Mums dominate this month in our gardens. There is much work to be done—plant daffodils at once in the well-prepared ground. Bone meal is the safest fertilizer.
Thrifty buys are Dutch iris, Roman hyacinths, and the graceful little candy stick tulip Clusiana, for these stay with us and multiply.
Other tulips and exhibition hyacinths are best put into the refrigerator and planted in late December, kept calm but not frozen.
Cassia Alata “Candlestick Tree”
The candlestick tree (Cassia alata) will be at its best this month.
When the pea-like seeds have formed, and just before frost, cut the top with a goodly portion of the stem and hang it upside down.
Many more seeds will then mature for next year’s splendor.
Stylosa “Small Winter Iris”
If you have not grown the small winter iris, stylosa, you have missed a January treat.
These irises bloom from November to March, making a dense clump 15” inches high with blooms that are fragrant and almost as pretty as orchids.
The common stylosa has lavender-blue flowers. Stylish alba has pure white colors with a yellow patch. ‘Bridal Pink’ has clear, pale orchid-pink flowers.
All should be grown more. They require no special care.
Anchored Irises
Anchored irises are doing well in the South. These exquisite irises, with their bizarre, beautiful colorings, require good drainage, full sun, and little water in summer.
`Benson Aga’ is dark grayish violet, streaked and washed with black.
‘Some Love’ is oyster white with tiny dots and purple veins. Plant both stylosa and oncobred irises now.
Crinum Lilies
Crinum lilies are found in all old Southern gardens. It is a man-size job to dig and separate a clump, but it can be done, and now is a good time to do it.
Use bone meal for a slow, long-lasting fertilizer when replanting.
I know no bulb that gives more fragrant blooms with so little care. Some varieties bloom in spring, summer, and fall.
My favorite is August crinum, blooming from August to frost; stalks have a dozen fragrant white lilies with rose stripes and red anthers.
Praecox “Maria”
Maria (praecox), a small deciduous tree or shrub, likes loamy soil and grows well in half shade.
Every twig is covered in late December and through January with small, yellow, bell-like blooms, a whisper of violet stripe, and intensely fragrant.
It is seldom listed in catalogs but may be propagated from cuttings or the giant apple-like seeds in the inch-long yellow fruit.
Hybrid Musk Rose
A fragrant hybrid musk rose I recommend for vigor is prosaically named ‘Buff Beauty.’
It has arching branches to 5′ feet and blooms all season in heads of double 2″ inches buff yellow roses.
This plant is a real goodie to put in the front of the shrubbery border or anywhere.
All the nice things you have heard about the pink polyantha rose ‘The Fairy’ is actual. It blooms all season and is the last to bloom in my garden.
The final blooms grace my Christmas dining table.
Dig in the shade and pack in dry peat, sawdust, or sand the fancy leaf caladiums and other tender bulbs. Put them where they will not freeze.
If well drained and not crowded, dahlia tubers need not be dug.
Planting Annual Seeds
It is not too late to plant seeds of annual phlox, larkspur, California and Shirley poppies, hollyhock, and cornflowers.
In the latter part of November, plant sweet peas in deeply dug and well-enriched soil.
Instead of in rows, plant them in circles with a stake in the middle holding a wire or string trellis.
They are much more decorative this way.
44659 by Kitty Simpson