Naked Ladies



Naked ladies in February
 about half the size of their early growth



One of my favorite passalong plants is the naked lady.  When our new pastor (one of those moving Methodists) came by the church bazaar and chatted,  I told him he had some pretty naked ladies in his yard.  I don't think he quite understood.  I think he might prefer to call them by their other name, resurrection lily. 

These beautiful pink flowers come up in early spring as luxuriant foliage with no sign of a blossom.  Then they die totally away and emerge in  mid summer as rather tall unadorned stems with those pretty pink blossoms at the top.  They seem to emerge almost overnight.  No foliage, therefore naked ladies.  Or if you prefer, they come back after dying, therefore resurrection lilies. 

These flowers have rather large bulbs.  They can be moved at any time, but be careful not to disturb the soil too much or they might skip a year as bloomers.  The bulbs tend to multiply about as much as daffodils.  They really would prefer a touch of shade and some moisture so they won't break their necks trying to break through  hard ground in the summer. 

Incidentally, the little red spider lily that blooms later in the summer has the naked lady type bare stem.

Blackberry Lilies

A blackberry lily and its end of season surprise....

A pretty multiflowered orange lily blooms in mid summer.  It is not very large and arrives as a surprise among other taller flowers.  It is pale orange with darker spots.  It gives no evidence of its name, the blackberry lily, when it blooms.   My mother's neighbor, Margie, got it from a relative and gave it to my mother who gave it to me, an excellent example of a hardy passalong plant.  Plant centers are not interested in it since its most interesting phase is after the gardening season is over.

In the fall, though, the reason for its name becomes obvious.  Except for the absence of a briar, the seeds could be mistaken for a cluster of blackberries.  The seeds spread for weeks and new plants come up in the spring.  Or you can divide the original plant.

A Bird Bath

 

Let me show you this very simple bird bath my husband put together.  Use an old discarded frying pan.  Take off the handle and be sure the teflon is not peeling since it could hurt the birds.

Ours is atop the arm of a large old television antenna.  The other, which we brought from my mother's and have not installed yet, is a pole topped with a wooden circle. 

The pan can easily be emptied every day.  Often several birds gather at once.  Their favorite activity is getting in the middle and taking a bath, splattering water everywhere.

Bluebirds

We would have been happy for the blue birds to raise a family in our yard, but I guess the neighbors' cats were too intimidating.  That is really a nice house.

The bluebirds were around again today checking

for a house on March 1, 2011. 

 

Our problem seems to lack of really open spaces.  They feel threatened if they are closed  in.  Another problem is that we feed the birds, and a crowd is not good for bluebirds.  Of course other birds need homes too.  We do have dead trees in the wooded lot behind our house, but they don't appeal to the blue birds.

Today is March 18, 2011, and some one is checking out the house.  He brought his wife along.

 

The Lenten Rose

The helleborus or Lenten Rose ...a welcome sign that spring may be on its way!
              Of course, the name Lenten Rose suggests its appearance comes close to the beginning of Lent.


 It's February, still rather chilly but the Lenten Rose is already blooming this year.  It will last a while, but the dates on the pictures tell me it was a little late getting started in earlier years.  It has grown beautiful new leaves to replace those that died away and had to be cut last year.


Incidentally, I got this at a garden club plant sale
several years ago.  I also got a pink one, but it has been hiding.  These sales are a great place to get interesting local  plants.  I will try to get some more current pictures this year.

Angel Trumpet Update

It's March 1, a sunny day, and time to pot some angel trumpets.  The water they're in has become a bit smelly, and it's time to give them a new home.

I use gallon milk jugs which my husband has
cut into a usable form and put a hole in the bottom.

The soil is left over from pots, collected from the
woods, and the remains of last year's tomato row.
I use a pinch of 10-10-10 and a little time-released fertilizer. 

Then I water them thoroughly and put them in a garden cart so that they can stay on the lower deck during the day and be moved inside when it frosts. They won't be safe outside until early May  when they can be planted in the ground.

A Neat Bird Residence

The wrens prefer this simple house made from a

discarded coffee pot to purchased  more elegant

homes. 

 We got this aluminum percolator for

 almost nothing at a flea market.  Expand the

 hole in the top just a little bit. Put a hole in

the bottom of the coffee pot and attach with

 a screw from the inside of the pot.  Find a

 a sheltered protected place a bit off the

ground.  Ours is attached to a board under

 our deck. 

The birds will quickly build

 a nest.  The wrens raised several families

 in it last summer.  You might want to

 cover the mower or whatever is

underneath since the birds may be a bit messy.

Angel Trumpets

 An angel trumpet is one of my favorite flowers for more than one reason.  It is not only beautiful, it also lends itself to sharing. I received my start of the plant when a neighbor called and asked if I wanted a box of large stems she had cut back just before frost.

 I put them in buckets of water in my unheated basement.  They grew roots and leaves over the winter.  I just had to be sure they had enough water and keep watch to be sure they didn't start to rot.  In late winter I planted them in recycled pots, cut-off gallon milk cartons, orange juice cartons, old pots and pans or whatever else I can find.  When danger of frost is past, they can be planted in the yard. 





They like lots of water and fertilizer and a bit of mulch.   Blooms tend to come in late summer.  At the end of the season, just before frost cut stems 6-8 inches long and put them in water  with top of stem upward.  They will die if they have been frostbitten.



                                                
                                                Angel trumpets sprouting roots and
                                                leaves in February

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello to everyone.  I have finally decided to do this blog about my favorite subjects.     This is new to me.  My special interest is passalong plants and perennials in general.  My other interest is recycling items, especially old ones, into attractive and unusual garden features.  My husband enjoys photography and will help me show you what we have done.  I use the name because I have a weekend plant sale just after Mother's Day each year.  I have many customers and people stop me in the store calling me the Plant Lady.

The item at the bottom of the trellis is the base of a stove that I bought for very little at a flea market.  It is in its original rustic condition.  It can be a bench or a flower stand. To the left is an end-of-the-season remainder of  a once healthy tomato plant.  Instead of one of the upside-down tomato holders from the store, we found that putting together two equal-sized recycled hanging baskets worked as well.   Incidentally, the large plant on the right is an apostle plant, or walking iris, a passalong plant that my mother received from a neighbor.  And credit to my husband for building the trellis.