It seems that somebody has been building a garden there for at least the last year. “Coming Soon,” the sign read for the longest time. “Oleander Oasis – Palms and Tropicals.”
It turns out this oasis wasn’t a mirage. There really is a garden, or, rather, a series of gardens taking shape on the property, designed and installed by Landscapes Unique.
Owner Tracey McCullen has been in the landscaping business for more than 20 years. Oleander Oasis is his way of making large plant materials, including palms, tropicals and bamboo, available to the public, along with one-of-a-kind garden sculptures.
Demo gardens
McCullen and his crew have been gradually renovating the property on Oleander. The old gift shop from Pendercrest is the new design studio, and the old garden shop is the new sales center.
Surrounding the buildings are a series of 12 gardens that are slowly taking shape. These “courtyard” gardens will display the Landscapes Unique design team’s eye for creating comfortable, beautiful spaces, while showcasing planters and garden art available for sale.
Not to be missed is the bamboo and banana walk up to the design studio. With just two types of plants, the designers have created an oasis in the middle of the city. It shows that good design doesn’t always have to involve intricate plant combinations. Sometimes, simple is beautiful.
Palms
One house on the Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour this spring really caught my eye. The garden tended by Katherine McKenzie showcased a natural use of palms that was unusual for the area in that it wasn’t overkill.
“She’s one of our clients,” McCullen said when asked about the garden. “It’s a funny story, actually, but one that speaks to the idea of simplicity of design … When she first bought the house a few years ago, there were palms everywhere. It looked like Miami Beach. We actually removed at least half of the palms from the front and mixed in podocarpus (a conifer), live oaks and Adagio miscanthus (an ornamental grass).”
A landscape that looked completely out of place for this area was suddenly transformed – without losing the palms.
Context is key, according to McCullen.
“You don’t want your house to look like Hollywood, and that’s a big mistake people make when planting palm trees,” he said.
Instead of lining the driveway with palms, McCullen suggests tucking them close to the house with other native foliage.
“I like to mix palms with wax myrtles and yaupon hollies to give the feeling of a maritime forest in the garden,” he said.
When to plant
Summer is the perfect time to plant “fresh-cut palms,” which have not established root systems. They love the heat and will immediately start to grow roots. Once they have a solid root system, they’ll start to sprout new leaves.
Oleander Oasis also sells regenerated palms, which are palms that have been cut, re-rooted and shipped in large containers. The regenerated palms can be planted year-round because they already have well-established root systems.
Gary Hollar, owner of Gary’s Nursery in New Bern, grows and sells 30,000 palms per year. Hollar recommends planting windmill palms and a North Carolina native, the Sabal palmetto, or cabbage palm. The windmill palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) are “more leaf cold hardy by about five degrees,” Hollar said.
“There are old specimens of windmill palms growing in Raleigh and Hickory,” he said, “and in British Columbia, Canada.”
Hollar recommends two shorter palms as well: Sabal minor (dwarf palmetto) and Rhapidophyllum hyrstix (needle palm). Both of these palms are cold-hardy.
Care
Hollar advises gardeners to “water palms deeply at least twice per week in the warm months and fertilize with a good, slow-release palm food.”
Palm-tone is a slow-release palm food available in area garden centers.
Hollar said that most palms that look unhappy “are the result of improper watering, lack of a good fertilizer or improper palm choices for the area.”
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