Morning Glory

In my last post about mandevillas, I mentioned the morning glory vine.  It's native to my yard for the past couple of years.  It all started when I bought a packet of seeds to grow morning glories.  I put the seeds in those little pods and watered them daily, then put them in the backyard.  Somehow... the vine found its way to the front yard garden!  Go figure (and no vines in the backyard anymore).

Morning Glory is supposed to be annual.  But mine are perennial.  I didn't think they would come back this year, but they did.  Amidst all of the weeds, the morning glory popped color here and there.

Unfortunately, when I had to weed the garden and make room for other plants, Kim and I had to uproot the morning glory vines.  They were youngsters with weak roots.  They didn't survive the transplant.

I guess that's one of the reasons why I don't want to move the above vine.  It's sharing a trellis with the red mandevilla and I hope they can co-exist.  As the vine grows, I'm attempting to train the red mandevilla to go left and the morning glory to go right.  Wish me luck!

I don't know what color the morning glory will be.  Every year it's a surprise.  The most common color is blue, but last year it was a scarlet color (bright!).

The vine got it's name because the vine only blooms in the morning and only blooms that once.  It grows fairly quickly (if you don't transplant).  The leaves are heart shaped and the blooms are bell-shaped.

I did read that the vine grows best in less watered soil, but I need to water the mandevilla, and the mandevilla rules right now.

I've heard about the moon flower (lpomoea alba) - it has large, fragrant white flowers that open in the evening and close before midday.  Ohhh, that would be cool.

There are also "dwarf morning glory" which grows into a bushy plant in pink, blue, purple and rose blooms.

Below is a picture that I took last year of the morning glory in my front weed garden.  I'm hoping the vine growing right now is the same scarlet color...

Update:  The littlest struggling morning glory vine in the corner of the small front garden bloomed. Heck, there are even two blooms.  The picture is dark, but it's definitely a scarlet one.

But what gets me is that this is a struggling vine and it's blooming..... yet I have this big huge, lovely vine going bonkers growing next to the mandevilla and the vine won't bloom!  It's gone crazy growing, but no flowers. Grrrrrrr

Mandevilla Vine

I came up with a nickname for this flower - the pinwheel.  That's what the pink mandevilla looks like when it blooms.  At least, to me it does :)

Mandevillas are elegant vines with trumpet-shaped flowers in pink, red and white.  I have a pink one and a red one.  If you look at the picture below, you can see the pink one on a trellis and in the background to the left is another trellis where the red one grows.

When the pink mandevillas first bloom, they are the softest baby pink color.  Within a copy of days, the bloom turns into a more vibrant pink.  Below, the right bloom is a new bloom and the left bloom is older.

The blooms for the pink are nice and large and eye-catching... the reds are smaller, blood red and wicked cool.

I had more trouble getting the red mandevilla to take off.  There was a huge root system in the pot when I bought it and I'm wondering if having such a large root system might have been the problem.  Mostly because half of the plant died within a week of being transplanted.  It might have been in the pot for too long?  But it's still alive and kicking.

Above is the red vine.  To the right of it, another vine - morning glory.  I didn't plant the morning glory - it was a natural vine in the yard I left it to grow.  I do know the morning glory can choke a yard, which makes me nervous about the two vines being so close together.  Most of the morning glories that Kim and I moved didn't survive, so I'm hard pressed to move this one that survived.

The Mandevillas are annual and they are poisonous (all parts of the plant).  I read that they climb to 20 feet.  My garden brick wall isn't that tall.  This should prove to be interesting.

They tolerate wet soil and are easy to grow (especially the pink ones).

Though I don't have one, I saw white mandevillas in a nursery - outstandingly beautiful!  I want one now :)

Pentas - Another for Butterflies

I love the star-shaped cluster blooms.  They are so cheerful and dainty.  Pentas attract both butterflies and hummingbirds :)  Pentas bloom all summer long, even during the hottest weather, which counts for a lot in Louisiana's sweltering summers.

The only bad things is that they are annuals, so I'll be buying them every year.  And yes, I will definitely do so.  I've read that they can reach 4 feet tall, but mine are so small, it's difficult to imagine that.  Pentas comes in a lovely variety of colors, pink, blush, red, white, purple.

In my front garden, I have the lavender and red....

After completing the front garden, I branched out into other areas around the house... creating new gardens.  The side garden is called this, because it's along the side of the house.  I also call the side garden -  the hibiscus garden. However, in the hibiscus/side garden, I also have white pentas.

I saw the white pentas and had to have one.  They look like stars in the sky and remind me of my Mom's pretty, soft white hair.

Even though they are annuals, I'd recommend them.  They aren't expensive, last through the summer and have cheerful dainty blooms!

Butterfly Milkweed

They come in scarlet & gold colors (what I have in my garden) and also in solid gold, which I want to get, to have a mixture of both.

