Monday, August 18, 2008

Field Trip!

The Field Trip to Fort Bend County Demonstration Gardens turned out to be a really good trip! After worrying about the weather, and whether it would be too hot to have fun, it rained and cooled off for the whole day.

We went to the gardens first. They have a LOT of different and unusual plants. Also a big sign that said to please not pick flowers, nor fruit, nor seeds from the plants. Bummer.....

We also went to Caldwell Nursery, (right down the road- how could we miss it?) and to the Enchanted Forest (also right down the other road). Both places were so friendly, and helpful. We carried home truckloads of plants.

We have lots of pictures, just need a little time to get them edited and sorted and posted.

I wish everybody could have gone on this trip.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

You could charge a nickle.....

.....for every little bird who bathed here.

This is another picture of Margaret's pond/fountain. It would not preview on the website for some reason, so I am putting it here, because I think it is very nice. The birds like it too!

Summertime fun

I found this beautiful summer poem and thought it might help make your day. It did me, and it's very well written. Please take the time and ENJOY!



'Summer' A poem by Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre





Summer-
DERN! It's Hot!
The End-

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The lovely rock rose

Description

Pavonia lasiopetala is a Texas Native that is extremely drought tolerant, although is does not mind a little water now and then. Texas Rock Rose can be see growing native in the Edwards Plateau, Rio Grande Plains, and the Trans Pecos areas of Texas. The most eye-catching feature of this plant is the Hibiscus-like pink to rose colored flowers. These flowers are generally 1" in diameter and the Rock Rose will stay in bloom from summer till fall. This is a shrub-like perennial that can get woody at the base, it should come back every year if planted South of its native habitat. If planted further North, plant on the South side of a structure and be sure to mulch in the winter to prevent the roots from freezing. To keep this plant in bloom and to prevent legginess it can be trimmed back throughout the growing season. Texas Rock Rose generally only last 3-4 years but will reseed freely and the seedlings can replace the older plants. The flower will open in the morning and will close in the afternoon, blooms can be extended if there is afternoon shade. Pavonia lasiopetala is part of our Plants For Texas® Program, meaning it was Texas Grown, Tested in Texas to perform outstanding for Texas Gardens.

Hardiness: USDA Zones 8-9
Plant Use: Flowering Perennial
Exposure: Full Sun to Part Sun
Water Requirements: Medium to Low


This is growing in the Native Plant Garden. We will have some to offer for sale at our plant sale September 20! Picture and text found at

www.magnoliagardensnursery.com

Monday, July 28, 2008

Workday at the Courthouse

We had people at the courthouse for the weeding this evening. It looks good in the butterfly bed, but we really need to work on the other beds. Lots and lots of trimming, pruning, and whacking back on stuff. Somebody PLEASE call and remind me to bring the flats of iceplant to put under those crepe myrtle trees. I have enough to carpet that whole area, and I just forget to bring them with me!

Thanks Jean Anne, Linda, Sonja and Louise. Enjoyed it!

Janie

Friday, July 25, 2008

J.J. Wants to Know: What Kind of Member Are You?

Forrest Gump said it best…”Life is like a box of chocolates.” Well, Master Gardeners is like a box of chocolates too. We have plain members and filled members.

PLAIN MEMBERS are those who pay their dues, attend their club meetings and try to avoid having to do any extra work to make the organization successful. Plain members see their organization as a social club. They are content to keep things “as-is” and do not embrace change.

FILLED MEMBERS are those who pay their dues, attend their club meetings and do everything they can to help make the organization successful. These members volunteer for committees, plan and show up for workdays, participate in meetings, work plant sales, and share what Master Gardeners has to offer with everyone they meet. Filled members are the heart of our organization!

But, like the most popular candies in the box, it is our filled members who are snapped up by other organizations or have their filling drained because no one else is willing to help!

Remember...we cannot grow with only plain members :-D

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Worker-bees get the job done.

The Native Plant Garden looks great!
Thanks, Linda, Peggy, Jackie, and Sonja!
~Janie




Thursday, July 17, 2008

Right under our noses....

I shared this rose with my friend in Georgia. She calls it "Bouquet-on-a-stick".
This is 'Grandma's Yellow Rose', the next Texas SuperStar rose. It lived most of it's life as "Nacogdoches", and has been around a long time. For some reason, somebody decided to tag it with a new name- "Grandma's Yellow Rose". I liked the old name better, as do the people in Nacogdoches, but that is another story.

This story is about this very same rose bush living right here, under our noses, in plain sight; have you seen it?

The first time I saw it, my friend Pat and I were in the Church's Fried Chicken place, right there by the WalMart and the Whataburger. We just kind of spied it at the same time, and it was something to take your breath away.

It grows in a small bed between the parking lot of CFC and the feeder road. God waters it; nobody feeds it. It gets pruned when a couple of greedy plant collectors ask for cuttings.

With no care, no interference from anybody, this rose is magnificent. BIG, bold yellow blooms, 6 or 8 at a time, on sturdy canes that make it a fairly compact bush. It blooms almost all year, and I don't think I have ever seen it without a bloom. The foliage is beautiful, clean and dark green. And did I mention the fragrance?

The next time you are over that way, look for this rose. It is the one with the yellow blooms. We don't know what the one that blooms pink-ish/yellow is yet. Might be a 'Peace' rose.....

