Jonquil Jubilee!

This past weekend was the Jonquil Jubilee, a festival to celebrate the beautiful jonquils (daffodils) that grow in the area of Gibsland, LA. Gibsland is a very small town in north Louisiana made famous by the fact that it was where Bonnie and Clyde met their end. I prefer to think of the lovely daffodils instead.

A couple of friends and I went specifically to purchase some plants from Willis Farm, a native and heirloom plant nursery that was selling there. I snagged an anthracnose and powdery mildew resistant dogwood, Cornus florida 'Appalachian Spring'. It's a tiny thing but I have big hopes for it. We also purchased tickets for the self guided driving tour of historical places, many with thousands of daffodils surrounding them. So take a drive with me, won't you?

The area has rolling hills, pine trees, and hardwoods. Logging used to be one of the major industries there. You can get a sense of the trees in this pretty stop on the tour.

Above are some very special young pine trees we found at this stop - Longleaf Pines (Pinus palustris). These pines once covered vast areas of the southeast before European settlement and they have a very interesting ecosystem, supporting the Red Cockaded Woodpecker, Gopher tortoises, wire grass, etc. I read a fascinating memoir that enlightened me to all of that: Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray. It's great reading and I highly recommend it.

This wasn't really a stop on the tour but we all thought it was very interesting. An old house set in the middle of some old pecan trees with thousands of blooming daffodils in front (you may have to click on the photo to see them).

After a quick stop at a blacksmith demonstration, we moseyed on into the town of Mount Lebanon. Here you can see one of the largest and fanciest dogtrot houses I've ever seen. A dogtrot house has a breezeway running through the middle of the house with rooms opening to the breezeway. This one was built in the 19th century and is occupied today (very cool).

This house was also built in the mid 19th century but originally it was an inn on the stagecoach route. It was very impressive but most impressive were the massive crapemyrtles in front of it, seen below.

Have you ever seen crapemyrtles so huge? I certainly haven't. Mary Louise couldn't even get her arms all the way around it. It was so interesting to see how they twist as they get old.

All in all the jubilee was fun and the weather couldn't be beat. And yours truly won a raffle prize but you'll have to wait until October to find out what it is - it will make a gardener's heart skip a beat!

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2009. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Early Spring Heirloom Daffodils

'Sweetie', Narcissus jonquilla

I was lucky enough to be invited to visit a private bulb farm yesterday. The day before had been quite cold and rainy but it was our chosen day - sunny but with a nippy wind from the north. The earliest of the spring daffodils were blooming and it was beautiful. These are all heirloom daffodils, meaning the varieties have been grown for many generations. On top of the privilege of seeing such beautiful flowers we were allowed to dig up a few for ourselves. I came home with Twin Sisters (also called April Beauty, a late bloomer, N. x medioluteus), Hoop Petticoats (N. bulbocodium bulbocodium), and Texas Star (N.x intermedius). I hope these photos bring you a little smile and assure you that spring will indeed makes its appearance!

I'm not sure which variety this is

Narcissus 'Fortune'

Narcissus 'Grand Sol D'Or', a tiny bloomer

Field of Campernelles, N. x odorus

Narcissus 'February Gold'

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2009. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Winter's Beauty

This month's Gardening Gone Wild Picture This contest is to showcase winter's beauty. I would have loved to enter this contest with a photo that shows some beautiful snowy or frosty scene in my garden, but that's just not gonna happen here I think (although I certainly got my share of freezing weather this month, no such luck with the snow). I had almost resigned myself to not entering when I realized that this amaryllis says winter's beauty for U.S. southerners as much as snow or ice does for northerners. So this is my entry.

A little bit about this amaryllis - it was supposed to be of the variety Apple Blossom. But this strong orange color tells me I got duped by the big box again! Don't get me wrong though, I think this variety is quite beautiful. Anyone know which one it is?

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2009. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day Jan 2010

Carol is hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day again but of course the big challenge today is finding blooms in the dead of winter. Normally that wouldn't be so hard for me. There's always a few here and there. But with that "Artic Blast" so many of us in the U.S. experienced, blooms are now hard to come by. In fact, impossible. But wait. Is that the shadow of bloom I see??

Apple Blossom Amaryllis

Yes, one of the few plants I have indoors is an Apple Blossom Amaryllis, bought for a gift exchange at our Master Gardeners club last month but won back by me. Yay! I was hoping this would be entirely open by Bloom Day but no matter. It's still fun to watch and document the transformation. Plants are amazing, aren't they?

UPDATE: Turns out this isn't an Apple Blossom amaryllis, although that's what the box said. I'm not sure which variety it is now.

