Daffodils up! Missed my dwarf iris :( And, warbler

Several of these beautiful things greeted me today. Try if you can to resolve this mass of frilly petticoats into a daffodil -- it really is one. By far the silliest daffodil I've ever bought, and it is just a big ball of cheerful on a stick out there in the (fantastically well-raked) flowerbed, as you can see.

It's daffodil "Replete," to be precise... and it's supposed to be PINK! Haven't figured that out yet. Mom says sometimes they change color after they've been open a few days, so I'll watch it. My theory is the alkaline soil leached it yellow :)

So all the bulbs I planted this fall have at least come up. I missed the dwarf iris, which nearly breaks my heart -- owing to work pressure, daylight savings and a couple other issues, I barely saw the garden at all in February, and I think that's when they bloomed, because when I did get out there I saw the spent brown post-floral husks. Sigh!

I did hit every single bulb with the Magic Rabbit Poo (Buds N Blooms) a couple weeks ago. And the roses as well -- all the roses survived the winter of many freezes and total neglect. (You wondered why it's called the Darwin Garden? They don't.) The roses, in fact, are all glossy-leafed out with the flush of new growth that always happens right before the aphids hit. Sigh.

For the record, here's what got planted in the fall, each with bloom time and quantity:

	CYCLAMINEUS DAFFODIL PROTOTYPE	Mar-May	5
	DOUBLE DAFFODIL REPLETE	Mar-Apr ✓	5
	DUTCH IRIS BLUE PEARL	May (✓Apr!)	15
	DWARF ROCKGARDEN IRIS (Iris reticulata)	Feb-Apr ✓	25
	SKY BLUE LILIES (Ixiolirion pallasii)	May-Jun	25

I checked off the ones that have already bloomed. We'll see if the rest do as well!


Also today, very exciting: Saw the first yellow-rumped warbler I have ever seen. He was polite enough to spend a full two minutes flitting around the cedar elm branches that are right outside our bedroom window, and if I hadn't been looking from that high position, I might have never seen his identifying feature: His bright yellow diamond where his back tapers into his tail! Without that, he would have looked like any of our gabillions of other LBBs (little brown birds). And indeed I think he was an immature, or maybe a she, because he had no other yellow on him -- no yellow wing or breast patches or crown, as are shown in some pictures.

But what a little cutie, and he obligingly hopped from branch to branch trilling his pleasant little song until he'd cleaned every single bug off our cedar elm. Cutie McCutepants!

Catching up on three weekends of garden blooms

Here it is the first weekend in April and my Duchesse de Brabant bush is covered, just exploding with buds. She's already given me three fat frilly roses, currently scenting the bedroom:

Last weekend I was amazed to find five of my Thalia jonquils sporting lovely, pure-as-snow white flowers, two to a stem. The blooms are larger even than I had expected (this is the first year they've bloomed for me) but with that stunning graceful form that looks almost more like an orchid than a narcissus; the scent is pure paperwhite narcissus, though. These two came to work with me and spent the week making my desk happy, along with a miniature Parade rose that I think might be Apollo Parade:

And the weekend before that, I was stunned to see blooms on my tiny. tiny Louisiana jonquils, which like the Thalia did not bloom their first spring, but must have enjoyed our conditions this year -- drought, freeze, flood, freeze, neglect, freeze, flood. Hmph. They're also called Early Louisiana jonquils, which fits 'cause they did come up first -- middle of March. Tiny things, and sweet-scented -- I zoomed in close for detail here. Also borne in pairs:

Since I have planted a drift of, say, five bulbs each year, I am now starting to get the effect of a few dozen wide paintbrush strokes that appear in green at first, then flame into a different color as each week rolls on. This fall, I think, if I put in some Iris reticulata and perhaps a peachy white jonquil, I'll be able to expand the magic a few weeks (and a few colors). Off to place my order!

Mini roses, violas, rosemary and fertilizer

Today I redid all our flowerpots on the front and back porches. Amazingly, the garish pinwheel-looking impatiens on the front porch survived for two years, through drought and freezes, until a month or so ago when we had what must have been one freeze too many.

