What a difference a rain makes.

Tale of Two Quilts

2011-12-31T09:19:00.008-05:00

Maggie's quilt

Usually I want to talk about plants. Or nature. Or little and big things that catch my eye. Today I can do better than all that. I got my Christmas present from my younger daughter- a beautiful handmade quilt. I know she's been working on it for months. It's her first one. She says it calms her down and she loses her worries in her work. It is a lovely combination of colors and patterns, and it is just perfect for me and my room.

Katie's quilt

This isn't the first quilt that's been made for me. Several years ago, my older daughter made me a quilt. It was also her first, and I think her last. At least so far. It too has lovely warm colors and patterns, very much like the new one, and also perfect for my room.
So now I have two quilts, handmade as labors of love, to keep me warm. The transition has been steady, and is now mostly complete. It used to be my job to bind their threads into the fabric of a family; to wrap them with soft strong surrounds; to keep them warm and protected. And to slowly let them go.
My girls are all grown up. There's a little bit of bittersweet pleasure in that idea. They have selected schools, careers, homes, pets, friends, loves. They have stitched those choices together into very personal and unique patterns. They are beautiful, intelligent, accomplished women- different as night and day- and each the love of my life. They fit me perfectly. I am still Mom, but will now rest wrapped in the beautifully crafted biographies of my capable girls. These quilts are already heirlooms. I will happily hold them in trust for the generations to come.

The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard.
~Sloan Wilson

Blessings of this Season

2011-12-24T07:25:00.006-05:00

The first day of winter. Dark early, light late, usually cold and gray. My most un-favorite time of the year. But this year, that turning point has come quickly, and easily. The weather has been gloriously mild, mostly sunny, and sprinkled with good rain.
It is also a busy time of year. I can usually get lost in the hustle and bustle of friends, family, shopping, gifts, visiting, cooking, and working. If I am honest, much of that busyness is in the service of avoiding the dark. This fall has been so much more mellow than others that I am trying to take some time to reflect a bit on the year, and to enjoy the gifts that surround me. I thought I might just share a few here.

Chimonanthus praecox

Chuck's Blue Sport

Heron Fountain, Huntsville Botanical garden

Huntsville Botanical Garden RR

Jasminum nudiflorum

Evergreen Acer

Mahonia x 'Winter Sun'

Pinus thunbergii 'Ogon' candle

Prunus mume 'Rosebud'

Pinus virginiana 'Wate's Golden'

LOOK AND SEE

This morning at waterside, a sparrow flew

to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back

of an elder duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.

The duck, too, was not provoked, but, you might say, was

laughing.

This afternoon a gull sailing over

our house was casually scratching

its stomach of white feathers with one

pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive your gift is to us, if we

only look, and see.

Mary Oliver, from Why I Wake Early

Giving Thanks

2011-11-22T16:05:00.004-05:00

If you've followed this blog at all, you are probably wondering when I will start complaining about the short days, early evenings, boredom, paperwork, and cold gray days. And how in the world will I manage to cope this year? I can't say for sure, but it has been such a gorgeous fall that maybe I have just repressed the inevitable.
Instead of getting SAD, I have been enjoying the warm sun, the vibrant colors, the work opportunities in such conditions. I have also been savoring the last days of my "new" garden this year- the Big Leaves.

Musa velutina

Thanks to donations of some of my gardening buddies, I had an absolute ball learning about some tropical looking shrubs, bulbs and perennials that have color, flowers, texture and stature of a completely different nature from my usual conifers, succulents and maples. This new bed has been amazing, luscious, relatively easy (except a little extra water just to get it established) and a treat, in part, because it is here today and will go away when it gets cold.

Brugmansia

Here's what I have learned so far:

Some Colocasias are prolific, regardless of drought. 'China Pink' was gangbusters!! Maybe not the most beautiful, but the toughest.
Even the plain old elephant ears have been very good, without much water or fertilizer. Others with dark leaves, dark stems, yellow or dark splotches did pretty well in the harshest of sunny conditions.

Amsonia hubrectii

Amsonia hubrechtii fall color

Amsonia hubrectii is a fantastic companion plant for these big coarse leaves. The summer foliage is soft, and the fall color is fabulous.

Dahlia imperialis buds

Dahlia imperialis really does get to look like a tree before it forms buds. Unfortunately, we had a bit of early frost this year before it actually bloomed, but I have great hopes for it next year.
There are many new lantanas on the market that are MUCH more showy, many more hot and interesting colors, and with an excellent range of sizes and habits.

Apricot Sunrise

Ham 'n Eggs

Vanilla Ice

Lantanas and Margarita

My favorites this summer were 'Ham 'n Eggs', 'Apricot Sunrise', 'Vanilla Ice', and 'Orange Crush'. All are touted to be perennial, and we know that 'Ham n Eggs' actually is. I have my fingers crossed for the others. We'll see next spring.

I am back to loving German Iris. I have been growing both dwarf and repeat bloomers in this bed and they are wonderfully tough and tolerant companions, too.

Big leaf Castor

red leaf Castor

red stem castor bean

The Castor Beans are deadly, but divine!! This year I had red leafed, green leaf and red stemmed, and an incredible HUGE leafed one that dazzled all summer.

Tetrapanax

Tetrapanax grows great in the shade and in the sun!! I gave my little starts a slightly low but totally exposed spot, and they thrived.

Euphorbia myrsinthes and Iris

Euphorbia myrsinthes is maybe one of the most interesting tough plants I have ever grown. I have had great luck with all of them in those tough exposed places, and they have generated the most questions and general interest of all the odd plants in that bed.

Morus alba 'Ho-O'

Most of all, I guess I can say I have made it to another Thanksgiving week full of curiosity, enthusiasm and awe at the world of plants that sit at my fingertips. After a really cold and miserable winter, which was followed immediately by a hot, dry and grueling summer, I am feeling pretty good about easing into a little down time. I've still got lots to learn, and the tremendous gift of time and opportunity to experiment, absorb, and share with my plant geek friends. In this glorious fall season I am so grateful to be able to do what I do. And not even thinking yet about the winter......

Just a Moment...

2011-10-16T13:17:00.004-04:00

I have too much to do. Well, don't we all. Too much to do in fits and starts. Too much multi-tasking, too many short attention span opportunities, too many emails, texts, phone calls, questions about too many diverse subjects. When November comes, I'll be free again. I can't wait for those long short days full of transplanting, weeding, pruning: you know, the totally boring, plodding, "alone with your thoughts" hours. My old brain craves that quiet country life pace.

In the meantime, I have been working on some talks I will give soon, and thought I would share a bit of the subject that fits our too hurried modern lifestyles: Garden Moments.

What I mean by that term is a small glimpse in a garden; one that might be at an entryway, a bend in the garden path, a specimen highlight.It can be just a plant or two; just a small feature that works to catch those wandering attentions and make a memorable statement. These few pictures are good examples. You can use anything.....container combinations, or the containers themselves; plants combined with art or architecture, or the art or plants themselves. You can create a mood with outstanding and exciting plants, or mellow out with cool, gentle or even formal plantings.

Remember, it is only a glimpse. This is not the place where the Landscape Architect gestures with waving arms about wide sweeps of azaleas or swales of impatiens. This is a little design idea good for those days when you just can't hold much more in your brain, but can be very satisfied with a tiny little personal touch of the gardener in you. And your garden can be very satisfied, too. Maybe we could even say that it could be a garden smile.

Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile. ~Paul Simon, "Only Living Boy in New York"

Hopeful Hurrican Season

2011-09-02T16:59:00.005-04:00

I've been sitting in my office for the last half hour pouring over the hurricane maps, the spaghetti tracks, the rain potential totals. Meanwhile, sweat drips from my hair onto my shoulders, and I have to wipe my face with my shirt sleeve every now and then. I am feeling a little more optimistic, now that the news seems a little more ominous. Yes, glad that the news is bad. And getting worse.

What a horrible person I am, wishing for flooding in New Orleans, after everything they've already suffered. But while taking that beating of 12-20 inches, they can hold on to the big storm Lee long enough to have it spin towards me with the first real rain in over a month. Is that too much to wish for?

Look at my field.

my back yard,

or my poor hydrangeas

And I am sure my conditions are not nearly as bad as those south of me, or south and west.

Look at my beautiful plants.
These babies need to have
new homes......ones that would be cool and wet. How can I send them out to others' gardens without that cooling rain?

Am I just rationalizing when I say everyone thinks this way? Is there a way to resolve this guilty conflict of interests? Maybe there is not. But I cannot think about this without being reminded of this poem. Better than any other glimpse of this age old question is this, from my dear friend
Elizabeth Seydel Morgan:

Watching the Weather Channel

Is it raining on you, Linda,

down in San Antonio-

raining too much?

Here in Virginia

the grass breaks

under our feet: the creek's

left some stones for the cows to lick.

The TV screen shows us cracks

in the earth where there used to be hay,

simulated systems massing

and fading across the globe.

We say we pray for rain

but what do we know

about asking for what we need?

We pray for the hurricane

to go around you- but send us its fringe,

the way we pray for the hand of Death

to pass on to another geography.

Glass Half Full

2011-08-06T11:30:00.006-04:00

It is on days like this I remember why I chose the name for my blog. It has continued to be really hot, and really dry. Each morning the weather lady tells me that the heat advisory includes my county, and that the chance for shower relief is 20%. Each afternoon the field turns another notch towards the right on the green to brown color continuum. Each night I fall into bed exhausted, having done little actual work besides watering and weeding.
While wandering around the nursery trying to figure out where to start today, I am also reminded that there are a really good handful of plants that actually like this hot dry weather (besides crabgrass, that is....) So today I am applauding these durable woodies which perform in spite of my negligence. Let's take a look:

Rosmarinus 'Anna Hulke'

Rosemary is a no-brainer. And comes in many sizes, forms, and textures. This picture is of a large sturdy shrub form called Anna Hulke. I don't do anything to it, but this big upright takes pruning very easily, and could be a very formal hedge. As far as I know, nothing can kill it.....maybe the combination of bad drainage and irrigation.

Abelia 'Rose Creek' and Lantana 'Apricot Sunrise'

Lantanas and Margarita

Nothing in the summer really beats
Lantana.
There are many coming on the market that are cold hardier than they used to be, and can now be considered perennial in many areas. In addition to profuse flowering in a wide range of colors and habits, these plants are deer proof, and maintenance free. That's my kind of plant!

Buddleia x 'Silver Anniversary'

Anisacanthus wrighti

A couple of easy, tough shrubs are Buddleia "Silver Anniversary' and Anisacanthus wrightii. Each of these loves hot weather, grows to about 3'x3', and they are also deerproof.

Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'

Another group of plants that are a joy in mid to late summer are Caryopteris (Blue Mist Shrub) There's 'Longwood Blue', Summer Sorbet', Worchester Gold' and 'Snow fairy' just to name a very few. Deer Proof, tough, and a bumble bee magnet!

Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy'

Caryopteris 'Worchester Gold'

Cupressu glabra 'Chapparal' behind Caryopteris 'Summer Sorbet'

Here's a photo of an old fashioned southern
garden plant : Cestrum parqui. It blooms from about May thru till frost. We usually prefer botanical names, but this plant is often referred to as the "peanut butter plant" because of that distinct foliage smell.

