Obsession, Thy Name is Gardening

Season 4, Episode 38, July 27, 2022

I’ll start off by saying that I’m not even sure the title of this week’s episode makes sense. “Obsession, Thy Name is Gardening.” Or should it be “Gardening, Thy Name is Obsession?”

Or is that like asking if the chicken came before the egg or vice versa? Does every gardener end up obsessed with something related to gardening? Or does everyone who is likely to have an obsession end up gardening?

Anyway, while you ponder that, note the picture above is of Lycoris radiata, aka spider lilies which bloom in Dee’s garden in early fall.

The reason we decided this was the picture to show you this week is because on this episode, I noted that while looking for my lost gardening knife (which got quite a response when I posted about it on Instagram because apparently losing tools in the garden is something many gardeners have in common), I noted that my surprise lilies are coming up and are budded and ready to open. A sure sign we are approaching the end of summer.

Insert laments! Summer can’t be winding down. It just can’t be!

Anyway, my surprise lilies are Lycoris squamigera, which has pink flowers.

Then I asked Dee if her red lilies were oxblood lilies, and she was pretty sure they weren’t. I had oxblood lilies on the mind because I’d recently written an article for Family Handyman about “gorgeous fall flowers,” and I included oxblood lilies even though I can’t grow them. They are hardy to Zone 7, so Dee could grow them, but she isn’t. She’s growing red spider lilies, Lycoris radiata.

Duly noted!

And I just discovered in looking up all this information about Lycoris that the red spider lily that Dee has, L. radiata, is hardy to Zone 6, so it’s possible that it might grow in my garden. And even though I don’t have many red flowers in my garden, I think I should try to grow these.

If only I knew a gardener with some in her garden who might be willing to dig up one little bulb to send to me to try…

Anyway, I’m going on a bit as usual…

Here are the rest of the show notes.

What got us started down this path of garden obsessions was Dee listened to the Rose Chat podcast about the Rose Geek.  This woman has 600 roses, and she and the podcast host shared some of their favorite disease-resistant rose varieties. Some of the ones Dee noted include:

Pomponella Fairy Tale, Benjamin Britten, Vanessa Bell, Mother of Pearl

Then we talked about plant societies, as good a place as any to find like-minded or like-obsessed gardeners. The America Hort Society has a list of plant societies, though sadly, I couldn’t find one for my beloved Violas, and no, I’m not starting one. At least not right now.

And then we went on to discuss hot peppers, an obsession of some gardeners. We talked about Scoville Units. Back in the day… well, listen to find out more, then follow Dee’s suggestion to watch First We Feast on YouTube to see people eating hot wings. Also check out this list of the Top 10 Hottest Peppers In The World [2022 Update]

On the bookshelf, we talked about a book from a few years ago: New Wild Garden: Natural-Style planting and practicalities by Ian Hodgson (Amazon link). What I liked about this book is it is more about natural-style planting and not a treatise on the use of native plants. I love the idea of wild-planted containers!

A few more shout-outs before someone notes TL:DR (too long, didn’t read)…   

To All America Selections, which we love for their plant recommendations and friendly staff who help us find good plant information and solve mysteries.

To me for my blog post on my new Lego Orchid. (Can I shout out to me?)

To the Missouri Botanical Garden staff for how to pronounce Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’. Their way is probably right.

 To Kew Gardens on uncovering the giant waterlily: A botanical wonder of the world | Kew  

And that’s the podcast for this week!

All the usual end-of-notes stuff follows.

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For more info on Carol and her books, visit her website.  Visit her blog May Dreams Gardens.
For more info on Dee and her book, visit her website.  Visit her blog Red Dirt Ramblings.

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