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Our first Grady flower blossom of the season appeared Sunday, May 3. It was on a volunteer I let grow in the xeriscape. There are several other volunteers that sprouted in acceptable places around the front yard, even a couple in one of the flower beds. Some six or eight years ago Grady Howard gathered seeds from a wildflower he saw on a golf course somewhere in the Panhandle, sprouted them in his greenhouse, and gave some of the seedlings to Joyce. We’ve been enjoying them ever since. Joyce first planted the sprouts given her in front of the kitchen window. The next winter was a wet one and they came back in profusion. We began to refer to them as Grady weeds. Since then we’ve learned how to control them and have changed that to Grady flowers. They are perennials, put on a nice daisy or galardia-like yellow flower and aren’t too bad about reseeding themselves so if one sprouts in a good spot it is welcome, but if not, well, those are easily eliminated. It is sort of handy to have some nice flowers on the cheap.
Friday we planted the flowers we got at Canyon’s Edge. Neil Hinders is the proprietor and he has gone from a seasonal nursery behind his house on a draw northwest of Canyon to a very nice new nursery just off the Canyon square. He specializes in local and drought-tolerant plants, many of them good for attracting butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. Several of the things we got there last year are blooming nicely this year and we got some new types to try in place of those that didn’t do well last year.
Back in the winter Chris bought some antelope milkweed seeds and gave them to me to plant. They needed to overwinter but winter was about gone by the time he gave them to us so we stuck them in the frig for a few weeks, then seeded them in Jiffy pots. Some have germinated and soon we’ll plant them. Chris read about antelope horn milkweed being good for butterflies and bees and paid over $20 for 50 seeds. That’s expensive but I think I would have been happy to pay the $20 and let him do the sprouting and planting.
Joyce finally got her tomatoes, etc. in and we stuck those in the ground on the caliche mounds Friday with some others previously planted. It was really pleasant doing our planting in ground still moist from the two plus inches of rain we got Monday. As you might expect, the place looks nice and green. It is a relief to know that everything has been thoroughly watered for the time being.
Saturday evening I went with the neighbors to the Bluff for a moonlight hike. Unfortunately, the clouds prevented the moonlight but they still claimed they enjoyed themselves. The board of directors of Wildcat Bluff approved putting a beehive on the premises, which I had suggested to Chris as his collection seems to have expanded beyond the carrying capacity of the neighborhood. While we were there to hike, we also scouted around for a place to put the hive(s); one that was acceptable to both of us, and succeeded in finding one. With the rain we’ve had, there are lots of wild flowers blooming out there.
Although we had no trouble with bugs on our hike, generally speaking the flies are pretty bad this year. Usually April is blessedly bug free but not this year. That does not bode well for the months when the flies are usually bad. We may be hoping for an early freeze next fall.