red, or from yellow to red, or from yellow to orange, etc. Orange seems to be one of their favorite colors in general, along with brilliant reds, whereas white roses are few and far between throughout the years in comparison to all other colors. Yellow, on the other hand, has recently had a comeback, with nearly half of the past 5 years roses of that hue, including this years winner. Most of the winning varieties were magnificently fragrant, and specifically fragrant in the classic tea rose scent. There were a few though (Cherry Parfait, 2003) who carried very little scent whatsoever.

One of the wonderful things for me, living in the local area is that ability to see these roses in local climate reality. While many roses were still blooming, it is after the first flush here and I could witness roses who were downright ugly in the post bloom stage (Bonica, 1985), who had a tendency to terrible balling (Tournament of Roses, 1989) or whose habit was not for me. I could see those that stayed three feet and those who grew 10 feet tall, which as a hybrid tea looks pretty odd to me!

Bad Balling on Tournament of Roses, 1989

Unballed Blooms are Beautiful though. Tournament of Roses, 1989

A few of the notables for me (no photo retouching, these are the actual colors, in the worst washout 1pm lighting too!):

Gemini, 2000

Showbiz, 1983

Can double as a nightlight! Carribean, 1992

Strike It Rich, 2007

The oddly named Seashell, 1976
If I came upon a seashell this color I'd fight a battalion of shell seekin' old ladies off!

The very famous Double Delight, 1977

Midas Touch, 1994

Crysler Imperial, 1953 Best Red Bush IMO. Great full shape.

Bazillions of very double flowers and no balling on: Secret, 1992

Elle, 2005 who was incredibly fragrant too

Glowing Peace, 2001

Lady Elsie May, 2005

Daydream, 2005

And my breathtaking favorite, the Garden Party Rose, 1960. This rose has the standard hybrid tea shape, but I can ignore that, given the huge fragrant blooms. Love it. I might just have to procure myself one!

ps. no flowers were picked in the making of this blog post, however, it almost killed me to not take a sample of the Garden Party. Particularly seeing as I was all alone in the gardens minus a middle aged couple with Queens accents, the lady of the couple shouting intermittently, "Hennnrrrry, wheres the purple one Henry? I don't see the purple one." "Hennnry?!" "yes, dear" "Henry, where's the purple? I don't see the purple." "To the right dear" (without looking up). This of course went on for a good 10 minutes before the wife called him an old fool and stomped off.

Dr. Watson At Your Service

2011-04-25T18:25:00.005-04:00

Who am I?

I ran across the beautiful specimen of a plant today and had to purchase it. It was from a bush and tree nursery who occasionally have a smattering of ornamental plants. This place is mainly to the trade so I wasn't immediately indignant that there wasn't a tag on it.

When a woman came up to ask me if she could help, I asked her what it was, and she said, point blank, Foxglove.

To which I said, "this cannot be foxglove." I said it out loud too, which is highly unusual, being a relative newbie gardener, I try to keep el moutho firmly shut out in the real world so I do not look like an idiot. For some reason, to you folks reading here, looking like an idiot is much less an obstacle.

Anyhow, she repeated, foxglove. To which I said, "you cannot possibly convince me that this is foxglove. First of all, it does not resemble it in the slightest, and second foxglove would be a crispy critter after a day in the full sun where it is currently sitting. Honestly, foxgloves are 3 or 4 feet tall with bells and tall spike form. Haven't you ever seen one?" To this she started digging around through all of the pots looking for an ID card and came up with one that said, "primrose." Oh for heaven sake, I thought, it didn't look like primrose either.

I could have better accepted primrose as a possibility, yet by now I was dubious. That this lady was seemingly convinced one minute it was foxglove and another minute it was primrose was highly suspect. And in light of the fact that it didn't, on the face of it, resemble either, yet she seemed to be completely unaware of this fact...

I couldn't help myself. I hauled off, gathered speed, and gave her the big fat hairy eyeball... so hairy one could reclassify it as a furry eyeball (but I would use a tag so people wouldn't be confused when choosing between hairy and furry eyeballs).

For some reason this woman was running around this nursery pretending to work here... this could be the only explanation. As dear old Holmes would say, when you've eliminated the impossible, whatever is remaining, however improbable, is the truth.

So having solved that mystery with swift efficiency, I brought the plant home and got out my smoking jacket and pipe and weird little hat (I forwent the cocaine... you have to draw the line somewhere with these rhetorical devices.) I began studying the facts. The flowers, in my vastly inferior experience, resemble something like those of torenia or even more like those of a thunburgia vine (blue sky flower/blackeyed susan vine). The habit and leaves looked nothing like either, this has simple medium green leaves, opposite, appearing from the bottom through the mid point of the stem. The stems are blackish, stiff and thin. The flowers are a bluish purple, non waxy, relatively small and seem to pop up one after another on each sprig, but not all together. Its about 12 inches high, with an obvious tendency for sprawliness, and was basking in full frontal Southern sun. It also sat for 15 minutes in the parking lot locked in the car on the way home while I stopped by Jack's Comic Dogs for an Omega Dog and a diet coke. The steamy 115 degree sauna inside the car had no effect. Tropical, I presume?

Foxglove indeed. Such treatment would have surely left an ordinary foxglove looking like a wet noodle with a dress on. Armed with my trusty pipe and MacBook I preceded to type in all descriptors I could imagine might fit this plant. I searched for look alike flowers. I searched for full sun tropicals that might fit the color and description. I searched for black stemmed flowers. I even searched for South Carolina natives hoping maybe it actually came from around here. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

So exasperated, I finally typed into Google: primrose foxglove. And you're not going to believe this. 7 entries down, on the first page, the very first entry that was speaking of a unique plant (not a varietal name of foxglove, or foxgloves with primroses), I see a plant called Asystasia gangetica. Also known as Ganges Primrose, Creeping Foxglove and they've added a third name to which the generally associated plant has zero in common: Chinese Violets. Sure enough, its my plant. It's not genetically related whatsoever to foxglove (digitalis), primrose (primula or oenothera) or violets (viola), but it hasn't stopped the official plant naming committee from trying to confuse gardeners as often and as thoroughly as possible. Honestly people, do we lack that much in the creativity department that we have to reuse names?

The moral of this story is that I am obviously no Sherlock, but instead a total Watson. And one should probably not be throwing around hairy eyeballs no matter how much evidence is stacked against another person. Sorry, lady at the nursery. You were right, on both accounts, whether you knew it or not (this is still a mystery). I guess you probably do work there after all. Maybe.

But I will add myself one pat on the back.. it is indeed related to thunbergia, and it is tropical. And now that I've researched it, looking at just the stalks and form, it does look a heck of a lot like some ruellias, to which it is also related.

The Sound And The Fury

2011-04-22T11:44:00.007-04:00

For the past few weeks, as I'm sure a lot of you have either witnessed or heard on the news, the south has been getting some destructive storms... wind, hail, tornados. A week ago, we were on a two day alert about the white cell that eventually laid waste to swath of about 4 states. It didn't even rain here, even though our weather people were predicting 100% chance. Not a drop.

That all changed yesterday as a mother nature came without warning, again making me realize that checking the weather is completely senseless (as telling me its hailing when its hailing is not all that useful, I've noticed). They do not know and the illusion that they do can only serve to bite you in the ass.

The hail was one thing, mostly about bb sized, with some about dime sized and a few that looked like wadded up pieces of hubba bubba. I noticed this because the hail was coming directly sideways into the west side of my house and were skidding across the upstairs porch. You could see them doing high fives with each other and brushing the pollen off. Woohoo WILD RIDE MAN!

The bigger issue was the wind that was sending it horizontal. First, I was scared for my windows as the smack that they were making against the panes sounded pretty brutal. Then I looked outside and saw the whipping circular motions everything was making on the east side of my yard... it was an 'ut oh' moment. And here I was thinking JUST that morning that it was nice that we were having our normal thunderstormy type weather this summer, which I felt sure was a great improvement over the past two years where it never rained all summer.

Even right before the storm, I was outside thinking, yeehaw, I don't have to water, because this thunderstorm is going to take care of it. Well, and then some. 60 mph winds. 60. On the rocks.

Stupid weather. Why can't we just have normal? NORMAL!!! I am sick to death of coldest winters and hottest summers and droughts and destructo storms.

So the destruction included the toppling of two newly planted maple trees (fixable), the flattening of anything tall in the garden (pathetic and not sure how to fix), busted and now flowerless roses, and the destruction of all the just emerged THIS WEEK foxglove. Hate. Seeing Red. Flames, flames on the side of my face. Broken in half with most of the flowers unopened.

Also very angry at myself too as I had plenty of stakes sitting right there.... Well, I hope it at least took out a few squirrels. And the rat that chewed through my cars window washer fluid hose... again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Garden Pics From My Actual Garden!

2011-04-18T18:23:00.003-04:00

Things have finally filled in to the point that I can get a good couple of shots without a dead looking hydrangea in the frame. April 2011 is weeks ahead of last year. The star jasmine is out in its full glory, and the first flush of roses beat out nearly everything in the garden. Cleome is up and blooming, though significantly shorter than normal for bloom time. The salvias are looking like its mid June. The coneflowers, beebalm, and garden phlox are totally ignoring all this and are all about 4 inches high, wondering what the heck all the rush is for.

The jasmine, as you see, is definitely blooming, so obviously the disease from March didn't kill it, however, it did lose most of its leaves. New leaves have come up, but it is looking about as wimpy leaved as any jasmine I've ever seen!!! Still, its not dead, and no longer losing any leaves. Hopefully I can keep it clear for a year so it can recover can get a little less tragic looking.

#sfgirlbybaycontest

Finally, a close-up of the Showy Evening Primrose, so you can see why I didn't rip it entirely out this year. It is so invasive but so pretty. I have to pull some out every week to keep it in check.

I Think This Pretty Much Says It All

2011-04-16T06:04:00.010-04:00

Grumble grumble, squirrelly bastards...

Through A Different Lens

2011-04-12T06:19:00.005-04:00

I've said before that Charleston is a garden that happens to have some old houses in it, and at no time is this more apparent than April. The pink trees and the camellias might be gone, and the lady banks roses, wisteria and azaleas are the next to be history for this year, but now everything else is out. All the roses. Jasmine and pittosporum. All of them are blooming and the scent is wafting down the streets. And it is so picturesque.

In Charleston there are other people besides me who wander around smelling the roses with camera in hand. Frankly I'm a halfhearted amateur. Joan, on the other hand, runs a blog which features a picture a day from Charleston and the surrounding area. Many feature architecture and gardens, something you can't escape, and something many of you have commented on here in my pictures. She also is very quirky and sees the lighter side of life (her quirky label tab is a riot). So today, I'm all about 'stealing' some of her fine photos to show you how lovely Charleston is through a different lens. If you like what you see, go check out her blog for a daily dose! Its one of my favorites and I live here. And if you don't live here its like a mini vacation walking through the streets.

All photos courtesy of Joan via Charleston Daily Photo:

When Wildlife Won't Stay Put

2011-04-07T03:00:00.009-04:00

A few other bloggers around the blogosphere have got me thinking about the wildlife that shows up in my garden (and in my house) regularly. Heidi, at Gippsland Gardens in Australia has been visited by a two foot long lizard, and Jean, in Maine (or Pennsylvania - I can never tell), is discussing her efforts to remove non-native invasives and encourage native species. And myself, well last night I had a two hour mad maniac cat on my hands. The true definition of wildlife. While she's looking relatively calm today (and also looking like she's trying out to be the "I'm a Mac" commercial spokeswoman), at 10 pm last night she was going bananas and hanging from a wall mounted painting.

Aside from trying to save the antique barware underneath said painting by moving it out of maniac cat's way, I also had to take the picture down and show her that there was NOTHING behind the painting or anywhere on the painting. There's a good lesson here, btw, on why you should mount your paintings with correct picturing mounting hardware.

Anyhow, she still stood posted for at least an hour afterwards, occasionally rattling around in the barware. At midnight, as I'm about to pack up my toys and go to bed, I see out of the corner of my eye a little form quickly moving across the rug in the dining room. It was definitely a lizard, and this AHHA moment came over me. My thought that it was a no-see-em bug that got away was wrong. It was this lizard all the time.

I looked over to my right, where the cat was curled up on top of a pillow looking at me, but from that position could not see the lizard. I had to act fast. I casually drank the water in my water glass, and sauntered over to the dining room, pretending that I was just cleaning up for the night with my dishes, and quick as I could tried to scoop what I could now see as a tail-less gecko into the glass. It didn't work. I tried again to corner it against the wall, and in between my feet, and again failed. Siggy was upon us (the cat). Fighting her off with my left elbow, I cupped my hand and smacked it straight down on the gecko. No time for gentleness at this point. Safe to say I got his gecko self into the glass and out of the backdoor where he belonged, safe and sound minus the emotional trauma and a tail. Which is probably amongst the barware. Unfortunately, lizard vs cat usually ends with dead lizard at my feet and Siggy sitting there looking immensely please with herself. So this was a victory.. or was it?

