Why Do I Do This?

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.

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee

* In Just- Spring ee cummings

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

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

"Winter's Sometime Smiles"

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,

and enjoy the garden every single winter day.

Thuja plicata 'Green Giant'

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.

Justify Yourself

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

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

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!