Always Growing

This copyrighted post, “Easter Lily” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

Last year I ordered lilies (lilium longiflorum - White Heaven) from Brent and Becky’s Bulbs.  I ordered 25 bulbs and they performed fantastically.  I had big plants and numerous flowers.  This year when they started to come up, I was overjoyed to see that they had multipled.  Instead of just 25 plants, I now have about 40 big ones and 15 small ones.  I will definitely have to move some later on so they will not be crowded.  I guess they like where I planted them.  Since I have clay soil, I planted these bulbs in a slightly raised bed and added some sand for good drainage.  I figured the first year I would have success, but had my fingers crossed for this year.  I have not been disappointed.

Today, the first ones opened, and I couldn’t wait to get a picture. This is one of the few lilies that is supposed to do well here, and these have done very well.  Not too many people grow these any more.  You tend to see them growing only in the older neighborhoods.  I think most people just throw away any they buy for Easter instead of planting them in the garden.  They won’t bloom for Easter, but that does not bother me in the least.  I remember my mother had a whole bed of these bulbs when I was very young.

The success I have had with these lily bulbs encouraged me to try other ones.  I purchased an assortment of bulbs this spring, and I have a few planted in the back garden and some now have buds.  It remains to be seen if they return next year.  In the mean time, I am going to do a little research and see if I can find some other lilies that are recommended for the deep South.

This post, “Blooming Daylilies” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

This week more daylilies have started blooming.  Since I have been concentrating on adding more perennials to my garden, I have become enamored with daylilies.  The yellow ones my mother gave me from her garden a few years ago have started blooming.  The red ones she gave me started blooming last week.  I do not know the names of these, but just this week when I was driving to her house, I saw that the same ones seemed to be blooming in gardens in the older sections where she lives.  These must have been popular daylilies at least thirty years ago.

The Stella d’Oro has been blooming nonstop for about two weeks now.  This little one is a favorite of mine.

One of the daylilies my sister sent me from Oakes Daylilies has started blooming.  It is a small lemon yellow.  I wonder if it could be Happy Returns?  I’ll have to compare it to the ones I know are Happy Returns when they start blooming and then see if this new one repeats blooms.

Finally, a pink stripped daylily has bloomed.  This particular daylily has bloomed earlier, but now its color seems to be truer to its picture than the first blooms I had.  Maybe the temperature has something to do with the slight change in color.

I still have several daylilies that have yet to bloom.  The Vanilla Fluff, I bought at the N.O. Botanical Show has buds, and several more of the Oakes Daylilies have buds.  There are still a few that are not showing any buds or bud stalks, but I seem to remember that they bloom in early summer.  I’ll have to check my garden journal from last year to see when they actually did bloom.  I always seem to forget when a few things start flowering, that not everything will bloom early.  That is the main reason I keep a written journal of when things bloom, so I can keep track.  I guess I am too impatient for things to show up in the garden.

If you are interested, this is a great site for tips on growing daylilies.

This post, “Crinums” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

I haven’t been growing crinums for too very long.  I have really had success in the last two years since the garden is getting a lot more sun.  I received my first crinum from my sister.  I kept it in a pot for a few years so I could place it in some sun.  About two years ago, I planted it in the ground, and boy did it take off.  It has not sent out any blooms yet this year, but a little crinum I have in the back garden is already up and open.

This particular crinum was on my sister’s compost pile about three years ago when I saw it and asked her if I could have it.  I brought it and an even smaller one home and planted it in the only place that got any sun.  Well, it didn’t die, but it sure didn’t thrive.  After Hurricane Katrina came through and knocked down some trees in 2005, more sun was available for these two crinums.  In 2007 I got my first blooms from this scrawny plant.  I was thrilled because I love the color, and, hey, an easy care plant that blooms just can’t be beat.  Well, with a little compost, fertilizer, and watering, I think this crinum will soon be on its way to being a lot bigger with more blooms.

This past fall I bought two white crinums for my white garden.  They have started putting out leaves.  Even though they were a good size, I don’t know if I will get any blooms this year. We’ll have to see if they bloom later in the summer.  I would like to add more of these great plants and will probably look for some different ones on the internet, since they are not often found in nurseries.  I would love to have the one called “Milk and Wine.”

The clumps of crinum lilies can be quite large.  The strap-like leaves can be up to four feet.  These are big, bold plants.  The flower spikes rise up to about three to four feet and display fragrant trumpet-shaped flowers.  These can be grown into zone 7 and some varieties to zone 5 with protection, but down here you can hardly kill these things. 

As I am moving to having more and more perennials in my garden, I will make sure to leave room for this great old Southern bulb.