Really, this is all a very long introduction as to how I found this gecko, who clearly walked into my house, and is not native to South Carolina. As a matter of fact, no geckos are native to South Carolina, and currently NONE are said to inhabit South Carolina. However, this gecko, the turkish gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, who I recognize clearly from living in Florida (and who is also distinctive), is definitely here and I bet he's not the only one. He's an invasive from Europe and will shortly be all over the place, so maybe I should have let the cat get him. I just couldn't. He eats bugs after all.

SC does have a ton of lizards, and many a time I hear people talking about the geckos. What they usually mean, really, are the green anoles (carolina anolis) which are native here and quite ubiquitous. I have a bazillion of them in the garden hunting bugs all day. Green anoles do look a lot like the green geckos popularized by Geico, and hence the confusion... I think. However, now I'm going to have to listen up and quit dismissing these people because clearly there are geckos here, despite what SC Game and Wildlife seems to think. Florida obviously forgot to build a glass dome around its borders to keep the lizards, crazy book burning pastors, Disney princesses and the "driving while technically blind" elderly from escaping.

Anyhow, he's an alien. Seeing as this is the only gecko I've seen, whereas I see 50 or so green anoles every day, it doesn't look like their native habitat is being harmed by the gecko, but what do I know? Technically, anoles are daytime operators and geckos nighttime operators (another reason why I never even thought of a lizard in the house, despite that we've gone through similar scenes dozens of times). And given how buggy the South is, you'd think there would be plenty of food to go around.

What do you think? Did I just free Adam of the Adam and Eve pair that will now populate all of South Carolina to the detriment of other species?

How To Age A Brand New Cement Statue

2011-04-03T18:58:00.002-04:00

My favorite statues are those that look like they've been there forever. They sport mossy nooks and stains from rainwater, and they are worn around the edges. Any statue left in a shady moist environment long enough will take on this look with time. But the time component is the kicker. We aren't talking one year, or even two, but many many many years, and I just don't have that sort of patience. And, apparently, I don't have the patience to wait around and find the perfectly seasoned statue at an estate sale.

Now some people like bright white statues, so this 'how to' is definitely not for you, as I'm sure you'll be of the opinion that it looked better before. However for those of you who like the look of aged, and have an urn, fountain or statue which is still looking like it stepped off the showroom floor, I have a cheat for you.

Here's what you'll need:
-Little tubes of acrylic paint. Black, a mossy (not bluish) green, and potentially a brown.
-A kitchen sponge
-Water
-a 3-4 cup container (nonstaining)

Mix a few cups of water with just a dollop (like half a teaspoon) of the green paint. Mix well. If you are a nervous nelly feel free to make the mixture even more watered down, because this is permanent so you can always add, but you cannot take away.

Take the sponge and totally soak it into the stain and then start squeezing it above the statue letting gravity and the natural shape of the figure dictate where the water will run. This is what is going to give you the most natural effect, just as it would had the drippings from a tree been the agent. I did this 3-4 times over with the light green concoction.

Repeat this process with a dollop of 1/3 green and 2/3s black. I did these a little more sparsely, but with the same method, over the top of the statues head in order to simulate how this really happens. Do not be alarmed if the initial effect while wet seems sort of dark and streaky. It dries much lighter.

Finally, if you like the slightly rust colors that occasionally show up in nooks and crannies repeat the process with a medium brown/burnt sienna mixed tone. I did this very sparsely, literally one spongeful.

And voila: brand spanking new off the show room floor statue looking quite a few years older than she did 30 minutes ago, without that fake "applied by the manufacturer" look. I am going to leave her at this point and let nature take over from here.

Before

After

ps. if you hadn't noticed by now: I did it! Finally, I got a statue! It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it was very cheap and I just had to go ahead and bite the bullet. Mission accomplished, as I like her and to me she doesn't look out of place or gaudy, and will only look better when the clematis and jasmine vines behind her fill in. Phew. Good thing because she weighs 200 pounds easy.

Garden Statuary Redux: Naked Women?

2011-03-24T21:58:00.002-04:00

So its been a year since I decided that I wanted a statue for my garden, and even left a place for it to stand, unplanted. I have hemmed and hawed, and looked at lots of cement but for some reason I have not been able to just bite the bullet and get one! There is something about 'stuff' in the garden, to me it either seems to work or REALLY not work, and the exact formula for why this is isn't apparent. Haven't you seen those yards that look like Zeus came and threw up on them? I can't help but think 'wannabe NJ mafia' every time I see them! (and if you are in the NJ mafia please I mean no offense, its just our styles are different you see). I've also seen garden gnomes gone awry, and country kitschy which veered into "I've also got my VEE-HICKLE up on blocks on around the side o the shed." But I have seen all of this done well too, and while I jest, it isn't just an overabundance that makes or breaks it. Its something else, or lots of something else's.

Anyhow, so here I still am with no statue. I have narrowed the choices down, and I vacillate between non-naked ancient females, and more modern female forms more in the art deco vein. Cutesy is out, as are Buddhas, St. Francis's and Mary's on the half shell. Animals are out, and while I like really like the ideas of gargoyles and fairies I don't think either really fit my personality, and frankly, gargoyles just don't hang out near white picket fences. Its against their very nature. There is nothing gothic about my home, unfortunately.

Now on the naked, how do you feel about that? I consider myself the opposite of prudish, and believe many of the 'naked' works of art in this world are just wonderful, however I wonder if I got one of these goddesses with boobs showing if I would ever stop saying to myself, "hmmm, that boob is out." Something about having a life sized boob hanging out in the garden day in and day out just doesn't say "restful" to me. And heaven forbid there was ever a sub 35 year old male that had to be back there for any length of time while keeping up a normal conversation that didn't mention the fact that there were boobs loose in the garden.

I have also thought briefly about some other ornamental item, i.e. a fountain, or a large urn or a combination fountain/large urn, but these just don't seem to be doing it for me either. What I want is a statue.

Here's the latest in the slew of considerations. Any of these strike you as tasteful and workable? I am scared to death I am going to bring home some totally gaudy 100 pound albatross. Because once the deed is done I don't think you can take it back! And it won't be easy to hide either....

Assume my version would be fully covered!

Garden Fiction

2011-03-20T22:20:00.001-04:00

This time of year nothing is moving fast enough for me. The winter wait is over, the early spring rituals of cleaning up the dead and fertilizing the "soon to be" has been completed weeks ago, and now all there is left to do is wait. And wait. Despite the fact that when I go out each and every morning with my coffee to inspect each plant and do indeed find progress, it is never enough. More dirt than plant is visible to the naked eye and though I know those perennials with a few leaves sticking out of the dirt will definitely be several feet wide soon, I can't help but tell them to get with the program already.

I cannot get my mind off of gardening, basically, and yet there is nothing to do. In times like this I turn to my other great hobby, reading, to satisfy my gardening fantasies.

We all know there are tons of non-fiction how-tos and non-fiction pictorials of gardens great and small. We spend our winters with these books at our side plotting and planning for future gardens. However, what really fills my fantasy world at least, during this time, is fiction books ABOUT gardening and gardeners. They are not as easy to sniff out and not nearly as common, but what fun to curl up with a good story and still be immersed in green and dirt and flowers.

Below is a selection of fiction of various kinds that I think might be worth a read for the garden crazy person. I hope you enjoy!

Historical Fiction
Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory

From the lady that brought you The Other Boleyn Girl, we have an historical fiction novel set in the 17th century. In this novel the main character is a gardener, John Tradescant, who is a botanist, gardener and collector in the time of King James I. This is a very interesting look on what it would have been like to be a gardener to royalty during these times, and seems to answer some of those questions that come up when we visit old manor homes and the fabulous gardens that were wrought during those earlier times. "What must have it been like?"

Classic Fiction
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

If you have not read or re-read this classic as an adult I highly recommend you run right out and get a copy. I suspect this book of childhood discovery in a secret walled garden might have created many a gardener today. This is a must read.

Trash Fiction

In The Garden Trilogy by Nora Roberts

The books in the trilogy, Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, and Red Lily follow a few years in the life of a group of women operating a nursery in Memphis, Tennessee. I'm not going to lie to you, this is trash fiction at its finest, with every heroine in her turn (each book) taking the lead in finding purpose, solving internal problems and of course, finding Mr. Right (who was right in front of her face, all the time). Some standard cliched light romance stuff, however the main plot is actually a ghost story. In a garden, no less. This is perfect beach reading.

Children's Fiction
Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman
A great book for young and old alike. This novelette follows the progress of a community of ethnically diverse people who have come together to start a community garden in a vacant city lot. The story is told through the eyes of thirteen different characters as the garden, and the sense of community are born. This book is the perfect story to read to that curious child or grandchild in your life, and one that you will enjoy just as much as they will!

Modern Literary Fiction

The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

For a more solid literary piece with emotional and philosophical heft, Barbara Kingsolver's book about the lives in a small mountain farming town fits the bill. Obviously, this book isn't about flower gardens, however, it does touch on the way of life of people who live on the land, by the land. As an aside, her non-fiction work, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which reads somewhat like fiction, is a definitely must read.

The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth Von Arnim

A book ostensibly about what the author does with a garden one summer of her life set aside to spend all by herself. Set in a small village, this story has brilliant descriptions of her garden plants, so much so that you can almost smell the scent off the pages. Another great read by this author, also botanically related, is Enchanted April. I highly recommend both.

Additions For the Spring

2011-03-15T13:20:00.000-04:00

As garden madness approaches fever pitch, I though I'd mention the 'upgrades' to the garden this year. Hardscape, I got nothing. Softscape, I went and bit the bullet and got myself all underdirt strung up with soaker hoses. I am going to do my best to avoid powdery mildew and outrageous water bills this summer. Granted, if it ever chose to rain during the summer that would help. (hint, hint Mother Nature).

But of course the new additions of note are the plants.

Image Courtesy of Antique Rose Emporium

I have added another antique rose to my collection. Rosa "Ballerina," which is a single with appleblossom like flowers, and a heavy repeat bloomer. Or so they say. Also a nice fragrance. It is a hybrid musk from 1937, chosen because it is not in a full sunlight situation. It will get about 4 hours of direct sun, and another 5-6 of very bright indirect/reflective sun. I'll be keeping you updated on how this 'shade tolerant' varietal does.

I purchased 2 additional Blue Storm Agapanthus to join the other 3 clumps I already have. This varietal is shorter, by a good foot than the ones I dug and replanted from my Mom's garden, though it is the same traditional color. I have had good success with getting these to bloom profusely and immediately, and I do it by literally planting them directly beside each other with zero 'room'. Works like a charm. Some times indeed you should listen to your mother.

I couldn't help but buy this tiny miniature rose from Lowe's with its perfect pink color. It was labeled as 'Rosa'. I can't tell you how obnoxious that is to me. Come on now, you are telling me the person who planted this rose didn't know what type it was? I will probably have to spend the next 20 years trying to figure out what it is. I guess this is their solution to their terrible mislabeling of plants! Before long everything there will just be labeled "Plant" or "Your guess is as good as mine."

I have bought two more urn style pots to plant the remaining $2.25 knockout roses I was able to acquire last November! (4 gallon sized roses for 9 bucks, steal of the century). They are already blooming in their nursery pots they've been stranded in since last year. I am really bad about this. Its amazing that I actually don't kill stuff more often. I know this whole urn potted rose thing works because I have a red knockout from last year that managed to become a 4 foot tall bush in one. Knockout Roses are tough as nails and would probably qualify as a weed if people didn't like them so much. They'll grow in anything!

After last years crazy tropical look in the shade corner, I'm going to try for a little different look this year, and acquired a couple of double impatiens to make the area a little less tropical looking. It was cool and different but really not my cup of tea, particularly set against the sunny rest of the garden. I'm not sure what else I'm going to do with this section... particularly if the persian shields come back. And they might, it wasn't a particularly cold winter here.

As an aside, guess who I saw out today?? My little guy doesn't get sun at all til mid February due to the massive garage next door and the angle of the sun. Now he's in the sun full time but my guess is he's going to be a few weeks later than your average Lady Banks.

Pink Trees & Camellias Around The Block

2011-03-08T20:55:00.002-05:00

Take a walk with me.

Down the sidewalk we have white flowers peeking out of iron fencework. Whoa, don't clobber yourself on that shutter.

Ah, some beautiful Saucer Magnolias (Magnolia x. Soulangiana) are out on the left, and a beautiful camellia on the right.

Back across the street I spy some more Saucer Magnolias and some unknown pretty pink trees.