Delicate "Sorbet" violas went into every pot -- the Natural Gardener had an incredibly lovely color for sale this year and I just bought half a flat of it, never mind trying to mix and match colors. There isn't any color of "Sorbet" violas I don't love, but this one is a cream shade with a very delicate feathery thin edge of lavender-blue. I think it must be the one called "Coconut Swirl." Anyway, I just slathered it into every pot; the nursery also was selling some particularly nice "Parade" miniature roses -- perfect hybrid tea form in a pale blush ("Breeze Parade"?) and also a creamy white with a tiny pink tinge to the edges ("Bianca Parade"?), so I mixed those in with a few rosemary sprigs. I'm pretty sure the rosemary won't enjoy the same conditions as the violas and roses, but it's a very tough little plant so we'll see. I'm tired of not having any rosemary to nibble on and cook with, so I will take what I can get.

Then I fertilized all the narcissus and iris. Both the spuria iris I planted and the mystery iris I inherited have come up strong this year, but not a bud scape among them -- I'm hoping the "Buds and Blooms" (aka magical rabbit poo) will fix that. The new Narcissus "Grand Primo" are huge, but only managed a couple of flowers as of yet; the new ones are even larger than the established "Grand Primos." The "Thalia" narcissus came up a little smaller, and the early Louisiana jonquils are just spindly little things ... but with buds! They've never bloomed for me before, so I'm very excited.

New climbing rose planted; plus, disaster recovery!

Today I plunked down a replacement for Olly, the mystery red rose that had established itself so strongly on the side of our house (we called him Olly because his huge branches looked like tentacles)... he was doing beautifully till I got ahold of him. Injudicious overpruning on my part, at the wrong time of year, to boot, did Olly in. So with sadness, today I cut down his old tentacles and put in a New Dawn climbing rose -- this one sold by the A&M EarthKind people, so it's been raised in Texas weather, transplanted when dormant in a biodegradable pot. EarthKind also means it's chosen to do well without excessive spraying and feeding. I have high hopes for him (not to be confused with my High Hopes climber in the backyard, still alive despite drought and freezes).

About those droughts and freezes... so as I was recovering from surgery early last year, my sweet husband dug me a rose bed in the front yard. We happily ordered roses... and then just before they arrived he had a cycling accident, and broke his collarbone. Since I still couldn't bend down very well, we just kept the bareroot roses in buckets and pushed it as long as we could... naturally when we did get them planted, they were weak, and didn't last long.

Ah well, we said, and ordered a new batch. Then we had one of the worst droughts Texas has had... we ran a watering system to their roots but not in time... and those died.

Ah well, we said, and ordered a new batch. These were planted right away, with the drip watering system working beautifully, and started producing prize-winner blossoms even as they were still getting rooted in their new home.

And then AT&T dug up the bed. Rose bodies flew everywhere as the workers made a big chasm to whichever wires they needed to reach. The workers did their best to move the plants aside, and actually did try to stay in touch with us about the work... but my husband was hit by another driver on his way home from work at the end of December, and I spent a week with him in the hospital and then got him moved to a physical rehab where I visited him after work every day.

I didn't even look at the rosebed for weeks. Meanwhile, "Snowpocalypse '09" moved in -- infamous in our region for bringing more frenzied preparation than actual precipitation, but still bashing our new little plants with freezing temperatures as they lay in their temporary spots on either side of the rocky ditch that had been our neat, mulched rosebed.

A dear friend wrapped her towels around our roses... AT&T did their best to put everything back... we only wound up losing three plants, all told. (Out of about 10.) So now things are holding steady; I'm watering and watching as needed; and when we both recover a bit we'll replace the fallen and fill in the hole (despite AT&T's efforts -- which were pretty good -- there is a concavity where the dirt settled in).

Whew!

Narcissus poking up their little green noses

With Jason's help again, took another sunny garden stroll today. The plants in pots on the deck have taken a beating with all the dry cold (although the Mexican oregano continues to appear unkillable and Larry the Lemon is, as Jason phrased it, thanking us for bringing him in on the really cold nights by covering himself with buds and blooms -- even without the benefit of Rabbit Hill Farm's Buds & Blooms, aka magical rabbit poo.