This post, “Still Too Early to Plant” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

It is hard to have to wait for some plants to emerge in the spring.  Every year I worry when the hidden ginger isn’t up even though we have warm temperatures for weeks.  This year is no different.  Many plants need warm soil to grow.

Last weekend when I was planting in the garden, I was surprised that the soil was still fairly cool, especially the areas that remain shady.  This past week, we have had high temps in the 80’s, but I still think it is too early to plant warm-weather plants like caladiums.  You have to be careful and not plant caladiums too early because if they sit in damp, cold soil they can rot.  Very often I will start the tubers in containers.   I usually start them in gallon containers and then put them in the ground when it warms up enough.  When leaves start showing, it is easy to gently lift them and plant in the garden.  In certain areas of the garden, under a tree for example, I will just place the container of caladiums in the garden rather than try to dig around tree roots.  These containers are placed behind low growing plants or in ground cover so that the pot does not show.  This also makes it easy to lift the tubers in the fall.

Caladiums need well drained soil, and filtered sunlight.  Plant the tubers with the eyes up and about two inches deep.  The roots and leaves form quickly in warm soil.  Water well during the summer.

This year I bought some more Gingerland caladiums, and I want to plant them now, but I know better.  With the warm spring days and flowers all around, it is hard to have to wait to plant some things, but sometimes we have to learn to be patient.

This post, “Bayou Classic” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

Louisiana Irises are truly spectacular flowers that can be grown just about anywhere.  When we went to the Botanical Gardens on Saturday, their irises were already in bloom. 

Here is a group of light purple irises that was so majestic in their garden.  Louisiana Irises come in a rainbow of colors and can be grown in regular garden soil as well as in bog and water gardens.  They start blooming around March 15th to April 15th here in south Louisiana.

Here is another picture from the Botanical Gardens’ iris collection.  As you can see these plants come in colors of blue, purple, white, yellow, pink, and red.  They do very well in sun to partial shade in moist soil.  The sword-like leaves start to grow in the early winter and are very attractive in the garden and offer contrast to other foliage.  The flowers are held above the leaves which shows them off very well.

Louisiana Irises can be very vigorous.  Given the right conditions, a plant can grow into a hugh clump.  The next picture shows Bayou Classic.  This is an iris that has done extremely well for me.  It blooms profusely and has spread into a great display.

I just got my first blooms today and, as usual, the flowers are striking - big and colorful.  I can’t wait for the yellow and the red irises to start blooming.  Since these are doing so well, I need to get more of these irises to place around the garden.

You may think these irises only do well in the South, but even though they are native here, they will grow everywhere.  So don’t think of these as natives that only do well here in the Bayou State.  These easy care plants should be in every garden.  If you would like to know more about these wonderful plants check out the Louisiana Iris Society for more info.  You don’t have to grow just annuals to get great color in your garden.  Louisiana irises are an easy to grow perennial that gives color year after year.

This post, “Visual Record” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

One of the nice things about having a blog is that there is a visual record of your garden.  For the past several years, I have kept a written garden journal, but there were no pictures.  Just dates of when things bloomed or what was planted, etc.  But, now that I have a digital camera, it is nice to have a picture to go with those bloom dates.

First Louisiana Iris to bloom opens up on 4/03.  This was planted two years ago.  It is very much like the ones that grow wild in the swamps around here.

Garden Appleblossom amaryllis opens up today.

This post, “Finally Getting Things Planted-Part 2” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

Well, today was another fantastic day weather wise.  Cool, breezy, and sunny.  The perfect day to work in the garden.  More and more plants are popping up and showing blooms.  One of the daylilies I received from Oakes Daylilies already has a bloom, as does one of my January Wal-Mart purchases.  Also showing blooms are woodland phlox and a yellow native azalea.

I continued planting the container plants I had bought but never planted in the ground.  At the fall garden show in New Orleans, I bought a Harlequin Glorybower (Clerodendron trichotomum), and that was the first thing I planted today.  It went in at the side edge of the entry garden away from the walkway.  It gets rather large, but I may keep it trimmed into a small tree.  In late summer or early fall it puts out fragrant, white flowers that have bright red calyxes that last through the winter.

 Harlequin Glorybower finally planted in the garden next to red amaryllis.

Next on the list was a Coral Bean tree (Erythrina x bidwillii).  This, too, was purchased at the same garden show.  I also put this in the entry garden because it will have bright red seed pods.  Since my color scheme for that garden is red and purple, I figured I would try it there to repeat the red color.  This is a very small plant, but from my experience with a Crybaby Tree, I know it won’t be long before it is a small tree.

 Coral Bean tree surrounded by guardian birds.

