Helen Mathey-Horn's Blog, page 28

“Y” can’t I figure this one out?

I’ve been working for a while on what to use for “Y” day and I’ve still “got nothin'”.

If I were to do a “y” plant the only one I can think of is ‘yarrow’, but that doesn’t move me that much. Yarrows always look so vivid in the nursery or on the page, but when I get them to flower in my yard they look ‘dusty’ within one day and ‘snip’ I get rid of the flower head. So, no, to yarrow.

Childhood story for ‘y’? Nope.

So, am I going to concede defeat on “Y” and let it go? Why no, I’ll go hunt up a pretty pictures of ‘yellow’ flowers and move on.

Which leads to this remembrance…at one school we were at in Japan, several teachers formed a ‘gourmet’ club and met once a month to share a really fantastic meal that members contributed to. There were a lot of teachers in that school so a second group of us decided to form our own gourmet group, as the first group was all ready pretty large. Our ‘rules’ were a little more lax.

Yes, we did an “Italian Night” and “Irish Night”, but our best one, in my humble opinion, was for October when we did an “Orange Food” night. Let’s be honest you have to be pretty inventive to come up with a menu for ‘orange’ that isn’t all desserts or all made with oranges. I contributed a stew cooked in a small pumpkin, therefore orange and savory.

So rather than one idea for “Y” I’m giving you a post based basically on the color “yellow” and not “a” plant. And again, my blog, my rules.

As redemption I’ll tell you about May Day, but that means you’ll have to come back May 1st.

Not all the above are in my Tulsa garden, the last one was from Germany almost ten years ago. But you do have to admit they all have yellow somewhere in the picture. More could be found, but I’ll let you go.

Thanks, and tomorrow will wrap with “Z”. Hint, it is not zinnias, although it could have been. And May 1st is May Day so I’ll end this month of letters with one more reflection that involves plants. Maybe you’ll start a new family tradition based on it.

X Marks the Spot

Do you ever forget where you put something? You know you own the item, but darned if you can remember where you left it or where you put it away for safe keeping.

It gets worse when you plant something that may be dormant for a good part of the year and you don’t want to accidentally dig into it as that will destroy the plant. Prime candidates for accidental damage are bulbs such as spring bulbs, tulips and daffodils and then those sneaky surprise lilies.

My solution is to plant them with something more visible. Something you know you are not going to mistake for a weed and something that you know is going to last more than a year. Woody perennials are good candidates.

I try and plant my tulips and daffodils with the azalea bushes and other conspicuous plants. So far so good. I’ve also inter-planted them with iris as the iris leaves remain green year round and I’m not likely to dig into them by mistake.

I know there all kinds of plant markers one can purchase to indicate where something is planted. And I could draw a map of my garden indicating where I’ve put things, but I guess I’m just too lazy and my method works for me.

W is for…

Again more choices. It could be wren box, which I’ve not taken a picture of, but I have many bird boxes. Most of them built by my dad after retirement as something to occupy his time. Interestingly enough he commented that bird boxes were one of the first things he built when he was a ‘kid’. Everything old is new again? My father is dead, but I think of him each time I look at my bird boxes, which I added my touch to by painting. I don’t really expect these to get used as they are not in an ideal location for the birds, but rather where I can enjoy them. I do have wren boxes which I hope will get used. They are in a more private, difficult for a cat to get to place at the back of the yard.

None of these is the wren house.

W could be Wisteria, which I dug out of our yard years ago as it was ‘thuggish’ and I never saw evidence of flowering. Don’t have time for plants that need excessive pampering and don’t show their gratitude by flowering. My neighbor on the other hand does have a wisteria in a good location with sun and he obviously knows how to properly prune it. The pictures are faded in color as the blooms are a deeper lilac color than shown. I did have a fantastic wisteria in Japan at the first house I lived in, but I didn’t have to prune it and the person who did, knew how to do it. It was lovely.

And the last “W” could be waterpot, as in a mini water garden. I’ve been enamored of growing water lilies since the time I lived in Maryland and was able to drive to Lilypons where I got a water lily to set up my first ‘water garden’ in a half barrel. Somewhere there is a picture of my toddler lifting up a lily pad to look for the fish in the barrel. I think the picture is in a scrapbook I gave him a few years back. In Japan I was able to buy some large ceramic pots which when lined with black plastic (you have to use pond grade material) have been my water pots. I’ve only got one right now and recently bought a new water lily for the pot. But as I ‘dropped’ it into the water it seemed to me that last year’s plant may have survived the winter. Since the pot is exposed above ground, if we get a long period of freezes, there is no protection for the water lily and I just figure I have to get a new one. So I may have two water lilies this year…we’ll see. The pot also has a corkscrew rush from last year and a water plant to aerate the water for fish which I’ll add later. I get ‘feeder’ goldfish, the cheap ones that are 2-3 inches big. They are for a little color, but more importantly to eat the mosquito larvae.

