This and That

Fall is fast approaching and things are starting to slow down a little in the garden. Jamie and I have accomplished so much in the garden this year it’s almost un-comprehendible. Yesterday afternoon I spent the greater part of four hours cutting grass and piddling around in the yard. When I was done, I sat back in a chair and looked over all of my hard work for the afternoon. As I was sitting there mentally rearranging and repositioning plants I was hit with such a huge sense of satisfaction with the way things are coming together. I had a good feeling all over about it. I tend to be my worst critic, so just two days earlier I was completely dissatisfied with the way everything looked. Right now, despite the chaotic cluster of plants in the huge patio bed, I can definitely say Jamie and I are heading in the right direction.

Since we are spending less of our energies planting around the house it has opened time for other projects. About two weeks ago Jamie and I spent the weekend building a trellis wall and three arbors. I’ve been itching to show them to you, but I don’t want to until the beds are cut out around them. And, to be completely honest, Jamie and I have not had the strength or energy to do it the past week. We’ve worked so hard EVERY single weekend since the beginning of March we just need a little break. So, we’ve been taking one and working on other projects that are less labor intensive. I do intend to work on the trellis beds and arbor beds this weekend, weather permitting.

There are several things that we’ve been neglecting lately around the house and it’s time to start taking that into consideration. One little project this past weekend was to re-do the sitting area outside the kitchen door. With all the work we had been doing in the garden, we didn’t even have a comfortable place to sit and enjoy the fruits of our labor. It was one of those things that we’ve been saying we were going to do, but never seemed to get around to it.

Jamie and I have an attraction to lions that has recently come to light. We realized we keep purchasing things and looking at items with lions on them. While helping Jimmy and Wade move this past weekend, Jimmy gave us the most wonderful bronze planter with lions on it. We just love it and I think its well worth the 25 cents Jimmy paid for it at the Salvation Army.

Right now we still have lots of things blooming in the garden, but only a few items that I haven’t previously posted in other entries. I’m sure everyone has seen the Purple Hyacinth Bean blooms before…

But, have you ever seen the White Hyacinth Bean blooms? This one is called Lablab purpureus 'Alba', also known as Dolichos lablab 'Alba'.

Jamie has wanted these Balloon Flowers for so long. He’s finally getting to enjoy his blooms. I do have to agree they are a very pretty color.

The ‘Tonto’ finally decided to show us what it has to contribute to our garden. All the Crepe Myrtles seem to bloom at different times, so that’s good. They slightly overlap each other.

Last but not least, I threw in this picture of the ‘Richard Wallace’ buds because I thought it was the prettiest yellow color I’ve seen in a long time.

Some Cannas For You

Jamie and I got several projects completed in the garden this past week. I’ll be posting pictures of them later. I really don’t like posting pictures of unfinished projects on the blog. I like to go step by step with my photos until completion so you can watch the process unfold. This past weekend we put in two new beds, three arbors and built a twenty foot trellis attached to one of the arbors to form a wall and the entrance to our garden. I’ll be posting pictures of all this in a couple of weeks. Until then here are some Canna photos that I hope you enjoy. With thirty types of cannas, our garden has been an explosion of flowers thru all the terrible heat. If you don’t have any you should consider getting at least a couple of them.

'Pretoria'

'Richard Wallace'

'President'

'Tropical Sunrise'

'King City Gold'

Blooming July 25, 2008

Another week has come and gone. Before we know it, fall will be here and the growing season will be over. Despite the heat and total lack of shade the garden is still managing to give us a few blooms. We are at a point that we are able to look around at everything and see what we need to do differently next year. Just when I think I’ve made up my mind what direction we should head, I change it again. I know I want to create some privacy, which is definitely a priority this fall. We will watch the eventual outcome as it unfolds, on with the blooms.

The daylilies have really slowed down on the blooming, but we can’t really complain because they have worked their little hearts out for us this summer putting on a show. The one below is one of the latest additions to our collection.

