Southern Land Company Blog

The Tucker Hill Community Garden Today

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

It is my pleasure to report the plants at the community garden are looking good today.

Threat of a possible overnight freeze brought out the cotton sheets and burlap!

Well played plotters. Well played.

A thin cotton sheet is the perfect thing to use to protect tender spring plantings from a frost. It is enough cover and insulate but not too heavy to crush young tender plants.

Some of the residents had burlap on hand and put it to good use, covering tomato cages to protect young tomato plants from cold and cold wind.

One of the two raised beds that are using the Square Foot Gardening principles is pictured above.

If these plants were covered last night, the cover was removed very early this morning!

The other snapshot shows one way Oscar is protecting the plants that he and his mom planted from seed.

Catch The Lady If You Can

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

If you haven’t had a chance to visit Tucker Hill recently, now is the time to see the Lady Banks Roses in all their glory. Yellow Lady Banks (R. banksiae luteaplena) lacks thorns and much fragrance but produces an overabundance of yellow flowers each spring. It is a species rose, not a hybrid, that was introduced from China in 1824 by J.D. Park for the Horticulture Society of London.

The tenacious vining rose will engulf an iron fence, brick column, or even a small structure if it is close by. The long graceful arching canes reach out and grow onto any adjacent means of support. Lady Banks is a long-lived rose that usually matures at 15 to 20 feet in height and 8-12 feet in width. According to The Guiness Book of World Records, the oldest Lady Banks can be found in Tombstone, Arizona. At 100 years old, with a trunk girth of ninety-five inches, it covers more than 8,000 square feet with millions of blooms each spring. There is a story there and you can read it “In the Search of Lost Roses” by Thomas Christopher.

Up to four weeks each spring, the iron fence along our main entry is covered with clusters of small, cupped blooms. Each bloom has between 30 and 50 petals. Lady Banks can be seen in the neighborhood along the Grassmere Bridge as well as on some homeowners’ iron fences. I am thinking about where we can plant some more. I am thinking, maybe with some wisteria over an arbor to grow some shade.

Take time to visit us soon so you can catch the Lady Banks in bloom.

Spring Has Arrived!

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Everyone at Tucker Hill is anxious to get their yard and flower beds spruced up. With the greening of the grass and planting of spring blooms, we happily exclaim “winter is gone; spring has arrived!” Many residents are calling on our horticulture team for advice and services and many others are out enjoying the process themselves.

The recent “ground turning” for the Tucker Hill Community Garden is one case in point. The opening was pushed back a couple of times due to later-than-average freezes. When we finally gathered to officially open the garden for planting, the gardeners were more than ready. The ten raised beds will be a hub of activities for families to learn, teach and share. The harvest they sow and reap will be an additional (and edible) delight.

This month the residents are having a potting party. This perk is popular with residents who like to create their own porch pot, window box or deck box and utilize the Flower Lady services at the same time. Plants and soil mixes are selected and gathered by the Flower Lady. Residents bring their containers, shop for plants they like, and then create their own container garden alongside their friends and neighbors.

Also this month, Tucker Hill and the Collin County Master Gardeners will present “Photography in the Garden.” Please plan on joining us at The David Weekly model Wednesday, April 17, at 7 p.m. Learn about capturing your garden achievements in pictures, get an idea about CCMGA and meet the Flower Lady. As always, our CCMGA programs are for Tucker Hill residents, prospective residents, realtors and guests.

Preparations are also underway in the six courtyard gardens that are part of this Junes’ “Courtyards, Concerts, and Cars” event. Each of the six gardens will highlight a different theme, illustrating the gardening possibilities courtyards provide. A “Shady Oasis,” “Arbors A-Way,” “Texas Natives,” “Wildlife Habitat,” “Water Feature Focus,” and a “Classic Courtyard” will be ready for your viewing on Saturday, June 8, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Now that the Tucker Hill Community Garden is in the eager and capable hands of the residents and the petunias are in the ground, I am looking forward to the summer plantings and this first Courtyard Garden Tour.

