"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 19:45:09 -0500, "madgardener"
wrote:
a lot snipped

Gosh Mad, you can write a book!

LOL you ain't been here long, have you Phish? There are those in the
garden backyard that know I tend to ramble on and have sometimes a way with
the words. And yes, one day I will probably write the book.......or two.

I see my daffodils (from bulbs
planted last fall) starting to show and the forsythia are almost in
bloom.

Your forsythia is about to bloom? In Oak Ridge?? Holy cow.......mine won't
bloom this year because I coppiced it to the ground, and the other one I'm
still chunking out roots and such (it was a bush over 30 years old), I
figure there won't be any flowers this year on the one I've left. And I'm
still not sure if I'll keep it or not as I've planted a deciduous magnolia
(Lagnolia de Lennei 'Lennei') in between the two forsythia's. I'd much
rather have the magnolia than the forsythia. but I realize it's impossible
to remove absolutely both of them from where they are. So until I see how
the magnolia survives and grows, I'll leave the one forsythia and keep
chunking roots of the other one out until that one IS removed.

The flat-leaf parsley is about the only thing I had good use
throughout the winter months. My pachysandra look about the same as
they were 5 years ago and the only thing I can think is that it is
just too hot of summers here for them.

I'm not sure if pachysandra does well here or not. I'm not into it as much
as I am into other things. A LOT of other things.........g any bush I
have has to bloom. Exfoliating bark is a nice addition, or good fall color.
But they HAVE to bloom. I have a black nine bark that grdngal, Pam sent me
from Washington I bought thru her connection at the nursery she used to work
at, it's called a Diablo ninebark. I also have Wine and Roses weigelia,
varigated weigelia, two five year old oak leaf hydrangea's, button spirea,
bridal wreath spirea (planted together), Korean spirea, Lime spirea, Crispa
spirea, purple sand cherry,Shirobana Spirea,Loropetalum, Pizzazz,Magic
Carpet Spirea, Red crape myrtle planted next to my white one, a Little Henry
Itea, Doublefile viburnum, Korean spice viburnum, a Yoshino Flowering cherry
I planted in a small woods room I cleared out a couple of years ago that the
woods is trying to reclaim, as well as two Forest pansy redbuds and a Harry
Lauder's walking stick tree or twisted filbert. (Avellano Contorsionado,
(Corylus aveliana 'Contorta'), there are hopefully two pink flowering
almonds, (not sure if they survived or not and won't know until spring),
then there's the quad-lilac's, President Grevy a blue bloom with dark green
foliage and open branched lilac planted witha Krasavitsa Moskvy which is a
double white extremely fragrant lilac, and two Montaigne Lilacs that have
double pale pink that emerge as purple-pink buds and are also fragrant.

hmmmmmmmm, double pink althea, double purple althea planted together, red
and yellow scotch broom, two beauty berry bushes, Black Knight butterfly
bush, lavender butterfly bush, tri-colored butterfly bush, Hot Mama pink
butterfly bush, single Kerria japonica with a rootling of a double flora
pleno Kerria japonica trying to get a toe hold again. Red twig dogwood,
possibly a yellow twig dogwood but I now realize I don't see it where I
planted it.......... Cornelian cherry tree, unknown variety seedling
dogwood that refuses to bloom, Harlequin Glory Bower, Sorbaria bush, Vitex
bush, Caryopteris bushes (two I think), Varigated blue lace hydrangea, two
Fire Pieris, a Mock Orange, St. John's wort Hypericum bush, two attempts at
rhodies, one a Janet Bloomdale and another one called Red Ruby. The Janet
is almost 3/4's gone, I put it in the wrong place but it's hanging on by
a thread. The Red Ruby is deffinately in the wrong place but I don't dare
move it until late winter..........

then there are the grasses, perennials, bulbs and my beloved fig tree. All
of this is crammed up on top of the ridge because below in the woods, where
there is plenty of space, it's a mass of privet, poison oak, poison ivy,
honeysuckle vines, some wild rose, blackberry, pin oak seedlings, cedar
trees and Jack pines with about three nice tulip poplar trees, mature one by
the deck up near the rise in my holler near the deck, and two younger ones
further into the mess on the eastern portion of my land (7/9ths of an acre
total with the house, with the largest portion of land being below me in the
holler-woods)

The deer have again chopped my
azalea bushes.

I'm blessed to have the outer property completely fenced all around me in
six foot chain link with a triple barbwire stringing up top of that angled
outwards, so any deer we have don't even think about coming in here. and as
nice as the land to the east of me and north that wraps behind me is, I
don't think they're agile enough to leap over the 9 foot height where
there's no people or signs of humans. The coyote don't even venture in, and
I hear and see them all the time. Raccoons and posson's and skunks aren't
intimidated though. They come and go as they please thru the gate and other
secret entrances g

I'm looking for a start of seeds of the herb rue (mine
died two years ago) and looking for wild ginger for the wooded area
(do these do well here?)
Yes,m they do. Rue? Deer HATE rue. I'll hunt around for a source. As for
wild ginger. Plant propigated availability at Sunlight Gardens in northern
Knoxville. sunlightgardens.com g worth the trip...............they have
a strawberry bush that I want for my dry woods.............

On the inside my orchid cactus is still in my cool shop asleep for the
winter. My Christmas cactus has been blooming since
mid-December--exceptionally well probably due to placing it outdoors
last summer. My African violets are doing well--I'm using Shultz AF
drops too and the flowers are larger with more color.

No flowers yet but I'm still hoping!!

My cactus
collection is doing very well. Not sure about my aspidistera--I will
transplant it sometime soon.

You have an aspidistera? where'd you find it? g not that I need another
plant. I also see speckled tongues in the pot where my blood lily
lives.......lets hope it blooms! no signs of clivia blossom spikes yet
it's a sore with me until I get it to produce for me. I've had it 8
years and before that, Mary Emma had it 5. And she and Roger worked the k-25
plant, not the Y-12............. sorry..........

don't you love the "secret" shipment of Weapons of mass distruction grade
plutonium they just got from Libia the other day? Secret?? yeah, when
everyone knows about it.......bet the security level in Oak Ridge is higher
than orange right now..................kinda glad I live over east of you
sometimes GBSEG

keep in touch, I'll hunt for that rue. maybe sometime I can hook up with you
with some plant sharings when I got to Farragut to see Mary Emma..........
maddie