Cestrum parqui

Another very aromatic plant that shines in the heat is this green santolina. It will make a fantastic dark green mound that will not melt out no matter how hot or dry it gets.

Santolina virens

Another great group of plants that I like more and more each day is the shrub Hypericums. They are evergreen, deer proof, heat and drought tolerant. They have large starburst yellow flowers in mid summer, and maintain a nice neat habit of about 3-4' x3-4' with absolutely no maintenance. These are not easily found in the retail market, but certainly should be. Go look for them in gardens around your area.

Hypericum densiflorum

Hypericum pseudohenryi

Hypericum kalmianum

I will throw a few plant combos in here. I am sure there are many possibilities, but these turned up in my early August garden as examples: From herbaceous perennials to evergreen shrubs to magnificent large conifers, there are many plants that can spice up your summer garden. Now is the time to find them, take note, and make plans to put them in your garden as soon as it cools off and starts raining again. "For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else "- Sir Winston Churchill

Agave, Euphorbia, Juniperus deppeana


Amsonia hubrechtii and Colocasia 'Black Magic'

Conifer display

Opuntia and Artemisia

Recess

2011-07-07T11:44:00.001-04:00

Beach Sand
by Raymond A. Foss

Maybe it is the memories
the change of pace that brings us there
the sense of vacation
maybe the smell of the place
the sights of the gulls, the dunes, the grasses
but oh it is the feel of it,
the crunch and slide of it
the feeling of beach sand
so different from dirt, soil, loam
no, not earthy, moist, rich,
but oh so granular and gritty
even when wet,
moveable paper spreading under toes
sliding beneath the soles
smoothing my skin
clearing my mind
unburdening me of the rest
drawing me to the tactile, the feel
of beach sand

July 15, 2006

Summer School

2011-06-22T19:33:00.006-04:00

There's a lot to learn. I think that's the good news. But this past week I got a glimpse of just how much fun those lessons can be. My hard working assistant Adam and I got up very early last Friday to drive to up to Gainesville, GA to see some garden projects done by the Fockele Garden Company. Mark Fockele had graciously offered to show us some of the gardens that plants from Specialty Ornamentals have populated. I was eager to see my "babies" in use, and also eager to give Adam the opportunity to see first class garden design first hand. Besides, this was also an opportunity to NOT sweat for a few hours while still technically working.

We started in the Fockele garden, and were amazed by the wide cultural niches available- sun, shade, flat, hilly, wet, dry, containers, beds, masses, specimens. A vast array of plants have been woven throughout the property, but at every turn there were brilliant "garden moments". Small items together, big broad brushes of texture and color all combine to create mood and magic.

We moved on up the street to the Enota School, one of the Gainesville City Public Schools. Blah......that is a horrible name for what this place is. The address on Enota Dr is the home of SMARTVILLE, and that name is apt. A modest brick building just off the road is now tucked in behind a perennial border,

above a cistern system,

attached to huge water storage tanks and just off a fully planted swale and water runoff abatement system. “The goal is to never use city water on the garden,” said Fockele Garden Company owner Mark Fockele. “When you see all of the environmental problems that we are having, we all could do better to conserve resources, and it’s important to teach children these skills early on.”

"The project also includes a demonstration garden that will exhibit representatives of all nine phyla in the plant kingdom, and which provides important teaching tools on plant taxonomy and related topics. This garden, called the ‘Smartville Plant Kingdom,’ so far includes representatives from five of the extant nine plant phyla: ferns, gnetophyta, ginkgos, conifers, and flowering plants. Subsequent phases will introduce representatives of the remaining phyla: mosses, lycopods, cycads, and psilophyta."

After a tour of this incredible project, both Adam and I went home inspired, curious, and energized to get back to work. On the way home, the question was asked and answered....

"Are you smarter than a fifth grader?"

Not a fifth grader from SMARTVILLE!!

Magic at Magnolian Grove

2011-06-14T18:37:00.006-04:00

HOT. HOT. HOT. What can you do? If you've been reading along, you know I hate paperwork. Well....would it give you a hint at how hot it is if I told you that my inbox of bills, statements, etc, is completely empty? I've been getting up REALLY early to work. I've been swimming every afternoon to cool off. But sometimes, I've just got to get away and stop thinking about how hot it is.
Last week I had the distinct honor and incredible privilege to ride with Dr Mike Dirr and Coach Vince Dooley to see the Magnolia collection of Dick and Anita Figlar in the foothills of South Carolina. Dick is the global Magnolia guru, and has a comprehensive collection of Magnolias from around the world. It was hot there, too, but we were all bubbling with energy.
After a quick pit stop and a bottle of water, we headed out to the collection. What Dick has done with this 20 acre slice of woodland paradise is remarkable. Cleared paths, lined paths, rock piles, and planted Magnolias at every step mark off the days and years of Dick's fascination with this group of plants. They purchased this property 20 some years ago, with the idea that it would be a long term retirement destination, and it could also house the collection as it grew. Trouble was, they lived in New York. Quite a commute!
A small loft cabin became a vacation home for the family every year. The boys grew, and so did the collection.

We walked down the hill to the creek. We walked up the hill to the cabin. We headed up another hill to the Magnolia grandiflora collection. All the while, Dick was elucidating the subtle differences of species and varieties. This time, Dirr played the expert as student. Taxonomy and DNA studies cemented the conclusions, but we all had our favorites,

Magnolia faveolata 'Shibamichi Gold'

Magnolia yuyuanensis

and I still had plenty of questions and missing information.

While Magnolias are tops with these two, Dick pointed out a weeping Nyssa sylvatica

weeping Nyssa

on the property that gave us all shivers, even as we sweat.

The animated conversation continued in air conditioned comfort at the lunch table Anita had set for us. I felt at times like I was watching a tennis match, but it sure was a good one. The Figlars are a delightful couple, and tremendous hosts. I really appreciated the incredible lesson.

Weeper's Walk

After the ride back to Athens, we stretched our legs at the Dooley garden. Coach Dooley has a beautiful garden, and a fabulous collection of plants of all kinds. We perused the Magnolias first, then followed the paths to the rest of the treasures. We checked out the new conifer areas in the garden, especially installed for the ACS SE Region tour he will host in October. I barely kept up with the continuous plant quiz from the Professor. It was a smile at every turn.

Cercidiphyllum japonicum 'Tidal Wave'

Evergreen Kousa cultivars

Woody plants are what I do. This day full of the best of woody plants with the best of woody plant people is the best work day I can imagine. I have to say again how much of a thrill it was for me to be that little fly on the wall at the meeting of these giants of horticulture. I promise you, I never thought about the weather for one second that day, and had plenty to think about for days to come.You know....it's true......

People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.

~Anton Chekhov

Without Hesitation

2011-05-02T15:01:00.005-04:00

It's been a bear of a spring. From the dismal and brutal midwinter cold, we turned around to find ourselves in early summer. Never mind what the calendar said. Never mind that I had hardly put a dent in my winter "to do" list.
So the spring season here at the nursery began with a bang. I gave early spring classes. I tried to keep up with late winter propagation, transplanting, weeding, fertilizing, planting. I traveled to plant sales all around the southeast, opened our retail sales here at the nursery, and touched base with our wholesale customers trying to keep up with the sudden change in the weather. It has been exciting. It has been physically and mentally draining. It has been a great relief to my hungry bank accounts.
But as I have been almost too busy to notice, the cold of winter and heat of almost summer have been fighting it out over the mid section of the country. Some of my friends have been in terrible danger. Damage to structures and gardens continues. Hundreds have died in the devastation of hundreds of tornadoes. I have breezed through pictures of ruin with little time for sorrow, gratitude or even guilt.
I've been in and out of town thru the entire month of April, and had a big trip scheduled to visit my daughter in Chapel Hill NC. A longish drive up there, and another of the terrible storms thru most of the next day gave me some time to decompress a bit. I spent some time reading, and even a few extra hours asleep. Katie and I went out to a special dinner at the Saxapahaw General Store and spent time talking and laughing in the luxury of time we have not had together in years.
The next day, I had scheduled a visit to the Keith Arboretum (http://www.keitharboretum.org) . Dr Keith has been collecting plants from all over the world since the early 1970s. From humble beginnings, it has grown to over 4000 labeled woody species on 25 acres. I stopped at Trader Joe's for some great cheddar cheese and crusty bread for a picnic. The storms had cleared out and left blue sky and fresh breezes. And I had most of the day to wander the Arboretum alone.

Calocedrus decurrens

Cinnamomum chenkangeinsis

big and small conifers

Lithocarpus chinensis

Cercis canadensis 'Ace of Hearts'

Calycanthus floridus 'Athens'

Calycanthus floridus

cicada shells on Schizophragma

Juniperus rigida 'Pendula' fruit

conifer glory

Pterostyrax hispida

Pinus bungeana bark

Picea cone

Sinocalycanthus 'Venus'?

Sinocalycanthus 'Hartledge Wine'?

Tsuga chinensis

Viburnum dilatatum

Styrax

I started up the hill at the new dwarf conifer beds, photographing, taking notes, and running from one plant grouping to the next. I worked my way down the hill in the same manner, filling my camera and my notepad.

new dwarf conifer bed

After a while of frantic note and picture taking, I was getting tired and overwhelmed. Try as I might, I could not guess even genus much less species on most of the plants. I saw flowers I had never seen before on trees whose leaves seemed maybe familiar, but whose names did not. So much to see, so much more to learn.

Koi pond

I was also getting hungry, so I headed back to the truck to grab my ploughman's lunch. I walked across the driveway to the chairs by the pond and sat down in the shade to eat and watch the koi. I sat quietly, mesmerized by the huge lazy fish. The plantings around the pond gently caught my attention one by one, both out in the distance and again in the pond's reflection. It was an "Ah ha!" moment....a break in the frenzy that allowed me to really appreciate what I had in front of me.

Variegated Dogwood witches broom

After a while, I got up and went back to the truck. I put away my lunch, but also my notebook. I kept my camera just in case, but got out my earphones for listening to music. I went back out into the collection to see, not look. I walked to the tune of country songs. I strolled for hours more, gazing at the foliage contrasts, the dwarfs among giants, the fabulous colors, the amazing diversity of flower structures, a witches broom in a Dogwood, the shells of cicadas. It wasn't a day to learn everything. It was a day to enjoy.
I picked Katie up at work, and we went to a a friend's cut flower farm for a fun, and funny afternoon. WE laughed and looked and after a while we ate. It was the end of a fabulous day, with another planned for the next day. We got up the next morning, took a walk, got dressed and headed to Richmond VA to hear Mary Oliver read her poetry at St Stephen's Church.

St Stephen's Church

You have seen lines from Mary Oliver if you've read any of the blogs here. She is an amazingly gifted poet, and a champion of the beauty and majesty of the natural world. She also champions human life, and the gift of understanding. Her words are marks on a ruler by which we should all measure ourselves. This was an opportunity for my big girl and I to share one of our heroes as she spoke to us; a bonding moment for mother and child; a memory for the ages. It was all that. And it was more. She made us laugh. She made us smile. She made us wonder. And with one poem, she laid out before me the way to understand the months of spring, my days in North Carolina, my hours in the Arboretum, the minutes of the reading, that first instant with my first child.

