Yes, they live in Houston, about 30 miles away. Eeek! I can't stop smiling, lol. This is just delightful news for our family after losing my FIL in Feb.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants & Wildflowers, Part 10.
Frostweed,
Is Angel a himalayan, bermese, etc? My Mr. Peepers is a ragdoll, and he looks a lot like your Angel.
carol
Hello Flowerette, Angel is a mixture of siamese and burmese,we think, but we don't know for sure, she was adopted forn the shelter, and they didn't know.
She is adorable and has quite a personality, she loves to follow me around and help in the garden. Sometimes she will lay on top of my hands when I am planting something, and I have to stop and pet her.
One thing that makes her different from other siamese is rhat she is short and chubby, she loves to eat.
Please put up a picture of your mr. Peepers I would love to see him.
Josephine.
Congratulations to a future Grandma, Mary! Try growing some vegetables that are easy to see. Maybe surround the special patch with a visible barrier and emphasize that only fruit from those plants are edible. It shouldn't be too much of a problem. By the time he/she is old enough to be out in the garden by himself, he'll be old enough to understand that only those plants inside the barrier have edible parts.
I'm not a grandmother, but I've done a lot of gardening with children. When my two boys were small, we started a vegtable garden with vegetables they wanted to eat. We were living near Cincinnati at the time so among the veggies we grew were English peas, snap peas, sugar peas, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes and corn. They loved searching through all those leaves for the veggie treasures and playing hide and seak through the corn patch. Later we graduated to things that grew underground.
My 4th and 5th grade students and I always had a plot at the community gardens across the street from school. I even got them to eat broccoli. We started the school year with a fall garden then switched to spring veggies. I was a very rewarding experiencefor all concerned.
Veronica
Thanks Veronica, I really appreciate the advice! Sounds like a great plan, especially how to discern what's edible and what's not. I didn't have the money or the time to do any gardening when Adam was little, so this will be so much fun. I can't wait to show the little one the connection between what starts as a little seed (etc), the earth, and things that we eat or enjoy, and that the critters eat and enjoy!
Yesterday I noticed my crossvines are starting to get loaded with buds. After all these years of what I thought was "weedy vines", I'm paying attention and noticing the flowers. Sheesh! At least this little one won't have to be 50 (ish) before learning to notice these things.
:-)
Veronica, great advice for Mary, she is really excited bless her.
Mary, my Crossvines are starting to make buds too, and the Brazos penstemons are getting ready to bloom too.
Josephine.
I had one little bloom showing on one of my Penstemons that you shared with me Josephine. I am so glad they didn't sucumb to the freezing temps their first year. And my Texas Star is sending up shoots too!
Hello Everyone especially Mary, I am pleased to tell you that I caught the Rose fever. My friend Molly at the wildscape gave two natives, one Swamp rose and one Prairie rose. They are cuttings and they are miniscule, so not ready to show them yet.
Then at the Arlington convention show they had a booth from the Rose Emporion, and I bought a little Cherokee rose from them for $5.
Here is the picture of the little Cherokee, it is a white climber, and I have great hopes for it. Even though it is not a native it is naturalized, and should do well.
Oh, Josephine, congratulations! I have a friend who has the Swamp Rose, and it is beautiful, it gives her and her husband so much joy. I'll have to look up the others, I know they'll be wonderful for you. I went to Arbor Gate's first Rose Festival last Saturday. I was so pleased to hear Dr Steven George from A&M's EarthKind research "arm" talk about how easy it is to grow anything - roses included - organically. I'll have more specific information to share, but I've got to get back to work and will be home late today, so....
Expecting a grandbaby sure takes a lot of time, lol!
:-)
Josephine,
So many roses, not enough room!
You need to go to Tyler if you lke roses. It has got to be the rose capital of the world. Although I love hybrid tea roses for their form and color, I tend to prefer some of the antique roses because of their wonderful fragrance. I've bought some Noisette Roses from Chamblee's Rose Nursery. Their roses are "own root" roses so if the top dies, it comes true from the roots.
I knew so little about Texas gardening when we moved here. On top of that, the tmeperatures got down to 13ºF our first winter here. So to play it safe I bought a number of "own root" roses. This year, they didn't even go completely dormant. I can't wait until the house is built so I can finally get my garden established.
Your Cherokee Rose should thrive. It does very well in Texas. So well that it's classified as an invasive weed although not as invasive as the Macartney Rose, another naturalized rose. Maybe you can prevent the spread of seeds by deadheading it after it blooms.
Veronica
http://www.killerplants.com/plant-of-the-week/20050328.asp
This message was edited Mar 14, 2006 4:26 PM
Thank you for the information Veronica, I didn't know that it was invasive, although I have never seen any growing wild, I did see it at the Fort Worth botanical gardens covering an arch, and it is beautiful.
I will make sure to remove the seed pods after blooming.
Josephine.
Josephine - do they always have it at that price? We have tried many roses here and some many it and some dont make it - you just can never tell. (Esther loves them...... but she keeps they deadheaded for better growth...
Mitch, try the "own root" roses as well as those recommended as Superstars by TAMU's Extension. You might have better luck with them.
