When wild geese fly high, there is a haze on the far horizon, and the weather turns, pleasantly cool, then November has arrived.
Potting of Small Plants
Usually, some small plants in the garden can be potted to make sunny windows brighter for the winter. Small petunias, coleus, marigolds, and even morning glories will frame a window in winter.
Clean up well, putting everything that is not diseased into a compost pile. Make new beds for plants of pansies, violas, English daisies, calendula, and stock.
Early Spring Bloomers
These may be fertilized well for they are winter and early spring bloomers. All shrubbery that bloomed after June may be pruned now, things like althaeas and crape-myrtle.This is a favorite month to plant evergreens.
Pineapple Guava
One of the finest for us is pineapple guava (Feijoa sellowiana), making a neat, round, small tree ten or more feet tall.
It has oval, glossy green leaves, veined in lighter green, velvety, and silver on the reverse side. It is as pretty in winter when the wind riffles the leaves as silver leaf maple is in summer.
May will find it loaded with exotic blooms, almost 2” inches across, composed of 4 thick cupped petals, the outside mauve and inside purplish red, with great poufs of long dark red stamens.
The blooms cut nicely, make striking corsages, and bear edible egg-shaped small fruits that make delicious jam.
Pineapple guava is a native of Brazil. Mine have stood cold below 15° degrees with no damage. It is not finicky as to soil and does well in full sun or part shade.
Pittosporum: Bushy Plant
Pittosporum (tobira) grows to a bushy 10 ft. The leaves are oval, 4” inches long, and grow dense at the tips of the branches.
Blooms are small sweetly scented flowers in early spring. The green and white variegated pittosporum are much used in flower arrangements. It grows well in sun or half shade and seems to have no particular soil requirements.
False Holly: Ball-Like Plant
False holly (Osmanthus heterophyllus variegatus) makes a neat round ball-like plant, the leaves like holly and margined deeply with white. It adds to landscape color in winter, is cool looking in summer, superb for a low hedge or accent plant.
Camellias in Bloom or Bud
Almost everyone buys camellias when they are in bloom or bud. There are a few do’s and don’ts that must be observed if these winter aristocrats are to be happy.
- Don’t plant them too deeply.
- Plant where they will be well drained.
- Be sure they have acid soil; this can be accomplished by the use of oak leaf mold, peat, and a specially prepared fertilizer.
- If possible test the soil and if it is not acid go to your seedsman for his advice.
- Make sure that the ball sits on solid ground so that later it will not sink too deeply.
- Build up to the ball of roots, then mulch well.
Fancy Camellias
Pinestraw is a good mulch. Old sawdust or small oak leaves may also be used, but not large leaves as they may pack and exclude the air. An ideal place for camellias is tinder tail trees, preferably pines. There are so many camellias that one’s fancy can run wild.
Daikagura: Earliest Bloom
`Daikagura’ is one of the earliest to bloom, starting in October and blooming until Christmas. Blooms are large, double, irregular, and deep pink.
A sport of this is `Daikagura Variegated’ which is striped and spotted with white. No garden could have too many of the purple dawns (Afathotiarza Rubra).
The bloom is huge, double, rose-shaped, deep glowing red, and as the blooms age, the margins of the petals show a purple edging. It’s a good grower with lustrous foliage, truly a classic camellia.
Thelma Dale: Large Pink Blooms
`Thelma Dale’ has large pink blooms and is an incomplete double. For variety she has petal sizes intermixed. Some of the blooms will be spotted with white.
Sarah Frost: Old Southern Camellia
‘Sarah Frost’ is a famous old southern camellia, now much used as an understock for grafting. It grows tall and compact, blooms myriads of medium size, double, rose form blooms from rose pink to light red in color.
44659 by Kitty Simpson