Greenwood Nursery & Gardens

Weekly Plant Give-A-Way Contest Announced

2011-06-10T17:35:00.001-07:00

Greenwood Nursery Announces Weekly Contest for Plant Give-A-Way

Beginning the week of May 16th, Greenwood Nursery is holding a weekly plant give away for members of their Facebook Fan Page. Each Saturday one lucky member will receive a plant or garden product. Contest to be held weekly through June 25th.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – May 24, 2011 – Greenwood Nursery, McMinnville, TN announces their weekly plant and garden product give away. Beginning the week of May 16th through June 25th, they will draw a name from their Facebook Fan Page Membership. Drawing will be held on weekends and announced at that time. The winner will receive one of Greenwood Nursery's Proven Winner plants or one of their gardening products such as The Gardener's Hollow Leg fabric gardening sack, African market baskets, or wildflower seed kits.
For an opportunity to win in this contest, visit the Greenwood Nursery Facebook Fan Page and Join or Like their Fan Page. The winner must reside within the continental United States as prize will only be shipped within the contiguous U.S.
GreenwoodNursery.com is your one stop online garden center for trees, flowering shrubs, ground covers, flowering perennials, organic lawn care products and more. Rated a top 5 online nursery by About.com. Find your next plants at their online plant nursery.
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Rated one of the top 5 online nurseries by about.com, Greenwood Nursery offers a wide selection of shade trees, flowering trees, flowering shrubs, evergreen shrubs, ground covers, perennials, and gardening supplies.
Related articles

Landscaping around Decks, Patios and Porches (gardeningwithcheryl.com)
Planting a Small Sized Garden (gardeningwithcheryl.com)

Planting a Small Sized Garden

2011-06-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

When you don’t have the budget or inclination to do the landscaping projects you really should do, downsize. Downsize with smaller landscapes and smaller plants. Small sized gardens can be used effectively to enhance bland foundations, corners, and entrances as well as add color, fragrance and interest to patios and other sitting areas.

Small gardens use small scale shrubs and perennials. Anchor shrubs should mature around 3 to 4 feet tall and are typically placed in the back 1/3 of the area. Planting one or two evergreen shrubs makes a good base. Colorful small shrubs and shrub-like perennials are other good choices.

Small garden anchor plants:

Boxwood Winter Gem
Boxwood Wintergreen
Nandina Firepower
Sungold Cypres
Sunjoy Gold Pillar Barberry
Bloomerang (reblooming lilac)
Barberry Royal Burgundy
Arctic Fire Dogwood
Clethra Sugartina Crystalina

Karley Rose, Prairie Dropseed, Karl Foerster and Adagio are some of the more striking ornamental grasses that are attractive as single specimens and can be used in lieu shrubs as anchor plants.

Plant perennials of varied heights keeping within 12 to 40 inches tall for added interest. Some of the friendliest and brightest varieties are:

Lo & Behold Blue Chip Buddleia
Lavender (Munstead, Hidcote & Kew Red)
Pineapple Sage
Walker’s Low Catmint
Echinacea Day Dream (yellow) & Hot Lava (orangey red)
Purple Dome Aster
Heucheras Plum Pudding & Mystic Angel
Gaillardias Arizona Sun & Burgundy
Monardas Fireball & Blue Stocking
Veronicas Red Fox & Sunny Border Blue
Little Spire Russian Sage
Hostas
Ferns

Small scale groundcovers are the last touch for small gardens.

Select from:

Creeping rosemary
Corsican Mint
Elfin Thyme
Red Creeping Thyme
Blue Star Creeper (Laurentia)
Big Blue Liriope
Highland Cream Thyme

Use spreading plants that have a spreading habit to fill in over several years such as:

Red Drift Rose and Apricot Drift Rose
Beauty Bush Dreamcatcher
Rudbeckia Autumn Colors
Moonshine Yarrow & Summer Pastels Yarrow
Shasta Daisy Crazy Daisy
Dianthus Firewitch

How to plan a small sized garden for your enjoyment:

Select at least one small scale shrub to anchor the garden
Choose 3 or more perennials in varied heights
Use one variety of groundcover for the front most part
For even more interest add a butterfly house, bird house or whirligig just off the center point
For more ideas on small sized gardens, visit Greenwood Nursery.

Related articles

Landscaping around Decks, Patios and Porches (gardeningwithcheryl.com)

Planting a Small Sized Garden

2011-06-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

When you don’t have the budget or inclination to do the landscaping projects you really should do, downsize. Downsize with smaller landscapes and smaller plants. Small sized gardens can be used effectively to enhance bland foundations, corners, and entrances as well as add color, fragrance and interest to patios and other sitting areas.

Small gardens use small scale shrubs and perennials. Anchor shrubs should mature around 3 to 4 feet tall and are typically placed in the back 1/3 of the area. Planting one or two evergreen shrubs makes a good base. Colorful small shrubs and shrub-like perennials are other good choices.

Small garden anchor plants:

Karley Rose, Prairie Dropseed, Karl Foerster and Adagio are some of the more striking ornamental grasses that are attractive as single specimens and can be used in lieu shrubs as anchor plants.

Plant perennials of varied heights keeping within 12 to 40 inches tall for added interest. Some of the friendliest and brightest varieties are:

Lo & Behold Blue Chip Buddleia
Lavender (Munstead, Hidcote & Kew Red)
Pineapple Sage
Walker’s Low Catmint
Echinacea Day Dream (yellow) & Hot Lava (orangey red)
Purple Dome Aster
Heucheras Plum Pudding & Mystic Angel
Gaillardias Arizona Sun & Burgundy
Monardas Fireball & Blue Stocking
Veronicas Red Fox & Sunny Border Blue
Little Spire Russian Sage
Hostas
Ferns

Small scale groundcovers are the last touch for small gardens.

Select from:

Use spreading plants that have a spreading habit to fill in over several years such as:

Red Drift Rose and Apricot Drift Rose
Beauty Bush Dreamcatcher
Rudbeckia Autumn Colors
Moonshine Yarrow & Summer Pastels Yarrow
Shasta Daisy Crazy Daisy
Dianthus Firewitch

How to plan a small sized garden for your enjoyment:

Select at least one small scale shrub to anchor the garden
Choose 3 or more perennials in varied heights
Use one variety of groundcover for the front most part
For even more interest add a butterfly house, bird house or whirligig just off the center point

For more ideas on small sized gardens, visit Greenwood Nursery.

