Author: Alice Massey

When the brilliant, clear blue October sky is reflected in the Lowcountry waters and the sun is lighting up the rich colors of fall blooming plants, you know autumn is finally here to stay.  The sluggishness of summer is gone and I am ready to get out and dig again.  

  When the humidity in Beaufort softly fogs my brain, a good smack of fresh, cooler air that doesn’t come from an HVAC system is always good.

Ever notice how the perfect scarf or piece of jewelry makes a simple little black dress look outstanding? I was reminded of that this past week as I visited all five lovely gardens on the recent Garden-A-Day tours sponsored by the Beaufort Garden Club.

No, this has nothing to do with reality TV, just a chat about some of my plants that survived the winter of 2014. It is late April as I write this and I am still finding surprises. Every time I spy a tiny shoot, one that would normally have emerged months ago, I get a little lift.

A recent notice about an open house featuring spring flowering bulbs at the Moore Farms Botanical Gardens in Lake City reminded me that the time is right to start thinking about planting summer flowering bulbs.

Just when I thought the freezing cold temperatures were the worst weather related calamity that could happen to our gardens I read about the 40 below wind chill in Chicago and I realized how fortunate we are to be here in Beaufort. Even with the unprecedented cold and ice and what appears to be a sea of dead looking plants outside, our camellia flowers continue to open and we get to look out our windows every day and see beauty, color and fresh new life. But, about that sea of dead looking plants . . .

They are everywhere right now. Amaryllis, Christmas Cactus, the ubiquitous Poinsettia, cyclamens, even tiny evergreens. They started bombarding our senses shortly after Halloween and well before Thanksgiving. You still have a grand selection and they seem to be available wherever you shop. Nurseries, garden centers, grocery stores, convenience stores, even the pharmacies are awash in them.

Signs of the approaching cool weather are everywhere. The Camellia sasanquas are blooming, the bees and butterflies are plentiful and the mornings have been chilly enough to make me break out the sweaters. Surely we will have many mild and sunny days to come but just to err on the side of caution, it’s time to put the garden to bed.

It’s the same old song; gardening is always cyclical. With slight variances for weather, what happened or bloomed last September is likely to be happening again. I checked back to see what I had written about this time last year. The article was called “The Unwanted Guests” and it was about deer.

Taking pleasure in your garden in the midst of August’s heat and bugs can be . . . well, to put it bluntly, difficult. Recently I was reading a blog by Tom Harris, Ph.D., a Texas gardener, that included a lengthy list of “dos and don’ts” for making late summer gardening more enjoyable. Parts of Texas are even hotter than SC, so many of his suggestions would apply well to our Lowcountry climate.