Obsessed with a Fig Tree

My newest quest is adding a fig tree to my garden.  It all started last fall when I took a trip to Bayer's in Imperial.  They had a handful of great looking fig trees.  The leaves have an interesting shape that is not like other things I have in the garden, plus they are fruit bearing.  What's not to love?  I asked some questions about cold hardiness, and growing conditions, and eventually shied away from purchasing.  Fifty dollars for a plant is a huge investment, and I want to make sure my investments give me a return.  I had doubts I could keep it alive over the winter.

Well, technically Spring isn't here yet, but the warm weather is here already.  I started thinking about that fig tree again, and now I'm obsessed with researching them.  I have done my homework and I'm now ready to purchase.  I called around, and Bayer's has the best quality, and price, and my parents have graciously offered to pick one up for me sometime in the near future (they live a lot closer).

The type of fig I'm getting is Brown Turkey.  Missouri Botanical Gardens grows this variety, and says it will do well as long as it's got some shelter, it's well mulched, and stays in a shrub form.  This is very good to know, since the Spring arrivals at Bayer's are already in shrub form, but the ones they had in the fall were tree form.  Apparently in shrub form, a few leaders (main stems) might die back, but you have less chance of losing the whole thing, whereas with a tree form, you lose the trunk, you lose the tree.

While I won't be providing my fig with any sort of true shelter, I will probably wrap it in a frost blanket or other tarp like material and stuff it with hay or leaves.  I found out from my dad that his grandfather grew figs, and overwintered his in a similar fashion.

I already have the site selected, and the design in mind.  It will be a formal style planting, hedged with boxwoods, and filled with a single variety of some perennial or annual for the greatest visual impact.  Pics to come after it's installed.

The Difference a Day Makes

"Pow" is a good way to describe the impact that a couple of warm days has had on my yard.  I walked out there today and saw so much coming up that I realized time is of the essence to clear the leaves from my garden beds.  Fifteen wheelbarrow loads later, most of the gardens are clear.  It is evident that several tons of mulch will be needed this year.

Pretty much everything is either up or is budding.  There are a few late starters in my garden, such as the dwarf crape myrtles.  It's sometimes all I can do to not pull them out and replace them with something else I've been eying at the garden center that is budding.  And when I say slow, I mean they literally don't show signs of life until almost the end of May!


I'm happy to report that the mild winter has helped everything get a kick start.  Unfortunately, the downside is that the bugs will be horrendous.  I have already seen a handful of flying "things" outside today.


My double-knockout pink rose bush kept its leaves all winter and it has put on a huge flush of new growth.  I'm so happy to see this, because all of my past roses at this house (all knockouts) have been spindly, poor bloomers.  I donated all of them to various other gardeners, and they've done well in their new homes.  So if this one thrives, then I will blame past failures on my choice of location.  Finding the right home for plants here is definitely a challenge.  Some plants have moved so frequently that they really haven't grown much.  Some have literally moved each year... or dare I admit, twice a year.  That's gardener's impatience at its finest.


Here are some photos of what I got to enjoy today.

It's Starting!

I walked outside on this beautiful sunny morning and found that the breeze was warmer than I had expected.  Our thermometer says it's 55, but I know it's lying a little because it's in the bright sunlight.  Not direct sunlight, but in a deceiving enough position.

There has been one daffodil blooming up near the street for a couple of weeks now.  I don't know how it's lasted so long, but I'm glad it has.  I was too lazy to go out in the cold and check it out when it first started to nod, but today I ventured up there.  It has companions.

I wandered around the rest of my property to check things out.  There are little sprigs of green everywhere.  Sedum, Thyme, Sage, Brunnera, Catmint, just to name a few.

The pansies on my front porch have provided a non-stop show of color throughout the winter.  I also got a peek at one of the Hellebores (see below).  Another bud is on the plant.  I thought these would do better where they're located, but I'm happy with any blooms at this point.  A lot of my daffodil foliage is up, but there aren't many buds among them.  I guess it's time to think about dividing this year.

 

Spring Fever

Yes, it's already begun for me.  It doesn't help that in the last couple of days the weather has been unusually pleasant.

I spent Sunday with my parents and Tyler at the Missouri Botanical Gardens (MOBOT).  We enjoyed the orchid show, which runs for another month or so.  I highly recommend it.  Orchids everywhere.  Every color, every size, some fragrant.  The display itself, without any orchids, was impressive.

We decided to walk around the gardens to see if anything was coming up.  I have to admit, I am a little disgusted.  No, not with MOBOT, but with my own garden.  MOBOT is set up so fantastically that even in the dead of winter, the gardens look great!  One thing about garden design that is always a good reminder in winter, is that the garden needs good bones.  If it has good bones, it will look good in all seasons.  Clearly, I have some work to do in this area.

I had two major design ideas come out of our walk around the gardens.  The first is actually something I've been dreaming up for a while, but wasn't sure about the execution.  The stone steps in and outside the Temperate house are what I've been looking for.  Stone stairs flanked by loose, carefully placed stones, with gardens touching either side, is the perfect solution.  If anyone knows a good landscaper, let me know.  This is not a job I'm interested in doing myself.

