‘MEBRUARY:’ NO LONGER WINTER BUT NOT YET SPRING; A PLEASING SEASON IN THE GARDEN
Most gardeners, when pressed to name their favorite gardening season, will say Spring, when the world bursts into bloom. Or they may say Autumn, if they love fall color, and the cooling that relieves our torrid summer heat, like a balm over Gilead. I love those seasons as well, but there is something so pleasing for me about transitions in the garden, and this time of year – late February into March – represents an enormous transition that always thrills me. This is when we stand on the cusp of the growing season, with one foot in freezing winter dormancy and the other resting carefully on ground that will soon begin exploding with new growth. This is ‘Mebruary.’ Camellia x 'Crimson Candles' I say ‘soon’ with some equivocation, since upstate South Carolina is whipsawed by a volatile jet stream this time of year, one that bounces up and down like the stock market on steroids. When the stream moves north in the early months of the year, we experience warmth – even unseasonably ho...
