Loquat; No More

By Skeeter The very first thing I planted in my Semi-Formal Flower garden, was this Japanese Loquat tree! I had never seen them before moving here to Georgia. Click HERE to see the post on how this tree got its start in my Georgia Garden...
The Loquat is very happy where I planted her, next to a bench.The Garden has changed over the past 6 years all the while, the Loquat was thriving with little attention. The Saint and I often sit on the bench in the evenings and enjoy all the butterflies, bees and hummingbirds swooping down on the beautiful flowers. During the winter months, this beauty is full of green for us to enjoy. In the spring time, she is full of new growth as you can see in this picture above, snapped on March 21, 2010. She survived the rare 7 inches of snow we had this winter. Look how her green makes the white fence pop!
I love this Loquat and her scented blooms in mid-October. I was hoping for her to bare fruit in time.
Imagine my surprise when I returned from a 10 day visit to TN to see this in my garden!
Yep, my once beautiful thriving Japanese Loquat is now dead! I have no idea what happen to her. One day she was fine and the next, gone! I have several things in mind.

1. The snow from winter damaging her. I find this hard to believe as she looked so healthy up until now.

2. A really hot spring until now. We have had the hottest Spring, Summer and early Fall in the 10 years we have lived in Georgia. But the Loquat has survived hot drought conditions for 3 of her 6 years with us.

3. A bug of some type may have gotten to her like maybe a Pine Beetle type bug. I do not see any signs of a bug but will investigate as I take her down.

4. A Vole eating her roots. I doubt this would happen but there are Voles in this area.

5. Maybe the main root found an air pocket in the ground. I am suspecting this as there were once 8 large trees in this area. I fear that the old roots rotted and left air pockets in the soil.

My Garden is full of mysteries this year. I will be taking down this once glorious tree and hopefully, I will get some answers. I am so sad about the LOQUAT; NO MORE, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,In the Garden

At it again!

It was a nice sunny day down here in Georgia so I decided to talk a stroll up to the street to see what I could find to chat about. I see the 8 Ligustrum bushes we planted 2 years ago are still green and growing. One day they will hide the ugly from next door. The fence, the 2 broken trampolines, the ever growing pile of brush, the rusted broken shed and cars. Lets just say, yard people, they are not.

Upon a closer look, two of the ligustrums do not look so healthy.

Hum, why don't they look like the other ones which are lush with green color? I know we have had a drought since planting them but the Saint and I have done a great job with watering them when needed. A mystery that we will have to ponder a bit. Okay not a mystery to me but maybe to you. So lets continue on strolling about.

Lets move on to the Semi-Formal Flower Garden shall we? Ah, more pretty green all winter long from the Japanese Loquat. Lets move in closer and see if there could be one nice smelling flower still hanging around.

Oh my goodness! What has happened to my lovely Loquat?

Why can't you furry stinkers be happy with the corn we provide you? Why do you always have to find something to nibble on that aggravates me? The Loquat has been with us for about 5 years and never touched by the deer before now. We have 2 Ligustrums in the back yard for about 4 years now and they are in the pathway of the deer. Again, they have never been touched them! I just do not understand the crazy deer but they do seem to keep me on my toes.

Poor Loquat. Where is my Deer Spray? Looks like the deer are AT IT AGAIN, In the Garden...

Note: I will be out of net for a bit (thank goodness for Scheduled postings) but will check in here when possible. Everyone have a great weekend!

Japanese Loquat

Before my Georgia Flower garden became a garden, I planted a lone Japanese Loquat; Eriobotrya Japonica. I believe this was planted in the fall of 2004 but this was prior to my digital camera days so the best "before" picture I could show you is the above being May 2005. The bench and hosta came later in the spring.

My neighbor operates an Air Conditioning and Small Appliance business from his house. I planted this bush type tree to hide his pile of dead appliances. They pile up until he has enough to load onto his trailer and head off to the scrap yard. This was never an issue for us until we cut down 8 trees to make way for the boat shed. Once the trees were down, my eyes saw the ugly. So in went the first thing to hide the ugly. Here is the same bush this past Oct 10, 2008.

It has the most sweet smelling blooms and the scent carries in the Fall air as the Jasmine does in early summer.

The blooms start out in this fuzzy looking stem. Notice the Dew drops.

The flowers seem to pop open over night with tiny white blooms.

The blooms are not so pretty when they begin to open but the smell is wonderful.

On this October morning, the long tailed Skipper.....

Monarch...

Bee...

And this spotted Skipper were all indulging in the sweet juice from the Loquat.

This year the bush had more blooms then ever and really did put on a sweet smelling show for me.

I give this plant an occasional drink of water and also fresh pine straw as mulch each spring. The only negative I can think of is, the leaves are thick as if a magnolia tree so they don't mulch up well in the compost bin. It drops leaves during drought times as you see in the above picture. But this picture was taken the same day as the others so you can see how full and lush green it was for me even though dropping some leaves.

My neighbor has since installed a wooden privacy fence so I no longer see his pile of dead appliances. But I am glad he had that pile where it was located or I might not have planted this JAPANESE LOQUAT, In the Garden...