A Visit to Shangri La

East of Houston, in a town called Orange, lies Shangri La. It was created by H.J. Lutcher Stark in 1937. Shangri La was H.J.’s vision turned reality. While he was overseeing Shangri La, he would open it to the public during the spring blooming season. There were countless spring days when the garden received thousands of visitors.

After a devastating ice storm in 1958, the gardens were abandoned. Nearly 50 years later, they were rejuvenated by the Stark foundation and re-opened to the public, but this time year-round.

Two of the water gardens were packed with perennials.

This is the entrance to the children's garden.
Definitely not just for kids.

Unusual to see this many different columbines growing in these parts.

I'm always on the lookout for bottle trees.

They had some great vegetable beds and bird mansions.

 

 

Getting closer to the bird blind.

 

Thousands of Great Egrets were visiting.

The Stark family made their fortune in the lumber business and grew it with the oil and financial industries. The home of H.J. Lutcher Stark’s parents is still standing and is in pristine condition with all of the original furnishings (as things went out of style his mom would send them to a warehouse for storage, luckily she was a bit of a pack rat.) The only family to ever live in the house is the Starks. However, the house was not saved by H.J. Lutcher, but instead his wife Nelda. He was ambivalent towards its preservation, thank goodness Nelda had the foresight to save it.






The interior of the house was a sight to behold. Literally, I could have spent an hour in each room of the 14,000 square foot house. It was gorgeous. But, you’ll have to go there to see it for yourself. Unfortunately they do not allow photography.

The gardens were beautiful this time of year, but I bet they would also be stunning in the spring when the 41 varieties of azaleas are blooming.

Update from my garden

Thankfully, we finally have a break from the 100 degree days. I’m not sure how much longer our plants could have taken that. Still no rain in my neck of the woods. It has been hit or miss all summer. My parents, on the northeast side of town, have gotten about twice as much as we have on the southwest, although that’s not saying much since I’ve only gotten about 3” this year.

Over the last couple of weekends I have given all of my backyard beds a boost with a mixture of diluted liquid seaweed, molasses, and fish emulsion. The seaweed is supposed to help them with the drought. There’s a long list of benefits of using these organic supplements in the garden and this is the year our plants need all the help they can get.

I’ve noticed two of my citrus trees, the ones in full sun, have yellowing leaves and some of the fruit has yellow on the side that is exposed to the sun. I think they are getting sunburned (but if you have another theory, please let me know). I’ve read that when the fruit gets sunburned it will eventually ruin the fruit. My mandarin is still on the small side, so I went ahead and picked the burned ones. That will let the tree put more energy into its root system anyway, which is not a bad thing.

The summer heat has been unreal, even for those of us who have lived here most of our lives. My husband and I decided we couldn’t take it anymore, so we looked at a high temperature map and found the coolest places in the country we could escape to, our choices were Seattle, Portland, OR and Portland, ME. We lucked into a good deal on plane tickets to Portland, OR and off we went. We were there while Irene was striking the east coast. We were worried for friends and family there, but we were grateful that we chose the west coast instead of the east coast for our vacation.

Portland is called the City of Roses and is home to the International Rose Test Garden and Japanese Garden in a 40 acre city park called Washington Park as well as the Portland Chinese Garden in Chinatown. I had a jacket on most of the time we were there, it was awesome. To see more pictures from my trip go to my online photo album.

The local plant sales will be getting into full swing later this month and will continue into October. The Houston Garden Club’s Bulb & Plant Mart, master gardeners plant sales, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plant sale to name a few. Check out my event calendar for more details.

Survey Says…Oman!

In my last blog post I was sitting in the Frankfurt airport waiting for my plane back to Houston. I posted some pictures of my trip and posed the question-Where in the world is Houston Garden Girl?”. The answer is: Oman.

I was on a business trip. I left Houston on May 23rd and spent about 4 days in Germany visiting a potential vendor, then spent the weekend in Heidelberg with my niece, and the last 2 weeks of my trip in Muscat with a short jaunt to our field operations. I work for a US petroleum company and have had the benefit of travelling to our offices in Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina. This was my first business trip to the Middle East, overall I have to say that it went very well.

I know many of us in the US have a picture in our mind of what we think the Middle East is like.  (I say that as if every country there is the same, even though it isn’t)  We think desert. And, while that is true, there are also a few surprises to be found. (Take a look at the last blog post, I was definitely surprised by some of the plants I saw growing there)

 

The city of Muscat is on the water and is just as humid, actually it may be more humid than Houston, and it is definitely hotter. The picture below is the view from my hotel.

It seemed very bright there when I went outside, I wonder if it is because the majority of the buildings are white?

On one of my days off, a co-worker took me to the nearby village of Nakhal. Despite the 105 degree temperatures (it was a cool day), we managed to do a lot of sight-seeing. We visited the fort, pictured below.

We took his Dad’s 4-wheel drive vehicle out to the wadis. Wadis are basically ephemeral rivers. They are wide, dry river beds, typically only having water after it rains.

We hiked for awhile along the wadi, until it was time to go back home for lunch.

Speaking of lunch…it happens to be date season there. I had never eaten a fresh date before, they were delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were date palms all over the city and the countryside. I think for the most part, the city palms are owned and maintained by the government, but the palms in the countryside (which look to me like a date palm forest) are actually owned by individuals who care for their plot of trees.

That’s all about Oman for now. I will be going back in a few months, wonder what will be in season then?

Where in the world is Houston Garden Girl?

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past 3 weeks or so. I have been out of the country. Actually, I am at an airport right now waiting on my connecting flight to get back to Houston. My poor hubby has been left with the watering duties while I've been gone during some of the hottest days Houston has ever seen in June.

So, can you guess where I've been?

A hedge of pride of barbados

Date Trees everywhere

Plumeria

Oleander and Bougainvillea

There's a beach

And some interesting flowering trees that I've never seen before...

Hmm... where could I be?