happy birthday to me

Camellia, one of my favorite flowers, blooms each year on my birthday. There is a hedge of Sasanqua Camellias planted along the back side of my house, which I started from cuttings while a student at the University of Georgia in Athens. Camellia’s aren’t thought of as particularly cold hardy (especially Sasanquas); but these have survived several cold Nashville winters and now stand over 5’ tall.

Sasanqua Camellias bloom earlier and are more demure in flower and leaf size than their cousin, the hardier Japanese Camellia (Camellia japonica). Another cousin, the Tea Camellia (Camellia sinensis) is not nearly as showy as the other species. But its value lies in creating more cold-hardy crosses, and it is the plant from which tea is made!

The Camellia’s blush white to deep red flower stands out well against its dark evergreen foliage. And while I have planted specimens of this shrub for a few clients, I prefer to see them in groupings. My favorite grouping is at the Founder’s Memorial Garden at the University of Georgia, where Camellia hedges create walls of lush foliage and colorful blooms.

Between my love of UGA’s campus and my reverence for cold-weather blooms, I was destined to adore this shrub. Camellia’s are much more versatile and low maintenance than many realize. For a safe bet on cold hardiness, select a Camellia variety with ‘winter’, ‘snow’, or ‘ice’ in the name. Most prefer some shade and moist, well-draining, slightly acidic soil.

a word about Crape Murder

I saw something on my street this weekend that I’ve seen hundreds of times before, and it still gets me every time; someone cut their Crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia spp.) trees almost to the ground. Maybe murder is too strong a word, since more often than not they come back very much alive. However, there is no need for this plant cruelty and aesthetic nightmare.

Some people feel this is the best way to maintain these trees. Other Crape murderers feel they bloom better with this treatment. Conversely, with proper (sometimes yearly) pruning, a Crapemyrtle specimen can take on the loveliest of forms. And with time, your Crapemyrtle branches will develop into the most wonderful example of mottled bark you have ever seen (see photo). Here's a link to some helpful information regarding proper pruning techniques for Crapemyrtles:

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/C944/C944.htm#Pruning

Crapemyrtles are wonderful small to medium-sized (15-25’ in height), non-native, summer-flowering, deciduous trees. They come in a variety of colors ranging from white to pink, to purple, to red, and every shade in between. Some varieties even have nice fall color on their fine textured foliage. Crapemyrtles come in a variety of shapes; more formal specimens have only a single trunk, others can be multi-trunked.

My favorite examples of this tree are in Georgia. The Founder’s Memorial Garden at The University of Georgia in Athens, and gardens throughout the Savannah/Charleston area immediately come to mind. This photo is a particularly old and refined specimen located at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

Dumbarton Oaks is a beautiful (once private, now public) garden to visit if you’re ever in the Georgetown area of D.C. It was designed by the first female landscape architect, Beatrix Jones Farrand, through the patronage of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss. It is a real gem!