Plant Profile
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By: Mary Tucker, Cherokee County Master Gardener Excerpt from CCMG Newsletter June/July 2002 The piedmont azalea (Rhododendron canescens) is a hallmark of spring in Georgia, with its delicate, light pink blossoms dancing at the woodland’s edge to celebrate the change of the seasons. It is most often found in deciduous woodlands where it receives ample…
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Red Malabar Spinach (Basella alba var. rubra) is a heat loving summer green that thrives when other leafy greens melt away in our Georgia heat. Germination is a bit slow and it takes a few weeks after germination before it starts running. But once it does, watch out! It does great on a trellis or…
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By Gail Roos: UGA Master Gardener Extension Volunteer-Cherokee County Originally published in Cherokee County Master Gardener Newsletter Volume 12: issue 1 December 2014 Here’s why I love hellebores: they’re evergreen, tough, long-lived, shade-loving, deer and rabbit resistant, and quietly beautiful year-round. Add to that – they start flowering in the dead of winter when our…
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By Marcia Winchester Originally Published in the Volume 13 (2006) of the Cherokee County Master Gardeners Newsletter There are quite a few Osmanthus in Michael Dirr’s Manual on Woody Plants. The one that I’m familiar with and in fact fell in love with is O. fragrans or fragrant tea olive. I feel this plant is…
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By Joan McFather Cherokee County Master Gardener I remember the first time I saw poinsettias growing in their native Mexico—good grief! They’re TREES! Yes, yes, I know—you’re headed back to the big box store to pick up at least one of those beautiful potted plants, and someone is bound to give you one. Well,…
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By Marc Teffeau Cherokee County Master Gardener While Poinsettias are still the number one Christmas holiday gift plant Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) are also very popular. Christmas Cacti have been kept as a holiday plant since the 1800’s. The original Christmas cactus was developed by French botanist Charles Lemaire and named after French horticulture…
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I first learned about roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) about a decade ago while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Vanuatu. I was visiting a farm on the grounds of a Catholic boarding school that grew all the food for the 700 or so students. The farm, run by an older Australian man, was a model of…