fall flowering shrubs

A Tale of Two Olives

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If you are hoping to grow an olive tree in eastern North America and proudly incorporate your homegrown fruits into martinis, tapenade, or empanadas, you are destined for disappointment.  The handsome European olive—Olea europaea—needs a warm winter climate to produce its toothsome harvest. But other members of the Oleaceae or olive family do flourish farther … Read more

Camellias in the Cold

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A few years I bought a fall-blooming camellia that was supposedly cold hardy. I planted, tended and fussed over it because I wanted the beautiful rose-like flowers to light up my garden in the late fall. It obliged me by surviving exactly one year. Failure doesn’t usually faze me, but for some reason I did … Read more