Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Camellias under the Pines

Today I am going to Cofer's to pick out 3-4 new camellias! The ex-chicken-run includes an area under the pines that is perfect for camellias! The area is also perfect for my hammock. Kelly helped me plant dozens of shrubs and perennials (including a Yuletide camellia) this weekend there too. So I pulled up an old article I had written to brush up on camellias and thought I'd share it with you. After reviewing the planting instructions I am certain of one thing - among those pine roots I am not inspired to dig a hole for anything bigger than a 1 gallon rootball!:

Camellias are elegant evergreens for the South

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on March 9, 2007.



The American Camellia Society lists less than 20 recommended nurseries throughout the country; Cofer's Home & Garden Showplace in Athens is one of them. If you want to see your camellia in bloom before you buy it then this is a good weekend to select from dozens of varieties at Cofer's. Your only problem will be choosing.



There are 250 species of camellias, all evergreens native to the Orient. Let's focus on two familiar types of camellias, plus a species camellia well worth adding to the garden. The most common camellias are sasanquas and japonicas.



Sasanqua camellias (Camellia sasanqua) bloom at the end of the year, starting to bloom in late fall. The blooms tend to be smaller and more fragrant than the japonicas. The plant tends to be smaller too, maturing at 6 to 10 feet tall, and less cold hardy than the japonicas. One of the most common sasanquas is 'Yuletide'.



Japonicas (Camellia japonica) bloom at the beginning of the year, from almost Christmas until almost Easter. These are blooming now and are at their peak in February. That is when Massee Lane Gardens south of Fort Valley, Georgia and headquarters of the American Camellia Society, holds their annual Festival of Camellias. Maturing at 10 to 20 feet tall, japonicas can take more shade and should be kept out of afternoon sun.



"So which would you recommend?" I asked Stuart Cofer. "Both! That way you have blooms in two seasons. The japonicas do best sheltered from the wind. They prefer morning sun with shade from noon on and love pine shade. Winter sun can scorch the leaves of japonicas planted in deciduous shade. This doesn't hurt the plant, just looks bad and worries the homeowner. Sasanquas are tougher plants and can take more sun." There is a 13-year-old treeform sasanqua by Cofer's main entry - the west side. Of course, all the other conditions must be right. Full sun is easier to take in perfect soil conditions than in Georgia clay. Our warm summer nights are another challenge for camellias. Most resources would recommend afternoon shade for any camellias.



I have seen varieties of Camellia hiemalis and Cammellia oleifera (tea oil camellia) in plant sales and nurseries. Both bloom late in the year. Fifty percent of the vegetable cooking oil in Hunan, China is from tea oil camellias, producing an oil similar to olive oil. Tea oil camellia is hardy to zone 6 and a large plant, maturing at 10 to 20 feet like the japonicas. Cold hardy camellias such as this one are a hot item, with gardeners north of us wanting some of the beauty surrounding us.



Tea camellias have been used to make black tea in China since 500 B.C. In fact, the only commercial tea plantation in the United States is in South Carolina and harvests the tea from Camellia sinensis. The Charleston Tea Plantation First Flush Celebration will be held May 12. The 'first flush' is when the tiny new leaves push up above the previous years growth, the basis of a once a year special edition tea. Find out more about the festival at www.bigalowtea.com or sample a box of Bigalow's American Classic Tea, available in area grocery stores. Camellia sinensis is cold hardy into zone 6, does well in shade and matures at four to six feet high. The single, white 11/2-inch blooms with yellow stamens appear in fall. C. sinensis 'Rosea' has pretty pale pink blooms.



