May 18th, 2012

Liatris draws the butterflies

Famed Redding gardener Ruth Stout is best remembered for her 1955 book “How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back”.  In it she advised mulching heavily with spoiled hay so as to eliminate weeds, enrich the soil, and ease the gardener’s workload.

Though Ruth primarily referred to the vegetable garden, there are techniques to simplify the life of the flower gardener as well. For instance, encourage self-sowers. These easy plants enjoy our Connecticut conditions so much that they happily broadcast their progeny and fill our borders.

We must, of course, be careful not to encourage invasive plants such as goutweed or purple loosestrife.  (For more information see the Connecticut Invasive Plants List at http://www.hort.uconn.edu/cipwg/pdfs/CTInvasivePlantList2011-CommonName.pdf )

There are many well-behaved, perfectly lovely flowers, both annual and perennial, which aren’t aggressive, but rather are colorful and undemanding. Here’s just a sampling:

Annuals:

Johnny jump up is the quintessential harbinger of spring, and will even bloom in mild winters. They’ll peter out with summer heat, but set seed for next year.

 Nigella, aka “Love in a Mist”. I purchased a 6-pack of these babies years ago and now they’ve proliferated in shades of blue, pink and lavender in sunny areas. Great for the cottage garden.

Verbena bonariensis, aka “tall verbena” or pencil plant.  Ditto. I bought a 6-pack and now they liberally sprinkle themselves throughout the beds. Since they flower on tall, thin stems, they’re useful in the middle or back of the border.

Portulaca, aka moss rose comes along later in the season, and though they tend to stay open only in the mornings, they boast cheerful blooms in many colors.  Give them a dry sunny location.

Short-Lived Perennials:

Columbine pops up where you least expect it, though mostly in semi-shaded areas. Despite the fact that you may have chosen a purple or pink or white cultivar last year columbine is headstrong, and after self-sowing will bloom in whatever color they desire.

Rose campion. With its silvery leaves and magenta flowers, this 24 inch upright plant is welcome in my sunny garden. I received a gift of this from my sister in upstate New York years ago, and now it scatters itself in shadier areas too. 

Perennials:
A choice early bloomer, hellebore will set many a seed if it’s happy in shaded, moist conditions.  Look for the baby plants with ?? leaves around the mother in the spring.  They will take a few years to bloom, but since these are expensive plants at the nursery, consider them a treasure!

Bleeding heart is a wanton breeder, but a welcome one. I rue the day I actually purchased my first few bleeding hearts, because now I have way too many. I’ve often transplanted them in my shaded borders, and they always do beautifully.

For me heuchera ‘Palace Purple’ comes fairly true from seed, and I find welcome little plantlets all over the garden.

For later, long-lasting bloom as well as food for birds, try coneflower. I started with ‘Magnus’ in one garden and now have it in many places. It’s pretty in pink, tall, and hardy as a rock.

The flower of lamb’s ear is another plant which is attractive to wildlife. In this case bees and butterflies. I grow it primarily for its felted gray leaves, but also allow it to flower to help out Mother Nature.

With all these self-sowers, it’s important to recognize the seedlings the following spring, lest you rip them out as weeds. And don’t mulch too early or too heavily; you don’t want to cover up your incipient crop of freebies.

Let Ruth Stout’s philosophy be your guide, and you, too, can have a green thumb and a colorful garden without an aching back.

Saturday, April 28th, 2012

Bleeding Heart in the shady garden

Here’s a classic gardener’s dilemma. Should you leave the flowers in the garden for the entire neighborhood to enjoy, or bring them inside for you and the family to admire in the living room?

Why not do both? If you grow a large enough variety of plants, including annuals, perennials, vines, and flowering shrubs, there will be plenty of blossoms for all to see, sniff and admire indoors and out. Many choices exist to beautify both the garden and the home, and it takes just a bit of planning to have a sumptuous garden full of flowers for cutting. Here’s what to consider:

First determine the colors you find attractive and choose accordingly. What colors do you wear? With what hues do you decorate your home?  Does pink make you contemplative, yellow make you cheerful and red rev you up? Select correspondingly.

As for the borders themselves, you can have a bed solely devoted to flowers for cutting; or as I do, simply grow those beauties amid the other plants. If you do decide to start a bed from scratch, prepare the soil well, incorporating plenty of compost. Scatter some organic fertilizer such as Plant-tone, and make sure to water.  (especially this year!)

Following is a selection of cutting flowers I tend in my gardens, roughly in order of bloom: Of course, the lineup changes with the years, as I murder some plants and discover others. But mostly these are tried and true.

Spring:  Pansies, Korean spice viburnum, lungwort, quince, Darwin hybrid tulips, grape hyacinth, Virginia bluebells, Bleeding heart, crabapple, rhododendron, columbine, larkspur, lily-of-the-valley, lilac, sweet pea.

