In a Vase on Monday: Heat Wave

Posted on December 14, 2015 by johnvic8

We’re having a heat wave (wouldn’t that be a great title for a song?). A week of balmy weather. Yesterday in the low 70’s. Lunch on the screened porch. A short-sleevy afternoon. Is this really mid December? The Carolina jessamin (Gelsemium sempervirens) is thoroughly confused…it’s putting out dozens of its yellow blooms on the arbor, some three or four months early. Today is gray and a light rain is falling, but it’s still unseasonably warm. We can be sure, however, that Old Man Winter is a-coming, and we will be left with our pansies and violas until the hellebores and early spring bulbs bloom.

Frost had taken most of the blooms and not a few buds on our camellias, but I was able to gather several not fully open buds from ‘Debutante.’ ‘Debutante’ is an early blooming Camellia japonica in my garden, but I have found its buds are quite sensitive to freezing temperatures. It seems just the right thing to bring them in for In a Vase on Monday now rather than leave them to be damaged by the frost forecast for later this week.

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Camellia japonica ‘Debutante’

Let me invite you to visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and others participating in this weekly meme are sharing from their gardens this week.

About johnvic8

John Viccellio retired after 24 years in the U. S. Navy and began to dig into gardening when he could finally land in one place. He completed the Master Gardener course in 1992 and has since designed and constructed two of his own gardens. He wrote a monthly garden column for ten years and was a regular contributor to Carolina Gardener magazine. John published his first book, Guess What's in My Garden!, in 2014. He lives in a retirement community in Matthews, NC.
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8 Responses to In a Vase on Monday: Heat Wave

  1. pbmgarden says:
    December 14, 2015 at 10:51 am

    Seems early for japonicas. Is Debutante often this early? Beautiful.

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  2. johnvic8 says:
    December 14, 2015 at 10:55 am

    It is early, but Debutante has done that here for many years. But it is tricky with frost about. I lose a lot of blooms because of it.

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  3. theshrubqueen says:
    December 14, 2015 at 11:49 am

    Debutantes usually got burned in Atlanta (probably more than one way!) one of my clients covered his with sheets every time it got cold..Yours are beautiful, I enjoyed seeing them.

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  4. Christina says:
    December 14, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    Definitely the right thing to do John. It is very early for C. japonica, is it facing the early morning sun or in a safer position? They look perfect in your vase.

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    • johnvic8 says:
      December 14, 2015 at 12:08 pm

      Thanks, Christina. It is one of the plants that wasn’t doing well in the garden so I moved it down to the edge of the woods (I call it the hospital for wayward plants) and it is thriving. Only gets morning sun

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  5. Cathy says:
    December 15, 2015 at 9:46 am

    They are really pretty. Good idea to save them from the threat of frost.

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