Taking Time to Enjoy the Garden

“This January, I have added a new resolution to the old promises to get behind my garden sins; the new one is to take time to enjoy my garden. It has been a long time since I sat in it with a book that I didn’t read, and never gave a thought to weeds or watering or plants overgrown by other plants. I have always found it hard to reconcile a resolution to do nothing with one to do everything and do it ahead of time, but I used to find it easy to put my sins and negligences out of my mind. This year I am going to try to recover the talent for leaving things undone.”

Elizabeth Lawrence

January 1, 1961

the Charlotte Observer

Ever since I initially read this passage, I loved it.  It took several readings for me to really get it, and I still force myself to slow down and drink in every word.  As we find ourselves thrust into the hectic chaos of the holiday season, perhaps Elizabeth’s words will help us all stop and take a breath, and make some much-needed time to just sit and chill with nature. 

So at long last, I am finally making the time to sit, chill with nature, and write another post.  How amazingly busy (in a good way) it has been here in the Lawrence Garden!  I have kept my schedule so filled with reorganizing garden areas, research, our incredible volunteer group (the Keepers of the Garden), and several fantastic workshops; I’ve left myself no time to fill you all in on the garden goings-on.  And there has been a whole lot going on!  

If you've visited the Lawrence Garden since August, you may have noticed a new face helping me out. We were lucky enough to have a co-op intern from the Horticulture program at Central Piedmont Community College, April Ryan.  April has helped me out with many aspects of the garden in her 4 months here. Although her internship officially ended December 4th, she will continue to volunteer some of her time here in the Lawrence Garden.  April has just been awarded an American Hemerocallis Society scholarship, and has been named President of the CPCC Horticulture Club for 2013.

April (far left) taught part of a propagation workshop in the garden.

And now on to some plant highlights from the garden...

Galanthus are coming up and blooming in the back woodland.  I’ve spread out several congested clumps over a larger area in the hopes of creating more of a show in future years.  A vibrant patch of sweet tiny Crocus laevigatus ‘Fontenayi’ in front of the house decided it was time to shine last week, even though their “normal" bloom time is February.  (I'm always amazed at how plants never read their manuals!)  

One of my all-time favorite plants is the Chimonanthus praecox (wintersweet), whose relatively small flowers permeate the entire Lawrence Garden with their intoxicating fragrance... especially when the late afternoon warms them.  I routinely cut branches for Elizabeth’s desk to admire the delicate flowers and sweet perfume up close.

Chimonanthus praecox

Last year, the Algerian iris, Iris unguicularis, made its fleeting debut on December 16th; I am sitting on tinter-hooks eagerly awaiting the first bloom's arrival this year.  I have seen it in other gardens... Ann Armstrong’s was blooming in late October!  Hopefully we will see a bloom here before too long.  This is Elizabeth Lawrence’s original plant... still under the kitchen window where she planted it so long ago.  I find this kind of perennial longevity absolutely amazing, and it’s part of the unseen depth of this garden.

Wing Haven is a magical place to visit any time of year, but especially in the winter.  The Clarkson Gardens are filled with birds galore, and the Lawrence Garden is bejeweled with blooms... each more precious now than any in the spring.  Come see us... take time to enjoy the gardens of Wing Haven!  

Yours in Dirt,

Andrea Sprott

Spring in Full Swing

Magnolia veitchii

"The special charm of a Southern spring is its earliness; it is as long drawn out as it is sweet."

 A Southern Garden 

What a winter it was in the Lawrence Garden!  (I say "was" with great optimism)  Temperatures were generally colder for much longer than I remember in recent years.  Although the extended winter chill set blooms back anywhere from two weeks to a month, with the recent prolonged spring warmth, flowers are popping out absolutely everywhere!  One can only hope this year's gorgeous Southern spring is long drawn out.

One of the latest discoveries in the garden: an entire stone landing that was hidden under 3-4" of pathway gravel!  It is amazing how time changes a garden.  Mostly, we think of change in terms of plant material, not in hard-scape.  Once I uncovered and relaid the landing, it made perfect sense to be there.  Yet more testimony to the success of Elizabeth's keen design skill.  Each time I find something new (to me), I get a deeper sense of the meaning of this garden.  It's as if Elizabeth is with me, understanding the wonder and delight that this garden brings.  


Here are a few pictures of the lovely floral display in the Lawrence Garden over the past few weeks.  Join me for the April Garden Walk to discover many more spring treasures!


Happy Gardening!
Andrea

Narcissus 'Tahiti'

Camellia 'Freedom Bell'

Narcissus 'Barrett Browning'

Crocus vernus 'Flower Record'

Iris unguicularis

Trillium cuneatum

The Warmth of January in the Garden

The first Galanthus elwesii of the season

"Sometimes, in January, I find something new in bloom every time I go into the garden; even when there is no new flower, I find a tender leaf of hope."

Elizabeth Lawrence

Gardens in Winter

Happy winter greetings!  I am thrilled to be Wing Haven’s new Lawrence Garden Associate.  Having known this garden for many years, I never truly took the time to visit with it as I do now.  This is a most intimate garden.  I am humbled by the mastery and success of the garden's design.  Elizabeth Lawrence was so ahead of her time in her plant collections and trials; many plants she grew here sixty years ago are still rare in the trade!  Part of what we hope to accomplish here is propagation of many of these special plants, as well as trialing new plants from around the world, to continue Elizabeth’s philosophy of using the garden as a laboratory.  I so look forward to sharing  with you everything we learn along the way.

