HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

[Prissy]

Pepe,

I am reposting my pictures on this new page.  Hopefully, they will show up for you.

Here are some pictures taken during this last week.

In our front yard, we have two oak trees with small circular beds around them.  The deep red dianthus has come back and the Stella day lilies are just starting to get their green leaves.  This year I added daffodils into the beds knowing they would bloom each Spring before the trees get their leaves and cause too much shade!

(Clickable photos)

            

Here are pictures of some of the plants in the bed at the back of the house, just outside the master bedroom.   The big bush is a Chinese fringe plant with fringe like maroon flowers.  There is purple oxalis with pink flowers and dark purple foliage and regular oxalis with light purple flowers and green foliage. 

         

Texas Gold Columbine and a close up that is growing by the gazebo.  This plant blooms in the shade in early spring and comes back every year.  Usually, the heat of summer causes it to stop blooming.

    

More flowering plants:

(Clickable)

Clump of peach colored dianthas


Purple pincushion flower


VInca groundcover with purple blooms.


We bought these "tilted" pots last year and I thought they might look good in the brick corners at the front of the house.  Does anyone have ideas what I might plant in them;  perhaps a plant that kind of "spills" out?

   

[Pepe]

HORRAY, success the pictures came up.  I do have problems with the dialup with a lot of pictures but it is worth it when I finally am able to see them.  PRISSY I am surprised for some reason that your daffodiles did so good, for some reason I didn't think you had enough cold weather for the bulbs.  Everything looks just lovely in the yard!!! How lucky you and DUDLEY are to enjoy flowers while we still have snow and ice on the ground.  It got so cold last night I could not open the door wall this morning to let Pepe out as it was froze!! 

 

[fhmmany2]

Prissy - your yard looks so pretty and clean (as opposed to mine  ) and the blooms are all so beautiful. I was once a "one pot one plant" person, but now I realy love mixed pots of flowers. I think you should have trailing plants at the front of your "tilted" pots - there are so many beautiful ones! - and other plants at the back. I can't wait until all of the nurseries will be full of beautiful plants.

[Prissy]

Pepe,
I'm glad you can see the pictures.  I bought the daffodil plants on sale and planted five in each circular bed.  I am hoping they will come back each year  (early spring).    The vinca ground cover is in the woods.

Frankie,
Our front yard usually looks nice (but remember we have a yard crew that comes and mows, edges, and trims bushes, etc.)  The backyard is kind of a mess in parts;  Skip and all his projects back there.  I won't let him do too much in the front!

Here is a picture of Skip planting more Dianthus around a circular bed with Stella day lilies already getting green.  Note the pond still in progress in the upper right and a picnic table in the upper left where he has been sawing rock.

   

I took a picture of the tops of the trees in the woods still bare March 7, but which are about to green up; in fact, they have their green leaves starting now!  The one tree lost a big limb when we had a lot of wind. 

      

Two views standing in the middle of the woods looking toward the back of the lot, and  then looking toward the backyard on up to the gazebo, the bridge, the vans on the driveway and back of the house.

      

[Pepe]

PRISSY, geez you have a huge yard.  Is it a couple of acres????  I never knew houses in subdivisions had those huge lots, but that is right everything is bigger in Texas.    We traveled thru Austin , Texas about 15 years ago in a motor home and stayed there thru the biggest hail storm I have ever seen.  I never seen such storms and we have always remembered that.    Love all the pictures, thanks so much for taking the time to show us.  So good to be back active on the Garden thread.

[fhmmany2]

 

Pepe - are you still in the snow?  When I went shopping today, I went with a garden list from Lewis - I came home with the back of my SUV filled with plants! I will have to write a list for you later - I bought every variety of tomato and pepper that I could find!  You would have loved this shopping trip!

[Pepe]

FRANKIE,  yep would have loved to have gone plant shopping, my favorite thing to do.  We do still have a few snow mounds around.  Mostly there it was piled alongside the streets and huge mounds still in the stores parking lots.  I want to plant more cucumbers, I did not have enough last  year.  I would go thru two a day easy.  We love them sliced with mild onion slices in vinegar . 

[Prissy]

TO THE GARDEN THREAD POSTERS!


HERE I AM AT THE FORT WORTH BOTANIC GARDENS

I WISH YOU ALL  A  MOST HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!