When you plant a camellia in the ground, follow the instructions found on the American Camellia Society Web site: www.camellias-acs. org. They recommend the top of the rootball be slightly higher than the soil line. Do not cover the top of the rootball with soil, but do cover the entire planted area with mulch. Camellia roots need good drainage and air. The ACS also recommends that the planting hole be at least two feet wider than the rootball and the backfill removed from the hole be placed back into the hole when planting. Many people in Georgia love their plants to death by adding lots of goodies into the holes when planting. If you want to amend the soil, amend the entire bed before planting and make sure that bed is elevated so it drains well (and away from any structure), even after it settles with time.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Time in Her Garden

Today I planned to take a friend to lunch before going to the book launch of In the Garden with Billy, a book I had been looking forward to reading. Jean and I sat on her patio for a few minutes, talking in the warming sun when she mentioned she wished she had asked me to bring a tiller or tool to help break up a contractor’s clay planting bed so she could put a few plants in. Jean has to be an amazing gardener, because her garden is blooming despite the horrible sub-soil clay mess her poor plants have to live in. A couple years ago we planted blueberries, azaleas, a cotoneaster and Knockout roses, all doing well now. Today we made a mad dash to Pike’s to buy soil, mulch and plants, then Jean heated homemade stew and made grilled cheese sandwiches while I used a new pitchfork to break up brick-hard clay. Four bags of topsoil only amended half the bed, but we considered with our time and soil limitations half a bed done fairly well was pretty darn good for today. The other half would be dealt with in spring and just mulched for now. A mature Knockout rose divids the two sides. I planted 22 daffodils where I could dig deep-enough holes and moved some ‘Goodnight Moon’ bearded iris that had spread since the start was brought from my garden. I completed the planting with asters, mums and pansies, then 4 bags of mulch while Jean planted a container with annuals. I managed to scrub most of the dirt off my hands and nails before jumping in the car to get to the book launch.
Was sweating in the garden better than someone bringing me lunch in a restaurant? You betcha, because those flowers will bloom for several weeks, then several years for Jean. The daffodils will be a brilliant surprise come spring. I think that taking Grandma to an all-you-can-stomach buffet shows love, but not much imagination. If you have a friend or relative that you should visit, consider doing a little work instead of just going out to eat. Washing windows, filling birdfeeders, planting pansies, or framing photos can give someone many hours of joy.
Oh - and In the Garden with Billy - well worth reading!  Good news, since I bought copies for 4 friends!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

This Ol' Shed

I had knitting friends over Thursday night. One of the best things about having folks over is that the house is cleaned in a frenzy right before. One of the best things about that is my clean house collided with help in the garden and perfect Fall weather on Saturday morning - so why not spend the day in the garden! Kelly transformed bare post-chicken-yard ground into a mulched area under the pines just perfect for a collection of camellias, my hammock, lots of spring bulbs, plus sun-loving perennials. At the same time I shoveled out the chicken shed and laid fresh mulch in its place. Thank goodness there wasn’t a mirror around, because for a while I was wearing my Aussie style Tula hat and a bandana around my nose and mouth to avoid the dust. OK, if that image isn’t bad enough, let me add that it wasn’t a classic western look, thanks to a tacky turquoise and pink abstract design on the bandana. I am glad I never actually saw how I looked - I was just happy to breathe with all the dust being stirred up.


So what was the chicken pen now has a table and chairs on fresh mulch, with an open air feel, between the shade garden and the north vineyard. Sounds lovely, especially if you have browsed a coffee table book on garden sheds. Let me tell you, when I say shed I mean shed. And the table is green plastic surrounded by white plastic chairs gathered up around the property. I'm havin' trouble attaching a photo tonight, but I'll get before, during and afters of this project. Still, it has a very calming, relaxed, country feel that fits me. Later I may go out and buy better furniture, but the shed will always be a shed. It’s fun that Kelly, who has been helping me reclaim the garden, is very OK with the style. She even lifted up the old set of wood deck steps that I could not get onto the loads to the dump last week and said “Two posts on this and you have a plant stand. Think of how pretty all of your ladies-in-waiting will look!” My ladies-in-waiting are all the one gallon plants waiting to find a home in my garden. We also decided the collection of 40+ year old fence rails could make a fun edging for the new bed.

The next step is to move the potting bench that my father made for me about 20 years ago into that area. It’s a perfect location and, luckily, the bench is on wheels. The three metal trash cans that held chicken feed will be stocked with potting soil and orchid bark beside the bench.

