creative jewish mom

A Conversation With My Sub-Tropical Mediterranean Container Garden In Early May.......

Why hello lovely "bird of paradise" how very nice of you to bloom right here outside my door!

Oh, and my dear infested roses, thank you too for making the entry to our home look like an English garden, I may get over the aphids one day, or else come up with a good non-toxic solution?

And you, the lovely pink climbing roses, won't you just try and stretch yourselves upwards a bit....you know to reach that pergola? You can do it!

And you dear bouganvillea, could you please tell me what you need in order to sprout some new growth and larger lusher foliage this year? Maybe some fertilizer? Maybe less water? Hmmmm.

Oh hello yucca, do you remember when I brought you home from the nursery when you were barely peaking your head above the soil? That was 13 or so years ago, and look at you now, even bearing offspring!

Lemon verbena, you're looking great after a bare winter, keep up the good work!

Oh dear, Mr. Sago palm, you seem to be suffering a bit, you were so lovely for so many years! Not to worry I do believe the problem started when we put in the drip watering system and you've been getting too much water. I've removed you from the system and will manually water you now and again, and hope that the new growth will stay green.

Good night my friends, have a wonderful summer, and hope to spend some more time with you all this year!

Note: Container gardening is a wonderful way to enjoy the pleasures of gardening even when there's no land in sight! And while my busy schedule doesn't always allow chunks of time to work in the "garden" maintaining a container garden is well worth every minute. Start small, learn about the plants that interest you, and over the years you too can have an established container garden that will be a little forgiving when life gets busy! 

Container Gardening: Dianthus (mini carnation)

Let's hear a round of applause for this this pot of Dianthus, who with absolutely no tender loving care whatsoever, is in full bloom! I bought a small  Dianthus plant last year, which I shared here, and transferred the plant at least once, before almost killing it numerous times due to lack of water. And honestly I didn't really expect the plant to live through the winter, and I remember looking at it in January thinking, wow, you're still alive! And what do you know, not only did the plant not succumb to the cold, all of a sudden there were tons of buds! 

So my friends, that means that Dianthus could be a great choice for you too— depending on the genus it can be hardy for zones 3-10. It loves sun but can do well in partial sun as well, and is self seeding if you leave the old flowers on the stems. Hmmm, it's a toss up since dead-heading (removing spent blooms) also encourages re-blooming! 

I hope you've enjoyed meeting Dianthus, and  I'll surely pick up some more this year if the opportunity arises!

Container Gardening: Nandina Domestica

Spring is here (well sort of, we've had a few days of uncharacteristic rain!) so it's time to start taking a peek outside in the container garden, and send a little positive energy to all the plants who are now waking up from their winter slumber! Oh and to all those aphids who I hope will find a home elsewhere, or just pack up and go, the sooner the better!

Lest I digress, I wanted to share with you a nice ornamental plant, called Nandina. I was given a tiny specimen by a neighbor who didn't have luck with plants, and it's been slowly growing over the past four or so years. At the end of last summer, I forgot to water it, and all of it's leaves fell off, but look at it now, phew!

N. domestica, grown in Chinese and Japanese gardens for centuries, was brought to Western gardens in 1804. Nandina is widely grown in gardens, as an ornamental plant, and is a shade/partial sun lover. The species is particularly popular in Japan, so it's a great addition to a sculptural or Japanese style garden. 

Nandina can be grown in USDA zones 4–10, and can take heat and cold, from 10–110 °F (-12–43 °C). A true low-care plant, it needs no pruning, and interestingly enough, this plant is commonly used in rabbit, deer, and javelina resistant landscape plantings.

Nandina has red berries (though my plant has yet to bear any) and while the plant you see here is quite small, it's most commonly seen as a shrub. Infact, there were two large wooden planters holding Nandina bushes next to the front door of my childhood home, which means I do have a soft spot for this little plant of mine!

That's all for now, hope you've enjoyed meeting Nandina! 

How To Choose Plants For Your (Container) Garden?

