The Historic District

James, interesting form to the trunks, do they naturally form three trunks from a base root stump or are they pruned like that?

The nursery puts three plants per pot. I presume that this is for more fullness. In any case, the nurseryman was very proud of his spacing, calling it "perfect." He said that since he's had them across the front of the office, his air conditioning bill is much less.



They also sell crape myrtles one-per-pot, trimmed to grow as a tree, wich they call a "standard."

Started clearing out the gardens for the winter. Shuffled some perennials around, thinned out the hostas, have lots of irises and lily’s to thin out as well. But that’s for another day.

Do you have to contend with deer at your house?

Nope, just squirrels, rabbits and a very fat ground hog on occasion. The squirrels are the main culprits in the spring taking up my freshly planted bulbs and tubers. Also because we have several mature walnut trees, in the fall we get lots of little bumps in the lawn as the squirrels hide their winter stash, in the spring we get many little divots when they dig them up. All part of living in the country I guess.

Autumn is when the sasanqua camellias begin to bloom. The sasanquas are similar to the far-more-popular Camellia japonica, but with smaller leaves, smaller flowers, and a subtle but wonderful fragrance. Here is variety 'Leslie Ann,' which I bought at Mobile Botanical Garden's plant sale last year. It has tripled in size since then, despite our extended drought and record high temperatures this past summer.

Very pretty