Selecting Plants for Borders and Edging

2010-11-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

Selecting Plants for Borders and Edging

Drift Roses

2010-10-06T04:19:00.000-07:00

New from the Knockout Rose Family, are the Drift Roses. Drift Roses are gorgeous compact growing groundcover-like roses with miniature roses that will bloom continually from early spring to frost. Like their Knockout Relatives, the Drift Roses are tough, disease resistant and cold hardy as far north as zone 5.

They are sure to become a favorite for any type border. Prune back to 4" in early spring (after the last hard frost) for best performance. Regular deadheading encourages re-blooming and helps maintain a tidy appearance.

Currently, we are booking our Drift Roses for shipping this spring. We will have the Red Drift Roses and Apricot Drift Roses available.

P. Allen Smith talks about Drift Roses in his recent newsletter. This is a good short article on these new landscape plants. I hope you take the time to read it. http://bit.ly/9UfjpB

New garden books in time for spring planting… and reading

2010-03-31T10:18:00.001-07:00

Like most garden lovers, Cheryl and I enjoy reading books on our favorite subject. However experienced you are, you can always learn something new (or re-learn something you had forgotten) and many of today’s books are a delight to look at with page upon page of lavish photographs.

Here are a few books that recently landed on our desks at the Nursery. They might be treasured additions to your own garden bookshelf.

“The Homeowner’s Complete Tree and Shrub Handbook”

Penelope O’Sullivan (Storey Publishing)

Trees and shrubs are the heart and soul of the home landscape. You can learn how to use them effectively with this comprehensive handbook, covering all the essentials of woody plant gardening.

In addition to basic design principals and plant selection and care, the handbook features an extensive encyclopedia of more than 350 tree and shrub profiles.

“Garden Bouquets and Beyond”

Suzy Bales (Rodale)

If you love to see an abundance of flowers growing in your garden but are somewhat hesitant about how to bring their color and fragrance successfully indoors, “Garden Bouquets and Beyond” could be the ideal book for you.

Combining her lifelong experience as a gardener with her skills as a floral designer, Suzy Bales puts together fresh flowers and foliage from her landscape for dozens of enchanting seasonal designs.

The book’s subtitle, “Creating Wreaths, Garlands and More in Every Garden Season” points out that getting creative with your flora is something you can enjoy all year round, for special occasions or just your own pleasure.

This is an all-encompassing guide, from when to cut and how to arrange to using flowers, leaves and vines in all types of decorations and arrangements. Lavishly illustrated with more than 150 photographs, Suzy’s book takes found objects, foliage of all colors and seasonal blooms to put together deceptively simple, beautiful arrangements.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Year-Round Gardening

Delilah Smittle and Sheri Ann Richardson (Alpha)

Most people in temperate zones think of gardening as a seasonal endeavor, but there is a way to stretch the planting season and harvest fresh produce year-round. The authors of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Year-Round Gardening” take you through every step of both covered outdoor and indoor gardening.

I’m not suggesting you’re an Idiot (honest!) but both a complete novice and a more experienced garden lover will find plenty of tips to keep the goodies coming all year long. Particularly useful are the in-depth sections on the best use of row covers, cloches, cold frames and greenhouses. It’s an easy-to-follow guide with straightforward information presented in bite-sized chunks.

Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own

Bob Flowerdew (Kyle)

If you’re looking for something a little more lavish than the Idiot’s Guide, look for this new book by Bob Flowerdew (Could there be a better name for a gardener?) one of the world’s most respected authorities on organic gardening.

The first part of the book begins in the garden, showing you how to achieve a more continuous crop as well as how to extend your harvest. But Flowerdew’s book goes beyond the garden and into the kitchen to show the best way to preserve and cook these crops by bottling, drying, jamming, smoking, freezing, juicing, soaking and candying. It includes a ton of luscious photos that will appeal to both the gardener and the home chef.

“Dead Head”

Rosemary Harris (Minotaur Books)

Subtitled “A Dirty Business Mystery”, this is a novel that has all the elements to appeal to gardeners who also love to curl up with a good mystery. Wise-cracking gardener and amateur detective Paula Holliday is back, following her two previous adventures in “Pushing Up Daisies” and “The Big Dirt Nap” in this quick-witted and fast-paced mystery.

Author Harris is a master gardener and a former television producer, and knows how to cultivate a mystery that appeals to gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Groundcovers can replace lawns… and mowing

2010-03-10T08:56:00.001-08:00

Is there a groundcover that doesn’t need mowing, is kid-friendly but uninhabited by critters and insects? That’s a tall order as this reader finds out…

QUESTION: “We recently moved and purchased 5 acres but we only plan on a small garden for now. I really don't want to spend time mowing right now. Is there a short ground cover which the kids could play in?

”I am reading things about snakes, chiggers and ticks. I want my kids to be safe, yet I would like to keep the mowing to a minimum. Any suggestions?” – Linda

ANSWER: Most groundcovers will attract those unwanted elements, although they can be present even without the habitat that groundcover provides. Outside dogs and cats will help to keep the snakes at bay, but chiggers, ticks and other such critters are all around.

Any groundcover will take several years at best to fill in a large area such as you describe. There are chemicals that can be sprayed on the ground to help reduce the tick and flea population, but with children in and about the yard, you probably wouldn’t want to use it.

Here’s a compromise suggestion. Mark out a reasonably small area close to the house and seed or sod it to provide a “kid friendly” lawn. You could then put down some groundcover over much of the remaining area, so you only have to keep the kids’ play area mowed.

If you’re looking for a low-growing groundcover, you could try Wooly Thyme. It’s a fast spreading thyme with no scent or flavor, but it makes a very attractive soft carpet of hairy grayish foliage topped by bright pink flowers in summer. Wooly Thyme thrives in dry well-drained locations that receive full sun. It is a hardy evergreen that grows 2 - 5 inches high.

You could also look at Wooly’s cousin, Creeping Red Thyme, valued for its fragrant foliage and a profusion of beautiful red flowers all summer long.

Another possibility: Pennsylvania Sedge Grass, a good groundcover that could be a good choice if you have any damp shady areas under tree canopies.

