Doug’s Garden Blog

First Yellow Tulip of 2008

Ξ April 30th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Bulbs |

How to Grow Shamrocks

Ξ March 11th, 2008 | → 6 Comments | ∇ Bulbs |

It seems a proper time of year to be talking about how to grow Shamrocks. And the good news is that you’re going to have a ton of choices about this charming (but potentially invasive in Southern climates) plants. To begin with the wood-sorrel family contains about 900 species of these plants - from annuals to perennials - from rhizomes to bulbs. (more…)

Daffodil Classes

Ξ February 19th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Bulbs, Video |

I just posted a brand new video about Daffodil classes right here. This video explains the different flower forms and shows you pictures of each form. So if you ever wanted to know what kind of daffodil you were looking at, (so you could find it to plant yourself of course) here’s the starting point.

Tropical Plant Beauties

Ξ January 8th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blogs, Bulbs, Opinion |

Here’s another of my friends with her “guest blog” for you to enjoy. You might want to check out her ongoing stories here.

Honey, after seven Wisconsin winters, I thought I had seen every kind of weather the planet spews, from hurricanes to blizzards. But, two feet of snow and -15ºF nights followed by a 50-degree-day that spawned frozen fog thick enough to cut into blocks are testing my Southern serenity. I might as well be back in the bayous of Louisiana, where sulfur fog obscures oil refinery pollution and muffles crying nutrias. At least, I wouldn’t be chilled to the bone as I am now, despite my mink coat and endless cups of Earl Grey tea spiked with peach brandy.

My precious tropical beauties are keeping me from going totally mad, especially the 14-pound amorphophallus bulb in the sunroom. Its passion-pink bud tantalizes me, knowing that it will burst forth in a month or two with the smelliest flower on the planet. ‘Konjac’, the cultivar I’ve been growing in the garden during our brief summers for the last four years, is the little cousin of giant ‘Titan’, the one television news crews like to cover when it blooms for a sensational blurb for the 6 p.m. news. Mine will produce the same cheap-vinyl-car-seat-cover purple spathe (Tony Avent’s description, not mine) atop a snakeskin mottled-burgundy and chartreuse stem, followed by a three-foot-high violet spadix that unfurls for only 12 hours. It reeks like rotten fish to attract carrion flies, its normal pollinator. They usually feed off of dead ‘gators and cows mired in the swamp.

I can hardly wait for the bud to break dormancy. Any harbinger of spring, especially one of this enormity cannot come too soon. It’s snowing again!
Love,
M’Liz