Heirloombulbgirl

Tag: heirloombulbgirl blog

  • Gopher Baskets for the Roses

    A fairly unknown fact is that I once had a rose garden that was featured in a 3 page article in the Dallas Morning News Garden Section. True story! I absolutely adore Antique Roses. My Dallas garden was home to over 43 beloved Antique Rose Bushes, intermingled with fabulous Heirloom Bulbs. It was my joy. My little neighborhood watched the garden transformation through all three of my pregnancies. My husband was often questioned by neighbors if I really should be jumping on a shovel at 9 months pregnant in the heat of August. Those were good rose-growing times! Fresh flower bouquets of big and fluffy cabbage-style rose blooms. Children learning about the different varieties of Antique Roses, and my husband losing all control over his front yard grass.

    I now live in the Texas Hill Country (enough said). Over the last decade, I have tried to grow over 40 bushes in the gopher-infested land. All I did was create a gopher buffet. It’s not *if* they will eat my roses, but when. The gophers have wiped out every single rose bush I have planted…except one. Not great odds are in my favor. I’ve tried everything, and I mean everything. I even have a useless barn cat.

    This last week, I have stepped up my gopher-game. With a little click on Amazon, I ordered a nice supply of wire mesh gopher baskets. I had no idea gopher baskets were even a thing. Why didn’t someone tell me I didn’t have to make my own out of cut chicken wire?!! I’m quickly learning that Amazon is like Christmas every morning. The baskets arrived yesterday and I’m SO EXCITED! I have 5 bushes, saved in the nick of time, currently resting and regrowing roots in terracotta pots.
    Before Spring hits, I plan to basket up all the roses and the nice, young specimen plants I’ve recently planted. I will have to re-dig and re-plant.
    Typical.

    I also plan to basket up many of my bulbs. Gophers enjoy eating the roots of Spider Lilies, but will leave the Oxbloods alone. (Oxbloods are supposed to be toxic).

    With the water well and the gopher baskets, it will be SO enjoyable to watch the gardens finally take root. I often tell folks that gardening is like learning music, it is a journey not a race. But it’s also nice to see a completed garden project. A job well done is quite satisfying.

    I wonder if I will ever experience the thrill of a finished project? Take a look at my gardens and you will quickly find out the answer! 🙂

    Happy Gardening, my friends!

  • Saving the Gardens for Miss Margaret (part 3)

    There are a lot of meaningful endeavors in life, but saving Miss Margaret’s gardens is definitely one of my favorites. I’m honestly not sure why I’m so passionate about old flower bulbs, but the only way to explain it is that it’s in my blood. My Dad loved old architecture and old photos. As a child, my Dad instilled a profound understanding of preservation. A deep desire to save something that will be lost. When I see bulb foliage, there’s a sudden urgency to hop barbed wired fences with a shovel. My son even bought me a mini shovel to carry around in my car. I must admit, my little digging passion is just weird. I can’t explain it. I’m just compelled to hop that fence. I feel like an addict, desperately seeking my next fix of old rotting houses and “No Trespassing” signs. If I had a dollar for every time my family told me “We aren’t bailing you out of jail” I’d be rich. There are countless reasons why I shouldn’t do what I do, and only one reason why I should….the beautiful 100 year old Oxblood Lily bulb that I’m holding in my hand.

    She survived the Great Depression.

    She survived World War 1 and World War 2.

    She survived floods.

    She survived drought.

    She survived decades of love and care.

    She survived decades of neglect.

    She is a worthy preservation project indeed! It is hard to imagine the changing landscape that little bulb experienced over her last 100 plus years. Even if, for no other reason than antiquity, that flower bulb deserved to be saved.

    Just look at Miss Margaret’s lovely Oxbloods! Happy, healthy and preserved for generations to come.

