LADY BUG...WHEN WILL CHARLESTON BE IN BLOOM?

"When will Charleston be in bloom?"

This question is asked by many from this area each year.

In April, Charleston comes alive with the explosion of multi-colored azaleas and other spring blooming flowers beneath a canopy of stately pink and white dogwood.

This year the bounty of spring is welcomed with Charleston's 26th Annual Dogwood and Azalea Festival, this weekend, April 15 through 17.

Located only 10 miles from the Mississippi River, in a rich flood plain this area is said to have some of the richest soil in the United States because centuries of flooding have left this part of Missouri with rich, black dirt that will grow most anything.

Although Charleston, a town of 5,000, is only 30 miles from Cape Girardeau, Henry Ochs, former Cape Girardeau florist and a professional horticulturist, has said that climatically it is about the same as 100 miles because their vegetation often is that much ahead of ours.

Mr. Ochs tells an interesting story about the beginnings of azalea culture in Charleston. He and his father owned and operated Ochs and Son Nursery here. (Later, for many years he owned and operated Ochs Greenhouse on West Cape Rock Drive.)

When they were attending the Mardi Gras in New Orleans in the 1940's, he saw his first azaleas growing, and purchased a small potted one he brought home with him. A friend, the late Will Bartels, a Cape Girardeau merchant, saw this unusual plant and so did a resident of Charleston. Both wanted the nursery men to order some for them.

When the plants arrived from new Orleans, Mr. Ochs was requested to bring those for the Charleston resident to his home and plant them. Because of their sandy, fertile soil, the plants took off and grew profusely, thus starting this town on the beautiful combination of dogwood and azaleas, which bloom together. The dogwood (which are stately trees now) were already growing there.

Mr. Ochs noted that for those who do not have a rich, sandy soil, they should dig a hole as large as a bushel basket to plant an azalea. Mix some of that soil with a peck of peat moss and work them together well.

If planting several plants, such as a new bed, a gardener should take about three inches of peat moss, spread it with some wettable sulphur and spade it under, to establish an acid environment. In the autumn, mulch well with oak leaves. Planted this way the azaleas should last for years.

The story of the doorstep gardens (English fashion) has an interesting beginning, also.

Charleston has long been noted for its beautiful southern homes, and beautifully kept grounds. On Hunter Street, there were several smaller homes, but one was different. There lived Molly French, who loved flowers and planted them in her front yard for all to see and enjoy.

Everyone in Charleston knew Molly French and knew that she not only knew about growing flowers, but loved to share them with friends and neighbors. It is said that everyone who called at her home would go away with a few "slips" and cuttings with instructions on how to make them grow.

Soon most of the homes on Hunter street had either front or side yard gardens from her starts. There was no spirit of competition, but a spirit of sharing, all with the same objective, "to make Charleston beautiful in the springtime."

And so it is also today on North Main and Commercial Streets, where plantings have been made of early spring flowers and bulbs, as well as wildflowers that all bloom at the same time.

In 1952, a garden club was formed and federated that bears the name The Molly French Garden Club. The club started having a plant sale that year, promoting the planting of azaleas and dogwood, and they have continued with that sale each year, experimenting with those varieties which will do best in Charleston. They will also have for sale annuals and perennials that will bring summer color to their lovely gardens.

Garden clubbers have experimented with bulbs and other plants that bloom early along with their established plantings. Now they plant early botanical tulips and narcissi, hyacinths, grape hyacinths and intermediate iris. They also plant a lot of perennial candy tuft, basket of gold, and wild sweet William, all of which makes a colorful border or bed.

In the side yard of the Moore home on North Main Street is located the Missouri State Champion Dogwood tree and an unusual cucumber magnolia. A plaque identifies Missouri's Champion Willow Oak in Rolwing Park.

Charleston is filled with activities for the weekend -- and it should be in bloom for the next two weeks.