Gulf Hills Garden Club Reminder Gulf Coast Orchid Show Event Schedule

Gulf Hills Garden Club, wants to remind  you of the Gulf Coast Orchid Show.

Below is Their Event Schedule

for 

January 29-31, 2016

Nandina and a Happy New Year to You From the Gulf Hills Garden Club!

We at the Gulf Hills Garden Club would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful and prosperous New Year.To end this old year I would like to show you an image of a Nandina in my garden.  I took this image this morning. Nandina, also known by the names heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo.  It is a plant that is not in the bamboo family.  It is a member of the family Berberidaceae. Native to eastern Asia from the Himalayas to Japan.  It is the only member of the monotypic genus Nandina.

I Just love this plant!  This time of year along the Gulf Coast the pinkish to red leaves offers a touch of much needed color to our coastal gardens. I can go on and on about this plant!  It is so easy to have in your garden, low maintenance and happy in most soils, this plant does well in sun or light shade!  In some areas it is considered to be highly invasive, but I have not found it to be so here. Check it out and decide for yourself.

For more information please check out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandina

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2002/jan02/art11jan.html

From the Garden of a Gulf Hills Garden Club Member, Shrimp Plant-Justicia Brandegeana and Bursting Hearts-Eunoymus Americanus

Here we have two images that were recently taken by one of our club members of two of the plants that they currently have in their Gulf Coast garden.

Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana)  The brackets are shrimp colored and resemble the shape of shrimps.  Also available in yellow. As much as we love shrimp here on the South Coast it is just no wonder that this is such a popular plant among our gardeners.

Bursting hearts (Eunoymus americanus) bloom in late summer through the fall.  This plant was purchased at the Spring Plant Sale at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center, Holly Springs, MS.  This gorgeous plant is native to the United States but is on the endangered plant lists in a number of states to include New York and Illinois.  Breath taking when hiking in the woods and the bright red color is seen.

For further information please visit:

Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana)

Bursting hearts (Eunoymus americanus)

Gulf Hills Garden Club..Hibiscus Mutabilis, Confederate Rose, Cotton Rose, In Bloom in Ocean Springs MS

Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast The end of September beginning of October brings the large showy flowers of the Hibiscus Mutabilis, AKA The Confederate Rose, or the older name of Cotton Rose.

This elegant heirloom plant has been grown all along the Gulf Coast for literally centuries. It originated in Southeastern China and traveled with the sea trade to the Gulf Coast very early on. The Cotton Rose is one plant that should always be included in any traditional South Coast historical garden recreation or restoration.

The one that most people in our area think of as the Confederate Rose is the fully double flowering one, which is the magical one that starts out as a pure white double bloom and then turns a medium pink followed by a deep red as the flower matures.
This is the type of plant that really stands out in a garden and always gives a bit of the old wow effect to any garden.  

These plants form a beautiful medium to large bush and have very handsome leaves that have an almost tropical look. These plants are easy to grow and add such a wonderful touch to any zone 10-7 garden.

At the first frost they will loose their leaves and may be cut back, which allows for a thicker more compact plant the next year.

Easy to grow from seed and even easier to propagate from cuttings.  Cuttings may be produced in either a sandy soil medium or just placed in water where they will usually root rather quickly.

The Confederate rose was for many years neglected and fell totally out of fashion. I find that many gardeners seem not to realize that plants go in and out of style in our gardens, but they do. When a plant goes out of favor, many times they will become impossible to find commercially and may even become extinct, because of the folly of current garden tastes. Now due to ease of cultivation and being both drought and neglect resistant this truly Southern garden jewel is making a nice return to the forefront of many modern gardens.

Just like the proverbial little black dress that goes in and out of style, this very old fashioned flowering bush has been in and out of popular acceptance since way before the War Between the States. According to what I was always told this plant was called the Confederate Rose due to the fact that after the Civil War it was very common for Southerners to take these flowers to the cemeteries to place on them on the graves of Confederate soldiers. So it was very commonly considered a funeral flower(as later the Calla Lily) and because of this connotation fell out of favor as a garden plant.

But now it seems to be making a come back and for me this is a great thing to see.

Michael W. Moses
Member
Gulf Hills Garden Club, Ocean Springs, MS

An Adenium Obesum Blooms on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

One of our Gulf Hills Garden Club members has a small collection of Adenium Obesum also known as the Desert Rose.

One of them is starting to bloom and the flowers are just beautiful.  These plants are a great succulent that thrives in hot sun and little water. 

This plant require a minimum temperature of about 50°F, so it even has to be brought in during the winter here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But the little bit of extra trouble during the colder months here seems to be worth it for this members Desert Roses 

During the summer months it stays outside and requires minimum attention and has flowers off and on all summer. This one gets a bit of a hose down every so often and it and the others in the group seem to just thrive.

Needing a well drained soil mix they do have a bit of a problem with root rot, so be careful about having good drainage for your desert roses.

The Adenium Obesum has a latex like sap that may bother some people and the sap is toxic, so be careful handling it if you get one.

There are a vast many different types available. They come in reds, pinks, white, rarely yellow, and sometimes a mixture of two different colors.

A wonderful addition to any deep Southern Garden!

For more information about the Adenium Obesum/Desert Rose check out this PDF from the University of Florida,Miami Dade. This two page file has a lot of very good general information about growing and maintaining this plant.

The Gulf Hills Garden Club of Mississippi Presents Aleurites Fordii The Tung Oil Tree

Have you ever seen such wonderful flowers!

The elegant flowers in the image below are from a Gulf Hills Garden Club member, who is fortunate enough to have a small grove of graceful Tung Oil Trees growing in their garden.

 The Tung Oil Tree(Aleurites fordii) is also known as the Chinawood Tree and this is the tree that tung oil comes from.

The large (poisonous) seeds of this tree are pressed for the oil, which is then used in the manufacture of lacquers, varnishes, paints, linoleum, oilcloth, resins, artificial leather, felt-base floor coverings, and greases, brake-linings and in cleaning and polishing compounds.

It is said that during World War II, the Chinese used tung oil for motor fuel.

This tree has a very long history, having been cultivated in China for at least 2,000 years and more recently in modern times traveling all the way to the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Tung oil has been a major industry here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as can be testified to by an article about tung oil on the website of the Biloxi Historical Society.

For more information on tung oil take a look at the Tung Oil entry at WikipediA

Our Tung Oil Flower images were taken back in April of 2014.