The yard was sad and bare, but i saw potential! There was clay, sand, flooding, and insect pressure; still i saw potential! Corn failed to set ears, squash was infested with squash vine borers, beans grew at half speed, greek oregano (oregano!) rotted from the damp – a three sisters garden disaster – and yet i moved on. Powdery mildew destroyed all my gorgeous melons but two, not a single cantaloupe spared, and i still broke out my hori hori.
When people, on occasion, say i have skill at gardening i do not defer because of modesty or to downplay pride in my toils, i do so because its true. I like to say that if you take enough pictures, one out of 400 is bound to be good. By now i like to think it is more like one out of 150 or so for me.
Red Head ornamental grass
I don’t know much about gardening in the north carolina clay, but i have clay in Maine and i have learned some tricks. Southern clay takes on a whole different aspect, when you add the heat and humidity, humidity so thick it feels solid and stings my eyes. In Maine the clay earth just traps moisture and dries out. Here i can almost feel the gelling of fungus, bacteria, and rot amidst the life giving earth and water, squeezing out the little air that the soil retains.
In short, I am switching to raised beds and attempting to better mix and amend the soil. My optimism for the southern climate overcame my common sense. Seed catalogs with zone 7b veggies called out to me and i could not help myself, so i jumped the gun and planted directly into the hand dug soil. I paid the price but i learned.
All gardeners learn. You never stop. All gardeners fail. You never stop. But some days, some attempts, some trials succeed and you revel in the beauty of the thing you fostered.
You get your one photo in 400.
Coral Knockout Rose – a remarkable bloomer in December zone 7b.
I love a maple tree. Some people dislike the roots or deciduous leaves, but I love everything about them. They are typically very reliable, easy to transplant, and there is s species for every zone. And who doesn’t thrill at a gorgeous Japanese maple?
Acer palmatum First Ghost
I am recording my collection to keep them straight because I can’t anymore!
Acer palmatum waterfall- leafing out bright green in spring
North Carolina Garden Maples
Acer japonicum ‘Mai kujaku’ Dancing Peacock Japanese Maple – spring 2023
Acer palmatum ‘Rikuzen shidare’ Weeping Japanese Maple – spring 2023
Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’ bright red fall leaf Japanese Maple – spring 2023
Acer palmatum ‘Yama nishiki’ Snow Peak Japanese Maple – spring 2023
Acer palmatum ‘Uncle Ghost’ reticulated orange Japanese Maple – early spring 2023
Acer palmatum ‘Kiyohime’ Dwarf Japanese Maple – early spring 2023
Acer palmatum ‘Pung kil’ korean purple-red linearilobum Japanese Maple – summer 2022
Acer palmatum ‘Beni maiko’ red dancing girl (maiko is geisha in training) Japanese Maple – spring 2022
Acer palmatum ‘First Ghost’ reticulated Japanese Maple – winter 2021
Acer palmatum ‘Sango kaku’ Coral Bark Japanese Maple – winter 2021
Acer palmatum ‘Mikawa yatsubusa’ Dwarf Japanese Maple – winter 2021
Acer palmatum ‘Ukigumo’ aka ‘Floating Clouds’ white reticulated leaf Japanese Maple – summer 2022
Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’ Golden Full Moon Japanese Maple – spring 2023
Acer shirasawanum ‘Autumn Moon’ Full Moon Japanese Maple – summer 2022
Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese Maple – spring 2020
Acer palmatum ‘Waterfall’ weeping green orange fall foliage Japanese Maple – winter 2020
Acer palmatum ‘Inaba Shidare’ weeping red laceleaf Japanese Maple – spring 2021
Acer palmatum ‘Tamukeyama’ weeping red laceleaf Japanese Maple – early spring 2021
Acer x freemanii ‘Jeffersred’ aka ‘Autumn Blaze’ vigorous hybrid bred from the native Sugar Maple and Silver Maple – spring 2020
Maine garden maples
Acer palmatum ‘Butterfly’ variegated pink/white/green Japanese Maple – spring 2021
Spring bulbs in the backyardBack yard from deck in early springFront yard shrubs bulbs and perennials Front yard by front doorFront yard a bit to the right with my favorite frog statue ever!Front yard from houseFront yard and walkway from house – I always like to consider what i can actually see from INSIDE!
