Melissa Bigner - Southern Bouquets

In Hampton Park, a few streets over from where I live in Charleston, South Carolina, winding paths of primly raked, shell-laden sand meander past beds of Noisette roses, Mexican petunias, stipa grass, and more blooms than you can imagine. Iron lampposts rise from the ground alongside heirloom camellias, crepe myrtles, and azaleas, each in so many varieties an encyclopedia could barely keep up with the naming. In the wide-open stretches, magnolias mingle with long-leaf pines, live oaks, cypress, firs, sycamores, palmettos, and dogwoods alike. Something is always blooming there, casting enticing scents and eye-catching colors, and, like me, scores of reverent people flock to the park in the fresh hours of the day to revel in the lot of it.

On one mornings jog there, I got to thinking about the parks flowers and how flora touches us here in the South. Look around old homesteads, and even if only the foundation still stands, theres sure to be a garden growing on, effortlessly stunning and wildly romantic. In my neighborhoodpolitely called a transitional areaI come across centenarian houses that are falling in on themselves, but at their feet, hydrangeas grin, naked ladies dance, daffodils show their brave faces, wisteria sigh, and spiderworts wink at passersby. Someone once mothered these plants, and now folks like me are reaping the benefits.

And while no one I know full-on plunders the gardens of occupied houses or decimates the well-populated beds of public parks, the majority of us do partake in a little judicious clipping, be it from common ground, shall I say, or from our own yards. Down here, its as common for dinner guests to gift a handful of fresh azalea blooms, a box of camellia heads, or a cluster of daffodils as it is for them to show up with a bottle of wine. No matter how humble the bloom, the flowers are received in gushing fashion and given a place of honor at the gathering. And its not just a special event thing, either. I swear, I cant remember ever going to my Moms house without seeing some such vestige of a friends visit or some little blossom in a tiny chipped pitcher enlivening this or that corner of her rooms. These arrangements are not fussy, nor do they typically feature fussy plants. They are simple bouquetssimple, fresh Southern bouquets.

So thanks to that jog, this book came about, to celebrate old Southern blooms, how they color our homes and connect us to the good green earth. I teamed with Charleston floral designer Heather Barrie and we made a pact to gather blooms from our own yards, from friends gardens, from abandoned lots, from local parks and plantations (with permission, of course), from small area farms and even from country ditches. Our goal? To stay away from florists refrigerators and stay true to a real look born of the garden bouquets we love.

As for the Southernness of the flora, well, no, the flowers we picked are not restricted to those states below the Mason-Dixon line. But they are the ones that haunt our days, fill our childhood memoriesmine from North Carolina and Heathers from Georgia. Common to our varied landscapes, they thus merited inclusion. And if youre looking for a favorite thats not headlining as a chapter, poke around a bit. Cherished stars such as gardenias, lilies, irises, and magnolias pop up as supporting cast members here and there.

Lastly, Im by no means a Latin-spouting gardener, and in some cases, our flower donors didnt even know the names of their treasures. So while Ive done my best to identify the various blooms weve includedthanks to a host of regional expertssometimes we simply were all in the dark and had to call the questionable variety a found flower. But I think thats forgivable since this book was never intended to be a plant catalog.

Rather, its my hope that the stories weve collected, the alluring bouquets Heather fashioned, and the romantic photos that lensman (and green-thumb guru) Peter Frank Edwards captured will uplift anyone who peruses our little book. These flowers, after all, their resilience and beauty, are marvels pure, fresh, and simple.

Melissa Bigner

Common Name: Camellia

Common Botanical Names:Camellia japonica and C. sasanqua

Plant Type: Evergreen shrub

Flower Colors: Pink, red, variegated, and white

Origins: China, Japan, and Southeast Asia

Ideal Growing Conditions: Partial sun; well-drained but moist and acidic soil

Size: 8 to 15 feet tall, 6 feet wide

Zones: 7 to 10

Blooming Time: September through April. Sasanqua s bloom in late fall through early winter, and japonica s follow in late winter through spring.

Arranging Tips: Cut blooms with as much of the woody stem attached as possible and choose buds that are just barely cracking open to allow the petals to unfurl over the course of several days. When blooms droop, trim stems away and float heads in a bowl of water.

Vase Life: Four days to one week

Meanings: Evanescence and long-lasting love

Trivia: Renowned French botanist Andr Michaux is credited with introducing outdoor-thriving camellias to America via Charleston, South Carolina, in 1786. Drawn to the Lowcountry for its temperate climate, Michaux spent a decade tending to his experimental gardens in the Goose Creek area. While there, he gifted several of these camellias to friends at Middleton Place Plantation and soon the shrubs spread throughout the region.

By the mid-1800s, major collections thrived in the Souththere were some 300 varieties at Charlestons Magnolia Plantation aloneand a significant camellia nursery was established in Augusta, Georgia.

Today, many of those early camellias still grow on the grounds of Middleton amid more than 2,000 newer varieties, and Magnolias gardens are still rich with the plants as well.

Camellias are the state flower of Alabama and the city flower of Slidell, Louisiana.