Happy New Year! Our weather has been all over the place, especially with a VERY windy, rainy end to December and start to January, leaving us with lots of work on clearing our gardens from spent perennials and fallen leaves. Our gardens are budding with excitement, which makes us hold our breath a little since we're still probably due a frost or two. The gardens this time of year are a great reminder of the excitement to come and the beauty of the present gardens- more textures of green with pops of color from berries and hellebores! The underground perennials and bulbs are as busy working as the buds above surface- a lovely reminder that progress isn't always so obvious at first.
Like many of you, we’re busily taking down all of our holiday decorations and boxing them up for this year- Wait what?! Wildly enough, Candlelight decorations start being created in less than 6 months from now! We’re also using this time to get organized and ready for a busy year to come. We hope you join us often to see our progress!
If you're looking for a way to get out of the weather for a little bit while still having gardens on the mind- we have the answer for you! We kick off our 2024 Garden Lecture Series on January 13th, 2024 with an encore showing of “The Gardener.” Shortly before his passing at the age of 86, influential gardener and plantsman Frank Cabot recounts his personal quest for perfection at Les Quatre Vents, his twenty-acre English style garden and summer estate that was opened to a film crew for the first time ever in 2009. Nestled amongst the rolling hills of the Charlevoix County in Quebec, Les Quatre Vents has become one of the world’s foremost private gardens. Created over 75 years and three generations, it is an enchanted place of beauty and surprise, a horticultural masterpiece of the 21st century. Through the words of Cabot and his family, and with the participation of gardening experts and writers, the film looks back at this remarkable man’s personal story and the artistic philosophy that gave birth to one of the greatest gardens in the world. This lecture begins at 10:30 a.m. in Cullman Performance Hall at the North Carolina History Center with a suggested donation of $5.
If you’re looking for a New Year's Resolution and way to give back to your community, consider joining us as a garden volunteer! We are looking for volunteers for pruning, planting, raking, mulching, watering, weeding. It’s a great way to learn some gardening tips and tricks, especially for our area! If that sounds like your cup of tea, please contact me at hadley.cheris@dncr.nc.gov.
We hope to see you soon! Happy Gardening,
Hadley Merizalde Cheris, Tryon Palace Director of Facilities and Gardens
Annuals
- Artemisia Sea Salt, SunFern Olympia
- Batchelor’s Buttons (Centaurea cyanus) blue, black, purple
- Dianthus- Super Parfait Raspberry, Zing Rose; Jolt Pink Magic; Jolt Cherry; Jolt Purple; Venti Parfait Blueberry Eye
- Dusty Miller ‘Silver Dust’
- Euphorbia “Starblast”, “Starblast Pink”
- Flowering Kale “Redbor”, “Crane Red”, “Black Magic”
- Gazania ‘Pink Shades’, ‘Colorado’, ‘Sunny Side Up’, ‘New Magic’, ‘New Day Mix Tiger’, ‘New Day Yellow’, ‘Enorma Mix’
- Johnny-jump-up (Viola tricolor) purple and yellow
- Mustard “Japanese Giant Red” (Brassica juncea)
- Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) Snaptastic Mix- various; Snapshot White; Sonnet White
- Stipa ‘Pony Tails’
- Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) Telstar Mix; red, white, pink
- Violas: Color Max Mix Lemonberry; Sorbet XP Spring Select
Perennials
- Algerian Iris (Iris ungularia) blue
- Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea montana) blue
- Bath’s Pink (Dianthus gratianopolitanus) pink
- Bearded Iris "Immortality" white, reblooming
- Bears foot Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus) yellowish
- Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia) pink/white
- Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) white
- Carnation (Dianthus sp.) various
- Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia numularia) yellow foliage
- Creeping Speedwell (Veronica umbrosa) blue
- Daffodils, Jonquils (Narcissus sp.) yellow, white
- Dusty Miller- gray foliage, yellow flowers
- Lenten Rose (Helleborus X orientalis) pink, white, purple
- Moondance Hybrid Lenten Rose (Helleborus x iburgensis ‘Moondance’) white
- Leopard plant (Farfugium japonicum) yellow
- Ornamental Grasses (Various)
- Paperwhite Narcissus (Narcissus papyraceus) white
- Poet’s Laurel (Danae racemes) orange berries
- Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) red, white, pink
Trees and Shrubs
- Glossy Abelia (Abelia grandiflora) pink, white
- Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) purple berries on bare stems
- Camellia (Camellia japonica) cultivars:
‘Pink Perfection’ pink, double
‘Professor Sargent’ deep rose, double
‘Debutante’ clear, light pink
‘Lady Clare’ carmine rose, semi-double
‘Alba plena’ white with pink cast
‘Lovely Surprise’ pink
‘Dr. Tinsley’ pink, semi-double
- Sasanqua Camellia (Camellia sasanqua sp.) white & pink
- Camellia (Camellia sasanqua ‘Setsugekka’) white
- Camellia (Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’) red
- Chinese Mahonia (Mahonia fortunei) yellow
- Japanese Fatsia (Fatsia japonica) white
- Flowering Apricot (Prunus mume) pink
- Fragrant Osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans) yellow **Smells AMAZING**
- Fragrant Wintersweet (Chimonanthus nitens) cream
- Fragrant Winter Sweet (Chimonanthus praecox) yellow
- Hollies (Ilex sp.): Yaupon (I. vomitoria) red, yellow; Winterberry (I. verticillata) red; Dahoon (I. cassine) red; Dwarf Burford Holly (Ilex cornuta) red berries
- Leatherleaf Viburnum (Viburnum rhytidophyllum) white
- Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) cream
- Nandina (Nandina domestica) red, yellow
- Oak-leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) dried blooms on bare stems
- Pomegranate (Punica granata) reddish fruit
- Tea plant (Camellia sinenses) white
- Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorium) yellow
- Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) white
- Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) yellow to reddish brown
Kitchen Garden:
- Beets, carrots, lettuce, mustards, kale, parsley, Swiss chard, spinach, arugula, fava beans, leeks, artichoke, cardoon, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, collards, mints, oregano, thyme, salad burnet
- Cover crops for overwintering.