    What became of Miss Margaret’s gardens? Well, that is a sad story for another day. Most of the bulbs were salvaged, the historic house was demolished, and the land became a cemented parking lot. I can still see the stained glass and the curled wooden staircase in my mind.
    If you are able to come to the Agape Haus Studio open house on Dec 20th, rumor has it that Santa left Oxblood Lilies for gifts for everyone! 🙂

    Happy Gardening, my friends!

  • The Annual Oxblood Lily Seed Collecting Has Begun!

    Honestly, is there anything cuter than baby lilies? Well, maybe baby puppies or baby nieces. Complete cuteness overload!

    I, for some odd reason, feel a deep maternal love towards baby lilies. The art of seed collecting is a long, mundane process; but then again, so are diaper changes. We don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, so lily seed collecting can be a worthy endeavor. I have been collecting, germinating and growing baby lilies for years. I’ve had more failures than wins along the way, but I find that growing lilies from seed is a nice exercise in patience. If you so choose to take the challenge, here are a few simple steps to get started.

    First, you need some Oxblood Lilies that reseed. Not all my lilies reseed, and quite honestly, I’m not sure what the perfect conditions are. A lot has to do with the amount of water the bulbs receive during bloom time, and the weather conditions after the bloom. If temperatures get too hot too soon, the seed pods will dry up. Last year, the seed pods went into over-drive and I ended up with way too many baby bulbs. I mailed many packs of germinated seeds out to gardeners from all over who wanted to try this lovely seed-germinating process out. This season, the pods appeared overnight, and then we left for Colorado for our son’s wedding.

    For a brief moment, I thought about hiring a baby-sitter for the baby lilies. I realized that this sentiment was a bit too much…..So I decided to stay home from the wedding.

    Just kidding.

    Step two….Allow the seed pods to get nice and fat like the ones pictured above. The seeds on the inside will be thin and black, very similar to other rain lily seeds. Most rain lily seeds are ready to sprout almost immediately with water…hence the name “Rain Lily”.

    Step three….Place the seeds in either a wet paper towel or little teacups. I go back and forth between which method I prefer. Since I am in Colorado, and my seed babies are in tea cups in Texas, I prefer the paper towel method. At the moment, I’m concerned everything will dry out and all lily babes will be dead. I can’t be worried about baby lilies though….It’s my son’s wedding after all.
    Priorities.

    Step four..Keep the babies fed. Whether you use the paper towel method or little tea cups, don’t let the seeds dry out. The seeds in a paper towel will get transferred to tea cups or pots within a few weeks. The tap roots for these little baby bulbs is longer than expected. They drink a lot of water. Keep the babies in dappled shade or inside in bright light. Again, don’t let them completely dry out. I’ve made this mistake and lost many, many baby bulbs this way. Always a sad time to lost something you’ve worked hard at.

    Step five….The fine art of patience.


    Wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And waaaaaaaaaaaaaait…

    Voila! Oxblood Lilies are worth every moment of patience.

    if you would like some Oxblood Lilies, please let me know. I’m always happy to share. If you are a garden center, I’m happy to help you out with lilies as well. Come on by to the Agape Haus Studio & Garden! I love to grow things, but I’m not interested in selling. Not even a little bit. A little donation to keep the gardens composted is enough for me. I just want to share these heirloom bulbs with fellow gardeners.
    Email heirloombulbgirl@gmail.com for more info.

    Happy Gardening, my friends!

  • The Love of Heirloom Bulbs

    This.

    The old paper.

    The old-style calligraphy.

    The old Latin text.

    The old botanical art.

    I love it all. I’ve always been drawn to antiquity, whether it is a flower, an old black and white photo, historic buildings or a page of music that my violin teacher’s teacher wrote upon in the early 1900’s. My love towards preserving the unseen or the forgotten has been a passion for as long as I can remember. Love can be manifested in many different ways. The love and preservation of the Heirloom Flower Bulb has been a deep-rooted passion since for as long as I can remember.

