Garden Tour

Since I had put some pictures of parts of the daylily fields up the last 2 days, I thought I might continue with an informal tour of the gardens. This is a section we have always called the Japanese Garden because it contains a large part of our collection of Japanese Maples. Funny, though, none are shown in this picture, but rather an assortment of conifer and magnolias. This pictures was taken at least 8 years ago so if you were walking with me this morning, you probably wouldn't recognize it. The white magnolia is too tall to smell the flowers up close any more and all of the conifer have grown so tall that they no longer make a wall which separates this garden from the front yard, but rather, you look through some of them now, more like a sheer curtain than heavy drapes. There are also a number of small ponds interspersed and lots of shade plants - hostas, gingers, ferns, woods orchids and wildflowers. It goes up the hill to the right into a mixed conifer mini-forest where the trees are quite large and it is always cool even on the hottest of summer days.

More Daylily Fields

Here are two pictures taken from up the hill where you can see more of the daylilies (and the collapsing barn). These were taken in 2006. I have one taken last summer which is totally green, or at least mostly so. Between the drought giving us less, smaller and misshapen bloom, the deer here were starving and thought daylilies would be nice for a snack. Usually our spray program keeps them out, but last summer we had the only water anywhere near here so they came in for a drink and just had dinner too. I can't imagine wanting to eat things as bad as they taste with the sprays on them, but I guess starvation is a big motivator. Last summer was the one where I planned to get pictures of all of our daylilies since I finally had a digital camera, but that was not to be since I never even got to see bloom on most. Maybe this year.

Although it is hard to tell from these pictures, they are taken from waaaaaay up the hill. Living in the foothills of the Appalachians gives us a quite hilly landscape. We truly do live in a 'holler' whose name 'Hoot Owl' goes way back. People think we made it up and it's so cute, but we just used the place name that has been here for well over a hundred years. From where the pictures were taken I was about 100 feet in elevation above the barn and the top of the gardens is 100 feet more uphill - a quite steep hill. The top of the property which is in amongst the conifer that we planted 30 some odd years ago is yet another 100 feet or so up according to the topographical maps. Gardening here is certainly good exercise, though I will admit that sometimes I look at those hills and wonder just what I was thinking when I created gardens at the top.

The Other Barn

This picture is of our other barn and was taken during daylily season (obviously) a few years ago and you can seethat it is already starting to deteriorate. This process started about 8 years ago. We went out one morning and it seemed to be a bit tilted. When we investigated we found that a groundhog had dug a hole under one of the support poles and caused the whole thing to shift. We have put supports on the outside to keep it standing, somewhat, or it would have been on the ground already. The corner you can see has pretty much collapsed, but the rest is still usable, at least at this point. To keep this about plants - these daylilies are one of our older beds, 12 rows of about 30 plants each. They are some of the original ones we got in the late 70s and early 80s. Funny how things we got as new introductions at the then outrageous price of something like $25 are now considered historic daylilies. Kind of makes one feel a bit old sometimes. There are a lot from Munson and Durio there and Reckamp along with tons of Wilds. We actually still have the catalogs they were ordered from. Lots of fun browsing on a cold winter day.

Thank You

Just a quick note to thank all of you who have written responses to my writings. It's really nice to know people are reading and have an interest in the plants I write about. It promises to be a beautiful sunny day here today so despite the fact that I'm going to spend most of it after Church digging and packing orders, I hope to find time to just enjoy all of the emerging plants - and take some more pictures.

This is one of our barns, both over 100 years old and not in the best of shape these days, but still nice for pictures.

Tulip 'Red Riding Hood'

At least I think that's what this one is called. I love variegated foliage and it's not as common in tulips as in some other plants. Don't think I've ever seen a daffodil with striped leaves, come to think of it. These also are growing in gritty, extremely well draining soil where they can bake in the summer heat. Tulips which are closer to the species seem to be more reliable, but I suppose that could be said of lots of plants. It is a fairly common complaint among some daylily growers, especially those in more northerly climates, that some of the modern daylilies, especially those of the evergreen persuasion which are bred in the south, just don't have the hardiness of the older ones. True, there are more buds (hence more flowers), but if the stems can't support the weight, is that really an advantage? Ditto for some of the peonies with lovely huge very double blooms. I like plants that can stand up by themselves and don't require me to buy or devise some sort of crutches for them. Despite the fact that I spend at least 10 hours a day gardening, with a garden this size, plants really have to be able to get by without constant attention. Now, I do spend a lot of time weeding, though not as much as I used to because we have eliminated some weed types and we mulch heavily, and a lot of time pruning and tweaking, and we do water when needed, but I think a garden should also be a place where you can just sit and enjoy the plants and not constantly worry about what you need to do next. Gosh, and I though I was just going to write about tulips this morning. :-)

