Robert Rogers' Martinez garden suits all the senses, offering everything from fragrant flowers to spicy peppers.
He is 75, and gardening is part of his heritage. He grew up on a truck farm in Colquitt County, Ga., that grew vegetables such as beans, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes -- "you name it."
Peppers are a passion. He grows Thai hot peppers in pots and preserves them in old Cracker Barrel syrup bottles. Don't let the peppers' small size fool you: They pack a punch.
"If you go to the dentist and you don't want to use Novocain, take one of these and chew it up," Mr. Rogers said. He also makes pepper jelly and pepper relish, a recipe that includes green tomatoes and Vidalia onions.
About 70 percent of his garden is allocated to flowers. He specializes in camellias, which remind him of his late wife, Caroline.
She was from Marshallville, Ga., "the camellia center of the South," he said. In 1995, he named his first camellia Daughter of Pearl to honor his wife, whose mother's name was Pearl.
Since his wife died in 2000, Mr. Rogers has collected 90 varieties of camellias, 148 altogether, he said. He has rooted about half and bought the other half as plants.
Mr. Rogers is a member of the American Camellia Society and can name each of the varieties he owns.
He has the Debutante pink camellias, the type he says women would wear on their wrists to church on Sundays. Some of his other varieties are Lady Laura, Grand Marshall, White Giant, Mary Alice Cox, Show time, Frank Houser and Grace Albritton.
He likes camellias because of their beauty but concedes they can be demanding.
"They're temperamental -- they don't like a whole lot of water, they don't like a whole lot of nitrogen," he said.
Though camellias are his favorite, he has other flowers, including lacecap and oakleaf hydrangeas, red and white impatiens, towering sunflowers, plumeria, roses and fragrant Black Knight butterfly bushes.
Mr. Rogers loves spending time in his garden, and he makes no concessions because of his age.
"If I die out there, I'll die happy," he said, "because that's what I want to do."
Reach Sarah Day Owen at (706) 823-3223 or sarah.owen@augustachronicle.com.
IN THE GARDEN
WHO: Robert Rogers
WHAT: Tips on canning peppers:
- Get rubber gloves.
- Cut the pepper up and put it into a bottle or jar, one piece at a time.
- Add white, distilled vinegar.
- They're ready when you're finished.
MR. ROGERS' camellia-buying tip: Never buy a camellia in a pot someone has picked up by its stem, because camellia roots are delicate.
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