I figured why not. The first one of these more cold tolerant, to -10, camellias I planted have survived two winters now and grown fairly well. They have doubled in size which was pretty small to begin with and look happy enough. At that price I'm willing to gamble and push the limits of plant hardiness. I haven't seen buds or blooms yet which isn't surprising considering their size and the need to adapt to the limits of their endurance.
One was for me and the other was for Bulbarella's 8o*mpsth birthday. The more cold tolerant ones are easy to pick out in a group. They have cold sounding names like Winter's Star, Winter's Snowman and Pink Icicle.
I have six camellias now in the garden becoming.
The dung is getting spread before winter has a chance to put things on lock down.The first small pile has been used up.
The roadside vegetable garden is now fully dunged. I am leery of the amount of weed seeds that may be in this dung. I'm not an active composter who tries to heat things up. I'm a let it sit and age and I'll spread it when I can get around to it in a couple years kind of composter. Hopefully it won't turn into a nightmare.
It will sit out there over winter to freeze and thaw to help kill off some of the seeds. Come February the whole garden will get a fresh coat of wood chip mulch to help smother them even more. All that extra nutritious organic matter will be worth pulling a few extra weeds.
And winter is coming. There is snow in the diagnosis for Tuesday. Wednesday's high is looking rather pathetic. Bulbarella left the mountain in the nick of time. Sister #1 flew up to Asheville and drove her down so I got a reprieve this year. Good thing. I spent my day getting a lot of before winter sets in chores done.
This could be the last chance for the fall blooming crocus.
When I look, the sky is feeling more winter like. The barren time is here.
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4 comments:
The Lowes here is already cleaned out as I stopped in to see if there were any end of season bargains. Things are ready for the cut Christmas trees in the garden center but there's another month remaining to plant!
I volunteer at the public garden where Dr. Ackerman trialed his cold hardy camellias and left many of the unnamed rejects to us. They are now 15+ feet high and pretty in their own right. There are many seedlings and I think hybridizing continues on its own. The story was that he cared little for the flowers and only wanted the most hardy ones. Not sure how true that is. (Historic London Town and Gardens, outside Annapolis, MD)
Swimray I end up at Lowes once a week at least shopping for clients, a lot of mulch, so I check the discard rack regularly and was there for the clean out. Lucky me.
Bev I imagine it will be three to five years before I can judge the flower quality. I don't mind if the flowers are small if they bloom profusely. Now they have to survive my mountain top first because I am definitely pushing the limits.
Crocus looks fine by my favorite place. Sometimes we must push the limit to learn.
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