Another plant purchased at the fall show was Pinecone Ginger (Zingiber zerumbet).  This I planted in the back garden where it will be in partial shade.  It is totally dormant right now, but it should be starting to show growth soon.  My Hidden Ginger (Curcuma alismatifolia) is also dormant at this time, but I am sure it won’t be long before that, too, is up.  These gingers seem to be some of the last to show in the spring.  They are not like the other gingers I have.  The shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) wasn’t even nipped by the frost, the variegated shell ginger was frost damaged but has already sent up shoots, and the butterfly ginger (Hedychium coronarium) is about two feet high now.

The reason that I didn’t plant these when I bought them in September was that I was unsure if they would survive the winter.  Because the plants were small, and I didn’t know how severe our winter could be, I opted to keep them in their containers until springtime.

I did plan on planting more today, but for some reason there is a person in this house who likes to eat, so I had to go to the grocery.  With it being a holiday weekend, of course, it was very crowded, and everything took longer than usual.

So with still more to plant, it looks like this posting is going to end up being a trilogy.

This post, “Finally Getting Things Planted” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

I have a tendency to buy plants and then find a place to put them.  I know, I know, this is not the way things are supposed to be done, but I also know I am not alone in doing this.

So, lately containers have been sitting around, waiting to be planted.  I have been willing but unable to plant them because of weather, work, or other commitments.  Having these plants just sitting around has really been getting to me.  Well, today I finally was able to start planting those patient plants.

First, I dug up some toad lilies that were now in too much sun and transplanted them to shadier locations.  Next, I planted the three Elvas amaryllis from Christmas.  They went in the toad lilies’ old spot. 

 Toad lilies in new home.

 Amaryllis (Elvas) finally planted where toad lilies were.

I had some lilies from last spring in small containers that I figured were dead.  I saw that they were starting to show, so I planted them behind the amaryllis.  The lily bulbs were in surprisingly good shape.  So I have high hopes they will bloom this year.

Next on the list were the three Appleblossom amaryllis.  I made sure to plant all the amaryllis bulbs with at least an inch of the nose above ground.  I placed them next to the two that were planted in the garden last spring.  Those two have buds and should be blooming soon.  By next year the group of five should make a nice display of pink and white flowers.

In planting the last group of amaryllis, I had to take up some Cashmere Bouquet plants.  Those I moved to the back of the house where they will have more room to grow.

I thought I would get more done today, but amending the soil as I planted slowed me down.  So, tomorrow I will be outside again finding homes for a few more of those container-purchased plants.

This post, “Just Relaxing” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

I got home from work a little later than normal and just took a walk around to relax.  It was too late to do any work, so it was nice just to check on things.  In stolling the garden, I discovered the azaleas on the north side have almost fully opened.

The freesia have returned for the third year in a row now.  I love the sweet, citrusy aroma which reminds me of apricots.  The yellow and purple are blooming, and the white are in bud.

I noticed the wisteria is starting to bloom as is the magnolia fuscata, now called michelia figo.  Both are giving the areas around them a wonderful aroma.

And finally the Barlett pear tree has opened all its blooms and looks gorgeous.  Each cluster reminds me a of a small bouquet.

All in all, it was a nice, relaxing time in the garden.  Maybe tomorrow will bring time to do a little work.

This post, “Big Red Trumpets” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

I have many amaryllis growing in the garden.  The March 15th posting showed the red and white ones in bloom, and today shows the first of the solid red opening up.  I am not sure of the name of these because they were given to me by a co-worker who didn’t learn the name from the neighbor who gave them to her.  I do not think that they are Red Lion because they are not the same color as the Red Lions that are in the garden from years ago.  These seem to be a bit more blue-red than the Red Lions I have.  They sport very big flowers.  These red beauties are planted in the circle garden, the entry garden, and the patio garden.  As you can tell, I was fortunate to receive many of these bulbs from my friend over the years.  I must have a total of about 75 bulbs in those three places, and when they all bloom it is a very nice spring display.

So now I am waiting for the Appleblossoms that are planted in the garden to bloom, but it will be a while - the stalks are only about four inches high now.  Also there are some white amaryllis that are not even showing buds, but those are always the last to show up.  The soft orange ones I received from a friend last year should be the next to open.

Amaryllis can be grown in the ground if you are in at least zone 8 or higher.  They need well-drained soil and should be planted with about half of its nose out of the ground.  They need sun but do best with some afternoon shade.  Space about a foot apart and don’t forget to mulch esp. in fall and winter.  Those potted bulbs we use for the holidays can be planted in the garden in the spring.  If you live in an area that is too cold to plant them in the ground, then check out this site from the North Carolina Extension Service that explains how you can have them bloom again.