Don't Hesitate

Mary Oliver

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that's often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Sensational

2011-03-20T09:07:00.012-04:00

Yesterday was a day for the senses. It started out routinely with early grocery shopping and a walk in morning air that was still cool but warming quickly. By the time I was laughing out loud with Click and Clack it was warm enough for shorts and a t shirt. As I worked, new spring smells reminded me it was time to take more pictures....Loropetalum chinense is deliciously sweet, while the fragrant Viburnums can be spicy and aromatic.
I had some plant unpacking to do from our last sale, and I was even a little sweaty by the time I had finished hauling plants here and there to put them back in their places.Abies pindrow I could feel the tingle of spring sun on newly exposed winter white legs and arms. This is what I had been daydreaming about all the long cold winter. Feels so good.
After some followup transplanting and rearranging,Pinus strobus 'Biltmore Blue' I was getting tired, and tired of being hot (be careful what you wish for), so I stopped to check out my new vegetable raised beds. Since the weather turned warm weeks ago, the early spring veggies have been going to town. I had some purple seed potatoes to put in, so I dug around into that rich composted soil to set them alongside the red skinned and Yukon Golds. I don't know about sustainable, organic, or green......but I do know that there are small daily pleasures in watching plants grow. I do this every day in the nursery, and often write about it. But the incremental gratification of producing your own food crops is a little different, and very special. I recommend that everyone go out and buy a packet of lettuce to sow, or some tomato plants after April 15th to put in pots. Get your kids involved, or the grand kids. They will remember the cool soil in their hands; the hot sun on their necks; the warm smile on your face; and finally the taste of independence, proficiency, and pride in that little green harvest.

In addition to that, March 19, 2011 was the day of the Moon perigee....the point in the moon's elliptical orbit when the moon comes closest to the earth. Since I was fixing up the retail area for our new season next week, I thought it might be fun to christen the new firepit while watching the full moon rise. We invited some friends over to picnic, talk plants and enjoy the moonlight. The air remained warm after the sunset, but the warmth of the fire was welcomed anyway. The big-headed cream colored moon rose over a cloud bank to the east, while to the north large thunderhead clouds flashed white and gold. Wow! What a show!! And certainly one we would have missed while inside just waiting for the moon to come in to window view.

All that would have been a full day. We were pleased with the new firepit, the visit with our friends, the moon and cloud show. I was tired by then, and headed to bed, with a final glimpse of that moon shining through the window as I closed my eyes. But around midnight I woke up to the most remarkable noise. One lone Mockingbird was singing for all the world outside the window. I thought it must have been the confusing light from the big full moon, but looked around this morning to find this information from www.birdwatching.com:

"The Northern Mockingbird is a world-famous singer...... The male mockingbird sings a medley of songs belonging to other birds, repeating each phrase several times before moving on to the next. Unlike most songbirds, which learn their songs before they're a year old, a mockingbird continues to expand his repertoire all his life. Some include the sounds of people whistling, frogs croaking, and doorbells ringing.

Although all adult male mockingbirds sing during the day, only a bachelor sings at night. He stops doing that as soon as he wins a mate. (This)..... was a love song."

Tired and sore from a full day of work I am just easing into, and still stinging from sunpinked cheeks, I lean back into the song of this winged Don Juan. He shares all his pickup lines, and all the snippets of lines he's picked up from other birds. He keeps at it over and over,phrase after phrase, hour after hour, till near dawn. Then he is gone, maybe a bachelor no more.

i thank you God for most this amazing... (65)

e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

The Gift of Sight

2011-02-23T18:38:00.006-05:00

I took a mental health day yesterday. The treatment was not so much for my brain as for my soul. I went to see the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Booth Museum, and stepped out of my daily life, and into the magnificence of the natural world on a grand scale. “Both the grand and the intimate aspects of nature can be revealed in the expressive photograph. Both can stir enduring affirmations and discoveries, and can surely help the spectator in his search for identification with the vast world of natural beauty and the wonder surrounding him.” This quote from Adams scratches the surface of what his photographs can do, and it is very hard for me to phrase it more completely. At once, he reveals intimate detail, and places it in the cosmic scheme.

Winter Sunrise Sierra Nevada 1944

The viewer is both humbled by the grandeur of the scenes, and also invited to be a part of the moment.

Oak Tree Sunset City

Dunes

Better writers than I can probably explain why his black and white photography is so effective. I can only say that without all the color to "distract" us, and with the exceptional workmanship in the print development, Adams gives us insight into the physical world, and a peek at what must be the more intimate and underlying constructs of the universe. Patterns of light and line are what human brains use to organize our individual worlds. But Adams has captured the essence of line and light as though to show all viewers the elements of the universe that we are a part of, and that are a part of us. As it turns out, that melding with the universe is very soothing, and as my friend Barbie pointed out, the room full of photographs was itself warm and quieting.

When we entered the exhibit, the first panel of introduction talked about Adams' love of the natural world, especially the Sierra Nevada. He was introduced to the Yosemite Valley on a family trip when he was 14. " The first impression of the Valley-white water, azaleas, cool fir caverns, tall pines, and solid oaks, cliffs rising to undreamed-of heights....was a culmination of experience so intense as to be almost painful. From that day in 1916, my life has been colored and modulated by the great earth-gesture of the Sierra".
What a modest, mature and marvelous description of a lifelong journey to the edges of the earth, and into the crevices of his own psyche.

Today I am back at work. I am taking his suggestion: "Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust to your own reactions and convictions. Ask yourself: "Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream? Can I visualize a print - my own personal statement of what I feel and want to convey - from the subject before me? "
and following him to the end of the skyline.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T17:29:00.007-05:00

I got the gift of a gorgeous warm day today, and I have savored it more than a box of chocolates. I always enjoy reminders that spring will be here soon, and this winter, I have needed them.

I'm offering classes at the nursery this spring. I want to get gardeners out here. I want to show them what I love about this dirty work. But mostly I just like to talk about plants. Yesterday was the first class..."The Garden In Winter". As much as I dislike the winter weather that keeps me indoors, I do love the plants that show off in that "off" season. So...before spring sneaks up on me, I thought I might just throw out some names of the best of winter interest plants. It will give me the chance to continue talking about them
.Helleborus x 'Pink Lady'

Helleborus foetidus.

Chaenomeles speciosa 'Contorta'
Ilex vomitoria 'Virginia Dare'

Jasminum nudiflorum

Mahonia x 'Winter Sun' STILL flowering

Cyclamen hederifolium Viburnum

Prunus mume

Hope you liked this little delicious Valentine's Day bite out of my winter garden. It is just a touch of what's out there, but you get the idea....If there is a special person in your life, or even a whole handful of special people, think about giving one of these very special plants on Valentine's Day. Your friend will enjoy it every Valentine's Day ever after. And when it turns cold and gray again, as it surely will, don't forget:

"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."
- Gertrude S. Wister

What a Difference a Snow Makes

2011-01-17T14:05:00.014-05:00

I have been briefly interrupted from my green movement investigations. In fact, my whole winter existence has been interrupted by an uncharacteristically heavy and persistent snow. I was stuck outside for two days taking down shade cloth and erecting supports for coldframes before the 6" we got. Then I have been stuck inside for a week doing everything from YouTube surfing to year end taxes (yes... I WAS desperate). Now we have rain on top of that, so there's still no working in the garden.
We did not lose any coldframes this time. The ice and freezing rain that followed made things slick, but not broken. So I'm sitting here thinking that, as bad weather goes, this snow event wasn't bad at all.
As it turns out, it was actually very good for all my plants.
You see, snow is both crystallized frozen water and molecules from the air such as sulphur and nitrogen. In other words, snow serves as something like liquid feed for plants.

In spite of feeling like snow and freezing rain make all the plants too cold or too wet, both conditions act as insulators for plants from really cold temperatures. You've probably heard of orange groves in Florida turning on the sprinklers when they are about to experience a big freeze. The ice that surrounds that tropical fruit is 32 degrees but no lower than 32, so it effectively keeps the inside of the fruit from freezing. It works the same way even in hardy plants, and is especially effective when the "Arctic Express" winds come blasting out of the north with temperatures in the teens or below. Smaller twigs on deciduous trees and many of the leaves on broadleaf evergreens can be spared the dessication that is common with fierce and cold winds.
In addition, the agonizingly slow melting is just perfect for seepage into all the right spots in the garden, and down down down to the water table below, leaving it's bounty as it slowly makes it's way. In the Southeast, we are rarely blessed with the equivalent fine rain or mist that would offer the same effect.
I think I need to retract my whining complaints about the last snowy week. All things considered, it was pretty good.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a Hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

Robert Frost

Stirring the Pot

2010-12-16T12:32:00.012-05:00

Gosh, the weather has been dreary, cold, uninviting. If you've read any of my other wintertime blogs, you already know that I do not enjoy staying inside. In fact, it makes me downright crabby. I have decided to put this contrary behavior to use in the coming weeks, and thereby wade through the bad weather while doing something constructive.
Here's the deal. I've been reading and hearing about all the "green" initiatives in the marketplace, and I am becoming skeptical. Don't get me wrong.....I am all for clean water, clean air, or the efficient use of energy and food. But maybe you'll agree with me. The marketing for "green" has gotten a bit out of hand. In the coming weeks, I plan to educate myself on some of the terminology and concepts in the current wave of green, and I invite you to follow along, and maybe add your own commentary to the educational process. I would like to sweep away (to use an agricultural analogy) the wheat from the chaff in order to identify what is useful and practical in the green movement, and what is the branding equivalent of "low fat" or "low in sugar". (You know.....the boxes that are all colored green.)
The first term I want to tackle is "NATIVE PLANT". I am confused by the enthusiasm of gardeners who want to use only "native plants" in their landscapes, but are simultaneously unable to define the term. I am annoyed by the proliferation of classes and books from experts on on"native plants" without a hint of their underlying theories, bias, or assumptions . As I continue to research this, I find I am not the only one! The fact of the matter is that this subject- even its definition- is a complicated one that deserves more thought and effort than one might get in a simple sound bite.
Let me show you what I mean.

From The Garden Helper
Any plant that occurs and grows naturally in a specific region or locality

Sorry- too vague. One is left trying to define practically each word in that sentence.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic (indigenous) or naturalized to a given area in geologic time. or......

US Fish and Wildlife Service:

With respect to a particular ecosystem, a species that, other than as a result of an introduction, historically occurred, or currently occurs in that ecosystem .

Those seems like a reasonable definitions. Oh, wait......except for that "naturalized" or "introduced"part. To be true, this definition includes plants that have evolved and remained in one place, or have come from or been purposefully put other places over time and have become naturalized. Hmmmmm.

Here's a new twist......A plant that lives or grows naturally in a particular region without direct or indirect human intervention (USDA and (US National Arboretum)

or this from Andrea De-Long Amaya at the Lady Bird Wildflower Center : One that exists in a given region through non-human introduction, directly or indirectly.

