Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour part 1

Last Saturday we did the Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour, well 10 of the 13 gardens. The gardens were amazing and so was the other area gardens. My favorite was garden number 1, it utilized a small space and made for a beautiful garden that was done by the owners themselves.

Here is an hardy orchid from garden #1.

I think this was the neighbors gate at garden #1, the yards linked beautifully.

This was the deck with a beautiful arbor at garden #1. The girl is from a local high school one of many recruited as an "Azalea Belle" each garden had 2-3 belles.

The potting shed at garden #1, lovely!

 

Garden #1 had a beautifully bordered bed of yellow pansies.

The front door with really nice planters at garden #2

Nice dripping pot under azaleas at garden #2.

Small gazebo at garden #7

Garden #4 had a really nice border and Azalea Belle.

Garden #4 nice fountain and Azalea Belle.

The most awesome potting shed I have ever seen, great touches as seen in the three photos below.

Garden gate from garden #5

Garden #7 had a handmade trellis with coral honey suckle and Lady Banks roses planted together. Really nice combination as both bloom at the same time.

 One of the borders at garden #7, loved the recycled doors!

The swing with fountain at garden #7

The fire pit with fiddle playing azalea belle made this garden visit extra nice with the live music.

The home owner done gardens were the ones I liked the most. We visited one moneyed garden where it was obvious the owners probably did not know which end of a shovel to use. Everything about the house was custom and the garden followed the same suit, being built by the builder or the builders landscaper.

Occoneechee April Nature Walk.

On Sunday meg and I took a nature walk at Occoneechee State Preserve. The Carolina Butterfly Society was having a mid day field trip and we had plans on going to the Seeds Pie Social so we went on our walk before the club got there.

The two ponds at the preserve were re done a few years ago and it still looks bad habitat wise that is. We decided to first look for dragonflies and damselflies in the ponds. It was a good day as we found about 20 dragonflies and 2 damselflies emerging. Most were just out of reach of the camera but I managed to get a few shots.

Freshly emerged damselfly and exuvia.

Not sure but this emerging dragonfly might be a Blue Dasher, I have been wrong before.

 Not quite out of the exuvia yet. This is the same kind of dragonfly as in the previous photo.

Life outside of the pond begins!

A female Skimming Bluet, Enallagna geminatum I found on the hillside well above the ponds and the Eno River.

One of our best finds of the day! This is a Common Roadside-Skipper in Orange County I have only found these along our driveway and it has been 4-5 years since we had one. Three were seen, not at all common in the Piedmont of North Carolina.

Brown Elfin on Blueberry.

Occoneechee is know for the unusual population of Brown Elfins, some think they were displaced on Occoneechee Mountain as far back as the ice age. We counted 34 Brown Elfins a new state high count!

Female Pipevine Swallowtail, she posed for about 2 seconds for this photo.

May Apples stole the show down along the Eno River. I have not taken a close look at these in many years. What have I been thinking? We have them blooming in in our ravine also.

Iris verna, these were all long the power lines out in the sunlight.

Cranesbill Geranium found mixing with the May Apples. We have a light blue version of these blooming along our road right now.

This is for Neil Jean! Pinkster Azalea, we saw a patch of these over the river on a cliff that was 15 x 50 foot likely the largest native patch I have ever seen of them. Needed a canoe to get a good photo of them though.

100th Post Spider Azalea

Yes it is hard to believe my 100th posting on this blog.

I forgot to show you a plant I'd never seen before that we found in several masses at Sarah P Duke Gardens a few weeks ago. It is called Spider Azalea, Rhododendron macrosepalum 'Linearifolium.'

This azalea was in the garden along with the camellia plantings. The blooms are not showy like most of the other azaleas. The form of the entire plant makes this a cool plant if you ask me. Below is a poor photo of what the mature bush looks like.

Spider Azalea was introduced from Japan to the west back in 1980. I was kind of shocked when we found the tag displaying the plant name as an azalea, it never crossed my mind this could be an azalea.

