fall potpourri

Bright orange persimmon lanterns glow from the tree

Sparkling Burgundy sasanqua blooms blushing with blue highlights

This big fellow came right to the house garden to feast on magnolia seed pods. Most years the squirrels have stolen them all before they ripen. So startled was I to see him in the yard that I barely had time to grab the camera.They are good at hide and seek in the trees, usually keeping something between us.---a pileated woodpecker.

This blue fly--probably something unpleasant--had perished on my window sill. Nevertheless, it is a stunning iridescent cobalt blue, and I just had to have a photo.

fragrant pink

Fragrant Pink is one of the early blooming sasanquas, a member of the camellia family. In Louisiana, this group of shrubs blooms through the fall and winter giving us color in a dreary season. Fragrant Pink  lives up to its name filling the area under the oaks with a bubble gum scent while blooming, but the foliage seems to have fragrance, too, because I can always smell a spicy scent when I walk by it.

This particular bush has a funny story. I had searched for a specimen of it every time I went shopping for plants and was elated when I found 3 bushes at a local nursery. But always searching for more, I rushed on to investigate everything that was there. When I returned all 3 bushes were gone! I spun around and spied them on a wagon being carted to the checkout. Oh! you're buying all three?!!
I must have looked so upset that the kind lady reached down and handed me one.

I think about her whenever it blooms, and how foolish I was to pass it by looking for more.

citrus season

 

 

 

Fall in Louisiana signals the beginning of the local citrus season. In the past, there would be plentiful supplies of the small orange like fruit called satsuma.  It separates easily into small sections that are handy to eat, and the skin comes off easily.

Many years ago my family had an old home that was "down the river". We would drive there to pick satsumas and scavenge for pecans in the tall grass. My great aunt lived alone there and was not able to keep up the farm that had been in the family for several generations, but the trees persisted, and we were usually able to find something.  On the way home we cracked pecans, peeled satsumas and stuffed ourselves.

Christmas was the season for navel oranges, which are larger, and have a small protrusion like a navel on them. There was always one in our Christmas stocking.

Today the citrus industry is struggling in Louisiana. Since it is in the "toe" of Louisiana and surrounded by the sea, and the Mississippi River runs through the center ---it is often flooded as it was this year and is being affected by the salt water that is encroaching on its water table. A few weeks ago Isaac shook most of the crop from the trees.

I included a photo of the satsuma and kumquat tree that we had for a few years, but the drought and severe freezes killed the satsuma.

I was happy to find a few local satsumas in the market yesterday.

making hay

 

 

A quick walk this morning sticking to the roads since the woods are still filled with mosquitoes. The neighbors are making hay--I love to see the bales on the hillside--fall is on the way.

The skies were filled with contrails--probably a sign the weather is about to change.

antique and heirloom roses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabulous fragrance, beautiful full bushes that require less care than the regular modern tea roses, intriguing histories that often trace back centuries, some gathered from cemeteries, old home sites, and roadsides, passed along roses............antique and heirloom roses are all those things.

I was enthralled for about 10 years until I reached about 100 of them. Yes, they required less care, but didn't grow if neglected. Along came drought, hurricanes, family changes that required me to be absent for periods of time, and they went into decline.

I still have about 1/3 of them, and they aren't as manicured as they used to be. I know it is not possible for me to keep it all going as I used to......but I am enjoying those that I still have.

here comes the sun

 

 

The last few mornings have been spectacular--cool and low humidity. I have been able to enjoy time working in my garden and birdwatching. The sunrise was gorgeous today, but the clouds tell a tale of returning moisture and heat from the Gulf. It felt so great to be outdoors again.

cooler morning

ravenous travelers

a bit overgrown, but inviting

my lucky day

 

As dawn arrived,  I became aware of a distant jet plane ----no, it was the sound  of a great cloud of buzzing hummers jockeying to get a place on the feeder. They were arriving as I watched. Some were so exhausted that they thrust their bill into the port and collapsed. I thought one had died, but he recovered. They had been pushed in ahead of the cold front that finally made it through here. 

After a long, hot summer and  imprisonment due to Issac and West Nile Virus, I was going to be able to take a walk without fear of mosquitoes.

The native persimmon in our drive was glowing with the morning sun, and the grassy roads were beckoning.

Looking down I found an old horseshoe partly embedded in the gravel----it is indeed a lucky day!

take me back

 

 

 

 

 

 

naked ladies

 

 

An elderly lady once handed me a brown paper bag filled with some bulbs, and tittered as she said, "Here are some naked ladies".

Every fall they pop up to dance across the lawn. 

hummingbird plants

j

Many years ago I happened upon a birding listserv about gardening for hummingbirds in Louisiana. Lively discussions about which flowers attracted hummingbirds, and especially those that flower in winter for the vagrant western hummingbirds,  really addicted me to searching out and growing these plants. Over the years I have acquired so many flowers that I would never have thought of growing, and it has brought hordes of hummingbirds to my garden and the occasional western hummer. Best of all, though, is that I really love the flowers.

There are numerous salvias that are favorites that I couldn't find photos of on this computer. Many of these plants  are perennial, and return every year with the hummingbirds.

Dodie's Rose

 

Dodie rosebuds

her name was Josephine

Grandma Dodie and me in her garden--I think I see rose bushes


I don't remember much about my paternal grandmother. She died when I was 5 years old. However, I have been told she loved plants and animals. She passed that trait along to my dad who was always rescuing plants and animals.

The cream colored rose belonged to her. My mom (who had a passion for gardening, too) nurtured a cutting from the bush for many years, and then passed a cutting along to my brother who kept it going until he broke up housekeeping when he  divorced. He then deposited the bush with me. I have had the bush for about 25 years. Last year when the drought here was extreme, I almost lost it because it dried out when I was out of town. Last winter I made a cutting and gave it to my elder son --he inherited a love of plants and animals, too.
Passing it on....