Apparently some believe that it is humans that contaminate "nativity". Does that mean that those who rule out human intervention or introduction consider humans outside the realm of nature?
Other variations on that same theme come from a wide range of places:

A native plant species is one "that occurs naturally in a particular region, state, ecosystem, and habitat without direct or indirect human actions" (Federal Native Plant Conservation Committee, 1994) A native plant, within a specified geographical region of interest, is a plant species (or other plant taxon) currently or historically present there without direct or indirect human intervention. (Larry Morse, L.E.M. Natural Diversity) Any plant which is a member of a species which was present at a given site prior to European contact (California Native Plant Society)

So, to recap, we have plants that may or may not be from one location, may or may not have had human intervention, may or may not be a member of a region, state, habitat or ecosystem, and may have time constraints ranging from geologic time to the European exploration of the 16th century. Now do you see why I am confused?? Each of these definitions carries both implications and possible points of action. It is not enough to use the words without knowing what you mean by them. I am also working on digesting Bringing Nature Home, the very popular book by Douglas Tallamy that advocates planting native plants (his definition is even more complicated than those seen above). We'll need to talk about insects, birds, disease, competition for resources and other variables before it is all over.
To be perfectly honest, I grow good ornamental plants, both native and non-native. Some of my very favorite plants- ones that I have raved about on these very pages- are "aliens". This is my bias. Some part of me resents feeling pressured to choose against plants I think are well adapted to southeastern conditions. But this much is clear to me right now. I might have a bias, but others do as well. The culture of green has encouraged a marketing scheme about how to sell certain plants. Those customers who buy into this strategy seem to purchase both actual plants and a sense of "ethical consumption". This may be a very complicated "chicken or egg" problem. I am just trying to figure out what comes first.....an understanding of eco-system implications..... or a politically correct pat on the back.
Michael Pollan has done an excellent job of tackling some of these bigger issues, especially when it comes to horticulture and gardening. I like his point of view right now, and would like to hold on to it as I continue to explore the topic:

"We are at once the problem and the only possible solution to the problem" *Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

I wonder what you think?

Thanksgiving

2010-11-18T08:08:00.014-05:00

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." ~Thornton Wilder

It's been a lively year.
Acer palmatum 'Baldsmith' And while it seems in some sense to be winding down, it's also a very exciting time in the garden. Fall color is everywhere and indian summer weather calls us out to enjoy it a little longer. Sunny days now come packed in clear blue skies.
Acer palmatum 'Crimson Queen' .
This dewy morning I am "conscious of my treasures", and happy to share a few. The Japanese maples are all reaching their peak reds, yellows and golds. Their various shapes and sizes dance among the conifers, and reflect the colors of the larger trees.
Ginkgo biloba 'Princeton Sentry'

Ulmus parvifolia 'Burgundy'

Pistacia chinense

Taxodium distichum 'Cascade Falls'

Lindera angustifolia

Thanks to my friends and family for all the wonderful moments and days of this year, and to my plants, who are all smiling.

"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile."
William Cullen Bryant

The Needles of Fall

2010-11-03T08:17:00.012-04:00

I often give talks about conifers. It is one of my favorite plant groups because of the year round range of colors, habit, texture, size, and uses. At this time of year I am reminded of that special, small subgroup of conifers for the SE that are deciduous. Made up of Taxodium, Metasequoia, Pseudolarix, Ginkgo and a few others, this group often goes unnoticed and unloved in the blaze of the deciduous flowering trees in the fall.
So, let's take a quick look. Taxodium distichum , including it's various forms and cultivars, is the Bald Cypress. Most people know this to be the large tree that grows in swamps and has "knees". It was the conventional wisdom that these knees provided oxygen that would be in short supply under water. However, this does not seem to be the case. (U.S. Forest Service Silvics Manual: Taxodium distichum) More likely is that knees in or near water function as a secondary method of buttressing in addition to the wide lower trunk. These trees are very valuable for a number of reasons. The ecosystem of the swamps and its function as protection of the interior land areas is essential in the southeastern coastal areas of the US. The wood from these trees is of enormous economic value as a sustainable raw material for building. And as an ornamental tree, there are increasing numbers of cultivars being selected to provide choices for many garden uses. One such cultivar is a cross between T. distichum, and a variety called mucronatum which grows in Mexico. It is called 'Nanjing Beauty' because the cross was made in China, but it is a stunning choice for SE gardens. And this magnificent color holds on for the entire winter!
Metasequoia glyptostroboides is the Dawn Redwood. This is a relatively newly discovered Chinese species (first described in 1941), but has an archeaological history that goes back over 5 million years. This "living fossil" is a fast growing tree that achieves a height of up to 120' and is usually an upright pyramidal shape.
Both Taxodium and Metasequoia have a soft, ferny texture to the foliage, and each has a beautiful bronze fall color to the foliage.

Another lesser known but equally magnificent deciduous conifer is Pseudolarix amabilis., or Golden Larch. It is as heat tolerant as Bald Cypress and Dawn Redwood, and has a soft look and texture. It's needles are arranged in whorls around the stems,which give it quite a remakable, noticeable appearance. It's fall color is copper, and it holds this foliage for weeks before the cold rains and harsh winds of the coming winter take them down.
Last but certainly not least is Ginkgo biloba. Technically Ginkgo is a gymnosperm, which is a precurser to conifers. It's leaves look very much like a flowering plant, but do not have the same kind of veination. It also seems like a fruiting plant because the female trees have yellow fruits that look something like a small plum. Apparently these fruits are delicacies in certain forms of Chinese cuisine. But if you've ever walked by a female Ginkgo that has dropped her fruit, the nauseating rotten egg smell defies the logic of eating these things. No doubt, whether you know about Ginkgo fruit, or botany, or any of the many cutivars, most everybody recognizes it's fall color.
Once again, I must quote Elizabeth Lawrence:
"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. "
But watch for the needles, too!

"Remembrance of Things Past" *

2010-10-05T15:16:00.010-04:00

I got my first whiff of the Osmanthus today. I was sticking cuttings and listening to the radio and daydreaming about entirely different things. It is a beautiful sunny, cool fall day, with a little breeze to keep the temperatures perfectly pleasant. It was just a passing scent.....tooti-frooti, bubble gum.... rising above all the other smells of fall, and hanging for a moment just beyond my nose. Instantly I put down the branches, and left the table in search of those hidden blossoms. Sure enough, no more than a few flowers open among thousands of buds was enough to call my full attention to the present. Or maybe I should say the past....

It's fascinating how smells bring memories flooding back uncontrollably. I have many associated with the fragrance of Tea Olive, but if filtered, they seem to share a sense of a comfortable place, a childhood bouquet in some make believe play, sharp spiney leaves, , a mystery scent calling from down the path.
I decided to look up the phenomenon of memory and scent and found some very interesting and compelling research uncovering the bases of the link.

By Karl S. Kruszelnicki (excerpts)

....Traditionally, we humans have five senses - they're smell, hearing, vision, touch and taste. But only two of these senses are based on chemicals - smell and taste. Smell and taste let us sample the chemicals around us for information. But smell is different from all the other senses in a very special way. A smell from your distant past can unleash a flood of memories that are so intense and striking that they seem real - and we're getting close to understanding why.

....This kind of memory, where an unexpected re-encounter with a scent from the distant past brings back a rush of memories, is called a "Proustian Memory". It's named after Marcel Proust, one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. He describes this phenomenon in the opening chapter of his novel Swan's Way, the first novel in his mammoth seven-part work, Remembrance Of Things Past.

.....Whichever way it happens, electrical signals get generated in the receptor cells and do go to the limbic area of the brain. Now here's a really weird thing. The limbic area of the brain evolved directly from primitive smell structures. In other words, according to Professor Rachel S. Herz, "the ability to experience and express emotion grew directly out of the brain's ability to process smells."

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2001/07/05/313350.htm

It is no wonder at all, then, that the very first and most primitive sense- smell- is so directly tied to memory. And yet it is a most wonderful tool for the imagination; a sticky web to catch the pasts, then wrap them into the present. One crisp fall day perfectly preserved over and over in the tiny flowers of your Grandmother's Tea Olives.

"For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that we use it so little".

- Rachel Carson

* Marcel Proust

Old Dog, New Tricks

2010-08-20T08:24:00.013-04:00

I often say that I don't know how to do anything right until I've done it wrong every possible way. That's almost true, but not quite. Every now and then I get out to visit, and find that other people know how to do things, and I can just learn from them!
So, let me share some of the things I learned on my trip to Tennessee last week, and some of the great ideas and methods I will borrow to save myself some time:

Conifers are a passion of mine. Here are some examples of how to grow them right in the SE.

Duane's conifer hill

Donny Corleone himself

Ponds 'N Plants

Carol and one of her favorites- Cupressus glabra 'Limelight'

A recent blog talked about "Making Mudpies" out of hypertufa. Well, I had no clue about how sophisticated hypertufa can be when made by seasoned artists instead of grownup kids. Take a look! They know their concrete in Tennessee!

David's alligator concrete casting

Mike's pots
Helen and Kayo's leaf print paver

Jimmy's rock construction
Jimmy's troughs

hypertufa leaf birdbath
old concrete culvert pot

The range of display beds from east to west Tennessee amazed and inspired me. Color, texture, and size combos not only scratched the surface of possibilities, but blew way past. Turns out, plants can be grown in an explosion of conditions and combinations. The experts from Jacksboro to Jackson tried cheerfully to fill in the huge gaps in my knowledge, and made it fun!

Jason's front border
UT's new scree border

Helen and Kayo's color combos

pot at Western TN Research and Extension

Faye's incredible garden,

water feature, design genius.

Even garden ornaments can be creative, playful, artistic, and LARGE!
Ron's big bug at the UT trial gardens

We went on to Alabama on our way home to visit fellow nurserywoman and friend Eleanor - "the fern lady". (www.fernridgefarms.com) We met at the Huntsville Botanical Garden for a quick look, and continued on our path of borrowed ideas:

Dinosaur display- Huntsville BG children's garden

We see examples of homemade bird houses from time to time, and they have tweeked Joe's interest more than once as a project for his spare time......

Check THIS one out!

Model RR layout in Huntsville Botanical Garden- great use of conifers here, too!

The three very hot bears.

There is a saying that" imitation is the most serious form of flattery". Well, I am serious. And I am just getting started on making you all blush!

On the road to Damascus

2010-07-19T14:28:00.014-04:00

When the heat of summer has it's grip tight around the throat of my enthusiasm, it's time to get out, get away, get a cleaner slate in my head. That's when I head to a small corner of north west Georgia to transform myself. The long mountain ridges stretch out before me, and the roads wind through the lush green valleys. I can feel my breathing slow and deepen. A slim smile replaces pursed lips. I am on the road to a place where nature and creativity join hands, and where I can let go of the lists behind my eyes, and just see. Carl (www.saultopaulstables.com) and Susan (www.susanseydelcofer.com) have made this working farm a work of art. Nature's crafts are honored and kept well tended. But even so, the vision of the artist, the builder, the entrepreneur add a flare, a touch, a surprise around the corner.
The passage to my new person begins with a walk. Closeup, a collage of cedar, poison ivy and resurrection fern;

in the distance, a freshly mowed field full of round hay bales and a single sentinel stone.

