Winter Sunrise January 2018

This is a winter sunrise out my back door, with the sandbox that was long ago converted into a rooting bed/ holding area for plants that were awaiting a permanent home. The wooden bar across the top is the remnants of a failed rooting  project on camellia where I put them under a plastic cover to increase the humidity. Now I use the bar as a stand to spray paint occasional projects. The green in the back part of the holding area is a combination of two plants: an enterprising red cedar and a tangle of Jackson Smilax that I  can easily dig and sell. The trusty clothesline appears in the far back with it's surround of brick. You can see my trail through the leaves. The color that morning was gorgeous, but short lived. The pictures are nice, but do not exactly capture reality. I let the leaves lay where they fall as I love to look at them, love to walk through them and hear them crunch, and anyway, come spring, the wind will have put them exactly where they should be.

Looking in another direction to the east the same morning, more trees and beautiful pink/purple
sky with a little orange thrown in. Bare trees against the sky looking like lace is one of the more beautiful sights on this earth. The orange dot in the far back is a pumpkin on its way to the next stage. The closer orange dot is the roof of a fairy house made for me by a friend. In spite of my patience, no faeries have taken up residence (yet).

Blueberry Blooms

 

My blueberries are blooming now, and I am looking forward to a good harvest this year. Some years the squirrels eat them up. I don't mind sharing with the birds, but those squirrels are just too greedy. That viney thing in the picture is a Jackson smilax. It is one of those old southern plants used to decorate at Christmas, or sometimes to train over a trellis or door. They are virtually thornless. They grow all around my yard, up trees and in the woods. I had just as soon not have this one in my blueberry bush though.

Jackson Similax

 

This vine's common name is Jackson's Smilax or Jackson vine. Taxonomists call it Smilax smallii, lately changed from lanceolata.Its cousins are vicious, with heinous thorns that will pierce and tear. When you are stuck by one of these thorns, it sends a chill over you similar to a wasp sting.This smilax however has no thorns except a few at the base. The stems which can grow 25 feet in a season have no thorns.These vines remain evergreen and make wonderful Christmas decorations. They have been used historically for this purpose. They are easily twined over the mantle or around a banister or a wreath.Unless they are kept out of the sun and kept watered or misted, they will not last more than a week or 10 days. Jackson's smilax was used before the advent of plastics and were quite wonderful for a Christmas season that lasted a week or less. It is not used as much now but is still a beautiful vine for decorating.The name is reported to have come into use when Stonewall Jackson came into town and the vine was used for decorating at parties and dinners.The vine is now used some to twine over entrances to homes.
The only way I know to harvest the vine for decoration is to yank it out of the trees. This is not always easy, but it can eventually be wrenched loose from it's lofty perch in the trees. I spot it after leaf drop in the fall. It is in the treetops gleaming a bright green . It has huge underground tubers like all other smilax vines, but these tubers are woody and are more like underground trunks than a dahlia tuber. The plant can not be popagated from these woody storage organs. Just get some roots and a piece of vine,if you want to move one to your yard.