Prissy

[Mary]

Prissy, great scarf. I have the same one!

[Prissy]

Pepe,
Our yard is normal width, but has a long backyard.  We have that extension of woods at the back that lead to a creek and then a shopping strip beyond the creek, so we have lots of yard, but stores close by. 
Some of our neighbors have backyards that look like parks.

Mary,
The scarf I am wearing is black with green shamrocks on it.  I got it and other scarves at Sam Moon a few years ago.  I have several scarves with violins or music notes on them, and a Valentine scarf, too!

Frankie,
Almost every time we go out, we come home with more plants!!  There are some great nurseries around here including several Plant Sheds, Weston Gardens in south Fort Worth, which specializes in perennials and hard to find plants, and Archie's in west Fort Worth, which also has all kinds of plants and hard to find perennials, too.


Here are a few more pictures taken at Botanic Gardens last Sunday:

(CLICKABLE)


FROG POND AT THE DRIVE IN ENTRANCE TO FW BOTANIC GARDENS BUILDING
      

FLOWERING KALE


WALKWAY BEHIND THE BUILDING LEADING TO MORE GARDENS


TULIPS BLOOMING THROUGH PANSIES (THIS IS SEEN A LOT IN THE BIG GARDENS IN THIS AREA)

[fhmmany2]

 

Prissy - your photos are always so pretty  when I win the lottery I am going to hire a full time gardener so my yard can always look good, too. 

We have been working in the yard most of the day - cut the grass for the second time this year. I think we are really into Spring now - the wisteria is blooming. Lewis got a cutting from a white wisteria from a friend this week - hope it lives. In the meantime, we have lots of purple:

 (Click to make photos bigger)





I would still like to know the name of this shrub - I posted a photo of it when we bought it several years back. We have no idea what it is - just like the way it looks. It has berries that resemble grapes - the birds love them:



Azaelas are opening up:



I took this one from the pond levee - on the right, you can see iris, dogwood, and azalea. If you look closely at the tall skinny tree on the left, wisteria is blooming in it all the way to the top:



Pepe - I thought this might give you a smile! Remember a couple of years back when I mentioned that Lewis was moving iris from two beds that we had along the driveway? The beds were full of grass, and the iris did not bloom well there. Lewis worked for weeks moving iris, and the more he dug up, the more that came up!  He has finally gotten all of the iris moved, and since it is too early to plant grass seed, he has planted potatoes in the two beds - after the potatoes are harvested, he will plant grass there. These photos look out toward our road:





And our Easter flag is flying:

[Pepe]

FRANKIE and PRISSY, wonderful pictures and I really appreciate seeing that everyone else does not have snow on the ground.   

FRANKIE, you don't want a Gardner, you do a great job.  I love natural type of garden settings like the azaleas you have next to the woods.  Good for Lewis not letting a plot of dirt go to waste  , with so many out of work and families needing food I would like to see gardens on all empty property, I guess people need to go back to the basics and start growing a lot of their own food.  The problem here is it stays cold to long but I know in Tennessee I could have two growing seasons.  Love those potato plants!!! 

[fhmmany2]

 

It is such a beautiful day - I have been outside watching Lewis garden. He has planted green beans, two varieties of squash, and okra. Tomatoes are next. He has counted the buckets, and will not plant more tomatoes than he has buckets to put over them - he knows he is tempting fate by planting tomatoes before Easter - we can always have a late freeze!

ANGELA - in case you still read the Garden Thread. (I noticed you were on site one day this week). All of the hibiscus  from the seeds you sent have green shoots coming up from the roots  Lewis mulched them well with pine straw last Fall, and that must have been all of the protection they needed here.

[Prissy]

GOOD EVENING!

Skip and I were plant shopping (like we do now almost everyday) and I found this lovely hanging basket of purple flowers.  I thought it would look great in my TCU purple flower bed.  When I looked at the tag, I knew I had to have it:  SUPERTUNIA PRISCILLA !!!