The new Thalia and Grand Primo have almost all sprouted, as have the new Louisiana jonquils -- though the latter have unhealthy brown tips on their sprouts that worry me. The established Grand Primo appear at least a couple of weeks ahead of the new ones, two to four inches tall! (Or else I planted them two to four inches shallower :)

Bella'roma and, particularly, Sonia have lots of clean new growth, and the climbing roses look spindly but half leafed out. Didn't visit the outside roses today, so don't know about them. And Jason reports the potted impatiens on the front porch are droopy, but alive.

Neglect, the best fertilizer

With Jason's help I just took an actual walk in my sunny garden (I'm recovering from back surgery, it's 75 degrees and sunny outside and it's Christmas Eve). All seems in better shape than when I was tending it! This despite freezes, neglect, etc. The new Sternbergia lutea seem to have taken hold -- lots of foliage -- and the two roses in the backyard bed (Sonia and Bella'roma) look healthier than they have in months. 'Course it is winter so they're not boiling hot, plus they get more sun since the bur oaks have dropped their leaves. But mostly, I'm sure, they're just glad I haven't been out there messing with them!

Plus, Larry the Lemon Tree has two lovely yellow fruit and a crop of new flowers. Feliz Navidad!

Spuria! Blooms on both Hasarya and Protege

That's Hasarya at the top and Protege below. I realize they look nearly the same! I planted other colors but they have not bloomed yet.

The roses are starting to come out, too. That is, Olly is covered in flowers, High Hopes has probably six or seven, Don Juan and McCartney have one each, and there are buds galore. My plan is to hit everybody with some Buds n' Blooms and see where we get!

It's starting to get a bit warm for the pansies. Or perhaps I mean dry. The hose timer's goofed up and nobody's been getting their regular watering. Probably time to replace the timer and maybe buy some impatiens while I'm at it.

Holding steady amid the rains; pruned roses

Pruned the sickly roses pretty heavily about a month ago (NOT the approved pruning time!) and was rewarded with a flush of healthy new growth. It's been raining heavily for about a month and everybody's lush... now the heat will set in!

Other crapes in the neighborhood are blooming but not ours yet; Mom speculates those in full sun may be warmer, thus starting earlier.

Daylilies have been blooming for at least a week -- the soft peachy one is blooming its head off and just lovely.

Ruellias are green, not blooming; narcissus greens have just started to go brown.

Two potfuls of impatiens on the front porch, planted about a month ago, have been blooming steadily the whole time; ditto two pots of petunias in a sunny corner of the back deck. Really pretty.

Roses sprayed, fertilized

That's Don on the left, with a couple blooms, and High Hopes on the right, blooming more than ever before. This is their first full year in the ground and I think that's the difference. After five years of waiting to find out what High Hopes' flowers looked like (I moved a lot, and these guys stayed in big growers' pots) I am delighted to report that they are perfectly charming -- long, narrow, photogenic peachy-pink buds, opening up to warm peach flowers with a sweet fragrance -- just lovely.


This is the mystery volunteer rose that came up from the rootstock High Hopes left behind (the big pot sat on this spot for nearly a year and roots went down; when I moved the pot, I severed the top of the roots, but this guy came springing up). He's also thrown up some very tall canes, so that matches the Dr Huey diagnosis -- Dr Huey is a climber. Contrary to my belief, though, it's not used as rootstock because it resists disease. It must just be extra vigorous. The photo would bear this out!

Those are my strapping but nonblooming spuria iris to either side of the Doc.

Sprayed with copper soap yesterday and put fertilizer spikes on the arch roses, Kordes Perfecta and all the weaklings along the fence (i.e. everybody except Belinda and McCartney). Shouldn't need to fertilize again until June 16, at which point it'll be interesting to see if the weak links are catching up.

A good month for roses; crapes are green

This is Kordes Perfecta (I thought it was Sonia but I must have gotten the labels swapped) and it is blooming along with most of the other rosebushes. High Hopes and Belinda's Dream are particularly lovely now; McCartney Rose, Apricot Nectar, Don Juan are all blooming; and both "Olly the octopus" (unidentified cherry-red climber) and the dark red mystery rose I believe to be Dr. Huey are covered with flowers. There are buds on the others, including the new Gemini I planted a couple weeks ago.

This photo is actually a little yellow-tinged -- the roses are more cream-colored than golden, with the lovely soft pink edge and great form.

I think the cold weather followed by buckets of rain have everyone's roses very happy.

