A Fragrant Welcome To Magnolia Visitors
I am enjoying a lovely camellia on my desk at home these days. As yet I haven’t determined the variety, but I know that it’s an old favorite because it has been growing in the ancient greenhouse of an old mansion that now serves as a church parsonage. As I look at it, I am impressed with the beauty of a single flower in a small vase. Now that Winter has come and garden flowers are gone, I have no blossoms to take to my shut-in friends, but I can buy a single flower for a pittance, and what a difference it will make to my sick friend. Bouquets are lovely to have, but a single flower can say as much.
Every great nation is proud of its heritages, and one of our traditions is the beautiful and extensive gardens of the South. Each Spring thousands of visitors from all parts of the country, and from several foreign countries, flock to admire their incomparable magnificence.
Outstanding, perhaps, are the Magnolia Gardens, 15 miles from Charleston, S. C., famous for their vast azalea. plantings. John Galsworthy referred to Magnolia as “the world’s most beautiful garden,” and Baedeker, in his guidebook, even before the turn of the century, listed three “musts” for visitors to America: Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls und Magnolia Gardens.
Its illustrious neighbor, Middleton, only three miles away, is celebrates over 250 years of the completion of the famed terraces which were constructed under the supervision of Henry Middleton, President of the Continental Congress. The South has many other gardens, large and small, of world-wide acclaim. Through special pilgrimages or visits when on our way to and from Vactionlands farther south, whether it be our first or 20th time, we can all help to maintain this noble tradition. What better way is there to help preserve them and to find peace and solace to gird ourselves in these trying times.
Sometimes plant names are a hug-a-boo to gardeners because they are long and hard to pronounce. Naturally, I am referring to the first and second name that all plants have - the generic designation and the specific form. However, variety names are usually easy for all of us and often most appropriate to the flower they are assigned.
Immediately I think of an old time favorite geranium called Happy Thought. It has dainty bright red single flowers and distinctive zonal markings on its soft green foliage. This old favorite blooms in the poor soil of my dooryard garden from June until frost and I give away hundreds of cuttings which root easily.
When my friends ask the name, I simply say Happy Thought and the response is always a pleasant smile which means to me something more than thank you.
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