Southern Azaleas

Azaleas in the south are certainly an indication of spring. They are in bloom everywhere right now, but unfortunately, their blooms are very short lived, and the first burst of spring showers usually strip them right off the branches.  We had a storm pass through here a few days ago, and I actually covered my big azalea with sheets just to keep the flowers around a little longer!

This one above is in my front yard shaded garden and is the only post-Katrina surviving azalea that lived past the onslaught of storm surge salt water that flooded into my yard. With no fresh, running water for weeks to flush them, it is the only one that survived.  I replanted a few around the yard since then but they are still pretty small.

Below is one that lives right next to the larger plant pictured above - a slightly different variety with groupings of  smaller blooms.

This one below is the same variety of the one above and lives in a garden on the east side of my house that is shadowed by multiple oak trees and is mostly shaded. The only problem with this is that the oaks tend to steal all the water so it is difficult to keep plants here hydrated. After trying to plant so many different things in this area, this garden is filled with more ferns than anything. They seem to thrive there.

And this azalea below is a re-bloomer called Encore. They are a bit expensive, but I wanted to see if I would like them and I planted two of them in the shade of a small magnolia tree on the east side of my backyard where they get a mix of sun and shade. Neither did well with blooming though, and in fact, with the extreme heat of last summer {and a bad neighbor who kept me very sick & not able to keep up in the yard with her excessive leaf burning last year}, I lost one of them. The blooms are a bit different, and very pretty.

If you love flowers and you ever make it down this way, put a trip to Bellingrath Gardens in south Alabama on your list. You can check the website to find out what is in bloom when, but it is especially gorgeous when all of the azaleas are in full bloom.

For the first time in a long while, I'm linking this to my gal Glenda at Tootsie Time. Go check out her blog if you love to garden. She is very inspirational!


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Flower Gardening - Fertilizer Friday

Well good morning! It's Friday and better yet, it's Fertilizer Friday again over at Tootsie's place. Pop over and check out Tootsie's gorgeous gardens and all of the other beautiful gardens on display with Mr. Linky. I haven't participated the past couple of weeks because I haven't had a single new bloomer in my yard, and all the pretty annuals - except the impatiens in the shade - are fading away under the summer heat. That's what happens down south. Anyway, I'm finally beginning to get a few new blooms, so here's my offering for this week, with a few garden buddies thrown in for fun. I've got some roses again, but I'll have to try to catch them next time. Enjoy!

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My Natchez Crepe Myrtle is finally blooming. It seemed kinda slow coming this year. I'm still waitin' on that Sasanqua Camellia Alabama Beauty - she's barely got buds on her.

The Dahlias I transplanted made it and are just beginning to bloom. I'd been hoping that some of the ones that I salvaged were gonna be the Fringed Strawberry Sunday, but this bloom is one of the older ones I put in several years ago. I thought it was the Dahlia Mystery Day, but there's no white tips, so I'm not sure which variety this one is! The heat had done most of them in and I lost them but when these started popping up, I moved them to a slightly more shaded area this year to see if they would survive.

My other hibiscus (the name escapes me for now) finally started blooming, yay! This was a Mother's Day gift a couple years ago from my son and DIL and it's about 7 feet tall now.

This is one of the Princess Di Cannas finally blooming. They are a lower growing Canna and I only have a few of them down, but they're mixed in with the yellow cannas which haven't bloomed much this summer. They're new plantings though so maybe next year.

These are called Ragin' Cajun Ruellas. With a name like that, you know I had to get them!!

One of the hydrangeas that is in a bit more shade just began blooming recently. The others are mostly bloomed out.

The Purple Heart is still blooming. This shade bed is actually still hanging in there.

Some Garden Buddies

A huge and gorgeous bee on the Athens Rose Lantana.

A butterfly on the, well, Buddleia Butterfly Heaven Butterfly Bush!

And my flirtatious little dragonflies. These are actually all different ones in each shot. Two of them are babies, two of them more mature. Sometimes they are all out there at one time and they follow me around. They land close by where I am and I talk to them. I swear they are listening!! And they LOVE to pose for pictures.

Different bee on the other lantana plant.

One of my many lizards - this one apparently likes to live on the patio table, which seems constantly cluttered giving lots of hiding places. As you see, they flirt a lot too.

Apparently wasps love the taste of figs too. I caught this guy flying around one of the ones that had been pecked at by the birds and he'd take a piece, and then settle on a leaf to eat it. I don't mind the wasps - they have a job to do in the garden - so long as they leave me alone!

And this gorgeous butterfly is always around. I've actually had a lot of butterflies this year, so I definitely want to put in some more butterfly attracting plants.

Flower Gardening - Fertilizer Friday!

Well good morning! It's Fertilizer Friday again over at Tootsie's place. Pop over and check out all of the beautiful gardens on display. Hope you're feeling better Tootsie!

I'll be doing my actual fertilizing later this evening or tomorrow - when things cool down a bit. Otherwise I would have to get up at 4:00 a.m.! It's still pretty darned hot, but at least the last few days haven't been quite as oppressive heat-wise as those days earlier this week. Whew - that was really rough!!

Still no rain, so it's been so hard to keep things hydrated in this heat. I've literally had to water most everything at least once and sometimes twice a day! The veggie garden has been a challenge to keep things hydrated, out of the direct sun and keep it from losing all of the blossoms and getting sunburned! My solution? Check it out...

Isn't that hilarious?? Well, whatever works, right?!