Camellia japonica ‘Kifukurin Benikarako’Camellia japonica ‘Kifukurin Benikarako’ full plant with gorgeous variegated leaves!
There are so many camellias your yard is likle to start feeling too small once you start researching which varieties and types you want to plant.
Additionally all camellias can be used for tea by picking young leaf shoots and treating them various ways! I love a multi-use plant! Camellia sinensis is the tea camellia and will have more caffeine and tea flavor.
Camellia japonica ‘Roma Risorta’
Camellia List
Camellia japonica ‘Kifukurin Benikarako’ – my favorite camellia so far! Subtle but noticeable leaf variegation and smaller red flowers with a petaloid peony-like center puff
Camellia sasanqua “Shishigashira” (5) – shorter shrubby dark pink almost ruffled flowers
Camellia japonica ‘Professor Sargent’ – deep red with petaloid puff center
Camellia sasanqua “October Magic Ruby” (2 came in 1 pot) – lighter leaves, very dark pink flowers, some sun tolerance
Camellia sasanqua “Kanjiro” – this is the first camellia i planted! Dark pink flowers on bushy vigorous plant
Camellia japonica ‘White by the Gate’ – white formal, blooms through middle of winter but lots of brown flower damage due to cold
Camellia sasanqua “Setsugekka” – white with pink edging, tall and willowy bushy growth
Camellia sasanqua “Pink Snow” – pale pink with dropping petals that give the impression of pink snow on the ground
“Ella Ward Parsons” Camellia Japonica – formal pink and white
Camellia Japonica ‘Nuccio’s Pearl’ – formal pink and white
Camellia x “Robiraki” aka “Summer Beauty” – historic first known hybrid of C. japonica and C. sinensis
Camellia japonica “Tama Nouveau” – white edged red flower like many offspring of ‘tama no ura’
Camellia x ‘Winter’s Sunset’ – variegated leaf, fragrant, higo-like disc shaped single blooms with crepey petals that almost appear translucent, early blooming, heavy bud set
Camellia japonica ‘Kumagai’ – large red higo type with some white petaloids
Camellia sasanqua ‘Autumn Sunrise’ – early blooming, heavy bud set, bushy willowy plant, white/pink with thick dark rose edges to petals and yellow stamens, higo-like
Camellia japonica ‘Roma Risorta’ – striped heavily rose and light pink, formal
Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’ (2) – single red higo-like, blooms start around Thanksgiving
Camellia x ‘Autumn Carnival’ – early blooming striped opens dark pink fades to light, Chance seedling of Camellia x ‘Twilight Glow’
Camellia japonica ‘Lady Laura’ – huge red blooms, mine has no variegation and is the “red” cultivar reversion, huge blooms
Camellia japonica ‘Kumasaka’ large double rose pink 1695 antique camellia, very late blooms
Camellia x ‘Autumn Carnival’
Camellia Wish List
Obviously my excitement for camellias exceeds the space of my yard, but there are a number of gorgeous varieties I love to look at and wish for. Below are some of the fore-runners that may appear if I find more space!