Choosing plants for your garden or container garden, or for a bright corner in your home can be quite simple if you follow this one piece of advice: look around your neighborhood and in the gardens of those who live in exactly the same climate that you do, and take note of what plants both appeal to you and are thriving!

Got it? You want your garden or your containers to look great, so quite simply learning from those with more experience is the very best way to go. Also, it is not a great idea to take an example of a plant that's doing well in the ground and put it in a pot, as many plants do not do well in containers. Though of course you can ask at the garden center whether a certain plant will do well in a pot, and give it a try, though stay away from things like most trees, unless you have a huge pot.

Oh, and one more little tip, take photos of the plants that you like and either look them up online by giving details of the plant, like "purple daisey-like flowers" and then take a look at all the images the search provides, or better yet, take your photos with you to the garden center and ask what they are.

As for the photo, I took this a month or so ago at a Moroccan warehouse of sorts, and just loved how the flowers looked with the mosaic fountains, but more importantly, I was reminded that I absolutely must give African Daisies (right) a try this year, as they're perennials here and I've seen them also at my neighbors house doing great and not only flowering a good part of the year, but also once again reflowering this year.

Good luck with your adventures in gardening or container gardening, it's such a pleasure to add some greenery to any outdoor space, and flowers, well, they provide a simple joy that one shouldn't miss!

In My Winter Window Garden.....Stunning Cyclamen!

Not to deceive you with the title of this post.....the miracle isn't that my cyclamen are blooming but rather that I finally realized the importance of splurging a little on some cheerful blooms during the winter months!

And potted cyclamen now for sale everywhere certainly fit the bill!

On my visits to The Netherlands, I took note of the lovely Dutch tradition of filling their homes with flowers— in the winter blooming hyacinths and orchids, and in the summer beautiful arrangements of cut flowers. On each of my two visits I made a mental note to try and make flowers a greater part of my life, and at long last I took a small step in that direction by purchasing a small pot of blooming cyclamen! Of course now I'm dreaming of a few more pots, since cyclamen here come in three colors, which I do think would add even more cheer, and who can't use a little cheer during the cold winter months?

 

 

Here in Israel, cyclamen bloom in the wild, and so there is a particular affection for this flower, as it marks the heart of winter! I was told in the floral shop to keep the plant outdoors, as it loves cold, but that if I want to enjoy it indoors, I should place ice cubes in the pot, got that? And of course a little winter sun is okay, like on my windowsill here, but direct sun all day wouldn't be recommended, and in any case your plant will show you that it's unhappy! 

 

 

When purchasing your cyclamen do try to find a plant that has some buds waiting underneath the blooms, so you'll be able to enjoy the flowers for a few months, hopefully!

 

If your cyclamen gets yellow leaves and dies back, simply remove the bulb and set aside in a paper bag or in a bag of moss until next fall, when you can plant it again in moist soil, and try to get another year of blooms, possibly successful, possibly not. If the plant does not die back, so make sure to place it in total shade during the summer months and water as needed. 

 

And now, I'm making a mental note to myself to be sure to take a walk in the woods with the kids sometime soon to see these beauties blooming in the wild, here in light pink, and generally peeking out from between the rocks.....an amazing sight!

 

Container Gardening: Yucca In Bloom!

 I recently read that the Yucca plant has the potential to bloom, which I found quite interesting and mysterious. And then lo and behold I was walking down the street and there in front of my very eyes was a Yucca plant in a container in bloom! I really was quite amazed and thanks to the gorgeous blue sky I was able to take a photo which truly does justice to this concept!

So there you have it my friends, one of the easiest plants to care for in your container garden can also reward you with some interesting blooms! Though don't hold your breath, just enjoy your Yucca plants for their beautiful sculptural qualities and forgiving drought resistant nature!

Container Gardening: Purple Heart and Lantana

Purple Heart, which is a variety of Wandering Jew, looks fabulous when paired with colorful Lantana, don't you think? I pass this lovely little planter ( built in to the top of an old stone wall) located on a historic cobblestone lane that I walk down each week on my way to do the grocery shopping. I finally passed by with my camera on me, so of course I just had to share it with you!