Further on we revisit the labyrinth. Joe and I were here for the beginning of this ever evolving creation. It is part of the cleansing to walk the labyrinth methodically, slowly, sincerely; shedding troubles and worries at every turn. The woods gently hold you throughout the journey, and upon turning from inward out, each tree gently lets you go. Wildflowers shout out from fence posts,
chapel bells peal across the pastures. It is not the organized religions of today, but the sacred spirituality of the ancient that calls me back to the beginning.
and the eye of the artist, the eye of the builder have framed it perfectly for me.
The angel trumpets the sound of renewal. I am feeling energized. I am ready to go back to the real world again, with a new level of energy, satisfaction and grace.
This poem by e.e. cummings was part of Katie and Will's wedding service. It most perfectly describes today.

e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Making Mud Pies

2010-07-04T10:28:00.008-04:00

It's been hot. And it's been June! I think we had 90's for 19 or 20 days in a row, and most of that was 96, 97, 98. There was one morning when I left the house at 5:45 am and it was already 80 degrees!
Even in the mountains, where we watched our big girl and her groom "take the plunge", it was unusually warm and humid. And although there were loads of rain opportunities, we seemed to be getting only the windy, thundery, lightening-turns-the electricity-off part, and not the actual drops of water from the sky.

So, what happens at the nursery when it's so hot so soon? First of all, the weeds seem to go crazy. That means long days of bending over, sweat dripping off your face, as you try to take control back for the sake of the "good plants". Then since it's June, there's fertilizing and herbiciding that has to be done, also involving much bending over and sweating. So...we start early in the morning, we try to work methodically, we spend a lot of time watering.
And then I've just got to change the subject.
So last week we led up to the July 4th holiday with "hypertufa week".

Hypertufa is defined by Wikipedia as " an anthropic rock made from various aggregates bonded together using Portland cement.Hypertufa is intended as a manufactured substitute for natural tufa, which is a slowly precipitated limestone rock; being very porous, it is favorable for plant growth. Hypertufa is popular for making garden ornaments, pots and land forms. Hypertufa is relatively light compared with terracotta or concrete and can withstand harsh winters, at least down to −30 °C (−22 °F)Hypertufa was invented for use in alpine gardens. Alpine gardeners formerly used antique animal watering troughs, which became rare and expensive.

There are many recipes for hypertufa, but most include peat and perlite with the Portland cement. It's always a bit of an adventure to get the water just right. The mixture needs to be solid, but still workable. It needs to conform to the mold, but not ooze once placed. But really, it's like making mud pies with your friends out in the back yard. It was summer activity from our childhood, when we were so hard at play that we never noticed the temperature.

So Maggie Sullivan and Adam and I mixed and molded; chiseled and brushed and scraped. At the end of the week, we had figured the right formulas for perlite and water, we'd gotten "the feel" in our hands, and we'd made a trailer full of pretty cool pots. We even expanded into a few other ideas to be pursued next time. Meanwhile, the sweltering continued, but the hit and miss thunderstorms actually hit us for an inch and a bit in the rain gauge.
At the end of the week the weather broke, and we fell miraculously back into the cool low 80's. We had played through the worst of it, and had a great time. Mary Poppins was right....."

In ev'ry job that must be done
There is an element of fun
You find the fun and snap!
The job's a game
And ev'ry task you undertake
Becomes a piece of cake
A lark! A spree! It's very clear to see that

A Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown...." *

* Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman

Spring's Successes

2010-05-31T19:05:00.015-04:00

We've just finished up another spring season. I'd have to say that I was pleased with the spring, and have been reviewing some of the best of it.
Perhaps the best of the spring propagation was the first time germination of seed from the Euscaphis japonica. It was 18 or so years ago, on a visit to the NC State Arboretum, that JC Raulston gave me a handful of seed from this very special tree at the Arboretum. The tree was a seedling from seed he had collected on Paengnyong Island off the N. Korean coast in an expedition to Korea with Barry Yinger. JC's own notes:
"9511 Euscaphis japonica (Thunb.) Kantiz - "Euscaphis" (Staphylaceae). A deciduous tree to 30' from Japan, China and Korea of great beauty with multi-season interest. The compound foliage is glossy and handsome all summer; fruiting panicles up to a foot in diameter are produced with red fleshy pulp highlighted by shiny black seeds that are showy for 3-4 months in late summer and fall, and in the winter the bark is deep purple with white striping. They have grown well in our poorly drained clay nursery field and seem extremely stress tolerant. Cuttings can be rooted from softwood growth but have proven hard to keep alive through the first winter. Ample seed is now being produced by trees in The NCSU Arboretum (now the JC Raulston Arboretum) nursery. They seem to have double dormancy - requiring a cold period, followed by a warm period, and a second cold period before germinating in high percentages. We have also had more than average difficulty in transplanting and establishing young seedlings - with a very high damping off rate on seedling transplants. The plants are spectacularly beautiful and have commercial potential - but it will take time to develop seed blocks, and master the varied cultural requirements to get the crop to market. Likely adaptable for use in USDA Zones 6-9. Our best plants are unfortunately in the field nursery out of public view, and unfortunately the plant in the east arboretum (Hamamelis collection area near the Crepe Myrtles) is not as showy in fruit as many are. If one is visiting Wilmington, it is worth a trip to the New Hanover County Arboretum to see their very fine plants in the fall."

Of the handful of these gift seed, two germinated. One of them now grows happily at Specialty Ornamentals. I have collected and sowed Euscaphis seed from this tree for at least the last ten years without one successful seedling. This year's collected seed were sowed in fall, and germinated seemingly all together in late February. Today, after one transplanting, there are perhaps 100 seedlings doing very well and growing on. It is noteworthy that I finished reading the biography of JC Raulston Chlorophyll in his Veins by Bobby Ward in early February. Coincidence? Certainly. But a very sweet reminder of a wonderful man who was a gift to the world of horticulture. His legacy lives on in all of us, and now, happily, his Sweetheart Tree lives on here. (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/euscaphis_japonica.html)
I've been particularly happy with the performance of some of the Hypericums I've been growing. They were great when we had total drought. But after the year of rain, I wondered how they would do. Two of the best are H. kalmianum
and H. pseudohenryi.
Hypericum kalmianum is native to the upper midwest, but grows easily from zones 4-7. It has lovely bluegreen evergreen foliage, flowers profusely, and makes a lovely low border shrub that looks good in masses. Sun to part shade and relatively poor soil tolerance also makes it a good choice for foundation planting.
Hypericum pseudohenryi is a native of China, has deep green evergreen foliage and masses of bright yellow sunburst flowers. In addition to the green foliage of the warm season, the foliage in fall has a magnificent crimson that holds thru the winter. It is every bit as tough and tolerant as kalmianum. Both species, in fact all species of Hypericum, are deer proof.
And speaking of deer.....The rain this winter made all the oakleaf hydrangeas absolutely lush and loaded with flowers. Hydrangea quercifolia 'Harmony' and 'Amethyst' are both fabulous selections. 'Harmony' has a flower that is extra fat and full. Hydrangea quercifolia 'Amethyst' seems like it might be your standard oakleaf panicle.....until it turns an amazing crimson and holds that color till November! But my favorite by far is Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snowflake'- the double hose-in-hose flower that keeps unfolding one inner flower after another. Below is my beautiful stand of 'Snowflake' before ......here are my gorgeous flowers after the deer made a tapas evening out of them.

As Confucius said...... "When prosperity comes, do not use all of it"

This spring, the deer have made sure of that.

Our Proper Work

2010-05-17T14:21:00.013-04:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about my grandparents. My grandmother was one of my favorite people, and I've missed her often over the last 25 years. She died at 99, so I had a plenty of good time with her, and lots of lessons. My grandfather died much earlier- maybe 20 years before. But I also have a good handful of memories with him, too.
I guess it's a matter of getting older. Or maybe it's more a matter of my oldest getting married in a few weeks. It's all good, and happy, and the way it's supposed to be. But what's sneaking up on me in quiet times are the swelling emotions, the threads of time, the ties that bind.
So, why my grandparents? Well, I've been getting up very early to try to get all my work done. I remember visiting my grandparents in summer when I was a kid. My grandmother got up before light to collect eggs, to pour the cream off the milk the dairyman had left in the bin on the back porch, and to cook breakfast. But the first thing she did was to go thru the whole house and open all the windows to let the cool morning air in. And after breakfast, before the sun was much above the horizon, she'd go back around and close them all, and pull down the shades to keep the hot sun out. Seemed like a lot of work to me.
This last month or so I've been doing just that, and enjoying the sweet smell of fresh air and the sweet soft colors as the morning comes. Nothing like it, and worth all the trouble.

Getting to work very early also allows me early quiet time to look before the busy spring day begins. Maybe I should say time to see....Like the picture perfect field next door with corn coming up in even rows and the old farm house tucked back under the oaks.
I've planted some vegetables in front of the office, and spend a little time watering them each morning before the sun comes up. I've been keeping an eye on my potatoes, planted in big black containers. They've been reminding me of my grandfather's huge garden out back. After supper, he and I would walk to the potato rows and survey the plants. He'd pick one, and with his digging fork, he'd dig and lift one side. My job was to crawl down under and claw around for the new potatoes hidden underneath. It was like finding buried treasure, or panning for gold. Sitting here, I'd swear I can still smell the soil, and feel the smile grow on my grandfather's face as I pulled up one perfect red oval after another.
It's also a good time to walk around the garden and see what's new. Fothergilla gardenii
It's a way to appreciate every day, and to make every day special. It took me a long time and a crazy course to get here. But I see that in some very basic way, I am right back in Ameila Courthouse, VA in early summer, when the city life of a busy girl was replaced by walks to town for groceries at Bill Stengel's store, picking ripe tomatoes, and listening to my grandfather call back and forth to the bird out back.
My big girl, almost married, introduced me to Mary Oliver's poetry some time ago. Once again, maybe Mary says what I'm feeling best.

Yes! No! by Mary Oliver

How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout
lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. I
think serenity is not something you just find in the world,
like a plum tree, holding up its white petals.

The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like
small dark lanterns.

The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.

How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out

Yes! No! The

swan, for all his pomp, his robes of grass and petals, wants
only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier
is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy
rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work.

George Bernard Shaw said "Youth is wasted on the young". I'm not sure that's totally true, if you can find a way back to it on a cool morning, with the sun still below the horizon.

"We turn not older in years, but newer every day"- Emily Dickinson

2010-04-12T08:45:00.006-04:00

From time to time I am reminded about what makes the "plant biz" so great. Yes, it's being close to nature. Yes, it takes me outdoors and away from the computer. Yes, it's the constant wonder and magic of the plant kingdom each day. And yes, very definitely, it is sharing all that with other plant nerds. The fact is, the best thing about the plant biz is the plant people.
Hard to put into words just exactly what a "plant person" is. Maybe I can say that a plant person has a garden instead of a landscape. He or she may have a favorite plant or group of plants, but unlike the collector, she insists on sharing so that others can enjoy her favorites. A plant person is eager to pass along information about growing techniques; tell you about her successes AND her failures; ask you about yours. In fact, in more general terms, I guess I could say that plant people share themselves as well as their plants. They'll tell you what they think without an agenda. They'll share whatever they have- plants, advice, encouragement, jokes, love. There's always a positive spin, an implied hope, a look towards the future.
Today, Toni Wright- affectionately known as the "queen" of the Georgia Hosta Society- is 91 years young. She's become a dear friend of ours in her later years, and is truly the epitome of a plant person. She's been gardening for many of those years, and has lots to share about gardening. She's also been sharing herself with others for all that time, and has developed a pretty sharp eye for good plants, good design, and good people. Although I am not young enough to be Toni's granddaughter, she reminds me a lot of my grandmother. She's someone who carries the courage of her convictions always, and has plenty of experience to back them up. She's done the work all her life, and now can show others how it might best be done. And best of all, she does it with a smile.
Joe and I are always eager to stroll thru Toni's garden with her. Joe marvels at her wonderul collection of Japanese maples, and I drool over her carefully selected conifer specimens. There's usually a story or two to go with each plant, and often a moral to the story. We sit like little ones listening to a grownup reading from the book of life. Good stories, and very comfortable.
Happy Birthday, Toni! We will see you again soon.
I have a question for you, and maybe for anyone else reading this today. It's actually a question from Satchel Paige, oldest baseball player ever to play in the major leagues....

