It was a long week here. The weather reports promised rain on most days but it never came to my garden, and this morning I was out there with the watering hose just like most everyone else has been doing for weeks. Tonight I heard thunder but again, no rain.
I was anticipating one good side effect of the break in rain here might be that an odd yellowing of one of my fig trees would stop. I was attributing the yellowing leaves to too much water. However, even after a sunny and much drier week, this is what I found in the garden today:
1. Sickly Fig Tree
I have never seen anything like this before. The figs are ripening, and the birds don’t mind eating them (I saw mockingbirds and blackbirds all over the tree today) but I am going to be very hesitant to eat from this tree given these yellowed leaves. If it’s not a result of overwatering, my second guess would have been poison. A next door neighbor poisoned a lot of our plants and trees a few years ago by overspraying Roundup repeatedly along the edges of her land and along the sidewalk. My garden (and this fig tree) is also streetside, so runoff from anything the City might be spraying along the street or sidewalk could affect the fig tree. However, nothing nearby seems to have similarly damaged foliage. So I’m puzzled, and will have to begin researching. If anyone has experienced this before, I’d love to know what you think.
2. Elderberries
The elderberries are coming ripe, and this tree is just next to the fig tree that is yellow. See how green it is? The birds are also harvesting these little berries, as I expected they would, but I might be able to get a few of these if I can reach them.
3. Naked Ladies
My mother, who lives in Ohio, has given me so many bulbs of these lilies over the years – too many to count. In her yard there they grow in masses. In my yard, they live for a year and then tend to disappear; I think it’s too hot in Georgia for them to be happy. My mom calls them resurrection lilies; I’ve most often heard other people call them Naked Ladies; but I believe they are actually Amaryllis belladonna. They send up a nice thick bunch of heavy strap-like green leaves very early in the spring, which soon die back to the ground. Sometime later these beautiful flowers spring up on their own, without leaves. Thus the name, “naked ladies.” The leaves you see in this picture belong to other plants.
4. Baby Tomatoes
I was late putting any tomato plants into the ground, and not sure I even wanted to do so. Tomatoes are not really my favorite. But a garden sale I visited had them at half price on clearance, organically grown, and if no one bought them they were clearly going to be thrown out . . . so home with me they came. Here are the first little tomato fruits on my vines.
5. Coreopsis
I haven’t had a coreopsis plant in awhile. I’m hoping this one will reseed. Isn’t it cute?
6. Tithonia
I can never leave the garden in summer without taking at least a few pictures of the tithonia, or Mexican sunflower. This single plant is almost six feet tall and about that in diameter. I’ve pretty much let a handful of them take over one of my 4×10 foot raised garden beds. They are all in various stage of bloom, some already making seed for me. But as of yet, I have still not seen the first butterfly on them this year. They should be attracting many, many butterflies, so I’m trying not to worry.
For more about The Propagator’s Blog and how to join this “Six on Saturday” meme, go to Six on Saturday – a Participant Guide.
My Own Little Allotment 
I hope you get to the bottom of whatever is ailing you fig. As you say it’s a bit of a mystery. Love your Coreopsis.
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It’s a pretty little coreopsis, isn’t it? So far all research indicates overwatering of the fig which is what I thought at first. Apparently it is one of the most common fig problems or questions. Actually, stress from either over or under watering is what they say will cause this yellowing and leaf drop off. In my case, that had to be too much water, at the time. I should have cleared out the undergrowth, maybe, and put down a layer of mulch. Often I do that but I haven’t gotten to it yet this year. If I had, maybe it would have been drier underneath the tree. Certainly more airflow.
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Your Amaryllis is very early flowering, the earlier of my two forms doesn’t flower until mid to late August, the other a month later. May just be your climate I guess.
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Definitely the climate, as the very same bulbs will not flower in Ohio, at my mother’s house, until late summer or early fall.
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By the way, which two forms do you have?
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Adore that photo of the tithonia w/the oak leaf & the little green insect(?) on the petal. Both your coreopsis & naked ladies are stunners. I didn’t realise the bloom cycle of the latter, as I’ve never had them., so yet another plant on my wish list! Hopefully your fig problem is watering. Whatever it is, since the surrounding plants aren’t bothered, most likely not poison, wouldn’t you think? Also . . . love your ‘wallpaper’ or background on the blog. What is that a photo of? I think leather, then metal, then paper, then finally can’t decide. Very nice.
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Hi, thanks for your comments! I was at a local historical cemetery this week and saw dozens more naked ladies blooming there. I didn’t realize that other people were growing them much, and it was reaffirming to see that they are blooming at the same time as mine. It truly is based on climate. The yellow leaves all seem to have dropped from the fig tree now, leaving bare fruit and a few green leaves on many branches. I’m planning to cut it back severely this winter. I think it will be okay. My wallpaper photo is an unretouched view of an old concrete wall, in dark shadow. If you go to a tab titled Pictures on my site and scroll down to the Beltline pictures, it is the second one, with some concrete blocks on the ground and a couple of crossed bamboo or dried tree stems. The sun was shining through trees onto the wall, which was heavily stained by age and environmental exposure. I thought the scene looked like a painting. And I’m loving the photo as a background. That place is gone now, of course. Cleaned up and made perfect and new. Thanks for the compliment!
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I’ve finally been able to have a look at the original photo (SoS keeps me busy!) & wow, what an eye you have. I would never have see the potential in the photo, which is really wonderful, to become wallpaper. Photographers & their vision, it always amazes me.
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