The Dog Days Blues

During the dog days of summer when it's too hot to do much in the yard, you have time to make plans and dreams for the fall.  Fall is one of the busiest times of the year for gardening in Louisiana.  It's when you separate many perennials, plant all the cool season annuals, and plant shrubs and trees.  Here are some of my plans for dividing perennials:

First off, my daylilies need to be divided and planted in new beds.  I have big plans for how to re-arrange my daylilies.  The white Joan Seniors are to be put in mixed beds with other flowers because their cream color mixes so well.  The darker colors should be put in part shade where their colors won't get faded by the sun.  I also have family and friends that might really like to get some nice daylily starts.

 

The Becky Shasta daisies have really spread a lot and can finally be divided this fall.  I'm really excited about this since I've been patiently waiting to spread these around to other flower beds in my yard.  I can think of many places where an unfloppy, mounding, white and yellow flower would look good. 

My other plants that need dividing and re-planting are the irises along the fence.  I don't like them being along this fence because it becomes quite hard to weed this area in the summer.  Irises don't like to be mulched, so it's really hard to keep weeds and grass out of the area they are growing in.  Hence, this fence gets ugly in summertime.  I'll put these in a proper flower bed where I can get to them easier.  This fence will get some other plants that like mulch.  I'm thinking of making up a bed that has all bulbs, corms, and rhizomes and that will have nearly continual blooms all year.  I could have daffodils, gladioli, lilies, irises, crocosmias, tuberoses, and etc in this bed.  Wouldn't that be neat?  Speaking of tuberoses, they need to be divided this fall as well.  I can't wait!

Seeing Purple

Purple is the color of the day with me.  There are two purple flowers that are going in style right now in my yard.  They are Homestead Purple verbena and Old Fashioned bearded irises.  They are perfect cottage garden plants.

These verbenas are looking so good right now that I'm regretting that I don't have more of them.  My wife, Jo, wants me to put some around the crape myrtle tree in the front yard and this sounds like a nice idea.  Might be time to get some cuttings!  This picture also shows the new growth on my purple coneflower on the bottom left and my Jakob Kline beebalm on the lower right. 

The Old Fashioned irises are in full bloom right now.  They are so care-free that it's hard not to love them.  They also have wonderful fragrance that will fill a house if you cut a bouquet of them. 

The Irises Have Arrived

Finally got the first open blooms on my bearded irises.  I mostly just have the old-fashioned purple type because they are practically fool-proof even in hot and humid Louisiana.  Other varieties of bearded iris sometimes don't perform down here.  Irises are usually so easy, but it's funny how many people make mistakes with them.  The main mistake is to plant them too deep.  Keep the fleshy rhizome with it's top exposed to the elements and not under mulch or dirt.  Also, don't water bearded irises too much.  Louisiana irises should be planted in areas that will be getting lots of water or they can be planted in water, but bearded irises like it reasonably dry.  Divide and replant every 3 years - there will be plenty of extras to give away to friends!  Irises and daylilies are my two easiest plants to pass along.

From My Daily Walk

I took these pictures while doing my daily walk around my yard. It's a nice day, but we are forecast to have tons of rain starting tonight. I also noticed that there are buds on my daylilies, althea, and gardenias. Looks like there will be plenty of new plants blooming soon.

Yellow Bearded Iris

In October 2007 I helped a lady in our church dig up, divide, and replant a large iris bed. In return, she gave me all the irises I wanted. I had no idea what color they would be or how they would do in my yard. I planted them shortly after and was surprised the next spring with large numbers of the beautiful, old-fashioned, purple ones that are so prevalent. They are wonderful and have a lovely fragrance. I though all of them were the purple ones. Imagine my surprise this morning when my wife Jo sent me a picture of this late bloomer! The date is incorrect, the picture was taken this morning 04-10-09. My other irises have finished blooming for the year, so this one is quite late. Irises are another plant that I think look best sprinkled in with other plants since they only look nice for a short time. Don't they capture your heart for the few weeks they do blossom though?

Spiderwort and more

What is this dimunitive little flower growing all over my yard every spring? It's tradescantia, otherwise known as spiderwort. It grows wild here in my part of Louisiana. It's cute and springy, so I try to mow around them till they are finished.

My purple bearded irises are going crazy again this year. I don't know what kind this is, they are just the old-fashioned purple ones and they are very fragrant. Jo has a bouquet in the kitchen right now that is smelling up the whole house. I've been told that other types of bearded irises don't do well here, but I'm thinking about trying some out just to see.

Why would I put a picture of such a boring little flower shrub? Well, this is a sweet tea olive or osmanthus fragrans (we call them sweet olives) and it's fragrance will fill an entire yard. It gets tall and full and it is evergreen. My mom has 3 huge ones that you can smell as soon as you get out of your car at her house. Everybody in the South should have at least one of these! I think they would make a good hedge too. Want another good reason to have them? Well, they bloom nearly all year, though late winter/early spring seems to be the best time. Don't try them if you live north of Arkansas because they can't take the cold.