Sunday, August 27, 2017

A Rainy Day Book List

When a rainy day (or oncoming Tropical Storm!) gives you a break from the hard work of digging your feet in the sand and soaking in sun and salt air, it's a great time to catch up on filling in all the gaps I leave here about how to cultivate the ultimate coastal garden...with books!!!
"Can't, my brain is fried."
Henry Rehder (pronounced Reader unless my mother devised another malapropism on par with her Gazebo Beans and Mighty Python) is the Virgil of Carolina coastal gardening. You'll find him mentioning azaleas on the Star News website, and he has a book that serves as a bible to the southern gardener--Growing a Beautiful Garden: A Landscape Guide for the Coastal Carolinas


Rehder is an old family name in plants and the family has owned the Rehder flower shop downtown for generations. Just remember when you crack this book, you are consulting the sensei of coastal southern horticulture.

If you come across the section where he's telling you, on such and such a date, right down to the day, you have got to prune back your crape myrtle, your inner beach bum might react like mine:

Still, if you wanna go hardcore, follow Rehder.

If Rehder is the beach bum gardener's Virgil, then surely Elizabeth Lawrence is their Homer. Granted, she was in the Piedmont and Mountains and was a gift to earlier generations, but you have to read at least ONE of her books if ever you've thought of using the phrase, "Why I do declare." Would you believe I had to enter a PhD program in American Studies out at the U of New Mexico in order to hear of this woman?

Elizabeth Lawrence did more for southern gardens than a whole lot of people know, and I'm not just talking about your hothouse gloxinia. She traipsed mountain paths to find some rarities, she cultivated bona fide winners, and she wrote lovingly about the off-the-beaten-path treasure trove of ditch lilies and thrift and slender gladioli and "yarbs" (herbs) found in the tarheel garden.

Those of us whose ancestors settled in this area (mine were said to be neighbors, for better or worse, with Daniel Boone) most likely have the odd uncle, aunt, or grandmother who passed down heirloom flowers with their quirks. LOTS of quirks.
My grandmother's white iris have bloomed beautifully for my aunt and cousin just down the street, but do you think we can get OURS to bloom? Hmpf! So we gave some to our cousin in Virginia and HERS are blooming! Any channelers out there, you're welcome to ask my grandmother what gives.

Next comes Wild Flowers of North Carolina: William S. Justice, C. Ritchie Bell, Anne H. Lindsey.
I've got the first edition, which is worn as the Appalachians, but I've found it darn useful just to identify plants, because it was one of the first to give full color photos. That still doesn't do much good on the DYCs (damn yellow composites) but helpful with pretty much all else.

One more flower book, this one exclusive about Outer Banks wildflowers but very useful for here around Cape Fear because it has interesting notes on the flowers, like who used them why in the old days. Just go elsewhere for breath-taking photos of the flowers. 

On my mother's recliner, I've left this book open to the page on chicory, a sky blue wildflower that my mother swears is a weed and refuses to have anything to do with, but the book says the Romans used it as medicine and colonials used it to flavor their coffee. Plus, it's blue and you don't have to care for it, it'll do very well with no help whatsoever...maybe a little too well. She's more the Rehder-follower, a fusser of gardenias, so I doubt I'll convince her to have it in the yard, but hey, I tried.

You can help write the book on pest control in your garden if you leave this beastie to work her magic. This is a writing spider, or Argiope. She's beautiful, and on your porch, deck, or among your flowers and veggies, she's a welcome sight. She'll suck dry flies, mosquitoes, and stink bugs, anything that lands in her pretty, literary web. If her web unwittingly blocks a thruway, just pluck a few spinnerets free and she'll get the idea to build it farther back. And at night outside, chop the air in front of your face like a crazy person or screams from your intimacy with this large arachnid will earn Cape Fear its cleping all over again.
You and the writing spider are NOT
at cross purposes.
When the sun comes back out, grab a read like a Lyla Dune book for some romping, bikini-ripper fun, kick back, and relax. She's a local author (not to mention a great friend).

Remember, your crape myrtle cannot read Rehder's mandate to prune it on a certain date. Somehow, my guy survived the oversight. Maybe yours will too!
X-P

No comments:

Post a Comment