Tulip 'Monsella'

I could go on with the daffodil pictures for the next few months, but I think I'll just talk about a few of the other spring bloomers here, some bulbs and some not. This is Tulip 'Monsella' which is one of my favorites. It has lasted for almost 2 weeks so far, but I think the next good rain, predicted for tomorrow, will finish them off. Tulips are mostly annuals here because in our hot, damp climate, the bulbs just don't cure properly after blooming. This is the second year for these and they have increased in size - something unheard of here. They were also planted with Repellex tabs in the holes with them to discourage chewing furry vermin and I'm sure that has helped them to survive to bloom a second year. Bulbs, other than daffodils are sometimes difficult here. Muscari also seem to be pretty safe, as are Pushkinia, Scilla and some of the other small bulbs, but crocus seem to be a favorite. If the critters don't tunnel underground to eat them (or chew off their roots) the larger furry things dig them up. Repellex is amazing stuff, but temporarily off the market to make their label conform with the EPA regulations. The product is fine, there was just some wording they didn't like. We stocked up on it once we knew we wouldn't be able to get it for awhile. It is really a life saver for plants. Hopefully it will be back on the market soon because we're almost out. I don't expecially like working with it because it contains Bitrex, which is why it works which is one of the bitterest substances known. I always wear disposable gloves or use tongs of some sort because if it is on your hands it takes awhile to get off. We bought some of the straight Bitrex powder once to mix in with other repellents, but that was much more difficult because you could taste it if someone opened the jar in the next room. Weird. Those of you who are of a certain age may have had personal experience with Bitrex since it's what they used to put in those anti-thumb-sucking remedies they used to sell to break little kids of the habit.

More Botanical Latin

This photo has nothing to do with the subject, but it was one of the prettiest daffodils blooming yesterday. It is called 'Cherry Bounce' and is one of the ones I got from Ireland about 10 years ago.

I was going to try and find examples of each of the Latin words I though of to share, but my whole day yesterday from early to sundown was spent putting our display of plants for sale back together after having to dismantle it to huddle the plants together and cover them to protect them from threatened frost (which didn't happen anyway - but better safe than sorry). Anyway, I'm sure you will be able to think of some, maybe many, that use these in their names. ODORUS is sweet smelling, MOLLIS is soft, ALBUS is white, GLAUCUS is grey, FLAVUS is yellow, AURUM is gold, VIRIDIS is green, ARGENTUM is silver, RUBENS or RUBER is red, CAERULEUS is blue, PURPUREUS is purple. DENTATUS OR SERRATUS is toothed, VERSICOLOR is variegated, NANUS is dwarf, HUMILIS is short or on the ground, LONGUS or PROCERUS is tall, FASTIGATUS is pointed (I always thought that meant skinny), PLENUS is full, ELEGANS is tasteful, PALMATUS is embroidered with palm branches, GLABRA is without hair, FLORIDUS is flowery, PAUCUS is few or little, MUTABILIS is changeable, FOLIUM is leaf, SEMPER is always, VIRENS is green (hence, sempervirens is evergreen), GREX is a herd or a flock and is used sometimes for a group of plants - never though of plants as coming in a herd, PARVUS, MINOR, and MINIMUS are small, smaller, smallest. MAGNUS, MAJOR/MAJUS and MAXIMUS are big, bigger, biggest, SPINOSUS is thorny, RIGIDUS is stiff, FOETIDUS is bad smelling, FILIX is fern, VERNUM is spring, MEDIA is center, MACULA is speck(led), PLENUS is full (double). There are tons more and if you're really interested, Timber Press has a quite thick book on the subject. I haven't gotten it yet, but probably will soon. This is at least a start on understanding just why things are named as they are.