The Garden Experience

I own an oil painting, thick with strokes of greens and blues, rose tones, and golds. It was done in the impressionistic style, reminiscent of Monet, and only after gazing at it for a moment does one realize that two women are standing in a meadow of flowers. One is wearing a white dress and the other a long blue one. Both have on wide-brimmed sun hats, and they seem to be gathering flowers. It is the idealized garden experience. What woman gardener hasn't fantasized about walking through fields of blooms, wearing a beautiful gown?

Reality is a bit different. Whenever I am in my garden I am likely to have on baggy pants and a loose cotton or linen shirt. It's not a bad outfit. (When my neighbor Betty works in the garden, she wears old rags, held together with safety pins.) A sun visor protects my eyes and keeps curls off my forehead. I like the kind of sun visor that has a built in sweat band, because I am going to sweat. Sweat is not lady-like, but most of the things I do in the garden aren't lady-like. Digging and pulling, shoveling and cutting and hauling, mixing and squishing and pouring and spraying are activities that get me dirty and damp, unlike the ladies in my painting. I bet they had servants to do those kinds of things. 

But I know my garden. I took these shots while walking around the front garden.I know the soil. I know the plants. Close-ups of some summer flowers blooming in my gardenThe Lady in Red hydrangeas offer interest throughout the summer.

I can't say how much I am enjoying my Red Banana plant! The foliage is very photogenic.

Many plants have interesting seed capsules.

I am familiar with its wild inhabitants. This Haploa clymene moth looks like a crusader's shield.

I usually leave red wasps alone, but I recently rescued one from inside my car. This one let me take his photo.I know when things go wrong and when things are good. I listen to the orchestra of sounds in my garden, the music of the day and the night.  I am always aware of the weather. I know the sun and the heavy humid air, and I know the cool touch of a breeze on my hot skin.

Every day my eyes are on the horizon. I can tell when dense clouds are coming, charged with lightning and echoing with thunder, sending rains that may bring sorrow or joy.

I don't have a garden experience so much as I experience my garden, and there is an elemental difference. I think it may be what separates a gardener from someone who merely owns the space.

Hydrangea 'Limelight': Midsummer's beauty

As the seasons turn, different plants take center stage in my garden. Midsummer can be tough here in the Deep South, but while many plants are retreating from the heat, Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' becomes a garden stand out.

Limelight's cone shaped blooms open creamy white to chartreuse. A feature of my hydrangea walk, Limelight is also visible from the kitchen and from the patio.I love the blooms that glow in the golden sunshine of late afternoon. Six to twelve inches long, the flower heads are held upright on sturdy stems. The blooms will persist well into autumn, and as that season advances many of the blooms will take on multiple shades of pink, mingling beautifully with other blooms that still retain their green tints. The color, unlike many hydrangeas, is not dependent on soil pH.

Limelight is a large shrub. Mine is about four years old, and I prune it every year. The last two years it easily grew to eight feet tall and wide after pruning. I wonder just how large it would grow if I didn't cut it back! (A dwarf form, Little Lime, will grow up to five feet.) The blooms form on new wood, so pruning should be done in late fall through early spring. It isn't necessary to prune it every year, but pruning Limelight a third to a half will result in larger blooms.

Limelight likes good loamy soil, but it is adaptable. In spring I fertilize with an organic slow-release fertilizer. Then in midsummer I give it a shot of fish emulsion, one quarter cup per five gallons of water combined with epsom salts, one cup per five gallons of water, as a natural pick-me-up. 

Mine gets morning sun and filtered afternoon shade. I think in cooler climates it would do fine in full sun. Limelight tolerates hot, humid conditions, but it will wilt in intense heat and drought. Sometimes I do give it extra water, as I do all my hydrangeas; but generally, I consider this midsummer beauty an easy care shrub.