Camellia sinensis ‘Silver Dust’
Camellia sinensis ‘Rosea’
Camellia sinensis ‘Fiuri’
Camellia sasanqua ‘Leslie Ann’ double cupped white with pink edge, ruflled and rose like
Camellia sasanqua ‘Yoimachi’ very early blooming white with pink edge
Camellia x ‘Yume’ longest blooming camellia, great potential for hybridization
Camellia japonica ‘Adeline Patti’ pink flower with delicate pink veining, white picotee egde, higo-like splayed prominent stamens
Camellia japonica ‘Fircone Variegated’ double small red and white with petals stacked like a fir cone
Camellia japonica ‘Lois Coker’ white with yellow blush, formal full, pinched pointed petals
Camellia japonica ‘Francis Eugene Phillips’ spikey holly edged leaves, ruffly pink and white flowers
Camellia japonica ‘Happy Higo’ very large red single higo flowers with many splayed stamens
Camellia japonica ‘Ko-raku’ red and white striped higo form
Camellia japonica ‘Yamato Nishiki’ large red and white variegated higo form
Camellia japonica ‘Gloire de Nantes’ red and white variegated higo form
Camellia japonica ‘Goggy’ pink and white formal (may be too similar to nuccios pearl and ella ward parsons camellias)
Camellia japonica ‘Chris Bergamini’ small red and white striped variegated flower with peony center
Camellia japonica ‘Tom Thumb’ small variegated pink and white with picotee edge, formal double
Camellia japonica ‘Tinsie’ white petaloid center puff
Camellia japonica ‘Bokuhan’ white petaloid center puff
Camellia japonica ‘Margaret Davis’ variegated, more stable than other variegated types
Camellia japonica ‘Ville de Nantes’ blotched almost moire blooms
Camellia japonica ‘April dawn blush’ stacked formal
Camellia japonica ‘Koshi no fubuki’ highly variegated green/white leaves, single red flower
Camellia japonica ‘Elegans Splendour’ pink with peony center, slight varigation, sports and reversion common
Camellia japonica ‘Herme’ aka ‘Jordan’s pride’ aka ‘Hikarugenji’ variegated but unstable, buy in bloom and cut out reversion branches or root cuttings if good
Camellia japonica ‘Betty Scheffield Supreme’ variegated, prone to reversions, buy in bloom
Camellia japonica ‘Carters sunburst special’ variegated, prone to reversions, buy in bloom
Camellia japonica ‘Finlandia’ red and white stripe,
Camellia japonica ‘princess masako’ red and white stripe with picotee pink edge, double
Camellia japonica ‘Lavinia Maggie’
Camellia japonica ‘Daikagura’
Camellia japonica ‘R. L. Wheeler’
Camellia japonica ‘Ohkan’ higo white with pink edge
Camellia japonica ‘Tama Peacock’
Camellia Japonica ‘Nuccio’s Bella Rossa’ formal vey dark pink/red
Camellia x williamsii ‘waterlily’ rhs winner, long bloom time
Camellia x williamsii ‘cupcake’ pink withd erect stamens
Camellia x ‘Spring Mist’ pale pink long bloom
Camellia japonica ‘Lady Laura’ red reversionCamellia x ‘Winter’s Sunset’Camellia japonica ‘White by the Gate’Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’Camellia sasanqua ‘Autumn Sunrise’
Just as the air starts to get nippy and when the monkshood flowers pop, you know it is time for bulb planting!
Fall plantingSpring bloom
I have a number of narcissus varieties and quite a few other spring bulbs already, but the new back garden needs a little love. Unfortunately, since shipping bulbs for fall can fall after we leave, I had to use what i could find around the local stores.
Close ups a few days later
I think the variety i managed to find will be lovely!
One of the techniques i like to use is planting tulips on the bottom with fragrant and unappealing to squirrels bulbs on top and/or nearby. I call it “stack planting” – you drill or dig a hole about 7-8” which is a little deep, but then put in tulip bulbs, a tiny bit of dirt, then your “distraction” bulb.
The idea is the squirrels or other rodents dig, find these nasty tasting bulbs and give up. Also having fragrant flowers like frgrant narcissus or hyacinth near you tulips while in bloom sometimes stops the little troublmakers from snapping thr heads off tulips, which they seem to love!
