Green-Fly Orchid

This basket of green fly orchid and fern has hung under this live oak at work for eight years, prior to that it lived in a former garden of mine. The picture was taken a couple of weeks ago and quite often it has a late season bloom even at this latitude.

The basket is composed of pieces of bark containing orchid and fern, rescued after a storm and placed inside a wire basket with a coco-fiber liner behind the bark. I do not remember what the basket is filled with but I think it was regular potting mix. The fiber has long decomposed and other types of fern have moved in on their own but the orchids continue to grow pretty much uncared for.

The peak bloom is early summer with an occasional spike anytime while the weather is warm. The basket hangs out all year long and the only protection is the canopy of the live oak. It would be hard to find a simpler plant to grow, but it is a hard plant to find or purchase!

While hunting for fallen snags with orchids on them I quickly learned that deer are also fond of collecting it after storms and if I want to find it uneaten I better be willing to go wading in the swamps the day after the storm. It is worth the trials because it rewards you with blooms for very little care.

Something Special

Yellow is the color of spring for me, it jumps out and says winter is over! This shrub is my spring herald along with the daffodils. I have never heard a common name for it though there may be one in Mexico its home. In fact all I know it is a Senecio I bought from Yucca Do Nursery many years ago.

It will grow to 6' if you let it but looks better cut back to the ground every couple of years. In full summer sun it tends to wilt like a Hydrangea so be nice and plant it in the shade and hose it off on a hot day.

The Senecio is a coarse looking plant that fits well in a woodland setting but should be tried in a typical suburban landscape. It is an evergreen but not a dark dense plant. The branches are limber and the flowers sit at the ends. If I ever find the name I`ll pass it on!

Elephants of Winter

It has been awhile since I have written anything- holidays and computer problems are my excuse. But now it is a new year so lets start with a bang of a plant. This hunk of a plant is called Farfugium japonicum 'Giganteum' or F.reniforme , either way it is one spectacular plant.

It has just finished blooming after a two month season but even without the 30" high yellow daisies the plant is still striking. The foliage is 2' tall, shiny and so large it looks tropical. Those big leaves demand shade and a good supply of water as they will wilt even in winter. Keep the hose handy!

The plant can be divided every spring and soon you too will have a herd of elephants in your garden. They call attention when massed better then any plant in the garden so use them with care. They can easily create a visual barrier that can act like a hedge and hide smaller plants. Plant them so they lead the eye into the distance.

The herd pictured started as one plant six years ago and with careful dividing has grown into a mass of twenty-five plants. Start your herd today!

Camellia sinensis at CawCaw

It looks like a bit of spring but instead it was a crisp, fall day when this image of a tea plant (camellia sinensis) was taken at CawCaw Interpretive Center, a Charleston County park. Early in the twentieth century there were scattered attempts to grow tea commercially just south of Charleston. Today, at this former site the land has returned to forest but the tea has survived and naturalized.

The park is a beautiful slice of the Carolina low country with abandoned rice fields that are now fresh water marshes filled with alligators and birds or swamps now dark with trees and dwarf palmettos.

The tea grows on the higher, drier areas, sometimes just a single plant but other times as a hedge running through the woods. Flowering occurs in October and November on plants that are 4 to 5 feet tall. The forest above them is composed of oaks and spruce pines and allows a moderate amount of light to penetrate.

Caw Caw is a beautiful park developed as a nature reserve for walking among the diverse habitats that can occur in a small area. It is easily accessible and a true joy to walk.

You Dirty Boy, You!

Who would have ever known that prissy angel trumpets could hide such a dirty secret? I guess dirt is what you get when you go peeping up a boy's skirt. (C'mon, surely you knew Angel's Trumpets were cross-dressers, didn't you? They are way too big to be real women.) Yes, the ballet dancers of the flower world have evidently been rolling around in the lowly muck.

In my zone 8ish/9ish yard, this brugmansia has flushed once, about a month ago, and has started a very lopsided (preference towards the sun) second flush. They die back completely to the ground every winter and take till fall to start blooming again. In downtown, penninsular Charleston (which is all of maybe 4 miles away as the crow flies) they can be evergreen thanks to the urban heat island and two rivers warming the land in between.

Oh the scent! In the heat of day, I can't smell it at all. But as I walk past my frontyard on my evening walks, the scent is undeniable- not overwhelming or cloying but defintely sweet and beautiful.

Brugs love lots of cow poop, lots of water, some afternoon shade, and the fawning attention of passersby.

Are They Singing or Screaming?

These flowers crack me up. Okay, the middle picture I threw in because it is pretty (and my very first ever macro shot which I wanted to show off) but the other two are there so you can see the flowers singing. Like in the top picture, the three blooms over towards the left that are all 'facing' you...don't they look like a little choir? Then again the single flower in the last picture looks more like it is chewing someone out.

I think this particular torenia fournieri (or wishbone flower) is probably Summer Wave Blue. Another big box store clearance rack purchase, this started out as 6 or 8 plants a couple of months ago and now covers an area of 21 square feet. I'm much happier with it than with another torenia that is planted right next to it as it has much bigger flowers, has spread more rapidly, and is still blooming while the other variety has mostly gone to seed. These really get a lot of sun and are definitely thirsty little buggers. Next year I'll plant them in a bit more shade and see if they stop whining for water all the time. That is it! Those blooms aren't singing or screaming....they're whining! Bunch of candyasses.