JC Raulston Arboretum winter flowers.

Visited the JC Raulston Arboretum on January 16th, it was in the 20s if I recall it was cold. We had a few days before a 9 degree night, which did little damage. Here are some of the flowers I found.

The only blooming camellia was this Camellia X vernalis 'Ginryu'. Small blooms around 1 1/2 inch, might have helped it from freezing having small blooms. The arboretum only has a few camellia bushes.

 Snow drops I found only a small patch of them. These are Galanthus plicatus. Wish I could grow these. We had babies under ours last year, not sure if they survived, the chickens might have gotten them.

Lots of Helleborus foetidus  'Pontarlier' in bloom.

Winter Flowering Iris, Iris unguicularis  Every time I see this in bloom in the winter is seems so out of place.

 Fragrant Wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox This was a new plant for me, the aroma caught me as I was walking by two huge bushes of these in bloom. The blooms are small maybe an half inch. I want some for the garden and I think it might tolerate shade too.

Ozark Witchhazel, Hamamelis vernalis This witchhazel really got my attention!

Ozark Witchhazel, Hamamelis vernalis 'Quasimodo' This one was the smallest in the garden I almost missed seeing it.

Red Common Witchhazel, Hamamelis xintermedia 'Diane' 
This one had big blooms but fewer of them. I liked it a lot.

 Common Witchhazel, Hamamelis xintermedia 'Aurora' This witchhazel was near the main entrance and it was giving quite the show!

In our garden the only witchhazel has lots of buds, but they have not opened yet.

Winter Spicebush, Lindera chienii  This was a new flowering shrub for me, very interesting and about 12 foot around, very big.

Prunus mume ' Rose bud' This flowering apricot was  just opening up. The gardens had three different Prunus mumes in bloom, the bright sun made for horrible photos.

Hellebore seed collecting time!

This is a 'Red Lady' hellebore just opening up for seed dropping. Once the pods start drying up the pods will open and drop the seeds under the plant. This is the time for collecting them.

Here we missed the seeds, they are now under the plant.

These are hellebore seeds I found under the opened pod in the above photo.

Here is a 'Red Lady' flower I picked just before opening, I dropped it in a cup and let it dry out and I did not miss any seeds either.

The seeds can be planted in pots if you have the patience to water them and wait many months for them to germinate. I like to give them a special spot on the ground a just toss them on the ground and let nature do the rest.

When you collect seeds in your garden that the bees pollinated one never knows how the seeds will cross with the other hellebores in the garden. One must wait two to three years to find out what they will look like.

 We were givien this peony I believe.

This peony I bought for Meg as a mother's day present several years ago, it is growing nicely. It was purchased at the corner store which closed a few years ago, I loved that little store.

This Louisiana Iris has been in our garden for a very long time, mostly abused as it grows on the hillside to the pond. That is False Nettle, Boehmeria cylindrica on the right of it. False Nettle is the host plant for the Red Admiral butterfly, we have lots of the nettle and butterfly here. No it is not stinging either.

The tin man, I found this poor poor little fella in of all places the recycling bin! It broke my heart, but I saved him, Meg was very pleased as well.  Now to find him a home in the garden. That is Meg's Larkspur in the background. The bright green stuff behind the larkspur is our Swiss Chard.

Bees and Peas

The time is finally almost here, my bees are due very soon. Not sure I'm ready, we'll see. The hive is in the screened porch. I need to level in 2 concrete blocks over looking to pond for the bees and place the hive on it.

 Not sure  many of you know that Tulip Poplar flowers are the main bee pollen source right now in our area. Followed by blackberry flowers. This Tulip Poplar flower was one of many that were on the ground after high winds the other night. If not for the fallen flowers many of us would not even know the poplar was flowering high up in the trees.

 Here is 'Carolina Moonlight' baptisia, doing very well for a three year old plant. To the right of it is Meg's Sugar Snap Peas, just started flowering two days ago. Oh and that is the garden watch kitty Grumpy on the railing.

Here is another trellis of Sugar Snap Peas nearly 4 foot tall. I see peas on lots of blogs nobody seems to know the best way to plant them. I don't mean to insult anyone by that. This is how Meg plants them. Two rows about 1 foot apart plant the peas thick almost next to each other. Yes I said almost next to each other. You got to plant lots of peas as birds and other varmints will get them, other wise after they get what they can your left with very little pea plants. The yellow flowers at the top of the peas is our kale flowering in the cold frame.

This iris I have had for years, I used to know the name, great showing with three flowers at a time.

Clematis henrii in full bloom. I have had this plant for nearly 15 years. I counted 32 blooms this morning, once fully open maybe 60 flowers will open. Wish I knew how to control it better?

Spiderworts in bloom. I know many of you further south hate these as they are so invasive. Our hard clay and dry summers makes them stay put, so far.

Here is part of the garden. Fava beans in flower in the lower front center, peas at the back left side, the cold frame has bolting kale, to the right of the cold frame bolting mustard greens and rape. The dark green mass in the enter is Swamp Sunflower, massive isn't it. I trimmed it back a lot too!

