Spring Wake-up

One of my favorite times is early spring when the garden and landscape is starting to wake up from their winter slumber. Today we’re in Vicksburg visiting Hillary and Jonathan’s early spring landscape. Whether used as specimen plants, hedges or backgrounds, Southern Indica azaleas have to be my favorite azalea. The blooms are huge resembling rhododendrons, which is no surprise, and are produced in great quantities. The flowers are funnel-shaped with narrow bases and bell-shaped edges. The flower colors include pink, purple, fuchsia and white. And I love the speckles in the flower throats. One of the trees I love in the spring are Japanese maples. A good example is this nice specimen Bloodgood. Look at that attractive burgundy red lobed foliage. I also love seeing the small seed structures called samara, you know those little helicopter things, starting to develop. And standing in contrast is this gorgeous lime green leaved Japanese maple. I’m not sure what variety it is but it is beautiful in the early spring season. This specimen ginkgo with its fan-shaped lime green leaves just starting to expand looks fantastic against a bright blue sky. But there’s a couple of branches that need to be pruned. I’m going to use my loppers and remove these right at the branch collar. Spring is a wonderful time in the landscape and I hope you’re enjoying the show as much as I am. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman and I’ll see you next time on Southern Gardening.