But again, most groundcovers aren’t particularly suitable play areas for small children. In addition to harboring critters and insects, groundcovers can conceal rocks, stones and sharp twigs that can injure little bare feet and legs.

QUESTION: “When is the best time to plant weeping willows? I have approximately 80' span of yard that is extremely wet and hope the willows will assist in absorbing some or most of the moisture.

“How far apart should I plant the trees? I do not have any pipes or drains nearby to worry about the roots of the trees interfering with. Also, can you suggest any other trees that would do well in very moist soil? I have a fairly good sized yard 80' wide x 150' deep.” – Brenda Anderson

ANSWER: You should be able to begin planting around the latter part of March. It is important to remember that the willows won’t actually absorb the moisture in the ground. It is simply that they will tolerate the damp soil. If the ground is soggy wet, it may be trial and error to get them established. Should there be a period where the soil is drier, you might try scheduling to plant at that time.

I recommend the Weeping Willow Babylonica, the best and most beautiful of the green weeping willows, in my opinion. They grow to a mature height in the 30 to 50 foot range with a spread just as wide, so they need to be spaced about 30 to 50 feet apart, and are suitable for zones 4 – 9.

There aren’t many trees that grow happily in consistently wet ground. However, true weeping willows, bald cypress, red maple, river birch, green ash, swamp oak and willow oak are known to be tolerant of moist soil. But, as I mentioned, with soggy ground, it may take several tries to get them established.

Call 811 before you dig this Spring

2010-03-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

So you’ve decided to plant a couple of trees in your landscape this weekend. What’s the worst thing that could happen? An aching back? Blistered hands? Not even close!

How about swinging a pickaxe, hearing a clang and getting drenched with a geyser gushing from the water main you hit? Or maybe pulling back the lever on your rented Bobcat and realizing you’ve just ruptured a gas line or torn up a buried electrical cable?

It’s safe to say that any of those could pretty much ruin your weekend. You would also earn the wrath of your neighbors whose utilities were cut off until crews could repair your damage, and it’s likely you’d be responsible for the cost of repairs and possibly even open to legal consequences.

You might think that the hole you are digging for that new tree isn’t deep enough to cause a problem, but that can be a dangerous assumption. For one thing, some utilities might be closer to the surface than you imagine.

Additionally, you have to remember that tree roots can go deep and wide as the tree matures, and planting over or close to underground utilities is like burying a green time bomb that can dislodge and break lines many years in the future.

Fortunately, this is a problem that has a very simple (and free) solution.

All you have to do – BEFORE you dig – is call a single 3-digit phone number: 811. When you call 811 from anywhere in the country, your call will be routed to your local One Call Center. Local One Call Center operators will ask you for the location of your digging job and route your call to affected utility companies. Your utility companies will then send a professional locator to your location to mark your lines within a few days.

Utility companies have offered this service for many years, but with so many companies with so many phone numbers spread across the country, there was a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. Hence the start of a national one-call service and a unique phone number, 811.

Some homeowners believe the 811 service is solely for contractors but that is incorrect. Utility companies are just as happy to mark their lines for your DIY projects as for professional excavation jobs.

I should add that, even if you hire professional contractors to build that new deck or fence on your property, don’t assume they will call 811 before they begin work. I recommend that you ask the contractor if they have already done so, or you can simply call 811 yourself and tell your contractor that you’ve made the call.

Within a few days, you’ll see some little colored flags or lines of colored paint criss-crossing your land, indicating what lies beneath. Here’s what the colors indicate:

Red – Electric
Orange – Communications, Telephone/CATV
Blue – Potable Water
Green – Sewer/Drainage
Yellow – Gas/Petroleum Pipe Line
Purple – Reclaimed Water
White – Premark site of intended excavation

As you can see, white paint or flags are used to indicate where you or your contractors are planning to dig. It’s a very good idea to mark the dig location before the utility locator teams come out. But be sure you use only WHITE markers to avoid any confusion!

While the marker teams are looking down, you should take a few moments to look up. Overhead power and telephone lines are so much part of our lives that they almost become invisible to us.

But a tree planted under or close to an overhead power line can be a major problem. Before you plant a tree anywhere near overhead lines, double-check the possible mature height and canopy spread, and if necessary err on the side of caution and plant it a little further away.

Special thanks to Alecia White, representing The Common Ground Alliance, for reminding us that more than 256,000 underground utility lines are struck each year in the U.S. If you’d rather not be part of that statistic, simply call 811 so you’ll know what’s below before you dig.

Dramatic, colorful grasses perk up any landscape

2010-02-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

Ornamental grasses are an easy-care way to add interest and texture to any landscape. Here are some tips about two of our favorites.

QUESTION: “A couple of years ago, I bought about 25 Karley Rose grasses to plant along the edge of a path. The plants were (and are) vigorous and healthy. During the past spring and summer, we had a lot of rain and the Karley Rose grasses got SO big they flopped over into the path.

“If we should have another wet spring and summer this year, will pruning back the grasses prevent them from getting so tall and floppy?” – Clare Oliva

ANSWER: It’s important to understand that pruning during the late spring or summer would limit the plant’s growth. Normally, the Karley Rose stands up nicely on its own. Maybe the force of the rain pressed the grass blades closer to the ground.

If you see this beginning to happen in the spring, you might try staking them or if you do decide to prune the lower areas nearer the path, cut the blades at angles to blend. Otherwise you will end up at the end of the season with lovely grass mounds with flat ended blades. Yes, I have done that before and it’s not a pretty sight. The best strategy is to cut off the foliage to 6 inches from the top of the ground in early spring before it begins its seasonal growth cycle. It will then grow into its natural shape.

Remember though, they do have a slight natural weep on some of the lower outer blades. The plumes grow straight, but can also be weighted down when there is a lot of rainfall. I have noticed this happening with the Karley Roses in my garden after a weekend of rain showers. As they dry out, they will usually pop back up.

QUESTION: “I have a question about wild grasses. I enjoy and have started a collection of different grasses. This year I added to my collection a Karl Foerster grass from my local nursery.

