~links (for me to remember later)~

oakleaf hydrangea, happy I think

~~~~~

A draft of my landscape plan is due to my architect tomorrow. 

Sitting in front of me is a survey map of my place, with a crazy, plant-obsessed plan scribbled on it.  A formal garden in the front right corner (an oval surrounded by live oaks and camellias and hydrangeas and dogwoods and...), a shady front left corner (with bald cypresses, a large southern magnolia, a river birch and lots of shade plants), a working-woman's side left garden ( lots of sun and beds for vegetables and berries and cut flowers and herbs and figs and...), a rear garden with a split personality (part bamboo-garden and part orchard), and a right rear garden with native azaleas and sweetbay and yellow anise and...oh, there's along list of what also could go back there.  And all of these gardens - the left, the right, the rear - connected by a perennial/mixed-perennial border.

~~~~~

Yes, I'll have to quit my job, forgo all other responsibilities - to even possible do this - but deep down I'm thinking in my deranged brain that...hey, it's possible, sure, I can do it.  And...I think I can.  Most of the plants exist already - there's just alot of work to be done.

~~~~~

And regarding LEED and what they care about:  at least 60% of the acre will NOT be turfgrass.

~~~~~

SERPIN (Southeastern Rare Plant Information Network) - South Carolina

South Carolina Native Plant Society (along with their excellent links page)

South Carolina Plant Atlas

Coastal DNR Managed Lands

Woodlanders (Aiken, SC)

Comments

[Kim]

Between this and the Kurohime picture below... does this mean that your hydrangea are already blooming? Wow.

[Pam]

Yep, they're blooming. Hydrangeas LOVE the south - it's where they belong, hanging out in acidic soils underneath a live oak tree. Hydrangeas SMILE down here.

[Mary]

Another link that you might find interesting is Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center http://www.wildflower.org. Although they're located in Austin they specialize in native plants and wildflowers that grow throughout the United States, and they're a very helpful group.

[Brian (Seeking Hydrangeas) Paul]

Voice) on his post about how the Zones are changing. It might be worth the risk looking for Perenials 1 zone higher. I'm a zone 5 myself but his company Heronswood Nursery has a huge selection of Hydrangeas Serrata that are zone 6 and higher.
What do you think - Worth the risk?

[Annie in Austin]

Your list makes me wonder whether someone like Mrs Whaley would make a garden like yours if she were born the same year as you, Pam, instead of before World War One...what a great blend of formal evergreens, beauty and scent with a modern desire to grow food and be 'green'. Maybe there'd be room for one little old Banana shrub?

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

[Pam]

Annie, there's one in the back - that has gotten quite large, and is nestled in with some roses - there's also a banana tree, so I think we've got the banana 'genus' covered...and as for Mrs. Whaley, yeah, I think she might have done things differently now (and I can't imagine that she wouldn't have wanted more land. Some of those downtown Charleston gardens are just too small for farmers).