Wisteria

Looks like it happened again this year. Instead of exploding with flowers before leaves come, they both arrived at the same time with much fewer flowers. I guess pruning the vines back didn't encourage anything. It seemed to have hampered it big time. Ah well...

Er... Second day of Spring!

You know, I honestly thought today was the first day of Spring but it turns out that yesterday was the first day. Oops. Oh well... hehe. I fertilized all the plants so hopefully there'll be a big burst of growth everywhere.

Wisteria

Hen and Chicks

Hen and Chicks

Below are pictures of some type of aloe plant? I made a thread about repotting it last year but never got around to it. I really need to but I feel helpless because I'm not sure how to do it and whatnot. I really should and just get it over with.

Thanksgiving Cactus

This plant got bit the worst when frost managed to hit the plants in the greenhouse (It's so frustrating when that happens). I was about to write this plant off but was pretty ecstatic to see new growth.

Oh, and as a tiny note to myself, today I started a batch of thanksgiving cactus seeds. Hopefully third time is the charm.

Random Plants

AMARYLLIS

This picture is of my Amaryllis batch that I started from seeds in 2007. My fingers are crossed that at least one of them blooms this spring. Just one. That's all I'm asking! I really really want to see one of them bloom to see what they look like.

Dragon Arum (Dracunculus Vulgaris)

I am really stunned that we haven't had a frost yet. Look how big they're getting! Usually we have a last minute frost that hurts them but nothing like that has happened yet. Fingers crossed that there's no frost coming through here again...

Macro fun - close-up of Dragon Arum leaf.

Wisteria

The blooms are getting ready to come out. I don't know how many flowers are getting ready to come out this spring but I don't think we're in for a usual flashy show.

Freshly Dug

I'm convinced that the cold winter destroyed my Elephant Ear bulbs. I had regular green that returned every year as well as Illustris Elephant Ears that were pretty invasive. Pretty to look at but if you plant it in one spot, expect it to forever thrive there!



I was told to be patient, that they'll come back. I still decided to dig up the bed. If I find bulbs, I know they'll return... After all, as you can see from this old picture, I couldn't get rid of them at all from that spot! However, as I dug up the bed, I didn't find a single bulb. I thought for sure I would find rotted bulbs or something but.. no. There was nothing!

I added cow manure and some fertilizer. I haven't added anything to the bed yet. I do plan to put Salvia, Catnip, Morning Glories, Hyacinth Bean Vine - so far.



It looks like the leaves are impatient again this year. As you can see from this old post, Wisterian Adventures, the flowers pop out first in full force and then the leaves come. It looks like the wisteria decided to skip tradition again this year.



And of course, an obligatory 'Do not buy Wisteria if you're thinking about it because they're totally invasive and will take over everything and spread for miles and miles and miles just like this sentence'.

Invasive Wisteria / Dragon Arum

Wisteria is very invasive. Not only are they vines that climb and choke trees, they have a complex underground root system that is a nightmare to end. At some point in this house's lifetime, someone planted wisteria and over the decades, Wisteria has taken over the woods and even across the street to other houses. I just know the starting point was somewhere on my property since the worst is here!

The only plus side - the smell of Wisteria. It's *incredibly* strong and attracts thousands of bees. Normally they don't bother you if you get too close... sometimes. hehe.

An attempt as a close-up of a bee in the midst of Wisteria blooms.

I am never happy with my pictures that I take of the dragon arum (dracunculus vulgaris). I keep taking more and more pictures but I finally settled on this one. I think because it's so "busy". The dragon arum is drowning in with all the other plants coming back - such as the Iris. This is the first time in years that it's growing like this. I guess I finally put it in a spot that it immensely enjoys! *rubs hands* Please show me some blooms this year, guys!

A look around the yard today...

Hibiscus

The hibiscus are starting to grow in real good. This group is always the first to come and always the first to grow before the other two can catch up.


Sawfly

And it appears the battle has begun. There's several sawflies swarming around this one. Oy. I have to start applying sevin spray as that's the only thing that has ever worked on the buggers.


Iris


Iris

You know, I still can't figure out how to pollinate them? Can anyone tell me what I'm supposed to do here? I imagine that toilet-brush looking thing is the anther that I'm supposed to pluck. Where do I apply this thing to pollinate the flower?


Mini Tomato Grow Kit

At first when the seeds came up, it didn't resemble anything like a tomato plant. Then the extra leaves grew in and now they look like tomato plants. According to the instructions, I'm to start giving them fertilizer when they're 2" and then separate when they're 5".


Wisteria

I plucked a few wisteria seedlings and figured it'd be neat to take a picture of one to show y'all.

Wisteria Not Growing Right

Hmm, That's unusual. I was waiting for it to get tons of blooms but for some reason, it has started leafing out before the blooms are even done opening. I'm not sure what brought this on.

Wisterian Adventures

In my previous entry, I made the claim that Wisteria steals the show around here. I found some pictures of when it was at its biggest and that was in 2005 before the vines were trimmed back when the lattice was starting to fall.


April 12, 2005


April 18, 2005

Wisteria isn't all that pretty. The only reason the wisteria is established on a lattice board is because there used to be this giant pine tree in that spot. The wisteria climbed all the way to the top and you couldn't even see the base of the tree because the vines were as thick as my arm (I still find it annoying that I can't find any pictures back in 1995 when we first moved in and took pictures of the tree). After the tree was cut down, the wisteria was still coming up in that spot with so much growth that it was impossible to keep it mowed down. A lattice was put up so that it could grow up. It was pretty neat to see it bloom one year and every year since, it's grown bigger. In 2005, it was trimmed back so it's not as big and showy as it was last year.



Another thing is that the wisteria is very invasive. All of the wisteria has been here since before we moved in. We have no idea how it started. The neighbor across the street has a big tree with all that wisteria growing up it, similar to the one we had. We don't know if someone thought it was neat and didn't expect it to have such a tremendous underground root system to reach the woods. It may have grown under the street and perked up at the neighbor's tree and they just let it grow.

There's tons of seeds that fall. More and more fall every year. In fact, there were so many that I set up a trade with many people but I was overwhelmed and never traded again with the seeds.

Wisteria

If there's one plant around here that steals the show during spring, it's the Wisteria.







I'll have to look through my disk for some pictures I took a year or more ago when it was really a large display of blooms. Recently, the vines were cut back so it may not look as dramatic as it was while back.

The wisteria blooms open from the top and work their way down to the bottom.

What's amazing about this is that it attracts thousands of bees so it makes it tougher for me to get close and take pictures of them when I feel like I'm being chased off by them.