Rhododendron periclymenoides 'Rosy Pink'

Is this the rhododendron that can can survive my Middle Tennessee garden?

I sure hope so! For years I have dreamed of the sweet fragrance of native azaleas wafting through my garden. 

Other azaleas have come and gone. Like the beautiful 'Golden Lights' I tried four years ago. She was beautiful the first season, by the second merely pretty and then gone by the third spring. 

 I met 'Rosy Pink' last year while strolling through a favorite garden center. The yellow tag simply read: 'Rosy Pink Azalea'. The deciduous azalea was covered with big, fat buds ready to open and welcome the spring!  I bought three and planted them in the Garden of Benign Neglect in an acid soil enriched bed along with Leucothoe axillaris 'Sarah's Choice'  and an underplanting of Iris cristata and trilliums. While planting them I discovered a tag buried under the mulch that identified Rosy as Deciduous Azalea R. periclymenoides Bloom: Rose/Pink. Go here to read the original post. 

'Rosy Pink' was beautiful from her first swollen bud until all the blooms dropped off weeks later.  The garden smelled delicious every time the wind blew. Then summer arrived and with it came a drought that lasted till late fall. I was able to keep all the Rosy Pink azaleas alive, but, they didn't set many flower buds. This spring there were only a few beautiful blooms.

Naturally, I bought more. The experiment wasn't nearly over! **

Flowers range from soft pink to dark pink and are sweetly scented and very beautiful.

This time I planted them in the front garden where several Rhododendron canescens already resided. They were planted last fall, rescues from the late summer sale table.  Of course, I didn't plant any of them in my "pretty darn close to a cedar glade micro-environment" without amending the soil!  (More about this micro-environment here) Dozens of years of decaying leaf litter had made it rich and humusy, but, soil conditioner and a Woodland Soil Mix created for acid loving plants made it even better. Azaleas might like moist soil, but these also want sharp drainage. In my clay soil that means planting them high and mulching them with pine straw. I want these beauties to have the best chance to survive.

 The delicate petals curl back exposing long stamens and styles

After all, I have dreams and I'll continue to work to make them happen.

xoxogail

** Thanks to Frances of Fairegarden for inspiring me to plant our beautiful native azaleas.  Hers really rock!

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

I Feel Bad About My Vinca

Penstemon calycosus in the GOBN

...and the other invasive plants in my garden. 

If I didn't fight it the vincas would overrun the GOBN

I really do. I haven't been able to get rid of it.  I've tried, but, it's even more tap-rooted to this garden than I am. Even if I hired a crew to work sunup to sundown on eradication they would never finish.  Removing invasives in this garden is like painting a really long bridge, just as you finish it's time to start all over again. 

Luckily for me,  previous owners did not pesticide away the wildflowers

I have a theory that way back when this neighborhood was first established home owners tried hard to grow the perfect 1950s green grass.  When they realized that the shallow soil meant no lawn would ever grow they all planted Vinca major and Vinca minor to create a swath of green.  At the time it was the perfect marriage of evergreen foliage  for the lawn enthusiast and  pretty blue flower for the flower enthusiast. That was 50 years before conservation biologists talked about invasive exotics in Middle Tennessee.  Back then gardeners still believed that many of the wildflowers that we all find charming were weeds and pesticided (an active and destructive verb) them out of their lawns and understory. 

Plant clover and you'll get lucky~bees and four-leaved clovers

Way back when, and I mean, way, way back when,  gardeners were encouraged to use all manner of exotics to tame erosion.  There was little, if any, thought to long term consequences.  That's how we got stuck with Kudzu and countless other 'useful and pretty plants and critters'.

April in the Garden of Benign Neglect.  The purple teteur lives peacefully with the vinca!

The vincas and I have reached detente in the back garden.  There aren't enough resources at Clay and Limestone to wage a full out war! It's an impossible mission.  Instead, I've drawn a boundary and they cannot cross over.  Of course, I must patrol the area, but, I can live with that for now...But, you know,  I still feel bad about my vinca and other invasives.


xxoo
Gail


Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone." She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Need Wildflowers?

The first time I walked the paths of the Howe Wildflower garden at Cheekwood Art and Gardens I felt at home. It was on hillside, with tall canopy trees, understory cercis, oakleaf hydranges, hypericum and wildflowers. It spoke to me in a sweet whisper~"You can make this garden on your little slope..."

Since that long ago time, I've been striving to have a garden that made me feel as at home as the Howe Garden.

Coal in the Garden of Benign Neglect

The annual Wildflower Sale to benefit the Howe Garden is where you'll find me on Saturday morning. You can never have too many native plants and certainly never too many wildflowers!

• March 26 Native Plant Sale
• 10:00 am until all plants are sold!
  Featuring native plants that thrive here in Middle Tennessee, this springtime Cheekwood tradition is sponsored by the Garden Club of Nashville, and benefits the Howe Wildflower Garden at Cheekwood.

Springtime at Clay and Limestone

Hope to see my local gardening friends there today~

xxooGail

This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011.This work protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.