Today I pruned the variegated pittosporum on the front corners of the house. These were huge masses of foliage when we moved in 9 years ago, but were pruned into windswept clusters of trees. That looks great, but ongoing pruning is needed to keep that look. When I was getting advice on work needing to be done to the house, I was told to prune away any branches touching the house. Leaf and limb pickup is tomorrow and hopefully a new coat of paint on the house is coming soon, so pruning had to be done today. A mountain of pittosporum branches are now piled up beside the road.

I’m addicted to listening to my IPod while gardening and this time I started Knit with Courage, Live with Hope: a good book, but maybe not the best subject for me. It is written by a knitwear designer dealing with her husband’s fast-moving cancer and constant pain. A book being read to me is a good background not only to pruning, but to frantic knitting. Last night I cleaned out my knitting basket and discovered the cabled scarf I was knitting for my uncle. Uncle Steve is living in New Jersey, rather thin, and tells me he walks almost a mile a day. He is also 94 and it is starting to get cold. I must get this scarf done! So I sat on the deck for several more chapters and knitted. The scarf is now long enough to function, but I might as well finish up this second skein before casting off, washing it and getting it into the mail.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Life without chickens

This weekend the 13 ladies were placed in the coop, then onto a trailer, and headed to their new home. Their coos and personalities and eggs will be missed. With shorter days ahead I was not able to get excited about caring for them in the dark before and after work. I must admit the five foot king snake that decided my ladies are fantastic roommates and was swinging from the shed rafters when I checked on the ladies at dusk one evening helped me decide, especially after a friend assured me that having chickens meant dealing with a couple snakes a year. Sir snake was escorted to the other end of the property once again. Hopefully he will stay in the woods this time, dining on rodents instead of chicken eggs.

Yesterday I loaded Dad's pickup twice, tied the tarp over each load with knots that actually held (proud of that!) and went to the dump. Now I have an open 9' x 12' or so shed behind my walk-in shed with a cross-breeze and amazing views: the shade garden under the huge pecan on one side, woods on another and a young muscadine vineyard on the third.  Not to mention the old chicken yard with lots of loose soil and fertilizer under huge tree trunks. Dad's decades-old rusty cultivator will look great against the white wood wall. Oh, the possibilities are endless!

Today I will clean out the mulch under the shed and start to lay out the new beds, lay new mulch there, under the shed, and around the trees. I have begun to look at my nursery of container plants with a whole new perspective. There is a spot perfect for camellias and a place for my new trumpet vine, plus a large area for Lenten roses, heuchera and ferns. There is also a place where I must fight to kill an ancient stand of nandina, but the nandina was cut back two weeks ago and two huge, planted containers can rise above that battle.

For now an existing plastic table and chairs will move into the space, and I can hang chimes from a dear friend, and the comfy hammock.  I'll look at redecorating and adding a lighted ceiling fan later. Off I go...

Sunday, August 29, 2010

What is a native plant? Why plant them?

almost as printed in the Athens Banner-Herald April 2010

“Native plants – gotta have ‘em.” seems to be a mantra among home gardeners, garden magazines and more. But what is a native plant and why would we want to plant them?

In the past few months I have had the opportunity to travel around the state on many trips, spending time in cars with staff members of the State Botanical Garden’s Research and Conservation and the Horticulture Departments, plus the Interim Director – captive audiences who could explain what a native plant is and does. My favorite short description is that a native plant was one growing in this area when the Europeans settled here. OK, so it is a plant that has been here for 300-400 years. Doesn’t seem like much time, but actually since that time many acres have been cleared for cities, cotton, pine forests and more. Since that time English ivy, privet, Chinese wisteria and other non-native invasive plants have made themselves at home, shading out and crowding out native plants.

