Archive for the ‘Plant of the Week’ Category
Monday, July 26th, 2010
Plant of the Week
 Rose of Sharon This week, it has to be Hibiscus syriacus, or commonly known as ‘Rose of Sharon’. Why this week? Because it has been, and will continue, to show the colors we’re seeing right now, for the rest of the summer! Rose of Sharon is a long-time landscape favorite for its bright all summer blooms. And the new varieties of this old-fashioned favorite have better form, larger flowers, and produce few if any seeds compared to their predecessors. (This helps eliminate the need to weed seedlings which can be a drawback of older varieties.) Rose of Sharon blooms when few other shrubs are in bloom (pretty much all summer). It is an upright, vase-shaped shrub that grows 8-12 ft depending upon variety, their planting location and pruning. Rose of Sharon is dramatic enough to be used as a single specimen, yet is extremely popular as a hedge or shrub border addition. Rose of Sharon is very easy to grow and tolerant of a wide variety of growing conditions. It blooms best in full sun (tolerates part sun conditions), tolerates poor soils, urban conditions, summer heat, humidity and light drought. Available in single and double flowers – colors ranging from pinks and reds and lavenders, to all white and white with colorful eyes in the center of the flower. (By the way, if you like hibiscus, check out the perennial hibiscus and the tropical hibiscus, too!)
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Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Plant of the Week
 Here’s an unusual perennial that you may never heard of before. The genus is Ligularia (of which you will find several species / selections, but today we’ll focus on Ligularia stenocephala ‘The Rocket’ (sometimes called the Leopard plant). The Rocket is a bold specimen perennial that although can be grown in full sun (wilts down) and in an assortment of soil types, it prefers and does best in loamy moist soils and shade to partially shaded areas (afternoon shade). Plants form a clump of large jagged edged triangularly heart shaped green leaves, with purplish black stems that rise above the foliage in the summer, bearing long spikes of bright yellow daisy like flowers. Great for the back of the border, along shady creek banks, ponds, pools or boggs, in mass or as a specimen, especially in shade to partially shaded gardens. The secret to a great appearance is good even moisture in the soil. Look for other species of Ligularia, some of which have purple / maroon leaves. (Can be grown in containers assuming good soil moisture levels.)
[You know it’s hot when you break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7am.]
Tags: Ligularia stenocephala ‘The Rocket’
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Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Plants of the Week
 June is Perennial Gardening Month, so we’ll feature a perennial as plant of the week, and a great shade tree that is way underused! For our perennial of the week, it just happens to be perennial of the year from 2007. And, sometimes the common name gets some folks confused. It’s Nepeta x faassenil ‘Walker’s Low’, or more commonly known as ‘Walker’s Low’ Catmint. Yes, catmint, not catnip! Although a relative to the mints, this sun loving non invasive lower spreading perennial (12-15 inches high – 15-24 inches with flowers) has showy grey green foliage topped off with masses of lavender bluish purple flowers for a great mid to late spring show, and once sheared off, will provide second and even third flushes of wonderful flowers throughout the summer. Used for colorful edging border or mass plantings, this is one perennial that definitely attracts the honeybees, butterflies and hummingbirds, as well as your eye (they are so colorful!).
Our ‘woody’ plant of the week is one very bold and attractive large growing shade tree. It’s Quercus bicolor, or commonly known as ‘Swamp White Oak’. Now, don’t let the name fool you. Yes, it will grow in poorly drained soils, but grows just as well in good – well drained soils! The Swamp White Oak is a beautiful native tree with lustrous, heavy textured leaves with wavy margins. It is a rapidly growing, long-lived tree that may reach ages well over 150 years plus. The name bicolor refers to the two-colored leaf, shining dark green above and velvety white pubescence below, turning golden in the fall. This deciduous tree has a rounded open habit and gets large, so give it plenty of room to expand. Swamp White Oak trees are easy to grow, and certainly casts great shade for your yard. Truly a beautiful large shade tree for the summer and adds great winter characteristics to the landscape as well!
Tags: walker's low catmint
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Monday, May 17th, 2010
Plant of the Week
Excuse me, but would you by chance have the “thyme”? If not, you should! Our plant of the week is a group of plants that have been around for a very long thyme, and it seems we just keep getting more and more of them all the thyme. Thyme is probably one of the best known and maybe most widely used culinary herbs, is generally fairly easy to grow, and not only grown for culinary uses, but for decorative and as a functional plant in the landscape. Thyme is a perennial / evergreen herb, most being of small -low bush or ground cover forms, with small leaves, woody stems, and a wide range of summer flower colors. Bees love to spend their thyme collecting the thyme nectar, yet many undesirable insects are repelled by thyme. Even deer won’t spend thyme eating thyme. And did we mention there are so many different thymes available that you probably don’t have the thyme to grow them all? Coconut thyme, creeping thyme, English thyme, French thyme, lemon thyme, lavender thyme, miniature thyme, Mother of thyme, orange thyme, silver thyme, wedgewood thyme, woolly thyme, lime thyme, Elfin thyme, Annie Hall thyme, Magic Carpet thyme, Yardboy thyme (okay just kidding) – I really don’t have the thyme to list them all! But you should take the thyme to learn more about thyme and then plant different types of thyme in the landscape, around stepping stones – even in containers. Over thyme, you’ll have all kinds of thyme. But I doubt you’ll have all the different types of thyme available, because they thyme breeders just keep adding more thyme. How do they do that? I thought there was only so much thyme in the day. Guess I need to take some thyme and figure that one out. In the mean-thyme, add some thyme to your life.
