Lessons About Plants & Gardens
Transition from Turf to Meadow Using Spring Annuals as First Step
When I first met with the owners of Blue Poppy Farm, we stood surrounded by endless turf. They said, “We ride the horses into the woods around here and it’s so beautiful out there. ” Can you make this look more like that?” The transition will take years. The long term goal includes Sandhills meadow…
Read MoreGeorgia PPA Slides & Plant List
Classic Perennial Gardens 1. Columbia Eryngium pandanifolium – evergreen, soft yucca like Scilla peruviana – cobalt blue flowers, spring bulb Yucca rostrata & orange Crocosmia Verbascum ‘Southern Charm’ Spring white, pastel spires. Crinum ‘Peachblow’ Styrax japonicus Small tree, tons of white or pink bells in spring. Cordyline australis (Cabbage Tree) Nicotiana mutabilis 2.North Augusta Salvia…
Read MoreRayless Sunflower Needs A Sexy Name
Black flowers always seduce us. I’m not sure why but there’s a mystery to them. This one is a seductive garden plant for so many reasons. It also has sway. It bends and bounces and moves like a pendulum but it always stands right back up. Rub your hand across it and it bends down. …
Read MoreTiny Passion for Passiflora lutea
Tiny lime green flowers on this slender, summer growing perennial vine make me smile. Sure it’s kind of weedy. It scrambles over shrubs and comes everywhere around here. But it’s a lovely olive green leaf with silver mottling. And it has a strong root system. I don’t know how you’d get rid of it if…
Read MoreWinter-flowering Southern Native Sedge
Things Still Made From Plants…
Not so long ago plants were our tool cabinet, medicine cabinet, pantry, clothing and art. Industry slowly changed that. And today ladies tell me about making dolls from holly hock flowers. And a few of my buddies remember using magnolia cones to play war — those cones are perfect grenades. You might make a cocktail…
Read MoreThe Orange River Lily…
Isn’t orange. The name comes from the Orange River, the longest river in South Africa. This species of Crinum grows along it’s banks. Like most wild things, each one is different. We grow big flowering strains as well as our own selection, ‘Aurora Glorialis’ which opens green, fades to lite pink and then to rich…
Read MoreA New Years Resoilution
In this year, when we walk let’s walk with big, amazing steps. Considering every every cell and bone and where each foot falls. Connect to the life below each step. Feel the the tiny creatures in their universe below ground. When we garden this year, let’s weed, kneel, dig, spray in ways that make them…
Read MoreYou’re making me blanch…Etioliation
Etiolation: You know when you leave a bucket on the grass and all the grass under it goes sort of pale green and white? That is etioliation. It’s a plant response to trying to grow in low light. If the pale stems ever find sun, they’ll to turn green. (That is de-etiloation) We eat a…
Read MoreCrinum for the Fourth of July
In our fields and gardens, we have some crinum lily in flower from April first all through the summer all the way to mid November. A different lily for every month. In our book, Gardening With Crinum Lilies 3, there’s a nifty chart showing what flowers when. Always for the beginning of July, we have…
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