And there are no flowers yet here (though they have grand gardens) but look at this ridiculous (in a magnificent way) house! I keep hoping to run into the owner at the grocery store so she'll invite me over to drinks and let me check out her (entirely walled) garden!

Continuing on, here's another camellia just about to break out and a little face on a palm tree guarding the house.

Rounding the next corner what do we have here?? A nearly perfectly round red bush. The Queen of Hearts would be proud. But wait... do I see a bit of white under that red!! oh, no!

One more bit of pink hanging out behind the aspidistra. Oh, wait there's another hidden down a driveway. He's looking mighty stripey.

Turning again on the next corner I see my favorite pink bush on the block though... the one in front of home sweet home.

Out, Out Damned Spot!

2011-02-28T11:00:00.007-05:00

Well, it has finally happened... after a full year of fooling around in the garden with little a care or bother in the world, never covering our mouths when we coughed, touching plants left and right without handwashing, leaving weeds all over the place and other general misbehavior.

Yes thats right, The Children of the Corm garden is... diseased. Under quarantine. Fungus coming out of our ears.

It all started on a brilliant warm muggy day last week when I went to my car like I do every day, and passed by the large jasmine vine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) I have growing over a 15 foot section of fencing. Hmm, I said to self, why are those few leaves bright orange? Eh, I'm in a hurry, I said to self.

The following day, also bloomed bright and humid and I looked at the ground outside the fence and noticed that the now pretty orange leaves were on the ground. Hmmm, I said to self, must look into this when get chance.

Zoom by a week, because time flies, as they say, when you are not paying attention to your plants well-being, and there are now many many many orange leaves, even more on the ground, and every single other green leaf now has big spots.

The nursery confirmed that I had a major case of fungal leaf spot, and get this... the jasmine is going to lose ALL of its leaves. Distressing under any circumstance, but considering this lovely (or formerly lovely) plant is supposed to be blooming in just over a month, this just sucks.

Decisive action has now been taken, (after a week of sloth, but lets not remind me). The jasmine will undergo three separate 10 day apart drownings in fungicide... so will all plants near it. So did the other jasmine on the other part of the fence just in case he even thinks about fraternizing. I have bagged up the diseased leaves and will continue to do so.

Hopefully that will rid my garden of the pestilence. Secondary action was also taken. The nursery has instructed me to fertilize the plant like a maniac, every week until bloomtime in hopes of pushing up some new healthy greenery on what will shortly be a bunch of strappy twigs running all over the fence.

sniff. He was sooo pretty last year, see? now look. I took a walk around town today noting that nobody else's jasmine seems to be a mess. I passed dozens. All of them green and leathery healthy as can be. grrr.

Not only that but I'm back on the claritin. The only thing I like about cold weather is it equals no claritin. Acho. Meh.

You TOO Can Build Your Own Trellis in just 30 Minutes!

2011-02-21T12:31:00.004-05:00

I've been looking for a trellis for a climbing rose I planted back in May. As one might suspect, it did quite a bit of growing since May and is now in big need of a trellis. A big, substantial, tall, won't be bullied by a monster rose-type trellis.

But here I have had several problems and no, none of them have been from laziness. I know, its always a possibility, but not this time.

First, as do a lot of houses in coastal flood plains, my house sits on 3 ft. tall brick piers. This makes my doors, windows etc etc, (other visual clues) 3 feet taller than one would suspect just by a casual glance. Basically, meaning a 6 foot trellis just ain't gonna cut it, it will just look stupid from the back step only 3 feet higher. Not only that, but the climbing rose itself grows along the lines of 15 feet or so. I needed a taller trellis than I could find available around here, which was 86 inches, for those of you who are counting. (7 ft 1 inch, for those who can't do math).

Also, the space I'm trying to fill against my house really needed a 3 foot wide trellis. Not 2, not 4, not a fan. 3 foot wide. Apparently nobody else in the world has a commercial need for this product.

And finally, online I found a few in the 96 inch plus area that I was hoping for, but they were 100 dollars plus shipping! I am waaaay too cheap for that. So finally fed up with fighting that rose to get out of the back door I drove myself to Lowe's and built me a trellis. It was a piece of cake and I'll never buy a trellis again in my life.

Here's what you will need:

*5 pieces of 1x2x8 (or x10 or whatever height you want) in cedar (or any rot resistant wood)
*a drill, with a drill bit
*16 aluminum or stainless steel 1.5 inch-ish screws. Aluminum/stainless or you'll be pulling out rusted ones within the year.
*tape measure
*a cat or child to make the process 3 times as long and more dangerous for all involved

You won't even need a saw, because what you are going to do is walk your 5 sticks over to the saw area in Lowe's, bat your eyelashes, and ask the guy there to take 2 of those pieces and cut each of them into two 3ft pieces, 2 six inch pieces, and whats left will be a one foot piece (which you will not use but maybe your dog will like).

The guy will probably smile and ask you a stupid question such as whether or not you know to use aluminum/stainless steel screws. Stick your tongue out at him. How dare he. You know this. Just because you are wearing very cute 3 inch heels and awkwardly dragging 10 ft boards around in Lowe's does not mean a damn thing.

Take all this home. Total cost: $15.68 (assuming you don't have to buy a drill)
Lay out your design on your living room floor. Such as this:

Take a tape measure and decide the midway point (for me at 1.5 feet) and decide how much side overhang you want (for me it was 4 inches), for you it might be none. Line up your four 3 foot long cross boards and draw a line through all of them where those 3 upright stakes are going.. straight is best but close enough is close enough.

Now take your drill and put your drill bit in and drill pilot holes in the middle of each line. Do not drill into your hardwood floor. It is tempting, but much better in the end if you avoid it.

Repeat the process for the 3 longer pieces - just don't drill all the way through. Figure out where you want the cross boards to go and then measure it out, stickem together, draw a line and then drill. Make sure you leave at least a good foot at the bottom to sink your trellis into the ground. You could measure each one of these out individually but its a total waste of time. The lines work just as well.

Once all drilled get out your trusty screws and if you haven't messed up all the holes will align and you will have a nice pretty cedar trellis. I would suggest securing the top and bottom cross bars first to make the thing easier to square. Unless you are going for that drunk parallelogram look, of course.

I attached the 6-inches pieces to the back of the uprights to allow me to attach this to my house without having the trellis directly beside the structure. Into those I'm going to screw in a hook screw which is going to attach to the side of my house with a matching eyehook screw. If you don't live in a windy place and never get hurricanes, I guess you can skip this step all together. I take no chances here.

I painted mine with 2 coats of leftover latex white paint so that it matches the architecture of my house and the white picket fence, but being as it is cedar, if left alone it will get that pretty weathered look in a year or so.

So a reminder why we are doing this: similar substantial trellis, if you could find it: $100++, this structure: $15.68 plus one half an hour. That, folks, is $85 dollars that can be spent on plants, while telling significant other you finally bought that trellis. And no, you don't know how that drill hole in the living room floor got there.

Graveyard Gardens

2011-02-16T15:49:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure anyone does creepy graveyards as good as the South.

A couple of blocks away from my home is a churchyard cemetery. Charleston is a relatively dense city downtown, where zero lot line houses and narrow lots line the majority of the streets, tasking people to be creative in their garden growing tactics. Sometimes I see quoted though, that Charleston is a city inside a garden, and it really does seem that way some days. No matter what structure you are looking at, or what purpose it may serve, it is festooned with plants and greenery growing out of every available crack.

This cemetery is no different. It is a wild garden which is in bloom of some kind 10 months out of the year. Today, the paperwhites are up.. the smell of the place is insane, there are so many of them growing around, amongst and even in the graves. While most of the greenery is still dormant in February, a few camillas still are holding onto their wintertime blooms, and there is evidence that at any moment the banksia roses and the summer snowdrops will be joining the party. Hydrangeas, mostly sticks are showing little pricks of green.

Can you imagine what this place looks like at dusk?

The Second Year Garden

2011-02-12T21:16:00.002-05:00

I went out to the garden to do a little work for the first time since December. The rotting remains of once vibrant leaves, looking like zombies of their former selves, are coating all the available dirt. The ephemeral-ness of gardens sort of pisses me off. Sigh.

I learned a lot last year from my first gardening year. Most of what I really tried to make survive, did just fine, despite less than an inch of rain during summer. Yes, the entire 3 months, with 89 straight days above 90.

But today, I am ripping out my mistakes none the less. Lantana is a great plant for this area, but I have to face it. I hate it. It just smells awful to me. Its unkempt in a way that does not appeal to me. And its downright huge. I pulled the biggest offender out of the back garden today, and the other 3 in the front garden's days are numbered. Life is too short and there are too many other things I want to grow for lantana to be in my life anymore. (if any of you Charleston people want a 4x4 ft lantana plant you just let me know).

I also moved the butterfly bush. It is also too big and needs too much sun for where it fits. So he's gone out back to the parking area where he can have all the room and sun he can stand. I won't really get to see him much as he lies beyond the fence... but hey, my neighbors will be happy come August with this great purple bush growing where weeds once grew.

Showy evening primrose is doing a little too well, and I ripped out half of that. Now that he's very established, and in an idea situation, according to the experts, he better be covered in blooms or he's gone this time next year. Too invasive.

I got rid of the crinum lilies (gift to my mom). They just aren't me. They grew well though. And by the way should you ever want to dig them up they the bulbs are the size of eggplants down there!

I got rid of the Sedum (Autumn Joy). For the time it was blooming it was great... but at least here, it looks like giant broccoli for 80% of the year. Just not me, and doesn't match all the other flowers in that super sunny portion of the garden.

The yarrow, which I cannot keep from the super flop, is also going to Virginia, as soon as things thaw up there, where it can be planted in the 'ignored' bed, and just be a field flower.

In the spaces left by all this, I am adding some more of what did great, AND I loved. I will be adding a few more coneflowers, more agapanthas, more area for cleome to reseed, and a few more rose bushes. I have another hydrangea whom I got for 4 dollars in late November and never made it out of its pot. And its out there putting out buds, despite his severe neglect. I have planted a start of blue sky vine (Thunbergia Grandiflora) which was stolen (the cutting) from a neighbor (I hope he forgives me, and cringe if he saw me out there at 7am trying to cut the piece with my keys). And when the time comes in May foxgloves will again be the star of the show around here.

For full year top performance at my house anyway the awards go to the various rose bushes and the coneflowers, they really didn't care that we had a real feel temperature of 104 for all of July and August. As far as annuals go, the angelonias, torenias and African bush daisies are the winners and they will all be back, in force.

Finally, I also learned that I can't be a full time blogger. I just get too distracted, so I think what I'll do is just post when I have something to report or show, and if its twice one week and then once in 3 months, that will just be the way that it has to be!!! I want to do it, but I don't want to stress about it!

Happy Gardening 2011 everyone. I have the next two weeks to clean up and get the garden ready for the race, and then we're off to a year #2!!!

Before and After: What Can Happen in Just 6 Months!

2010-09-03T12:44:00.000-04:00

A couple of posts ago I took a shot of the palm tree corner of my garden, commenting on the overgrown quality of a few plants, and it got me to thinking. I have lots of pictures of this corner, having started it from scratch in March.

I love posts from others where I can see time march on, though because I see this little corner every single day I sort of forgot what it used to look like. Many say that it takes years to fill in a garden, and perhaps it does, yet Mother Nature has done quite a bit here, no?

March 4th

March 21

April 2

April 22

June 11

September 2

This last one has nothing to do with this post... just the Brugmansia is blooming again...despite that I went on vacation for a week and it didn't get watered and lost 75% of its leaves. It doesn't seem to care, at least for now. Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Visiting OPG (other people's gardens)

2010-08-18T07:26:00.008-04:00

OPG is gardening nirvana in my opinion. Flowers you'll never grow, varietals you've never seen, all there to be sniffed and ogled and then you get to walk away easily without pulling at the crabgrass bunch or wondering if those few small holes in the leaves of that exotic plant are portentous tidings of an all night leaf feasting orgy. Those flowers are there, already staked and watered. They have been dug and redug to find their perfect plot of dirt. They do not remind you that if you don't deadhead they will not bloom again, and they keep their mouths zippered about previous bouts of pestilence and disease while company is around.

They are just there for you, in that moment, for that moment.

I love them. And like all love, you decide you want it all the time. Every day. Permanently. Forever. Despite indisputable ephemeral perfection, OPG in all its glory has to come live at home. And hence, now we all have gardens too, don't we?

Results Of Being Lazy

2010-08-14T16:44:00.002-04:00

This houseplant (Tradescantia Zabrina), underneath, is in an 8 inch pot.

This is a picture of laziness. I meant to put up the hanger outside my door within the week of getting 10 or so sprigs and putting them in dirt. I meant to do it the following week too, when I actually moved the plant outside and put it in a semi shady area which used to be my holding pen area.

I grew up calling this plant "Wandering Jew" and I can see where the wandering tag might have come from. Anyone around here want some?