These pictures are from last summer. Current pot does not have the papyrus.

And I’ve included a picture of what I ‘treated’ myself to as a retirement gift, my fountain with horsetail rushes.

No shortage of “W’s”.

V is for Violas, Violets and Vinca

When I started on this month of flowers I had only planned to do one flower a day and it was easy to pick a flower per letter, but as I have gone along I’m finding it harder and harder to limit myself to only one! I mentioned yesterday the Will Rogers quote, “I never met a man I didn’t like,” and how I think that way about flowers and plants and so today there are three possible candidates for flowers of the letter “V”.

Violas and Violets are pretty similar except violas(and pansies) will flower as long as it stays cool enough and they have some water. Violets on the other hand are vernal…spring flowers. They give it their all in one glorious period and then spend some time making seeds and being green.

My paternal grandmother had violas (johnny jump-ups which I used for “J”) by her backdoor and they were always a happy sight. I like their ability to keep flowering during the ‘cooler’ weather here, as we might get snow. Once the snow melts back, there they are, still flowering. What they don’t like is heat and often by June they have ‘melted away’ in the Tulsa gardens. Since most people who plant them in the fall, use yard crews to do so, the same crews have come by in the spring and ripped out all the violas to replace them with the summer annuals. I let them go and when they get way too “leggy” they are usually ready to die a natural death from heat.

Violets are more ‘refined’ in my book. And there are so many varieties other than the ‘purple’ ones people think of when you say violets. I happen to have the purple ones and white ones too. Not sure how either of them got their starts in my front and back gardens and in the grass too. I’m all for them spreading themselves as much as they can. And I don’t mind picking them to put in small vases. They only last a few days once picked, but they look sweet.

And speaking of sweet, violets should have a sweet odor to them, Viola odorata, but mine don’t so I’ve just learned something…they are actually ‘dog violets’, which are native to north American and odorless. Click the link for more.
Viola labradorica

Just saying the name violet, makes me think of a show I was in “Pure as the Driven Snow”, a melodrama if you weren’t sure by the title. It was hokey and meant to be played for laughs and to end it, since it was so hokey, we sang “Sweet Violets” whose words one of the cast members had altered to fit the play and to be slightly risqué. And I suppose it is appropriate that the violets made me think of the play as ‘pansies’ are often linked with ‘thought’ in flower vocabularies.

The third “V”, vinca is kind of misnomer…mistaken name. If you look that name up you will find it is sometimes called periwinkle and there are annuals that also go by the name vinca that are a totally different plant. I’m referring to the ‘Vinca minor’ and ‘Vinca major’ plants which are vine-like and only really vary in the size of leaf and flower. My mother’s yard had ‘Vinca minor’ (small leaf). My yard has ‘Vinca major’ (big leaf). They spread by vines and flower in the early spring. They keep their leaves all year round which is one reason it makes such an attractive ground cover…it is still green when many other plants, including lawns, have gone brown or even died back. You can get a variety that has a variegated leaf, green with a white edge and that is often used in potted flower arrangements as the ‘spiller’. (Potting FYI if making a potted outdoor planting scheme…Use one dramatic plant as the ‘thriller’, one drapey plant as the ‘spiller’ and one thick plant as the ‘filler’.) Vinca makes a very good ‘spiller’ and that is how it got into my garden.

When we moved to Tulsa, the woman we bought the house from left a welcoming potted plant arrangement on our porch. I don’t remember the other plants in there, but vinca was the spiller and during the summer it does what vinca does…ran and spilled over the lip of the pot, off the porch and into the garden, where the runners rooted. (Oh I didn’t mention that part did I?)

Well unlike Houttuynia (which was mentioned in the last post) you can actually keep vinca contained, so I let it go and it has formed a filler at ground level for the front flower bed.

The picture below is from my neighbor’s yard. They are trying to get vinca (minor here) to fill in under their oak tree. It is doing a pretty good job but the area next to the curb is still bare. Partly this is due to street work a couple of years ago and I suspect the soil the street crew used to fill behind the new curb isn’t that great.

So three “V’s” for today.

U is for “What would U plant?”

Okay that is kind of cheating. I thought of Umbrella palm, but I don’t own one. I’ve not been very successful with palms in general. I think they need more humidity and light than I’ve given them.

I did think about using Ulm which is the Genus name for elms, but I don’t have much of a history with elms so that seemed out of character.

My husband shouted “Eucalyptus”, but I reminded him that it starts with an ‘e’. Besides I’m not a fan of eucalyptus. If you live in Australia where it is native I can see growing it, but ask the people in California where it was introduced and now is a ‘pest’ plant how they feel about it.