In years past, I would cut down my other grass in early spring and I have great success with them each year. I am not sure what to do with this newer variety. Do I cut back the flowering stems and grass, or just the stems producing the flower of the Karl Foerster grass? – Wayne

ANSWER: There’s no need for any special treatment, Wayne. The Karl Foerster grass (sometimes called Karl Forester) should be cared for just like other ornamental grasses by cutting it back close to the ground in early spring before it begins to sprout.

The two plants mentioned in the readers’ questions are among the favorite ornamental grasses for Cheryl and me.

Karl Foerster Grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) is a cool season ornamental grass, named to honor the German botanist and plant breeder who, in the 1920s and 1930s, turned his hometown Bornim into a Mecca for gardening enthusiasts and later bravely resisted both the Nazis and the Soviet occupiers in East Germany.

Karl Foerster is a very strong grass in that it maintains its upright position without being too rigid in appearance. Flowers appear in and at first they are loose, feathery and pinkish in color, then, through the summer, they become very narrow, gradually turning a wheaten color that lasts through the fall. Recommended for zones 4 – 9.

Karley Rose Grass (Pennisetum orientale) is a warm season grass for zones 5 - 9. The green foliage is topped with long-blooming (June till frost) rose lavender plumes. I planted two Karley Rose Grass' on a berm we have in the garden, on either side of a green lace leaf Japanese maple. The texture and pink plumes really offset the green lace foliage of the maple.

Cool season grasses generally begin to grow earlier in the season and do well in cooler temperatures. When rainfall is scarce or temperatures are high, cool season grasses need more frequent watering. Warm season grasses handle hot weather and limited moisture quite well and can retain an attractive appearance without a lot of watering on your part.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Lavender brings fragrant history to your garden

2010-02-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

Today we’ll take a look at a very old plant with a long and storied history, but one that deserves a fragrant place in your garden.

Lavender was definitely familiar to early Pilgrims arriving in America in the 1600s, and no doubt it helped to mask some of the less pleasant odors during their long sea voyages. But growing and using lavender goes back much further than that.

The word lavender has its origin in the Latin word “lavare” meaning to wash and has many connections with the concept of cleansing. The ancient Phoenicians used lavender in their bath water and as an air freshener. Greeks were said to anoint their feet with lavender oil, no doubt as an early odor eater!

Egyptians were big fans of lavender and evidence has been found in excavated tombs to show that they used it as part of the mummification process. Wealthy Egyptians would wear a compress on their heads, made of lavender that would create a pleasant perfume as it warmed with their body heat.

Lavender has also been used for many hundreds of years as a healing and calming herb. Roman texts describe its use in treating everything from insect bites to stomach and kidney ailments. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have drank lavender tea to treat migraine headaches and that popularized the rapid growth of lavender farms in England.

Growing lavender in the USA is not difficult and will reward you with the delightful sight and smell of this revered plant, even if you don’t plan to anoint your feet with its oil. However, note that lavender will NOT grow in highly humid areas such as south Florida. If you live in USDA zone 5 or further north, you probably won’t get a lush thick lavender hedge as you would in more temperate areas, but lavender is a hardy perennial and will bloom anew in the spring.

If you’d like to see a brief video that Cheryl made with tips for growing lavender, you can find it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenwoodNursery

Ready to enjoy your own lavender? Try these…

Lavender du Provence

A beautiful addition to any garden path, container, or border plant, it has a strong fragrance and is long blooming. The Provence Lavender is a Lavandin variety which refers to the hybrid lavenders commonly grown in France and cultivated for the oil and dry buds. A wonderful attraction for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds,.the du Provence Lavender has pale blue to purple blooms, growing to two foot with a two foot spread. Zones 6 to 9.

Lavender Grosso

The most fragrant of all the lavenders, Grosso Lavender is a hybrid variety commonly grown in France and used in scenting perfumes and making sachets. An abundance of long spikes of deep violet flowers standing well above the grey/green compact foliage makes the Grosso a remarkable addition to any garden. Additionally, the Grosso is the most cold-hardy of the French hybrid lavenders. Zones 6 to 9.

Lavender Hidcote Blue

If you’re looking for a lower-growing lavender variety, try this one. Hidcote Blue, a.k.a. lavender angustifolia, is a free flowering dwarf variety that produces deep purple flower spikes in late spring and summer. Lavender Hidcote Blue is great for a dwarf hedge, edging or for massing. As a famous English Lavender, the Hidcote’s blooms are distilled to provide one of the purest lavender scents. Zones 5 to 10.

Lavender Munstead

Munstead is a many-branched, somewhat woody, perennial that grows much like a small shrub. The narrow leaves of the Lavender Munstead are about 2 inches long and have a pleasing grey-green color. Munstead Lavender has small, heavily fragrant lavender flowers on long-stemmed, slender spikes. As a favorite English Lavender, the Munstead is a top choice for the edible buds. Zones 5 to 9.

Lavender grows best in rocky, dry, sunny places with an abundant amount of lime in the soil. The scent is strongest in dry, sunny locations. You can cut faded whole flower spikes when the first flowers begin to open, and then dry them for use in sachets in the home.

Cheryl and I love the calming aroma of lavender that surrounds us as we work in our garden. We think you will, too.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Bring “four season” color to your garden

2010-01-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

What element is the first to strike you when you look at a garden, yours or someone else’s? Quite probably the answer is “color.”

On the other hand, a landscape devoid of color seems dull and lifeless. For months on end, some gardens are little more than a sea of green, or in winter, brown sticks.

It doesn’t have to be that way. With some forethought, you can create a landscape where colors abound and transition from season to season, even winter.

Today, let’s take a look at plants (some of which might be new to you) that can surround you with colors from serene to eye-popping, whatever the calendar says.

Spring

Heuchera Peach Flambe

The peachiest way to enter into spring! You will brighten the neighborhood when its bright peachy yellow leaves unfurl in early spring to turn into redder shades of peach as the summer progresses. They display white flowers on 16 inch spikes and the leaves are almost burgundy by fall. Zones 4 – 9.

Magnolia Butterflies

An upright, pyramidal tree, reaching 30 feet at maturity, it produces beautiful yellow, fragrant flowers (3 to 4 inches) during early to mid spring. The bright yellow blooms on this magnolia give the appearance of yellow butterflies welcoming spring. Zones 5 – 9.

