Althea, The Rose of Sharon

 

This is the common Althea, the one sometimes called Rose of Sharon, and is a plant that can take care of itself. This single lavender with a red eye is commonly found at old home sites. In fact, that is where I got mine-it was here when we decided to build in this location, which was an old home site. The proper name of Althea is Hybiscus syriacus and it is a member of the cotton family as you can tell by a glance at the flower. Some posts on the internet indicate that it is an invasive weed for them, but I have never known this to be a problem wherever I have lived in the southeast. An occasional seedling may appear, but I am talking about one in 25 years. That is not what I call invasive. This plant typically starts blooming about high summer and continues through August. It does require some pruning to keep it in a manageable size, or not if you want the world's biggest bush.I have never tried to make a tree out of it and have never seen a tree Althea, but it might be possible to develop one with diligent pruning.
Right now the one I have has become so large that it is shading my Ramona clematis to the point where it has greatly reduced blooming. I am going to whack-a-roo soon. But I have no fear for the life of the Althea. It will spring back.
There are numbers of different colors and forms. I have a double light pink that I rooted from my mother's bush, and to me it looks like a paper carnation. There are doubles, singles,semi doubles, lavenders, pinks, purples,whites and all kinds. It is hard to beat for a carefree summer blooming shrub.
Oh yes. Cardinals like to make nests in them. Look for a nest about 3 feet off the ground.the closeness of the branches make an ideal platform for a nest. Unfortunately for redbirds, their nesting sites invite cat attacks.
Althea blooms at Hugo's birthday in early August. The first cake I ever made for him I decorated with these flowers, and I suppose necessity, the Mother of Invention made a special place for this shrub in my heart.

Sandpaper Plant

 

Boehmeria is a member of the nettle family but it does not have stinging hairs. It does have beautiful leaves, making it a striking accent plant. It can be grown in pots and urns for a unforgettable effect alone or with other plants. It is a perennial at least through zone 8, coming back from the root. The flowers are white/cream tassels, but the leaves provide the real show. This plant is a rarity.
It may serve as a food plant for some butterfly larvae but mine have never been bothered.
Last winter was a hard one that several of my plants did not survive. Sandpaper plant came through with flying colors and in about 3 feet tall now. A spot could probably be found where it would show off to better advantage. Right now it is stuck in the middle of my main flower bed.
But I am not likely to move it soon. My real interest lilies in growing and in testing hardiness, not in beautiful landscaping.I am likely to use whatever space I have available for whatever plant I need to plant. Consequently, I get quite a jumbled to my flower beds. Right now the roses have disappeared under an overgrowth of coneflowers and lilies.If they survive long enough, I will liberate them from the overgrowth, but meanwhile, onward and upward.

June's Glory

 

June is on the downhill slide now, but it has been glorious. This is a picture of one of my flower beds a couple weeks ago. I didn't get it posted before because I was too busy sweating. The heat and humidity have not bothered these flowers much.The beautiful pink lilies behind the bird bath were bought one year at a late season sale and I planted them en mass in case they were too damaged to sprout by their sojourn in the store. I have been rewarded several times over for my rescue effort. The yellow and read zinnias can be seen sticking their heads above the crowd in the center left of the bed. This is the first time I have grown cock's comb (the red brain looking thing to the right foreground of the picture. I was expecting them to be short, but maybe I should have read the description more carefully. At any rate I am happy enough with them at this point. There is Cleome (a volunteer) and lots of coneflowers. This was the peak for this particular set of June flowers.

Agapanthus

 

Agapanthus, also known as Lily of the Nile, is from Africa, as you probably suspect.It is a beautiful striking plant with that most coveted of flower colors in the garden--blue or blue/violet. I grew mine for years in a pt, starting with 2 or 3 bulbs in a 20 inch pot. Over time the pot filled with offsets and the size of the flowers began to decline. I am always overcrowded in the greenhouse, and so I decided to try them outside. It is written that they bloom better in a pot where the roots are crowded, which may be true, but they bloom just fine in average garden soil, with only a minimum of care. And another coveted feature is that they get better with age. Bigger flowers, taller sturdier stalks,and continue to multiply.
The flowers are beautiful as cut flowers and last about a week. If allowed to mature in the garden, the seed (there is usually only 2 or 3 seed pods), the sputnik type flower spike dries and is a great addition to dried arrangements. Plus not everybody grows them, and they flower in zone 8 in June/july, a time when most bulbs are done and the blue adds needed coolness to the garden.

Red Plumeria

 

I bought this as a cutting in a plastic bag when we were in Hawaii in December. It was not the only thing I bought in the plant line, but it was one of two plants that lived. The other is a ginger and I am not holding out a lot of hope for it because it is still a tiny thing, even after 6 months. I think it may have been too chilly in the greenhouse when I put them in soil. Maybe I should have started them in the house. But this is beautiful. I have a pink oner I grew from seed and have made lots of cuttings of, but it does not bloom well. I believe it may need more fertilizer and I am going to try to do better about giving it a high phosphorous fertilizer and see if I can get more flowers. This little one inspires me to go better.

White Beebalm

 

 

I do remember planting this beebalm many years ago, and it seems like I found it growing somewhere as a wildling. It could have been on the edge of the railroad track. I never did anything else to it except stick it in the ground at the base of this oak tree. That has been many years ago, but see how it has taken care of itself. i think this must be the story of beebalms-they take care of themselves and also they take all land adjoining where they are planted. Many years ago in North Carolina I planted some beautiful red beebalm. It was just gorgeous and fairly well behaved but then it started to spread. It even went out in the grass. It was in full sun and was about 2 feet tall. This white is about the same height but leans a bit toward the sun. the plant you see in the middle of the picture is a native Hydrangea that the deer have missed. Maybe the beebalm has protected it because beebalm has a musty smell. It does show up well with its white flowers in the shade.

I think I will move some of this beebalm into the inhospitable place behind my mailbox in the full sun and see if it can make a place for itself there.

Abandoned House on County Line Road

 

 

While riding through the country I saw these two abandoned houses across the road from each other. The roof of the white house is growing moss and if it does not leak now, soon will.The vents on the dorma are rooting and unpainted. There are tell tale signs all around the house that no one lives there, even though there are curtains in the windows. A peek through a crack in the lace curtains revealed that there is still furniture in the living room. The mailbox still stands and out back under the carport awning is a chair that looks like someone just got up and left.
The other house is across the road from the front of the house. It may have been a tenant house or a store building, but its last use must have been a storage house, judging from the varied items that rest on and around the porch.
I thought of all kinds of stories that could explain the state of affairs, but none were very happy. Maybe whoever lived there died suddenly, leaving no interested heirs. Perhaps a lawsuit keeps the property in continual limbo. Perhaps the heirs are old and/or infirm and cannot afford to keep the place up. Maybe it is a sort of mausoleum for the dead owners.
I also wonder why a tenant house was built almost in the front yard of the main house. Maybe it was not a tenant house, but the house the family lived in before they built the other house and later used for storage. Maybe the house was a store and was built in that position so that the store could easily be seen by the invalid daughter whose job it was to announce loudly when a customer came up. Maybe the current owners feel that there is nothing of value about the house to be worried with. The residents may have been so saintly that nothing material they left behind could compare with the legacy of their lives.
You already know I am fascinated by old house and their stories. I wish I knew more about this one.