Celebrate the Start of Summer with These Beautiful Liberty County Blooms
One of the many perks of being located on the Georgia coast is that we have beautiful blooms year-round! Each season brings a new wave of color and sweet fragrance and summer is no exception. From magnolias to swamp flowers, we have your guide to some of the prettiest blooms around!
It’s hard to see a field of sunflowers and not want to snap a photo or two. These towering beauties are right at home here in Liberty County with our massive amounts of sunshine and rich soil! They’re also perfect in a vase on the kitchen table. It’s like having sunshine right on the table!
Hydrangeas are one of our favorite flowers, and you can come visit us here at the historic Bacon Fraser House if you want to view some up close and personal! We have some of the traditional mophead variety, like those pictured here, as well as the oakleaf variety which absolutely love a hot summer!
The beach morning glory is a common creeping vine that typically grows along the upper part of the beaches and can survive the salt air. In Liberty County, you’ll find them creeping along a fence, up trees and even alongside the ground close to the coast where the air is the saltiest! It is known as one of the hardiest of the salt tolerant plants and the seeds actually float and are unaffected by saltwater! You will find them abloom first thing on a summer morning and then closing for the heat of mid-day to reopen again in the evening.
The bottlebrush tree is actually native to Australia believe it or not but has been widely cultivated in the US, especially in coastal communities because it likes moist conditions. Folks in Liberty County have been known to use it as a privacy screen around property that still provides a beautiful view with its bottlebrush vivid red flowers. Since it loves the heat we can certainly accommodate in the summertime!
The magnolia is one of the most graceful of flowers and seen all over Liberty County. It is theorized that magnolias actually predate bees and that they were pollinated by beetles! This fragrant white flower can be seen throughout the county in yards, on roadsides and in parks.
Water lilies are blooming all over coastal Georgia already. Some people consider it to be an invasive species of flower because it can literally take over a pond or small lake, however, we consider them to be absolutely gorgeous! There’s nothing quite like looking out over a pond covered in these beauties. Take a drive out to the Isle of Wight in Midway, and you’ll see plenty floating around!
Photo courtesy of Bianca Croft
The swamp hibiscus is a shrub-like water loving plant. With big, showy flowers it sure is hard to miss and will bring a smile to your face every time. The plant itself can get up to 10 feet tall and works well as a perennial border. They are also a haven for birds, especially hummingbirds and butterflies!
You know summer is almost here when the sweet fragrance of gardenias is drifting on the coastal breeze. A favorite for our area, this ornamental shrub does well with our mild winter temperatures and moist soil.
