A Breath of Fresh Mountain Air

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!

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......

With Pleasure

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

"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.net 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

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



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??

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.

Hosta 'Vanilla Creme'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-

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

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'