So back to “U”, What is your favorite plant? For the garden, for the table, the most difficult, the easiest, the one that makes you think of a family member. I’ll go first…but these will be plants I’ll never plant again.

This is kind of like the reverse of the Will Rogers’ saying, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” There are very few plants I’ve met that I didn’t like. But.. here are my UnLoved. The ones I would recommend NOONE should plant.

Houttuynia cordata comes to mind, ugh. (Also called chameleon plant…don’t be fooled.) We had it in Japan and it was nice where it was growing and my husband and I saw it in a nursery here in Tulsa and he encouraged me to buy some because he liked it in Japan. Big mistake. If you look it up it will warn you it is INVASIVE. Can I shout it loudly enough? Just don’t. That and although it is called ‘chameleon’ plant and shows pretty green/white/pink colors, mine has all reverted to just green and it has a medicinal smell I don’t like when you crush it, which you will be doing as you try to pull those runners up!

Looks pretty, doesn’t it? Don’t fall for its lies!

Next – ragweed. I made the mistake, for a season, thinking what I was looking at was chrysanthemum leaves. I’ve been paying for it ever since. I sit on a stool in that section of garden each year digging deeply small section by small section, taking every tiny piece of plant material and am still battling it. Someone is probably thinking, ‘Just spray that $#!& with some weed killer!” Two reasons, 1) I have other plants that would get a hit no matter how carefully I tried not to, and 2) I really don’t like using that kind of $#!& of chemicals on ecosystems and would rather just put in the elbow grease in my little corner of the world..

See what I mean about looking like chrysanthemum? Sort of?

Okay that’s off my chest.

‘What about dandelions?’ I hear you ask. What about them? I can pull them if I get with it. Again some elbow grease and if the weather is nice it is a pleasant time sitting on my butt. But they do feed helpful insects so if I’m a little slow it isn’t the end of the world and they really don’t spread as fast as that $#!& ragweed and houttuynia. I also recall I did a research study on Taraxacum officinale when I was in college, which taught me a few things about dandelions I didn’t know. And then there was the time my grandmother made dandelion wine in her bathtub and one of my cousins got a little tipsy on it when grandma brought out the finished product for drinking. So dandelions seem kind of like family. Hmmm, if I had printed out it’s proper name is Taraxacum officinale, I could have used dandelions for “X” day. Naw.

After all my posts about flowers and plants I love, I’m sure this one is kind of a one-off. And none of these pictures are mine…I wouldn’t give camera space to any of them…they might take over the whole thing!

What would you plant again? What would you never give garden space?

Quick Extra Post – Free Book

The Kindle Ebook format of “Dark Queen” is free this week. Find it at

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Queen-Helen-Mathey-Horn/dp/1981093567/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_3?keywords=Dark+Queen+Helen+Mathey-Horn&qid=1556063754&s=books&sr=1-3-fkmrnull

If you decide to get a copy, would you be so kind as to write a review after you have read it?

Thank you.

T is Tulips and Turtleheads

I’ll start with tulips first and leave you to scratch your head about turtleheads for a little bit. Photo as seen through the branches of one of my Japanese maples.

Tulips are one of those plants (bulbs) I love but in many cases they get weaker over the years and don’t multiply themselves as well as other spring bulbs. (I was going to use the term peter-out but I used that in an earlier post, but it is still a good word to use here.) Some of the early flowering varieties will spread some, but the really cool, fancy ones seem only good for a season or two. The ones below have come back pretty well over five years+.

Last fall I splurged and bought two varieties (white ones and purple both ‘fringed’) of tulips and some daffodils and planted them across my front flower beds. I must of had a few left-over as I have a few blooming now by the narrow bed on the end of the porch by the driveway. I hope these will all come back next year…and the year after…but I’m not going to hold my breath.

And Turtleheads – yes a plant.

And see why it is called turtlehead. In looking for this photo I learned that besides the purple color, which I have, this plant also comes in varieties with rosy pink and also white flowers. I might have to go looking for those.

Turtlehead likes it moist and the first place I ever saw this plant was ‘in the wild’ in Wisconsin in the ditches by my parents’ property up by Athens, Wisconsin. The plant I have has done quite well here in Tulsa. Of course it was purchased locally so that is usually a good sign that it will thrive in the area, but not always. It has formed a nice clump and it doesn’t look like it will need dividing anytime soon. Oh and the botanical name is ‘Chelone obliqua’. Chelone is latin for turtle.

So Turtleheads for a different ‘t’.

S is for “Surprise” Lilies

This one is SOOOOOO Oklahoma!

The first time I ever saw these was in my mother-in-law’s garden. There they stood. Pink flowers on a stalk with no visible leaves. This is why another name for them locally is ‘Naked Ladies’. I also saw them that summer on a hillside by the Peoria entrance to the Tulsa Garden Club. Oh my, what a show those ladies put on.