OK, we have a rough timeline, so where is ‘here’? The native purists may say native means native to the county, others define the area as Georgia. Many native plant societies represent their state, which politically makes a lot of sense but covers many different geographic regions. The plants themselves could care less about our political boundaries. I tend to embrace the Southeast, partially because I have gardened in three areas in the Southeast and I am a member of Southeastern sections of a few plant organizations. Northern and Western North America is so different from us and so unfamiliar to me as a gardener that I stay Southeast when I think ‘native’. That doesn’t mean we can’t grow their plants – leatherleaf mahonia is from the opposite corner of the country, yet I have two of those plants thriving in my garden. Echinacea tennesseensis is native to a small area near Nashville, Tennessee, but will be at the Botanical Garden Plant Sale and will do well in our gardens. Home gardeners must keep in mind though that if a plant is native to a shady creek bank in this area, offering it a dry sunny spot will probably not make it happy. It is important to match the growing conditions, not just the geography.

As a rule, native plants, truly native plants, are species. If a plant is a cultivar, which stands for ‘cultivated variety’, someone bred the plant to encourage certain characteristics. This is why nurseries now offer an abundance of leaf colors in coral bells (Heuchera) and coneflowers (Echinacea) with double petals or fragrance or with bloom colors of purples, wines, yellows and white. So Heuchera villosa is a Southeastern native plant and one of the parents of Heuchera ‘Georgia Peach’, a cultivar. Cultivars of our native trees may offer larger flowers, variegated leaves or more vivid fall foliage colors. Purists may only want the plants found growing naturally; I embrace all the varieties and crosses of natives that offer what I see as the best of both worlds. 

So why plant natives? The common answer is that because they are native to the area, these plants are hardier and more pest resistant, which basically is true. It’s hard to clump everything into one pile. Some natives are still fussy, especially when they are planted in the wrong spot. Remember what the dogwoods looked like at the height of our drought? Other natives can be bullies and grow more than we want.

But there are two reasons to plant natives that I really like. First, native plants are needed by our native wildlife. Bees, butterflies, and all the creatures native to our area need our native plants in their environment. Everything is interdependent. Planting natives helps to keep the cycle going.

Second, our native plants are ours. Texans can have their bluebonnets, Californians can have their poppies - we have plants that represent us. Our Southern magnolias, dogwoods, native azaleas, serviceberry, etc. are us, just like sweet tea, screened-in porches, and hospitality. We need to embrace these plants because they are a part of our heritage. Native plants are part of what makes this area special. We don’t want a landscape that looks like everywhere else – that would be as interesting as a highway lined with chain stores and fast food restaurants.

I'm back!

To say it’s been an eventful year is an understatement. Some joys, lots of travel and changes. I’m afraid my garden and my blog are both suffering from neglect, but I woke up Saturday morning and calculated – in the next 10 days I have half of those as ‘weekend’ days and no major events. Now is the time to catch up, but not to beat myself up. So here it is. Sunday morning, and I am sitting on the deck. Cackling, happy hens are free ranging in the backyard and vineyard on a lawn that is about 80% reclaimed after John Deere and I chugged through knee-high grass. It is so relaxing to take a mowing break by pulling up the riding mower beside a muscadine vine and grazing on sun-warmed grapes.


One thing I did notice while mowing is how many types of wildlife thrive in grasses. I move so slow on the mower that snakes and bunnies and such can escape unharmed from the mower, but butterflies and all sorts of flying and jumping insects were enjoying the seedheads. The tall grass was alive with fauna, which made me feel a little guilty for cutting it, so I think I will leave the meadow intact and just cut a pathway through (it gets mowed about 3 times a year). I’m not sure if these are native grasses, but this area was never sodded or planted after most of this property was timbered a few years before we bought the land. We have worked to keep some areas meadow and some wooded. The backyard is a ‘country lawn’, a mix of grasses and clover that looks great the day after it is mowed.

So, my time in the garden, plus few meetings this week discussing native plants reminded me of a column that I’d like to add to this blog, one that gives reasons for native plants in the garden. One of the main reasons is that the native birds, butterflies, and mammals depend on natives for their diet and habitat.

The butterflies are waking up – gotta deadhead the butterfly bush beside me soon.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Good enough.