As always, I encourage you to come see what is blooming now at Tucker Hill!

Everybody Loves Petunias!

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Native to Argentina, the Latin name is the same as common name, Petunia.

That is where the keeping it simple ends. Today’s petunias are hybrids developed for specific design purposes. Most are grown from seed, but some are from cuttings.

At first glance, you might think the 100,000 petunias planted at Tucker Hill all look pretty much the same. But look again. You will see Waves in window boxes and containers and Carpet in the ground at Founders Square and the main entry.

For an annual flower that just takes us from Pansy to Lantana, there are so many things to consider.

Grandiflorals are one of the oldest varieties with the largest blooms. Like the pansies, they are available in an array of colors and patterns…

Picotees; white rim color inside

Morns; colored rim white inside

Stars; white stripes on contrasting colors

Multiflorals have smaller flowers than grandifloras but they hold up better in rain and have a more compact growth habit. Sun Devils are the first naturally dwarf multiflora petunia.

Floribundas, like the”Madness” series introduced in the 1970s, combined grandiflora

flower size with multiflora weather tolerance.

Miliflorals have a profusion of smaller flowers and a mounding habit.

Wave Petunias have been available for over a decade now and there are five types to choose from. The original Waves were the All-American Selection winner in 1995. Since then Double Wave, Easy Wave, Tidal Wave, and Shock Wave have been introduced. Waves can spread up to 4 feet!

“Potunias” are new comers and it is said they grow like a bubble. They mound then trail without balding on top.

Supertunias from Proven Winners are vegetatively propagated. Heavy bloomers mean heavy feeders.

Calibrachoa is not in the Petunia family even though it sure looks like it should be. If the label says Million Bells or Super Bells, it is Calibrichoa. The flower will be a bit smaller than the Supertunias.

As always, I encourage you to come see for yourself what is blooming at Tucker Hill!

Collin County Master Gardener Show This Weekend!

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Join Tucker Hill's own Flower Lady and Master Gardener, Denise Meier, at this weekend's indoor event packed with exciting and informative educational events with hands-on activities and demos from local experts. Speakers will present timely information on outdoor living in North Texas.Bring your wagons and carts to fill with your purchases!

Presentations for Homeowners • Local Vendors • Speakers

Hands on Demonstrations • Children's Activities • Farmers Market

Tours of Trial Gardens at Myers Park • Free Parking

Much, Much More!

ADMISSION IS 2 CANS OF UNEXPIRED FOOD OR $2 PER CAR TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY LIFELINE CENTER.

March 23 and 24 at Meyers Park Event Center in McKinney.

Semper Augustas & Tucker Hill Tulips

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

A tulip of extraordinary beauty; midnight blue petals, topped by a band of pure white and accented with crimson flames, was the Semper Augustas. Legend has it that in 1637-Holland, at the pinnacle of Tulip mania, the asking price for just one of the bulbs was equal to the annual wage of a skilled craftsman, or the cost to feed a family for six months, or a nice home in Amsterdam. Isn’t it ironic that the very thing that made the Semper Augustas so unique and desirable was a virus? The defect that made the bulbs unpredictable and unsustainable was not recognized by botanists as a communicable plant disease until the 1950s.

Tucker Hill tulip bulbs come to us pre-chilled, hybridized, virus free, and ready to plant in January. We plant our tulips during the coldest days of the year with the expectation that, here in Collin county, Dutch tulip bulbs might give us a nice (all-be-it brief) display early this spring.

Against all odds, we have had great results, and some of our bulbs have given us more than 7 springs of blooms. Ribbons of red tulips and white daffodils were planted along the creek beds in 2008 and they have bloomed every spring since. Each year we add two or three thousand bulbs. Some have made repeat appearances and some have not. We do not expect too much from them and so are often pleasantly surprised. The tulips pictured are “Sultans of Spring” and were planted at Founders Square January 2010. I hope to see them for the third time in a few weeks.