Forsythia Show Off

Forsythia Show Off is a standout with large, bright yellow flowers that adorn the plant from head to foot. Show Off has attractive dark green foliage, unlike any other Forsythia, that adds season-long interest. Zones 5 – 7.

Transitioning from spring into summer, you can’t go wrong with:

Dianthus Firewitch

A compact species, perfect for a rock garden but used in mass creates a stunning effect. The Firewitch is an intense, spicy-scented plant with a mat of hot-pink to magenta colored flowers with small white centers. The fragrance comes from the flowers that bloom from mid-spring through early summer. Zones 3 – 8.

Summer

Crape Myrtle Dynamite

Cheryl and I think Dynamite is the most amazing Crape Myrtle we’ve ever seen. The bright red blooms on the Dynamite are in giant clusters all over this tree. It displays smooth tan bark, dark green foliage and a beautiful fiery orange fall color. Zones 6 – 9.

Monarda Fire Ball

When it comes to summer color, this should be on your list! A mid-summer heavy bloomer with showy, aromatic, bright red-scarlet flowers, it is fast growing from 15 to 36 inches tall and packs a visual wallop in the garden planted in full sun or part shade.

Does well in average garden soil and attracts droves of butterflies and hummingbirds. Zones 4 – 9.

Hydrangea Incrediball

This really is an eye-popper! It produces huge 12 inch blossoms forming a massive ball. The Incrediball’s enormous blossoms vary in shades of green and cream fading to white and then to a paler green as blossoms mature. Once the Incrediball Hydrangea begins blooming in early summer, it continues into early fall. Zones 4 – 9.

Fall

Black Eyed Susan

Yes, not exactly a rarity but you can’t go wrong with Black Eyed Susans as they’re great for mass plantings and provide wonderful contrasting colors when paired with ornamental grasses, Shasta daisies, Russian sage or dianthus. They are deer and rabbit resistant yet attract butterflies. Their gold to orange petals provide striking color through mid fall. Zones 4 – 9.

Sedum Autumn Fire

Cheryl and I have several varieties of sedum in our garden and we just love them in the fall. Sedum Autumn Fire has tighter growth habit, thicker foliage, and more brightly colored, rosy, early fall flowers than other varieties. Zones 3 – 9.

Winter

Tiarella Crow Feather

This new Tiarella has bright green leaves and is deeply marked with a black “feather”. Tiarella Crow Feather displays the best winter color of all in a brocade of pinks, reds, purples, and blacks. Tiarella Crow Feather sports pink flower stalks and is a strong grower. Zones 4 – 9.

Nandina Dwarf Firepower

A bright compact evergreen with lime green leaves and superior fire red color in the fall and winter. Plant Nandina Dwarf Firepower as a single specimen in smaller gardens and courtyards, where its color provides a focal point or accent. It is an ideal plant for spas in small urban backyard gardens and may also be planted in pots. Zones 6 – 10.

Yes, you CAN have color all year!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Brilliant color and heady fragrance can fill your garden

2010-01-11T09:14:00.001-08:00

In the dreary depths of winter, garden lovers console themselves with visions of gorgeous plants that will soon fill their landscapes with glorious color and heady fragrance.

If you are in need of a little moral support to lift your spirits out of the winter blahs, I can point you in the direction of a few plants that might not immediately spring to mind, but could be just what you need to treat your eyes and nose a few short months from now.

Regular readers know that, in spring and summer, Cheryl and I like to start our day by taking our first cup of coffee out to a garden bench where we quietly take in the colors and aromas of the plants as they begin to wake up and stretch towards the morning sun. Somehow, it is a time that is both calming and stimulating, and it sets us up for the hustle and bustle of the day ahead in the nursery.

So let’s start with a shrub that certainly could be the poster child for fragrance-and-color plants.

Mock Orange Philadelphus Innocence x lemoinei

I believe this is perhaps the most fragrant of all the Mock Oranges. For me, inhaling the sumptuously intoxicating orange sweetness given up by the pure white blossoms of Mock Orange Philadelphus Innocence is pure heaven. It has gracefully arching branches and large, 4-petaled white flowers clustered at branch tips.

The Mock Orange Philadelphus Innocence variety is distinguished by its cream and chartreuse streaked foliage with occasional all-gold leaves that extend interest throughout the summer. It grows 6 - 8 feet in height, in full sun. Recommended for USDA zones 5 through 8.

Persian lilac,Syringa x persica
This is a graceful, arching shrub reaching to a height of 4 - 8 feet and half again as wide. The flowers of the Persian Lilac are delicate blend of pale violet and lavender and are very fragrant. The 2 - 3 inch long blooms appear in late spring and bloom abundantly into early summer, attracting bees, butterflies and birds.

The rounded and low mature form makes the Persian lilac a perfect plant to be used in a foundation planting or as a border plant. The blooms can be cut and taken indoors for a lovely scent and floral display. Zones 3 to 7.

Monarda Blue Stocking

Although the name makes one assume the flower color is sky blue, in fact it really has uniquely shaped flowers that are a striking violet/purple and appear in July on erect stems of very fragrant foliage. This perennial grows to about 2 – 3 feet tall and a width of 1 to 3 feet. Monarda Blue Stocking is very attractive, and acts as a magnet to bees and hummingbirds.

They thrive in full sun or partial shade and evenly moist soil. As a bonus, they are quite deer resistant. A good choice for a border plant and nice for cut flower arrangements with its aromatic leaves. Zones 4 – 8.

Buddleia Bi-Color x weyeriana
You probably know that Buddleia is known as the “butterfly bush” but this one is rather special. It is the first butterfly bush to sport two different colors on the same bloomstalk; rich lavender combined with butterscotch yellow. Buddleia Bi-Color is easy to grow, extremely fragrant and will attract tons of butterflies to your perennial border or patio garden area. Buddleia Bi-Color blooms all summer long with most blooms measuring 5 - 6 inches and some growing out to a full 10 inches at the end of the growing season with a jubilant fragrance almost overwhelming to their color show.

The Buddleia Bi-Color reaches 5 - 6 feet in height and by cutting back each winter more branching and more blooms will appear each and every subsequent season. Buddleia Bi-Color grows easily in any sunny, well drained area, while demonstrating fantastic drought tolerance and indifference to extreme heat and humidity. Zones 5 – 9.

