Camellia ‘Daydream’

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SASANQUA SEASON

I can’t believe it’s already autumn. Time flies, as they say. So here’s what is happening in my garden.P1230952

While my Northern garden buddies are cutting back perennials and putting their gardens to sleep… I am enjoying an embarrassment of riches in the way of Camellia sasanqua blooms.

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Some so profuse they look like cascading roses from a distance.

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Last fall I finally found the Camellia sasanqua ‘Cotton Candy’ a favorite of my dear late friend Margaret Moseley. It was one she had recommended to me many years ago when I first started my garden, but I was never able to locate it. When it starts to bloom I will post a photo. I know Margaret would be pleased. Still on the lookout for  Camellia ‘Martha’s Dream’ yet another of her early blooming favorites.

P1230956Camellia ‘Daydream’ which I rescued from a compost heap at a nursery. I followed the fragrance and found it. I have never seen it in the trade before or since. Of course the first time I saw it was in Margaret’s garden.

Mine is a garden of memories.

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THIS ‘N’ THAT

Due to an injury I have been unable to garden. I finally got to take a walk and snap some photos so here goes.. a bit of this ‘n’ that.

This scene makes me smile every time..the faded flowers on the hydrangea and the Camellia sasanqua ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ perfect partners.

Stewartia  showing some of its famous exfoliating  bark. This was the year  to remove all the lower branches, it will look somewhat awkward for a few years…

Camellia sasanqua ‘Daydream’ I rescued this plant from the trash at a nursery. Margaret Moseley told me it was the only fragrant sasanqua in her garden…If  Margaret was growing it ..I needed to have one too; but it was an old variety and no one carried it. One Autumn day, plant shopping in Alabama, I caught a sweet fragrance and went to investigate…there it was, a broken scraggly mess, lying in the trash heap… the treasure I was seeking!  They gave it to me.

Beautiful colours on the lacecap hydrangea…

 eggplants and peppers still going in the potager…

and the clematis that bloomed all summer & going strong still… Clematis ‘Odoriba’

Life is good.

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GARDENING IN THE SOUTH

                                                                   

Perhaps what I appreciate most about gardening in the south is the fact that it is year round.

                                                                                    

While many of the deciduous hydrangeas are loosing their foliage, the Arum groundcover is coming into its own and will soon blanket the ground.

                                                                                         

Then there are the shrubs that bloom a second time. Above, the Chinese Witchhazel (Lorapetalum chinensis) in its second flowering.

                                                                                       

For the rest, far from looking bare the camellia sasanqua are putting on quite a show. From a distance they could be mistaken for  cascading  roses ….

                                                                                      

Close up, just as enchanting with as much diversity in form.

                                                                                 

                                                                    

                                                                    

The potager is done with the summer crop and we are now planting garlic (late), seeding lettuce and arugula,  planting kale, cabbage and broccoli. Believe it or not the summer peppers are still going strong, I just harvested these….

                                                                            

When the summer wildflowers die down I can see the bee hives…. wish you could taste the honey….

                                                                                            

No, we don’t do that, we have a beekeeper in fact the bees are his, we just supply the nectar and then share the honey, good deal!