Tomorrow Pam is hosting Foliage Follow-up, which I plan to post about. A couple days ago I took some photos of what did and did not make it through the Artic Blast, just for my own historical benefit. So I'll go ahead and post about that (not that anyone wants to see mushy plants!).

Happy Bloom Day!

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2009. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

First Bluebonnet of 2009

2009 was an interesting year for me, personally and in the garden. I spent much of the year looking for a paycheck and also trying to figure out where my future lay. For the first time ever though, I found more of my time focused on one of the real joys in my life - gardening.

Blogging and Writing
Wow, I did not anticipate, when I started blogging in the summer of 2008, that I would get so into it. Granted, I don't actually blog as much as I'd like to and I don't get to read as many blogs as I'd like to. But boy has it been fun. I attended the garden blogger's Spring Fling in Chicago, not really knowing what I would take away from it but knowing I'd see some great gardens. It was SO MUCH MORE than great gardens. Getting to meet some of the bloggers and really connect with some was such a highlight. Reading their blogs now is like chatting with a friend.

Cindy, Beth, and Pam at Chicago Botanic Garden

Over the year I picked up a few pass-around awards and then was surprised to see Blotanical subscribers award my blog Best Louisiana Blog. And then to find out that Horticulture picked my blog for one of their Top 20 garden blogs. Well it was almost too much.

I have been writing the newsletter for our farmers' market this past year. That effort combined with my blogging confirmed that I wanted to pursue more writing so I am happy to say that I have almost completed my first article for a garden magazine, scheduled to come out in June (I'll let you know about that when it happens).

Learning and Sharing
In 2009 I decided to pursue a Louisiana Master Gardener certification. In order to retain your certification you must contribute hours to other efforts, mostly ones that benefit the community. Our class decided to update a garden bed in a local park as a teaching tool on butterfly and bird gardening. Although it was a group effort, I designed the planting plan, learned how best to measure a garden bed from my friend Alexis, and learned how to stay patient when the fall rains wouldn't quit!

Kathy and Virginia busy planting the butterfly garden

I gave a talk at a local nursery about butterfly and bird gardening and plan to give another talk in March on perennials. I started a garden coaching business but it's growing VERY slowly.

I worked part time in a nursery, learning more about the plants that folks in this area prefer and hopefully sharing some of my knowledge of different plants with them.

I managed to visit several public gardens that were great (and some outstanding). Here's some links to posts I did about them: Wildwood Gardens in Little Rock, Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania here and here, Chicago Botanical Garden, and Briarwood Garden in north Louisiana. And here's some great private gardens I visited: Layanee's Ledge and Gardens in Rhode Island and Rick Bayless's garden in Chicago.

I also learned a lot more about photography through the Gardening Gone Wild photo challenges and hints from my photgrapher brother Brian.

The Gardening
Well, the gardening was frugal but fun. The successes? Finding some plants that are more native to the area.

Viburnum obovatum ‘Mrs Schiller’s Delight’

I also managed to plant and even grow some favorite plants from my past gardening experience (by travelling back to Texas to buy them!).

Malvaviscus drummondii, 'Turks Cap'

I was also finally able to attract some much wanted butterflies to the yard.

Monarch and Coneflower

The failures in the yard in 2009 include very few fall tomatoes, mis-labeled daylilies from the big box store, a rose that grew way out of its normal bounds and on to the driveway (The Fairy), and the inability to find any plants in this area in the fall that weren't pansies, snaps, or mums.

Although there's not much I can do about it, the rather strange weather was a bit much - first, no spring rains; then too much spring rain; then August temperatures and drought in June and July; then June-like weather in August and September; then 40 days and 40 nights of rain; then early freezes. Hmm.

Looking Ahead
Now what? What will 2010 bring? Well I hope it brings me more garden blogging friends, more opportunities to pursue my writing, more garden coaching clients, more learning opportunities, perhaps a steady paycheck, and a chance to grow into my full potential as a person.

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2009. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Picture This End of the Line

I like participating in Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This photo contests because they're always challenging and I always learn something from the winners, contestants, and judges. This month's subject is "The End of the Line", apropo for the season I think. It can be taken metaphorically, literally, or both.

I chose to take a stab at both with my photo. This is a photo from very early March a few years ago. It's out in the country somewhat close to Sisters Bulb Farm, a bulb farm no longer in business but one that used to supply old fashioned narcissus to other companies. My imagination flows with thoughts about this old barn and its line of daffodils up to the door. Was there a house nearby? Did the owners get their bulbs from Sisters or were they related to the owners? Does that white line of daffodils indicate an old drive? Where are the owners or their descendants now? I do know that the barn has since been torn down. Do the bulbs still come back or was the destruction of the barn the end of the line for them as well? I hope to answer that question next March; that is, if I can still find this place.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I was going to write a post a few days ago about some of the interesting insects I've seen around the yard. But that would give you a false impression that we've been having a nice fall here. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I captured photos of the insects during one of the rare breaks in all this rain. The little packages above contain some bulbs I bought at a sale about an hour east of here. They've been waiting for the ground to dry out.



