Where the Flowers Grow
Everybody needs that one thing that keeps you sane. I love to dig in the dirt! Nothing gives me as much peace as planting flowers and bushes. All the cares and concerns of this world melt away as I dig.
When I can look around my yard or around the winery building and see the Beauty Berry bush my sister Meleady gave me for my birthday one year or the irises my mother shared with me or the calla lilies my neighbor Janeen shared with me I feel joy. I can remember when we built the building that would later become the winery in the middle of a tobacco field and having a vision of how to transform that wide open space. A berm to shape the courtyard filled with crape myrtles, day lilies, Carolina jasmine growing on pergolas. I could see it. If I can see it, I can grow it. With each addition to the building came new plantings of rose bushes, hydrangeas, holly, and azaleas.
I would rather shop for plants, flowers, bushes, trees than anything else. Nothing makes me as happy as toiling in the dirt and growing something beautiful.
New Digs
Now that the winery is sold, and I’ve moved into my new digs (the old bunkhouse on the farm) a new transformation is taking place. This summer has been all about cleaning up and planting new flower beds. It’s a creative outlet for me, keeps me sane now that I’m not going to the winery every day to work.
As I’ve thought about how I want my old tobacco barn/ bunkhouse/office space to look, I’m bringing in some of the rocks from the Rock House. I’ve shaped the beds around the building and added old farm implements, tools, anything rusted, made of tobacco sticks or broken shovels. By the way, I had so many broken shovels of all sizes that I invited my daughter, my daughter-in-law, and my granddaughters to paint their faces on a shovel for the flower garden. It really gives personality to the space.
New Favorites
As I have shopped for plants for my garden, I have discovered new varieties that I adore! I will be sharing these with you. I have several places I love to shop for plants. One of them is “The Mustard Seed” in Blowing Rock. I always love, love, love the flowers in Blowing Rock. They are so vibrant, overflowing with blooms. It must be the cooler temperatures in the summer that make them so magnificent. On my last visit there I had to have a Panicle Hydrangea. They were featured in just about every flower garden on every corner. Big and beautiful jade green blooms aging from dusty rose to deep rose. Gorgeous!
Another favorite this year is a new plant for me, a “Snow-N-Summer” Jasmine. I had Carolina Jasmine with yellow flowers planted on the pergolas at the winery and it was beautiful, however, when I saw this plant, I had to have it in my garden. It has pale pink and white delicate blooms with a variegated leaf and climbs ever so beautifully on my old hay round. I have a picture!
To give you an idea of my plantings so far, here they are.
- Southern Living Plant Collection Ligustrum “Sunshine”
- Compact Japanese Holly
- Southern Living Plant Collection Nandina “Flirt”
- Wine & Spirits Weigela
- Encore Azalea “Autumn Carnation”
- Little Lime Panicle Hydrangea
- Sky Pencil Japanese Holly
- Dapper White Butterfly Bush
- Pink Muhly Grass
- Purple Fountain Grass
- Muskogee Crape Myrtle
- “Snow-N-Summer” Jasmine
- Herb Garden of Sage, Rosemary Basil
- Purple, Orange, Yellow Mums
I’m sure there will be many more additions to my garden. Stay tuned!
Debbie
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