Janie

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Just a bit of history.....

TEXANA, TEXAS. In 1832 Dr. Francis F. Wells and his sister-in-law, Pamelia McNutt Porter, founded a community in south central Jackson County that later developed into Texana. The village was originally named Santa Anna after Antonio López de Santa Anna, at the time a popular Mexican liberal, soldier, and politician. In 1835, however, after Santa Anna had proven himself an enemy of republican government, the residents of the settlement changed the name to Texana. During the Texas Revolution of 1835-36, Texana served as a port of entry and training camp for many volunteers from the United States. Dr. Jack Shackelford's company of Alabama Red Rovers camped around Texana for about two weeks before joining James W. Fannin's command at Goliad. In the spring of 1836 the citizens of Texana joined the Runaway Scrape. "Uncle" Jeff Parson, a slave during the Runaway Scrape, told how the "old town of Texana was abandoned, not an individual was left on Jackson County soil, all were in flight-where they were going no one knew."
After the battle of San Jacinto, when republic officials organized the surrounding area into Jackson County, Texana-one of the oldest American settlements-served as county seat. In the summer of 1836 the Army of the Republic of Texas established Camp Independence on acreage belonging to Sylvanus Hatch about four or five miles from Texana. The next year Camp Independence was the site of the famous duel between Felix Huston and Albert Sidney Johnston. That year also saw a public sale of town lots that encouraged settlement. In 1840 Texana incorporated as a municipality. By 1880 the town had acquired regular steamboat service, mail and stage routes, a booming business section, and its own newspaper, the Clarion. As late as 1882 Texana was a thriving port with as many as twenty ships docking each week. In 1883, however, the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway bypassed the settlement, precipitating a sharp decline. Shortly thereafter county voters elected to make Edna the county seat, and by 1884 Texana was a virtual ghost town.

From "Handbook of Texas Online- Texana, TX"

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/hvt22.html


And now, they built a lake over Texana, and called it Lake Texana. I thought that bit of our history interesting.

I participated in a blog-a-rama type thing a while back, named "Where in the Bloomin' World are You?" This was my response, my ideas about where we live, and the place we now call home. This was back in early spring for us-(maybe the end of January)-thus the cool weather vegetables.

Where in the Bloomin' World are You?

Why, I'm in Texas! The only place for me!

We are in Jackson County, Texas, with Edna being the County Seat, and a hub of activity. We are in the Gulf Coast area, about 90 miles north of Corpus Christi, 100 miles south of Houston, and we can't go much farther east. We are in zone 9a, about 35 miles from Victoria, Texas. This is "Texas Revolution country", and Jackson County was one of the original 23 counties formed in Texas.

We garden year 'round. I am growing veggies right now- cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, onions... Brussels sprouts.....(I hate eating these vegetables, if they are cooked, but I love to watch them grow). I have lots of flower seedlings; Poppy, snapdragon, calendula, sweet peas, viola, pansy, and dianthus are all showing their pretty new foliage. Things are leafing out and putting on buds- a dangerous thing. Peaches for one, are budding, and if we get a freeze, which we could (easily),we will not have fruit this year. My confederate roses are leafing out and they are just gorgeous. I just wish they would wait awhile. Hibiscus is also leafing out. That might die if it gets cold, unless I protect it.

We have nasty black gumbo for soil, but we can grow anything in it. It is among the most fertile of soils, just doesn't have much air in it. Slick when it is wet. Hard like a brick when it is dry. I figure I am going to use some of it to throw some bowls one of these days. Our primary problem with our soil is that it is very alkaline. That is hard to fix.

We have a nice Master Gardener group here, and I am involved in that. We are always doing some project or another. Right now, we are working on a Native Plant garden, with a Rain garden incorporated into it, in partnership with the 4-H kids. It is going to be fun, planting this. Collecting our plants will be fun too.

This is a very rural environment. Even in town, it is 'country'. We don't live in Edna, but in a small community about 10 miles away, if you take the back roads. We do have a post office, where we live, but no mail delivery. We have to go to the post office to collect our mail. It is o.k.

In Edna, we have a WalMart, an HEB grocery store, several florist, Mexican restaurants, Pizza Hut, LOTS of attorneys, about 5 banks, and goodness knows how many churches! Maybe 8 churches? or more. We have a hospital and 3 nursing homes in the county, I think. A lot of doctors (Specialists) come in on a regular basis from Victoria or Houston, or wherever. Beauty shops and barbers, furniture stores, and dentists. We have it all.

Important to me, we have a good hardware/lumber yard that will usually give the big BOX stores a run for their money. I love to buy lumber, and hardware, paint, glue, whatever.....

We are actually almost on the bay, but the way things are laid out, we have to go around about 17 miles to get to the salt water to fish or whatever. That is fine with me. We also have hurricanes around here, too, sometimes, so a little space between us and the water is a good thing.

Lots of ranching, and farming here, so we have good feed stores.

Our county is very generous to us. They maintain a brush site, where we can haul all kinds of refuse, and they grind it up for mulch, which eventually turns into compost that they will load for us, free of charge. We also have a cotton gin close to where I live, (a few blocks) where I can get all the cotton gin trash that my little heart desires. It has been composting there for years, and is BEEutiful!

This is a good place to live. I invite y'all to visit, when you can.

~Janie