“Dig In” with the Texas City Garden Club
Your Guide to Coastal Gardening
The Texas City Garden Club is also known as The Daylily Garden Club. We are proud to have such a beautiful flower associated with our club. The world is full of Daylilies ~ thousands of different kinds. Few perennials offer so much for so little effort. Lilies are easy to hybridize. As a result of this daylilies flaunt an astounding array of shapes, sizes and colors.
June is peak bloom season for daylilies. Here you’ll see blossoms in a myriad color on stems ranging from 1 to 5 feet tall. Individual flowers last but a day, but plants typically open successive blooms over four to five weeks.
Lilies have a special Meaning and Symbolism ~ They symbolize humility and devotion, lilies are the 30th anniversary flower – while lilies of the valley are the 2nd wedding anniversary flower. As the flowers most often associated with funerals, lilies symbolize that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death.
White lilies symbolize purity and virtue. Pink (stargazer) lilies symbolize prosperity and abundance. Red lilies symbolize passion. Orange (tiger) lilies symbolize confidence, pride, and wealth. Yellow lilies symbolize thankfulness and desire for enjoyment.
As you might remember, last year my biggest and most exciting garden adventure was my Olive Tree. It successfully produced a bountiful of olives. I’m hoping for the same results this season. This year I have a new garden adventure to be excited about. I now have a Wild Plum Tree to care for. I have had great success with my Ruby Red Grapefruit and Satsumas Trees and are now in full bloom. The Plum Tree is also starting to bloom ~ So hopefully I will have plums soon.
Texas is home to several species of Wild Plum, the most common being the Sand Plum. This particular plum is known as the Chickasaw Plum, because it was one of the first wild plants and possibly cultivated by Native Americans. They would eat the plums fresh or use dried plums to create pemmican, a high-calorie food designed to sustain them through long winters.
I will keep you updated on both my Olive and Plum Tree ~ wish me luck. Maybe this year I will have Homemade Plum Jam to share too!
As always, I welcome your comments or suggestions for future columns. Contact me @ bbuffa1@gmail.com