I just don't like working in my front yard. Despite planting about 40 trees since I moved in, I feel on display for the cars driving down the busy road in front of our house. The back garden is private, the soil there is worlds better, and the shade and seating is much more restful than the baking west-facing front. When I garden I want to be in back, with the hydrangeas, vegetables, grapevines and chickens. I love escaping into that private world.
When we moved in, the front of our 100' long ranch brick house had a thicket of variegated pittosporum on each end with a 4' tall hedge of Japanese hollies between. There was about a foot gap to wiggle through to climb the steps to the porch and the shutters were shiny black. Ugh! Compared to where we started, the front looks lovely, but I have just ignored it for the past couple years and 'lovely' is not the word to describe it. 'Neglected' - that's the word. So I vowed to spruce it up over Memorial Day weekend and found myself with the hoe among the tomatoes instead. I finally got out front and decided it would take more than a weekend to get this area in shape. And then I got honest and let go of the guilt. I hate the front planting, of working around the hollies that are there. I hate the hard red clay that I can't till up because I am afraid of changing the drainage and hurting the holly roots. I hate the low-growing perennials which have survived, but are too diminitive to be seen by the cars traveling 50 mph down the road. I want it out. I want it all out - everything between the now treeformed pittosporum, saving only a small patch by the front door. I want real soil, in a fat, fluffy planting bed sloping away from the house. 
So this year I settle for good enough. I weeded, dug up two Rose of Sharon, added some annuals and moved some perennials, mulched with pine straw, and moved planters onto the porch, in front of the hollies, and behind the dwarf crape myrtles. I've been stashing 10% of everything I earn freelancing this year and now that money has a purpose. Next winter I want someone to yank out dozens of hollies and bring in loads of soil. For now, I'll settle for good enough and head to the back garden.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

From Landscape to Homestead


Not sure how it happened, but our 5 acres transformed quickly from a backyard with a vegetable garden and some fruit plants to a homestead. A few days ago it was too rainy to work outside, so I roamed the garden to see what edibles were forming on our plants. What happened??? We no longer are working toward a ‘landscape’; instead we have created a homestead interspersed with some really cool ornamental plants. Not that I’m complaining – I really am liking this, but oh my! We have 13 chickens (6 dozen eggs/week), 14 grapevines, 6 blueberries and at least as many blackberries. Oh, and the gardens - 2 vegetable plots, plus raised beds and cucumber and melon patches. The hops vines produce well. And fig trees – 3 mature trees plus 2 more in containers. I heartily suggest one, maybe two, fig trees. Any more is just too much and five is … well, the chickens will be feasting on figs. Mother Nature planted some for us – muscadines, elderberries (great in wine) and poke salet (ever had a poke quiche? – yummy!).


The poor front garden is suffering as I hoe and gently coax tomato plants back into their cages. This three-day weekend I will commit to working on the neglected front, adding containers and flowers, pulling out plants that aren’t working and doing some serious pruning to the groves of variegated pittosporum. When pruned, they look like windswept trees.

So I will never have the magazine-layout landscape – but I should have plenty of eggs and veggies to share with friends.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Four Reasons Knitters Grow Lavender in their Garden:

1- To repel pests from the yarn stash.
2- To make charming homemade sachets that add to a hand-knit gift and make it smell so wonderful when it is opened.
3- To add to lemonade served to friends when they come over to knit.
4- Because it is so lovely growing in the garden!

In the Southeast the key to growing lavender is really good drainage.


There will be 6 varieties of lavender sold at The State Botanical Garden of Georgia’s Spring Plant Sale this weekend (www.uga.edu/botgarden) in Athens. The entire plant catalog is now on the Garden’s website. If you would like to see a list of plants, please click on http://www.uga.edu/botgarden/documents/plantsales/sps10.pdf
Also, there will be a special sale in the Garden Gift Shop.


