Multi-Tasking

Last Saturday was the big season opener of the local high school rowing season.  This is my son's first year participating, and my wife and I were looking forward to the event.  It just so happens that the regatta is held at the Norfolk Botanical Garden where I work. Although this is nearly an all day event, he only raced once.  So between bouts of being the dutiful parent, I was able to spend some time weeding my vegetable plot, and when that grew old I took a stroll through the gardens.  I made my way to the visitor center, where the Virginia Camellia Society was holding their annual spring show and sale.  Despite freezing temperatures last week, there were some stunning blooms on display.  Even more stunning was the fact I did not come home with a new camellia.

'Margaret Davis'


'Lasca Beauty'

This camellia was a mutant sport.

'Royal Velvet Variegated'

'Sea Foam'


'Royal Velvet Variegated'

This was an unnamed seedling.

'Tata'

'Elegant Beauty'


This is 'Firecone'. To give you some scale, it is sitting in a small shot glass.

'Frank Houser Variegated'

'Guest Star'

1 Freeze, 2 Frosts, 400 Posts

This past week my corner of Tidewater had its first below freezing weather, and my more tender plants and the hanging-on-to-the-bitter-end summer annuals are now showing the results. Unaffected by this brief dip below the 32 °F mark are the Camellia sasanqua in my garden. So I thought I would share a few photos I took of them today.  This post will be my 400th, and while you look at the pretty camellia pictures I will throw in a few statistics about my blog that the good people at Google have been kind enough to provide me.

Camellia sasanqua 'Kanjiro'


At the time of this writing, I have had 207,609 individual pageviews.  My top three most viewed posts are:

#1 Vitex agnus-castus (Chaste Tree)
This post has 5395 pageviews which is almost 4 times as many as the next most viewed post.  The vitex post was one I wrote just a few months after starting the blog, The writing was not stellar, and the pictures were not that great.  I attribute its popularity to people searching the internet for information about vitex's medicinal properties.

#2 Bloom Day - The Neglected Groaning Board
I am not sure why this post was so popular, but the pictures were good if I do say so myself.  It is one of two Bloom Days in the top ten.

#3 Jasminum nudiflorum:  A Yellow Signal of Change
This was my second post discussing winter jasmine.  I guess I am not the only who appreciates this plant's dead-of-winter bloom time.

Camellia sasanqua 'Mine-No-Yuki'


Most of the people coming to my blog have come from searching Google, Google UK and Bing.  My top three search terms, in order, are "vitex agnus castus", "tidewater gardener" and appropriately enough "camellia sasanqua".

I also get a lot of traffic from other blogs like Danger Garden, Pardise Express, May Dreams Gardens, Dirt Therapy and Rock Rose.  All of which were in the top 10 list of referring URLs.  I will not name the URL that is responsible for my third greatest source of referrals. It is an adult movie site that specializes in things that most people don't consider very sexy.  I think the "water" part of my blogs title brings them here.  Perhaps you get the picture.

Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide'


Sometimes ask myself why I keep blogging.  I think it because I like to share, not so much in a material way, but like most humans I like to share (and compare) my experiences with other people.  It is one of the ways we learn. As it has been said before by other bloggers, I have met so many like-minded people through blogging I never would have met otherwise. Most of them are virtual acquantances, but several are actual. Would I blog if no one else ever looked at what I wrote or photographed?  Maybe.  Besides sharing, I also blog as an exercise in personal journaling.  Sometimes I enjoy looking back at where my head was at some point in the past.  This may really come in handy when a future me starts losing more brain cells, or maybe by then I will be wondering why I ever bothered.  However, I want thank you for bothering to visit A Tidewater Gardener, whether its regularly, occasionally or just once.

A Sincere Thanks to the Nuccio Family

Here in Tidewater we are the traditional first notch in the camellia belt that stretches down the coast, across the south all the way to east Texas.  In Charleston, where I once spent a three-year vacation, Carolina gardeners are quite proud of their camellias and proud of the fact that the first camellia garden was established at Middleton Place. So I was surprised to learn that actually the first camellias in the country were imported by John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey in 1797 or 1798 (after all, it is the Garden State).  I was also surprised to learn that three out of my twelve camellias orginated in, California (another great camellia state) at Nuccio's Nurseries, including one of my favorite's, Camellia japonica 'Nuccio's Gem'. Ultimately, all camellias originated in the Orient and have a history there spanning millennia, so I should just let go of the notion that they are somehow especially southern.