    My first taste of an Heirloom Bulb came literally in the form of a beautiful pink cabbage-petaled Peony. Peonies smelled intoxicatingly delicious, and well, yes… I licked the sap off those gorgeous flowers. Licking sap off the Peony is not recommended as peonies are poisonous. Children, like myself, are not meant to play “Bumblebee” with poisonous plants. In fact, I often tested my boundaries with the wild things by way of eating wild mushrooms, the neighbor’s raspberries, random flowers and lilacs. I loved all flowers, even the ones I ate, but I grew very fond of the old Peonies. It fascinated me that flower bulbs came back year after year, no matter what. As a child, this was nothing less than magical.

    Neighbors down the street noticed my love for flowers and poured their knowledge into me. Rabbi And Mrs. Horowitz greeted me at their front door with scissors and a vase. I suppose they knew that I would hack at their Heirloom Roses inappropriately if they didn’t teach me properly. I have such fond memories of their gentle ways, the beautiful rose garden in their backyard with heirloom rose cuttings that came from their own family members. Mrs. Horowitz took time sharing the stories of her roses and taught me, a young child, how to love and respect old plants. (I have tried to create a rose garden in their honor, but unfortunately the gophers have other plans). :/

    After the Peonies and the Horowitz Heirloom Rose Garden of my childhood, I became an Heirloom Iris addict. It wasn’t long after my family relocated to Colorado Springs that I found an abandoned Iris garden in the empty lot next to our house. My Dad and I spent hours unearthing the old fountain and Iris rhizomes that had been covered up after decades of neglect. A neighbor had told us that at the turn of the century, the gardens on West Cheyenne Mountain Road were eye-stoppers. The neighbor actually showed us an old black and white photo from the 1940’s of cars lined up to simply drive by the gardens. Rare black Iris were in abundance. We lived in that house just one year, but it was one of my favorite houses that I ever lived in. Years after we moved, I took my own little family by the old Cheyenne Mountain house in hopes of retrieving some historic Black Iris. Unfortunately, much to my great sadness, the gardens were bulldozed and the lovely lot became a common McMansion. I will always treasure those timeless moments of sitting on the ground with a hand shovel, gently unearthing the garden alongside my Dad.

    Fast forward to my early twenties. I was now in central Texas during Fall. Need I say more? It rained, and what seemed like overnight, Oxblood Lilies popped up all over town. I’ve never been the same since. Oxblood lilies seemed to grow wild where my in-laws lived, and I began to ask around about the red lilies growing everywhere.


    “Those are just weeds”

    “Well, can I dig up your weeds then?”

    “Help yourself”

    Thus started the first bulb dig 32 years ago this Fall. I’ve been digging ever since. I’ve salvaged a lot of old bulbs from homesteads and historic home teardowns. I’ve jumped barbed wire fences, been face-to-face with rattlesnakes, dug in the rain in front of bulldozers, broken more shovels than I care to admit and all the while…the Lord keeps whispering “Just Keep Digging”

    Honestly, I don’t even know why. My hands hurt, my body aches and I have countless thorns in my fingers on any given day….and I love every minute of it. 🙂

    We’ve all read “ To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Heirloom Bulbs live that quote. They are worthy of every single “blood, sweat and tears” (and broken shovels) of bulb rescues.. Heirloom Bulbs will outlive your grandchildren’s grandchildren. This weekend, the Rockwall Master Gardeners are doing a very special class featuring Heirloom Bulbs. Chris Weisinger, from Southern Bulb Company, will be giving a presentation. You can purchase Heirloom Bulbs from them. A fantastic way to start your weekend!

    Happy Gardening, my friends!


  • Turning Graves into Gardens. Flood Relief Fundraiser with Heirloom Oxblood Lilies

    Turning Graves into Gardens…

    The last week and a half have been beyond any words.
    I honestly have nothing. There are simply not enough sentiments to express the sorrow of the loss of children and families during the devastating flash floods in the Texas Hill Country. The damage is overwhelming, but the loss of life is gut-wrenching. God promises that He will turn “mourning into dancing” and “Graves into Gardens”, as I was reminded by my student Malaya’s father. Malaya helped save her siblings from their van that was swept into the water, but unfortunately, she didn’t make it.

