Friday, August 30, 2013

Georgia on My Mind and Visiting Mom Part II

During my time in Georgia we visited a plant sell in the neighborhood. Not a good thing because I went with my sister and once she sees plants that's it. I thought that it was someone who maybe grows some seedlings or small cuttings for sale. I was wrong. This woman had been growing plants for years. She said she got interested in plants from her mother. Her yard was an oasis of plants and flowers. The small preview in the front yard did not prepare me for the multitude and variety of flowers and plants. 

In the center of the yard was a tower of flower pots from small to humongous. There was a shed where she kept her wheelbarrows and gardening tools. She told us she was in her eighties and retired. One of the plants she specialized in were sago palms. Most of the palms in yards in the neighborhood had been grown by her including the one in my mother's yard. She had a huge spectacular thungergia blue grandiflora vine. It was covered in blooms. I had seen this vine on the rare plant website and wanted to order one. My sister bought cuttings and she was very generous. This vine in perennial in Georgia but not in Philadelphia thus if it roots it will have to be over wintered. I hope it survives till Spring. 

There was a lemon tree with lemons larger than grapefruit, a pomegranat tree with ripening pomegranats, and a  fig tree. She had a large variety of unusual coleus which she propagates from cuttings and over winters them for the next season. She had some many plants. To me this really was a nursery and her careful care to her plants and garden showed. I din't buy any plants but will get a cutting from the thunbergia. My sister bought hot peppers plants, an unusual type of lirope, and of all things a sago palm. How she will get this to stay alive in Philly is yet to be seen although I have see them in garden centers in Philly. I guess they are taken inside in the Fall. I will visit the flower sell again next year if offered. 

My mother does well propagating plants and trees from cutting. She has fig tree cuttings, pine trees, and a mango tree. There is a row of fruit trees she grew from seeds that she save from fruits she had eaten. These trees have not had fruit yet and it's been five years so she wants to cut them down and get nursery starts. I talked her out of it for this year. We will see if they bear fruit next year. She has a flower bed in the front of the house and one in the back. I would love to have this type of space to garden. She has limited what she plants because she lives part of the year in Philly and is not in Georgia year round to manage the garden. The gardener maintains the grass but sometimes cuts flowers that shouldn't be cut down. 


Spider Lilly I think. the rain beat the flower stalk down. The pine straw from the trees make great mulch.




Jasmine Vine. It has already flowered. My mother gave me seeds to try to grow from it.








Oak covered in fern. This tree is in a neighbors yard. It reached from the yard and covered the street.


Look at the fern.
That's my Nephew. Way ahead of my sister and I as we walk in the neighborhood looking at gardens.

I would like to know the name of this flower.




Love the tree. My mother also showed me mistletoe growing in an oak tree.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for visiting. Comment will be published after review.