‘Sea Gold’

Last year while traipsing around deep in the woods I came up on a grove of what I believed to be Amaryllis from an old home place. They turned out to be Swamp Lilies, but I still think they are really pretty. They remind me of Peruvian Daffodils. Not a bad score for something that grows wild in the woods.

‘Swamp Lily’

Both of the new Agapanthuses are blooming right now. Well, just between you and I this one is really kind of deformed. It has a flat, curled up stem, but at least we get a preview of the color. I love this dark color and I had wanted one for some time.

‘Elaine’

About a month ago Jamie and I got these Encore Azaleas marked 75% off the regular price because they were half dead and very crispy. Isn’t it amazing what a little TLC will do? They are rewarding us with blooms just four weeks later. They are also covered in new growth.

‘Conlea’

Earlier this summer Jamie and I bought this Jasmine Tree. I flip flopped back and forth over it because it was a little more than I’m willing to pay for a single plant, with the exception of Japanese maples. Boy, am I glad we got it! It has bloomed, and bloomed, and bloomed, and bloomed and it has such a wonderful scent that you can smell all over the back yard, just from this single plant.

Orange Jasmine Murraya paniculata

Here’s a close up of the blooms. I wonder how such strong scent can come from such a tiny flower.

One of the true work horses we have in the garden now as far as blooms go is the cannas. We have over thirty different types. They’re good, inexpensive filler plants with beautiful blooms. Unfortunately a lot of the ones we planted just don’t seem to fit where they are so they will be coming out of the ground and passed along to someone else.

‘Yellow King Humbert’

‘Red King Humbert’

The Buddleias are doing nice, but I would have liked to see a little more growth out of them this summer. Pictured below are ‘Adonis Blue’, ‘White Profusion’ and ‘Nanho Blue'.

This year we planted six Crepe Myrtles in the yard, ‘Rosado’, ‘Natchez’ and ‘Tuscarora’. I wish they were all full grown now! This is a picture of the blooms from one of the three Tuscaroras.

'Tuscarora'

This last daylily was purchased as an ‘Orange Flurry’, but that isn’t what it is. I really don’t like to have unidentified plants and there must be hundreds of yellow daylilies. I guess since this one is such a pretty color it can stay.

For Bloom Day

I didn't have alot of time to prepare for this, but I wanted to post something for bloom day. Enjoy the flowers and I promise to do better on my next 'Bloom Day' post. :-)

'Summer Sky'




'Stargazer'




'Firebird'




'Stephanie'




'Maudie Maclom'




'Futurity Yellow'




'Double Tiger'




'Royal Purple'




'Confederate Jasmine'




'Caradonna'




'Black and Blue Salvia'




'Mystic Spires'




'Red Stripe'

We Finally Got Rain

We got rain! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Okay, I really didn’t want so much of it that it washed the mulch out of the beds into the lawn, but I’ll take what ever I can get. Even if it does require me to do a little more work. Jamie and I installed a drip and sprinkle system in the entire yard for all the plants early this spring, so we really haven’t been affected much by the lack of rain. However, like my old boss lady use to say to me. ”Child, don’t nothin’ make a plant grow like God’s water.” Then she would send me promptly out into the pouring down rain with empty buckets to place in the parking lot of the store to catch rainwater for her African violets. Mrs. Kitty was more like another mother to me than a boss lady, so even though I despised getting wet, I would always run out there with those buckets. She always walked around talking to her violets like they were little people telling them how pretty they were. “Now push out some pretty flowers for MawMaw to enjoy.” Sometimes, just to aggravate her on the days I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about getting wet, I would lean over to the one nearest me and mockingly say, “You sure are an ugly little thing.” She would come up out of that chair and say how dare you speak to my babies like that. I would just giggle to myself. Alright, I know it wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but it gave moments of entertainment during the times of boredom. Of course, I always secretly loved them as much as she did. She gave up her store just so I could become a manager and she let me have my choice of the violets to keep. With the understanding of course, that I was to treat it like she always did with no nasty little remarks.