We have taken the cue from Jimmy Turner at the Dallas Arboretum and planted early, mid, and late blooming tulips with slightly more late bloomers. I encourage you to plant tulip bulbs like we do, in pots and in flower beds. For inspiration, please visit us in March, and if you need further convincing, check out Dallas Blooms through mid April.

The Rhythm and Flow of Tucker Hill Floriculture

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Paul Masson would “sell no wine before its time” and we do not pull plants before their time.

We have three seasonal change outs at Tucker Hill each year, one more than many communities in the Metroplex, but two less than a select few. We base our major change outs on several factors; day length, average first/ last frost dates, and annual temperature averages, for starters.

In mid-October, we plant pansies and their companion plants. Pansies are cool-weather plants and will take several hard freezes but not tolerate heat. We wait until mid October, for at least the night-time temperatures to drop, before we plant pansies. By mid April, the pansies have given us 6 months of color. As it starts warming up, the pansies will decline rapidly. When plants have passed their prime, and are declining, they are more susceptible to pests and pathogens.

We pull the pansies in early spring to make room for petunias. Petunias are a good transition plant between the pansies that have reached their peak and the heat loving plants that are not ready to go in the ground quite yet. Spring demands a fresh planting, even though it is too early for many of the heat loving plants like lantana, angelonia, or profusion zinnias to be planted. Petunias are also cool weather plants, but they will not take the freezes that pansies can. They will not do well in the heat either, but for a few months of spring they provide wonderful color when cold hardy plants and heat loving plants will not. Petunias are planted to ensure color throughout the community during the spring transitional time period.

When the number of sunny hours per day increases, and the heat of the sun grows more intense, it is time for summer color. Lantana, angelonia, zinnias, vinca, scaevola, purslane, pentas, (and more) will do very well with a lot of heat and not so much water. We like these plants to be showing lots of color going in the ground in June, and get only better for fall color in September and the beginning of October.

And that brings us back to the pansy and its companion plants in mid-October. Now you know, there is a natural and orderly flow here at Tucker Hill based on research, observation, and experience.

Party on Poinsettia

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

When my husband and sons talk about football, basketball, and baseball, I am at a loss. I am amazed at the amount of stats and factoids they can spout. They know every pro’s age and where they went to college. They can tell you every college player’s height, weight, position, and where they went to high school. Really. Those conversations do not include me, ever.

I am a fanatic about plants and if my husband or sons show the least little interest, I am off and running! My husband recently made the mistake of commenting on a Poinsettia and the following dialogue was his consequence.

“Did you know December 12^th is Poinsettia Day?” (I’ve certainly asked him this before.)

“No.”

Yes, it marks the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett in 1851. Do you know who Joel Robert Poinsett is?

“A French man?”

Poinsett was a botanist, physician and the first United States Ambassador to Mexico. He is credited with introducing the plant to our country in 1828 when he sent cuttings from Southern Mexico to his home in Charleston, South Carolina. The Poinsettia is named after him. That is why it is capitalized, because it is named after a person. You know it is pronounced “poin-setta”, right?

“OK.”

The Poinsettia’s association with Christmas began in 16^th century Mexico. Legend has it a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for Jesus’ birth was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson “blossoms” sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias. Did you know the red part is not the flower, the tiny yellow part in the center is? The showy red part is a modified leaf, called a bract. The colors of the bracts are created through “photoperiodism.” If you want the green leaves to turn red, put the plant in a dark place for 12 hours a day for at least five days in a row. When the leaves turn to colorful bracts, let the plant have as much light as possible to make the color brightest. Isn’t that cool?

“Mmmmm…”

There are over a hundred varieties of Poinsettias these days, not just red. You can find yellow, white, pink, salmon, and some, like ‘Jingle Bells,’ are mottled with red and cream.

“I like red.”

Urban legend has it that in 1919 a two-year-old child ate a poinsettia leaf and died. POISINDEX and Ohio State University studies suggest a 50-pound child would need to eat at least 500 bracts (1.25 lbs!) to have any side effects.

“My mother always told me they were poisonous.”

