Saturday, February 21, 2015

Winter Flowers


I've been spending time this winter cutting down privet trees. They've been growing and seeding in at the wood's edge since we moved the house and I can't stand it anymore. I hate Chinese privet. There are about a dozen heaps of limbs with fruit piled up next to the woods.
I meant to burn the branches with the fruit but most of the berries will probably drop off before I get around to it. That's a good thing though. I can just toss most of the branches into the brush pile and burn a few sticks along with the fruit on the ground.


We've been putting a lot of mulch around the trees up top. The dirt up there is poor and those trees aren't growing very fast. We put hay on top of the mulch and I spread Bidens seeds to help hide some of all of that mulch come summer.


I planted a winter honeysuckle by the drive (one of several propagated from the one in the big bed) so that I could pass by it on my way to take up the trash and get the mail. The flowers are so sweet and lemony.
Most of the flowers look like they were finished off by the recent cold but the flower buds still look OK.


A couple of weeks ago we took a last minute day trip to Chapel Hill and finally visited Camellia Forest Nursery. We bought two camellias and two Japanese flowering apricots (Prunus mume). This even though I have several apricot seedlings in pots. lol It's going to be a while before those seedlings are ready to go into the ground though, if they survive. Deer or rabbits ate them almost down to the ground earlier this winter. I moved them up to the porch to salvage what was left. This week they've been in the house so they wouldn't freeze. We got sleet and freezing rain earlier this week (and were so thankful we didn't get enough freezing rain to lose power). It's supposed to get back above freezing today and the remaining ice should melt this weekend.

One of the camellias is 'Yume', a C. sasanqua 'Shishigashira' X C. yuhsienensis hybrid.

The other is Camellia sasanqua 'Mine-no-yuki'. Sasanquas are fall-blooming and typically fragrant. I have coveted this cultivar for years, after seeing it outside of the old Johnston County Ag Extension Building in Smithfield. It was covered in beautiful white fragrant flowers, growing next to a lovely pink sasanqua cultivar whose name escapes me now. The camellias were labelled, probably because so many people asked what they were. I planted it on the east side of the house after moving out all of the azaleas except for one Florida azalea and the coast azaleas from Sunlight Gardens. It was just too dry for them there. I moved them to the edge of the woods behind the house and paddock. Now the camellia's in the house since we expected a low of 5 degrees Thursday night. 0-5 degrees is about the limit of cold hardiness for C. sasanqua.

Prunus mume 'Usuiro Chirimen'


'Hokkai Bungo'. The nursery owner told us that everyone wants a red Prunus mume.


I love these new cultivars but I'm not sure I'll ever find one that I love more than the tree near the mailbox, grown from windfall fruit from the JC Raulston Arboretum. I gathered the fruit from underneath two old gorgeous unlabelled trees and my tree looks a lot like them. The fragrance is wonderful: cotton candy with warm overtones of clove and nutmeg. I've noticed that the fragrance of some cultivars like 'Peggy Clarke' goes a little "off" as the flowers age or gets frozen, but that's never the case with this one.





I grew other apricots from seed at the same time as the tree near the mailbox. One went into the big perennial bed and then died a few years later (borers?), and three went to my MIL.

One of her trees is small tree, with white flowers. From a distance the tree can appear sort of a dirty white because of the brown petals of the spent flowers, but up close it is glorious. The fragrance is similar to that of our new white tree, more perfume-y and less like spicy cotton candy.





The other two trees are almost like twins, and much like the tree I planted in the big bed, with cupped dark pink flowers. There was a 'Matsubara Red' at the Arboretum whose fruit I also gathered and so these are probably offspring of that tree. Like our new red apricot, the flowers smell like sweet cinnamon. They are bigger than both my tree and her white tree.








19 comments:

  1. The apricots at work were just starting to open last week, but I am afraid the weather has killed off any chance that they will open further. I love their fragrance. The honeysuckle smells like fruit loops to me, but that's a good thing.

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  2. Gorgeous! I have an flowering apricot that was in full bloom when the ice storm hit. Alas, they are done now. I had no idea there were so many varieties. We spend our winters pulling privet too. I hate the stuff! When we started clearing the woods a few year ago my husband had to cut some of them down with a chainsaw. They were as big as trees.

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    1. There are several privet trees here too. DH will have to go behind me and finish off the big ones with a chainsaw. It's easiest for me to go in and get rid of the branches with the fruit first because there's a huge tangle of greenbrier on these trees and those need to go before I can even pull the branches and trees out. If the trees were cut and left where they fell there would be a bigger mess than before.

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  3. Beautiful as always. I just love your flowering trees. It must be wonderful to walk around your property, taking in the lovely colors and scent.

    Enjoy ~ FlowerLady

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  4. I always enjoy seeing and reading about your flowers and trees! I used to have a Camellia Sasanqua at the house I moved from. Mine always bloomed in October. Hopefully Spring will be here soon and we will have even more flowers to enjoy!

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  5. Beautiful, beautiful flowers !!! Your paradise looks like a japanese garden in spring time :)

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  6. What blooms!! Those trees are just dripping with flowers, lucky you. I really like your camellia find. The dark centre is a nice contrast on the petals. Of course they have such lovely shiny leaves too. Wish I was in a warmer climate and could plant these. My mother had camellia and they were just stunning plants.

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  7. Beautiful! There's nothing like a flowering fruit tree in the spring. I grew up with an apricot tree in the backyard outside my bedroom window and 3 plum trees outside the kitchen. A young apricot tree came with our current house but, sadly, it died the first year we were here. We're out of the normal range to grow most varieties - too warm in winter I'd guess - but I may try one of those that require less chill again.

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  8. Your trees are lovely. I don't believe most are hardy in my area. I did have a couple prune trees but the power company destroyed them when they did some upgrades on the lines. I also have a redbud which often gets some die back during bad winters. You gave me an idea when you mentioned picking up a few fruit from the ground and starting the seeds. I may try that. Thanks.

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  9. What beautiful flowering trees. I especially love the 'Usuiro Chirimen'.

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  10. We are covered in snow/ice but how I wish I had just one of those flowering apricots! I wish your blog had a smell-o-vision app so we could enjoy the fragrance. :o) I look forward to seeing your spring garden every year. It's my reminder that if one state below me has spring, I can't be far behind. :o)

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  11. The flowering apricots are so very pretty. How wonderful to have fragrant flowers at this time of year. The various scents sound heavenly.

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  12. I am amazed at how early flowering apricots bloom in our area and how frost resistant the blooms seem. There are some wonderful ones at Aldridge Gardens near me.

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    1. I know, I remember your beautiful post about them!

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  13. The pictures of the blossom are sensational - we are nowhere near that stage yet sadly. I bought a prunus last year but there is no sign of anything yet - it just looks like a pile of sticks. I am envious.

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  14. Privet are pesky plants. It's hard to ever get rid of them completely.
    The apricot trees must smell delicious.

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  15. Incredible blossoms. It quite uplifts my spirits on another miserable day. I need more blossom.

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  16. Absolutely gorgeous photos! I totally agree with Jenny/RockRose, your photos are uplifting.

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  17. Your flowering trees are absolutely gorgeous, all of them! I am surprised that they are able to flower at such low temperatures. The two camellias that you bought sound like they are particular lovely varieties and the prunus mume, oh my gosh what a wonderful tree. Hope everything will grow in well and flower wonderfully for you!
    Warm regards,
    Christina

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