The crape myrtles have been fully leafed out for almost a month now, since about March 23-24. (I.e. about 15 days after I last observed that they looked completely dead.)

Narcissus bloomed Jan-Feb; Larry blooming

The Grand Primo bloomed healthily from mid-January to mid-February -- I think that's its third year to do so now. It has developed into a thick stand of lush, sturdy green. A few feeble blooms on the Texas Star at the same time.

As of now, in early March, Larry the lemon tree is covered in blooms (a bit early, I think) and bees.

The roses have all leafed out with flushes of healthy, burgundy-colored new growth. With their Rose Hose that I am proud of installing, they get regular measured doses of water right to their roots!

And every bulb in the garden has its greenery up, making mid-March an excellent time to install watering systems or weedcloth or anything else that requires that you know exactly where all your plants are! The schoolhouse lilies, narcissus, spuria iris (they made it!) and daylilies are all fully green right now.

The trees are getting their first sprigs of spring green. And the crape myrtles, as is traditional, look so dead that we are afraid, as we are annually, that this is the year we killed them! But we have faith.

Broad-leafed weeds took over the yard in the last half of February. We didn't do doodly squat in the way of corn gluten prevention or anything, so we deserve what we get. However, we've requested estimates for installing a sprinkler system -- healthy grass will choke out weed growth naturally, or so we hope.

First crape blooms! Ruellias too

I just got a call from Jay informing me the first crape myrtle has bloomed! Gunter is ahead of the pack; Jay noticed on Saturday that he had buds and then we discovered the others (Greta, Droopy and Mickey) did too.

The flower is apparently lavender in appearance and looks nice with our grey brick. All have put on new growth recently in response to lots of rain/watering every couple of days via the Rose Hose. (Instructions said to water them once a week, but we found they were getting extremely droopy -- hence the naming -- so stepped up to every couple of days.)

In sum, we are delighted because we feared we might have killed 'em, and were fairly certain we would not get blooms this year.

The ruellias are covered with purple blooms (I've been watering them a lot too). And the roses all have new growth and buds, apparently disease-free. Saw the first rose from Mr. Lincoln on July 4, appropriately enough!

Rose Hose: Operational!!

My roses supposes their toeses have no hoses
But my roses supposes erroneously!

What a wonderful feeling, after two years with my crummy first attempt -- then, this weekend, two 96-degree afternoons of hauling, digging, cussing, connecting, getting sprayed and cussing -- to do this...

....Simply stroll into my backyard, turn on the tap, and watch little burblers soak the feet of all 11 of my favorite rosebushes.

Oh, the luxury! I am going to take to this like the first time I had a washing machine of my own. No more hauling jugs of water out there -- I can just come home and water them all with one flick of the wrist!

The total project cost was about $20. (Well, the total cost for the Rose Hose that worked.) Rose Hose Mark 1 was about 50 feet of tiny vinyl tubing, and it was piggybacked off the existing flowerbed's minisprinklers. My thought was, that system is already there, and it's all tiny vinyl tubing, so that must work, right? Well, somewhere between splicing the systems and doubling the length of the tubing, hardly any water actually made it out to the roses. By that time, though, I had unwisely already trenched and buried the 50 feet of tube. So I left it there for two years, testing it occasionally, hauling gallon jugs of water out to the roses and plotting my revenge.

Lesson 1. Do not bury the system until you have tested it!

Rose Hose Mark 2 is about 80 feet of 1/2-inch stiff black poly tubing, connected directly to the tap (well, a manifold on the tap). Only two segments need to be buried because we've decided to put a bed along the fence (so we'll just put mulch over the pipe). It even extends to the climbing roses on the back fence! However, because the pipe is so stiff, it was a b*&%$-kitty to get into place -- every place it has to curve more than about 15 degrees (under the metal border, under the fence, up to the faucet) I either had to grade the earth to accommodate it or make some other adjustment. It kept bending almost to breaking point, and I'm lucky it still holds water. Not a forgiving product. I cursed a LOT. The next time, I would definitely use cheap garden hose instead, though the cost is probably $25 vs. $11.

Lesson 2. Investigate how many curves you will need to make, not just how many connections, before buying your materials.