Some of the bulbs i use to mask the tulips and repel rodents are: alliums, fragrant narcissus, hyacinth, grape hyacinth, scilla. This might work with really early narcissus and crocus (aka squirrel candy) but Istopped buying crocus a long time ago – maybe I’ll try agsin with ghis method!
You can also spray a cayenne pepper tea (strained) or sprinkle cayenne or other ground hot pepper around your bulbs. A few encounters may be enough for rodents to look elsewhere. This doesn’t work on birds since they cannot taste the hot capsaicin in the pepper, so is a good deterrent on birdseed as well! If you have troublesome crows though, this will not work for them.
Jan Bos rose pink hyacinths with heucherella, heuchera, and tiarella emerging nearby
Bulbs in back yard garden – 110:
(75) blue and purple tulip mixture called “blue moon” stack planted with (75) narcissus “early bride” and “slim whitman” on top, both white with yellow trumpet
(30) mixed blue and purple hyacinths
(15) white with green flame aka viridis tulips “exotic emperor” Stack planted with (15) narcissus “ice king” double white
Bulbs added to front yard garden this year – 150:
(24) tulips “horizon” – red and white with green flame stack planted with (24) poeticus narcissus “misty glen” with green eye and (24) allium “persian blue”
(12) hyacinth “jan bos” red/magenta
(25) tulip mixture with darwin hybrid pinks and purples called “pride blend” stack planted with (25) double narcissus “replete” with pinkish center trumpet petaloids
(15) narcissus poeticus double white fragrant “double poet’s” – not sure if that is an actual variety name
I can always find areas of the yard that need work, like the back deck area – or I tell myself that as an excuse to get more shrubs, trees, and perennials! While I have planted a few things near the deck, like Ruby Spice clethra (native), it is mostly as we got the house.
Cool splash native variegated bush honeysuckle in foreground with Incrediball smooth hydrangea, also a native, behind – insect friendly and butterfly/moth host plants! Some ruby spice summersweet bush i planted 10 years ago in the background are a native as well as insect and hummingbird attractors.
In the back of our house in Maine zone 5b we have left the landscaping to languish neglected because I could not commit. Do we want to make an addition? A sunroom? Porch? Add a pool? Patio? Terrace?
There are so many options and quite a slope to deal with as well as some oddly placed inherited landscaping. Like lilacs in the middle of nowhere.
Twist-n-shout reblooming hydrangea macrophylla
Finally, my husband asked for some fragrant deep purple “Psychadelic Sky” Butterfly Bush (aka buddleia). He doesn’t often ask for plants. The only area he will use is our small back deck, whether lounging on deck chairs or having lunch at the cafe table. Unless he is hanging laundry – he loves hanging laundry outside! Obviously that is where i needed to plant them. Also being below the windows will allow us to enjoy the fragrance inside during summer days.
Laying out the plants to see if we like it! Coreopsis moonbeam and yellow desert eve yarrow in the foreground – will provide birds with seeds after blooming. Already planted Psychadelic sky dark purple fragrant butterfly bush in the background.
So I did. Then it looked odd. The i started thinking about other butterfly, pollinator, and bird friendly plantings i could add to balance it out.
The old handyman special bird feeder that came with the house has become a bit of an eyesore, but new shrubs will spruce up the basement access bulkhead and provide bird food!
You know what happened next I’m sure; it became a whole project. And an excuse to buy plants.
Variegated Rose of sharon “Sugar Tip” is in the hibiscus family and has lovely buds and leaves with a burgundy eye!
So trips to a few nurseries (4) and some difficult decisions later, I had my plants. I tried to lean heavily towards natives, since we had two buddleia already. And of course, because I can’t help myself when it comes to variegated leafs, they also make a guest appearance.