Plant Sale hours:
Saturday, April 10, 8:00am-2:00pm, Everyone welcome
Friends members get into a Friday pre-sale, plus receive discounts both Friday and Saturday.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Back to the Books

OMG! I’ve been talking with Jennifer so much lately that I forgot that my interview about native perennials was with Melissa, who is so very knowledgeable about rare native plants and has grown many in her garden. She gave a talk to the State Botanical Garden’s Board of Advisors about native perennials that would do well in home gardens. After the talk in November, we finally got together in December so she could answer some of my questions about these perennials. Hearing our conversation again and going over the notes, I am inspired to add several of these recommendations to my garden (I already have a few). I am also inspired to write all three magazine columns due this month on native perennials. I had postponed writing on this subject because these plants would work best in spring issues, just in time for spring planting and the State Botanical Garden April 10th Spring Plant Sale, which will emphasize native plants.

What I am not inspired to do is the usual Internet research, supplemented with my books. Maybe it is because my native wildflower library is written mainly by people I have met and is so charming and thorough. I went to the shelves and pulled down a half dozen great books, mainly from The University of Georgia Press (www.ugapress.org): Hugh and Carol Nourse’s Favorite Wildflower Walks of Georgia, Allan Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens, the Duncans’ Wildflowers of the Eastern United States, Linda Chafin’s Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Georgia, and the Millers’ Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses. Then there is my trusty 1992 well-worn paperback: Wildflowers of Arkansas by Carl Hunter, which was a reliable reference when my garden library was small and my computer very, very slow.

The prospect of stacking books, pens, a pad of paper and a cup of tea beside the sinker cypress rocker to research articles actually is inspiring. What a lovely way to spend a few hours this weekend.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

It's the Weekend - Call in the Muse!

This weekend's writing is about native perennials. That should be pretty easy, since I interviewed Jennifer Ceska for my info and her enthusiasm for native plants is beyond infectious. Listening to Jennifer is more energizing than 3 cups of coffee. She and Dr. Jim Affolter are speaking at the Johnstone Lecture at The State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens Wednesday, March 3 at 7:00 (free!), which will be a great presentation.

I have her interview recorded. I truly think that this one subject has enough inspiration to base three columns on, since there are so many great native perennials that can add to the home landscape.

I'm also working about 6 hours at the Athens Home and Garden Show - stretched over 3 days. Yuck - have to wear makeup every day this week. But the show is a good one, There are lots of fun things to see (look at the intense blue blooms on the rosemary at Thomas Orchard's booth!), I'm running into a lot of friends and my job is to chat with folks, which I enjoy. The State Botanical Garden has 3 crafts for kids to do and take home - all involving the Monarch butterfly. And I want to hear Shelly's talk on Georgia Gold Medal Plants Saturday afternoon.

Hopefully the writing and the Athens Home & Garden Show will inspire the creative muse, because I could really use her inspiration in my garden this weekend. I'm trying to install chicken wire fencing on metal posts. I love serpentine walls, but find the look very depressing in chicken wire! How in the world do you get it stretched tight? I am having a time getting this right and will dedicate Sunday to trying again. Thank goodness I did have the sense to buy the smaller rolls of 5' wire and not try to save money with the huge roll. The chickens must be contained NOW - the garden is starting to leaf out and if you think deer are rough on a garden, you ought to see what chickens can do. There's also one 4x4 wood post to install. My post hole digger has gone down 16", but that isn't enough. The good news is that 8' post will be a great place for a vine and finial!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Discover the Microclimates in Your Garden

While in college, one of my design classes spent a few days in Boxley Valley along the Buffalo National River in Arkansas to analyze this historic site for a project. Emerging from our tents in the cool morning, desperate for a hot cup of coffee, our instructor pointed out the other tent in the campground. That tent was covered with frost while ours, sited under evergreen trees, were not. The evergreen canopy kept our tents a few degrees warmer and protected from frost.

While studying landscape architecture I heard many lectures on microclimates: south slopes are warmer than north slopes, cold air settles into valleys, morning sun is less harsh than afternoon sun. But seeing and feeling the difference in microclimates within that small campground was a vivid and memorable lesson-a few feet in one site can make a difference.

