~a crinum road trip~

Here is the description for Crinum 'Parfait' on the Lushlife Nursery website:

"Lots of flower on each scape. Flowers are rich ruby pink in bud and on the outside of the bud, but they open to show off distintly striped petals. Unlike most striped crinum (which are white or pale pink with dark stripes) Parfait is rich pink, getting darker and more cherry lollipop pink toward the center of each petal. You get an almost ridged effect. Parfait is a great name, reflecting the colors AND the sugary sweet night time fragrance."

 

A Crinum with night time fragrance - sugary sweet night time fragrance - now how fun is that?

 

~~~~~

 

 

I got 'Parfait' last Saturday - on my second annual trek to Lushlife Crinum Nurseries at Beech Island, South Carolina.  My friend Jeff and I went - and this year we took the quickest route, not the meandering series of roads that we took on our first visit.  I-26 and then a short jog south on I-95, and then Highway 78 and another series of backroads until we arrived.  We were more focused this trip - we weren't stopping at every 'Jesus Saves' sign, we didn't stop for boiled peanuts - we weren't obsessed with flowers blooming along the roadside.  We were focused on getting to the crinums and the tomato sandwiches.

 

(Confession:  we did stop once, for gas and for M&Ms to go into the trail mix that Jeff made).

 

~~~~~

 

 
~Life-sized bronze statue of James Brown in Augusta, GA, from Wikipedia~ 

 

For those of you interested in a little history, here's something from Discover South Carolina:

One of the oldest settlements in South Carolina, Beech Island is a community located along the Savannah River in Aiken County. Beech Island began in the 1680s as Savano Town settlement, an important trade center and “jumping-off” point to the Western wilderness. European goods, arriving in Charleston, were sent to Savano Town via the Westobou River (Savannah River). In 1716 after a major Indian war erupted, Fort Moore was built to protect the mercantile trade and to guard the Western entrance of the colony. Beech Island developed into an agriculture community and in 1856 Gov. James Hammond and eleven other farmers founded the Beech Island Agricultural Club, now one of the oldest surviving such societies in South Carolina. Three miles southeast of Beech Island is Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site, the former home of Hammond. Between Beech Island and Jackson on Silver Bluff Road near the Savannah River is Silver Bluff Plantation, a 3,100-acre wildlife and nature preserve.

What this description of Beech Island doesn't say is that this is where the Godfather of Soul and the man who owned the song 'Please, Please, Please', yep, you guessed it - James Brown - lived at the end of his life.

 

I wonder if James Brown had any crinums in his garden.  Does anyone know?  I'm not exactly seeing him as the gardening type. 

 

~~~~~

 

 
 
 

Now the funny thing about this trip is that I brought my camera as an afterthought - I didn't think I could come up with anything new from last year, especially since last year I stopped (and therefore Jeff was forced to stop) and took photographs of just about everything.  Plus, as you've all read a million times now, I'm in a dead-camera-depression, with my Nikon only working on one very limited setting (and that one not being in the macro range).

 

But, as hopefully you can tell - I was wrong about there being nothing new - what was I thinking?  There were two young girls playing in water next to Regina's Disco Lounge - an image that looks to me like the perfect summer day for young girls lucky enough to have someone in their lives that likes spending hot summer afternoons surrounded by crinums.

~~~~~

 

 

There were dogs.  Cute dogs.  Extremely cut dogs - like this sweet little black and white dog whose name was Sugarbush and who escaped the heat by digging a little hole under the metal rocking couch.

 

Dogs are smart that way.

 

Unfortunately, if a person crawled under a metal couch and dug a hole on a hot Sunday afternoon they'd probably raise eyebrows and phone calls would be made and I'm guessing no one would take their photograph and call them sweet.

 

People are dumb that way.

 

~~~~~

 

 

It's nice walking around a garden, someone else's garden, and finding little surprises.

 

Yes - planting a garden sure helps, doesn't it?

 

(A relatively unrelated aside:  Yes, it does help.  But during stressful periods - sometimes a garden came become stressful - especially during hot summers with insufficient rain when everything else in your life has been turned upside-down.  Is that terrible, for me, an obsessed gardener, to admit?  Am I soon to be one of those people digging a hole under a metal rocking couch in order to escape the heat?  Is it time for an Airstream intervention?)

 

~~~~~ 

 

 

This is Jenks Farmer and Bob Waites.

 

They, along with Tom Hall, are the Lushlife folks.

 

They're good people.

 

~~~~~

 

 
This is a barn door.

 

Isn't that color fantastic?

 

It's a good barn door. 

  

~~~~~
 

 
 

Now, speaking of good people - I met someone new this trip.  This is Brian Gandy of Nutsedge Farms and Garden City Organics.  Behind him is his organic plot.  I had an interesting time with Brian, since I am somewhat desperate to figure out how to grow yellow squash organically along the South Carolina coastline.  I did well for a year or two - and now, it's dreadful.

