Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens

Several garden surprises here, both old and new. The visitor's center is just two weeks old and some of he gardens are not even planted yet.  I did find some great plantings and scenarios in the older gardens near the old Craftman-style custodian's cottage.

First surprise:  Bamboo.  Hundreds of varieties.

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Turns out that these bamboo groves were experimental and date from the 1920s.

Second surprise: a Mediterranean garden.

These oranges were growing in a planting backed by

a stucco building wall painted a great yellow orange

 which also warms the spot and allows the warm climate plants to thrive.

Third surprise: a rain garden near the lake.

Compared to the large rain garden near our lake at home, it was a small kidney-shaped swale that strained run-off before it entered the lake.  The plants were native to Georgia so I didn't recognize many of them, especially this tree.

Possomhaw?

Third surprise: Crape Myrtle allee (which I recognized after a week in the South but wished I could have seen in bloom).

Easy clues to identifying Crape Myrtle: structure of limbs and texture and color of bark.

Other surprises: the tea bushes garden was not yet planted, the formal garden paths were laid out but not planted, the children's garden and the butterfly garden were just a sign saying "Future site".  The bamboo maze paths and two story look-out were built but the bamboo not yet planted.  Biggest surprise:  I'll need to return in 3-5 years to see it all as I expected it to be.