The moment you realize that your property is made up of many little microclimates you instantly become a better gardener. There is a reason why the azalea planted where it receives irrigation and afternoon shade is thriving in your neighbor's yard, while yours, under the same cluster of pines but receiving afternoon sun and little water, is stressed. A few feet in a garden can make a life or death difference to a plant, which is why gardeners move plants that do not seem to be happy.

Our property is a high point for our neighborhood, so I hesitate before bringing moisture-loving plants into my garden. Moisture loving trees are simply not an option for this site. I refuse to garden without hydrangeas and hostas, which love water and are favorites of the browsing deer. So these are clustered together under an old pecan tree that I revere. When I ration water during a drought, this area is the last to be denied our precious well water.

A few feet from the pampered hydrangeas is a red maple, which seems to claim all available sunlight and moisture from the raised bed around its trunk. Several plants have perished in that extreme environment; the proven survivors for such dark, dry, deciduous shade are spring bulbs, epimediums and columbine.

OK, so let's take a quick walk around your home and look at typical microclimates. The east side receives the morning sun and afternoon shade. The south side gets sun for most of the day. The west side stays shaded in the morning, then gets brutal afternoon sun. The north side stays pretty shaded, but can get afternoon sun in the hottest part of the year. Sounds simple, but few of us live in a rectangle in the middle of a field. The many angles and height of the house, trees, fences, pavement, moisture, soil composition, wind, and more affect your plants. A windy site may dry out foliage. A sheltered area may allow you to grow a plant rated for one zone south (at least for a few winters). Near my home hydrangeas are placed near the downspouts on the east side-sites that offer both afternoon shade and moisture. Rosemary thrives in the brutal area under the south eaves that gets plenty of sun and limited rain.

A plant that can take full sun in Michigan may not be able to handle full sun here in the Southeast. For us ‘part shade’ means morning sun and afternoon shade, while any location that receives three to four hours of afternoon sun, even if it is in the shade until 2:00 in the afternoon, counts as a ‘full sun’ site when selecting plants.

The best way to know your garden is to spend time in it throughout the year, learning where the water flows, where the sun shines at different times of the day and year, and which plants seem happy. To further complicate things, a garden is constantly changing, with trees growing and dying, changing sun angles and more. A few years ago drought tolerant plants were all anyone wanted to talk about here. But weather is always changing. Plants that are suited to a site are the healthiest and the healthiest plants will be best able to survive any weather extreme.

Yes, you can learn about gardening from a book, but the best way to know your garden is to garden in it. You will kill some plants (every gardener does) and move others, you will make mistakes, but you will also find out what works well for you and build on successes. Being aware of the microclimates within your garden will help you be a more successful gardener.

(adapted from an article first published in Lee Magazine, May 2008)

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Foster Orchids have Arrived


Dad at age 90 - Christmas 2007

Two dozen orchid plants traveled back with me from Dad's greenhouse into my living room - or at least they will be there once the new mail-ordered light table arrives. Luckily, a couple boxes of orchid and gardening books also traveled with me. After Dad's funeral we were all pleased that my brother-in-law Lou, who lives across the street from Mom , said he would like to take over Dad's hobby greenhouse. "After taking care of the orchids whenever your folks traveled I understand why John liked spending time in that greenhouse." Right before I left I showed Lou all I knew about repotting orchids. We repotted three orchid plants. One with a beautiful orange bloom yielded two plants - one for each of us.

I volunteered at the State Botanical Garden once a week for about a year repotting orchids. When Dad came to Gerogia for a visit several years ago he spent an afternoon with me and the Greenhouse Curator, giving us tips and improving our repotting skills. A few years ago I consulted Dad about orchid basics to write one of my weekly newspaper columns. That column is below - time for me to review it! I need to brush up on my orchid growing skills - not only do I have these two dozen plants and other plants he gave me, but I may have almost the only Blc. 'John L. Fugedy' plant left. It's almost big enough to divide - hopefully in a few years others in the family will have one too.

I just joined the American Orchid Society. Bless them, they provide informative videos to members, as well as their monthly magazine and a monthly 'to do' checklist.