Other common names for this plant:  Bloodflower, Mexican Milkweed, Pleurisy-root, Canada-root, Indian posy, orange-root, orange swallowwort, tuber root, whiteroot and wind root.  Shoot... that's a lot of nicknames!

Milkweeds can be planted any time after the last frost.  If you want monarch and queen butterflies, this is the plant to go for... I have seen one or two monarchs just recently.  They tend to come during the warm months of the summer.  This is a host to the monarch and queen butterflies, so when you see caterpillars on them, don't freak.

Kim also warned me about the little yellow bugs that are typically attracted to the milkweed.  (I'm going to eventually post about the ladybugs - they eat the yellow bugs :)

Milkweed is a "trouble-free perennial that will come up year after year in the same place without crowding its neighbors."  Yeah - I like that!  It returns and it doesn't crowd.  Sweet.

It's drought tolerant, but I still have watered mine well.  If I see a yellow leaf, then I back off of the water.  This plant has a long root, so don't plan on transplanting it after it's established in a garden.

Honestly, even if it didn't attract butterflies, I'd still want this plant.  I think the blooms are unique.

Caladiums

When I told Kim I didn't want "elephant ears" in my garden, because they get too big, she told me that they aren't elephant ears and they don't get big.

She's right, they only grow to 15-35 inches high.  But they are called elephant ears ... and angel wings and the Heart of Jesus.  I like those other names more than elephant ears :)

The good news about this plant is that it is disease resistant :)  The bad news is that all parts of the plant, if ingested, are poisonous.

When I went to Lowe's to buy this plant, Kim came with me to look at the bottom of the plant; she picked this particular one with a purpose.  I liked the colors, she liked the two limbs coming out from the pot.  When we went to plant the caladium, Kim broke up the two parts.  We got two for the price of one!

One is up against the side of the small section of the front garden (the above picture).

And one is under the juniper tree (lots of shade there) in the large section of the front garden (the below picture).

I took this picture because I've never seen that bloom on a caladium before.  Pretty cool.

Oh and in case I wasn't clear, caladiums like partial shade.  I read they like "partial shade of open, high-branched trees" - so under the juniper was a great idea.  Though, I need to add that the stores sell full sun caladiums, but honestly?  They didn't look all that good.

Caladiums like warm, moist soil, so don't plant them too early in the spring when the soil might still be cool.  Water regularly, they aren't drought tolerant.

These are annuals, but again, where I live, we sometimes don't get  much of a winter and I've heard that they do come back.  I guess I'll find out next year :)

Blue Black Salvia

Blue & Black Salvia
Botanical Name:  Salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue'

Sue gave me this plant from her garden and she offered to give me more.  I'm looking forward to that :) They are lovely, but warning, they don't like to be transplanted.  You need to water them daily, otherwise they look wilted.  Mine is barely hanging in there.

I didn't know it could grow between 2 - 5 feet.  5 feet?  Umm, might have a problem with where it's planted (under the juniper tree).  It might also be "barely hanging in there" because it gets more shade than sun.  It's a "sun to part shade" plant.

It's supposed to be hardy, tolerating heat and humidity - after it gets established - so water it well until you see it taking off.  It's annual, but Sue said that it comes back year after year in her garden if we don't have a strong winter.

Someone else told me that Blue & Black Salvias are Late Summer Lovers and that I should see an improvement soon.

Here's a picture I took this week:

The bad news - no blooms since being transplanted.  The good news - the plant is finally getting some pretty green leaves on the limbs.  AND... there's a new stalk starting (it's to the right of the plant).  Yeah!  That means it's likely taking root.  :)

Maybe this summer I'll see the black buds and blue flowers?

WOOT WOOT!  UPDATE!  I have black buds!!!!!!!

How wicked cool are those buds!  I can't get enough of these blooms.  More pictures below.  I don't know if you can see it from the picture of the entire plant, but there are 10 buds throughout the plant.  It looks healthy and happy and I am too :)

Did I ever question if this plant would survive?  It's a happy, healthy looker.  More and more blooms.

Colors

I forgot a step in the gardening/weeding process.  Before Kim and Sue shared plants from their gardens, Kim took me to Home Depot and Lowe's to window shop.  Kim wanted to know what I was looking for in a garden.  She couldn't name a plant and ask me if I wanted it in my garden, because I had no idea what the plant looked like.

Window shopping was an excellent idea.  She could point out a flower and ask if I liked it and tell me what colors she (and Sue) had in their gardens, etc.  It was an educational experience for me and I was with the perfect person, because Kim knows her plants!

One thing we both quickly realized about my tastes... I want color.  Which is probably the reason why this blog is red.  I love color.  I want bright colors.  Every color.  I want unique flowers.  I wasn't looking for uniformity.  Not in the front garden.  The very shape of the front garden and the size of it demanded bursts of colors and odd shaped blooms.