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?"

I'm gonna bet the plant people will all be younger.

Why Do I Do This?

2010-03-11T16:25:00.016-05:00

Forsythia x intermedia 'Beatrix Farrand'
I often ask myself, especially during winter, why I do this nursery stuff; this cold, wet, dirty, grueling work.
If April is the cruelest month, then what is mid-March?

After being colder and wetter and frustrated much longer this winter than most, I came out today to see where we are in the seasonal cycle. It was a break between heavy rains...."mud-luscious and puddle wonderful"...to borrow the perfect phrase from e.e. cummings.

I've been hanging on to the blooms of late winter hoping I could hang on long enough to make it through to spring again.
Daphne odora 'Alba'
Cornus mas
Edgeworthia papyrifera

And it's been working! Delicious fragrant flowers, dazzling in the warm golds of the winter sun have kept me going.
It takes a while to get my eyes used to the glare from heavy clouds. It also takes a while to get my brain to focus on the minute steps the world is making towards spring. But today I've been looking closely, and now I am remembering again the best part. There is a tipping point- the day, the hour, the moment when winter's grip loosens, and the rite of spring is just about to begin.

Between yesterday and today, things have changed. Buds are swelling.
Euschaphis japonica
Colors are showing.

The first new shoots of Sedum 'Autumn Joy' turn up leaves
and the brown buds of Hydrangea quercifolia 'Amethyst' have given way to soft hairy new leaves emerging like a flames from a candle.

Seeds I saved and sowed over winter emerge and shed their husk in a two leafed striptease.
Subtle changes in colors now catch my eye; hazy shapes emerge. Needle fingers become tiny cones almost before my eyes.

Cupressus glabra 'Limelight'
Cupressus glabra 'Golden Pillar'

Thuja orientalis 'Beverlyensis'

It's sex, it's mystery, it's magic, it's passion, it's wonder.

Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Samurai'
Pinus thubergii 'Ogon'
Picea smithiana

It's rebirth in the primeval forest from which we all enter, and to which we all return. It's happening right here, right now.... new, seductive, unstoppable, ancient.

"the goat-footed baloonMan whistles
far
and
wee"*

To be a witness to this is to be part of the grand scheme.

And for sure, it's why I do this.

* In Just- Spring ee cummings

"Winter's Sometime Smiles" *

2010-02-16T08:32:00.016-05:00

It's been a cold, wet, and even snowy winter. I've had to spend many more days and hours indoors than I would like, and so I turn to some of my favorite reading material to lighten the burden of such restrictions. Without doubt, one of the very best antidotes to cold outside is the warm enthusiasm of Elizabeth Lawrence, especially her Garden in Winter. This book has been an inspiration to me for many years, and it seems to be able to brighten my mood and teach me something every time I pick it up.
Here's the first few sentences:

"I never did care for fairweather gardeners. Standing behind glass doors, they look out at the cold ground and leafless branches, and exclaim' How beautiful this must be in spring!'
How beautiful it is now, I want to cry-"

I won't quote the whole book, although I am tempted. I urge you to find a copy and curl up in a cozy corner to taste some morsels of her wisdom. But I can echo her thoughts when it comes to some of her favorite plants, and maybe give you some pleasant dreams about your future garden.
There are incredibly fragrant plants performing in the winter here in the Southeast.
Chimonanthus praecox- Wintersweet- is an old fashioned garden plant that is a fragrant as any flower I know. It's habit is a little large and rangy for a manicured garden, but it's perfume from December to March makes it deserving of a spot nearby.
Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' . Likewise, there are a large number of witchhazels that are both fragrant and astounding shrubs for the winter garden. They will take some room, but give you quite a show. While many know the sweet smell of Daphne odora, few have enjoyed the white winter bloom of Eriobotrya japonica -Loquat- and it's evergreen, tropical, umbrella shape. Or how about the sweet clove scented Prunus mume- Japanese Flowering Apricot- ?
The Southeast enjoys many many hollies in the landscape. The beauty of their berries in winter, their architectural habits, and their ability to attract birds to the garden make them gracious guests .
Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red'
Ilex vomitoria 'Virginia Dare'
Ilex cornuta 'D'Or'

And of course we must include the color added by some of our best perennials and shrubs: Helleborus foetidus
Helleborus x 'Pink Lady'

Viburnum tinus buds all winter
Jasminum nudiflorum

Bind all these lovelies into a firm and colorful foundation of conifers,
Thuja plicata 'Green Giant'
and enjoy the garden every single winter day.
Chamaecyparis thyoides 'Ericoides'

Elizabeth Lawrence can teach southeastern gardeners to love the winter by showing them how to love the winter garden. For all of you who are tired of the cold, the gray, the wet; pick up one of her books, and warm up. As she quotes Coventry Patmore, a Victorian poet and author of a poem called Winter :

" Sweeter yet than dream or song of Summer or Spring
are Winter's sometimes smiles".

Believe it.

*Coventry Patmore, Selected Poems, edited by Derek Patmore (London, The Grey Walls Press, 1948)

Justify Yourself

2010-02-04T12:34:00.008-05:00

Yesterday, Joe and I spent the day in Milledgeville, Ga, in the garden of our friend Barbie Colvin. It was a glorious day in the middle of an ugly weather week. We went down to help her take down a winged elm in order to make room for a new Japanese maple to join the other Japanese maples flourishing in the nearby beds.

I sometimes get resistance from friends or customers who have an unwanted tree or shrub. They can't seem to get past the idea that any living plant should be allowed to live out it's days undisturbed and without any obligation to reward it's owner with beauty, or shade, or some other benefit. I am not sure where this comes from. I have also found that logic does not touch it. But if I could bottle our experience yesterday, I believe I could use it as a cure for this mistaken notion.

We started with a fallen pine, cutting it up while Barbie hauled the logs back to the compost pile. Easy. Next! On to the Elm.
Before we got started we actually talked about the tree and it's transition. It had been one of the first large trees in the back yard when she and her husband had moved here. It had an interesting "two tiered" habit- very weepy lower branches and very upright higher ones. At one time they had thought they would limb it up to open that very dense growth low down. But that would take the most interesting part of the tree out, and still leave the part that was growing into some of the newer plantings they had installed over the years. No good solution to the problem. None , that is, but the chain saw.

Barbie had made her decision, and the tree was coming out. We worked on getting one of the two trunks down, and the very twiggy branches cut and hauled in many loads back to the compost pile. In between that and the second trunk, we enjoyed a fabulous soup and salad lunch while basking in the warm sun and blue sky.
Back to the second trunk, and another few hours of cutting, stacking and hauling. Finally by mid afternoon we were cleaning up the final twigs and admiring our work. Without a shadow of a doubt, the removal of this one tree had opened up the entire right side of the garden to sun, to a view, to a huge bed just begging for additions of color, texture and pizazz. We could not believe how much better it looked, and could not stop saying so! It was the perfect combination of instant gratification and imagination directed towards the future . Our last task on this day that was just a "try out" of the days of spring to come was to "try out" the new maple in it's new spot , in anticipation of a newly cultivated patch of garden.
I remember several years ago I heard Helen Dillon speak at the Southeastern Flower Show. She was talking about the renovation of her garden in Ireland. I went to see pictures of pretty plants and suggestions for garden design, but I came away with quite a different lesson.
This charming, petite, refined woman went out into her garden every morning, stood in front of the planting and said "JUSTIFY YOURSELF!" If she could not judge that the existing planting at least equalled a potential newcomer, then it was out with the old and in with the new!

Very satisfying. And maybe a good lesson for all of us....
.

Chilly Start

2010-01-12T08:15:00.014-05:00

This past fall's weather was something of a practical joke played on those who had turned to xeriscaping. What roots remained thru all the rain of October may be getting their final tests this early part of the new year. The cold started at New Year's and hasn't let up. Bark split, dried foliage on broadleaf evergreens, frozen pipes all combine as the latest threat to our gardens.
I've been keeping my eye on my plants, and have good things to report.
Just out of the office door, I can already smell the Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) .What a magnificent plant for southeastern gardens, and one that is almost gone from the trade. This plant laughs at cold, blooms profusely all winter, and one small branch of flowers will fill the whole house with a heavy perfume.

The cold has only intensified colors on many of the plants. This special cultivar of the Nellie Stevens holly (Ilex x 'Yellow Nellie R Stevens' is screaming yellow, and loaded with red berries. Thujas 'Morgan and 'Roger's Aurea Sport show off their intense winter coats and the Algerian Iris (Iris unguicularis) continues to bloom unfazed, as does my very special Michelia macclurei.
Even potentially fussier plants seem to have managed this prolonged cold spell. The Century Plant (Agave americana) still seems turgid and surviving. Our favorite Mahonia 'Soft Caress' is always a worry, but looks completely untouched after two weeks below freezing and low temps below 10 degrees.
I am feeling very optimistic about how we'll get thru to spring. This probably also has to do with my keen awareness that the days are getting longer!!
I found a quote that seems to fit my mood today-

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
Albert Camus

Hang in there.....

Say

2009-12-15T16:16:00.009-05:00

They say when you get older, time goes faster. Well, I guess I am starting to feel my age, in more than just my bones. I've been making my list and checking it twice.....no, I mean checking things off. I think I'll probably have things under control by mid summer......But here we are at Christmas again, and I am sooooo far behind! Things just come up, or take longer, or have squeakier wheels. Frankly, I don't KNOW where all the year went.
So, I've checked my pictures, and there seem to be a whole year's worth. I've included some here as a little Christmas bonus.

We had a surprise late snow followed by a glorious long spring.I think summer was hot and dry, but the rains started in early fall and haven't let up since.
Fall has been fabulous, especially when we welcome the sun after many gray days.

Although it seems that the year has gone by quickly, I do relish every morning, and have captured many on my way to work. Sunrise continues to be a delicious surprise.

There have been other surprises, too.Like the fantastic witches broom Joe found on one of our walks.

But the very best surprise; the best Christmas present Santa could stuff in his sack; the most satisfying outcome from a whirlwind year is the engagement of my big girl and her sweet beau
( or Boo, as she calls him)
If you haven't seen The Bucket List, I recommend it. That movie puts it all in perspective. John Mayer wrote the theme song called

Say

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems
Better put them in quotations

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead
If you could only
Say what you need to say

Have no fear for giving in

Have no fear for giving over
You better know that in the end
It’s better to say too much
Than never to say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open
Say what you need to say

My heart is wide open.
Whatever else happened this year, I have been blessed with a wonderful husband;
two beautiful, intelligent daughters;
an adorable new son-to-be;
fun and loving friends;
and work I adore.

there....I said it! I love you all! Merry Christmas!