All of the various bits I'm using come from Mister Landscaper via Lowe's. Seems to be a pretty good system, although the previous homeowners had used a lot of the tall sprinklers on stems, and most of those have gotten flattened or broken over the years. I like these little dudes, the mini drippers, because they water right at the roots and seem more efficient (I just picture all that fine spray evaporating).

Anyway, it is good for my heart to see the little guys getting a really adequate amount of water through those drippers. I hope this will hold them through the hot three months to come. They have responded extremely well to the copper soap fungicide, showing little sign of powdery mildew or black spot at the moment, and they are leafing out afresh even now, bless their bippies. Just think what they will do with solid watering!

Daylilies blooming; pansies pretty much toast

This makes the daylilies' start time official too: end of May/start of June (first bloom observed yesterday this year). 'Chicago Petticoats' is the only one blooming right now, but others have scapes. All are pretty short even after a full year in the ground, which is nice to my mind because they make a tidy low plant. If I could just remember how long the foliage stays pretty, I might consider popping some daylilies between the crape myrtles in front.

Foliage on the jonquils is starting to die, about the same time as last year.

The pansies in flowerpots out front are miraculously still blooming, which means I have verifiable bloom time from at least December through May (and I planted them pretty late in winter, probably could have started them in September). But, they are looking extremely rough -- very dry, much dead foliage.

A neglect-fueled drought has hit my roses particularly hard. Even the relatively robust climbers now exhibit powdery mildew. Having found a reliable source for copper soap fungicide I'm going to step up to once-a-week spraying and get the watering system in the ground pronto. Last year's notes indicate that they looked awful in late May though 'Brigadoon' down there in the shade looked better (which is exactly the case right now); and then a week or so later they were resurging and Brigadoon looked worse. Will be interesting to see.

Larry has a big crop of lemons that are larger than last year, still green, and not dropping off the boughs. We are pleased.

Our two crape myrtles on the north side of the front (Droopy and Mickey) are consistently wilted -- we have stepped up to watering them every other day or so. Watering system might help there but not necessarily as the two near the driveway (Gunter and Greta) do not need such frequent water.

We have been observing other crape myrtles already in bloom around the area so we think that if we don't kill 'em, we might have an artificially long blooming season there as well.

First roses: April 1

Two years makes it official: The end of March brings the first roses. Double Delight actually began blooming Saturday (April 1) and here is the little florist bouquet I was just able to go out and cut! (They are Double Delight, McCartney Rose, Pristine. Scents are, respectively, fruity, perfumey and faint tea; colors are pretty accurate except the Pristine does not appear at all yellow -- pure clear white with a pink blush. The substance of its petals is also noteworthy.)

Apricot Nectar and Don Juan are also open, and the rest all have buds except for the new Moonstone. Conditions have been rainy and warm (for March, not for summer). There is an onset of bugs for which I will spray tomorrow, but the first roses are all perfectly formed.

Last weekend I planted two new evacuees from the Home Depot: Sonia and Kordes Perfecta. Neither is too happy right now from the transplanting -- new growth has wilted.

EVERYONE needs substantial water and more care as the weather heats up and the bugs get really settled in.

The volunteer rose is a single spike -- but it's 2 1/2 feet tall and stretching every day!

Larry; narcissus done, roses budding

...and this is how he looked exactly a year ago (March 12, 2005).

In other news today the narcissus seem to be spent (though I spent ten minutes watching a monarch butterfly flap all over them, sticking his mouth tube in every single flower), but there are buds on the Apricot Nectar and Pristine roses. All roses, bulbs, irises and daylilies got fertilizer today and the roses along the fence got Rose Defense spray also.

I had to scare a baby lizard off the Fragrant Cloud rose first, though! He was quite tiny but had a fat belly. I felt bad that he might still be somewhere in the vicinity so I stamped my foot a couple times and only sprayed lightly. Hope I didn't get the little guy sick.

Narcissus in full bloom; volunteer rose

Got back in town yesterday to find 3 blooms on "Texas Star" and about 40 on "Grand Primo." The GP is shorter this year but flowering well. Need to fertilize it regularly before it goes dormant.

Where the High Hopes had sat in its grower's pot for a year (until last week when I finally planted it), suddenly yesterday there is a six-inch rose sprig! Odds are it is something like Dr. Huey, since it's coming up from the root stock.

