Happy New Year to all my fellow flower freaks! You may have noticed I haven’t been very active on Bella’s social media over the holidays. Well, that’s because I decided to take a little bit of time off to recenter and regroup myself to get ready for what I hope to be an amazing 2024. But I’m back now and ready to be more social.
Ya know it’s winter, which means most perennials want to take a nap for a couple of months. Personally, I’d like to do that too … but I digress. lol What I’m doing is when they go completely dormant, I take them out of inventory. So you’re gonna start seeing a lot of “out of stock” on the perennials. As soon as they start coming back to life, they’ll be back up for sale. If they still have green leaves or stems, then they’re still for sale. I do not winter cover or greenhouse any of the plants I have for sale, which means this time of year the perennials are not going to look their best. I’m always happy to send you up to date pics of the plants, all you gotta do is ask.
Shrubs and trees will stay in inventory even if they’ve gone deciduous because all you gotta do is scratch the bark to confirm the plant is alive.
Keep in mind that in our area, October through April is the best time to plant those hardy/native trees, shrubs, and perennials.
I have an area on our property that is my personal garden. It’s a circular garden about 50 feet x 50 feet. There’s a group of oak trees in the middle, so I aptly call it the Oak Garden. It’s a lovely mixture of sun and shade, which means I can grow lots of different plants in it. It also has some low spots that hold rainwater for a day to two, so those areas will become rain gardens. When I first decided to use that area for a garden, I used a herbicide spray to get rid of the non-native grass and plants. Then I waited and watched as the native plants started showing up. So far glade lobelia, yellow star grass, crow poison, American coinwort, Carolina jessamine, and meadowbeauties have made their appearance. Over the past couple of months, I have planted spicebush, witch hazel, cardinal flower, grancy graybeard, Louisiana iris, white beardtongue penstemon, salvia greggii, swamp milkweed, rattlesnake master, greyheaded coneflower, and raspberry skullcap. AND I direct sowed about four pounds of native seeds. I’m horrible about buying seeds then never using them. I had those seeds for about two years, so I’m not sure how much of it is still viable. But, come spring time, we shall see. Anyway, my goal for the Oak Garden is for it to become a display garden so y’all will be able to see how the plants I sell look in a true garden setting. These next couple of months I’m gonna be busy busy adding new plants. You can follow my progress by clicking on Growing In My Garden. Yes, that page needs updating, I’ll get to it soon.
Anyway. I think that’s all my news for now. Oh, I took all of the pics in this post today. The pic at the top of the page is of Viburnum obovatum ‘Select.’ She just started blooming her little heart out.
Happy diggin’ in the dirt!
Jeanni and Ziva
Bella Jardins Boutique
Beautiful Gardens Begin Here
