The Garden of Bogturtle

  Calicanthus 'Hartlage Wine' has larger, more impressive blooms than our southern native, C. florida. But the crushed blooms have none of the strawberry, pineapple, whatever smell of that smaller flowered shrub.  Above and below is Rhododendron 'Purple Passion'. None of the sparkle I see in real life, but I think that comes because light goes into the individual large cells of the flower, reflects back from the further side of the cell, to the eye. Somehow lost to the camera.  For some reason, perhaps because of an exhausting schedule, a good many of the Rhododendrons and Azaleas in the bed in the middle of the lawn just seemed to develop dieing sections. I cut out all the dead parts and the result is a disjointed mess, now requiring attention to rid it of Japanese Honeysuckle and Greenbriar. But the evergreens are coming back. Very little dead, showing up, and, happily, a new chipper, shredder will reduce the pruned items to mulch. Among the Rhododendron 'Iron Cla

The beautiful Aesculus pavia, or Red Buckeye. A huge Virginia Pine rotted at the base and fell in its direction, smashing my 'Robert' Witch Hazel and Viburnum pragense 'Decker'. Just missing the Buckeye. All parts doing damage are now cut out and a good deal heading for my chipper, shredder as mulch. The Viburnum and Witch Hazel will never quite look the same, but they survive. A little later to come into bloom than the previously show Halesia diptera 'Silver Bell', this beautiful H. triptera blooms just where we leave the place we park our vehicles. Exceeds expectations, really. The plant explorers, from Britain, before we declared independence, came upon an amazing array of new plant sorts. Overwhelming, really. Expecially when they explored our southern mountains. This tree is found along the slopes of the mountains, where the rivers and creeks glide by. In full bloom and high in the Spicebush, Gelsemia sempervirens was previously shown. Our little native Iri