Giving Thanks

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......

There are all sorts of gardens

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 desirable 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 insistently 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......