This blushing bride hydrangea was in a gallon pot. This is another picture of laziness. I bought 3 hydrangeas on the same day. Hydrangea #1 was planted within a few days. Hydrangea #2 took me about 3 weeks to get in the ground. This hydrangea, over to the right - nearly 2 months. When he did get out of the pot, he had to have the majority of his roots shredded because he was so pot bound that unless he was sitting in water he would droop. Now he has no rootsystem to speak of, and its the hottest part of the year. Therefore he looks like crap every day for hours and he is tiny compared to everyone else. He called social services on me twice, and has refused to bloom.

A picture of gross negligent laziness. (really bad) Too much sun. I knew there was way too much sun... kept saying "must get ladder out and move that plant." As you can see it is still there, having died of heatstroke. No amount of watering can make a plant who hates sun tolerate a dozen 100 degree days in the sun. I am taking his corpse down today. I promise. As soon as I drag down that ladder. Maybe tomorrow.

Brugmansia Mania

2010-08-09T14:48:00.001-04:00

Most of you who have read my blog for more than a post or two know I live in an area that can support tropicals for the most part, but that growing up north of here, I don't really have an affinity for the vast majority of them. We all have our likes and dislikes, and some of my favorite bloggers *gasp* hate coneflowers, which is as difficult to comprehend as the infinite space of the universe for me. Aside from houseplants which can grow back each year without coming inside, I only have one tropical love: the Brugmansia.

It actually started in Charleston, when I was walking around one September and came upon this small tree literally coated in foot long tubular blooms. The thing looked exactly like a Dr. Seuss tree in Seussville. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but I didn't. It looked something like this.

I somehow can also see each of the tubes playing like trumpets ala Alice in Wonderland. I had to have one.

I bought the very first one I ran across, about 1 foot tall, and a tiny sprig of a tree, in April. By May it was 4 feet tall, straight as an arrow, looking like a 4 foot tall woody weed. A few cuttings were taken off for relatives, which also rooted easily, but no flowers, and no branches. Then came July. The base had sprouted out a new limb, and the main stalk, now over 5 feet tall had V'd. Or more correctly W'd, and within a week of this happening I had 13 blooms on the thing in quick succession.

Mine was growing in the middle of my patio until early July when I decided that it had to move into some shade. It was flowering, yes, but the leaves were also burning and turning a not right very light shade of green, despite DAILY watering. So he's been moved until the end of September to the spot I have reserved for my statue that only exists in my imagination. Now I only have to water him every other day, and the leaves are turning green again.

Here's a picture of a 4 month old Brugmansia (ignore burnt leaves please). I can't wait til next season when I move him up a pot size and he becomes a real tree.

MIA but not DOA

2010-08-05T12:01:00.001-04:00

Well?????, you say...where the heck have you been?

I have been MIA, since June, I know. I apologize to all those who wrote me and I have yet to get back to.   I am back now. I have had a #*!$) of a summer.   New job, new relationship, massive family in town, out of town on vacation and I don't know what other excuses I can throw at you, but please add in any others you can think of.

The good news is, despite blog neglect, and moderate garden neglect, the garden is doing really quite well. Particularly since it hasn't been below 90 degrees during the day since the last time I wrote in May, and I refuse to water regularly when I should because I've been so exhausted every day when I get home. Plus its still 90 degrees out with a dew point of 85, and even 5 seconds out there with the hose equals a total sweatbath.   It apparently still doesn't matter, they are all still alive save for 1 pot which for a few weeks failed to drain adequately, and boom. Everything dead. Yet another example that overwatering can kill something 8.7x as fast as underwatering can.

I have learned some more from my first hot season as a gardener in the south.
1)Do not plant stuff that only blooms in the summer. You *might* see it from your window but you will never get to enjoy it.   I am going to spend next spring and this fall replacing some of these plants.
2)Beebalm is really mildewy.
3)David Phlox is awesomely NOT mildewy. Even though it is right beside the beebalm, it is perfectly fine. I am buying more next spring.
4)I have a major ivy problem. If I were to leave the garden untended for 2 years, I am 100% sure that it would be entirely, ENTIRELY covered and coated with ivy.    I also have a passionflower vine and some other vine problem.   Oh, and the jasmines, which I actually planted, are slowly trying to permanently shut the gate. Vines do really well here.
5)Full sun, in this climate, means death to most things. (not vines) Full Sun plants need partial shade. The prettiest part of my garden this spring is the hardest part to keep looking 'alive'. Angelonia seems to be thriving, but even the knockout roses are looking parched constantly.   There will be a lot more angelonia in my garden in those spots.
6)While I haven't purchased any new roses, when they go on sale here in October, I'm getting some more. They really are awesome plants. My MAC rose (Madame Alfred Carrere) which was one stick and 4 leaves when I mail ordered it from Antique Rose Emporium in May, actually bloomed. It is in a spot which I frequently ahem, forget, to water, and though it looks wilty during the day, it still is growing like a weed with rosebuds on it. I have yet to: a)fertilize it, b)train it, c)spray it for any pests, or d)do anything really at all to it, and yet it is thriving. It has grown 4 feet in 2 months of intense neglect.
7)It pays to pay attention to your plants, and when you take 2 weeks off because you are so busy you don't even have time to go to the bathroom, things like 'tiny bugs coating 100% of both sides of your elephant ear plants' happen with disastrous effects.   Then, probably too late, you go to spray them with something, anything that will get rid of the bugs that are now crawling up your arm, and you find that some neighbor has decided your insecticide was too good to pass up from the backyard potting bench, and stole it. While leaving a $50 ceramic pot sitting there.   I guess when ya gotta have bug spray, ya gotta have it. Anyhow. My elephant ear (colocasia) is looking a bit compromised. Its only been a week since this happened, so hopefully there will be recovery.

Okay, well here's a pic of the garden :) I'll be writing more regularly again because my schedule has returned to 'somewhat' normal. And I'll be visiting everyone's blogs again with my new found time. I started last night! Missed ya'll.

Shady Sanctuary

2010-05-26T23:16:00.001-04:00

In my opinion, shade gardens are harder to pull off design wise, but when done correctly, can create a sense of space, peace quiet and nature like nothing else. The riots of color from your average sunny border always bring a smile to my face, but a cool shade garden is the place that makes me want to sit down and feel the humidity, the slight breeze though the trees, and take a deep breath of that green/dirt/growing things smell.

It could also be that I've noticed that sitting down in a not-shade garden here, from May-October, is torture.

My shade garden, which is my SW corner (NE exposure) is the only part of my garden that doesn't get direct sunlight, and it is the part of my garden that has the least cohesiveness to it, despite the fact that it is also the only part that has any actual 'backbone' to it, in the form of the palm tree and small raised bed.

The fact is, my collective images of gardens and experience from my mom's gardens (which has about zero shade in it) has left me without a solid image of how to get what I want. Also, the shady south isn't the shady Midatlantic or Northeast, and a lot of stuff just doesn't like it here... at all.

But I have hope that one of these days I'll be able to create my little slice of inky shaded paradise, because shade gardens abound in Charleston, and I only have to walk around a little to get some good ideas.

Our city is covered in closely spaced 18th and 19th century houses, nearly all 2 to 4 stories, nearly all with 10+ ft ceiling heights, and it makes for some shady lanes and moss covered brick patios. Think hidden nooks with crumbling statuary and benches under a massive arching live oaks with moss and ferns hanging from above. I have no hope of this, my patio garden just gets too much sunlight, but that macro feeling is what I so love about those shady spots. It is shadowed, dark and an inviting retreat from the glare of the sun. Like you might just find a romantic Anne Rice-type vampire or witch hanging out there in the twilight.

Now I'm not quite exactly sure what to PUT in the shady spots to make it look like that but I'm working on it.

Yarrow Flop House

2010-05-16T17:06:00.000-04:00

About a week ago, without pausing to look at any note I might have made to myself on, lets say, plants that should not be fertilized, I went and fertilized the entire garden. Even the roses got their own special fertilizer.

Before, when I still looked good

Within 20 minutes, the 'Appleblossom' yarrow grew an additional six inches and promptly flopped all over the place, sprawled over every plant near and far.

Still looking good....on May 5th

Somewhere deep in the back of my mind, when I planted this stuff, I knew that it liked lean soil. But until the great flop this week, I had quickly failed to be bothered with remembering. Now reading the likes and dislikes of this plant again, I am recalling all sorts of stuff. Like it is going to be huge. I am not joking here either. I planted this mid to late March and it was a 5 inch round 1 inch tall mat of fernlike bristles. I planted two of them because there is some gardening compulsion to never buy just one of anything. Following the directions properly I did plant them about 2.5 feet apart, so I must have had some inkling at the time. Today each of them are probably about 24 inches tall (ahem, long) and about a 20 inch round wild floppy mat. And growing. 5 weeks old and they are monsters.

Today...not so good :(

See how small I was in March?

I must stop and say I do love the look of the flowerheads. They are exactly like the picture of them in the magazines. The colors are great. But this sprawl. I am not liking this. It isn't a pretty let me just intermingle with your flowers and leaves kind of messiness. I love that look, but no, it looks like a dog laid on it and had a full night of running dreams.

Okay, so what to do? Can I stake it somehow? It looked much better before the great fertilizing event, but its a little late now to reverse that.

Honest Scrap: About Me

2010-05-10T18:50:00.003-04:00

Heidi, over at Gippsland Garden, has passed on the Honest Scrap Award to me a few weeks ago now, and I'm finally getting down to it. I think it is a very nice idea. Many of the blogs I read regularly have a little something to them that keeps me coming, and its generally the personality behind the blog. It's always peeking out here and there and it makes following those garden stories richer.

The whole idea is to list 10 things that readers might not know about you... honest stuff :)! So here you are, a few things that might be hard to guess:

1)I consider myself a world traveller. What I mean by world travel is that I have tried my best to experience different places and cultures from various angles. You can do this across town as well as across the world and I have done a lot of both. I have been fortunate enough to be able to do some things that no getting around it, you just have to pay for. Going on a first class overnight train trip is something that sticks in my mind. I had my own fancy room, but I also had a porter waiting on me, I met great eccentric people in the first class cocktail lounge and dined in fine form with a sharper than me 80 year old woman who had just gotten married for the 5th time. What a riot she was. It really was like Murder On The Orient Express. Minus the murder part... I did bring the book though. And I'm not sure my dinner partner didn't off one or two of those husbands. On the opposite spectrum, I spent an entire 63$ for 2 weeks in Bolivia, camping in the altiplano at 17,000 feet. I saw children working in a mine we bribed our way into (very scary) where the average age of death is 40 years old. I saw otherworldly landscapes entirely made of salt. I didn't take any showers and we jumped in some hotsprings to help ourselves out in this department.

2)I wanted to be Indiana Jones when I grew up. I had acquired a whip and the hat by age 9. I was ready.

3)Before I moved to Charleston I lived and worked in Manhattan for 13 years. I definitely had my 'Sex in the City' years (though I worked a heck of a lot more than those girls did), and I feel that that city will always be a huge chunk of me. Yes, I was there during 9/11 and it was horribly awful. Still don't talk about it much.

4)My favorite hobby, bar NONE (even gardening) is reading. I am a reader of all things. Put the Cheerios box in front of me at breakfast and by the end of breakfast I will have read the back enough times to be able to recite to you the Niacin content in your spoon.

5)I am an anglophile, and can't remember a time when I wasn't. I definitely think this has to have come from reading as a child. Have you ever noticed how many classic children's books and tales take place in England? I mean, they have a)princesses b)dragons and knights c)wizards and witches d)worlds inside of rabbit holes e)worlds inside of wardrobes and f)Sherlock Holmes. They also have secret gardens, grand estates and seem to throw fabulous black tie cocktail parties at an alarming rate, at least in fiction. Anyhow a piece of me lived there even before I ever set foot in the country.

6)I am the eldest of 6 children.

7)I rarely ever watch TV. 6.5 out of 7 nights I never even turn it on. However, I'm not sure I would survive without my laptop.

8)I own, let say, a lot... of shoes. As I was mentioning to Meredith, I have been known to be dressed to the nines with 4 inch heels on in the garden with my watering wand helping out a few plants that need a drink before I have my cocktails out on the town. Not as into clothes and handbags, but the shoes thing gets me.

9)I am 100% a type A personality. Occasionally I pull off looking like a type B person, but it takes a lot more work than just being my normal type A self! And besides, only a type A person would even try something like that.

10)I have won the NCAA basketball pool I've been in for the past 2 years straight, picking the champion. I've won another NCAA pool, and have also won an NFL perpetuity pool, 2 Superbowl pools and an Oscar pool. I do not watch sports. I just get lucky. That said, I haven't won a round of Texas Rummy with my family in 4 years.

