Springtime in Brookhaven is beautiful as winter and spring bloom seasons are mixing. Today Southern Gardening is enjoying the plantings at Woodleigh. There’s nothing more beautiful than spring scenes filled with floral spheres of snowball viburnum, Viburnum plicatum. The blooms open in mid-spring in spherical clusters of white flowers that fill my entire hand like a softball. This is a big shrub so be sure to give it plenty of room. We’re lucky to be right at the tail end of the Formosa azalea flowering. These large azaleas are stunning in bloom. The white azalea on the corner of the front porch is a single plant. The magenta azalea out by the garage is in its full glory alongside the honeysuckle native azalea. One of the small trees that I probably like the most are Japanese maples, Acer palmatum. These trees are brilliant with their exotic foliage in the spring and summer seasons, many with a fall blaze of crimson, orange and yellow. Here are a couple of just plain gorgeous examples of Japanese maples. The combination of the red and green foliage next to each other are a stunning contrast. We’re also lucky that there are still some late season camellias to enjoy. A beloved camellia is the Tom Perkins selection that is still producing loads of gorgeous flowers. I always enjoy a great blending of landscape plants as the seasons are changing. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman and I’ll see you next time on Southern Gardening.