The ground is super-saturated. I have to wear rubber boots to walk across the grass to the bird feeder. The rain comes down so hard that it overflows the gutter, as seen above.



Believe it or not, there are some oak trees that really aren't that great to have in your backyard. That's because they tend to shed limbs, as seen here. This is from a 3.5 story high Willow Oak, Quercus phellos. This limb was downed by some high winds during one of our storms. But the tree will also lose limbs just from too much rain. They can get soggy and then break from the weight. That's been happening all over the neighborhood. Although an important acorn crop for wildlife, I don't recommend it in your backyard.



Lucky for me it just barely missed the plants in one of my boxes.



My Mexican Salvia, Salvia leucantha, was almost flattened by the wind. And because it hasn't had a chance to dry out, it continues to lean over. I'm afraid it might not recover but I've got my fingers crossed. The forecast is for thunderstorms all week. ARG!

UPDATE: Yesterday the weatherman in the nearby big town said we'd had rain for 22 of the last 32 days for a total of 21 inches. No wonder I'm getting so sick of this!

Tulip Dreams Quashed

Normally our garden blogs are all about beautiful photos and our gardening triumphs. Well here's a little something to dispel the myth that all is success in the garden. Last fall I thought I'd try my hand at a little spring tulip display. Knowing that they don't survive and thrive down here in the south I thought I'd pot up two different but complimentary kinds of tulips. They spent their requisite 6 weeks (actually a little more) in the fridge away from fruit and veggies while in the bulb stage. After potting up, the earlier variety started to grow right away. A photo of their blooms can be found in this blog. The mid-season variety starting growing about a week and a half later. But this is as far as they got until succumbing for some strange reason. Does anyone have any idea of what happened? As you can see from this photo, the other variety of tulips are still strong and healthy. Sorry I don't have the name of these guys as I inadvertently threw away the tags.

It's That Time of Year

It's that time of year when the blooms of springtime are coming out onesy-twosy. Not enough for some overall garden shots but a great time for capturing the up-close delicacy of spring blooms.



A new flower for me this year is the Jetfire daffodil. May I introduce her via both frontal and side portraits? This daff is said to naturalize.



The white irises are off and running. These grow on a little hillside with very little care. They're always the first irises to bloom for me.


I took a field trip this morning to try my hand at capturing the beauty of peach blossoms. This is the orchard of Louie Thompson, one of the regular farmers at our farmers' market. Fingers crossed we won't get a late freeze. But as you can see, he's in a little "holler". Colder temps are predicted for later in the week but not freezing. Hopefully the holler will provide some protection if Mother Nature decides to surprise us.

Springtime This and That

Here are a couple of things blooming in my yard today. I lost the name tag to the above tulip but that's okay since the picture on the tag showed a white and red tulip, not yellow and red. I think I like this even better though.


King Alfred daffodil above. I didn't even notice the little bug hiding in the bloom until I blew up the picture!

I Can't Wait

For spring, that is. And neither can these unmistakable markers of spring in my garden. Let's start with the little daffodil. I don't know the name of this one as they came with the yard when we moved here (and survived the Great Landscape Makeover of 2006). But it's the same type as are blooming in the interstate median, along the highways, and in abandoned lots. The same type as in my header photo, taken not too far from our town. They're somewhat small and dainty but obviously hardy. My fancy store-bought daffodils are still taking their sweet time when it comes to blooming.


Ah, my little Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis). I planted these last fall in a rectangular clay pot, hoping they would do better than the previous year's plants which sat in my cool soggy soil. And they have done much better. They're just starting to bloom and are spilling out of the pot. They're also a tad yellow, possibly from overcrowding?? I'm not sure what the problem is exactly but I gave them a shot of fish emulsion to ease the strain. I also had to show my homage to my home state of Texas. I'm sure you'll see this shot in the future when there are more blooms. :-)

The "Mini-Penny" hydrangea is putting out its spring growth. You go girl!

I just love the way the periwinkle (Vinca major) looks like it has a flower within a flower (look closely). These grow wild in my former alleyway. Obviously hardy if they can grow on asphalt and a little bit of humus!


And here's a promise of cool spring things to come, a tulip about to open. You'll be seeing more of that in future posts I'm sure.