When we bought our house I didn’t know what was growing around the house and spent that summer getting acquainted. Then towards the end of July these flower buds began pushing themselves up through the grass and suddenly…FLOWERS. Well rather than have them get mowed off and eventually give up trying to come back, I dug them up and moved them to a safer position where they are happily multiplying.

So if they come up in July with no leaves, how do they produce food to keep coming back each year?

The leaves come up early in the spring. Earlier than my daffodils send up leaves, so we are talking there could still be frosts but the ladies are getting with it. After about of month of cool and moist weather, the leaves die off and you forget you have anything planted in that spot until…wait for it…SURPRISE, NAKED LADIES!

I have enough that when they flower I can bring some stalks in for cut flowers. Which is always a bonus in my book. And don’t they just look bouncy happy? So technically, right now (April) all I have to show for this plant are healthy stands of daffodil-like foliage, but they are a sure sign of flowers to come.

And happy EARTH DAY!

R is for Redbud? Roses?

Redbuds are very common here in Tulsa and almost every yard has at least one. There had been a redbud on the west side of the front yard when we bought the house. It was old and had a bad crack and we finally had it removed. But if you have ever had one you know they set seeds like crazy and you are going to find seedlings everywhere.

Well, I found a seedling coming up in the backyard between the shed and the back cement wall and it seemed like a good placement. I figured when it got taller it could partially shade the shed. I could see/enjoy the flowering from the kitchen and back of the house and the rest of the year it would be ‘out of the way’. So I started trimming that seedling up. Each summer I would check it out and prune off all but the very top branches. I’ve done this for about ten years now, actually I’ve lost count of when I first found that tree. It is now definitely taller than the shed and the pruning is beyond me, so by the time this goes to ‘press’ the tree guys will have been here and shaped it up for me. I do like were it is placed, I just want it off the shed roof. I’m using an internet picture…not my own.

Also under R are roses. I have several roses. Two I’m debating about whether I’m giving space to them further as they are not spectacular and I am disappointed in my choice. They might pick up vibes of my intent and surprise me this year and be perfect, but I doubt it and they may be gone before summer.

I also have two climbing roses, both are DonJuan…how perfect is that name for a red CLIMBING rose, wasn’t he the lover always climbing in women’s bedroom windows?…but I digress. They are positioned to take advantage of the curve of the porch front and side. I’ve a trellis on the driveway side and that DonJuan has been there longer and is well draped over the top of the curve.

The other end of the porch. This picture is from another year.

The second went in two years ago by the front steps. It is stretching upward. I’ve got a wire installed in the arch and I am working at getting that rose to grow along the wire support. This year will probably be the defining year to get that one shaped. The DonJuans supply an abundance of flowers which I enjoy picking and bringing in. There will be a few times where the plant is replenishing and I have to wait, but not long. They make our white brick house look positively English cottage garden style.

Newer rose

The last rose is also a red, but a hybrid tea rose. I bought it for the name as much as anything. It is a deep red with the perfect rose shaped bud/flower and it is called “Veteran’s Honor”. I was thinking of my father when I purchased it. I planted it in the backyard in a space where we took out a chunk of cracked up driveway that led to a garage that was no longer there. Our car wasn’t going to get past the gate to the backyard anyway, so why keep damaged cement when you can have a garden. The soil is not the best, but getting better each year, drains well, and is shaded most of the day by one massive oak tree. Saving the oak tree was a second reason for getting rid of that part of the old driveway. You’ve got to value trees of the size that shade things in a place that can reach 100’s during the summer. Removing the concrete allowed the roots access to more water and nutrients.

The Veteran’s Honor rose is just in the edge of the oak’s shade, so it gets enough sun, but doesn’t get burned to a crisp either. And it rewards me with stunning roses each summer. Not nearly as many as DonJuan, but each is so perfectly shaped.

I’m sure I could have come up with some more R’s for today’s post but those are the two that I think of quickest. Redbuds have their place I suppose, but the roses!

And just because I don’t want you to think I’m the only one obsessed with taking pictures of roses. This was taken at the Tokyo National Park Rose Garden area a few years back. Everyone there had their cameras out.

Q is for Quince

I like quince flowers. They are so bright and EARLY. I’ve ended up with three plants in my yard; one in the back by a fence, one in front in a small space between the porch and the driveway (don’t know what I’ll do when it gets bigger) and one in the front yard. All three are a deep, clear red as you see in the photo. None of them is taller than a foot (30 centimeters) in height although wider than that. I figure that they are early color and food for insects. So although it would seem “Q” would be a hard letter to have/find a plant for it was relatively easy and all three plants were flowering so the photo was no problem either. And no they don’t set fruit…at least none I’ve seen.