The rest of the photos from the American Camellia Society’s national show in Gainesville, courtesy of GVG:
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While the memory of last summer’s garden debacle remains fresh, I’ve ordered half a dozen plants from a single source: Two of the Spousal Unit favorite (cherry) Chocolate Sprinkles, a SunGold, a Cherokee Purple, a Paul Robeson (which has *always* been an early & depressing failure for me, but this is a new source), and a new variety GinFiz, because I wanted a yellow / streaked tomato. If I can avoid even looking at my favorite heirloom site between now and May, I’ll consider it a personal victory…
What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / retrospectives), this week?
MagdaInBlack
How interesting that your heirloom site will grow your special variety tomatoes for you, just send your seed.
The camellias are lovely, I can’t pick a favorite. Thank you
Jeffg166
I am ever so slowly still cleaning up last year’s garden. One part I cleared this week now has corn flowers, annual poppies, larkspurs, coreopsis, and blue globe thistles seeds scattered on it. Will see what happens.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
These are all amazing! Can’t pick a favorite. I will have to tour the local arboretums and gardens when spring comes
prostratedragon
” … and the swallow,” Caroline Shaw
Van Buren
I love big flowers..Dahlias, Peonys, Sunflowers, etc. These are great. Don’t know why I’ve never grown them.
satby
I’m traveling a lot this spring, so no seed starting for me this year. I’ve ordered a couple of flowering things that will probably be delivered while I’m gone on my (mostly) short trips. So feeling some trepidation about this year’s garden plans.
kalakal
Beautiful pictures to start the day. Thank you
Gvg
I have pretty much cleaned up after our big freeze the week after the show and my bushes are flowering again. I have one of the top pictures, Lindsey. Blooming now are purple swirl and a red one. A couple more haven’t started. The osmanthus/tea olives are blooming and the fragrance is lovely. A banana shrub magnolia hybrid called “allspice” just started and smells crisp and sweet. The banana shrub itself hasn’t started yet and I really look forward to it. I love the fragrance. It’s supposed to be a summer bloomer but mine has been starting in early spring as it has matured. The fragrant bloomers aren’t as conspicuous or visible, but I enjoy them too.
People start raking leaves and bagging them for disposal at this time of year. I go around and collect as many as I can find the time for. Yesterday I was mowing the leaves into small mulch and tossing them onto my beds. Florida soils need all the organic matter they can get to improve them. It is because our growing season is so long. The fungi and bacteria that break down organic matter grow during warm times and multiply exponentially. The longer the warm season, the more there are (by a lot) and the more organic matter they eat. If there is no cool period to slow them down or cut the population, they break down organic matter pretty fast.
This is why slash and burn of tropical rain forest areas results in poor farmland within a few years and it can’t recover for a long long time without help. I am only subtropical barely, but our soils need help. I am experimenting with some cover crops this year. Planted daikon radishes in my veggie plot to see if it will help my summer crop.
stinger
I desperately need color this time of year. Thank you, gvg!
Good luck with your tomatoes, Anne Laurie!
Jeffg166, that will be a really pretty patch, if all goes well.
stinger
@Gvg:
You’re killing me!
satby
@stinger: seriously 😄! I can only look at these beautiful flowers, I can’t grow them here.
MazeDancer
Beautiful blossoms!
Feels like a report from another planet. Everything here is white as we got a good 7 to 9 inches of snow.
BenInNM
The flowers are beautiful. I’m not much of a state fair person, but I used to go years back when a friend of mine played in a choir. When there, I always loved visiting the various flower displays. Both for the beauty of the flowers and to appreciate people’s dedication to a craft.
Otherwise, I’ve been able to get out in the yard to start pruning and doing a little planning. I am in the part of my cycle where I swear off on growing tomatoes so right now no plans for that. I’ll probably plant flowers in my tomato bed.
One thing I did come across last year that really seemed to work was to bury a terra cotta pot, fill it with water, and then cover it with a removable lid. It worked really well to keep the tomatoes watered and I only filled it every week or so.
Reboot
Anne Laurie, I strongly recommend Purple Zebra. My husband started them under grow lights, planted about 7-8 plants, extemely hardy, super productive, and (even during this wet year in SW Virginia) disease free. They were either the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted, or right up there.
Currants
Wait—what’s your NEW ordering site, AL? I’ve relied on sources from you for years! Over time my veg garden has diminished as trees have grown (it gets a lot less direct sun now than it did almost 20 yrs ago).
Trivia Man
I am optimistically expanding my garden this year. I have 3 very slightly raised beds with wooden frames, a little more than 1 meter square each. Only partial sun and 2 sides are a fence with a clematis i really like.
Last fall i yanked the hostas in front of the beds (and found a neighbor to take them all!).
Then put up plastic fencing that looks kind of like chicken wire to attempt rabbit denial. It extends iff the front of the beds almost 2 meters so i gained 2×3 in flat ground. Most of it was hosta but some was very scraggly lawn. Im going to skin the lawn off like sod and find some place else to lay it down.
Wish me luck, almost time to start seeds indoors! (Probably not till early April but it feels close!)
rosalind
My first year in my house I delighted in discovering all the various flowers and plantings that ensured something was always in bloom year round. My favorite were the two large Camellia bushes that provided months of beautiful small pink and large red camellias.
LAC
They are gorgeous! Thank you for sharing. I need some inspiration with painting again and these colors might do it. I do not know if we can grow them here in MD, but I sure would like to try.
Betty
Perfectly beautiful flowers. The cream with a hint of pink is my favorite.
MomSense
My Aunt wrote a guide to the camellias at the Huntington Garden. They are such glorious flowers.
Jeffg166
@Gvg:
Early European exploration into the Amazonian jungle produced few signals of any large inhabitations by indigenous people. However, more recent research in the Amazon Basin has indicated a complex agricultural network capable of sustaining significant populations. One of the strongest indicators has been the discovery of Terra Preta, or Dark Earths, which were the result of the systematic management of Amazonian soils using biochar.
Biochar is the solid material obtained from the carbonization of biomass, or simply, charcoal produced by the burning of wood and plant matter at low oxygen levels. Research being performed by Cornell University, the University of Oxford, and others has helped to bring further understanding of biochar and its use in the Amazon. By incorporating biochar in conjunction with nutrient additions, the early indigenous peoples of the Amazon converted extremely poor soils into highly fertile and productive land. The practice has been dated back to the pre-Columbian Indians from 500 to 2500 B.C. in the Brazilian Amazon. Today, it is seen as an important tool for increased food security and even to combat climate change.
https://www.biohabitats.com/newsletter/traditional-ecological-knowledge/soil-management-pre-columbia-style-traditional-ecological-knowledge/#:~:text=By%20incorporating%20biochar%20in%20conjunction,B.C.%20in%20the%20Brazilian%20Amazon.
Miss Bianca
@Gvg: Oh, these are so stunning. Do camellias grow ok in baskets? That’s probably the only way I would be able to have them, as hanging plants – between the wind, the deer, and the dogs -oh, and our ridiculously short growing season up here in the mountains – I don’t think I would be able to do a garden patch for them.
TBone
Camellias are an important part of the story with Bette Davis in Now, Voyager. What great eyes she has. What a great film AND great flowers!
Also too Paul Henreid and Claude Rains.
This flower plays Best Actress in a Supporting Role!
Gvg
@Miss Bianca: well there are dwarf varieties that can be grown in pots. I don’t know about baskets unless you do bonsai. Bobby Green is the main dwarf breeder. Look up strawberry limeade, chansonette, the October magic series, Shishigashira and white shishi. You might also check Logees website. They are experts at growing warm climate plants inside part of the year.