Late spring/ early Summer:  Lady’s mantle, astilbe, wallflower, feverfew, peony, bearded iris, nigella.

Summer:         Rudbeckia, allium, Pearly everlasting, amaranthus, coreopsis, cosmos, dahlia, coneflower, filipendula, gypsophilia, hosta, liatris, gooseneck lysimachia, phlox, rose

Autumn:         aster, sea oats grass, tall sedum, obedient plant, cimicifuga, solidago.

Some of these flowers possess other desirable characteristics. For instance:

Fragrance:  Korean spice viburnum, grape hyacinth, hyacinth, lilac, bearded iris, sweet pea, wallflower,  lily of the valley, phlox, cimicifuga.

Suitable for shade:   lungwort, Virginia bluebells, Bleeding heart, rhododendron, Lady’s mantle, astilbe, hosta, cimicifuga.

Drought tolerance (once established):  quince, columbine, rudbeckia, allium, Bearded iris, feverfew, cosmos, amaranthus, Pearly everlasting, coreopsis, dahlia, gooseneck lysimachia, grasses, gypsophilia, hosta.

The list shows that one needn’t be a spendthrift to have a gorgeous cutting garden. Many of these sweetie-pie plants self-sow, and others may be obtained at the local garden club plant sales (Bethel’s is May 19^th behind the Methodist Church, 359 Greenwood Avenue)

When you harvest, cut flowers in the cool of the day, and immediately plunge the stems into tepid water. Change the water daily.  When arranging, I don’t mess with “frogs” or Oasis; as a dirt-under-the-fingernails gardener, I just pick the flowers and stick ‘em into the container. And I like to bring armloads of blossoms to church, to Book Club, to laid-up friends, as housewarming, hostess gifts and “just because”. Nothing conveys emotion quite like flowers gathered from the garden.

For further information, see Cutting Gardens, by Anne Halpin and Betty Mackey

April 14th, 2012                            

European ginger

As a garden coach, one of the most frequent questions I receive is, “What perennials will grow in dry shade”?

A worthy query and one especially pertinent this dry year, for after a barren winter, there’s not an extra smidgen of moisture in the soil. So be prepared….install those rain barrels, haul out the soaker tubing, crank up the garden hose; it’s going to be a wild ride.

In addition to readying the watering arsenal, one of the best things a gardener can do to prepare for drought is install non-thirsty material. Which brings us back to what will grow in dry shade.

First ascertain how much shade you really have. Deep shade is very different from filtered light. Take notes for an entire sunny day on how much shade an area actually has. Is the garden in shadow all day, or just in the afternoon? Does it receive dappled coverage during the heat of the day or does the house block all sunlight?

Next determine the source of the dryness. If your garden is surrounded by trees such as maples or conifers, they’re most likely gobbling up all available moisture, and you really have a challenge. If, on the other hand, the soil simply needs amending with compost so that it holds water more efficiently, that’s a different kettle of fish.

If the former, make liberal use of foliar fertilizer so those darn trees can’t grab the goodies from the soil, and be sure to top dress the area each year with compost. Don’t cover the tree roots however, and don’t plant too close to the trunks.

If the latter, apply black gold to the area annually.

Here, as promised, is my list of favored plants for dry shade:

Epimedium.   These pretty little 12-inch high perennials come in sulfur yellow, pink or white and are easy as pie.  Also called barrenwort or Bishop’s Hat, they will slowly spread. Deer and disease resistant, they want to be divided in late August.

Ferns are the backbone of the shade garden and many tolerate dry shade well. The honking big Ostrich fern, for example. Also consider Hay-Scented, Marginal Shield and Christmas ferns.

Nothing much bothers liriope, but the variegated cultivar is prettier than the plain-Jane green. It spreads by runners, so be on the lookout for offspring. Use it a ground cover or specimen clump.

Lamium is another ground cover which does well in dry shade. Get the variegated form; it flowers in pink, white, and lavender.

European ginger is a show-stopper. It attains only 5 inches in height, with glossy, rounded green leaves that stay fresh all season. Its flowers are nondescript, but it slowly seeds to make a lovely ground cover.

Phlox divericata enjoys dappled shade, and will burst into fragrant bloom in late April. Beware of slugs.

My last, but surely not least recommendations are tiarella and heucherella. These are kissing cousins and both are grown for their foliage as much as their flowers. Try tiarella ‘Spring Symphony’ for masses of pink flowers on deeply-cut foliage, and heucherella ‘Sweet Tea’ for vibrant cinnamon-centered leaves with orange tea-colored borders.

Some no-no’s. Astilbe won’t be happy in dry shade. Goutweed will eventually swallow the garden. Hydrangea often need more water and less shade than we think.

As a lazy gardener, I’m not about to water my plot of Mother Earth unnecessarily. Therefore in the dry shady areas of my yard I think carefully before I stick a plant in the ground.

You should too.