Remember that I told you I want to try to bonsai a swamp cypress so that it makes knees?
Last Fall I asked my BIL (who lives in Mt. Pleasant, SC) if he would pick one up for me. I meant buy one in a pot. That lovely man went out in the woods and dug me the only one he could find that still had leaves on it so that he could be sure what it was. It’s really small and since that last leaf had dropped off, he was a little concerned that it might actually be dead. But, it was not. It is, however quite small, which also means not hard for him to dig up for me.
I have mostly been keeping it in the water garden to encourage that knee growth and a LOT of wild grass came up in the native soil that it has been living in. Today, I got the grass out and resituated the pot.
Now, the water garden has S. psittacina, black elephant ear, a couple of Japanese water irises, and my swamp cypress, all in pots, with water lilies in the main body of the container.
The irises haven’t been particularly happy about being pulled up and transplanted. But, I believe they’ll be fine. The cypress is an almost invisible stick to the left of the elephant ear.
My MG friend, Terry, had offered me a pink-and-white camellia. She has them growing abundantly from seeds dropped under her very large bush. I was happy to take one, so she brought me 4. They were bare-root when she got them to me and I’ve had them in a bucket of water until today. Now, 2 are in separate pots to take to my cousin and 2 are in a single pot to get healthy before I plant them at the western tip of the shade garden, at the left corner of the house.
One of my MG mentors roadtripped to Texas with her husband to visit his family. She sent us pictures of flowers almost every day of her trip and she brought us all a package of blue bonnet seeds (L. texensis). I cleaned up the zinnia stalks what were leftover around the well from last year and planted blue bonnets.
They are native to TX. But, it looks like they’ll just be annuals here. And I might have done better to wait to plant them in the Fall to have flowers next year. We’ll see how it goes.
Did I tell you about my grapes? I don’ t think I did. My friend, Ann, thought she ordered 2 seedless white grape vines. She ordered 2 pairs and they came bare root.
She gave me a pair.
I have put one by the south fence and one on the northside west fence. I have a Task on my calendar to water them every 3 days. Today’s the day. I’ve been filling a bucket and pouring it slowly into the ground where they’re planted. And I have leaves!
This may be another “takes decades.” But, time’s going to pass whether I have something growing or not.
I went out to take pictures to show them to you and it looks like Southside Johnny is already trying to produce a cluster of grapes. *boggle!*
A couple of other nice things I saw while I was out: it looks like one of the caladiums that I put in a pot after overwintering in a bag inside is sprouting, one of the gloriousa vines appears to be sprouting and one of the bleeding hearts has started poking some leaves out.
I’m gross and sweaty and I need more water and a shower. I’m going to finish the water I have and this bowl of kettle corn before going out to turn of the hose that’s watering the shade garden first.
I am the Audience 