Each winter day that I am here in the Lawrence garden, I find myself searching, almost feverishly, for some delightful discovery; spotting a fresh tiny bloom of Galanthus elwesii (snowdrops), catching the intoxicating fragrance of the Chimonanthus praecox (winter-sweet), or perhaps unearthing a stone laid decades ago by Miss Lawrence.  With each discovery, I get a rush of excitement and wonder.  Even on the harshest days, when the crisp winter winds whip through several layers of clothing, and my hands and feet are so chilled they are almost numb, my heart is filled with the warm joy of uncovering the many secrets this garden tirelessly gives.  

Come discover for yourself the magic that is Wing Haven Gardens!  Visit our website for all the information about our fantastic Winter Lecture Series, with classes starting next week and continuing through the end of March.

Happy Gardening!

Andrea Sprott

Aesculus parviflora seed update!

On July 27th, I posted about Elizabeth Lawrence's experience with Buckeye seed from June of 1962.  Her luck almost 50 years ago did not produce much by way of seed, thanks to little critters, but this year luck has been on our side!  I've been watching the few remaining pods and this week they have split, some even falling to the ground.  I collected a handful and planted them right away.  A few more remain on the tree and my hope is to collect them too.  They are really just spectacular! 

Stop by and visit the Aster tartaricus that is just opening and soon, the Helianthus angustifolius will be too!

Yours in the garden,

Katie Mullen

Singing Flames

Jim Minick, author of The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family will be giving a reading at Wing Haven on Oct 30, at 10:30.

(For details see Fall & Winter Adult Programs on our main website)



During the summer, when I sleep with windows wide open, the birds rouse and wake me from that other world of sleep. The scarlet tanager starts the chorus around 5:30, then the towhee and indigo bunting, the cardinal and crow. I lay in that waking moment, my own body half in both worlds, drowsy with the journey of pushing myself into the gray dawn.

But the birds are good pushers in this moment, especially the wrens. In the garage, a pair of Carolina wrens has started their second nest of the year, twigs filling a corner shelf. They dart in and out through the open window, singing from the window ledge. And as they wake us with their “tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea” song, this pair reminds me of Elizabeth and Eddie Clarkson and their great adventure at Wing Haven. There, like our pair, Carolina wrens entered the human dwelling to make their own.

House wrens with babies also fill a birdhouse near my bedroom window. Papa house wren rouses me more forcefully than any alarm clock. And there’s no button to turn him off. So like it or not, up I get.

During the blueberry season, though, I get up the fastest when I hear the crows. I jump out of bed and wake up Jake and Little B, our shepherd mixed breeds that both know the word “Crow.” I whisper with urgency, “Crow, puppies, CROW,” and we all three race to the door. As I put on shoes, the dogs whine with expectations, jumping up on their back feet. Then I fling open the door and we run the hundred yards through flower beds towards the blueberry bushes. The crows, with their beaks full of a berry breakfast, fly off as soon as they hear the door, but still, the dogs and I run and yell and bark and chase these dark creatures with their magical wings that carry them away.

Even though they eat our blueberries, the crows still light up the morning for me as they soar and caw and cavort. These birds remind me of a favorite image from Mary Norton Kratt’s A Bird in the House, the book about Wing Haven. In the chapter about wrens, Kratt writes, “It was not at all unusual for the Carolina wren to light on the candles in the dining room….” I love that image of the tiny brown body flitting across the elegant white table cloth, its black pebble of an eye shining. It lands on a candle, and in that moment, it becomes a flame that fills the house with song.

Lycoris sp.

"In midsummer, when heat and drought have drained all color from leaf and blossom - in spite of all of the city water that is poured on them - the surprise lily rises mysteriously from the ground. One day there is nothing, and the next there is a tall, pale stem that grows to about three feet and then produces, at the top, a circle of flowers of the most luminous and delicate pink. The surprise lily is not really a lily. It is a lycoris, as lovely as the nymph it was named for, and belongs to the amaryllis family."

Elizabeth Lawrence
August 18, 1957

Fifty three years later, almost to the day, the lycoris are here again. The garden has been showing different species the last two weeks, and the one pictured above is the latest to emerge. Truly a surprise in such hot, dry weather we are having right now.

See you soon in the garden,
Katie Mullen

Aesculus parviflora

"The dwarf bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, is not really small flowered. The specific name applies only to the individual flowers. The inflorescence is an impressive slender spike, like a foxtail lily, from twelve to sixteen inches long, with apricot-tipped stamens standing out beyond the white flowers. They bloom punctually the first part of June, almost always beginning on the eigth... In spite of the fact that the flowers are so plentiful, there are very few buckeyes, and those few disappear before I can gather them. Last summer I found out where they go. I caught a chipmunk lugging one into his tunnel. Lacking seed, propagation is by division."

Elizabeth Lawrence
June 24, 1962

The Buckeye has long since flowered and now there are a few remaining seed pods. I thought it was interesting that Elizabeth Lawrence made note of the disappearing buckeyes and I believe her thought remains true today. I'm sure in a few days the handful that are left will be gone too. Summer is moving quickly and other things are passing by including the daylily, Cestrum, and Rose Campion. However, the Eupatorium, Physostegia, Chelone and Lobelia will be in full color before long.

Come see our end of summer flowers soon,

Katie Mullen