There is something about Nuccio's Gem that captures my attention.  Perhaps it is a combination of the formal-double form, its vigorous, prolific nature and the purity of white, even though white is not my favorite flower color.  In camellias, I normally tend to gravitate to the deep reds and the variegated, but that is forgotten when this plant blooms.



(Just to remind you there is still plenty of time to enter my Winter Walk-Off Challenge.)

The Second Day of Winter

Today was a gorgeous day here in Tidewater, and it was the first one where I felt somewhat normal after catching some sort of crud last week.  I took the opportunity ride my bike downtown and enjoy the sparkling sunshine and warm temperatures. While I was there I rode by Waterside, which is one of those Rouse Company "Festival Marketplaces" that were built back in the 70's and 80's in downtrodden downtowns all across the country in the hopes they would resuscitate urban life.  High expectations indeed for what were basically shopping malls with expanded food courts. These days Norfolk city life is encouragingly vibrant, with or without Waterside, and the future of this place is in debate at City Hall right now. Anyway, today I found it surrounded by a surprising number of blooms, including German bearded iris, lantana, Knock Out roses, winter jasmine and still colorful Setcreasea pallida. We have had such mild weather here this month, especially compared to how it was last year when things were flash frozen. This year things mellowed nicely.

I took these pictures at work yesterday of a remarkably large flowered, very late blooming Camellia sasanqua.  So late, that we rarely see it bloom, as really cold weather has normally already occurred before the buds are ready to open. So perhaps this variety would be better suited someplace warmer, but we do get to enjoy it when conditions are just right.  Unfortunately the name of this Camellia has been lost to poor record keeping. Even when it was labeled it was just listed as a seedling number.

About the time I was ready to head home the wind picked up considerably and shifted to the north making my ride home much colder and very difficult, but at least the sun was still shinning.   I hope all of you have happy and safe holidays, with good weather and minimal drama.

The Samurai's Camellia

Sparrows and Camellias, Hiroshige Utagawa

Earlier this winter, one of my favorite customers called me looking for a type of Camellia called Higo, which she said was the Samurai's Camellia. Even though I like to think I know more than a little about one of my favorite plants, I had not heard of these. Most of my ignorance about Samurais and feudal Japan came from reading James Clavell's Shogun and by watching Akira Kurosawa's Ran. Due to her enthusiasm for the plant I did a bit of reading on the topic and tried unsuccessfully to find a source I could access.

Camellia japonica 'Happy Higo'

Higo Camellias are a group of Camellia japonica cultivars that were indeed bred, selected and cherished by Samurais and their families. They take their name from the old Japanese province of Higo, which is now Kumamoto prefecture. There are several characteristics that distinguish these Camellias from others. The most important being lots of showy, exposed stamens (the more the better) that are arrayed in a sunburst pattern. The Japanese refer to this pattern as ume-jin, with ume from the word for Flowering Apricot (Prunus mume) and its similarly patterned stamens. Jin means soul or spirit, so with Camellias blooming in the cold of winter they came to symbolize the Samurai's bravery. Another important characteristic of Higo Camellias are flat, splayed back petals, few in number, often asymmetric, so as to call more attention to the perfect display of stamens. Another characteristic is the clean drop of spent blossoms. Higos were traditionally planted adjacent to the Samurai's burial place so that the fallen flowers could adorn the grave. As well as being a favored garden plant, they were also used extensively in bonsai.

Camellia japonica bonsai from Wikipedia Commons

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868 the Samurai's role in Japanese society was relegated to the myths of history, and the cultivation of Higos was no longer widespread. Individual varieties did manage to survive behind the gates of old family homes, at monasteries and in graveyards. Unfortunately much of Kumamoto and its Camellias were reduced to ashes in World War II. In the late 1950's the Higo Camellia Society was established in Japan, and they have now listed 120 Higo cultivars, including many rescues and a few more recently developed. I was able to find several on-line sources for Higos, but no wholesale growers. Perhaps that will change; while I was at the Norfolk Botanical Garden last week I saw local Camellia grower Bob Black of Bennetts Creek Nursery admiring the few Higos planted there.

Camellia japonica 'Okan'

If you are interested in learning more about Higo Camellias, the International Camellia Society has an informative page. I used their site and Sterling Macoboy's book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Camellias to get most of my information. For those of you into overkill, I have also recently doubled the number of photos in my Flickr Camellia file.

Awakenings

For this month's Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This Photo Contest the theme is Awakening. Although spring slept in this year, its now out of bed and the coffee is on. The picture I chose is a Magnolia denudata (Yulan Magnolia) taken Friday at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.