 

I love yellow squash in the summertime.  Yellow squash IS summer.  And I don't want to sprinkle sevin dust on my plants once a week.  He gave me some tips - the two key ones are to (1) start seeds in peat cups first, to give them a jump start in a disease-free soil, and (2) plant your squash in the poorest soil that you have.

 

Good tips!  He said I could even try it now.  It's a plan (except not - I'll explain another day).

 

Okay, so back to Brian.  He grows these great organic vegetables at Nutsedge Farms - which ends up being with the Lushlife folks.  Here's the description of Nutsedge Farms from his blog:

 

Nutsedge Farm is a little piece of Land in Beech Island South Carolina, sharing pasture in production with Lushlife Nurseries. We use Organic Methods to control pests and problems. Nutsedge Grass is our most voracious weed and the namesake of the farm because we can grow a lot of it. To manage weed pressure, we have started experimenting with solarization, no-till, and heavy mulching methods. We use drip irrigation on most crops in production. We actively cover-crop and amend soil with compost to help build soil tilth. Our Bee yard is a few miles down the road in the swamp by the river. The Nutsedge Farm Blog is also an outlet for our other home experimentation and community outreach. Check out the GCO blog at gardencityorganics.blogspot.com.

So it seems that Brian is busy!

 

He and Kate Lee have founded a business in Augusta, Ga called Garden City Organics:

 

Garden City Organics is located in Downtown Augusta GA. Kate Lee and Brian Gandy founded the business in September 2008 (formerly Oasis Garden). GCO Specializes in Organic Vegetable and Plant production. The shop has become a hub for local organics gardeners and food lovers alike. The GCO CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription program features produce from our own Nutsedge Farm and other local and regional farmers. We currently offer local Grass Fed Beef and Dairy along with other local specialty items. 
 

(And might I add that these guys suffer for the sake of their jobs?)

 

~~~~~

 

 

 

 

So here's a first:  a fresh fig milkshake!  When Jeff and I were walking around the garden - we noticed that the figs were ripe, and we couldn't resist snagging a few.  Then, before you knew it, Jenks thought he'd make a fig milkshake, and he did - and our mutual consensus was 'more fig'.  The vanilla in the protein mix that he made it with was good - but it over-powered the fig just a bit - so next year, more figs in the fig milkshakes (here I am, after only two visits, and I'm being demanding...).

 

Oh, and Jenks has a blog over at Planters Place.  I find his blog useful, because he lists things that you can still do - things you can still plant and grow - with each post.  In his most recent post he mentioned a video on his blog - a video about a visit to a friend's wonderful vegetable garden.  I thought I'd share it:

 

~~~~~

 

 

Okay, we're winding down now.

 

Here's a glimpse into Lushlife's crinum workshop:  think 'north pole' but 95 degrees and humid.  no elves.  no Santa and Mrs. Claus.  and with miniature donkeys instead of reindeer.

 

Okay, okay, bad analogy.

 

Think a fun place where crinums are prepared for shipping out to customers.

 

~~~~~

 

 

 

I'll end with a sweet little miniature donkey named 'Casper' (she was just a little thing last year) and with a piece of a poem from Wong Phui Nam that seems an appropriate way to end a rambling post describing a day when I thought I'd find nothing new to photograph or write about during a visit to a place filled with crinums. 

 

iii

With such violence as shattered walls of rain
when the sky’s torpor broke, heavy for its slate,
the storm drags up a broken afternoon
of cowed trees and houses, and, from the fields,
the mud invades our doorsteps. The light slants,
splayed against the tree tops of the old estate,
and some of the trees put out tentative boughs of glory.
At the hilltop the house stands, shadows
etching their intents across bare faces,
touching the fringes only of vague ambiguities.
As afternoon heightens, the heart surges
with scatters of swallows soaring into deep sky.
In full flowering by the gate, the crinum lilies fountain
inconclusive into the after-light, when I withdraw
to be indoors, the heart to be within the body’s house.

Comments

[Les]

Even without the backroads, salvation billboards and with the camera problems - it sounds like a great South Carolina road trip full of interesting folk.

[Blackswampgirl Kim]

I don't think it's bad for you to admit that the garden was stressful. In 2008, when I was mulling kicking out my boyfriend, it was both my refuge and a huge source of stress. In 2009, when I was starting to date a new boyfriend, it was stressful because I knew that I was neglecting it for so long. This year, it's still a little stressful because I'm still "fixing" the last two years... but we have a much better releationship.

By the way, I agree that dogs are smarter than humans, in many ways!

[Elephant's Eye]

That poem is magnificent.

[Jenks]

One time I went to James Brown's birthday party with five friends, in white a mini-van. There were not many white mini-vans there. But it was a roaring good time in which the man preformed, at 67, like a teenager.

I should have wrapped up a crinum for his present. Maybe, I should name one for him?

What's a good crinum/godfather name?