I go out early - check to see if any of the soil is dry, then I give everybody a spray down with the hose. Then I go out again around 11:30 and start putting up umbrellas and see if anybody is looking like they're wilting. Then I usually spray again. Then about 1'ish I check again and either water or spray or both. Then about 2:30 or so, the umbrellas come off so the veggies can get some more sun. It's like a full time job!

I really don't have anything new to show this week as far as blooming flowers - most of the same stuff is blooming still, and I hate showing the same old plants every single week, but I wanted to participate so here goes...

As I mentioned before, I tried planting some giant Del Sol and even Sky Scraper Sunflowers before, but the squirrels always found them, dug them up and ate them! This year though, they gave me some volunteer sunflowers plants that they planted from the seeds that I feed them. This one is over 4 feet tall and I have been waiting for it to open, so I was excited to see it finally starting to unfurl!

Tada!!

The knockouts have been slow coming this year for some reason. One shrub bloomed well, but the others have only shown a bloom or two here and there. Odd. Sorry for the haze ... it is near impossible to get pictures outside right now.

The only surviving Southern Charm Verbascum that I moved to the backyard earlier this season has held on to the same blooms for weeks. At least it survived the move!

And look Tootsie! The purple plant, which is either a Moses in a Boat, or a Purple Heart, did finally bloom! This was also moved from another garden this year, so I didn't even know that it would bloom.

And last... Santa Rosa Gardens in Pensacola, Florida was having a clearance sale - I was able to buy a box full of perennials - 26 plants - for $50. I'll have to do a post for Santa Rosa Gardens because I have been buying from them for a couple of years, and I am so impressed with them. Their plants are such healthy, quality plants, they pack everything well, and all of this arrived in fantastic condition despite traveling the roads for several days during the hottest days of the year! Their clearance sale is a great time to buy perennials. If you visit click on the tab in the upper left hand corner "Now on Sale." I just hope that I can get them in the ground and keep them healthy in this heat! Gotta go buy some dirt mix, so for now I'm holding them in baskets and keeping 'em hydrated. Once I get them in the ground I'll feature the plants.

Sorry I don't have anything to show but be sure to go to Tootsie's and visit the links because - unlike here - there are some very beautiful gardens to see there with newly featured flowers.

I'm off to run errands - wish you all a wonderful, fun-filled weekend!! Keep cool.

Flower Gardening - Fertilizer Friday

It's Fertilizer Friday! I only have one new thing blooming this week, and it's something I didn't even plant! More on that in just a sec...

Be sure to pop over to Tootsie's blog and check out all of the beautiful gardens being flaunted today. Except for the fact that it's a heat index of 105 degrees here lately, I still think I need to plant more stuff, don't you? Now I know why people love annuals so much ... they are alot of work but they give you blooms for a pretty long time.

Nevertheless, do you think that the heat has stopped me? Oh no. Yesterday I was out in the veggie garden, at high noon, moving plants and planting more seeds like a crazy woman. Thankfully I did remember my sunscreen!

I'll try to get back later today to fill in the blanks but y'all have seen all of this before, so really it's the same old, same old... except for that very last one. :) Thanks for coming by and viewing my gardens!

Garden Diary - June 19, 2009
The hydrangeas in the backyard are fading but these in the front bed are just now coming to life. They are in much deeper shade, so they don't really bloom a lot.

This is the shade bed that the hydrangea above is in.

The hibiscus in the front yard corner bed, part sun, part shade.

One of the cannas in the front yard is finally blooming.

The petunias in the front yard are hanging in there so far - I'm sure the regular fertilizing has helped a lot!

An annual Begonia in the sunnier part of the front bed.

Another part sun, mostly shady bed in the front yard. It gets a bit of morning sun, but that's about it.

A shady bed in the backyard. The impatiens are hanging in there too - again I'm sure because of the regular fertilizing. Lots of ferns and caladiums in this bed too.

This is called a Purple Heart {thanks ladies!}.

I'm getting some buds on my Camellia but not many.

These are some Ranunculus Flamenco, I think... will have to get back to you on that! I planted this late and they are just now coming up and I think this is where I put the Ranunculus. Guess I'll have to wait for some blooms to be sure!

I'm hoping the dahlias bloom now that they are moved here. We'll see! At least I saved a couple of them. The rest have died off from the heat in the past couple of years.

The Buttercups are still going.

This is one of my climbing roses - can't recall the name at the moment, so I'll have to look it up, but these are the tiniest, most delicate pink roses I have ever seen. This little bud is no bigger than my fingernail!

The lantana are flourishing in this heat - they're in a southern facing bed, up against the brick of my house.

I'm not sure what this is! I moved it from somewhere because it looked like a plant, but heck it could just be a weed LOL!

The butterflies have been busy with the Butterfly Bush, which is just about played out. I've been deadheading it and getting a few more blooms out of it, but it's almost too hot to keep up with that now.

And they are busy with the lantana in the middle sunny bed. I had 5 butterflies in my yard the other day, 4 of them were chasing each other around in a circle while flying through the air and it was so cool looking!


Okay... it's not a flower, but my tomatoes are finally starting to turn!

And finally ... I have tried for years to grow some of those giant sunflowers, but the squirrels always managed to find them and dig them up! So I just quit trying. This year, to hopefully keep the squirrels out of my garden and my feeders, I started feeding the squirrels sunflower seeds. Well, seems that they planted a few for me! So when I saw some plants coming up, I told The Hubs to be sure not to plow 'em under the lawn mower and some of them are starting to bloom! I love how they turn in the direction of the sun. In the morning they are facing east, and in the evening, west.

But this is the one I am waiting for. Right now, this plant is about 4-1/2 feet tall and just beginning to open.


Well, that's about it for the week! See you next week - maybe I'll have some new stuff by then??