Stopping to smell the flowers
By Arlene Marturanoa
marturanoa@yahoo.com

Angel trumpets continue to flower until frost.

Everyone hopes for neighbors who make the entire block look good. Randy Dawkins' home in southeast Columbia is ablaze in bold colorful garden plants. Several of Dawkins' container plants have been with him since his gardening hobby started over fifty years ago. He has a flair for combining ordinary annual and perennial plants with extraordinary specimens.

 

With a keen eye for dramatic color and texture combinations eye, he pairs splashy color duets like scarlet mandevilla and yellow melampodium or purple Mexican petunia with white ginger lilies. The silvery leaves and stems of Dicondra argenta "Silver Falls" cascade downward six feet in hanging baskets beside red- leaved begonias reaching skyward. Front yard window boxes overflow in impatiens.

Dawkins' favorite color, yellow, is echoed in common plant choices such as marigold, melampodium and portulaca and scintillating tropicals like his angel trumpets, hula girl hibiscus, yellow elder (Tecoma stans), and the abundant fruit on his lemon tree.

Many of his plants are of tropical origin and comprise a distinctive sampler for other home gardeners to try. The Devil's backbone, Pedilanthus, is a houseplant in winter and an outdoor conversation piece in summer. The sub- tropical succulent shrub in the Euphoria family of plants is native to tropical forests in Florida and Mexico. When the leaves drop, the zigzag stems resemble a notched backbone. The flowers look like red birds, hence, redbird cactus is another name. This hardy plant is easy to propagate from stem cuttings.

Another Florida native, the bleeding heart Clerodendrum (Clerodendrum speciosum) displays a star- like magenta flower enclosed in bracts. A large purple fruit develops from the flower by autumn.

An excellent container plant grown for its drought and heat tolerance as well as its elegant silver- frosted foliage is the white licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare). The plant is easily propagated by cuttings.

Aside from the feast of color for the eyes, Dawkins grows an abundance of fruits for family and friends. He harvested gallons of blueberries and pails of plums. His wife preserved 25 quarts of pickled peaches and 30 pints of figs. Dawkins uses a battery operated hoot owl to deter the birds from the fruit.

The angel wing begonia has been with Dawkins for 40 years.

Each spring Dawkins visits Carolina Eastern on Shop Road to load his pickup with mushroom compost for the garden beds and containers. Throughout the growing season, he uses Miracle- Gro. But he attributes the success he has with plants not merely to the fertilizer. He states, "Water is the life of the plant. People must water their plants" He has a 150' deep well on his property which supplies water for the entire garden.

Soon his container plants and tender perennials will migrate indoors to the house or to a specially prepared storage shed with grow lights, fan, and temperature control to overwinter in comfort. The good neighbor garden will awaken joyfully by spring.

Mandevilla and melampodium perform well in high heat and humidity. Cascading "Silver Falls" contrasts with begonias. Decorative bracts and seeds on bleeding heart Clerodendrum. The lemon tree will overwinter in Dawkins' home. Mushroom compost and water contribute to gigantic elephant ears.