To Grow Orchids You Just Have to Know What They Like
Published in The Athens Banner-Herald January 2006

My father has had has a home-made greenhouse in the back yard, filled with orchids, for as long as I can remember. A corporate pilot, he could be gone for days at a time, so as soon as I showed any inclination for gardening I was trained to take care of those orchids. If you are at all hesitant to adopt an orchid and try growing one, let me try to explain what orchids want as I learned as a child and once I started my collection.

Orchids like light, but not direct summer sun.
All orchids need light, some more than others. Cattleyas take more light than Phalaenopsis. But none like direct sun in summer. Dad would put a shadecloth over the greenhouse for summer and take it down in winter. The orchids that went outside in summer were hanging from a tree or under a shade structure.

Orchids need air circulation.
If you look in a greenhouse, you will see the benches (tables the plants sit on) are usually made of wire mesh. This lets the water drain through, but it also lets air flow through. Air movement is key to growing orchids.

I did not understand this basic principle until recently. My orchids thrive outside in summer, hanging under the pecan tree. Last winter I moved them to a room in the back of the house where they received nice morning light. But this room was heated with a space heater and I only went in there once or twice a week, not being as diligent as I should with the humidity trays. The poor little guys were breathing dry, still air. The plants endured the winter indoors, then thrived again when they moved outside in summer. Now the orchids live with us in rooms with ceiling fans and air movement and are much happier then last winter.

Orchids need fertilizer.
Dad used a fertilizer that turned the water and his thumb blue. Not all gardeners have green thumbs; my Dad often has a blue thumb and he's a great gardener.

Orchids need water.
Dad's basic rules of watering: water the little pots more frequently than the big ones, in summer more frequently than in winter, and water every plant until water runs out the bottom of the pot.

I carry mine to the tub to give them a thorough watering and spraying: watering once, allowing a little time to drain, then watering again before returning the plant to its place. Lift the pot before and after you water your orchid and soon you will be able to tell if your plant needs water by the weight of it.

If you have city water, you may want the water to sit in an open container for a day to remove residual chlorine. This also brings the water to room temperature.

Orchids like humidity.
Georgia's hot, humid summers can literally take your breath away. But the hotter it gets, the more orchids like humidity. Water evaporating off the leaves and enough moisture in the plant both help the plant handle heat. Avoid the combinations of dry and hot and wet and cold - orchids do not like either.

One summer Dad could not trust the temperamental fan in the greenhouse. On a sunny, summer day air movement is essential in a greenhouse or it starts to bake like a closed car. So Dad devised a solution - an obnoxiously loud alarm triggered by temperature. Luckily, all of our neighbors were cows. He thought it was a stroke of genius (it was); I despised the thing. Whenever that alarm sounded, I was to drop everything, run out to the greenhouse to check the fan and, using a special hose attachment, spray a fine mist of water throughout the greenhouse. The evaporating water had a cooling effect. Even if the alarm did not sound, I was to mist once or twice during a sunny summer afternoon.

Indoors, a humidity tray or tabletop fountain helps add moisture.

Orchids don't like to be too hot or too cold.
Many orchids adapt well to indoor temperatures, although they usually like temperatures to drop at night. Turn down the thermostat a little at bedtime and your orchids and heating bill may both look better.

This advice is simple and general. The best way to learn about orchids is to take one home and learn by doing.

Phalaenopsis, the moth orchid, is one of the best orchids to try growing indoors. They have a spray of flowers rising above broad, low leaves and roots that like to wander outside the pot. Preferring temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees and lower light conditions, most homes offer the conditions they need. Phalaenopsis are also very easy to find. They are usually sold in bloom and the blooms can last for months on the plant. Plants can rebloom one to three times a year. If you have a spot where African violets are happy, Phalaenopsis should be happy there too.

Tom Larkin, grower, hybridizer, and orchid judge, recommends Ortho's Complete Guide to Orchids by Michael McKinley (Editor) for beginning orchid growers. Flora's Orchids, recently published by Timber Press, is a beautifully illustrated, informative reference. Both books are endorsed by the American Orchid Society.