Eye-popping color and invigorating fragrance. What more could you ask! Hopefully, I’ve stimulated your senses and lifted your spirits with the suggestions. Take heart, garden lovers. Winter will soon be behind us!

Planting is easy… when you know how

2010-01-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

What do these activities have in common: Riding a bicycle. Playing a guitar. Roasting a turkey. The answer: They are all activities that are easy to do once you know how, but are very intimidating when you’re a beginner.

The same is true when it comes to planting trees and shrubs. To an experienced gardener, it’s second nature. He or she probably doesn’t actively think about the various steps involved; it just… well, it just happens.

For a novice, however, it’s a different story, and perhaps it’s one that has happened to you. You would love to have a lush, beautiful landscape so you go online and see photos of plants that would be perfect for you. Perhaps you even visit a garden center and look at the rows of plants, each with a name tag and a price sticker.

But then your nerve fails you. “I don’t have a green thumb,” you say to yourself. “I have no idea how to plant that thing properly. I’ll probably kill it and waste my money.”

Of course, most plants do come with some kind of written planting instructions, but even they can seem a bit daunting. Cheryl and I have received hundreds of e-mails over the years from readers asking for guidance on successful planting, or wondering where they went wrong when a plant didn’t make it. We always try to respond with some helpful hints and sometimes include those questions and answers in this column.

But the easiest way to learn any procedure is to watch someone else doing it the right way. You can see exactly how it should be done and suddenly the task doesn’t seem so daunting after all. Now, I know that might not be true when it comes to brain surgery, but it definitely is when it comes to planting trees and shrubs.

After all those years of answering questions about planting, we decided that it was time for some “show and tell”. As a result, we put together a video showing Cheryl planting a shrub and explaining each step as she does it.

We decided to use a typical plant that you would buy in a disposable container, and then show how to prepare the soil and get the plant mulched, watered and situated for the best results.

We posted the video – where else? – on YouTube so you can find it easily and watch it as often as you wish. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenwoodNursery

When you watch the video you’ll see that it really is not difficult, but following a few simple steps can mean the difference between healthy, thriving plants and dry, dead twigs. We plan to make some more “how to” videos which we will also post on YouTube and we’d love to hear from you about any topics you would like us to address. You can drop us a line at steve@landsteward.org

So what would be a good plant on which to practice your new-found skills? Try this one…

Echinacea purpurea White Swan

Its pure white silky flowers could give this Echinacea pride of place in your garden and it is not difficult to transplant from its pot. Cheryl and I have several of the Echinacea White Swans in the garden that contrast with the purple Echinacea that are planted around our raised garden berms.

We have seen White Swans planted as border plants sporting 3 to 4 inch glowing white flower petals surrounding their dark brown/bronze cone centers. Not only do the flowers act as a butterfly magnet, the pronounced seed heads provide a food source for small birds as they mature. It is long-lasting as a cut-flower that begins blooming in early summer and continues until frost.

So if you need to build a little confidence before you plant this spring, take a look at our YouTube video. Go on! You can do it!

These trees cut winter’s bitter cold winds

2009-12-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

Winter is the perfect time to plan for spring planting and for the many years ahead. The bare branches allow you to see the “skeleton” of your landscape and where you need to flesh it out with new plants or perform a little surgery with pruning shears or shovel.

Get outside and do a little landscape maintenance, picking up fallen tree limbs for instance, and at the same time you can look for any damage to arbors, trellises or fencing that you might not have noticed when they were hidden by abundant foliage.

During winter, specific problems can become apparent, as this chilly reader discovered:

QUESTION: “Today the temperature is 7 degrees and winds were 50 mph. We have a new home in rural northwest OH and I'm looking for ideas for trees and shrubs that can withstand that wind. Thanks for any help you can provide.” – Carolyn

ANSWER: You might want to look at creating a windbreak, which generally consists of two to three layers of trees planted to literally break the wind away from the house and other structures.

Generally, there is a row of evergreen trees (firs, junipers, pines, spruces) and up to two rows of deciduous trees and shrubs. For the deciduous trees, consider fast growers such as green ash, tulip poplar, sycamore and elms.

Here is a link from the NRCS which used to be referred to as the Conservation District Office. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/TECHNICAL/ECS/forest/wind/windbreaks.html
This describes the benefits and how to go about planting a windbreak on your property. As it is a long address, you can click on a direct link when you find this column at my Web site www.landsteward.org

The fast growing hybrid willow and hybrid poplar trees are great and will gain a lot of height quickly. However, they should not be considered as long term trees where there are constantly heavy winds. Their lifespan is generally limited to about 10 to 18 years in such areas.

By the way, Carolyn’s question and the response (by my wife Cheryl) first appeared in our free weekly e-mailed newsletter. If you’d like to join the mailing list, drop me a line at steve@landsteward.org

QUESTION “I have a problem: a postage-stamp sized garden plot behind my apartment with crappy, gooey clay soil and about 3-4 hours of morning sunlight, half filtered by large growth deciduous trees.

“I have a good start on a decent garden with some hostas, sedums and lamb's ear. Columbines, spiderwort, lilies-of-the-valley and vincas give me a little color, but are there any other shade-loving plants that actually bloom?

“How about some variegated foliage plants to add interest? (Coleus seems quite unhappy here). Since I rent, I won't be building any raised beds. Last year, I added some peat moss, sand and soil conditioner to the ground. We'll see if that helped. There's no room to compost. Any other enrichments that you recommend?” – Bridget

ANSWER: As for soil enrichments, I would recommend a product called Soft Soil. It breaks down the ionization of the soil to keep it from running together. You might also use pine bark mulch. It will add organic matter into your soil and break it up a bit. You may want to till it into the soil to start then use more as a dressing around your plants.

As far as what to plant in the wet shady areas, look at variegated hostas, ferns and astilbes.

When it comes to trees: Dogwoods like semi-shade. Low growing trees such as redbud, Japanese maples, flowering cherries. You could add ornamental grasses in different heights for background and even for specimen planting.

You say you are renting your home. I’m guessing this is a long-term rental based on your planting plans. However, consider some plants in large pots for a container garden that can go with you if you move. Beautiful gardens can be framed and accented with plants used in attractive pots.

