Gardenia Glee.

no doubt this will immediately cause the plants to keel over dead, but the gardenias i grew from cuttings have produced three beautiful blooms.

i'm not sure how many actual plants there are -- i stuck some number of cuttings into two pots -- but i think i have at least five survivors. i'm afraid to repot them but i'm going to have to at some point because the current pots are too small.

for the record, after potting the cuttings seventeen-ish months ago, i ignored them. totally. they sat outside on a bench next to the "mother" plant and every few months i looked to see if they were still alive.

about two months ago, noticing the flower buds, i moved the two pots onto the deck so i could keep an eye on them.

New Plants.

• Hibiscus spp.
• Hypoxis decumbens (or H. hirsuta?) -- yellow star grass
• Malvaviscus arboreus -- turk's cap
• Phyla nodiflora -- frog fruit
• Sisyrinchium angustifolium -- blue-eyed grass

Forgotten Accomplishment.

i forgot at least one thing that should have been on the may 9 list:

after removing the dead redbud and before adding the lantana and sage, i had to dig out and relocate the holly fern (cyrtomium falcatum). i dug out the rootball as best i could then recruited darin to carry it across the yard to its new location in the fig tree corner. in the process, i removed two baby clumps and planted them a few feet from the mother plant.

April Flowers.

• allium cepa (multiplying onion)
• a. schoenoprasum (chives)
• anethum graveolens (dill)
• asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed)
• coreopsis grandiflora
• coriandrum sativum (cilantro)
• cuphea hyssopifolia (mexican heather)
• dietes bicolor (african iris)
• gelsemium sempervirens (carolina jessamine)
• hibiscus
• ipheion uniflorum "wisley blue"
• unidentified yellow iris
• justicia spicigera (mexican honeysuckle)
• misc. lantana
• lavandula dentata x l. lanata (goodwin creek grey lavender)
• l. heterophylla (sweet lavender)
• l. multifida (fern leaf lavender)
• lonicera sempervirens (coral honeysuckle)
• osmanthus fragrans (sweet olive)
• penstemon tenuis (brazos penstemon)
• rivina humilis (pigeonberry)
• serrano peppers
• salvia elegans (pineapple sage)
• s. officinalis x s. fruticosa (ne'we ya'ar sage / silverleaf sage)
• s. urtica

Blog Burnout.

even though i've been busy in the yard / garden lately, i've been bored with the blog. thus, the lack of posts.

a rundown of what's been happening:

• i built a brick worm bin and "stocked" it with two pounds of worms
  
• darin moved the three crepe myrtles from the side fence to the back fence; one may not have survived the move
  
• the redbud was dead so we took it out.
  
• replaced the late redbud with texas lantana (from peter's smithville property) and two mexican bush sage
  
• bought an oakleaf hydrangea and planted it between the two surviving transplanted crepe myrtles
  
• with the exception of the ipheion uniflorum the spring bulbs were very disappointing
  
• planted the meyer lemon in the center of the island bed
  
• the coral honeysuckle is blooming beautifully
  
• the star jasmine is blooming heavily but the scent / smell has become overwhelming
  
• the gardenias are also blooming heavily, but they smell better
  
• the coreopsis grandiflora is blooming heavily; bought a second one and planted it nearby
  
• the pineapple sage is threatening to overrun the island bed
  
• the two serranos i kept from last year are covered in peppers ready for harvest
  
• darin rented a lawn aerator and aerated front and back yards before saturday's downpour
  
• three inches of rain saturday
  
• the rescued-from-near-death ballerina rose is thriving on the trellis behind the garage and about to bloom
  
• the fern-leaf lavender is blooming and growing like mad, threatening to crowd out the goodwin creek lavender which, apart from the crowding, is doing well