Now, a lot of people have already gotten this award, so I won't list new requests here, but if any of my readers who have blogs are up for it and haven't done it before, let me know right here and post some Honest Scrap yourself!

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty Shots

2010-05-05T11:44:00.001-04:00

Into The Garden Gate

More Coneflowers Coming

Double Knockout

The Yarrow Is Growing (a lot)

Star Jasmine With Or Without You

2010-05-02T19:56:00.009-04:00

Great Griefous, I have been working like a maniac. It's out of control. I've checked on the garden each day for about 2.4 seconds, and fortunately it seems to be growing just fine without me.

My kitty, Siggy, who has decided that she'd rather run away then never see me if I was going to be at work all the time, took off one night this week out into the streets of Charleston, and after a full 10 hour day of work, half a second to eat something and 2.5 hours of trying to find her and finally succeeding, I have had enough for one week.

She really really wants to be a garden cat.

During the week without me, the star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) went from half bloomed to fully bloomed, with the heavenly smell so strong that I can smell it inside when the doors and windows are closed. This might potentially be because my house has the R-value of a pasta strainer. It IS the most smelliferous at night though really all the time its just pretty fabulous. The night bugs also came out this week. Yay, night bugs. You can tell they are still a little trigger shy, like "Oh crap? Am I the only one out here? chirrrrrrrp. Dang. This would suck." But they are starting up bit by bit.

Last fall I planted a small stick of star jasmine by the gate not realizing that the anemic looking vine on the other part of the fence, with most its leaves fallen off due to scale, was also a star jasmine. A few treatments last fall, and a good dose of neem oil in February and what do you know, healthy and happy and blooming back wall. And the real treat is over on the other side where my parking area is. (ignore trashbin area please).

They are also blooming everywhere in town. I'm not sure how this can be because I feel like the banksia roses are also everywhere, like there could not possibly be enough fences in the city to support such populations. When one fades the next seems to take over the city. I wonder what will be on those (same fences?) come July?

PS. for those of you considering this plant, its hardy to about 40F (5C), but seemed to handle a few below 30 nights we had this past year. The ground never freezes here, so thats probably a consideration. Also, mine blooms in both shade and sun. Its says its a sun plant, and certainly its more bountiful on the sun side, but it has plenty of blooms in what I would call a full light shade situation. Evergreen too, if you don't have scale all over it!

Foxg-Love and Bloggy-Love

2010-04-26T20:16:00.011-04:00

I got the best compliment a few hours ago from a neighbor and friend who was sharing a glass of wine out back in my garden. (Btw city gardens do have one single advantage over country and suburban gardens who have all the space, lack of noise, tons of sun, blah blah blah, everything everything.....we have neighbors all up and down the street who stop by because they are dying to see what is going on behind the white picket fence! It kicks butt, I have a bottle of wine on the chill for just such occasions which happen about once a week. They bring stuff too. I just got a jar of homemade preserves out of this, last week I got a vase full of roses from a neighbor who has to be away the entire month of May and picked all the roses on the bush for me!)

Ok, back to the compliment. (I have been drinking wine, as mentioned, so plan on this being incredibly verbose with lots of parentheticals and no editing - as you suggested I do IG, eat your heart out). She said, "Wow. This garden looks like an English country garden!" Cha-ching. She can come back forever anytime she wants and camp in the backyard too! I was so self-proud I was almost rendered speechless but due to the two point five glasses of wine before the comment I was, in actuality, rendered nothing of the sort. I haven't shut up for a moment since.

After I got finished blabbing how it was nothing, and anyone could do it, and no I really haven't spent 40 hours a week working on this garden (lies, all of em), I honed in on what exactly she meant. We actually have a style of garden here, outrageously known as "Charleston Style" which 90% of gardens around here adhere to. First, it looks 'right' (semi formal) and second the things in them tend to be no brainers here and make for beautiful easy gardens. People love Charleston gardens around here, myself included. My front garden, if I should ever actually get the wild onions out, will eventually look like that too. I've got tourists to impress, after all. I cringe at what they must think now, but hey, my house is Carribean pink, that has to count for something. Ps. for those of you who are curious what a double porch style house or the front garden looks like (flowergardengirl), its coming, its coming, I just have to actually plant something out front so I am not embarrassed on the internet here by the 800 wild onions, unlevel dirt, and ugly hedges. Its one thing to talk about them, its another to display.

Okay, so I'm off topic again. What she (my friend with the wine and jam) was talking about, really, that made my garden so English? The Foxglove. It is starting to bloom and it is majestic. In my garden most of them get about 3 hours of sun, and would be happy to be in a lot less I'd say, judging by what they look like at 1pm. But once the sun is off of them they look divine. One of them, a Camelot Cream (the white one), isn't really totally bloomed yet and is already around 3.5 feet tall. He is going to be a giant when fully bloomed.

So anyhow also now that I am typing typsy, and I have your attention and I continue to go off topic, cheers to you, all my loyal readers, my new readers, and of course, Jean, who adopted me when I was two days old. I would bring you some jam and come and visit your garden too if I could. Meredith, when I go camping this summer out that way, I might just be lurking in your yard.... (not in a creepy way though, I'd ask first.)

Love, Jess (with an english country garden hehe, probably until July when it all goes into heat shock)

(next post will include no parentheticals I promise)

The Gift Plant

2010-04-24T20:33:00.001-04:00

O, I got me some free plants! Doin' the little jig of free plant joy. Unlike plants that I have bought or seeded, of course, I don't have much basic knowledge on these, which I can imagine can lead to danger. I am sure none are invasive weeds, but I have a little research work to do on some of them.

Free plant #1. Its a good thing this one is so unusual looking because even after asking twice, I couldn't remember the common name given me, and I kept wanting to call in Jacob's Ladder, even though I knew that wasn't right. Don't you hate that, when something gets into your head that you know isn't right yet it seems to short circuit your brain from any other neural pathway?

This is Alternathera "Party Time" or Joseph's Coat.

Next up a variety of coleus, I'm not exactly sure which.

Then I have received a double red knockout rose, which is going to join my single red one. I have quickly gone from zero roses to 3 roses. ~~And I'm thinking about getting one more.~~ Well, truthfully I just bought another one from the Antique Rose Emporium. A Madame Alfred Carriere to climb up the side of my house out back. Sigh. That didn't last very long. 0-4 rose bushes in 1 month. My house smells so ridiculously lovely though.

Let's see, what else is in my haul: a couple of sprigs of Bridal Veil (Gibasis Geniculata). Three achimenes bulbs started in little blue pots. A couple of Wandering Jews, as replacements for the ones I accidentally froze to death this January. Not so bad for trading away 6 Hostas, huh.

Time Travel Without the Hot Tub

2010-04-20T21:31:00.000-04:00

Clearly, I can't seem to get it together to do a post for GBBD on actual bloom day. Next month, I keep telling myself. But then I'm buried in work, family, laziness or some other excuse each 15th it seems.

So, lets just pretend it is the 15th. I'm making that funny sound and your vision is blurring just like in old "I Dream of Jeannie" reruns. There, its the 15th, just like that. No WABAC machine or small ultra heated pool needed, and everyone looks slightly younger and has a 'dated' hairstyle from 5 days ago.

Here's what is blooming in my garden. These flowers might never ever bloom together again, but this April, I have representatives from early spring, late spring, summer and late summer, through combination of crazy weather and nursery plants.

Truly A Garden To Die For

2010-04-15T22:54:00.001-04:00

In my quest to read 100+ books this year, as inspired by ChickenFreak, I have read a few Agatha Christie novels since January. They are short, entertaining, and bring back really good memories, filled with lush country mansions and the idle rich of a bygone era.

Have you noticed that Agatha loved to kill off everybody with poison? AND, no matter who did it, they either got the poison out of the gardening shed or grabbed some leaves from that rambling estate garden on the Devon coast, and threw it in the port. Or the afternoon tea.

Some met their death through peach cultivars (prunus) from whose pits come the famous cyanide. Others choked on their last words with a good gulp of something from the Nightshade family. Digitalis, arsenic and morphine all found their way from garden to dead person in her novels.

I did a quick inventory of my murderous potential growing outside today, just for fun of course, and really... Nobody better mess with me. Just saying.

First there is the common foxgloves I have poking out of various places. In medical circles this is known as Digitalis, and its either a heart medication, or a heart stopper, depending on how much you take.

Next stop, the Easter Lilies I picked up at the grocery store after Easter. Its not terribly harmful to me, but deadly poisonous to my cat, Siggy, who has already used up 7 of her 9 lives in less than a year as it is. They aren't in the house anymore. And pretty much all lilies are bad for cats, though squirrels don't seem to mind them.

Back behind my little parking area: the oleander. Now this is a seriously poisonous plant, can easily kill children and pets, and it is everywhere in this fair city. I bet there are more than 30 planted on my block alone; they line the streets. I think I have always known it was poisonous, but folks it is knock your socks of deadly in small amounts. All parts too.

Right smack in the middle of the patio is my one tropical love, the Brugmansia, which if you listen to everything that is said on the internet, is poisonous to even smell. I'm pretty sure thats an exaggeration, however, it, along with Datura is the prime candidate for poisoning by the Deadly Nightshade family. I have no issues handling it, but it is one of those that cannot under any circumstances be ingested. The potato is a relative and this is why for years people were scared to eat them. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been jumping at the chance either. I mean if you really look at a potato objectively, not like a future french fry, doesn't it look kind of poisonous?

I've got a few delphiniums growing from seed in the sunny border. Yep, poisonous too. They contain delphinine, which causes gastrointestinal issues and has felled many a cow. Delphiniums and larkspurs near fields and meadows = bad plan.

And finally my lantana, which is about as native naturalized as you can get here, disrupts the mucus lining of stomach membranes, and to some people is even irritating to touch.

So that's just in my tiny yard. There are so many more out there. Autumn Crocus ingestion can cause massive multi-system failures, Lily of the Valley, theoretically you shouldn't even touch without handwashing, as it can cause cardiac arrest. Yews, azaleas, poppies, dieffenbachia, daffodils, hyacinths, iris, wisteria, jasmine, bleeding heart, daphne, wolfsbane, and sago palms. All poisonous. Some very deadly poisonous. (i.e. don't go eating your azaleas).

All of this and we haven't even gotten into whatever the heck is in Miracle Gro. No wonder the British gentry of the 30's could pull this off so easily, right?

Green Thumb vs Black Thumb

2010-04-13T19:58:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine bought a house, just like me, this past winter and has been equally possessed with the gardening bug. There is nothing like a new house with a neglected yard/garden/patio to bring out the mad nursery maven in us all. Her yard is huge (she doesn't live downtown), and it is about 50% sun, 50% shade, just like mine. Now, after several strong months of gardening time there is one major difference. My garden is growing and her's isn't. At all. I don't know what she's doing over there, but I'm scared to bring her the huge pot of nasturtiums I grew for her that is now blooming.

Nasturtiums on Death Row

Now, I am very very happy my garden is blooming but, same as her garden, I don't know what I'm doing so right that every single thing has pretty much made it. Even the seeds. Okay, not the lily bulbs but truly, I had no control over that. That was the 3:1 squirrel to plant ratio.

Maybe its that I grew up basically in a massive garden and know a lot about various plants from osmosis, and she grew up in the middle of Okinawa?

Maybe its that I don't travel for a job and have been here each and every day to make sure everybody out there is safe 'n sound?

Is it that I'm addicted to gardening magazines? Reading gardening blogs? Am I just lucking out? (please don't let it be this because massive die off when the luck runs out would be the end of me). Does she have some invincible invisible pest problem? Its those Japanese seed packets right... they fail to grow on foreign soil? But from what I can tell Japanese tomato seeds sure do look a lot like the ones here, they just have prettier calligraphied names.

Or are you really born with either black or green thumbs? And what does that mean exactly? How does one help another one overcome blackthumbotosis? How do you keep from catching it?!

The Ever Blooming Garden - All At Once

2010-04-10T12:37:00.000-04:00

ABC News the other night was remarking on the astronomically high pollen counts this year in the southeast. This is to the tune of 5000+ (parts per whatever), instead of a normal very high of 120. Sitting at my brother's house on Easter we could actually see puffs of pollen coming off of a tree in the breeze, like he had pulled out a cigar for a post meal boys club card game.

The bottom line is, this is true, as my meals now consist primarily of Claritin.

The cause of all this pollen, says the News, is that everything is blooming at once, thanks to an usually cool late winter in the south east followed up by the 3 week spell of summer we've just had with minimal rain. And unfortunately this is true too.

In my garden right now, I have old-fashioned Bleeding Heart (Dicentra Alba) blooming with woodland phlox (Phlox Divaricata), which all makes sense, but what also is blooming are the coneflowers (Echinacea Purpurea), Cleome, and Agapanthas. What the heck are they doing here in early April!!? What is this going to mean for my mid and late summer garden? I am having trouble believing that the coneflowers are going to bloom for 6 months, as great a plant as they are.

