The Garden Awakens
Anise 'Woodland Red' ( Illicium floridanum ) A few weeks ago, I thought spring would never arrive, but now the change is astonishing. The nights are still cold (40s and sometimes even 30s) so planting tender annuals and vegetables is unwise although I have already succumbed, but covering and uncovering things gets old quickly. Someone made a wise comment last week and I must agree with them - "Don't plant anything tender until after May 1". Several plants are blooming like never before. One is the Anise shrub (above and below). I don't know if the recent tree pruning, which is allowing more sun into the woodland path, is affecting it or perhaps it is just age, but I've never seen so many blooms. Michael refers to this as "the stinky fish shrub" and I have to admit to smell of the flowers is quite unpleasant. It is so beautiful that I can overlook that. The old pink dogwood tree, which was already here, shades our woodland path and it too is prett
That is a doozy. It makes me wonder how old it is.??? I wonder if it was planted when t he house was built??
ReplyDeleteThat is huge. There are some freakishly large camellias in a garden I started working in last fall. Totally unexpected in WNC. I am pretty certain they are from the first release of the cold hardy camellia breeding program from the National Arboretum. Not only are they huge, they make fruit, set viable seed and have been self sowing in the garden.
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful monster!
ReplyDeleteIncredible! (And a double-wow for Christoper C's comment. I'd like to see that. I have a couple of small camellias that were (of course) planted way too close to the house by the original builder (I presume). The proximity to the porch does help to protect them from Tennessee cold snaps and may have kept them alive, but your photo is a reminder of the folly of planting a tree-size plant just a few inches from a foundation!!
ReplyDeleteI just bought a house in Crescent City, Ca, and have a 35-40 foot Camillia tree in the back yard. It was such a shock when the previously unidentified tree set thousands of buds. Last week I noticed a few 2 1/2 inch pink flowers and figured out what it was. Trunk is big enough that two people needed to reach around it. I read about another huge one in Washington state on a blog site called City data. Your tree and the one from Wa. all have pink flowers. I wonder if this wasn't some cultivar that came out in the 50's and fell by the wayside either because of it's size, which is not really what most buyers would expect, or just that it's flowers were outdone by a newer variety. Great cultivars disappear all the time due to churning created by trying to keep up with bigger flowers, increased cold or disease tolerance, and better varieties. I suspect this was left behind due to it's size, and most of them have been long since cut down when they outgrew their position near the front door. I intend to grow cuttings once I am finally retired in a few months, and have heat and flooring so I can finally move in. If anyone is passionate about this and wants a cutting, it should be about 2 years, and you can file my email away and contact me in a year and a half. cecilyann2@yahoo.com.
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