    Turn mourning into dancing? Graves into Gardens?
    How is that even possible? As a mother, I could not imagine that there would ever be a day that I could dance again. But time is nothing to God. God dwells in the eternal. He sees the lives touched by the last moments of goodness. He sees beyond. He sees the light of those that have been brought to literally to millions. It’s hard to fathom, but Faith must to step in and carry our heartbreak for us.

    Faith is there to pick us up when we fall on our faces in grief.

    Faith is there to guide us when we can’t move forward.

    Faith is there to gently encourage our broken hearts.


    There is no answer to the age old question..Why? Why do bad things happen to good people, and why do good things happen to bad people? Why do children get hurt? Why the pain and destruction of this world? I cling to the promises of the Lord. There will be a day where there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain and no more heartbreak. The lion will lie down with the lamb and be at peace.

    Until that day, we carry on. We do what we can for our neighbor, and we love God through the high moments of life, and through the lowest of lows. We have no words, only acts of random bits of kindness and comfort.

    I don’t have much, but I do have flower bulbs. I’m offering a sweet family of Oxblood Lilies, in honor of my student Malaya Hammond, with 100% donation going to families affected by the devastating floods. I know three families personally, as well as the loss of Malaya, a beloved viola student. You can purchase bulbs on Etsy, contact me by email, or reach out to me somehow. All proceeds (after shipping/fees) will go directly to donation. I’ve been using Venmo, with a picture receipt for each donation. There is a children’s grief camp, Ark, an organization that helped us during the 2018 flood. Ark is mucking out houses and providing housing, clothes, furniture etc at no cost, as well as the individual families I’ve mentioned. Thus far, Heirloombulbgirl has raised over $900 and has already sent it on out to families!
    Thank you to every who already ordered and “planted joy” in the midst of sorrow. We are called to make the world a better place, and to be the “light on the hill”….Malaya, your sweet soul lived that.
    For more information, please feel free to email Heirloombulbgirl@gamil.com

    with love, Keenan

  • A Crinum Named Ellen

    Ah, Miss Ellen Bosenquat. What a lovely name for an even lovelier flower bulb. When all the other summer flowers are laying limp on the garden floor, Ellen rises up after a little rain and stately declares “All eyes on me!” Ellen steals the show every time. She is a bright, striking shade of dark pink and is definitely a Crinum worthy of catching. This month I’ve decided to showcase each wonderful Crinum. Ellen screamed pink the loudest, so she is featured first.

    Ellen Bosenquat Crinum, as with all Crinum, are extremely low maintenance, and easy flower bulbs to grow. These old-time flowers will flourish in your summer garden long beyond your years in the garden. My favorite fun fact about Heirloom Bulbs is that they will outgrow your children’s Grandchildren. In fact, I lay awake at night wondering what I’m going to do with all these beloved bulbs. Heirloom Bulbs just keep growing, growing and growing…..multiplying like rabbits, while I keep growing older, achier and tired! Bulb gardening with large bulbs like Ellen Bosenquat is like having a cute little petting zoo with elephants. If I’m not careful, Crinum will soon eat the studio for an afternoon snack.

    Ellen is a hearty bloomer and is currently showing her stuff in Southern gardens everywhere. I enjoy planting my Crinum in places near Paperwhites, which are dormant in the summer. I also whimsical wildflowers to grow near the larger bulbs for a nice texture, as well as Frog Fruit, and other native ground covers to spread out around the bulbs. Another wonderful attribute of Crinum is the shade they supply to the ground where spring bulbs can be co-planted, just remember where you plant your bulbs so they won’t get lost in a sea of Crinum.

