Always one of my favorites, the sweetshrub also is known as Carolina allspice, strawberry-bush, sweet bubby, sweet Betsy and spicebush. Linked to Cee’s Flower of the Day
Category: Gardening
Purple Formosa Azalea
Larger than most azaleas, the Purple Formosa has blooms that can be magenta, lavender-pink, or a deeper purple. Linked to Cee’s Flower of the Day
Pink Formosa azaleas and an Eastern Swallowtail butterfly
“The butterfly is a flying flower, The flower a tethered butterfly.” (Ponce Denis Ecouchard Lebrun) Linked to Cee’s Flower of the Day
White azaleas
“White… is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black… God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.” (Gilbert K. Chesterton) Linked to Cee’s Flower of the…
Azaleas in profusion
Azaleas are everywhere here, and they grow to enormous sizes and can be found in a myriad of colors. Most of the azaleas in my garden are in shades of pink or fuchsia and are in full bloom. I have one that has white blooms, but they are just beginning to open. I’ll have to…
Carolina Jessamine: Beautiful but deadly
Also known as Carolina Jasmine, the Carolina Jessamine vine has beautiful, sweetly scented yellow blooms and will flourish in a variety of conditions. However, all parts of the plant are poisonous to humans if ingested, and deer and rabbits will not eat it. The sap also may cause skin irritation. This beautiful vine can be…
Dogwood
We have several dogwood trees just behind our house, and many grow wild in the woods beyond. One little tree was planted by my husband at least 20 years ago, seems to have barely grown and has rarely bloomed. But it has three blooms on it now… Linked to Cee’s Flower of the Day
Pocket of joy: Camellia blooms after the flash flood
Recent heavy rains brought flash flooding to my father’s mountain property. One foot bridge was completely washed away, and the other, larger bridge was destroyed. A wooden walkway was moved by the rising water. The air conditioning compressor is ruined. Water is under the house, and now the inside of the house smells musty and…
Emerging
I love winter, but I know that many (maybe most) people don’t. So for those of you longing for Spring, it’s beginning to emerge…
December Azaleas
It’s cold here in the Deep South. This morning it was 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Celsius), and it didn’t get out of the 30s all day. There is ice in the bird bath, and we had snow flurries last night. But my azaleas are blooming. The azaleas always bloom in the Spring, and for the…