Well, the sap can be a skin irritant. Poinsettias contribute over $250 million to the US economy at the retail level. Most are sold within a six- week period leading up to Christmas. But in Spain, it is known as an Easter flower. Paul Ecke Jr. is known as the father of the Poinsettia industry because he discovered a technique which caused the seedlings to branch resulting in a fuller, less weedy, plant. The Ecke family kept this secret until 1991 when a university graduate student published an article describing a method for said desirable effect. Flourishing competition resulted, especially from Europe, causing a decrease of Ecke’s share of the market. The Paul Ecke Ranch in California grows over 70% of all Poinsettias purchased in the United States and about 50% of worldwide sales. Recently the nearly 100-year-old family-owned and operated ranch was acquired by the Dutch-based Agribio Group.

I have oh so much more but I have lost him. I try to reel him back…You know the Poinsettia Bowl?

“Yea, San Diego, since 1952, NCAA military services championship game.”

Now we are talking!

More on Planning, Pruning, and Planting in November

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Planning is the key to good gardening. Knowing your soil, growing zone, seasonal sun patterns and the micro climates of your garden all contribute to a positive experience. Gardening takes time too. A good plan and the benefit of time (even a relatively short period of time) are evident throughout Tucker Hill. From the main entry and Founders Square to the dog park, the setting is naturally pleasing.

Proper pruning and maintenance are not chores! These tasks, done correctly and consistently, are also guarantees for a beautiful garden and yard. Seriously, think of it as therapy or exercise, but not work.

Planting is the fun part for many plant nerds and gardeners in general. The fun never really stops at Tucker Hill. We will be planting pansies and their companion plants for several more weeks and in January, we will plant our tulips.

As always, you are encouraged to visit and see what is blooming now!

Now is the time to plant…

Ornamental trees
Winter and spring-blooming bulbs
Ornamental grasses
Winter-blooming perennials
Bare-root roses, trees, shrubs, and vines
Cool-seasonal flowering plants and vegetables

Now is the time to prune…

Fall and winter-blooming shrubs and vines (after they have bloomed)

Now is the time to plan…

For next season, next year, next ten years or more

October Gave a Party!

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0400

October gave a party.
The leaves by hundreds came.
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand.
Miss weather Lead the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
George Cooper

October is a great time to see what is blooming at Tucker Hill! We just finished planting the pansies and snapdragons throughout the community’s public spaces. This week we are working for residents on their seasonal color, in pots, hedgerows, and annual pockets.

The specific varieties of pansies you'll see throughout Tucker Hill include Colossus Neon Violet, Delta Pure Violet, and Delta Pure Yellow. There are more and more trailing pansies available and we are using them in pots at Founders Square as well as in column pots on Grassmere Bridge.

Although it isn’t blooming quite yet, I encourage you to come see the winter Rye grass that has already begun to sprout!

Some of our street trees may show a little fall color this year, but if the maples and oaks need more cold and time to mature, the Crape Myrtles will definitely be displaying their fall look.

If you visit us to see what’s blooming now, be sure to stop in at Pumpkinville! This is a great way to enjoy the fall weather and drive through the community to see our natural fall decor!

Chrysanthemum Morifoliums . . .
The Quintessential Fall Flower

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0400

From the Greek 'chrys' meaning golden and 'anthemon' meaning flower, this name was given to garden mums by the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus. The color of theoriginal flower was yellow, but choices today range from white to burgundy. There are many sizes and shapes tochoose from as well!

Mums are relatively easy to grow. They require slightly acidic soil which can be achieved by adding peat moss or sulfur. They have a fairly long blooming period, from August through November.

For the longest show, buy mums that are just budded out, but not yet blooming. Ask your local nursery for early, mid and late bloomers in different colors, shapes and sizes. Mums are perfect for pots; try hollowing out a pumpkin or gourd for a beautiful autumn arrangement to place on your front porch for all to enjoy!

About the author: Denise Meier, Tucker Hill's very own "Flower Lady," is an accomplished Collin County Master Gardener with over twelve years of nursery and gardening experience. With a passion for flora and fauna, Denise keeps the landscaping vibrant at Tucker Hill!