Plant list:
Psychadelic sky Buddleia – butterfly bush (2) DONE
Twist-n-shout hydrangea macrophylla (3) DONE
Sugar Tip variegated rose of sharon – Hibiscus syriacus (1) DONE
NATIVE Pink turtlehead – Chelone Lyonii Hot Lips (2) DONE
NATIVE White turtlehead – Chelone Glabra “Black Ace” (3) DONE
Autumn joy sedum (2) DONE
Relocated unknown pink astilbe, sunburnt (1) DONE
Japanese snowbell tree – Styrax Japonicus “Evening Light” – dark leaves (1) DONE
Japanese burnet – sanguisorba hakusanensis “Lilac squirrel “ (1) DONE
Bletilla striata ‘Albostriata’ – White Margined Hyacinth Orchid (1) DONE
Kerria japonica ‘Pleniflora’ (1) DONE
Nick wants more purple and blue flowers but i was unable to find anything at this time so we’ll probably add some other plants to the perennials later, hopefully keeping with the butterfly/bird meadow theme. Need some suggestions!
UPDATE, got additional blue and purple plants as well as more colorful foliage plants.
Little joker dwarf ninebark is a shorter version of this awesome native with gorgeous foliage and pretty pollinator attracting flowers!
I also have a couple clematis i am eyeing for the tuteur (the cedar wood pyramid trellis thing, yes there is a name for it!). I think I’ll let Nick make the final choice from my short list!
Only a few plants have actually made it into the dirt, but i will try to update when it is completed. It will take a while as there is a lot of weeds, tree seedlings, overgrown euonymus creepers, strawberry runners, and other messy bits to clear out of this 10 year neglected area of the yard!
Today I split and planted 10 hostas – it does not sound like alot but for a single day its quite a bit. I am sure it doesn’t help that i have been furiously planting to give my plants a short time to establish before we head to Maine for a spell.
Hence, more hostas to plant.
Here is a current rundown of hostas I have in my southern garden:
From north to south, winter color takes a very different flavor I am discovering.
Winterberry in Maine in January.
I recently returned to Maine for a quiet snowy holiday and was struck by how the winter aspect truly transforms a northern garden in comparison to a southern one.
Subtle branch colors pop against the snow and sky
Maine it is all about highlighting the differences of the plants compared to the snow, stressing texture and shades. Evergreens, both conifer and other play a part. Also you notice deciduous colored and textural bark trees. Winter berries on dark branches pop against fresh snow. Seed heads draw the few die hard birds and grasses sway from their deep frozen beds. Subtle yellows, reds, oranges, and even brown bring welcome relief in the stark landscapes.
Peeling bark on a river birch
These things are magnified in the snow.
Alternatively I am finding I need to push the color pallets in a southern winter garden. Yes, there are evergreens and even a larger variety, but you HAVE to push them to contrast with all the brown. Orange does not pop, and brown just disappears, lost in a layer of stiff willow oak or swamp laurel oak leaves.
Shishi Gashira camellia will contrast in winter with the grey dogwood and bring some bright midwinter color
I look now to the most vibrant colors I can find. I have planted 5 shishigashira camellias because they are the only flower in my garden currently blooming in December and January in my 7b North Carolina garden.
The red heuchera still looks like giant flowers fallen on a sea of tan brown leaves. The dark and light contrasts between yellow goshiki osmanthus , cryptomeria nana, and the Asian hollies helps push down that brown. My blue point juniper stands tall against the russet floor, with red new rose leaves piping up after the last hard pruning.
Blue point juniper
Orange and ambers are some of my favorite colors, but to select an orange witch hazel like Jelena with so much orange already in my garden scape means it is likely to be lost. I don’t want to have to search for my feature plants!
And all that brick from the neighbors house means rethinking that black tulip magnolia or red fall colored Japanese maple. I am likely to look for more green, white, and yellow. That’s right yellow. I don’t typically do yellow, that’s my moms thing. And white? I only consider that for accentuating another plant or tying a vignette together.
And here I am, planting white gardenias and camellias like everyone else, lol.
UprootedGardener 