Some of this issue is of course, that some of these flowers were raised until weeks ago at a nursery, and combined with the summer weather they were just ready. But that doesn't explain the agapanthas - I planted that last October from a clump dug up in Va, and because of the cooler weather in February it was actually late to come up! Same for the cleome. Those were seeds.

Its interesting which plants are getting mixed up by all of this. The sedum, for instance, looks exactly like it should and is a long way from blooming. The star jasmine, which should be blooming next month, hasn't even put buds out yet, so I'm guessing he is on schedule too. The Lavender looks to be on schedule, the Catmint. The Rose of Sharon and the Callicarpa bush are acting like its still winter, and haven't even noticed anything awry. Both are still mainly sticks, which as I understand it, is normal for them.

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

2010-04-07T17:17:00.003-04:00

The Lady Banks roses are blooming all over town. White ones, yellow ones, why even the Food Lion has one (that's a grocery store). Until I decided to get one I just never realized how many of them there are. Everywhere.

My Lady Banks, who was planted a few weeks ago, and came home looking like a tiny bundle of straggly sticks, still is looking rather pathetic and small, but she knows what she is supposed to be doing. She knows that she should be covered in blooms all over the place and be plotting world domination like the rest of her brethren. So last night, with all of her might she willed herself to bloom.

This is what we got.

Pretty cute right, in that Charlie Brown Christmas Tree sort of way!

Little Transformations

2010-04-03T07:20:00.001-04:00

During this year my garden will never fill out and become this lush wonderland I have in my head. I am just going to accept that now. So garden, the pressure is off, but by next May, you better be looking like the secret garden, ya hear me?

Despite the fact that its going to take me forever to get around to showing you what my efforts will eventually yield, I am making small strides. Below, a progress report. This view is an eastern exposure, with one half being part shade and the other half being part sun. This is the part shade section. To give you an idea of height, the fence is just over 6 feet tall. I know, its the mother of all picket fences. And at the 'path' the depth of the garden is about 10 feet, expanding out on either side. I find it very difficult to capture depth in this garden, I'm not sure why.

Sometime in November 09 when I was raking up Magnolia leaves:

March 21st: A retaining wall and a few stepping stone put in to be able to get back to that section:

And April 2nd: only 11 days later. Look at that Autumn Fern on the left there in front of the little wall (the pics will expand if hard to see). He sure has a way of showing he's verrry happy in his new home. Others pictured are 5 woodland phlox, 3 Creeping Cupflower which I am hoping will fill in between the stones nicely, and the Trailing Lantana I planted a month ago which I accidentally fell on. Despite that, he is at least double his size. In the background my outrageous sized Japanese Holly Ferns, and way over to the left my Persian Shield looking very tiny in his new home. There is also a tiny foxglove in there, can you spot him? He's an infant, but very healthy and seems to be doing a lot better than those getting more sun. He's an experiment.

Progress progress progress. One of these days that trellis will be covered in (something), and the statue will sit at the end of the little path. Behind the holly ferns on either side are baby hydrangea bushes filling up the back space (eventually). They just need to get a move on being taller than 8 inches so they can show up in the pictures.

A Tree By Any Other Name.... I Still Call A Tree

2010-04-01T14:27:00.000-04:00

I grew up primarily in rural southern Virginia, in a place where even today they don't lock their doors. The biggest crime around there, though heinous, consists of throwing Budweiser beer cans on the gravel country roads.

My brothers and I would often decide at night that we were camping out under the stars. It was okay by our parents seeing as we weren't all that close to the road so the likelihood of being bonked by a beer can was pretty low, mad-cows didn't exist yet, and the deer, while incredibly vicious to the hosta population, were found to leave children more or less intact. We'd grab our flashlights and our sleeping bags, put fireflies in jars (sorry buddies I didn't know any better then), and tell ghost stories under the large oak trees which grow like weeds in that State. Invariably someone would end up being the 'outsider' for the night and there was a 50/50 chance the shunning would result in his return to his own bed inside in the wee hours of the night. Which at that age meant 11:30pm. And who am I kidding, it was always Russ that we picked on (the littlest, we had no shame).

Sometimes those remaining would go to the old cabin, which had become the pool house, throw on our damp bathing suits and jump in the pool in the dark. It was nightswimming at its illicit best, because 'nobody' knew we were out there. (Of course except our parents who I'm sure were watching the entire time now that I realize how not sneaky we really were).    We would all be as still as possible for a while and sooner or later the bats would come down and skim the water, drinking and looking for others trying to do the same, I'd guess. That entire pool area was surrounded by 3 large old apple trees and more likely than not we'd all bring some not quite ripe apples, found floating in the pool, back to our sleeping bags. If Russ was still with us we'd tell him that eating not ripe apples could kill you.

Other times instead of the pool, we'd go out to the front yard and push each other on the tire swing tied up high in one of the huge black walnut trees.   The tree sat on the top of the embankment that led down to the road and if you got a push hard enough you could swing over the road tarzan-style. Sigh.

The point of this little journey down memory lane is that the trees of my childhood I can recognize in an instant, I spent so much time with them. In the dark, by the bark, by the leaves. I know them like the freckles on my arms. I think I could identify a white pine by feel alone. But move 6 hours south and to the coast? If its not a palm, magnolia or live oak, I HAVE NO IDEA.   I literally wouldn't know a sweetgum tree if it fell on me.     I have 3 trees on my property, one of which must be 70+ feet high, all of which I have no earthly clue as to what they are called. They have acquired nicknames: the evergreen one, the flowery one, and the big one.     The one thing I can tell you, if you add the other three trees I have (a sabel palm, a crape myrtle and a live oak), NONE of the six of them grew where I grew up, which isn't all that far away. Granted, Europeans can be 2 countries away in 6 hours, but for many of us... we haven't even left the general vicinity. And heck, in NYC, you could still be on the George Washington Bridge stuck in traffic in a measly 6 hours.    It is quite a wonder how nature, left to itself, tailors itself exactly to the spot.

Anyhow, as a self proclaimed nature person, I really gotta get on this tree identification thing.   How insane is it that I know the names of 50 plants in my backyard, 30 types of weeds, but don't know the names of the biggest plants around?

Before But No After

2010-03-29T21:01:00.002-04:00

It has finally happened to me. I have had a week here or so with the blogging blues. I can't think of anything funny, entertaining, or even intelligible to say. I even have the planting blues. I went to the nursery on Saturday and didn't come home with a thing. Nothing. And really, I still have a lot of space to put things if I find something I like.

I did weed half the front plot of wild onions. So there was a tiny bit of forward action, but in comparison to the previous 4 weeks, I have hit the gloom. I didn't even have to water anything because its been raining for the past couple of days. I can now see why bloggers ferret away a few blogs. For just such times as these, when you can't be bothered to be the slightest bit creative and haven't even put the dishes away or put the laundry in the dryer.

What I do have are some photos of plants that are in their 'before' stage and who will have their matching 'afters' later on in the year. These will have to suffice for today.

I have planted a couple of the Endless Summer series of hydrangeas, which I plan on taking a few pictures of along the way, as it seems that many people have varying results with these. The first of these is a Forever Pink, here pictured, March 28th.

The second is a Blushing Bride. It seems to be a few weeks behind the Forever Pink, which actually has some flower buds forming.

Most of these hostas, which were sent to me by accident (and therefore free), are going to live with my Mom in Virginia where they will live hopefully long and happy lives, but two are going to have to tough it out and see if it can make it through the summer sizzle. I know I'm already going to have to move them, but I'm leaving that for some time when the blues are gone. There is a likelihood that the after pictures of these will be melted husks, but Compost in My Shoe, who lives close, apparent has some which have lived for years, so ya never know! They made it from bareroot to here in about 3 weeks though, so they are sure liking it right now.

This is a Persian Shield (strobilanthes dyerianus), I have two of these as well. Right now they are about 6 inches tall and 3 inches wide. And recovering from the part sun area which I had originally planted them in. They looked spectacular with the blue snowstorm bacopa (sutera hybrid), but that was the only thing they had going for them as a couple.

Here's my pitiful looking Butterfly Bush (unknown varietal). He might be in too much shade, so I could be moving him too. All this stuff about moving is making me exhausted just typing about it.

I have three coneflower plants, and will probably add another. "Merlot" and "Kim's Kneehigh" are looking like they are having a bit of transplant shock.

Here's the before of the carjacker, Lady Banks. I am not worried about her. Tomorrow I am going to get the little pegs drilled into the fence so I can get 'trained' as best I can.

I have dozens more where these came from so one of these days, later this summer, I'll do the real show. Lets end with this picture, some African bush daisy's who look pretty much perfect. Even as a before.

Living and Learning and Digging and Digging

2010-03-24T19:51:00.002-04:00

I have officially been a "real" gardener for just over a month now, and you wouldn't think you could learn many "real" lessons in that amount of time, but you'd be mistaken. Of course, I have thousands of lessons more to learn, but indeed a few things have made it through my neophyte skull.

As of today, I have learned that:

1) Digging a hole for a 3 gallon pot is really no joking matter, particularly if there are any trees nearer than 2 miles away. There was a 1 gallon version right there at the nursery. Right THERE!!
2) Deciding that you don't have to get the small wild onions out of the front garden until you are ready to plant it up is plain stupid.
3) Dropping a cement planter onto the sidewalk is all she wrote for the planter. Cement planters are really heavier than they look. Particularly when filled with wild onions.
4) Trailing verbena really really likes it here. And it really really spreads. And it puts out new roots for every one inch of plant so you can't even move it away from where its not supposed to be. Why the heck wasn't this on the tag? Its the mangrove tree of the 6" and under set.
5) They lie on plant tags. (see above #4 on theoretical verbena only growing only 12"- 24" wide, it is already 24" wide and only 1 inch tall!)
6) They lie some more on plant tags. (Persian Shield isn't going to make it in any amount of sun here, no matter what they say, unless you want to water it twice a day, and give it a Victorian sun umbrella and an iced tea.)
7) All plant tags are lies. Argh. They can't even get the color right.
8) Squirrels and I are not friends. Squirrels really like rain lily bulbs, which used to be a problem but they have totally taken care of that situation. And the oriental lily bulbs "potentially blooming all over the place situation" has been resolved too.
9)Lilies might not be the best choice for me, despite perfect growing conditions.
10) Finally, on a pleasant surprise note: cosmos smell awesome. 3 little blooms smell up the entire garden. How had I never attributed this smell to them?

So 10 lessons down, 10,000 to go!

Here a Statue, There a Statue

2010-03-22T07:00:00.008-04:00

I have been thinking of getting a statue for my garden. One made of concrete or cast stone that will year after year weather, streak and become less defined: it will become perfect. Granted, I had my coffee this morning perched on top of a couple of bags of mulch, so I could be thinking of more useful garden accessories, but eh. Garden chairs are boring.

I love statues in gardens. No not the kind commemorating some big battle victory with a general on a horse, on a plinth 20 feet high, but the kind with soft worn mossy faces halfway hiding behind a fern. Somehow they add peace to a garden in my eyes, the same way running water might. There is no doubt they can add a major focal point, which, unless I want my focal point to be the palm tree, is something I desperately need.

The Savannah Bird Girl Statue, probably the most famous statue ever to come from this area, thanks to Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (which, if you have any interest at all in the south, or plan to visit, is a must read) is the right style for me and my spot, I think. It stood virtually unnoticed from 1936 until the book was publish in 1994 before it had to be moved from its cemetery plot for safekeeping. I love this statue, but given its fame and proximity and number of replicas in this area alone, it is probably not the one for me.

Charleston itself is replete with statues of course. Its just that kind of place. You see them peeking out of driveways, tucked under camellias and many a Charlestonian has their entire teensy garden planned out around a favorite piece of cement. Many are cherubs, Greek gods, angels, various Madonnas and fair maidens. Some are part of fountains. I saw a gargoyle guarding someone's trashbin area the other day too. Its an interesting concept on how to keep the evil (i.e. raccoons) at bay, I'll give them that.

Surfing around as it pours outside, resigning myself that I am not going to get anything done today - at all - I revisited the offerings available on the internet. To be honest, I am in love with a collection in my local nursery of marble "4 Seasons" maidens, but seeing as I only have room for one season, and I cannot afford any seasons, I have to expand my level of acceptable stone countenances.

Here are some of the ones I like, and I'm leaning towards choice #1. If only she were a little taller on a shorter pedestal. The combined height is near perfect (56"). So maybe the search goes on. Well, like I said, I could invest in something to sit on out there instead...

Oh, and one final picture and note: if I could find this, this is what I'd get in a heartbeat. I took this from someones blog a while back and I have no idea whence it came, so I apologize for not putting a credit. But I love your statue/planter.

