rose hips, among other things

It was another fabulous fall day here in Alabama. I went out to tackle my overgrown, half dead wildflower garden. It is a forty foot long, steeply sloped area, and so far it has not lived up to my vision. I planted the hillside with easy care, self seeding plants with the philosophy the fittest will survive and I won't have to do much work. Hmmm - I'm beginning to wish I had planted junipers or pine trees. The problem is that the ones that are surviving are lanky and weedy looking. Asters and cosmos are everywhere, and they grow straggly and so tall they hide other nice plants, like the butterfly bush. I know it's a matter of them being in the wrong place. Come early spring, I am going to give thought to rearranging things. The fact is, even natural areas need guidance from the gardener.

After an hour of working in the wildflowers, I was ready to grab my camera and go looking for prettier things to see. I like to look close, to really see a garden, and a camera brings focus on details that are easily missed when just passing by.

I planted a Penelope rose this year. It has creamy blossoms and a nice smell. And rose hips, I discovered today. Most of the flowers are gone, but the rose hips will stay to add color to the bare stems.

Rose hips are edible, and quite tasty when fully ripe, but I have to give a warning about them. I once plopped a plump, red rose hip in my mouth. I had bitten the thing and half swallowed it when I realized the taste was all wrong. I spit it out and discovered it was full of tiny, living ants. I couldn't get all of them out of my mouth and ended up ingesting a number of them. Actually, ants are also edible. I have heard that some cultures consider them a delicacy. Truly, they weren't terrible. They had a peppery flavor, and I have eaten worse. 

Here are some photos from this afternoon. I hope they will inspire you to stop and look close next time you are in the garden.Berry beautiful - these burford holly berries are just beginning to turn. By Christmas they will be bright red and ready for decking the halls.The holly tea olive "Goshiki" has variegated leaves.This gorgeous Japanese maple, 'Shishigashira', has green lacy leaves that turn red-orange in the fall.The "alien" rose. The lighting was bad and this is what happened when I tried to fix it in the computer.

Here are the Penelope rose hips, of which I did not eat any today.

rainy days

The rain is coming down in sheets today. Again. I still remember the terrible drought from a couple years ago, so I'm not complaining. I am glad that I got some garden work done last week. Between rain showers I was able to spend some quality time pulling weeds, and I also did some transplanting. There were several goldmound spirea which were crowding into each other on a hillside bordering the woodland garden, and there were some wood ferns scattered about that I decided to cluster together. These were the easy transplants.

I also dug up a seven foot tall fothergilla. That job took longer, about an hour, but the ground was soft from recent rain and the root system was shallow, so it was not too difficult. I put the fothergilla in a sunnier part of the yard. This shrub didn't bloom much this year, probably because the trees nearby have grown up and are giving it too much shade.

I am never afraid to move a plant if it seems unhappy in its present location or if I think it will look better in another place. In Alabama, fall and winter are great times for transplanting. The air temperature is gentle, and the root systems have a chance to establish themselves before next summer's heat. I always transplant on a cool, cloudy day and water them well afterwards. I have moved some plants up to four times before finding their perfect homes.

So last week I moved three spireas, six ferns, and one large fothergilla. And it has rained ever since. And I am smiling, because I don't have to worry about watering them.Fothergilla has beautiful fall foliage.