The second is to plant a mass of liriope under trees.  I know that sounds really simple, but the look is stunning.  It probably also helps that MOBOT had very formal garden shapes with squares of liriope alternated with some other type of groundcover.  I am definitely going to try this in Spring.

Winter Blooms

Yes, that's right.  I still have flowers blooming!  For those of you who would doubt the claim, I have photographic proof.  I snapped these shots about 20 minutes ago.  It's unseasonably warm (60 in the sun) here.  You won't catch me complaining!

These petunias were the deal of the century.  Lowe's had them marked down to 25 cents per basket!  I was willing to pay up to a dollar a piece, seeing as how it was the weekend before Thanksgiving, so imagine my surprise when they were a fourth of the cost!  I'm sure people thought I was a loon, buying plants so late in the season, but there was no forecast of frost that week, and I wanted to gussy up the porch for my house guests that would be arriving Thanksgiving Day.  We had fantastic weather on turkey day and everyone got to go outside and get a glimpse of these pretty flowers up close.  I think we had a frost this week, but they must have gotten protection from the house.  I'll take the blooms as long as I can get them!

I got these pansies from Lowe's just a markdown away from their final clearance.  I paid $3.00 for a gallon container of red and yellow, which I split between two large pots on my front porch.  And I paid $3.00 for a flat of "vining" two-tone purple pansies.  I feel a little taken though, because when I went back right before Thanksgiving, they were all down to 10 cents per pot and 25 cents a flat.

I can't resist a good deal.  Since I didn't need any, I picked up a flat for my mom.  I don't know if she's put them in or not, but if she did, she's guaranteed a winter's worth of good color and then another flush in spring.

The pansies I put by the street in September are still going great guns.  I've been so pleased with them that I have decided they'll be part of my annual fall planting.

Around the Yard in October

The mint lives!  After a long, hot, dry summer, I was sure it was a goner.  But here are the green sprigs to prove it pushes on, and that you really can't kill mint.

The Superbells have come back to life with cooler temperatures.  The foliage was green all summer, but the blooms were far and few in between.  I don't think this plant is partial to humidity.  To convert this planter into a fall arrangement, I transplanted the knockout rose and added a mum, and a pumpkin Tyler picked out at the Home Depot.

Oakleaf hydrangeas are gorgeous in fall.  All of the leaves turn a lovely shade of red.  I am still hunting for a good location to put another one... or two.

Toad lilies are a wonderful surprise in fall.  You definitely forget about them until they bloom, since the foliage is very plain.  It actually looks like a weed that grows around here.  The blooms are about the size of a quarter.  I got 6 plants by mail order in Spring and the blooms on two plants are actually two different colors.  This one is white with purple spots, but the other one is purple with dark purple spots.  Interesting.  The established Toad Lilies I've had for years completely dried up in the summer.

This photo doesn't do these mums justice.  They are intensely bright yellow.  They were here when we moved in, and I've never had the heart to tear them out, even though they are in a good location that I could plant several other things.  I guess it's worth the wait at the end of the season.

This photo is a little blurry, but at least you can see the color.  The wind was blowing pretty strong this evening and it was hard to capture anything.  This is one of many small oak trees that have turned bright red around the perimeter of our yard.  It's odd because all of the mature oak tree leaves go straight to brown and look crusty all winter.  I wonder if this is a different variety.

Don't worry, this isn't poison ivy!  It's either skunk brush or gooseberries.  I can't remember.  All I know is that it grows wild here, and turns a wonderful brilliant red-orange in fall.  There is a hedge of these bushes behind one of my flowerbeds that sits against the woods.  Lovely.

I couldn't help myself.  My favorite nursery was selling these gorgeous pansies for a good price, so I got a flat and put them in the new garden I've been working on since mid-summer.  There's not much else in there yet, so these have added some good color for the past month.  They will bloom in the snow, too, so I think this was well worth the money.

Check out this lovely clematis flower that has sort of mutated.  It's very odd and beautiful at the same time.  If you look closely, you can see the petals are green and pink.  I've never seen it bloom this late before.  There were four blossoms like this on the vine.

What I've Added this Fall

Finally!  My order from a wholesaler arrived a week ago, and I just got a chance to put the plants in the ground yesterday.  I got 20 bearded iris.  5 Immortality (white), 5 orange harvest, and 10 variegated (foliage, not the flower -- flowers are purple).  The white and orange iris are short, and rebloom.  I'm looking forward to having flowers in both the spring and fall, especially since I don't have much blooming right now.

In the past month, I've also planted 3 catmint, 3 variegated Jacob's Ladder, a blueberry bush, a hot pink dwarf phlox, and a white daisy.

I've also been busy rearranging the plantings.  I moved two peonies, and gave one to a friend.  I also transplanted a double pink knockout rose from a container by my porch to a bed in the back, where I hope it will get enough sun.  That's always a challenge living on a wooded lot.

Of course, all of this work leads me to thinking about what else I can squeeze into an existing bed, or where I might install a new one.  I spend a few minutes each evening pacing the yard, checking things out.  I have a lot of ideas that will have to simmer over the winter!