Carjacking By A Lady Named Banks

2010-03-18T22:08:00.003-04:00

Last year, while visiting dozens of houses, looking for the perfect one to buy, I happened upon so many lovely arbors, trellises and fences covered in white, pink or yellow blooms cascading all over the place. They perched from atop thorny limbs woven into many a gate I tried to peer through, and they climbed up columns holding up centuries old double porches (piazzas in Charleston-speak). They called softly to me from unseen gardens, their fragrance mixed with the humid air for hundreds of steps. Ah, so rosey.

But I am a beginning gardener. One with a love of many sun loving flowers and limited space in which to grow them. A quick reading about basic rose care, and it was settled. No thorny, mildewy, buggy, flower wilting, fertilizer sucking temperamental roses for me. Nope, I don't love them that much.

Then something happened today when I stopped by to get some potting soil to fill up my two monster patio pots. This Lady Banks Rose ended up in my passenger side car seat. I swear I didn't put her there. She tried to hide herself under my jacket, and frankly I wouldn't have even noticed her there except in an effort to make it safely home she put her seatbelt on, and well, I was suspicious. My jacket is one of those wild children - never uses his seatbelt.

So her cover blown, she pulled out a water pistol and said "Drive, or you'll have root rot where the sun don't shine." I'm sure you all can imagine my utter shock. At the next light, I nervously glanced around elsewhere in the car to see if any other secret passengers were about. Sure enough, an entire bag of caladium bulbs were hiding on the floorboard! The outrageous audacity of some plants, right?

For all of you who are now a bit concerned for me, no worries, I made it home totally dry, albeit with a new found understanding of the southern magazine, "Garden & Gun."

Wordless Wednesday: Around Charleston

2010-03-17T16:36:00.000-04:00

You might be a WEED if...

2010-03-14T09:11:00.001-04:00

There is an oft commented saying about weeds that goes something like, "A weed is just a plant or flower in a place that you don't want it to be."

YOU might call a stray cosmos or 4 o'clock a weed all you like my friends, but they are not WEEDS, with all capital letters. There is a distinct difference between a WEED and a misguided flower, and to help everyone clarify this difference, I though we could use the Jeff Foxworthy identification process.

So.
You might be a WEED if...you are totally indifferent if its cold, hot, muddy, dry, sandy, clayish, sunny, dark, windy, humid, gritty, lacking oxygen, lacking nitrogen, the place is on fire and it's hailing - all at the same time.

If you feel pretty certain you have a fighting chance of establishing roots on a rolling bowling ball in the trunk of a 1985 Cutlass Sierra...you just might be a WEED.

You might be a WEED if you can overwinter 128 years in a row waiting for that one day when someone makes the error of uncovering you and 85,000 of your closest friends.

You might also be a WEED if you tend to grow a 5 inch by 10 inch root ball before actually sprouting anything lest someone might see you.

And if you can grow this rootball and sprout your first leaf in the time it takes the average person to use the bathroom, you just might be a WEED.

If you can see your entire family tree when you stand on your tippy-stems, and as a matter of fact you're still connected to them, then you might be a redneck...er.. and a WEED.

And finally, you might be a WEED if you can have your starter leaves look, at any single moment, like every single other kind of plant that is lovingly planted in the garden until you grow more than 5-6 leaves, and which point you sprout out of that 'fake' plants stomach like an Aliens baby and eat all the actual garden plants in sight. You are definitely a WEED if you keep doing this. Face it.

Instead of trying to feel better about weeds by calling them misplaced flowers, I think Doug Larson has done them justice in saying:

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

Now THAT is true.

Plant Spree

2010-03-12T15:10:00.003-05:00

Last weekend was a great time to gather up annuals and a few perennials and stick them in the dirt. Plants have finally made it to the garden centers, though they tell me they are missing quite a few things that would normally be available. I also planted in ground or pot those seedlings I started in late January which have made it through the process and the twice weekly cat maulings.

Here's what I brought home from the garden center, seeded myself, or planted last fall after stealing from my mom's garden:
Annuals: Alyssum "Easter Basket", Bacopa (50cents!!!) "Snowstorm Blue", Verbena "Lanai Blush White", Nemesia "Innocent Compact Pink", Cosmos, Delphinium, Torenia "Summer Wave Blue," Nastursium "Empress of India" and some sweet basil which did incredibly well, even inside.
Perennials: Yarrow "Appleblossom," Star Jasmine, Trailing Lantana, Butterfly Bush "Unknown," Sedum "Autumn Joy," Hydrangea "Forever Pink", red and purple Beebalm, Elephant Ear "Unknown Lowe's Variety," an Autumn fern and a Lavender plant I just had to have.

I also planted some agapanthas and a rose of sharon last fall but they don't look like they are returning as of yet.

So thats the scoop so far, and this weekend is planning on being just as nice out there. Time to go back to the nurseries!

Saucer Heaven

2010-03-08T21:14:00.005-05:00

The slow spring has finally kicked it up a pink notch.

This morning at 7am I was awakened by the power company knocking on the door telling me that they were going to shut the power off in about an hour and change out the transformer. Fine with me, plenty of time to make coffee and read the paper online. What they didn't tell me was that at 8:15 this morning they were going to be completely blocking my driveway so I couldn't leave.

Not one to let a "bad situation" get me down, I made a few, "so sorry" calls and headed out with my camera for a leisurely walk around my neighborhood on a fantastic 60 degree morning.

I found every other yard was a pink and elegant sight to behold, as the Saucer Magnolias (magnolia x soulangiana) had erupted in the past 3 days trying to make up for the past month like a fast forward on the dvd player.

Raised bed around a tree, oh my!

2010-03-07T16:26:00.004-05:00

I have a problem with the large palm tree in the corner of the back garden at the end of the hopefully soon to be renamed, "Great Brown Way." This year when I moved here that area, and all other areas, were coated in magnolia leaves. This had the unfortunate effect of killing everything that ever lived back there, but it had an unintended positive effect: it stopped the soil from eroding.

When I took away the leaves what I had was just soil. Nothing to cover it, and nothing planted to keep the soil put. These facts combined with the rainiest winter season on record left the entire left hand side of my palm tree with roots hanging out all over the place. Did I mention all the water from the neighbors hated garage drains there?

For the past month or so I have been puzzling about what to do about this. I threw a bagful of topsoil over it, and that worked for approximately 3 days until it rained 2 inches. I thought maybe lots of pots under there, but that didn't solve the problem that half the roots were already hanging in the breeze. So finally my minds eye pictured a tiny raised bed around the area that would maintain the soil better and would provide enough room to plant some things so the soil was still there a few months from now.

I typed this idea into the computer, and up flashed a neon red sign "TREE MURDERER." hmmmm. Would this kill my tree? Would doing nothing kill my tree? I mean, palm tree roots are not supposed to be outside the ground in my experience. Aside from that, one small hurricane and that tree with no soil on the roots stands a high chance of falling on my car. Which would not be a happy thing. I did a little more digging. A few posts said, oh its fine: I raised a bed 18" inches 20 years ago and look at this beautiful tree.

Confused I went to the tree nursery and asked. For those of you who have ever wondered, this is what he said: You can raise a bed around a tree if you do the following:
1) keep it as shallow as possible, preferably 6 inches or less
2) do not encircle the entire tree. Keep to 50% or less
3) keep the new soil off of the trunk of the tree. This causes rot, the biggest issue with the entire process.

I can do that. (half a day pause) I just did that.

I need a few more bags of soil to fill in the ends a bit, and an extra block or two, but aside from that, I'm done. That was a job. But planting that elephant ear took approximately 4 seconds.

First Plant Of The Season

2010-03-04T16:18:00.000-05:00

My fingers are crossed that the weather stays out of the freezing zone. We are still unnaturally cold, but the nighttime temps are hovering in the high 30s, and forecasted to remain there til after the last frost date.

Sooooo..... Plant number one is officially planted, bought as a replacement for the many lantana I dug out of the front garden.

It is a medium purple trailing lantana (lantana montevidensis), and it SHOULD remain on the short side, less than 18-20 inches, which would be a great improvement over the 5 foot tall ones I uprooted in the fall. I like the plant because it is a constant bloomer and I like the color. Its downsides are that it can be invasive and the smell is not appealing to me. Regardless, it is in!

And as a side note, you see, I am not kidding about the amount of cement in the soil. That little pile is just from the hole I dug to place the lantana in. Its nuts.

What's your style?

2010-03-01T22:00:00.004-05:00

I might not be able to put it down on graph paper, but I definitely have a style of garden that I like, and plants that I like. What about you? Or do you like them all?

Charleston is in zone 8b, but practically speaking, the peninsula has a microclimate that is more like 9a. People who have lived here their whole lives say that we haven't had a winter like this one since 1940. But even that said, if you look at the rules of what makes a hardiness zone, even with many below freezing days, we never once dipped below 20 degrees Fahrenheit even this year.    This puts us in zone 9a, and it is apparent through the plants that you frequently see. Many people here grow tropical plants and things like lime trees with success.   The problem is I don't like any of those plants. Not really. Oh, except for Brugsmansia, which I definitely will have in my garden somewhere. I might even have two.

Now maybe this will change after years of struggling with other plants that aren't really fit for this climate. You see we are also heat zone 8-9, with high humidity, which means we have around 120 + days above 86 degrees, with that high humidity. Insane, I know, but you get used to it.   Generally, if its below 80 degrees and there is even the slightest breeze, I get a chill.   Can you believe I lived in the NE for 13 years? Goes to prove that your blood gets set when you are 2 years old or something.

Okay back to the point.   Many of the plants that I picture in my minds eye will be a struggle to grow here. I know this.   Some of them I'm not even going to try. Like peonies and dahlias.   Others though, like tall garden phlox, which is my absolutely favorite garden plant in the world, I'm going to grow if it kills me. Sure, our 365 days of humidity are going to cause powdery mildew problems, but I don't care.

In general, I like tall vertical plants. Pretty much all of them. Among my favorites are delphiniums, foxglove, cleome and agapanthas. I can't think of a tall flower spike plant that I don't like.    I also really like coneflowers, which is weird because the rest of the daisylike bunch is "meh" to me. It has something to do with the way their faces are curled back like a pink lion.   It might also have something to do with the fact that they bloom for months on end. And you only have to plant them once, you never have to water them, or deadhead them, or even fertilize them if you don't want to.

My final loves, stylistically, are the whispy many tiny flower faced plants. Like catchfly. Swamp milkweed. Yarrow and even sedum sort of fit into this category.

My dislikes, besides the alien looking tropical plants, are silver blue foliage plants, anything the color orange, anything that looks like it can maim you, and irises, both because they smell awful to me and they rot in such an unattractive way, I just can't take them.

So, just judging by the plants I like, a style sort of forms in my head. But there is more. I love densely over-planted wild looking gardens. My front garden won't look like that, because it faces the Charleston street where formal gardens are the rule. The carriage rides that go by daily would likely tisk tisk an overgrown botanical warzone. How un-Charleston, they would say. She's clearly not from here, they would say. However, my back garden, hidden completely from everyone behind the tall fenceline, I want to be a wild place. To some degree I don't care if a 4 foot daylily is in front of my coneflowers, if 4 o'clocks have reseeded themselves in the bushes, or if one plant (within reason) is taking over another. Its all green life for themselves out there. Let the best plants win. And of course the phlox need to win too.

Maybe this is why the graph paper isn't working.

Pencil to Graph Paper

2010-02-27T08:01:00.005-05:00

I finally managed to get outside with a measuring tape and see how many plants I'm eventually going to need to fill out the garden. Now, there is a good chance it will be a few years before every spot in the garden is full up on blooms, but it hasn't stopped me from planning it to within an inch of its life. In my head, that is.

I got out the graph paper this morning and drew a big square, with a big circle in the middle of it. My backyard. Then I proceeded to draw tons of little mini circles all over the place. Then I balled it up. It was an unintelligible mess of scribbles and circles which represented nothing that gave me a better understanding of how to arrange the garden. It was unintelligible the second time too. And then it occurred to me. For maybe the first time I can think of, at least recently, my natural inclination to plot everything out wasn't working. And whats more, I don't think it is going to work for me. Even if I do manage to get something resembling a snazzy garden plan onto graph paper, I highly doubt that my garden will resemble that in the slightest. After all, the reason to put brainwaves to paper in the first place is so you can cement whats roving around inside and visualize it so that you can see if it works or not. I can't tell anything more on paper than I can in my head! This means, dear reader, you get no garden plan to peruse. Instead you get this:

"Best garden plan yet"

So despite what nearly every book I keep reading is telling me, I am not going to really plan my garden beyond a sense of color, size and the need to put shade plants in the shade. I am not going to take advantage of the opportunity for planning that an empty garden space brings with it. I have a short list of plants that I would really like to have. The rest is just going to have to happen. Seat of the dirty garden pants.