SAD

2009-10-27T09:53:00.005-04:00

In just a few days our already short days will seem even shorter. Eastern Daylight Time will revert to Eastern Standard Time, and it will be dark at 5:30pm. Are you ready?
SAD- Seasonal Affective Disorder- is defined by Wikipedia as "... also known as winter depression or winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter."

I am a poster child for SAD. I don't like dark; I don't like being indoors; I don't like desk work. From somewhere in September on I start to calculate the shorter and shorter outdoor evening time. I try to take comfort in cooler weather, or clearer skies, or hints of fall color. But that doesn't really work. After all, how can I enjoy any of that when it gets dark so darn early!
Part of the symptoms include worrying and feeling less than hopeful about the future.
Yeah, I know it's gonna be darker earlier tomorrow!
Wikipedia goes on to explain potential treatments, which include "...bright light therapy, medication, ionized-air administration, cognitive-behavioral therapy and carefully timed supplementation^{[citation needed]} of the hormone melatonin."
Uh, huh....so how does that help anyone living in the real world?

Instead of just worrying about it, this year I am going to try to meet it head on, and fight back. I am making a list of things that I like about winter. I'm getting started here. Please, help me add to the list.

PRACTICAL THINGS THAT LIGHTEN SAD

Daphne odora

-Homemade Onion Soup on a cold rainy day

Winter Light

-Young Winter Vegetable Garden on a cold rainy day

Hellebores

- Time for Pilates Class

fall colors (Lindera angustifolia)

- Fires in the Fireplace

Colorful Conifers in the Cold

-Time for Reading

That's the first 10. ADD to my list. Let's see if it helps. Post an idea on the comments section. Let's see if we can get 50 things we like about winter. Let's lighten the SAD burden. Once we get to 50, then I'll tell you what the absolute, true 100% reliable cure is. Let's go!

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. "

2009-10-06T09:34:00.000-04:00

Ipomoea calantha
The first quarter I went to school at UGA in Horticulture I was terrified. I had two young children, and a 65 mile commute from Atlanta. Besides that, I had been a stay at home mom who felt like my brain had turned to mush in the midst of diaper changes, runny noses and sleep deprivation. I wasn't sure I could manage to learn anything, but I knew I needed to try. Acer palmatum 'Japanese Sunrise'
One of the very first assignments I got from Dr. Michael Dirr- my Woody Ornamental Plant professor- was to make a journal of at least 50 plants during the fall. The journal was to note the name, date of coloration, the color itself, and any other distinguishing features. It seemed like a relatively simple assignment, and one I could use as a baby step towards becoming a student again. It was the end of September, and the fall was on it's way. I dove in and began cataloging everything I could find that showed any color at all. Like the kindergardener who loves books but can't read a word, I spent many hours trying to identify my journal entries by every means I could think of. As the weeks went along, I was also actually learning some names and identification characteristics that were helping, and I was filling my pages with dates and names and colors.
I don't remember exactly when things began to click, but as I think back, I realize that this simple assignment was a stroke of genius, and one that hooked me forever. By having to look, I had to learn to look. By learning to look, I had to see all the shades and gradations of colors, the textures those colors make, the structure within the colors.
Muhlenbergia capillaris
Using the wonder of the autumn display, I learned to see "the forest" day by day, and to relish each member and each day. Cotinus x 'Grace'
Since that fall, there's no going back. The change in the way I see is permanent, and is a daily blessing. I have taken many pictures in many fall seasons, and never get enough. I am sharing some of those here with you, but suggest that you take Elizabeth Lawrence's advice:

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. "

I've made my journal. I add to it every day. Take a turn for yourself. You'll be changed forever.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Pink Diamond'

Hydrangea quercifolia 'Amethyst'
Ilex verticillata 'Winter Gold'

Remember

2009-09-11T16:37:00.000-04:00

I want to tell you all about our fun first day in our Fall retail season. It was a cool drizzly day in the early morning. It was a hot and exhausting week before. It was a day filled with hope, and some consternation over what details might have been lost. It was a day to cheer the return of customers as old friends, and to meet new ones. When I was thinking about what this blog might look like, I had these pictures in mind that I took the last few days. I admired the work we'd done, and couldn't wait to show it off.
Somewhere during the afternoon, my attention was turned to the fact that it was September 11. And here I was having such an energizing day instead of one that should perhaps be somewhat somber and retrospective. Then I ran across this lovely poem, and it all seemed to make sense.
I love what we do here. I love the plants, the people who love plants, the sharing of experiences with plants. I have especially enjoyed sharing the evolution of our retail space with Zach and recently with Bradford and Micah and Malissa. It is all better because of their input and hard work. And of course, holding hands with Joe as we plan the future.
So, I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our week.
Read the poem. Yes, this week we forgot. But we smiled.

Remember

by Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

Whatcha got? I got a New Attitude...

2009-08-25T06:19:00.000-04:00

We finally slipped into a real summer here, after a long, cool, gradual spring and a good rainy entry into summer. Recently "real summer" means no rain at all, sweltering heat and just barely breathable levels of humidity. After six weeks of this weather, plants start looking a little ragged, and even the most enthusiastic gardener runs for iced tea and air conditioning. But just as this sweaty season reaches it's most unbearable also come requests for plant availability in the nursery. "Send me your list....what looks good?"..... So, after several weeks of "almost" getting to it, I have reserved this week- as long as it takes- for inventory taking before all else.
I hate inventory. I hate standing out in that hot sun, I hate writing each name, size, location, etc. I hate piling up sheet after sheet, knowing that I won't be finished even when I'm finished until I put it all in the computer. This year I'm trying on a new attitude to help me with inventory. It's going to be a "learning experience" for Zach, so that he can not only learn the inventory- including spelling the names- but also a brief "what does it do?, how do you use it?" session. That lets me talk about the plants....which I love to do. After a day, I think the new strategy is working. I think Zach learned a few things yesterday, and I even had enough energy left to swim and then go home and start entering the data. But the best part of the day yesterday was the face to face reminder of some of the plants we grow for just this season.
There's Hydrangea involucrata for example. It is a lacecap, but hardly looks like a hydrangea at all with it's fuzzy leaves. But those fuzzy leaves look great, and it's all budded up and starting to bloom now, just when most other Hydrangeas look tired and washed out. And how about Clematis heracleifolia 'Blue Mood'? This vine is a "leaner", not a "twiner". It's foliage is clean and it's flowers are a deep and clear blue that is sometimes hard to find in the garden. But for sure the mood is cheerful and interesting, and if anyone ever sees it in the garden, they are usually interested. Rosa mutabilis looks fabulous right now, and seems to laugh at heat, humidity and drought. Isn' that a pleasant statement about a rose?
And from the old fashioned gardens of the south, we have Rose of Sharon Hibiscus syriacus in it's double white variety. Unlike the single flowered ones, this double form is sterile, so all you get is clear white flowers- no seedlings!Or another old fashioned plant rarely seen in nurseries these days is the flowering Pomegranate- Punica granatum. The foliage is glossy green, the shrub is still producing it's double orange flowers, and it's also loaded with orangey red fruits.
Speaking of orangey flowers, look at this fantastic perennial! Dicliptera suberecta. It has fuzzy leaves also, in a nice greenish gray tone. Loves the heat; flowers all summer. Another constant flower producer is Abutilon megapotanicum . Both are favorites of hummingbirds.
The thought of plants that shine in August reminded me to get the pictures of my most recent trip to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Of course you will find all sorts of beautiful displays there, but the succulents in the dry garden are especially astounding. I recommend a trip to your nearest public garden even on a really hot day. I know, it's not something we want to do. But there are all sorts of lessons to be learned that you can take home to your own garden, and it just might give your hot and tired summer brain a reason to sing along with Patti Labelle.......
"Somehow the wires uncrossed, the tables were turned
Never knew I had such a lesson to learn
I'm feelin' good from my head to my shoes
Know where I'm goin' and I know what to do
I tidied up my point of view
I got a new attitude"

A Breath of Fresh Mountain Air

2009-07-21T06:42:00.000-04:00

In the southeast, we have this period of time during the middle summer we call "the dog days". What I didn't know about dog days I found at Wikipedia: "In the northern hemisphere they usually fall between early July and early September ...Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress. The term "Dog Days" was used by the Greeks, as well as the ancient Romans (who called these days caniculares dies (days of the dogs)) after Sirius (the "Dog Star) ". What I do know is that this term represents the long sultry days of no relief from heat and humidity.
Luckily, Joe and I found our relief in the mountains of North Carolina the last two weekends. July 11th we went to Waynesville to visit our friends Trish and Greg at Rux Gardens (www.ruxgardens.com) They hosted a meeting of the NC Hosta Society, and I was invited to speak to the group on Conifers for Shade Gardens. We also sold plants as visiting vendors. The weather was crystal clear and cool. The meeting drew a good gathering of really good plantsmen. We also had a wonderful opportunity to meet and talk with Bob and Nancy Solberg from Green Hill Hostas(www.HostaHosta.com) in Chapel Hill, NC. Nothing stagnant or dull about that weekend!
This last weekend, starting Thursday, we drove up to Cashiers, NC, to participate in the Garden Shop associated with the Joy Garden Tour there. This is a fantastic event, sold out well in advance, with a huge catered gala Thursday night, and a tour of some incredible showplace gardens sprinkled across the mountains. (www.villagegreencashiersnc.com/joy_garden_tour.htm) As it turns out, this is also an event that gathers really savvy gardeners and funloving people who breathe a breath of fresh air into midsummer. Mother nature did the same! We went from sauna to cool blue overnight. We also sold a LOT of plants at a time in the season that is usually a "dry spell". What a difference a mountain rain makes!
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There are all sorts of gardens

2009-06-16T12:11:00.000-04:00

I've been getting out and visiting my garden friends. It has been a delightful tour of plants and personalities. Plants that make up the gardens, and personalities who pick the plants that make the personality of the gardens. Joe and I stopped in to Charlotte's lovely woodland garden a couple of weeks ago. This garden is a gem of a shade plant garden, chocked full of delicious combinations, textures, special objects and "garden moments". Charlotte is a gem of a gardener. She takes meticulous notes, pays attention to the smallest details, asks lots of questions, has every plant catalog I think she's ever gotten, and knows everyone around who gardens. She's a bundle of fun filled energy packed into a small space, and her garden reflects just that.

Barbie also has a shade garden, but on a much larger scale in many ways. Barbie's expansive eye for texture and fun has taken her in a completely different direction. Hers is the home of the "big leaf" plant. She's got Fatsias and Farfugiums, Colocasias and Alocasias, Musas in several colors, bigleaf Japanese Maples, hydrangeas, and Xanthosomas. But she doesn't stop there. In our hot and humid south, roses are usually a garden bust. Only the most studied and determined and diligent of gardeners even bothers to try. But she is the one who can pull it off, and in huge bouquets. Then there's her growing conifer collection, grasses, agaves and alpinias to bind the big plants together. She keeps records of growth rates, rainfall, temperature. She tops all this off with a full coop of Rhode Island Reds and Bard Rocks, and a huge vegetable garden. In other words, there's a "WOW" at every turn.