The daylilies are starting to slow down a little bit on the blooming, but the cannas are getting started. We have several putting on a show right now. I just don’t understand how someone can not like a canna. They multiply fast so you can share them with friends and the blooms are just as beautiful as any orchid I’ve ever seen. So why do they get such a bad rap? I don’t understand. Now they come with such interesting foliage too, purple, green, red, bronze, striped and variegated. Here are some of the ones that are blooming now, mixed with pictures of other things. Look at the gorgeous bloom on ‘Orange Beauty’. See the striations of darker orange on the petals? I think it’s just wonderful.

'OrangeBeauty'

I’m not particularly excited about this ‘Red King Humbert’ and I’m not really certain why. I like it, I think it’s pretty, but it just doesn’t captivate me the way some blooms do. Maybe it will grow on me some.

'Red King Humbert'

This pretty yellow bloom is one of the new daylilies we got this past weekend. I don’t think there is anything more beautiful to me than a yellow flower. Something about them just whispers be cheerful in my ear every time I see one.

'Yellow Lollipop'

Back to the cannas again, this one is ‘Crimson Beauty’. It looks more like a “pink” beauty to me, but then again I am color deficient, so I probably don’t see it in the actual shade of red it is. I’m not so sure everyone doesn’t see colors in different shades. Sorry about the ugly chain link fence, its part of the yard and it keeps the neighbor’s aggressive dog from eating me up when he’s outside. He’s a mean dog.

'Crimson Beauty'

'Yellow King Humbert'

This is one of the two turkscap plants we have. We have a red one and a pink one. It also has a variety with white blooms and one with variegated foliage that I would absolutely love to have if I could just find them.

'Big Momma'

'Miss Oklahoma'

I L-O-V-E this daylily. It’s the most beautiful shade of purple. I would almost be willing to do an entire bed in this color.

'Grape Ripple'

Some Cosmos....

'Pam's Pink'

'Cleopatra'

Last but not least....

'Merle Kent'

Back in Business

It’s nice to be back with everyone again. I’ve just spent the last ten days reloading our computer after catching a nasty virus from a garden blog I visited. Actually, two blogs I visited, one of which had a virus that was more destructive than the other one. Long story short, I had to reload everything back on the computer again and reinstall four years of windows updates to add to the mix. I was going to do a blog on this whole subject, but to be perfectly frank, I’m tired of thinking about it because I’ve been forced to spend every free minute I’ve had the past week and a half fixing things. So, in a nutshell here is what I’ve learned from this experience and I want to share it with you.

If you have advertisements on your blog or if you are visiting a blog with ads, you should be very cautious. In one click you can expose yourself to a host of malware that is undetectable by your virus protection program. The Trojans are hidden in flash ads, for those of you that don’t know what a flash ad is; it would be one that has some type of movement to it. It may be a slide show or it could be a mini movie of sorts and you don’t have to click on the ads to be infected. I would say in almost all instances the person that has the ad posted has no idea they are infecting the PC of their visitors. Most of the time it will only slow your computer down, in a worst case scenario you will be infected by a popup virus that will disable all of your update programs on windows and will eventually cause you computer to freeze up. This is exactly what happened to me.

I’d also like to mention that the particular viruses I got were non-detectable by McAfee, Norton, Panda and Trend Micro. I was finally able to identify them with Kaspersky, but even then I was unable to delete, quarantine or clean the five viruses from my system. If you are placing ads on you blog or if you visit a new blog loaded with them I would recommend you use extreme caution or simply leave the site.

Now that we have this issue out of the way, check out these things that were blooming while we were gone. Get comfortable, this could be a long one. If you get tired of reading, then just enjoy the pictures.