Similarly, portable fountains, glass gazing balls, concrete formed items will add interest and texture to your garden and can be loaded on to a moving truck in the future.

Easy-to-keep New Year’s Resolutions for gardeners

2009-12-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

It seems that New Year’s Resolutions are designed to make us do LESS of what we enjoy and more of what we HATE. Drive less, walk more. Eat less chocolate, eat more broccoli. It’s no surprise that most people find it hard to keep to those resolutions, even with the best will in the world.

But for gardeners, making New Year’s Resolutions and sticking to them need not be so hard. After all, you already like your garden, and you enjoy taking care of your landscape, to a greater or lesser degree, right?

If resolutions can feel enjoyable, rather than chores, you are more likely to keep them. I had a friend who used to say, “Avoid disappointment, aim low.” He said it as a joke but when it comes to keeping resolutions, it’s not such a bad philosophy.

So my advice is this: Make resolutions that are (a) within your capabilities to achieve and (b) will be fairly enjoyable to achieve.

Here are some resolutions that will benefit both you and your garden. But remember, to avoid disappointment, aim low! Choose two or three from the list that fit your landscape’s needs and that you can achieve successfully.

In 2010, I will…

Take a soil sample. A soil sample can be analyzed at a laboratory and the results will tell you how healthy your soil is (or isn’t) and what you can do to improve it. You can find a simple explanation of the “how to” at http://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu/howtosam.htm and I found a helpful video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YuA20kZ1EA

Invest in a soaker hose. A sprinkler is great for lawns, but the best way to irrigate shrubs and vegetable gardens is a soaker hose. A sprinkler can cause leaf spots on the foliage whereas a soaker hose puts the water where it needs to go: to the plants’ roots.

Protect plants from frost. To enjoy your shrubs in the spring and summer, you need to keep them safe during hard winter frosts. Cover your most delicate plants with sheets in the form of a tent, so the fabric doesn’t touch the plant, or invest in custom covers such as Frost Protek.

Mulch around trees. Applying mulch to a depth of about two inches has several benefits. It will prevent damage to the trunk caused by power mowers getting too close. Additionally, the mulch allows much-needed water to soak down to the tree’s roots. Do not mound the mulch up against the trunk as that can cause crown rot.

Plant a mini herb garden. The easiest way is to buy two or three containers, place them where they’ll be easily accessible from your kitchen and plant your favorite herbs. Mint, sage, rosemary, thyme and basil are ideal container herbs. As mint can be aggressive, plant it in its own container to prevent it overpowering the other herbs. You’ll be snipping fresh herbs to add to your cooking all summer long… so much better than dried herbs and a lot cheaper than buying one or two sprigs from the supermarket.

Plant some berry bushes. Berry bushes are fairly easy to grow but you will need to commit to maintaining them for best results. If you have never grown berry bushes, start with blueberries. They are among the easiest berry plants for novices to grow and suffer from few problems. You can even grow blueberry plants in containers. Once you get the hang of it, move on to blackberries and raspberries.

Start composting. Composting is a practical way of recycling organic matter and providing great nutrients for your garden. It really isn’t difficult but it helps to get the right carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. There’s an easy to follow guide at http://www.howtocompost.org and you can click on a link to that or any site mentioned here when you find this column at my Web site www.landsteward.org

Buy a bench. Don’t let the only time you spend in the garden to be work time. A bench is the ideal place to sit quietly and enjoy the sights, sounds and aromas of your garden. Plant buddleia nearby to attract beautiful butterflies. Surround the bench with aromatic plants like lavender and your container herbs to provide the pleasing fragrances of nature.

Most of all, resolve to enjoy your landscape throughout the year!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Manure adds essential nitrogen to garden soil

2009-12-17T10:29:00.001-08:00

Is all-natural farm manure right for your garden? Could be. But manure is one of those rare things that is better when it is NOT so fresh, as I remind the reader who e-mailed me this question:

QUESTION: My husband owns a landscape materials business and has had a hard time getting “supersoil”. We have access to a large amount of horse manure and were wondering if you can make your own supersoil with manure? It sure would help him out if there is a way! Thanks! Kate

ANSWER: It’s difficult to think of a more “natural” substance than manure! Manure is certainly a great resource for gardeners and landscapers, but you do need to know a few basics to get the best results. Here is a link that will give you more information on using manure around your plants: http://www.ruralheritage.com/back_forty/manure.htm

Manure's carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is a key factor in making nitrogen available to plants, because it drives microbial decomposition. As Alina Rice, the author of that Web article points out, before putting manure on your soil, make sure it is well decomposed. Let the microbes fight it out while the manure sits in a steaming pile. Well decomposed manure has a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of between 15-to-1 and 20-to-1, depending on what the animal has been eating.

A word of warning from Cornell University’s Department of Horticulture: “Homeowners should not use any manure from dogs, cats, or other meat-eating animals, since there is risk of parasites or disease organisms that can be transmitted to humans.”

Again, if you are thinking of using manure in your garden, I advise you to read the online Rural Heritage article. You can click on a direct link when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

Here is question I responded to at the end of last winter. With frost once again threatening much of the country, I thought it might be the right time to include it in this week’s column.

QUESTION: “I am hoping that you can help me out. I have never had any plants hit by frost but this year it got a lot of my plants. I was wondering, will my tomato plants survive the frost or should I pull them up and replant? It also got my potato vines. Will this hurt my potatoes? My tomato plants are still standing (some of them anyway) but they have a lot of browned leaves. Please let me know if you have any ideas on helping me out. Thanks for your time.” – Candy Dove

ANSWER: Generally, as long as the vegetable sets have had a bit of a chance to root in, they usually come out of frost nips. However, extended cold periods can cause freeze damage and kill the plants. As long as air has movement, frost damage isn’t as likely.

Also, if you know that there is going to be frost the next morning, you can either water the plants heavily including the soil at the base of the plants (the water acts like an insulator) or cover them with an old sheet or something similar, forming a sort of tent and making sure that the fabric doesn’t touch the plants. Damage from frost doesn’t happen until the following morning. Do NOT spray water on plants the morning after a frost in an attempt to wash the frost off.