In the following posts, I'll share more of the individual blooms, but here's one of my favorites.  It's from Sue's garden - Blue/Black Salvia.  I just think it's so cool!  When it was transplanted though, it had a difficult time, will write more about that later.

At the store, Kim pointed out what I called "Elephant Ears."  I told her, "No, they get too big."  She corrected me.  They are caladiums and they don't get large and they like the shade.  There are solid red caladiums and solid greens, but I picked the speckled reds on the white and green leaves.  I didn't think I would like them, but they are great!

Here's the thing... you can have an awesome plant, but if it's not planted in the right place, it won't live or will be wilted and ugly.  I know this, because contrary to what my weeds looked like, I did attempt to grow a garden when I first bought the house.  The problem in the small section... it gets very little sunlight.  Yet, there's a center part of it that does get direct sun.  This was important to share with Kim as we planned the organization.  The caladium is thriving along the brick, because it's in the shade.  Happy me to see something growing there.

In the Beginning

I never knew I had such a large garden.  Neither did my friend, Kim.  Weeds do that.  They cover up the space in lumps and curls.  In the "front garden" (called this, because it's located by the front door of my home), there are two sections.  The large section and the small section.  The below picture is the small section.

These are thick weeds, though it might not appear that way from this picture.  See that little splash of color in the middle?  That's a morning glory bloom.

The large section is about 4 times the size of the small section.... I have no pictures of the large section.  I was too embarrassed to even take a picture of the "before" reality.  But I did find this picture.  Cute, isn't it?  The cat in the window next to the stained glass art that I made...

I had to walk among the weeds to get this picture inside the large section of the front garden.  See that huge greenery on the left side?  That's a WEED.  Uh Huh.  A healthy huge weed... one of the many.

I have a juniper tree in the large section.  It's a very old tree, very tall for a juniper.  There was a weed, a  nasty, clinging, smothering weed/vine growing from the base of the juniper.... through the juniper... reaching all the way to the top and beyond the juniper!  I nicknamed it the "bean stalk"... seriously, it was massive.  Embarrassing....

Anyway... I bought some soft gardening gloves from the dollar store and found a small garden shovel.  Being unemployed meant there was time to work the garden, even if it was daunting.  My husband told my Mom that he didn't think I would finish it.  And yes, he meant what he said.

After working 30 minutes one morning in the small section of the front garden, I secretly wondered if my husband wasn't right.  30 minutes and the only thing showing is the little bitty area weeded on the top of the picture... can you even see it?

I was proud of that little unweeded part and close to giving up too.  I was hot and irritated and filthy.  Breathing in dirt and weeds didn't help the sinuses either.  It took me a week and a half to finish weeding out the rest of it.

When I looked at the larger section, I called my friend, Kim and begged for help.  She came over during the weekend and it took two of us working all day, using a large shovel and clippers and four outside garbage cans filled, but it was done.

Then the fun began.

We turned the soil in both areas, meaning we took the shovel and literally turned the dirt.  Kim said this was important for the roots of the new flowers... loose soil was easier to root into rather than packed dirt.

Then we spread out 20 bags of top soil.  Man oh Man... when you garden, you use muscles!  Do you know how much a bag of soil weighs?  A Lot.

The best part was figuring out where the new plants would go.  Truly, the fun part :)  I needed Kim's help for this too.  Kim and Sue gave me plants from their garden.  Where their plants were too populated, they dug up the extras and gave them to me.  This was a great help in starting a garden without the expense.

Only thing is.... I had no clue what the plants were, if they bloomed or not, or what type of sunlight they needed or how tall they would get.  Kim had to be there to help me sort through the plants and she knew their characteristics, so as to better organize the garden.

It took a while to plant all of them, even though the plants are small... it's a lot of them.  Then we spread out 25 bags of mulch and put in a perimeter around the garden so the dog wouldn't go there.

To anyone looking at weeds and starting the project, don't give up.  It's so worth it!  Get some music and work in the early morning or late afternoon when it's cooler.  Bring some water and enjoy.  Even weeding can be relaxing when you know what the end result will bring :)

Greetings

My husband will shake his head when he sees I have another blog.  My main blog, fleurdealeta.blogspot.com is getting bombarded with my flora posts.  I'm so excited about my gardens (yes, plural) that I decided to dedicate a blog to my adventures in gardening.

I used to work full time.  I'd come home exhausted and irritated.  The best I could muster was eating supper and going to sleep.  I grew things in the garden.  Weeds.  Very.  Very.  Healthy.  Weeds.

Currently, I'm looking for work and have found new joys in life.  I love to cook *gasp*  (fleurdefood.blogspot.com), film editing, and .. I love to garden :)  

I'm a converted morning person.  Waking up at 5am before the sunrise and watering the garden is a delight.

There's so much creativity and thought that has to go into a garden.  If you don't think about what you're doing, you'll be wasting a lot of money.

Fortunately for me, I had incredibly helpful friends who advised and helped me along the way.

Looking forward to sharing more!