Tags: thyme
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Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Plant of the Week
We talk a lot about the queens of the summer gardens ‘Hydrangeas’, but not a lot is said about a selection that could easily be the ‘vining’ queen of your shade or summer garden. Climbing Hydrangea
 Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea a. petiolaris) provides four season interest in shady places. They sport lacy white spring blooms, lush summer foliage that turns yellow in the fall and unusual exfoliating bark that provides winter interest. Part sun is ideal for flowering, but they will tolerate full shade. This clinging vine is a vigorous grower once established and may reach 50 feet in maturity. If needed, it can be trained to maintain a smaller size. It may be grown upright or as a groundcover.
Tags: climbing hydrangea
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Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Plant of the Week
 Our plant of the week just happens to also be the 2010 Perennial of the Year. It is Baptisia australis, or commonly known as ‘Blue False Indigo’. Here is a wonderful native perennial that is an excellent anchor to the back of the border, for cottage garden like plantings, native plant gardens, and can be used as a specimen plant or in massed plantings. The plant forms a mound of clover like, trifoliate, bluish green leaves (3-4 feet high and wide), with the emerging shoots producing violet blue, lupine like flowers on upright flower stems that extend well past the foliage of the plant. Those spring flowers will last about 3-4 weeks, and then give way to inflated seed pods which turn a charcoal black and are excellent for use in floral arrangements. By the way, the name Blue False Indigo refers to the use of this perennial by early Americans as a dye. [Baptisia prefers full sun but will go in partial sun, enjoys well drained soils and is very drought tolerant once established, and is very hardy zones 3-9.]
[Mom taught me about FORESIGHT - "Make sure you have on clean underwear just in case you're in an accident."]
Tags: baptisia australis, blue false indigo
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Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Plant of the Week
Stevia / The Natural Sweetener – Growing herbs can be a pleasure for all your senses. And if you’re looking for an herb to help pleasure your sweet tooth, an herb that has no carbs and no calories, then we’ve got what you need! It’s called Stevia, or commonly called ’sweet leaf’ or ’sugar bush’, and has been used as a natural sweetener for hundreds of years. The leaves of Stevia are refreshing and can be 30 times (or more) sweeter than sugar (extracts hundreds times sweeter), with 0 carbs, 0 calories, and 0 glycemic index, making it the perfect natural sweetener to be considered for diabetics (check with your doctor first). And what’s even greater is that it can be grown in your own back yard – especially in containers! Stevia is a tender perennial, and is not hardy past Zone 7. So plant it as an annual (actually planted as an annual in warmer zones as well). It will grow in the ground or in containers, morning sun afternoon shade to full sun, and actually enjoys cooler weather, and definitely not the hot weather. In the south, it may require some summer shading. Stevia – the natural sweetener.
[Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?]
Tags: stevia
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Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
Plant of the Week
 Coral Bark Japanese Maple One of my favorite Japanese maples (and there are so many to chose from!) has been chosen plant of the week. It’s Acer palamtum ‘Sangu kaku’, or sometimes called ‘Coral Bark’ Japanese maple. I mean, I just like saying the name “Sangu kaku”, let alone how cool the plant looks! Here is a very hardy Japanese maple, sort of upright vase shaped, 10-12 feet tall and 8 feet wide, that has a bright red bark coloring in the winter after the leaves all fall off. In the growing season, the stem colors lighten a bit, as the tree becomes covered with bright green leaves that can be lightly tinged with a bit of red on the edges. And the fall color – a nice yellow. This one will have your guests asking what it is, and you will proudly spout out, “Sangu kaku”!
[Laughing stock - cattle with a sense of humor?]
Tags: coral bark japanese maple
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Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Plant of the Week
Don’t you just love magnolias? Even their name sounds good – “magnolia”. The plant of the week is one of the early bloomers of the magnolias, usually flowering at the same time as the forsythia. Its Magnolia stellata, or commonly known as ‘Star Magnolia’. Used as a specimen or accent plant, ‘Star’ is a multi-stemmed, somewhat bushy looking magnolia (can be limbed up into a multi-stemmed small tree) reaching 15-20 feet in width and height. It’s gray brown stems and glabrous dark green oblong leaves (2-4 inches long) make this magnolia very attractive during the growing season, but it’s the wonderful heavy blooming fragrant white star like flowers that really put on a show in early spring (many flowers show a bit of pink in the center). Each flower will have as many as 28-32 petals and are about 5 inches across when fully opened. You can count on this one flowering each year, and starting at a very early age. ‘Star Magnolia’ – a true sign that spring has arrived.
Tags: magnolia
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
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Buddleia Lo
Plant of the Week
Our plant of the week has just been given the title of best new plant and received a gold medal at the Salon Du Vegetal in France! Some of you may already be growing it, as it was available here last year. It’s Buddleia Lo & Behold ‘Blue Chip’, and is the only miniature butterfly bush with loads of lightly fragrant blue-purple flowers. This dwarf selection (24-30 inches high and wide) is drought and deer resistant, attracts hummingbirds and butterflies, flowers continuously (all summer long) without deadheading, and is great as a specimen, mass plantings, and compact enough to grow in containers. Hardy zones 5-9, loves the sun, and really is a low maintenance all summer flowering shrub (or woody perennial). Look for this “must have” in our garden stores this spring.
[If you think you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.]
Tags: behold 'blue chip', buddleia
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