The two almost-rans are below. The first is Camellia japonica 'Lily Pons', again taken at NBG, and the second is Camellia japonica 'Nuccio's Gem' from my back yard.

March Madness

This past Wednesday I filmed my TV segments at the Norfolk Botanical Garden with the two topics being Narcissus and Camellias. The segment on Narcissus was to air Thursday evening, but the news was pre-empted by a late running college basketball game. I was not upset as I was still on my own basketball high due to Old Dominion's win over Notre Dame by 1 point. They play Baylor at 5:30 today in New Orleans and many people in this town will be sending them major mental mojo. Anyway, my time was short during Wednesday's shoot as I had to get back to an exponentially increasing, busy work place, and I made a mental appointment to return to the gardens on Friday. The weather this week has been ideal with overnight lows in the 40's, daytime highs in the 60's and low 70's. It has been wonderful for the chilled and sun-starved. Most of the blooms in the garden were of the late winter type, as like most areas, we are a bit behind schedule. However, the Narcissus, Magnolias and of course the Camellias were stunning, but there were many other things blooming as well.

Cornus officinalis - Japanese Cornelian Dogwood
This particular tree is the Virginia state champion.

Corylopsis spicata - Spiked Winterhazel

I loved the shadows cast by the Edgeworthia chrysantha - Rice Paper Plant.

Hermodactylus tuberosus - Snake's Head Iris
I was not familiar with this member of the Iris family and will have to get one for my own garden.

The front entrance of Baker Hall was planted with a beyond cheerful mix of Pansies, Hyacinth and Parsley.

I preferred the color combination from Sedum rupestre 'Angelina' and purple Crocus and will be stealing the idea.

Flowers on deciduous Magnolias are so fleeting, and around here we do not always have a good year for them, but so far, this year looks to be a good one.
Magnolia denudata - Yulan Magnolia

Magnolia stellata - Star Magnolia

Magnolia x soulangiana - Saucer Magnolia

Prunus x incamp 'Okame' - Okame Cherry
This tree was abuzz and vibrating from the hundreds of honey bees on it.

Here are a couple of Camellias, but there may be more in a later post.
Camellia x williamsii 'Pink Dahlia'

Camellia japonica 'Betty Shefield Supreme'

Camellia japonica 'K. O. Hester'

You can see the rest of the set, minus Camellias, here.

Snowpocalypse 2010

It is not unheard of for it to snow here in Hampton Roads, but it is unusual for us to get more than the occasional dusting. It started snowing around 2 or 3 this morning and is not predicted to stop until sometime overnight. There is at least 8" or more on the ground as I write this, and the weather people are predicting around a foot when it is all over with. According to them, this is a "major snow event". Their prognostications tend to whip the populace into a frenzy, compelling them to drive at great haste, without regard for any other vehicles or pedestrians - to the grocers, filling stations and the liquor stores.

View From The Porch

I love my wife. She braved the madness to get our shopping done, which needed doing anyway, the cupboards being bare. However, she failed to purchase any adult beverages. Did I mention I love my wife? So out I went last night ahead of the storm to pick up a couple of six packs. There were 30 people ahead of me in the express lane. You could have divided the line into two groups: people whose basket included white bread or people who had wine.

Knitting Mill Creek

Since I had already spent the better part of an hour at the store, I figured I might as well see what I could find at NARO Video while I was out. The guys behind the counter were ripping on the local TV weather people and the frantic crowds stocking up at the grocery store, and it was one of them I heard refer to "Snowpocalypse 2010". I picked up a copy of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs for early and Revolutionary Road for later. Plans change and I was in bed before the family movie was 30 minutes old.

Resourceful Neighbors

Fortunately the garden is still fairly sleepy, so I don't think this round of weather will harm anything. I did cut all my blooming Paperwhites to bring in, knowing they would likely get smushed. Mahonia and Camellia sasanqua are running through their final blooms, while the C. japonica are just starting to show a glimpse of color, but still tight enough I think they will be fine. I had not noticed until my morning snow patrol that the Edgeworthia was starting to bloom and it should be quite something in a couple of weeks.

Mahonia x 'Winter Sun'

Camellia japonica 'Les Marbury'

Camellia japonica 'Magnoliaflora'

Edgeworthia chrysantha

Yucca filamentosa 'Golden Sword'

Wherever you are, I hope the weather is just as you like it, or will be soon. If you want to see more of my snow day photos, click here.