THE MUM'S THE WORD PLANT SALE, OCT. 11, hours 10-12 GULF HILLS OCEAN SPRINGS, MS

Just a quick reminder to Gulf Hills Garden Club members:

THE MUM'S THE WORD PLANT SALE, is on OCT. 11, 2014, hours 10-12. 

Located at the Gulf Hills Memorial Garden on Shore Drive in Gulf Hills, Ocean Springs, MS

ONLY LARGE MUMS REMAIN, COST: $20.00

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

Gulf Hills Garden Club Update and The Rose of Merrit Given to the Host Members.

Yesterday our meeting seemed to have been a real success!  Every thing went off well and we accomplished quite a bit.  We covered everything that we had on the agenda and some.  Thanks to all that attended.  We would also like to thank the host members that supplied the meeting place and the delicious food.  We all had a delightful and relaxing time.  A very commendable job!  To all of you we give a special rose of merit!

The Rose of Merit

 We have also added a new button on the top right side bar,  About the Gulf Hills Garden Club

and another button on the bottom right side bar , New Club Projects.


Remember that our next meeting will be on October 16th, 2014

Our Next Meeting and a Look at Our Stats Chart!

Just to let everyone know...
Our next meeting of the Gulf Hills Garden Club is on Thursday the 16th at 9:30 am. Hope to see you there.

Also just as a bit of informational trivia I was looking at this blogs stats and found this to be of a bit of interest and wanted to share it.  Even though this is a fairly new blog we are starting to have people see us and take a look at our postings.

How nice it is to see that other people in many diverse places are visiting our website here on Blogger!

Gulf Hills Garden Club Presents the Stapelia Gigantea of Michael W. Moses

As our next meeting of the Gulf Hills Garden Club rapidly approaches on 18 September 2014, we have a post submitted from one of our newest members Michael W. Moses.

I have always loved what many traditional gardeners might consider off the wall and sometimes unsightly plants in my garden and one of them is my beloved "Stapelia gigantea"!  

 Some call it the starfish cactus, though it is actually a succulent as opposed to a cactus, but the most common name for this plant is the carrion flower. 

These plants produce flowers that fool flies into pollinating them, by luring the flies to the blooms with the visual stimuli and the aroma of rotting flesh. Yes, I know, how lovely is that? Well actually the smell part is not very pleasing, but the visual portion creates a most sensational disply for us humans to enjoy.

This easy to grow plant has a very nice looking cactus shaped body that if given the right amount of sun and water will really impress even the most reluctant gardener. Sun and occasional watering in the summer and I always bring it in and place it in a bright, but indirect light source with very little water during the winter months and they have always rewarded me handsomely with a good number of flowers every summer.

 Last year I had a bumper crop of these massive 8 plus inch flowers about every two weeks almost all summer. It only opens one large flower at a time. Each flower lasts a day or two, but it will have three to five or more blooms during each flush of buds. 

It has bloomed each year for the last five years for me, depending on weather and such, and has produced at least three crops and some years way more of these intriguing flowers. 

To be honest this is the third one of these that I have had over the last 35 years. The first one I purchased lived for over thirty years and was a huge specimen, but it was taken be some type of disease that turned the entire plant to jelly in less than 24 hours.  The second one I gave to a friend when I moved to the Gulf Coast a number of years back. My currant one was purchased on a trip over to Mobile AL, and it has done very nicely here. I have produced two very nice plants from it, through cuttings, so far and who knows maybe one of them will be up as a lot at our clubs spring auction. Who knows.

Oh, and one last thing. It does have the bad quality of attracting a few flies when in bloom, but I have never even so much as noticed the slightest odor from this. Maybe I have just been lucky?

For more information about this great plant please check out the Wikipedia entry:
Stapelia  and Stapelia gigantea

Update on the 2015 "Coastal Treasures" Mississippi Gulf Coast Spring Pilgrimage by The Gulf Hills Garden Club

Here is an update on the 2015 "Coastal Treasures" Mississippi Gulf Coast Spring Pilgrimage.

The website is up and going now. Please take a moment to stop by and take a look at the website.

To the left is the cover art for the rack card. The cover was done by one of or newest Gulf Hills Garden Club members Michael W. Moses.

For more information about the rack card art please Click Here

Some New Features added to the Gulf Hills Garden Club MS Blog and a Four O'clock Flower

We have recently added some new features to our Gulf Hills Garden Club Blog.

A Calender of events leading up to the Coastal Treasures, Gulf Coast Pilgrimage 2015 - Link located at top of this page.

A Calender of Events for the club - Link located at top of this page.

A list of Affiliated Gulf Coast Council of Garden Clubs, Inc - Located right side bar on this page.

More to be added very soon.

Also here is a totally unrelated image of a uniquely colored Four O'clock Flower for your viewing enjoyment.