I haven't been here long enough to overwinter camelias, but had no trouble in the UK. The plants are hardy the only thing that might suffer is the blossom. We always had them where the DIDN'T get early morning sun because that spoiled the blooms if they were frosted. Later in the day when the air is warmer it doesn't hurt. If they can cope with the north of England winters - wet and cold - they should be OK here. It is the damp and icy winds that do most of the damage.
Jdee, Your planter bed looks good, it just needs time and TLC.
Maybe This Will Help
yes...they over winter too well here if anything. They will continue blooming right into a frost and as you say, it is only the blooms that need protecting from frost and wind and we can get some pretty strong winds in the winter.
Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning. It shows what's on the other side of the right camellia. Please ignore the treadmill. It was given to me by someone at church who was just wanting rid of it. I haven't found space for it inside yet, so that is it's temporary home.
You can see why i don't post pictures over this far. I still have so much work to do. My husband was thinking that we'd put a camelia shrub at each post, but now I think that may be a mistake, because it would end up closing the porch area off, wouldn't it? I guess I may have to move them when they get bigger.
Here's another view....
This is the area on the other side of the porch that I wanted to get to next. There's so much shade that the grass doesn't grow there, so I was thinking a garden would be perfect.
I'm really having to swallow my pride to post these pictures. Now you can see why I feel that I don't quite measure up to DG standards. lol
ah yes I see. Looks like a nice porch and entry way area. Camelias can reach 25 feet, although they can be pruned much like roses. Having one on either side would be quite attractive I think. But, you might want to wait a couple of years to see how that one does and how much it grows and what it looks like pruned. Then if you decide to plant one on the other side of the landing you can just keep the existing one pruned until the other one catches up to it.
I love my porch. I need to find time to paint it. My husband says it will have to be stripped first. That's why we've not done it yet. I probably wouldn't have painted it at all. That was the previous owner's handywork. It also breaks my heart that they painted the bricks. Maybe that's why we wanted a plant big enough to cover them. lol
Yes, my husband says that we should keep the camelias trimmed. He knows how to do all that. For that corner at the other side of the porch, I was thinking maybe plant some kind of shrubs (eventually a hedge) in an "L" shape across the back of the porch and that part of the house, then round of an area in front of that to plant something else. I may move my hostas there, or at least some of them. I'm sure I'll change my mind a hundred times before we actually plant. lol
It looks like a nice old house just in need of some TLC. Restoring a house can be challange, not to mention expensive, I know. I've seen some houses where old pillars have been boxed in with new ones. I agree with you on painting bricks. I've just never understood the point in that. First it takes a lot of work and expense and then it never looks as nice as the natural brick color anyway. The best part is that the paint eventually fades and starts to chip off and at least that gives it an interesting old weathered look which I think is more attractive than a solid coat of some unnatural brick color.
Something to consider when you plant against a wall or fence or the house in a heavily shaded area is that the plants will lean out reaching for the sun. I have this problem on the west side of my house because almost as soon as the sun gets over my house to that side, it is hidden by the neighbors house on that side. So if you do a shrub against the wall and the house with a bed in front of it, pick one that grows upright and compact so it won't try to grow over the bed in front of it so much. One idea might be to make that area a semi rock or archetectural garden. Place a few large interesting shaped bolders maybe with some of your hostas in front of them with a fountain or bird bath in the center.
i luv the black kitties!
Thank you so much vossner. Just a couple of my many "babies"
I just wanted you to see what I've done. I decided to pull up the anuals, so I can start working on that soil. It's good that I did, because the dirt in that top area has gotten hard as a brick. I decided to leave the fallen leaves on there for now, and maybe get some compost. Any other suggestions?
Turning in compost, leaves, grass clippings, etc. are all ideas. Sprinkling some annual ryegrass seeds would also help get organic matter into the soil. Turn the grass in as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring.
If your soil is mostly clay, work in some sand and peat moss. That will help keep it lose. The peat moss can lower the soil pH so if you want a little more acidic soil that is good, if you don't use the peat moss sparingly. Like John said, keep the soil covered, with mulch( your leaves, cypress, cedar, you can even put strips of newspaper or cardboard and cover with leaves or hardwood mulch) and/or a cover crop like ryegrass. Over winter your mulch will begin composting and you just turn it and your cover crop into the soil in the spring. The mulch and cover crop also will deter weeds and maintain bacteria in the soil until you are ready to plant again.
The dirt in our yard is actually pretty good soil, because we don't rake our leaves very often, but to make that raised bed, we bought topsoil and peat moss. Could the topsoil be the reason for the hardness?
It could be if the top soil is mostly clay. When you water it, it clumps it together and then when it dries it is like a solid mass instead of crumbly. Adding some sand too it should keep it separated better. and over time as you work the composted leaves into it that will help too.
I was afraid of that. It's a good thing we only planted annuals.
Oh it's not a problem for the plants, it's more of a problem for the planter :-) Nothing wrong at all with using topsoil to create your beds with. Just balance it will peat or sand. In the long run, mixing it with sand is actualy pretty economical too because it is larger grained and so you get more volume out of whatever you mix it with and it is usually quite a bit cheaper than peat moss. Usually when I am adding soil to a bed I use about 40% topsoil, 40% sand, 10% compost or humus, and 10% manure. If I am wanting it for low pH planting then I substitute about half of the sand with peat.
Jdee,
Just to show you how things can recover, this rose was stripped by leaf cutters earlier this summer, it had no foliage left at all and I thought I would lose it. Its definitely on its way back now!
What a beautiful rose, okus. I hope my hostas come back as beautifully. My yard looks a lot nicer. My husband has had a severe cold for quite a while, and hadn't had a chance to mow, which I'm sure you could see in my above photos. Everytime I mow, I end up with poison ivy, so our yard has been looking bad for weeks. We finally had a chance to get out there and work this weekend. He's not over his cold, but he's feeling lots better. He mowed and weedeated, while I worked in the garden. I put some of his grass clippings, leaves, and two bags of compost in that raised bed. Then I turned everything together, and covered with mulch. I'm hoping that will improve the soil for when I finally get a chance to plant.
I really want to paint some in the house, but we can't do both, so I have to decide it I want to plant or paint. lol
I went out while ago, and took a picture of the work we did. I'm really proud of it.
We have an oak in the front, but at the side of our porch is a tree that turns the prettiest color during the fall. My husband thinks it might be a maple. Whatever it is, I just couldn't resist taking this picture of a fallen leaf from it. I think the color is amazing.
That certainly looks all clean and tidy and just begging to be planted. Well done. I think that is a maple too - beautiful colour.
looking good jdee. That looks like a red or japanese maple. One of the few trees that actually do show some striking fall color in Texas. How are those camelias coming? Any blooms yet?
This message was edited Nov 8, 2004 5:49 PM
Excellant jdee!
Thanks everyone.
No blooms on the camellias yet, but lots of buds.
jdee, many of us here at Dave's share our extra plants, cuttings and seeds with others. This is a great way to obtain plants. Do you have a place to keep cuttings during freezes?
I'm afraid not. In fact, I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with all my porch plants. The reason I put them out in the first place is because my cats were chewing on them, and I was afraid they would be poisoned. I may have to lock them up in the guest room...the plants, not the cats. lol