Now Ozzie's garden......What can I say?? This small reticent man is the opposite of his garden. He lets his rare, regal, unique plants speak for him. They tell of expeditions to China, Viet Nam, Europe and Japan; of collections of seed along mountain ridges and purchase of plants from the most sacred and secret nursery stashes; of breeding for the most exquisite, the most useful, the most desireable of plants. I've been to Ozzie's many times. I can't even get my fingernails into the breadth of his collection, much less a grasp on the true character of this incredible garden. Quietly, deliberately, patiently he answers my questions. Loudly and insistantly this week's explosion of flowers or fruit or color call to me from nooks and crannies all over his garden. I could visit once a week for years and learn a completely new lesson every week.

My most recent trip was not to visit a garden. Yet as I go through my pictures, I must include Saultopaul in the lineup of plants and personalities. My friend Susan is an artist with a fine eye and skilled hand for the most minute detail. At her NW Georgia farm, she has used nature as her palette with that same skill, and orchestrated the components to their best advantage. Susan is a reader. Susan is a thinker. Susan is a moss gardener. Susan can take the most minimal of nature's elements and show me how to see them in rich and meaningful ways.

John Muir said "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks"

No kidding......

With Pleasure

2009-06-02T18:59:00.000-04:00

One of the very best things about working with plants is other people who work with plants. I could spend a lot of time theorizing about what makes this true but the theories don't matter. Plant people are just great, and that's a fact.
This year's rain has rejuvenated gardens and gardeners alike. In the last few weeks, I have had the great pleasure to visit some great gardeners, and to enjoy their gardens with them. For me, this is the ultimate plant experience. Out of doors in the late Georgia spring, fabulous settings, incredible collections of magnificent plants all come together to teach me how much I have to learn, and how much I will look forward to it. Walking through Willis Harden's garden in Commerce with him was like walking back in time in every sense. To be sure, his garden has some age and stature to it. He has been carefully crafting it for 50 years, and it shows. He knows every plant. No, not just the name of every plant, but the actual plant: where he got it, how he got it, when he planted it, what the weather was like when he planted it, when it first bloomed, how it fared in ice and snow..... From the specimen Windmill Palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) to the large drifts of Pachysandra procumbens;
from Magnolia sieboldii to the largest collection of
Rhododendron I have ever seen; great care has gone into assembling the garden as a perfect companion to the glorious setting that Homeplace Garden occupies.
On a completely different level, when I immersed myself in the garden, I lost track of the tick of my internal clock: my daily routines, the things that distract and nag at me, the things I need to do or have done poorly. We spent the day tromping and strolling, and tucked a heavenly lakeside picnic in between. Time to digest good food, and the delicious bites of wit and wisdom this group could offer. It just doesn't get any better than this. This was a day well spent, and each moment cherished.
One of my favorite poems comes to mind when I think about this wonderful experience.

The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Can't wait.... Ozzie's garden tomorrow.......

Purple Haze

2009-05-19T15:55:00.000-04:00

"Purple Haze all in my brain..."
It's been a long time since Jimi Hendrix lyrics floated thru my head. But that was certainly the tune I was playing when I wandered thru the garden over the weekend. It was not a flashback to my old college days or anything; just a good accompaniment to the "Ah ha!" moment I had when I saw my
Cotinus x 'Grace'. She seems to be blooming a little early this year, maybe because of the continued rain we've had, and the relatively cool temps. The other smoke trees are in bloom, too. I've got a regular green _Cotinus coggygria, and a

Cotinus coggygria 'Velvet Cloak'

and a pretty nifty little Cotinus coggygria called 'Pop's Pink Champagne'. But none compare to the stature and depth of color that 'Grace' has. Somehow Smoke Trees have gotten the reputation of being fussy or hard to grow in the Southeast. I can't for the life of me figure out why. I have several trees in full blazing all day sun with only mulch to help them thru the last two year drought. I have a couple of Pink Champagnes and the Royal Cloak in full shade. None has shown any problem in any cultural situation, and all have bloomed routinely every year. When I look them up on the NC State website (one of my favorite reference sites) there is nothing there to suggest anything but the same success I've had with these delightful and unusual shrubby trees. The fall color is also outstanding. Check out www.cotinus.ne t or http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/coob2.htm for other pictures and descriptions. Check out your local retail garden store. If they don't carry smoke trees, ask them why not? Once you get to know these beauties- especially Grace - you'll find yourself humming along....."whatever it is, that girl's put a spell on me..."

Fringe Trees

2009-05-04T17:57:00.000-04:00

Do you remember when we cut the flowers that were in bloom; when we ate what was in season? Yeah, I'm old enough to remember looking forward to the German iris bloom in my grandmother's rows and to asparagus and soft shelled crab in early spring. Seems like most things are available without wait these days. But we miss the anticipation.
Right now in my garden both the American and Chinese Fringe trees are in full glorious flower. It's not the azalea and dogwood that herald spring for me, but these two beauties. Nothing can substitute for the rare and delicate nature of the flowers, for the staggering impact of a large tree full of them, nor for the fleeting nature of the experience.
Chionanthus virginicus flower
Chionanthus retusus flower

Chionanthus retusus habit

Chionanthus virginicus habit

Feast on these pictures for now. The flowers are already fading. Go quickly to find one up close. Smell that faint sweet fragrance that just smells perfectly like spring. Remember the lines from that old Tom Waits song...

"I never saw the morning 'til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine 'til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody, until I needed a song.... (San Diego Serenade)

Enjoy them now. Look forward to them forever after.

So what happened??

2009-04-30T18:10:00.000-04:00

Maybe I have tested the rain gods with this blog. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything! We've gotten so sensitized to drought here that any little superstition can somehow explain why it has stopped raining. I think the answer is pretty simple.....sometimes it rains, sometimes a lot. Sometimes it doesn't, sometimes a lot.
Meanwhile, the spring here continues to be a blockbuster. Oakleaf Hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) are budded up and ready to explode. Here's a photo (right) of the faded flower color on Hydrangea quercifolia 'Amethyst'. It opens as a huge white panicle, then fades to THIS! WOW. As I have been saying for two years that this species, and the other native Hydrangea (arborescens) are both well adapted to the vagaries of the SE weather, and do perform regardless.

Other natives extend the spring show, some with an exhibitionsitic flareFothergilla major 'Mt Airy'
some with quiet seduction. Asimina triloba

Viburnums are also showing off this month. Too many to list here, but a few notable that I have come to love. Viburnum sargentii 'Onondaga' is rarely seen in the trade but is a real beauty.
The red is deep and rich, the leaves unfold in lovely patterns of creases and color. The flower is more like a lacecap hydrangea than you might guess. White sterile flowers, maroon lace. This plant will get tall, but it is not such a space hog like the doublefiles and others.

I took some Hostas to a customer this morning. I don't know many cultivars, but I do know what I like, and this little fella is one- Hosta 'Vanilla Creme'

TS Eliot wrote "April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
The Waste Land, 1922"

On this last day of April, I am hoping that May will continue to stir.

April Fool

2009-04-01T07:11:00.000-04:00

Picea abies Crusita

It's 2:30 am and I can't sleep. My plants are waking up and they're keeping me awake. So much to do. So afraid I'll miss something. Like yesterday, when I was cleaning out in the "my special stash" conifer house. I'm pulling weeds. I'm moving pots. I'm raking and sweeping dead leaves. I'm on my hands and knees scooping up the last of the piles and I come nose to nose with Picea abies 'Crusita'. My goodness, what a fabulous plant from my conifer buddy Duane. I've seen plenty of conifers whose new foliage is yellow or chartreuse and they are all great. But this baby has deep maroon little paintbrushes covering it. WOW. But look....now that I'm down here at ground level, there's the first pink cone on my Picea abies 'Acrocona' along with the little lightbulb yellow foliage at the tips.
Juniperus x media 'Holger' Picea abies 'Acrocona' Acer palmatum 'Higasayama'

And this Pinus parviflora 'Iri Fukin'. Little did I know when I ordered it that those cones would be purple! The Juniperus rigida 'Akebono' has candleflame yellow tips covering it's blue-green stiff nedles. The Juniperus x media 'Holger' mirrors the flametips with creamy yellow ones of it's own. And that's just the conifers!!

What about the Japanese maples, whose ranges and combinations of colors surpass all the available color words I know in English. 'Beni Maiko', 'Higasayama','Orange Dream', Koto-No-Ito'.....the words just
go round and round in my head. I'm too excited to sleep. But if I don't sleep, then I'll be too tired when it's light to get everything done. Get up and work.....go back to sleep! April Fool! The joke's on me.

But I sure am smiling.

Hypericum inodorum 'Summer Gold'

Maybe our great American humorist Mark Twain had the best line....
"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year."
And apparently I'm going to remember all 24 hours of it.

Nierembergia gracilis 'Starry Eyes'

RAIN!

2009-03-27T15:14:00.000-04:00

Second straight day of computer stuff. But hey- I'm not complaining. This is the kind of rain I remember from springs past. In fact, I am so old that I can remember a spring or two when I just gazed out of the window day after day thinking that it just couldn't rain anymore! Now, at least this week, that kind of rain pattern is back. And aren't we thrilled! As they say.....what a difference a few years makes.
Meanwhile, the warmer temps creeping in along with the rains have turned the dreary winter days into exciting peeks at spring. The Japanese Maples are magic every year. They change from day to day- hairy silver leaves, red dangles of flower buds, leaf colors from chartreuse to green, oranges, reds, maroons, finely dissected to broad hands. You should come see! Even Boxwoods look luscious right now. Pretty soon my lovely colorful conifers will have to take a back seat to Fothergilla, Illicium floridanum, Viburnums, Redbuds. And while the blast of spring continues, we're planning the vegetable garden full of heirloom veggies. Tomatoes for sure, in ornamental colors, along with peppers in all sorts of colors, shapes, sizes, and heats. Lettuces and other greens. Beans and peas. (Can you tell I spent too much time indoors in January with the plant catalogs??) Come take a look at the nursery, and keep coming back to watch to plants embrace spring and the nursery fill up with show offs.
I got an email from my daughter with a little snippet of a poem that seems to fit my mood today...

"And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away

from wherever you are, to look for your soul?

Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!"

-Mary Oliver

from Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches

Sounds like good advice....

What a difference a rain makes.

Tale of Two Quilts

Blessings of this Season

Giving Thanks

Just a Moment...

Hopeful Hurrican Season

Glass Half Full

Recess

Summer School

Magic at Magnolian Grove

Without Hesitation

Sensational

e.e. cummings

The Gift of Sight

Valentine's Day

What a Difference a Snow Makes

Stirring the Pot

Thanksgiving

The Needles of Fall

"Remembrance of Things Past" *

Old Dog, New Tricks

On the road to Damascus

e.e. cummings

Making Mud Pies

Spring's Successes

Our Proper Work

"We turn not older in years, but newer every day"- Emily Dickinson

Why Do I Do This?

"Winter's Sometime Smiles" *

Justify Yourself

Chilly Start

Say

SAD

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. "

Remember

Remember

Whatcha got? I got a New Attitude...

A Breath of Fresh Mountain Air

There are all sorts of gardens

With Pleasure

Purple Haze

Fringe Trees

So what happened??

TS Eliot wrote "April is the cruelest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain. The Waste Land, 1922"

April Fool

RAIN!

TS Eliot wrote "April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
The Waste Land, 1922"