If it is Dr. Huey, I may be in trouble, since that is a climber that gets 12 feet tall. I could do worse than a vigorous old red rambler, though, I guess!

Gardening at night: 'Moonstone' rose planted

Last night, actually. It arrived from Edmunds Roses carefully
wrapped; good-sized canes, slightly different instructions than I've
seen before:

-- No soaking in a bucket
-- After planting, heap soil/mulch entirely over the canes. (I didn't
do this as it would have created a two-foot-wide, one-foot high cone of
soil around the rose... I didn't have that much soil to waste, for
starters)
-- Prune both the canes and roots lightly before planting, with
attention to the nodes. (Haven't heard this before, but it was easy
and made me feel I was doing something right at least)
-- Much emphasis on watering in before completely filling the hole --
drain out the air pockets, then continue filling with soil. Easy
enough.

As always, I could not make the frickin' "cone" of soil work -- how
in the bejeebers are you supposed to do that? If it's not heavy clay
soil, then you can't make a tall skinny cone out of it; and even if it
is heavy clay, the stiff rose roots knock down the cone before I can
get them "settled around it," as it shows in the slightly annoying
little illustration. Argh!

And yes, like a nitwit I was working in total darkness, with a
flashlight strapped to my shoulder. I tell you, nothing makes you feel
like such a miscreant as sneaking out with a shovel to dig something up
in the middle of the night. Well, heck, it was delivered while I was
at work, so my choices were plant in the dark or let the little guy
croak.

Besides, if the neighbors have been paying any attention they know
we're nuts already.

For the record, there was no moon at all last night (tonight it is a
waxing crescent only 1% full). A full moon would have been more
appropriate and more help!

Narcissus blooming; planted rose arch

70 degrees today and I got the rose arch in the ground finally! We found a spot we both agreed on so I was glad to finally dig holes for these roses that have been following me from home to home in huge containers for four years (more than that, really). The Don Juan is on the left and High Hopes on the right; they're against a fence where they should be encouraged to reach upward for the last rays of evening sun, but not boil to death in the midafternoon. Both have some very strong canes and lots of new little leaflets; I planted them with a little Osmocote sprinked in the soil and will wait to bind and prune them till I'm sure they're not suffering from the transplant.

Both "Grand Primo" and Texas Star" have begun to bloom, but not really spectacularly -- the Primo in particular looks a little shorter and weaker than last year. I'll try fertilizing it so it can store up more energy -- Old House Gardens recommends a balanced fertilizer anytime I can think of it, but says in the South I might not want to water them in the summer. So I'll fertilize now till they go dormant.

Violas in the front porch pots have gone bonkers and those on the back porch are starting to bloom again also.

Light freeze. Daffodils returning, pansies exploding

Both the Grand Primo and the Texas Star narcissus have come up for a second year; again, the Star looks spindly and the Primo looks lush and vigorous, but both are about to bloom.

Looks like at least two of the spuria iris and six of the daylilies have made it; I need to begin fertilizing the spuria again as they emerge from dormancy, and probably the same for the daylilies.

Looking around after the recent freezes (moderate one last week, two light ones this weekend), I am glad to see the lemon verbena has squeaked by, the rosemary and roses look great, the schoolhouse lily foliage is undamaged. The ruellia look like hell but they always come back; and the pansies (which I left outside) and violets (which came in) are thriving and blooming their heads off. Probably because they get watered more when I'm worried about them.

I have ordered a Moonstone rose to replace the croaked Tiffany -- nothing against Tiffany and I'd like to find a place for that variety if another opportunity arises. But Moonstone is the kind of rose that is my particular weakness -- a show-quality bloom that is mostly white with a pink edge and looks like a delicate china cup. It's a relatively new variety I had not heard of before and I have high hopes.

Speaking of, Jason and I have found a location to park my rose arch, so the Don Juan and High Hopes from my old condo patio can finally go in the ground. They've held up well, High Hopes particularly, and I look forward to seeing how they do freed from their containers. The bonus of the location is that it will also obscure the view into our yard from the neighbors down the culdesac -- a view that was opened up when we got the trees heavily pruned. Two birds with one stone!

Roses along the fence have put on much new growth in past two weeks. In between the freezes, it's been 70 and sunny, and I've watered them both weekends in advance of the freeze, and they are really responding.