Herself’s Houston Garden

Any time after the last frost is good and the sooner the better.  Traditionally Valentine’s Day is considered the day to prune your roses.

{before pruning}

These are young roses. I planted them less than two years ago when we moved down here. They have done very well. I have not pruned them heavy. I wanted to give them a chance to settle in some first.

You need to cut off the dead branches first. Then starting at the bottom remove any branches growing in towards the center. Then the branches that are thin or weak. Then any branches crossing other branches. You should end up with a bowl shape to the plant.

{after pruning}

I also cut the tallest branches back by at least half each year.

If you prune your roses back to about a foot tall you will get fewer but larger roses. If you prune your roses back to about two feet, you’ll get more roses but they won’t be as large.

A good rule of thumb on how far back to cut your roses to cut as low as the first group of 5 leaves.  Roses grow out in groups of leaflets.  Find the lowest group of 5 and cut to about 6″ above that leaflet.

I’d never seen this plant before. I was wandering through HD looking for good loot in the garden section and there it was. I have it planted in the swale garden.

We are at the southern edge of where it will grow. It is rated for zones 4-8.

It is a bog plant, but will tolerate moist areas, which makes it perfect for Houston.

It wants sun to partial shade but it also listed as a good choice for shady areas on several gardening sites. This one is in light shade. It will grow to 12″ to 15″ tall.

10/8 This plant did not survive the summer in Houston. I’m not sure if the heat did it in, or the non-stop rain we had? I may try one in a drier location next year and see if that makes a difference.

I’m told the best way to grow this in Houston is to put it in a pot, and put the pot about halfway down in a pond.  ( you want the water level about half way up the pot )

I planted another one in a damper location, we’ll try again this year.

This is a smaller version of the traditional umbrella plant. It is in the papyrus family.

It is a bog plant. I have it in the swale garden. So it wants to be in wet or at the very least damp soil. It has browned a bit over the winter here. I have not watered much in the cool weather. It could be that or it could be from the cooler weather I am not sure.

It will grow to about a foot and a half tall.

It wants full sun, but this one has light shade and has done well.

It has less tendency to seed so it is not as likely to take over your garden as are other plants in this family. Notice there are no seeds at the top center of the umbrellas. The ones that are invasive are the ones with the tiny brown seed clusters onto of the umbrellas.

This plant has done well, stayed put, but filled out and required nothing from me.  If you want an easy water plant consider this one.

In the old house when a bird flew inside you could chase the bird into a room with a broom. You could then close the door, open the windows and go have coffee. When your coffee was done the bird would have flown out one of the open windows.

This house has an open floor plan. Three of the rooms have 20′ ceilings. Most of the windows are fixed. So the old plan wouldn’t work.

To make things more complicated the cardinal’s mate sat outside the window chatting with him. So he wasn’t about to leave the window.

Sister sent the following helpful message “Get the cat a bigger ladder”. That wasn’t helpful. Fred had already fallen off the ladder twice. The cats have already blown this years vet budget.

When we coaxed the cardinal to a lower plant shelf, Fred climbed up the ladder on to the shelf and decided it was time for a nap. Kazoo hid through the whole ordeal. So much for the cats chasing the cardinal out of the house.

I was able to borrow a pool net from a neighbor and we caught the bird, tossed a towel in the net on top of the bird to keep the bird in the net till we moved him outside. We were then able to bring the cardinal outside and let him go, apparently unharmed.