 This peony I just happened to have a tape measure with me when I took this photo. The tape measure read 6 - 7/8 inches across! I believe the clematis henrii would match this in size too. Hard to believe we get 7 inch blooms in our garden!

Back in the fall when I planted these pansies I never imagined they would look this good in the garden. The pansies will falter once it gets in the 90s here and they will be pulled out. These were grown locally from seed less than a mile from here. The primrose next to it is my oldest primrose over 12 years old, it barely flowered this year and the flowers were stunted.

Sometime this weekend we have to pull up the kale, rape, mustard greens, arugula, muzuna all of which are bolting. And we need to plant potatoes (very late) tomatoes, peppers, basil and other plants we grew from seed.

A Sea of Blue

Last year we thought the Dwarf Crested Iris did very well in the shade garden. This patch was 10 ft x 10 ft and native when I moved in years ago. In 2008 the new septic field was put in and the irises were left to fend for themselves. Here is last years blooming photo of about half of them.

Now today's photo, many many more blooms. My guess would be 600-700 blooms! Certainly the largest patch of them I have ever seen. What do we do to them? Nothing they are wild, never watered or fertilized.

You can see why my estimate is 600-700 blooms, this is a square foot of them.

 Dr Ruppel clematis is doing better than ever, we have 5 blooms right now.

 Our first Fava Bean blooms, these plants are new to me. The Sugar Snap Peas are a good 2 foot tall, no blooms yet. Meg planted some at school a week or two before ours and she has tons of flowers right now.

Never showed you the bamboo border I did this winter. Here are 20 new daffodil bulbs. The ones on the left are Sir Winston Churchill. The woods behind the daffodils is the main hellebore garden. On Sunday I dug out a new bed and planted 5 of the new double hellebores and several of our own babies.

Here is my current job that I'd doing, another screened in porch. Today I spent all day on a ladder tearing off the little roof over the stairs and building a new roof. The new porch roof will link into the little roof. If I'm lucky I'll have it ready for my roofing guy by Monday. This photo was taken on Monday.

Oh notice the underside of the deck on the left swing mounts(the swings I brought home already), where should they go in our garden?

This is the deck three weeks ago before I started on it. The stairs were scary, very steep (8 1/4 inch rise and 10 inch treads). I have salvaged most of the decking boards and most of the lower deck which was made for kids.

Hellebores Starting & Yard Art

Looks like our hellebores are opening up! Several plants have one or two flowers open right now. Below iare some photos of ones that would photograph, I did not post the white or pink ones as the blooms are not quite ready.

 This is an hellebore we moved from Meg's yard, last year it had about 50 blooms! This one was staring at me when I walked up.

My newest hellebore HGC 'Pink Frost" Love this photo! I was at Southern States today, the three end caps of these HGC hellebores were GONE! Jane has my number when the next 200 come in, yes 200! She has ordered Swirly Skirts, I told her I want one. Guess what I have a two year old plant tagged Swirly Skirts in the garden which has never bloomed, duh!

HGC 'Silver Moon'

One of the big plants we were given in the fall of 2009.

Here are some hellebore babies, got them coming up everywhere!

The rock irises are at peak right now!

 Our 'Crimson Candles' Camellia is just starting to light the candles! I added compost around all the camellias and hellebores yesterday afternoon.

Last Saturday we went to a yard art show and I bought this 3 foot spider for the garden! Meg wants to put a spider plant in it.

Got carried away at Southern States and picked up this copper colored gazing ball, it looks red here. Makes the setting sun look pretty cool huh?

News from the bird feeders. Yesterday we had a new visitor to the suet feeders, a Yellow-rumped Warbler. And we had two Brown Creepers on the oak tree near the suet feeders, previously we'd only seen one.

Watering in Winter!!!

Folks,
For weeks now the weatherman has been reporting that we are in a severe drought. It is true we have 1/4 inch cracks in the soil right now. For the past two weeks I have watered the beds each weekend. I have never had to water in winter EVER!

The rock irises opened up yesterday in the 75 degree heat. It was just one yesterday, today it is three. I always have looked forward to these opening up. The yellow crocuses are nearly done can you believe that?

Daffodils and other crocuses are poking out, one daffodil has a bud so far. Most of the newly planted bulbs are not even poking out yest, except for a large crocus that we should be seeing in a week or so. I did find a daffodil bulb on the ground that did not get planted.

Here is a look at the greens in the cold frames.

 Curly Kale, eating all we can of this, it is yummy! This is maybe 1/6th of the beds.

 My favorite greens, mustard greens!! Your are looking at maybe 1/4th of the bed, I have another bed that will be ready when this is done.

Rape, maybe 1/4th of it the bed. Weird name yet the greens are very tasty and it thrives well here.

Looking at a flicker just above the suet feeders, not seen him on the suet, but suspect he is eating it. All the suet feeders were empty this morning. Going to get a trailer load of compost from the landfill today, might help a little with our on going droughts here.