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 Turk’s Turban (Clerodendron indicum), 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.
Turk’s Turban 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.
Always Growing 
Leave a Reply