http://statebystategardening.com/la/blog_03_summary/ en marysingleton@cox.net Copyright 2011 2011-10-24T21:25:23+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/support_your_local_independent_nursery_month_louisiana_nursery/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/support_your_local_independent_nursery_month_louisiana_nursery/ Pam from Digging has declared October "Support Your Local Independent Nursery Month" so today I am featuring my go-to garden center---Louisiana Nursery. The main reason I love Louisiana Nursery is the sales! At the end of the year all tropical plants are reduced 90%. Can't beat that. They also have many stores located around Baton Rouge and one in Prairieville. I frequent the Perkins Road and Prairieville locations often, but the Perkins Road nursery is my favorite and that's where these pictures were taken.         The mums were so pretty! LA Nursery has so many colors to choose from. Mums look so nice for holiday displays! Don't forget to plant your mums in a sunny spot in your garden. They are perennials so they will come back every year and bloom a few times a year too.     A huge croton display! Keep them in a sunny spot and the leaves will hold color; put them in shade and the leaves loose color.           This petunia was the most interesting petunia I've seen. It looks black and gold, just like the New Orleans Saints! Maybe thats why this was the last one. Around here anything that is black/gold or purple/gold goes quick!     Pansies are great cool season plants. LA Nursery has plenty of color choices but everyone was filling their cart with the purple and gold pansies! Go LSU Tigers! 2011-10-24T20:25:23+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/n/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/n/ A few weekends ago Dave and I went to Louisiana Nursery to check out the selection of clearance plants. We found a great deal on a 3G red hibiscus that was 90% off! We only paid $1.80 for it! I picked a hibiscus that I could separate into two plants so I really got two hibiscus for $1.80. The plants were root bound and needed to be re-potted; now they are looking great! Here are some other plants I bought:     This is a Rabbit's Foot fern. It gets its name from the hairy foot like stems that grow from the soil. It is very unusual! Here is a close up of the "rabbit's foot".       This is an aloe but I don't know the name of it. Didn't come with a tag. Maybe David from Tropical Texana can identify it for me. He has lots of aloes and agaves. 2011-10-12T12:24:16+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/s/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/s/     My chrysanthemum is beginning its fall blooming period. I bought this last fall and it was a little plant in a 4" pot. Now its big and loaded with flowers. The color is a little faded out from the morning light, but the flowers are a dark maroon color.     This is my Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) and it has lots of flowers. The flowers are unususal because they are fuzzy. Here is a close up:     I will end with a picture of our two inside only cats. The white and black one is Kitty and the orange one is Mike. This morning it was a cool 62 degrees so I opened the back door to let in the cool air. Kitty and Mike are very curious about what goes on outside, so I put a bar stool by the door so they could see out. I snapped the picutre when they were watching our outside cat Ginger eat catfood. They also love watching the birds that try to steal Ginger's catfood.   2011-09-25T13:34:08+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/l/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/l/ Dave and I spent the day wandering around this state park. It was a nice day to be outside. We started off the day by renting a canoe...our 1st mistake.         We paddled around the bayous near the canoe landing and saw lots of white egret. The white egret pictured wasn't scared at all when we paddled within a few feet of it. I guess he is used to seeing people.   Dave and I have never been in a canoe before and this was an experience! We are used to travelling through the bayous in a jon boat (aluminum boat with wide belly for stability). Canoes are wobbly and the complete opposite of a jon boat. We almost tipped the canoe over trying to get out!   We returned the canoe and headed out for the wooded hiking trails.       I brought a can of OFF insect spray with us, but decided not to apply any. The last few days have been chilly (morning temps in 50's) and I thought that the cold temps had killed off any remaining mosquitoes....my 2nd mistake.   At the trail head we stopped to get trail maps so we would know how long each trail was. I see a bottle of OFF insect repellant, but choose not to apply bug spray....my 3nd mistake. I soon found out that the cold weather didn't kill off any mosquitoes! At this point we are too far from the trail head to go back and apply bug spray. I figure out that as long as I keep walking, the mosquitoes can't bite me.         The few seconds I stopped walking to snap these pictures, my legs were swarming with mosquitoes! Wish I had brought bug spray with me....     Seeing this alligator was the highlight of our day! I spotted the alligator and Dave took the picture. He was around 2 feet long and appeared to be sleeping. He didn't move at all while we observed him.     I don't know what the bumps are on this tree trunk, but it looked neat so I took a picture!   Dave and I had a great time at Lake Fausse Point State Park and plan to return in a few months when the weather is cooler and the mosquitoes are gone. We will also rent a cabin facing the bayou and fish off the boat dock. 2011-09-10T23:09:04+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/its_hot/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/its_hot/ Not much has been going on in my garden, mainly because it's so hot and my plants aren't doing much. Daytime highs in the 90s and lows in the 70s make things pretty uncomfortable. I'm waiting for October to get here!   