Savannah Garden Diary

Wilmington Island Garden Club and allies protest the destruction of 2 mature live oaks by Chatham County, Georgia. The oaks are the first two in a glorious, mile-long canopy of live oaks, each more than 100 years old, that meet over Johnny Mercer Blvd. on Wilmington Island. At the zoning hearing for this site’s development, the site plan showed that the oaks would not be harmed, and all seemed well until a notice of traffic disruption to fell the trees appeared in the paper.

The police, standing dangerously in the road, are arguing with the protesters. About a dozen armed policemen confronting about 15 little old ladies in tennis shoes looked pretty silly, as you can imagine.

The police said, “Move.”

We said, “We’re on a public right-of-way, not private property, and we won’t move.”

Possibly because 2 television cameras were rolling, the police drifted indecisively away to the other side of the road. All this took place at a fairly major intersection with traffic lights. The miracle is that nobody was killed. The inattentive driving as people peered to read the signs and then honked and waved encouragement was a sight to behold. We certainly have the support of the islanders.

One contractor stopped by to chat and told us how contractors and developers circumvent the zoning laws and ordinances of the Chatham County Commission. No surprise, because it’s exactly the same method we civilians use: show the planning board an acceptable plan, get it approved, and then do exactly what you want because never, in the 20+ years I have lived on the island has the county ever enforced building codes, zoning laws, sign ordinances, etc. It doesn’t matter how many rules and regulations you promulgate, if no one enforces them, you might as well not have them.

We stayed until the tree-cutting permit expired, which means the trees are still standing, although not, I imagine for long.

I told a colleague what we were planning and he said, “Oh Bobby Chu owns that property, doesn’t he? In that case, you’re toast. He’s a big contributor to the county commissioners.” As if I didn’t know it.

We got great coverage on 3 TV stations and in the newspaper (with photo) and the Wilmington Island Garden Club gained a little stature in the community, but I’ll bet the trees are toast.

Next day, here are Garden Club members tending some of the 135 live oaks and crape myrtles we planted on Johnny Mercer lo these many years ago. These were to beautify the island for the Olympics. In exchange for the thousands of dollars and hours of volunteer labor we put into this, the county promised that it would complete the bike paths around the island. 12 years later, I need hardly say that the bike paths are incomplete. The only thing the county has planted on the island in the last 25 years is half a dozen hollies, which they put in the wrong place and which are now merely dead or nearly dead.

Ah me, what can you say? The rich get richer and we the people get screwed.

Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ is in flower, the pretty little thing. Although the young leaves are a gorgeous purple, the color fades by midsummer in our heat.

On I-81, somewhere in Virginia (at least I think it is Virginia), there is a straight stretch of road between hillside cow pastures where they have planted forsythia in the median. One year, the forsythia flowered at the same time as redbuds bordering the forest above the pasture. The complementary colors were breathtaking.

Prunus mume ‘Pegggy Clarke’ is in full bloom in back and half in bloom in part shade in front of the house. I’ve always thought PG was a rather virulent purple. It looks purple when you drive past the one in Forsyth Park. But this doesn’t look so bad. Maybe it’s not really ‘Peggy Clarke.’ ‘Bonita’ is a softer pink, so maybe this is it. How confusing. Can’t remember where I bought this one. The ‘Bonita’ is Woodlanders, and I think they usually get their varieties right.

A few days ago, I noticed there was a cluster of blooms on the Lady Banks. This morning there is another. I suppose spasms of warm weather are the cause. Someone should tell her she’s a couple of months early. The swamp jessamine and honeysuckle aren’t even in flower yet.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden says, “Prunus mume should be pruned after flowering; cut half of the long shoots back by one-half to two-thirds so that each year you will have both encouraged long shoots on which more flowers will be produced in the future and still saved enough flower buds for the coming winter. ” I realize I have probably just done it wrong on my tree in back by cutting back all the long, non-flowering shoots by half. We shall see.

This is a nvg photo of the Minneola that I planted 5 years ago under the mistaken impression that it was a Meyer’s Lemon. Last year it bore 2 fruit, one of which fell off before ripe, and this is what happened this year.

Also last year for the first time, I gave my citrus a little tlc (pruning and citrus spikes), impressed by the quality of Vicky and Fred’s trees, which seem to give them oranges and lemons for about 6 months of the year. Vicky says they need one good soak in the spring, a little fertilizer, and that’s about it.

The fruit of this thing is very bitter. Fred drinks the juice, but I am not so hardy. I plan English-type marmalade, which is really made with Seville oranges. (I have photos of orange trees in the streets of Sevilla, but without fruit, since we were there in October.) I just hope we don’t have a heavy frost to mess up the fruit while we are away for Christmas.

The citrus book says Minneola is a tangelo and that tangelos are hybrids between various mandarins and grapefruits.

Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) in all its winter glory.

I love those translucent berries. And so will the cedar waxwings when they (with any luck) descend on us in March.

I am rather amazed at how much this tree has grown since planted as a weedy little thing in 2005. Not that it started out weedy, but it had been grown as a bush and I wanted a tree, so I pruned it ruthlessly. Its “trunk” is still an extremely odd shape, but it is straightening out slowly.

I realize that impatience is one of my besetting sins. When I want a tree, I want it now, so I don’t wait to look for one that would be more suitable. The only Yaupon holly left at Miles Nursery was this shrub one, so I took it and now have to wrestle with high-heading it so it doesn’t block the view of the marsh. The same thing happened with the Chionanthus virginicus (ginica?) in the front yard.