Herself’s Houston Garden

Don’t forget the Mercer summer plant sale is tomorrow 9-4 Mercer

I have had kangeroo paws on my plant wish list for what seems like forever. While buying mulch today I stumbled across some at HD. I don’t know much about them yet, except they are really cool. The tag says don’t plant in humid climates. Obviously someone’s idea of a joke.

And I found a second split leaf philodendron. I’ve been very pleased with the first one and it was on the list of this year’s plants to buy. I’ve got to collect a lot of plants to fill in all these beds I’m expanding. We still have some grass to remove out back but I’m confident it’ll be gone before the warm weather.

Turns out tree ferns want far more sun than I’ve been giving mine so I moved them both this past weekend.

The first of the beds to get mulched are the ones along the driveway and the cattleya orchid bed. Now that I’ve fired the yard guys and expanded all the beds, I’m going to be hauling a whole lot of mulch. But it’s good for me. Right?

I also picked up some slow release fertilizer today.  They had some in the plant section at $20/8 pounds and the same thing in the lawn fertilizer section at $10/10 pounds.  Be sure to check the lawn section when buying fertilizer.  Just be sure it isn’t ‘weed and feed’.

I have learned so much in the Master Gardener’s Class, I have a long list of topics I hope to cover and stacks of notes to turn into articles. I’ve several excellent books I’m working through I’ll add some articles and update others with what I learn in the books.  I’ll also post some more recommended books if I like them. There is a whole list of plants in my yard I haven’t yet covered so expect a lot more plant entries coming. And  I’ll  be writing articles on any new plants I acquire this year.  In addition I  have a long list of excellent online resources.  I’ll be checking them out and updating my resource list soon.

Two more weeks of class, then we take a trip for a week, then I’ll be buckling down and digging out my desk and digging into more cool garden stuff, and mulching, I’ll be doing lots and lots of mulching.

And I received a note this week that the Houston Museum of Natural History, Cockrell Butterfly Center is having a spring butterfly plant sale Apr. 12th. 9-3. It’s on the Garden Events Calendar and I’ll be attending that one myself as well.

I first ran across Jerry’s Jungle online before I moved to Houston and thought it was wonderful. I’ve been here two and a half years and just recently had a chance to visit. Jerry’s Jungle is only open to the public a few times a year. This is not a garden that will endear you to your neighbors or the HOA, but gardeners will be enchanted.

Jerry’s garden is full of wonderful plants, most are tropical and many collected from around the world on Jerry’s and his wife’s travels.

They have plant sales a few times a year, in April, July and October. I scored a ton of cool loot. My favorites are the sugar cane and castor plants. If you are putting together a tropical garden or looking for unusual plants attend one of Jerry’s sales. You won’t find better prices anywhere.

Mercer Gardens summer plant sale is Saturday June 2; 9am-4pm.

I went to the March Mart and am so sorry I skipped it previous years. This sale is only one day and will be of tropicals and gingers. I haven’t been to the summer sale before, I’m sure it’s worth a trip.

There will also be experts at the sale to answer questions and give you suggestions about your garden, gingers and growning tropicals here.

Houston Garden Events Calendar

* The Mercer summer sale is a very small sale. It is worth a trip in that we found some unusual plants there. But don’t expect to see lots of plants.