Don Shadow & a Busy Weekend!

I know the months of May and June are pretty busy months in the garden, but did not realize just how busy and how tired out I would be at the end of the day-each day! The Montgomery County Master gardeners sponsored a bus trip to Winchester Tennessee to visit Shadow Nurseries. Above is a picture of the 'Venus' cultivar of Cornus kousa x Cornus nuttali that Don Shadow sells (and I believe patented). The dogwood is supposed to be an improvement on the standard Cornus floridus; which is a dogwood I am not a fan of at all. I purchased one of these trees and hope it does well. The bloom gets larger as the tree matures so be patient with small trees if you own one of these dogwoods. Now to find a location and to plant it...

Here is the entire group on the wagon Mr. Shadow drove us around his farm on. It was a VERY hot day to be in the sun and all people aboard were sunburned by lunchtime. Shan and I jumped off to snap the picture of the Venus bloom and we also snapped this picture of the group. His garden will be on the Montgomery Master Gardener tour on June 21st. I can't wait to see his because judging by all he purchased on this day, it must be extraordinary. He and his wife Susan were just some of the very nice folks I met on this trip.

Mr. Shadow is world renowned for his unusual plants and his amazing memory. He shared many many anecdotes and useful tidbits with our master gardener group. I was honored to have met him and to be around him. He even shared some knowledge my father-in-law imparted to me a few years ago about a special bush. I couldn't believe it. I will post on that another time and talk about 'mountain' people. Mr. Shadow has a fondness for mountain people it seems. I have read he has quite the 'Tennessee' accent, but I personally think it is more 'mountain'-the Great Smoky area of Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia. One of Mr. Shadow's passionate interests is his animals. He has quite the zoo with many cranes, deer, antelope, llamas, emus and tons of other animals. The cranes cracked me up! The birds stood about 3 feet tall and took off running at us while we were on the wagon. They went airborne and DID NOT STOP when they came close to the fence holding them in. THEY CRASHED INTO THE FENCE! No, they were not injured but I thought it was too funny and was quite happy the fence was there. Time to clip those wings!!!! They missed clearing the fence by mere feet.

Here is Mr. Shadow himself. He is looking at his animals and shielding his eyes from the merciless sun. We on the wagon were happy he at least had a roof over his head as he is a red guy from all the sun he gets. This is one amazing gardener. While we walked through the greenhouses and gardens, he picked weeds. Now who amongst you can relate??? All gardeners have this habit of picking weeds, but what commercial gardener would do this?? I was impressed.

The day after my ALL day visit to Don Shadows Nursery, my great blogging buddy Skeeter and her husband the Saint visited Mr. Fix-it and I. What a pleasure. I wished we had had more time to visit but she had a family engagement to attend and we may have kept them overly long. Sorry Skeeter's Mom and sorry you had to rush Skeeter! Those who know me know I very rarely smile in pictures. While both Skeeter and I were hot and sweaty since it was so hot this Memorial Day weekend, I love this picture because you can see both sets of teeth! I think Skeeter may smile broadly more than me, but this is one picture I do like because I am smiling big too. I will try more often to smile this way-okay to my family?

in the garden...hoping for a slowdown.

A Trip to the Zoo and Botanical Garden

The Ramsey family took some time out from the garden, and from recruiting future soldiers to make a trip to a lovely, yet small zoo and botanical garden. The name of the zoo is Mesker Zoo and it is located in Evansville, Indiana.





One of the first things I espied upon walking into the zoo was this lovely white flowering shrub. It is gorgeous and I notice them around Tennessee quite a bit this year. I really thought it was a Japanese snowbell, Styrax japonica, but I now know it is not; the blooms are not bell shaped.


I happened upon a good picture of the bloom on one of the other garden blogs I occasionally visit. It is a Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata). Yes, I left a comment thanking the blogger. Coincidentally, this tree is one of the trees I had to learn last term in Landscape Materials. I must've been sleeping during that class. Shame on me! Doesn't the bloom look a bit like a star? I'll never forget it now.




Normally botanical gardens will have plant name plates identifying all specimens and plantings, sadly this zoo was lacking a few nameplates, this being one of them much to my chagrin.




Zoos wouldn't be zoos without animals. This zoo was a lot of fun. I have been to many zoos, but never one where you could pet the giraffes. The Jimster had quite a good time with these two fellas.


The giraffes were easily able to reach all onlookers and even volunteered some kisses! I think they were actually taste testing, but it is the same effect. Giraffes have very l-o-n-g tongues in addition to long necks. We all got a kick out of this exhibit. Has anyone visited zoos that were interactive like this?



This particular zoo had several lakes and both resident and non-resident birds. I posted once about the peacocks in nurseries in Evansville, there are also peacocks in this zoo in Evansville. The peacocks were so cool! We think it must be mating season because the fellas were busy displaying their lovely plumage. The really fun part was when the male would shake his plumage and 'yell' at the ladies, who were wont to pay no attention to him whatsoever. I took a video and hope it shows well for you all.



I will never forget the first male peacock I saw as a child. In our little town in Maine, there was a little animal park (Simpson Animal Park?) which had peacocks. My mother would take us four girls for frequent visits and I found the peacocks to be most fascinating with all their finery.


Of course, what botanical garden in spring would be complete without some lovely daffodils? This picture was taken looking up from a comfortable bench and I thought it was really scenic. You can see the pink of the tulip magnolia peaking through in the background. I will post on those later. They are absolutely gorgeous this year. I can't help thinking about all the dividing I need to do when I see daffodils, but I do enjoy them. My friend Geri says you really don't need to ever divide daffys. I do, but only because I want more of them. The day will sometime come when I won't divide the daffys each year.



Lastly, I will finish with a good picture of the bark of a mature River Birch, Betula nigra. This was a speciman tree at the zoo and I thought the bark showed very well. I can't wait until mine gets big enough to make an impression like this tree. The river birch does not have the unique white bark of the northern white birches, but it has charm all of its own.



in the garden....working on the veggie garden.

A Trip to Manatee Bay

Lola, our friend, reader and commenter in Florida, recently had an outing out with her family. I just love this picture of her and the great grandkids, Anthony and Nicholas. This picture was taken on a dock at Manatee Bay in Florida.

Lola says she and the family unfortunately missed the manatees by about two weeks. In order to protect the manatees, Florida closed this bay to power boats and took other measures to hopefully protect the 'sea cows'.

Manatees are really fascinating creatures and I would love to see one. According to the following website: http://www.savethemanatee.org/manfcts.htm, manatees are herbivores and can consume 10-15% of their body weight daily. They migrate and spend most of their time eating and resting. Sounds like the life huh? Manatees have no natural enemies and can live up to 60 years! Most fatalities are caused by humans. Boat propellers and fishing lines can entangle and injure the manatees, leading to their demise.

Lola really likes to garden is originally from this area of Tennessee. Just look at the boys pulling an Easter turnip! I have a post prepared about life's lessons thanks to Nina sending me a little poem. It includes turnips so I would like you all to remember this turnip. Okay?

The next picture from Lola is that of Anthony with her Voodoo Plant. Who has heard of this plant before? I don't grow it but I have heard of it and actually seen the bloom. It is a special plant when it blooms and quite uncommon. Just look at the bloom! Lola says you normally can't get the voodoo plant to bloom in soil, but she proved that wrong as hers grew and bloomed in soil.

The last picture is another view of Manatee Bay in Florida. It might actually make me think of cruising down a deep rain forest river where a python (like the kind I saw at the zoo) is hanging from the overhead trees; just ready to drop into my boat!

in the garden....working!