Veronica
http://www.chambleeroses.com/earthkindroses.html
http://www.agr.state.tx.us/picktexas/hort/plants/sstar_plant_over.htm
Mitch, the Cherokee rose that I bought for $5 was in a four inch little pot, but it was very healthy and strong. What you see in the picture is what was in a four inch pot. If you like when it gets bigger, I can give you a cutting.
Josephine.
Thanks Veronica - I am going to try.. she wants a bed of pure teas but the scent will win her over I hope!
Would love a cutting after a while when it gets big, where do you have this planted?
BTW - I have wild leek looking things popping up what are they and anyone want some? These look like the garlic but the leaves are smaller.... and no bulb just roots.
Mitch, could those be Chives?
The Cherokee rose is planted against the fence by the south gate, the one close to the wildflower slope.
Not chives - I got this two years ago on a flower search in Ellis county. They will stand at 3 to 4 foot to bloom and look a lot like garlic plants - but no strong smell and no roots. A lot like leeks - will try to post a pic. They are the Onion/garlic/leek looking things in the fore front of the pic.
Sorry wrong pic.. This is the right one... sorry!!!!
Yes, those are not chives, but I really don't know what they are.
Pretty picture Mitch, it looks like your garden is really going to town.
That is from last year.... but thank you!! That is the upper bed I am trying to make be heavy in the natives.... so far so good. Would you be interested in trying some? Are you coming to the Iris tour first week in May? I picked this up in an old garden from a long gone far house... they were groing in some Iris I dug up and I really thought they were some type of flower garden. My two little spokes last year came up with 5 or 6 this year and looks to be a great little clump. There was tons of this out there at the house site but I had not seen it anywhere else.
Sorry i can't make the iris tour, I it is on a Saturday. But when we get together, yes I would like a start, it looks interesting.
When can I give you the venetian blind for the markers? I suppose you will be needing it. It works great, and if you write on them with pencil, it doesn't fade at all.
You have a Dmail
Mitch,
It is a member of the Alliacea Family. It looks like Elephant Garlic in the blooming stage. Do the crushed leaves smell faintly of garlic? There are over 1200 species in this family.
Smells just like that - just like the little wild onions at my grandfathers place - the leaves are more garlic like and not empty like an onions.
I had no idea there were that many! Do you think this might be an heirloom planted at the farm site or would it be a wild plant that just looks great in the garden?
Wait until the tops die down and dig one up to see the bulb. Allium used to very popular and was often planted in old gardens. If it turns out to be Elephant Garlic, then it was from imported stock. I've never seen a wild plant that large. Whatever it is, it looks lovely in your garden.
Not a garlic - look like leek roots when I have dug anything up. Comes up in Jan and dies down by Oct or so... One more plant to be on the look out for when I am on a hunt...
Are dwarf Poinciana's considered natives? I looked it up on the plant files but I don't think the seed I started was going to get that big. I thought they were pride of barbados...or am I suffering from delusions again? LOL
Debbie, the Dwarf Poinciana is an introduced naturalized shrub according to USDA.
Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw.
pride-of-Barbados
Here is the link, http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CAPU13
Josephine.
Thanks for clearing that up for me--I new your entry into the plant files (tree size) just wasn't the same plant.
Debbie
Wow have you seen this native list ? A very very long list!! http://plants.usda.gov/java/stateSearch?searchType=Sciname&searchTxt=&stateSelect=48&searchOrder=1&imageField.x=52&imageField.y=9
No I had not, but thank you very much, it will come in very handy.
You are a sweetheart.
Josephine.
Hey guys - Went out to Josephine's for some great coffee and conversation - and most of all to see those beds in winter!
All I can say is even in the early of Spring the gardens she has there are stunning and after coming back home the things I almost pulled out for weeds are my frostweed!! I should have known better but glad I went and saw first. The leek like things are Elephant Garlic - Josephine spotted them a mile away I let them bloom so they did not make bulbs thus tricking me... so somewhere out in Ellis county there is a home site where the people LOVED their Garlic, and second thing is Garlic really looks good in the garden!
So - thank you Josephine for all the life lessons, garden lessons, and garlic lessons! And thank you so much for letting me come over again just to talk and raid the cuttings!
Mitch
You are welcome Mitch, I had a great time too, looking forward to the big R.U.
Josephine.
I am going in the morning to check on the RU thing we talked about - should have more info then.
Back to your normal Daves!!
Sounds like a great visit. If we can't all live closer together, what about those transporter things from Star Trek, to move us where we want to go? Somebody needs to get working on that!
:-)
(Just imagine: a late frost threatens, you just transport your tender plants to a warmer climate for the night!)
Mary, I want a big Jestons bubble to just pop over my great lush tropical yard!
This message was edited Mar 20, 2006 1:11 PM
I just have a feeling that it is not going to get that cold tonight, I hope I'm right.
Mitch, I think you're on to something!
Everything is nice and soaked here, I'm so sorry for those of you who had things washed away.
I hope it does not get cold... from a walk along in the garden tonight I can see I lost several land scaping timbers and there are several plants that are no longer in their place if they are still in the garden I need to look and see in the following days... I really hope I dont get cold out there too!