North Carolina Woods, Florida Style

Have to be honest here. Despite loving the 365-days a year gardening and the sunny winters, I'm not a tropical girl at heart.  I love my native North Carolina and Scotland roots. And hiking through the woods and mountains, whether it's North Carolina, Scotland, or Florida, is my ultimate pleasure.  There's something about foggy mornings, refreshing rain, and the fragrance of forest decay that re-energizes me.

Hiking along Rufus Morgan Trailhead, Franklin, NC.

So, in my backyard I have a pseudo-forest growing. I have substituted subtropical ornamental plants, shrubs, and trees, that give the ambiance of walking a Smokies’ mountaintop.  The landscape grows without me (because I don’t have time) and when I get a chance to walk outside, I love seeing the surprise of flowers and greenery especially after a few days of rain or even during a misty sprinkling. 

I almost missed my surprise this week though.  Blooming through the thickness of Florida native pipestem, Agarista populifolia, loropetalum, and candelabra flowers of Whitefeldia elongata,  the mountain sprite flowers of toad lilies, Tricyrtis ‘Dark Beauty’ have been blooming for awhile and I didn’t notice them for the thickness of the shrubs.

White Candles, Whitefeldia elongata, Toad lilies, Tricyrtis,and Pipestem, Agarista populifolia

Love them! Just made my day.  Toad lilies will grow in Zones 5 – 9.  They will do well in shade, rich, moist soils, and don’t mind being ignored. They aren't inexpensive but they do multiply easily.

 

 

You can get the White Candles at your local nurseries and my favorite catalog and North Carolina nursery, Plant Delights in Raleigh, has a wonderful selection of tricyrtis for your backyard. They even have them on sale right now.  You'll love these forest beauties.  Delight in your candles and tiptoe through the toad lilies with me.  

Florida Yard - North Carolina View

We received over an inch of rain this morning and isn't eleven o'clock yet. We could get another inch to two inches today and the showers aren't expected to stop till after Memorial Day. I am pleased that my anti-tropical yearnings to have a North Carolina garden are coming along nicely. When you're in the Smokies during a summer rain storm, you can hear the rain ping off the branches between layers of trees. Jutting up and down the mountainsides and across the balds down to the valleys, the majestic trees allow the raindrops to land and slide down. The panoramic view of seeing dimensions through the canopies of Fraser firs, alders, maples, pines,and hickories is not a scenic visual you expect in Florida's flat landscapes. But with a little thought and patience can be achieved, or at least imagined.



These rainlilies are a week old and still popping up under my shrubs and around my bird bath. The moss is starting to become a striking mound and without the assistance of over-watering.





The mist of the sometimes gentle rain, then a torrent evokes memories of North Carolina childhood summer vacations waiting on the porch for the rain to stop so that we could go hiking in the woods. I get goosebumps now remembering the narrow clay footpaths on the steep slopes, trying to keep my balance after a rain. You could look ahead of your path for hundreds of feet and see into the forest.

I am enjoying every moment of this low pressure system moving across our country today. It's bringing much needed rain to the Southeast. Despite the Memorial Weekend holiday picnics that will be cancelled, I know that this week of thunderstorms and rainshowers will have firemen breathing a sigh of relief.



It's taken almost four years to achieve the layered look in my North Carolina backyard. It's only going to grow more with this rain. What will it look like by the end of this summer?