I'll leave you with this photo of Dot the Wonder Dog and Grumpy the one-eyed cat. Dot is Meg's daughter's dog and Grumpy is my very affectionate cat. They met just a few years ago. Grumpy would sit where he could keep his one eye on both the dogs at all times. These days Grumpy rules the animal kingdom here.

Finally First Frost/Duke Gardens

Finally on December 01 we get a frost. Did not even expect it, both of us watched the weather last night. Meg had to scrape her windshield too.

I'm sitting here waiting for Chapel Hill inspections to tell me they have not lost my building permit application I submitted 3 weeks ago(normally 2 weeks is long to get a permit). Just heard from inspections I did not file for a zoning compliance permit hence the reason my building permit has not been processed.

I've got a 14 x 30 deck to tear down and replace and a 14 x 20 screen porch to build on it in the most lovely gardens. The good news is I'll be able to see all of her hellebores as they bloom and she'll be giving me some babies. The bad news is it is now winter and the days are short and if I'm lucky I can work a week out of every two weeks outside.


Our last zucchini plant covered in frost glowing in the morning light. I pulled the last two tiny zucchini this past Saturday. Done for I'm sure. We are expected to get 28 degrees on the weekend.


Leaves frozen to my windshield.


Glazed and all swirly the roof to my little car.


OK so now let me take you back to Sara P Duke Gardens. Here is the latest garden, not open yet so I'm not sure what it is. I posted this for Dave as I'm sure he would like the architectural details in the construction of this. It appears as if they have built this using 1 inch square pegs instead of nails.

This fence surrounds the entire garden and because of the slope the fence allows one a wonderful view of the gardens largest pond. I liked the way the fence steps down the hillside.

If you look closely at the photo above you will see that all the lumber is custom cut cedar(cedar sells for a lot here in the eastern US). This fence is likely 400 to 500 foot long in all. Actually in all of the gardens 55 acres and 5 miles of paths it is the only fence inside the gardens.

Peeking over the fence here is the main feature. They did a great job of blending this into the garden, I'm sure at great expense.

Above and below is the water lily exhibit, bad timing for the photos. I just wanted to show them to you. They have weddings here a lot. The day we visited they were having a small memorial service and burying ashes in the terrace gardens and a wedding inside the main building.





Here are just two of the bridges in the gardens. The bridge above was tucked away in a part of the gardens I'd never explored. The bridge below had a circular sitting area which I though was pretty cool. One of these days I'll do a post on just the bridges of Duke Gardens.





Here are two of the Encore Azaleas I found blooming in the garden last week.
Above is Autumn Twist and below might be Autumn Sangria. Both were huge masses about 4-5 foot tall. I still have a hard time with seeing azaleas blooming in the fall it just does not seem right.


A word about the Belize trip I was supposed to be going on tomorrow, postponed until the third week in January. I'm going with a photography buddy, meg is staying home with the dogs and cats.

Spring Beauty's

Winter has about one day left here in Durham North Carolina, we hope anyway. Still some snow on the ground, but Thursday it'll reach 65 degrees and then into the 70s into Monday.....Yahoo! Here are some wildflower picks I found for you enjoy!Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica This spring wonder should already be out in damp areas nearby here. I'm not sure that we get them in my woods. To find a huge patch of these in the spring is what its all about!
Variegated Milkweed, Asclepias variegata some might call it White Milkweed. We have a huge (what I call huge anyway) patch of them along the road by the mailbox. In fact I know of no where else in NC that there are so many of these plants in one place. I've trekked a lot in NC, most of the wild places anyway.
This is not so local though common in places like Croatan National Forest in coastal NC. It is Dwarf Azalea, Rhododendron atlanticum. Grows to about one foot and the aroma when blooming is wonderful. Once I found a small patch with 6-8 Palamedes Swallowtails on them. Can't wait to get out there in the forest and wander about with my camera, there are lots of wild orchids and endless pitcher plants to wade into.