• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home Garden Companion

Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal

  • Plant Library On The Journal
    • All Season Garden Color
    • Sitemap
  • Garden chores
    • Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
    • Garden Tips and Advice
  • Ilona’s Garden Home
    • Old House Blog
    • Garden Librarian
  • Ilona’s Garden Flavor Shop
  • Privacy Policy

my gardening grandmother

19.05.10 | Joanne Dibble | 5 Comments

greetings all-

i have not vanished, as evident by my continuing comments. i’ve
been preoccupied with poetry, and i’m also working on my gardening
grandmother’s life story. she was totally self-taught, yet beautifully
landscaped their farm and 20 acres of grounds during the 40″s and 50’s.
i have fond memories of the many liriope-lined paths under tall pines,
the grassy nooks with statues, her formal rose garden, and wild azalea
collections. she was a “tester” for Park seed Co. for southern range of new
“wild” varieties… and was one of the first to successfully grow their new
rhododendron cultivars in middle georgia.

she created a beautiful traditional Japanese garden in the overgrowth around a
small lakeon the property. it was hacked out of a swamp, with flourishing kudzu and
poison ivy, growing on the rich bottomland. it was a surprise for my grandfather’s
birthday. all the statuary, rocks, bridges and teahouse materials were imported
from korea and japan, as well as careful placing of some of the big native granite
rocks. many garden clubs from all around the southeast came to tour her gardens.
she was a very private person, but gracious enough to open her small paradise to all.

she and my grandfather had great interest in camellias, and both were expert
judges at many camellia shows. she learned to breed, hybridize, and created many
cultivars, now rare, but still in great demand at camellia nurseries today. i recall her
exchanging pollen with friends in california by mail, even from as far away as new
zealand! the extent of her skills was amazing to me- as a young girl. i followed and
watched her in her tall glass hothouse, full of grown camellias too tender for ga. cold
temps, as she worked pollinating and gibbing ( setting in a graft bud) her new creations.
she named them for all her family members- the one she named for me is a tiny
delicate shell pink… at this point in my life, i would be a big sloppy red flower! lol
many of her beauties still grow in the American Camellia Society’s gardens in
Ft. Valley, Ga. she was considered an expert in her field, and wrote many articles
in horticulture magazines of her time.

my grandmother, Emilie Jarasse Witman, was a great lady who never went without
her face cream every night ( she was French) but she was quite handy with a machete
or a hoe. she could kill a copperhead snake with one chop, without blinking an eye….
and then plan a cocktail party for the evening. her extensive horticultural knowledge
as well as her accomplishments left a great impression on me; because of her, i was
bitten early by the gardening bug. she “made” me into a gardening fool, and i am still
most grateful for all her influence, today!

vty, j-lea

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

← Previous Post
Garden Center: Baker’s Village
Next Post →
Garden Center: Yonies Greenhaus

About Joanne Dibble

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. JWLW says

    May 20, 2010 at 2:07 am

    Very nice Ilona, thank you for sharing with us. Those kind of memory’s are always warming.

    Enjoy,John

  2. JWLW says

    May 20, 2010 at 2:14 am

    HI: Guess I started the previous comment wrong. Directed it to the wrong person. If you can’t correct it delete it and i will post again.

    John

  3. Teresa O says

    May 20, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    I love the personal gardening stories the best. How wonderful to have known a grandmother with a beautiful green thumb and finesse.

    Like you, my blogging has been sparse for awhile, but I’m tickled to be posting twice in one week!

  4. Ilona says

    May 20, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    John- once published I couldn’t change it, but I agree that Joanne’s lovely memoir of her grandmother is heartwarming and shows how gardening seems to illumine our best qualities for those with eyes to see.

    I always knew of your visits to your grandmother, but the magic of the place, and the impression your grandmother made on you is something new . What a treat to see inside the life of an old friend this way.

    Teresa- blogging must have its rest cycle, just as the garden needs one…at least that is my view.

  5. Stella says

    May 20, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    What wonderful memories of your grandmother. I also remember my grandmother in a flower garden but it was much smaller. The middle of the Montana prairie is a hard place to garden. Thanks for sharing.

Primary Sidebar

Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Visit for a Spell

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Mission

Finding your way home via the garden path

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Portrait of a Gardener

gardener musings
Musings

What’s Wrong With Today’s Gardening?

Modern gardening
What Is Wrong?

Garden Journal

fine garden journal
Journal, Planner and Log Book
buy quality plants

You might also like

seeds

National Seed Swap Day in January

Garden advice

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

Create A Child’s Garden, Grow Love For Nature

Growing Indoor Flowers In December

I Found Out About “She Sheds” And Coincidentally, About Friends

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Standouts

10 Useful Gardening Tips For Spring

Do You Grow Herbs? 10 Reasons To Love Them

10 Cool Season Annual Flowers To Plant

Standouts

August Gardening: Ten Suggestions

What are your ten top choices for perennial plantings?

ilonagarden

With village lights With village lights
Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄 Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄
Instagram post 17935013548845771 Instagram post 17935013548845771
Instagram post 17981374354427684 Instagram post 17981374354427684
Instagram post 17865517706595888 Instagram post 17865517706595888
Gift of flowers by my bedside Gift of flowers by my bedside
#mockorange #juneflowers #ohio #mockorange #juneflowers #ohio
Instagram post 18224713828022497 Instagram post 18224713828022497
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Join Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 · Your Site Name

Hazel Theme by Code + Coconut