Vita Sackville West

by

DRUNK with CAMELLIAS!!

Vita Sackville West wrote of her garden… “I am drunk with roses!”

I, am drunk with Camellias!

blooming on the right …

                                                                       

              Camellia japonica ‘Debutante’                                                       

The Camellia Walk snakes through the shade garden in the form of an inverted ‘S’

Below, it is the Camellia Walk which forms the background for the Mourning Bench.

                                                                    

                                                                   

In the Potager, below, a salad Garden, some collards & cabbages.

                                                                   

In the Cutting Garden, the seeds of the Lilies (Lilium formosanum)are ripe. Please e-mail me if you would like seeds. There were some request  after I posted the flowers, HERE.

                                                                 

AND… The Continuing Saga of yet another project….

                                                                    

An improvement since the last time I posted this spot.

I will be away from the computer for a week. Will fill you in when I return.

 © All photos & text 2010

Advertisement
by

HOLD THE PRUNERS

                                                                             

I have for several years grown the ‘Knockout Roses’. They had so much good PR, I was sold. Since it promised a long season of color,( something clients inevitable ask me for) I thought I needed to try them. Well, they did indeed bloom all summer long and stopped only around Christmas but they were far from ‘maintenance free’.

                                                                      

Why I started pruning them I’m not sure, but I was advised by several gardeners that one ‘had to’. This year I did not, well not all. I did start out cutting them back some but stopped when I was reminded of Vita Sackville West’s* plea to just trim roses lightly. So I did. She is/was after all, one of my first mentors.(I read everything I could on her, and everything she wrote that I could access.)
 
                                                                      

It worked! While I had complained before of their stiff habit; I now see  they can be a  graceful cascading plant. What will happen during the summer? I’ll keep you posted.

 Now, what to do about their lack of  fragrance?

NOTE: the wire cage in front is protecting a newly planted antique rose from the deer.

*Vita Sackville West was the planting genius behind the garden at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent England.

© All photos & text 2010