Grow with Gardens
Marissa Creamer

That harbinger of spring, the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show, recently made its annual visit to the Charlotte Merchandise Mart. Each year I look forward to seeing the beautifully landscaped gardens and discovering new plants. This year the North Carolina Nursery & Landscape Association and North Carolina Cooperative Extension introduced Showstopper Plants. These promising new cultivars or iron-clad plants are known to thrive in all regions of North Carolina. This year’s selections consist of three shrubs: Kaleidoscope Abelia, Limelight Hydrangea, and Chindo Viburnum. The tree selection is Oklahoma Redbud, and the Showstopper perennial is Lenten Rose. With the exception of Lenten Rose, which requires moist soil to excel, these plants are quite tolerant of drought, an important distinction in these days of water restrictions.
You can learn more about plants and gardening by checking out some of these new books from Rowan Public Library:
Learn more about the diverse world of viburnums with Michael Dirr’s “Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season.” This comprehensive work celebrates viburnums with the first volume devoted exclusively to this beautiful and versatile hardy shrub. Renowned plant expert Dirr has said that a garden without viburnums is like a life without the pleasures of music and art. He provides a wealth of information about the various species and cultivars, with detailed information about each plant’s characteristics and appraisals that make it easy for the gardener to choose the right plant for the right situation.
If you are interested in organic gardening, check out “The Elements of Organic Gardening” by Charles, Prince of Wales with Stephanie Donaldson. This lavishly illustrated volume provides an inspirational guide to organic gardening as practiced at Highgrove Estate, which over the past twenty-six years has been transformed into a garden that is both beautiful and environmentally sound. Also featured are the Prince’s gardens at Birkhall in the Scottish Highlands and Clarence House in London, where organic principles are also being applied. The Prince expresses his deeply held beliefs about sustainability and responsibility: “Gradually, as you look further and deeper into the processes of Nature, you begin to realize that we ourselves are a microcosm of that vast all-encompassing—essentially ordered—living entity. And the remarkable thing is that nothing is ever wasted. There is a constant process of renewing; of death followed by rebirth; of valuable materials being provided on a constantly sustaining basis, if managed with sympathy and continuity.”
A vacant city lot, filled with garbage, doesn’t look like the place for a garden. But one day, a young Vietnamese girl takes a spoon to the hard soil and plants some bean seeds in an attempt to connect with the deceased father she has never known. Gradually, a neighborhood filled with strangers from diverse ethnic backgrounds comes together to find healing and hope in the soil of a community garden. “Seedfolks,” by Paul Fleischman, is a slim Young Adult fiction novel with an inspiring message about the transformative power of gardens.
Find your own gardening inspiration with books from Rowan Public Library.