Here is a picture and more information:



"Priscilla" is one of the latest in the Supertunia line of Proven Winners. It is a fragrant double petunia that is durable and easy to grow. We grow other Supertunias, such as , and also the equally easy to grow Surfinas. Supertunias are a vigorously trailing new species of an ever-blooming, long-living petunia from Australia. Available in seven different colors, they provide long-term color in full sun areas throughout the season, and can grow nearly an inch a day! Their profuse blossoms and fast growth make them ideal for baskets, beds, balconies and combination plantings. Look for other Supertunias and other great plants at the Provenwinners website. 

 http://www.provenwinners.com/


Frankie,
Skip bought three of these plants today:  LEATHERLEAF MAHONIA (MAHONIA BEALEI)  They look a little like the plant you are trying to identify.





Leatherleaf mahonia is almost a signature plant of the South. The broadleaf evergreen foliage is coarse and distinctive. The pinnately compound leaves are composed of nine to thirteen leaflets that are adorned with very sharp teeth at the margins. Individually, the leaflets look very much like a holly (Ilex) leaf. When the plant is grown in the shade the leaf color is a very dark, almost blue green. If you want, you could take advantage of these sharply serrated leaves and use this plant as a short hedge to stop people from trampling through certain parts of your yard. A small pint of blood could be donated if you are not careful when passing near this plant. Unlike its western cousin, Oregon grapeholly (Mahonia aquifolium), leatherleaf does not display a burgundy winter foliage color.

Soft, sulfur yellow flowers appear above the foliage in terminal racemes in mid-February to early March. While not overwhelming, the flowers benefit from being born above the dark foliage. Flowers are reported to be extremely fragrant.

Starting in late April and lasting through July, marvelous grape-like clusters of fruits adorn this plant. The oval-shaped blue-black berries are covered with a marvelous electric blue waxy bloom. While subtle, in many cases the fruit stalks may be a vivid red, which contrasts beautifully with the robin’s egg blue fruits. The amazing thing about these vivid fruits is that the clusters are often nestled in the evergreen foliage like a decorative table arrangement. Birds love the fruits, so they may be removed quickly after they ripen.

[Pepe]

FRANKIE, love the gardener in Lewis, nothing stops him does it not even a bad back.  My goodness bending to plant green beans all those plants and seeds is hard when your back is feeling good.  Hope he can sleep well tonight.

PRISSY,  gorgeous flowers but I expected that since it was named after you!!     Yep those plants that Skip bought sure does look like what Frankie posted.  I think I had that growing wild in the back of my lot in Tenn.  I couldn't figure out what it was, they grew like a weed and the birds pecked all the berries off in no time.  I always wondered if the berries were harmful to pets or humans. 

 

[fhmmany2]

 

Prissy - that petunia is beautiful - is it a variety of the "Wave" petunias? I love those because they bloom all summer and can take our heat pretty well.  And that is the plant I have - now I know what it is!  The information did not say so, but the leaves on ours turn red in the Fall - it is really a pretty plant. I know you will enjoy having them.

Pepe - Lewis' back is a little better today. the doctor told him to not sit still - that moving would help - and I think he is slowly getting better. He planted cucumbers too (seeds) and eggplant (plants).

[fhmmany2]

 

Sasha - ANGELA just reminded me that you sent the hibiscus seeds, not her! As I told her, I don't know where my mind has gone, but I wish it would come back!!!!!  The hibiscus are almost a foot high now, and the temperature is going down to 30 tomorrow night!  We are going to cover the plants, though, and hopefully the temps won't be down that low for very long - we are hoping the hibiscus and other things in the garden make it!

[Mary]

We finally have some flowers here in NJ! I've picked daffodils for 2 weeks now. The crocus, hyacinth and snowdrift are blooming also. It is still cold out with the high temps in the 40's with an occasional warm day here and there.

I haven't been to a garden center yet this year but I did order 3 blueberry plants from QVC that will be shipped in a few weeks.

A friend came down from Maine for a quick visit and they still have snow on the ground so I shouldn't complain. We haven't seen them in 20 years. My house is clean for Easter so all I have to do is cook and maintain the house.

[Pepe]

MARY, always a treat to see you post.  Hey I am jealous, all those pretty flowers you have in bloom.  It will probably be June before I have anything blooming.  Still light snow on the ground here although it should all be gone by today.  Are you having company for Easter dinner?  What are you having?  Maybe I will gather up some Claymaniacs and we will join you.    How is your arm doing?

[Prissy]

Saturday evening, the quartet I play in saw some beautiful wildflowers on the freeway.  Here are a couple of pictures our cello player took of bluebonnets and yellow wildflowers.