Category Archives: General Gardening

I traveled down to the coast for Christmas Eve after work. It’s so warm it didn’t feel like Christmas. 77f!

  
My family has always opened Christmas present on Christmas Eve and eat plenty of food. It’s the usual stuff of ham, turkey, cranberry salsa, and many cakes and sweets!

There is usually seafood, too! Usually something like oyster stuffing and some other fish or shrimp is included.

  
I came back late Christmas Day. It’s was still in the 70s so, of course, I had to visit the public gardens around Raleigh and see what is blooming!

The J C Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University was my first stop after Cup A Joe.

Crocus

  
Japanese winter flowering almond- prunus mume 

  
Mahonia

  
Winter flowering iris

  
And I’m my garden-

Hellebore – many colors.

  
It’s has been in the 60s and 70s the past few days and even the bananas have grown new leaves.

  
It’s very strange weather. 

I guess the republicans are when they say there is no global warming! Ha! 😜

atb 

Perfect response by Campbell Soup customer service!
  

Time for some serious pruning of the Autumn Clematis!

Autumn Clematis is a vine with a bipolar personality. In the Fall it is smothered in small, star-shaped fragrant flowers but during the growing season it can quickly overtake nearby structures or plants.
It begins blooming near the end of August here in Raleigh and is covered in very fragrant flowers until the end of October with flushes until Christmas. It than is covered in fluffy seeds.

I keep them under control by giving them a hard pruning between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This helps to remove the fluffy seeds which can be weedy volunteers throughout the garden.

I prune the vines on the light poles and the mailbox are pruned to leaders of about three feet. These leaders grow about two or three feet during the Winter and are ready for the growing season in April when they may grow grow up to ten feet by the Fall blooming season.

The heavy vines are huge now and are a tangled mess. Below is one of the lights with the removed growth from just one season to the left! The light is five feet tall.

 

The hellebores have begun their growth cycle, too! Josep Lemper blooms early with crisp, white flowers and dark foliage.

Others are just begining to grow.

The old farm, Oakview, which is near my home is decorated, too!

When the State purchased the farm to build the beltline around Raleigh in the 1980s the county purchased the portion with the house, barns, and pecan groves for a history park to demonstrate the history of a cotton farm.

The main house.  The cotton barn.
An old cabin inside the museum.
They were decorating the main house so it want ready. We will have to go back this weekend!