And I just realized that I'm going to the same thing in my container garden, as I already have lots of yellow Lantana in bloom and wanted to add something new to some of the adjacent pots....here's my answer, yippee! And, lucky for us, Purple Heart is one of the those plants that is simple to propogate—simply stick cuttings in water to root them, or stick them right into the soil! And since Purple Heart tends to get leggy and looks best when it's fairly tightly pruned, you'll have lots of cuttings to share or fill some more pots! Oh, and purple heart also has tiny pink blooms, adding to it's charms! 

Container Gardening: Verbena Love

I'm in love with Verbena, and this year I've finally had a small success with a few little seedlings by virtue of the fact that I planted them in a big empty patch of dirt at the base of my lemon tree! Flowers that consist of clusters of tiny blooms always seem to be amongst my favorites, and verbena especially just says summer!

While you can use Verbena in a planter mixed with a bunch of other species, it's really at it's best as a ground cover where it can spread out and charm all those that pass by!

Depending on where you live, Verbena, which loves full sun, may or may not be a gentle perennial, though they are drought resistant, self seeding (a great one!) and are often found in butterfly gardens! And Verbena will bloom all summer long, so with a good three months left of gardening, why not add a few of these little beauties to your garden?

PS: Verbena, also known as Vervain, has a very rich history both as an herb and in making liquor as well as being mentioned in many writings of all kinds. I quickly read this info on Wikipedia, so thought I'd pass it along in case the history of horticulture interests you! It is interesting to know a little bit about where your plants really came from, right?

P.P.S: In case you're wondering about that pipe running through the photo above, that's our drip watering system. The pipe is supposed to be a tiny black pipe, but Amos the egg seller from a local farm didn't really know that when he offered to put a system in for us last summer. I almost tore the whole thing out due to the lack of aesthetic, but am really glad now that I didn't.....it's huge time and water saver! Oh and by the way, drip watering was invented in Israel!

Container Gardening: Experimenting With Ixora

Trying something new in my container garden is always a pleasure, though of course a bit of an experiment, especially regarding our climate here on a mountaintop in Northern Israel, where we can grow some tropical and sub-tropical plants, but one can't always be sure which plants will survive the summer heat and the frosts of winter! Nonetheless, I just couldn't resist this gorgeous little plant, which was about the price of a nice bouquet of flowers, but has already given me pleasure for several weeks. 

Using google and  few descriptive words I was able to identify this plant as Ixora, a native of Malaysia, where it blooms year round as a bush. Oh how I'd love a bush! While I found various info on the internet regarding care for my new little friend, the woman at the nursery told me "shade" and while the internet and a gardener friend told me "partial shade", a few hours in the sun and I almost lost the flowers, yikes! So shade it will be for now or until next year when this Ixora is hopefully just a bit bigger, and by that time he will most surely have moved out of his temporary home in an enamel cooking pot!

So don't be afraid to experiment with some plants that catch your eye, the baby steps, and the trial and error are also part of the joy of becoming an accomplished container gardener!

Container Gardening: Palms With Cascading Petunias

On a recent trip to Haifa I spotted this gorgeous palm petunia combination in containers in the parking lot of a tile store we were visiting. I had to share these photos with you, since this is such a simple container gardening idea, and yet so very successful — if you can get your flowers to grow abundantly that is!

The formula is this: big container + palm + flowering annual or perennial (in this case, in this zone)= gorgeous. One container like this could transform your balcony or entry way in no time, right? I'll admit, I've never actually had flowers that fill a container like this one, but now I'm inspired to try, I mean really, if they can do this in a parking lot, I can certainly do it too!

One thing to note is that the palm and the flowers have different watering needs. The palm generally needs to be watered only once the soil is dried out, but the petunians (white) and the Calibrachoa (pink) will certainly need watering quite often in the hot summer sun! All the best!