    It’s June. A beautiful time of year for Ellen. May your gardens scream pink as loud as Ellen does. There are plans in the works for a monthly “pop-up” shop at the Agape Haus Studio and Garden. Heirloom Bulbs, natives, wildflower seeds, vintage china and flower pots will all be available. The first “pop up” sale will be over Labor Day Weekend. Limited large blooming Crinum will also be sold….including Ellen. Details to come. 🙂
    Happy Gardening, my friends!


  • Crinum…The Queen of the South

    Few flower bulbs stop a person in their tracks quite like a Crinum. These flowers are bold, passionate, unique, showy and intoxicating. I find myself unable to even write due to the sheer amount of time I’ve spent in the garden Crinum-gazing (and weeding!). There are simply no words to convey the true beauty of an Crinum, so I’ve decided to use this little blog as a picturesque look at the Southern garden in early summer. Crinum bloom joyfully throughout the summer after a nice rainfall. Some Crinum even produce hearty seed pods to collect and share with fellow gardeners and friends. There are hundreds upon hundreds of different varieties of Crinum. I mainly grow old “found” Crinum, rescued or salvaged from teardowns, so the pictures I’ve chosen to showcase are all collected or gifted to me by fellow gardeners. Enjoy your photo-walk through my garden with the Queen of the South…Heirloom Crinum.

    Happy Gardening, my friends!

    for more information on Crinum, please email me at heirloombulbgirl@gmail.com 🙂

  • Restoration Complete

    This is the year of restoration.
    This is the year that the gardens won. The wildflowers beat the odds, through drought and early heat, and still flowered on. The beauty of the meadow has finally appeared, and the wildflower seeds that were collected and sowed last year have begun to flourish. After 10 long years of grueling sticker-thorn and weed pulling, the land has be *finally* been restored. By no means is my job tending this incredible little “Garden of Eden” over. Now I get to step off the hustle-bus and simply enjoy the garden’s beauty within itself.

    No more hauling rock.

    No more digging out garbage.

    No more pulling out a bucket of daily thorns.

    No more chopping down invasive trees.

    No more tearing down a drug-house eye soar.

    No more digging endless stone out of the earth.

    No more hauling countless Heirloom Bulbs from the flooded house.

    No more tears over lost beloved plants during times of drought.

    Restoration complete.

    Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of compost to be continually hauled, straw to lay out, veggies to tend, poppy heads to dry, tomatoes to pick, Heirloom Bulbs to dig, plants to muddle around with and weeds to tend to…but the beauty of restoration after 10 long years is complete. (I detailed more of the restoration process in a blog titled The Fallow Ground, in case anyone is interested in the process of land restoration)

    *breathe*

    *exhale*

    God is good.

    HAPPY Gardening, my friends!

  • The Repairer of the Breach

    ”The Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Those from among you shall build the old places, you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” -Isaiah 58:11-12

    The Repairer of the Breach…

    There are few phrases that stop me in my tracks and cause me to take notice more than this one. Not only are the words so poetic and lovely, but the beautiful imagery is exactly what I desire. What’s not to love about continual guidance by the Lord, spring fed gardens, waters that never fail, and promises of calm and safe streets to dwell in. The mere fact that we are called to become part of this beautiful verse overwhelms me deep in my soul. I love the fact that I, a little music-playing, flower-loving girl can be used for such a mighty calling as a “Repairer of the Breach”. It is said that the Lord takes the ordinary and enables them to do extraordinary things. Mighty indeed. In fact, the call to action before the poetic images seems almost insignificant compared to the blessings He will bestow upon us.

