Many enthusiastically consider the camellia "Queen of the Garden," especially while roses are quietly resting. Ok, so our roses in the west don't begin to rest until we forcefully, but of course sadly, decide that we must cut them back in January. Luckily for us, beginning in September and continuing into the Spring, the camellia brings elegant floral form and color into our gardens.

They are wonderful in the garden as a standard and single focal point, en masse, or as a container plant. This shrub has beautifully rich, dark green shiny foliage and when pruned properly, gorgeous plant form, thereby contributing to the beauty of a garden year round. Other positive attributes include the fact that camellias are relatively pest- and disease-free. What more could you ask for?

The two major groups of camellias are Camellia japonica and Camellia sasanqua. Camellia japonicas bloom January through May. They have larger, glossy green leaves and flowers that are not fragrant. These camellias are evergreen and prefer to be planted in dappled shade and even deep shade. Camellia sasanquas bloom from September through December. They have smaller leaves and depending on the variety, will grow in full sun or deep shade. They are wonderful as a specimen plant, unclipped.

There are many bloom types to consider when choosing your camellia: anemone, rose, single, formal double, peony, and many more. Both the C. japonica and C. sasanqua have many varieties to choose from. When making your selection, consider not only bloom form and color but also bloom time. You can have your camellias blooming from September into May with a wise and thought out selection. Bloom form is important to most of us.

Plant your new camellia using Nurseryman’s Acid Planting Mix to give this wonderful plant the best start in your garden. Take care to plant the root ball slightly higher than the soil line, not lower. Once your camellias are loaded with buds, do not feed them. Have you ever fertilized your heavily laden-with-flower-buds camellia shrub, thinking of course that you are helping the buds to burst into fabulous color, only to be horrified when they all fell off? The camellia does not want fertilizer once the buds are set. Don't worry, the plant will reward you fully without any additional food.

Once the bloom time is complete in the spring, you'll want to use Dr. Earth Organic 4 Azalea & Camellia Fertilizer, an excellent all-round fertilizer, to give a healthy boost and reward your plants for their colorful winter flower "show."

To some of us, the pansy/viola is a happy, smiling face reminding us of a gardener friend from long ago. The first sign of that special flower brings a smile to our face and warmth to our heart. After all, this flower is known as the ‘pixie’ of the plant world. How perfect is that to have in your winter/spring gardens!
Sunset Western Garden book tells us that botanically speaking, members of the genus Viola, which includes the pansy, viola and violets, are perennials. We just happen to treat them as annuals. The varieties that we grow are happiest in cool weather and have become known as one of our best winter bedding plants. Planting them now ensures wonderful color in your spring gardens.

There are many different cultivars of pansies and violas offering a wide range of colors and flower sizes: colors from white, yellow, apricot, violet, blue-purples, dusty rose and combinations of all of these colors! The flower sizes range from 1-4 inches.

Pansies like sun to light shade. If you plant them in deep shade, they will grow, but not reward you with as many flowers. Plant them toward the front in your flower beds along with your shrubs and other flowering bedding plants such as Iceland poppies, alyssum, lobelia, Nemesia and all. You may not want to put them too close to the edge if your planter is next to your grass (scary weed whackers may chop off their heads!). But these plants love to trail and would be beautiful in raised beds, planters and window boxes!

Here are a few planting and care tips:

Plant the little root ball slightly high, or above soil level. This will keep the roots drier, especially after watering.

Water, but be careful to not to overwater.

Amend the soil with Master Nursery Bumper Crop planting mix when planting to increase good drainage around the roots.

Once your pansies are getting established and blooming with smiling faces, don’t forget to deadhead. Removing the finished blooms with increase the number of blooms and bloom time.

And here is the number one rule: Start your morning with a stroll into your garden to gaze on all of these smiling faces. Oh sure, you can take your cup of coffee or tea along with you, too.

Brrr. It has been really, really cold, like 30 degrees or lower. Ok, I state the obvious, but herein lies the problem - we're in Southern California. You know - "It never rains in California" or "Surf City USA" - that Southern California? So I went to my encyclopedia and looked up Jack Frost. Did you know that Jack Frost is an elfin creature originating in Viking folklore who personifies crisp, cold winter weather? He leaves frosty crystal patterns on windows and our foliage. Oh...they make him sound so cute.

I don't know about you, but I didn't see a cute little elvish guy in my garden. But I do have a garden that approaches looking like a disaster zone. In temperate weather zones such as ours in Southern California, we are not accustomed to awakening to freezing temperatures - and neither are our plants. (Note: I'm not referring to the high desert or mountain regions). We all are going to be coping with frost-damaged plants this spring. Here are a few tips to follow from today forth.

Be patient with your plants. The damage is done. And we might get more of the Arctic chill...who knows? Don't begin hacking away at damaged plants, pruning away what appears to be total destruction. It may not be. Many of our plants are highly resourceful and restorative. Here are a few tips:

Leave wilted foliage for now. If we get another frost, this damaged foliage will actually offer cover to the unharmed foliage beneath. Once you are fairly sure frosts are a thing of the past, gently remove the wilted dark leaves, but do not cut back the branches.

Chances are most branches have not been damaged. To test, use your fingernail to gently scratch the bark and look at the underlying plant tissue. It should be green or creamy and moist. Observe the leaf buds and watch them. As the warmer spring weather returns, these buds should start to plump up and you will know that new growth is beginning.

Once new leaves have begun to pop out on now-empty branching, you will see the extent of any freeze damage to the branches. If leaves sprout out along the whole branch... then excellent. But if there are areas on the branch where the leaf buds haven't developed and no leaves appear, this is the plant's way of telling you, "Cut me back to just in front of the first emerging leaf." That is how far back to prune.

There are also a few excellent precautions to take, when or if you know that a frost is coming to your garden. Cover plants with a sheet or plastic at night. Remove that cover in the morning to allow the next day's (hopefully) higher temperatures to warm up the plants and soil. Of course, if you have large tropical foliage plants, it becomes impractical to cover tree-height plants (unfortunately).

Now, enough of the "What to Do" information. What is actually happening to your plant? Why does the cold hurt it so much?

Freezing temperatures severely dehydrate plant tissues. Water in the plant tissue freezes and when this happens, the plant's cells expand, causing irreparable damage. It is only when the temperature rises that the damage to your plant becomes apparent. A "burned" appearance may start at the top of the plant on the highest leaves (or the leaves most exposed to the freezing temperature), working its way down the stem and on through to the lower leaves. This process does not manifest itself immediately, but certainly does within a day or so.

Think about the solutions utilized by the citrus growers and other large crop production: wind machines, smudge pots, water. Singly or working together, these techniques keep the ambient temperatures surrounding the crops higher than freezing. At least, they should in theory. But for homeowners, such procedures are not necessarily practical.

You will notice that plants next to your house have escaped damage. Frost, or more accurately, the cold air spills off the top of your house much like a liquid. Once it hits the ground, beyond the distance of the eaves of the roof, this is where you will begin to see frost damage. If you cover the plants (of a size practical to do so) that are next to your house and those located away from the eaves, you may escape frost damage as well.

But many of us were taken a little by surprise. Not that the weather forecaster didn't tell us that we were getting an Arctic chill, but that the chill would come down from the mountain elevations and into our gardens. So, we'll all have frost damage to deal with, beginning now and into the spring. But give your plants time to let you know the depth or severity of the damage to each individual. With luck and caring, many of them will come back by spring.