Pink Frost - A fragrant Illicium

The cold weather is finally coming in so I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we were having this Sunday to finish the Scented Garden in down town Madison. Recent heavy winds have brought down the last of the leaves in the canopy over the garden so the pansies will finally get some much needed sunlight to bring on the blooms. Unfortunately, the leaves had to fall somewhere and, you guessed it, most of them fell on the pansies....so clean up was called for or those poor guys would never get to see the sun.

The Fragrant Bouquet hostas were still looking really good and even putting out new leaves...but they did have to be trimmed back to make room for the pansies. Hopefully, they've stored enough energy in their roots to come a back strong come back in the spring.

The left over pots of Redbor and Lacinto kale, parsley and dusty miller found a home around the water fountain, along with Delta 'True Blue' pansies and a few 'Ultima Morpheus'. This was a rather forlorn looking spot since the autumn ferns didn't put out much top growth this summer....lack of water will do that. This is an area that isn't getting adequate moisture from the sprinkler system that is in place and that will have to be addressed before next summer. Sadder than the loss of the ferns is the condition of the Camellia sasanqua 'Tiny Princess' that lost most of its buds and leaves to the stress. Hoping on hope that it will recover! For now we have been cheated out of seeing a special little flower and enjoying its delicate fragrance.

But I digress...what I wanted to share is the wonderful find I made while planting more pansies around the Illicium 'Pink Frost'....it emits a beautiful fragrance!!.....without even brushing the leaves...it just lightly fills the air around it. This new introduction from Plant Introductions has waxy green and cream variegated leaves that are just now beginning to take on the color of their trade mark name...pink stems and a tint of pink to the leaves. If the pink colored pansies dressing the ground beneath it bloom as they should, this will be quite a pretty pastel corner.



This photo was taken in the summer...I'll follow up with others when it takes on more of its pink cast.

Pink Frost would be looking even better if "critters" hadn't been visiting it and slowly shortening the leaves. I suspected slugs but could see no evidence of their presence....until the sun light touched the leaves of the Sweet Autumn clematis vine hanging on the fence nearby....yep, covered in shiny trails.

Off with their heads!!! or at least off with the vine. In the right place, Sweet Autumn can be a beautiful asset when the white flowers bloom in the fall...even if it didn't have a nice fragrance. But, it is far too aggressive to live on a very small section of a fence in a very small garden.

Hopefully, the slugs will be less likely to hang around now...but Pink Frost is too special to allow "ya'll come" dining by such icky creatures....so stronger measures may have to be taken.

With the promise of rain to come this week along with sunny days in between, the Scented Garden should be lookin' pretty good soon. Maybe in time for the upcoming Tour of Homes?? We can only hope.