    “If you extend your soul to the hungry, And satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.” -Isaiah 58:10

    Simple words with a huge impact….Extending ourselves to those in need. Seems pretty basic to me, but yet the need is overwhelming. Where to even begin? How do we repair the huge divide between people, and heal the brokenness? Not just the physical brokenness, like the Heirloom Crinum I was holding in the photo, but the emotional brokenness among people. To repair is to mend something, consciously and collectively, whether it be a broken relationship, a garden plot or even an Heirloom Crinum that had been run over by a bulldozer. In most cases, it is easy to sit back and let others do the repairing. It is hard and messy to get in the middle of a breach to begin restoration. I have to admit, buying a new Crinum might be easier than breaking shovels trying to salvage the old ones, but I really like watching the process of restoration. I love the idea of being a “repairer”. Sometimes the breach is too big, but repairing something that is broken is always worth the effort. Here are a few simple ways to be a Repairer of the Breach….

    *Draw closer to the Lord….“There is a God who created man, and there is man who created their own gods through power, money and strength.” It’s good to know the difference.

    *Affirm others’ dignity….“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And Love your neighbor as yourself.”

    *Speak words of encouragement….“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.”

    *Sacrifice selfish tendencies and place others’ needs in front of your own wants….Ouch. What a contrary statement to what our “me first” society preaches. Change starts with me. Michael Jackson’s song Man in the Mirror says it best. “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change.”

    The Repairer of the Breach. Lots of breaches out there to repair, especially during this Election Day. Remember, just like one salvaged Crinum will bring years of beauty, the repaired breaches can put real change in motion.
    Happy Gardening, my friends. Be that change agent.

  • Hollie’s Crinum Baby Bulbs

    A few months ago, I collected a bunch of Crinum seed pods at my daughter Hollie’s graduation from Texas A&M. When I say “a bunch”, what I really mean is that my cup runneth over and flooded the potting shed. I honestly didn’t know just how many I had until it was time to start the growing process. This weekend, I finally got most of them planted. I’ve had a few gardeners reach out lately regarding the blog post with free Crinum seed pods, and wanted to give you a quick update.

    As you might know, growing bulbs from seed is not for the faint of heart. Remember the fruits of the Spirit you learned about in Sunday School way back when? “Patience”, “Hope” and “Longsuffering”? Yep….Those fruits are put to the test when starting those little seedpods. Here is a small glimpse into the process of growing Crinum from seed pod (the average gardener’s way)….

    First, you must pick the right amount of soil, light and water. Then wait.
    And wait.
    And wait.
    And then wait some more.

    Finally, after you accidentally forget about the seed pods, they decide to sprout. You get mad at yourself because some of the cute little pods dried up and died. You do a quick scientific analysis of the problem. Probably too much water, but actually not enough water. Along with too much sunlight and not enough sunlight at the same time. You feel much better knowing that you still maintain the “average gardener” status, and didn’t sink down into the level of “killing-everything-in-sight gardener” (that status is reserved for your houseplants, which are on a day by day life expectancy).
    You quickly give the surviving seedpods a blast of water and then go about your week until you accidentally forget about them again.

    Please tell me I’m not the only absent-minded gardener.

    Anyhow, this dead-almost-dead drudgery carried on throughout the summer. Luckily, Heirloom Bulbs (even as seedpod babies) are way smarter than I am. Heirloom Bulbs are survivors, so about 400 plus little Crinum babies survived my ineptness. I am happy to report that I have planted about 25% of the bulbs in pots. Then I got impatient and planted the rest in an empty veggie garden raised bed. I still have about 25-50 little bulbs left if anyone out there wants some. The good news for you is that I’ve already mentally muscled through the hard part of seedpod planting, so all you need to do is stick them in the soil. 🙂

    The greenery will freeze in the Winter and bulbs in the pots will freeze too. Keep your infants inside and keep them growing. The bulbs grow quickly and in a few years, they might even get to be of blooming size. Remember, Heirloom Bulbs will survive your Grandchildren’s Grandchildren. These bulbs are in it for the long haul. To me, it is glorious to have these old gals take root and share their blooms year after year. Email heirloombulbgirl@gmail.com if you’d like your own little Crinum.

    Happy Gardening, my friends!