A few plants are still going strong and one of them is my 'Indigo Spires' salvia. It never stops blooming no matter how hot it gets.     Another diehard plant is Gaillardia. It's a low grower but blooms all the time.     I'll write more blog posts when it cools down and we begin our camping/fishing/hiking/outdoor fun season. Can't wait until fall gets here! 2011-08-22T14:08:41+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/aphid_invasion/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/aphid_invasion/ My milkweed plant is covered with yellow aphids! Looking at the plant makes my skin crawl.     Every flower cluster on every stem is swarming with yellow aphids!   I didn't want to spray the milkweed with a pesticide because its a host plant for the Monarch caterpillar. The solution had to be non-chemical......ladybugs!   Ladybugs love to eat yellow aphids. I already had a handful of ladybugs living in my garden but they were out numbered and needed help. I got online and ordered 750 ladybugs from a supplier in California. 750 ladybugs seems like a ton of bugs but its really not.....that was the smallest amount you could purchase. The largest amount was 5000!   Tuesday I ordered my ladybugs and by Thursday afternoon they were at my house. It only cost $14 for my 750 ladybugs with free priority mail shipping!     The ladybugs came in cardboard box with a small plastic tupperware container that housed the ladybugs. There was a mesh screen on top for air flow.   If you are interested in buying ladybugs, you have to store them in the refridgerator until last evening or early morning. My bugs stayed in the fridge all night until I released them at 6AM. Before releasing them, mist the shrub that you want to inhabit. They will need a drink of water before eating any insects. Open the container at the base of the plant and the ladybugs will climb up!     The plastic container had straw for the ladybugs and I dumped that out at the base of the milkweed and watched them go!   I checked the progress of the ladybugs at 9AM and they had reached the top portions of my milkweed and were eating yellow aphids! They probably feel like they are at an "all you can eat" buffet! 2011-07-29T14:09:57+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/g/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/g/ On the 15th of every month gardeners take pictures of blooming plants in their garden. Since it's so hot here, I don't have many flowers blooming. The diehard, tough plants are blooming now-- black eyed Susan, salvia and gaillardia.     This is Gaillardia AKA blanket flower and it is a tough plant! No matter how hot it gets (and it's very hot/humid in South Louisiana) it keeps on blooming. Doesn't need much water either.     Butterfly bush 'Nanho Blue' has light purple/lavender flowers all over the bush. This is my first time growing butterfly bush and I love it! To keep flowers coming, pinch off the spent blooms.     I love my milkweed! It blooms a lot and I love the orange color in my garden. Plus, it's the only host plant for Monarchs. I had two Monarch caterpillars this year but they didn't stay in my yard too long. They flew away once they turned into butterflies.     This is my favorite salvia, 'Indigo Spires'. The bloom stalks are at least 10 inches tall and it stays covered with flowers all season long! 2011-07-15T12:52:14+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/atachafalaya_basin_fishing_trip/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/atachafalaya_basin_fishing_trip/ This morning we went fishing in Bayou Sorrell near Plaquemine, LA in the Atchafalaya Basin Spillway. I love going to the Spillway because of the beautiful scenery. There are plenty of bald cypress trees (state tree of LA) and lots of wildlife.         The above picture was our first fishing spot but the boat couldn't pass since the bayou was choked with water lilies.     See the dark stains on the bottom of the tree trunk? That's from high water when the spillway was opened to relieve the flooding of the Mississippi River.     Front and back view of an old houseboat.     This is an egret and we saw these birds all day. They sit on a log and wait for minnows to swim by and strike at them with their long beaks.     These are my new water shoes, they are Keen McKenzies and are good for fishing or canoeing because water drains out but no rocks can go in.   After several hours of fishing and not even one bite, we went home. We had fun just being out in the Spillway. 2011-07-09T00:10:10+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/baby_mockingbird/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/baby_mockingbird/ While I was at work today, Dave spotted a baby mockingbird in our carport. He was able to snap these pictures and move the bird back to the yard where the mom was waiting.       Stay tuned later in the week for a blog post about fishing in the Atchafalaya Basin! My dad, Dave and me are going fishing Friday morning and hopefully I can catch lots of fish and photograph wildlife. 2011-07-06T18:08:54+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/r/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/la/blog_03/r/ Yesterday we got over 2 inches of rain and my plants look so good!     This is Crocosmia 'Lucifer' and this is its first flower of the year.     Another plant that is blooming now is my Milkweed. Its producing lots of flowers which make lots of seed pods. I've been spreading the Milkweed seeds in my neighbor's empty garden patch in hopes that they will reseed.   Here is Ginger, she loves to walk around the garden with me!     Finally, here is Max. He loves to chase Ginger around the yard, but I think he secretly likes her.   2011-06-23T13:53:07+00:00