Come on Spring!

2010-02-23T19:33:00.002-05:00

I was thinking a lot about Spring today, as the last warm day for a little while is on my doorstep. Is there anybody out there who isn't ready for Spring? Okay, besides the southern-hemispherians?

"I'm Ready"

Then I was musing (totally off topic again)... what really makes spring come anyhow? What makes Spring spring? Why won't it get here already?!!! Some of you from Pennsylvania will tell me it has to do with a groundhog, and some who remember 6th grade reasonably well will say it has to do with our rotation around the sun. And there are those who might add Spring happens because the days get longer, allowing the sun to heat us up a little more. All of these are sort of correct (well, maybe not the Phil thing), but then again, not exactly. The Earth could rotate until it spun off its axis and it wouldn't change the temperature without one key ingredient. The days wouldn't get longer or shorter save for this ingredient either. And despite popular myth it is NOT correct that the seasons change because we are closer to the sun.

It is, of course, the tilt of the earth. The fact that we spin on our own axis cocked sideways in comparison to our orbit around the sun (the "orbital plane" in Scientific American speak) is what creates the seasons. Without that tilt, everyone would have a temperature and daylight very similar to everyone else, making room for differences in altitude and weather patterns. How crazy and random is that when you think about it? And think about what it would mean if we shifted our tilt? Talk about climate change, and melting polar icecaps! Some more food for thought, the tilt is changing! It varies every 41,000 years or so by about 2.5 degrees.

Okay, getting off track here in my thinking out loud. Here's a picture to illustrate from Wikipedia:

"The North Is Getting Shafted"

So, the orbital tilt.. exactly what does it change that causes these seasons? First, as is probably obvious, the tilt causes one side, either north or south, to have significantly less sunlight then the other side as we rotate daily along the equator. When it comes to the poles, we are talking TOTALLY less light. More light, means more sun baked radiation, which means more warmth (and more skin cancer). The other major contributing factor though is the obliquity of the sun to the spot you are standing. On the 'far side' (i.e. winter), the larger angle of obliquity (less directness) translates also into less radiation for the light we do get. That's why summer sun seems stronger than winter sun, and Florida sun seems hotter than Maine sun. Because it is. This is also why there is ice at the poles even in Summer. The sun is always oblique to a large degree at the poles.

Well, I'm glad I got that all cleared up :). I could go on about solar altitude and radiation lag.. but this is already nerdy enough, and way totally off topic again.

And really this is all to say, of course: Hurry up Earth, I'm sick to death of the dark side! Give it back to Australia and Argentina already.

Amendments

2010-02-21T18:23:00.000-05:00

Well, not only is the sun shining, the temps moderate, but Blotanical is back! All is going right with this weekend.

The soil amending process is continuing. I've taken the time to actually dig down 6-8 inches into the garden, pulling out roots, and more roots of plants I don't have (this is a mystery to me where these are coming from!), old bricks, pieces of plastic, cigarette butts, a tennis ball, some wire, and a heck of a lot of pieces of cement. Oh, and I found a lot of pecans from 3 yards over, which the neighborhood squirrels have placed every 6 inches square throughout the garden.

The mystery of why my soil drains so incredibly fast in such a flood prone area and looks decidedly whitish is becoming clear. At some point I think my garden had been cemented over, and then jackhammered (for the most part) out. The amount of cement pieces from nailhead sized through small dinner plate size just can't be explained any other way. My dirt, I have a feeling, has a large dose of cement in it. I'm thinking this can't be too good. That said, I have a feeling I will never have trouble, EVER, with standing water.

Here's a little before and after soil work. Doesn't it look a bit more ready to plant and grow some great stuff, 250 pounds of compost manure, and 2 bags of topsoil later? I planted only a very few things in October when I moved in, and all of them, save for a very frozen Mandevilla, seems to be coming back just fine. Some of the little 'tufts' are beebalm, agapanthas, sedum, and a straggly butterfly bush, who none-the-less looks a lot better than he did about 3 weeks ago.

The Light Of Day: Novice Garden Planning

2010-02-20T16:42:00.001-05:00

With a few exceptions, I have the enviable (or non enviable?) task of starting a garden from scratch, and it is going to start in just a few days really, as the last frost date here slowly creeps toward me.

Garden planning and space design is something I've been thinking about since October. I want it all, but I can't have it all. I am limited by sun and by space. I will never be able to create the wonderous corridors and pathways that my Mom's gardens have, because with a square fenced in space with stone patio already set, the design of the space as far as hardscape is pretty inescapable. I also have my neighbors monolithic garage extending through the south side of my backyard. Yes, the worst exposure I know. Where was the infamous Charleston Board of Architectural Review when this thing got built? This has a bifold effect on a third of my garden space in the back: I have shade, and I had a very large brown featureless wall to contend with, i.e. hide, in that shade.

"The Great Brown Way"

The lighting factor is a tricky one, at least in my back yard. My front raised bed, which faces ENE gets morning sun and afternoon shade. Pretty simple. The back yard though, due to the southern exposure having this 2.5 story garage on it, blocks the entire garden of direct sunlight during the deepest days of winter (Dec and Jan), as the low trajectory of the sun never clears the garage. The come Feb, March, and November the fence opposite my neighbors property goes from no direct sun, to partial sun, to full sun (or vice versa) in short order as the trajectory of the sun rises, and the days lengthen dramatically through those months. By April, basically through early October, I BELIEVE (having never seen it myself), at least half of the garden is going to be full sun. Or maybe only a quarter. Maybe 3 quarters. And you see, whatever is in the sun is going to be in that southern full sun which renders many a full sun plant actually part shade. Whatever doesn't make it over the shadow cast by the garage is going to be in the full shade. Its like a razor edge.

Shade is something I've been thinking about too. Exactly how much shade is my shade? Even in the deepest of shade underneath the shadow of the garage and the palm tree, was it really deep shade? The sun being so bright, and the reflective light off of my house and the white fences it doesn't seem very ferns and moss shady back there.

So what does all this mean? I have a feeling, the same as anything else, it will have to be trial and error. Not just for what looks good together and against the steep 'walls' that frame my garden (which is a whole other blog post) but also what kind of sun I'm really going to be dealing with. My likely very expensive plan, unless one of my new blog friends can think of something else, is to have a full sun section against the one fence line, a large section of partial sun plants where I'm not sure the sun will extend to (and just hope that if they do end up in mostly sun they don't scorch to death), and then I don't know what type of shade plants by the garage but hopefully they are both narrow and tall! I also cringe at the fact that such a small garden space might have to have two different looks to it, given the fact that there is no way to visually separate the two halves due to the existing design and small size. I am very aware of visual continuity in spaces, be they indoor or out, and I am very much hoping to create a well designed 'room' out of my back garden.

An Olympic Flower

2010-02-18T12:50:00.001-05:00

Around Charleston, April 2009:

This little guy was shining uniquely and all on his own, head and shoulders above everyone else in this garden. This garden bed, located on Isle of Palms, a barrier island in Charleston county, is ripped out and redone at least once a season. It is located outside the walls of one of the Isle of Palms compounds, as I like to think of them. 10 br second homes, with seemingly nobody ever in them except for gardeners and the maids. This particular bed is located outside a house that has two lions guarding the gates.

Despite the fact that I think its such a waste of flowers, every time I walk by it, I do anticipate seeing something beautiful and different, and it never disappoints! Now if only I could walk by when the gardener is ripping these things out!

Poo+Crappy Soil=Crappy Soil With Some Poo On It

2010-02-15T15:31:00.001-05:00

The future weather forecast, though certainly not seasonal (grumble grumble), doesn't call for a deluge of rain, 40 mph winds, or snow (first time in 20 years) so it is time to put some money where my mouth has been recently complaining: crappy soil.

How do I know it's crappy soil? Well truth be told, I don't KNOW exactly... I merely rather strongly guess. It can rain 5 inches in 5 hours and within 24 hours the soil looks like its in cahoots with tumbleweeds. There is also the disturbing fact that the soil just doesn't look like soil. And finally there's the possibility that it could have spent the greater part of 5 years covered by magnolia leaves. It bears mention that there weren't even weeds growing back there. What would you think?

Well, I'm sure we're both right, however, we must be scientific about all this here at Chez Children of the Corm, so its time to bring out: (dum dum dah dummmm) THE VIALS OF TRUTH. Apparently, if there's one thing I like spending money on, its gadgets and chemistry kits that will tell me what else I need to spend money on.

I followed the directions, something I am really good at doing. It's too bad gardening isn't like cooking, where 95x out of 100 if you follow the directions you come up with something good. Or at least edible...some wilted up dead husk with bugs all over it generally does not show up in the pan.

But, I digress. It was time to know for sure, so I gathered my dirt, did my little chemistry magic and voila, all the secrets of my crappy soil were sort of revealed, in that 1991 home pregnancy test kit kind-of way. I'm pretty sure I know what colors those were, however, it would have been easier if the test tube had just called me up on my cellphone and told me "Yes, your soil is crappy."

Here are the results. The good news: my PH is pretty close to neutral. The bad news: the soil has absolutely no appreciable level of Nitrogen or Phosphorous. It does have some Potassium, however the test kits variation between low, medium, and high are not discernible to the naked eye so I'm not exactly sure how much potassium. It is definitely more than very low or none though.

So, with those facts confirming my suspicions I went directly to big box store and bought my first soil amendment: cow poo. When cow poo is put in a bag and allowed to sit for enough time it, of course, is then known as manure compost, a marketing term which is working dandy for me. I have never lifted as heavy or unwieldy an item as a bag of manure compost after a month of rain. Holy cow.

Now, 200 pounds of cow poo is still out there waiting in the car since yesterday, and its time to get amending. I wonder how many years of this will have to go on before I can say, "I have loamy, nutrient rich soil?"

And on an aside, I have to ask, where is Blotanical? This is also highly disturbing.

Photo Travel Journal

2010-02-13T11:44:00.000-05:00

I travelled a bit this year, and here are a few of the colorful, lively, planty shots. Hope you enjoy!

Japanese Holly Fern

2010-02-11T12:39:00.002-05:00

As I cleared all the tons of leaves from my back garden, and fought with roots emanating from where? I did delight in having found a low growing very tropical looking plant that seemed to be thriving. No bugs, no brown burned up spots, no rotting looking, no keeled over in a sun laden death knell. I had a lot of them too - 7 distinct frond bottoms (I'm sure there's a word for these I don't know but thats what I'm calling them). They are about 8 inches tall to maybe a foot and half. But the combined seven of them are about 8 feet wide by 3 or 4 feet deep. Thats a lot of ferns.

A quick look through my favorite gardening book of all times (so far) Easy Gardens For The South, by Cotton, Crawford and Pleasant, and I had identified it at a Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum). From everything I read in my books and on the internet these plants like shade and moisture. I'm here to tell you they are growing in 8b (humid all the time, with an occasional freeze) in crappy non nutrient rich soil, which holds absolutely no water and they get a few hours of blazing sun between about 12-2, and they are thriving. So my gut feeling is that this is one of those plants that can be grown outside of its 'recommended values'.

Because these things looked so insanely healthy, and they were pretty, and because they were better looking and fuller than most pictures I saw on the internet of them, I had the dilemma of what to do with these. Given that my gardening space isn't endless, having 30 sq feet of holly fern just doesn't make sense. So I had to get rid of a few, and I decided about 2 weeks ago that I would give the butterfly bush (aka 2 straggly sticks and a dream from my moms garden) I had moved in October a better shot at life. I dug up the 2 closest to the bush, and boy oh boy was it a job.

They were all closely planted together, and though they don't have large roots, they have many many many deep roots. I'm sure I cut half of their roots off in the process, and some of the roots of the neighbor plants too. But, I took the two of them and threw them in some medium sized pots with a little potting soil and hoped for the best. Sure, the pots were way too small, but I wasn't about to give away one of my prized monster pots that would have been appropriate. It worked!

This has been in this smaller pot for 2 weeks now and is looking just as healthy as he did in the ground. First transplanting mission accomplished. And maybe of interest to any of you that live a little farther north than me, the plants in the pots survived several below freezing nights and didn't even sniff. The well established ones I inherited made it through 13 days, nearly all in the hard freeze area without a brown leaf to be seen. I bet these would probably make it in at least zones 7 as an evergreen. I believe at some point they get more deciduous in nature in zone 7, but even if it loses its leaves it comes back.

Here's my new clump, looking a little smaller. They are none the worse for wear either:

Details:

Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum)
USDA Hardiness Zone 7-10
Pests: Rare
Water: Medium (whatever, mine seem fine in drought, flood)
Soil: Fertile well drained (again, my soil is far from fertile)
Light: Shade, morning sun okay (mine is in part shade)
Growth: Slow
Propagation: Division
Fertilization: Medium (has been fine for 5+ years here with no fertilization)