Jamie and I have thirty-three different types of cannas and we just got all of them this year so it’s been exciting to watch them bloom. This first one is ‘Stadt Fellbach’ I really don’t even know how to begin to describe the color of it. It’s a medium sized canna and only gets about two and a half feet tall.

‘Stadt Fellbach’

Now, I know you didn’t even think for one minute, that there wouldn’t be daylilies posted today, did you? This one is ‘Little Bumblebee’. It’s a pretty shade of orange but the name confuses me, I see nothing that reminds me of a bumble bee.

‘Little Bumblebee’

We introduced several new climbers to the mix this year; this is a ‘Snail Vine’. Last night while I was reading my Alabama Gardener magazine; I discovered a wonderful article on vines and such in this months edition. I'm so happy I found this magazine on Phillip's site. Did you know when a vine puts out its little shoots it starts to look for something to wind around and if it doesn’t find anything it will die? I found that to be so amazing, of course that isn’t all of them, only the ones the put out the curly tips or "twiners". It’s actually smart enough to put a shoot in another direction to find something to climb, almost as if there is some sort of thought process involved.

‘Snail Vine’

I am so proud of our Crepe Myrtles, they are just blooming their little hearts out for the first time. I’ve wanted some ‘Natchez’ trees for the longest time and I could never find them. Well, this year not only did we find them, but we also found them shaped like I wanted as well and at an incredible price to boot. I will admit one thing though; when I planted them I had no idea that they could get thirty feet tall. They will do just fine where I planted them, but they will be hanging over on my neighbor’s property and I’ve tried to be more conscious of where I plant things after Annie reminded me about the whole over hang thing. Judy says she thinks it will be lovely, she’s lived in that house for thirty-two years, but she may not always be there.

‘Natchez’

This is ‘Double Passion’ I was really hoping for a more breathtaking picture of this, but my camera lens kept fogging up from the change in temperature and the sun was moving into a different position. This is the best I could do for now.

‘Double Passion’

‘Mary Todd’ is another pretty daylily, but it’s very susceptible to leaf streak and this plant got a bad dose of it this year. I’ve been treating it and it’s looking much better, but I really had hoped to share it with some people this year. It’s not a bad fungus and for the most part, just makes the leaves look bad, but people can be very peculiar about their garden. I don’t want to be accused of passing a bug around. Some daylilies are more resistant than others and ‘Mary Todd’ has the weakest resistance.

‘Mary Todd’

This Canna is ‘Tropical Sunrise’, it grows to the same height as the previous one. None of the cannas we planted are considered invasive. If they were invasive it would only mean we have more to share with friends.

‘Tropical Sunrise’

‘Chicago Apache’

The monarda is really putting on a show for us. I’m going to have to move it after it gets done blooming this year. I had no idea when I planted it that it would grow as tall as it has. I would leave it where it is, but the ‘Red Dragon’ is being hidden by it, plus it really needs to go further back into the bed. It’s standing proud at the edge of the bed right now almost as if saying I will not be ignored and I will play second fiddle to no plant in this garden. At the risk of pumping its little ego it probably is the prettiest thing when have blooming right now.

‘Raspberry Wine’

‘Lusty Leland’

‘Luxury Lace’

‘Bonanza’

‘Gentle Shepherd’

I received this canna in trade this past winter. The nice lady I got if from has no idea what the name might be, it’s another pass along plant. She says it’s always been Granny’s Canna to her, so, that’s the name I gave it as well.

This last photo is ‘Dawn Pink’ and it is the cutest little thing. It only grows to about foot and a half high. The foliage is a wonderful shade of bronze. It stays so compact that I would almost consider making a small hedge of sorts or a border with it. You know, it just occurred to me it would be the perfect thing to put under the bird bath. I’ll talk to Jamie and we may just do that! Well, I hope I haven’t bored you with my ramblings today. :-) As always, we are so proud you stopped by for a visit and we will post a new entry soon.

'Dawn Pink'