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Carol’s Story in Her Own Words
Carol’s Collectibles was a small specialty nursery begun in 1996 in Ashford Connecticut.and moved to Maine in 2009. Before 1996 my gardening experience consisted mainly of growing really fine Swiss Chard, Cosmos and Morning Glories. Then I met Barbara Protheroe, who had worked for Dr. Gustav Mehlquist, world famous geneticist and hybridizer of Rhododendrons and Orchids. I brought home my first “yak” from her collection. A yak is what we call R. yakushimanum, a species native to the Japanese island of that name. I became an instant Rhododendron Nut.
Unable to stand my incessant questioning any longer, my friend Bill Cullina suggested that propagating a few cuttings might satisfy my growing obsession for MORE. So off we went to the swamp for sphagnum, down to the cellar for the old aquarium and to the neighbors for whatever cuttings might be had. When these little things became actual plants, complete with real roots, I was sure I’d witnessed the first miracle in my life. I declared myself a “collector” and set out to propagate the world! A few years later, as I began to gain a bit of discernment in my collecting, I realized much of what I had gathered along the roadsides of Rhode Island and Connecticut made up a good part of any “Most Invasive” list, which certainly explained their eagerness to root so quickly for me!
Looking for help with my problem I finally joined the Rhododendron, Rock Garden, Conifer and Daphne societies. The meetings were a Godsend, and much like AA meetings (without the cigarettes and prayers) I was welcomed into a world of sympathetic gardeners who offered to share their experience and knowledge, as well as their collections. Millions (seems like) of cuttings and new babies later, I am proud of my collection, though I still stumble through the Latin that defines them. To those of you similarly afflicted, I offer a helping hand and plants to put a smile on your face.
CAROL’S FAVORITES
The lure of the plants I offer is in the special characteristics that separate them from the norm. Some are actually rare and unique. By no means does this translate into being hard to grow or necessarily expensive. Described below are some of my current “favorites.” Some visitors would say ALL my plants are my favorites, and I suppose sometimes my ravings about the plants that I love can be exhausting. All mentioned below are listed in their respective categories, and can be looked up in my plant lists, by category, for more specific information. My hope is to make “plant nuts” out of all of you! From time to time I’ll add plants to my Favorites List .
Alstromeria: A new series of hardy Alstromerias (the Peruvian lily found in every commercial flower arrangement) that come in about 8 colors and only grow 6” tall. UCONN developed an Alstromeria series that is hardy, but at 3’ can get a little lanky. The new ones grow close to the ground in a mound, and are hardy in Zone 6 with strategic siting and heavy mulch. A less worrisome path is growing them in a nice pot outside and bringing them in for Winter. They will bloom three times through the year with a dormancy between each show.
Yellow Rhododendrons: I used to say hardy yellow Rhododendrons were the Holy Grail for that genus and complain that in the Pacific Northwest they were so abundant you could run over them in any McDonalds. We now have so many different sizes, flower shapes and shades it’s amazing. R. ‘Capistrano’ is the big one – 6’ with huge bright yellow trusses. R. ‘Towhead’ is a medium-sized 4-footer with light yellow bell-shaped flowers. R. ‘Patty Bee’ is our little 10” small leaf mound covered with butter yellow flowers. There are two very interesting new yellows: R. ‘New Century’ and R. ’Lemon Dream’. The former comes from Weston Nursery and has such translucent, ethereal light yellow flowers you have to keep looking again and again to believe it. The latter is a diminutive plant that sports lemon yellow cut-shaped flowers on a well- behaved, dense plant with beautiful leaves. There are other harder to find yellows, such as R. ’Phipps Yellow’, R. ’Vinecrest’, R. yellow fortunii, R. ‘Buzzer Beater’. The bottom line: I HAVE BEAUTIFUL YELLOW RHODODENDRONS. Come and get them!
Lespedeza: These shrubs come in all different sizes, colors and blooming times. They work in sun or partial shade and extend the season by blooming late summer into fall. Little L. ‘Yakushima’ stays about 10” tall and actually becomes a ground cover, blooming pink in August. L. ‘Edo Shibori’ has pink/white pea-like flowers, grows 3’x 3’ and blooms August though September. L. ‘Pink Fountain’ grows 4’x 4’ and is just stunning in its flowing branches covered with clear pink flowers. Lastly, L. ‘Gibraltar’ is at least 4’x 4’, purple, and blooms very late. This was the first Lespedeza I ever saw. I was at a conifer society convention in the Berkshires on October 21st, and saw this plant blooming its head off at the top of a windy hill. That was a few years ago, and after that I made it my business to find and make Lespedezas available at my nursery.
Fall Blooming Plants: I’m a gardener who seems to only find time to plant in the late fall (or winter, if the ground is not frozen yet), and it is joy to encounter late bloomers as I work. Caryopteris of all ilk’s, like C. ‘Sunshine Blue’, C. “Dark Knight’, and especially C. ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, with its small blue flowers set off by yellow leaves. These small shrubs smell like Hell, which makes them deer proof!
The Chelomes (Turtleheads), especially ‘Hot Lips’, with their unusual pure pink puffy flowers in October are another delight. And the fall blooming Anenomes that go even past late frost are just gorgeous.
~Carol Yee