Once the frost has passed, clip off any browning leaves or branches of plants. Sometimes this can take a few days to show up. Most vegetable plants, though tender, are really quite tough when it comes to frosts.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Layering tall plants adds height to tight spaces

2009-12-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

In recent Plant Man columns, we’ve looked at plants that you might want to avoid because they can become invasive and take over your landscape to the detriment of other plants.

But are there plants that can actually kill? Perhaps alter the course of history? Unlikely as that might seem, a recent book takes a fascinating, if gruesome, look at what the author calls wicked plants. I’ll give a brief review of that book later in this column.

But, thank goodness, most plants are far from evil! Even in a relatively small space, carefully selected plants can increase privacy without giving you a sense of claustrophobia. The trick is layering and including columnar-growing trees that fit the scale of your landscape, as I explain to this reader:

QUESTION: “When I bought my house, it had what I believe are oak trees in one corner of the smallish back yard (total yard size is 0.3 acres, less than half that in the back yard). They have grown very tall, yet thin. I don’t really like them. I’m looking to do the other corner of my yard with a faster growing tree that I can cluster in the corner – like Crape Myrtles (I heard the Dynamite are great). My fence is the standard 4 feet, natural wood.

What types of trees will be a good fit for the corner? And how far apart should I plant them? I’m looking for a pretty thick coverage.
I heard layering is a good practice. What are some nice medium sized trees or shrubs to combine with the bigger trees?
What can I do to improve the existing oak trees? Can I prune to make them thicker, broader?
I also have a river birch in my front yard that we planted about two years ago. It doesn’t seem to be growing very fast. Anything I can do to help it out?” – Thomas G. Burgess

ANSWER: The oak trees you are describing sound old and scrubby. If that is the case, then there really isn’t anything you can do to thicken them up. Since you have a small area to work with, you should consider trees that are more columnar (narrow) growing such as emerald green arborvitaes and other smaller sized shrubs and trees.

The Dynamite crape myrtle is also a smaller growing tree and would work within that sizing. However, if it would receive any shading from the fence, house or oak trees, it will not bloom properly. Crape myrtles need full sun for consistent blooming.

Layering is an attractive way to build privacy from the outside. Layering can be achieved by the strategic placing of taller growing plants such as emerald greens at the back ( they can be spaced approximately 5 to 6 feet apart), coming forward with contrasting colored shrubs such as barberry Sunjoy Gold Pillar, weigela Wine and Roses, Beauty Bush Dream Catcher, or taller growing ornamental grasses. Using colorful perennials on the most inside areas add one last punch of color.

Birches aren’t all that fast growing especially in clay soil. It may take it several years, but it will grow.

And now to those “naughty” plants…

If it was a tabloid-style TV show, it might be called “When Good Plants Go Bad.” However, the new book by Amy Stewart is titled “Wicked Plants” and is a compendium of plants that can kill, injure, torment and cause all kinds of trouble to humans, animals and other plants.

On one level, “Wicked Plants” is simply an entertaining read with plenty of botanical trivia and gruesome stories of plants behaving badly, as you might guess from the book’s sub-title: “The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities.”

But there is more than just grisly fun to be found here. On a more practical level, “Wicked Plants” can be a warning about what NOT to plant, or at least what will happen if you do.

As author Amy Stewart says, “These are plants you do not want to meet in a dark alley.”

English oaks: why so rare in America?

2009-11-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

It’s a beautiful tree but not the best choice for landscapes in many parts of the USA. However, there are good alternatives to the English oak.

QUESTION: “We have about 5, very beautiful, English oaks where I work. They
look like they're related to the White Oaks, and appear to be doing very
well here in Philly...why aren't English Oaks more numerous?” – Scott

ANSWER: English oaks are beautiful trees that, despite their name, are not strictly English as they are also native to much of Europe and also northern Africa and western Asia.

The foliage of an English oak is similar to that of the more familiar White oak but lacks the eye-catching reddish leaf color in fall. You can sometimes spot English oaks in urban landscapes, reaching a height of around 50 feet with a 50 foot spread.

Botanists have been using the English oak as genetic stock to generate hybrids with other members of the White Oak group as they can be very useful landscape shade trees.

Although it is not an American native, English oak adapts to the sometimes challenging conditions of the eastern and midwestern United States. It is at its best in zones 5 and 6 and doesn’t thrive in the hot dry summers of the South. It seems to do okay in moderately dry, poor quality soil, but prefers moist, well-drained, moderately rich soils of variable pH.

Problems? The main potential problem is powdery mildew, something it shares with its cousin White Swamp oak. Powdery mildew can form on its foliage around mid-summer, but is considered a ‘cosmetic’ disease that does not adversely affect the overall health of the tree.

I believe that English oaks are not too numerous due to the simple law of supply and demand. Nurseries grow and sell what people are buying in the greatest quantities. Low demand means fewer English oaks are being grown at the nursery level.

There are a number of hardy and attractive oaks that are fast-growing and fairly easy to care for. I’ll devote a column quite soon to some of these varieties such as Water Oak, Sawtooth Oak, Cherrybark Oak and the ever-popular Trailing Periwinkle need? Is it easy maintenance? If planted on a slope, would I need to plant them high and let them trail down or low and high and let them fill in? I am in Huntsville, AL. How will they do in whatever zone that might be?” – Alex Haynes

ANSWER: The Huntsville, AL area borders zones 7 and 8. Vinca will grow in that region and is recommended for USDA zones 3 through 8. You’ll be pleased to know that, as with most groundcovers, Vinca minor (Trailing Periwinkle) requires minimal maintenance.

After fall planting, average watering will run every 3 to 5 days for the first 6 or so weeks depending on local rainfall, soil type and the planting location. Since you are planting on a hillside or slope, it will vary even more. You will need to check the soil and adjust the water schedule accordingly.

For a slope, I recommend setting up a sprinkler attachment to a hose for a soft spray to moisten the soil. Otherwise, most quick waterings and rainfall typically runs off without soaking into the soil.

Until the plants securely root in, you may need to place a light layer of straw over the area during periods of heavy rainfall to prevent the plants from being washed downhill.
Vinca grows and roots wherever the new growth touches the soil. Spacing can vary from 6 inches to 18 inches apart over the entire area. The closer the plants are spaced, the quicker the area will fill in.

Vinca minor is an excellent evergreen ground cover for full sun, shaded and semi-shaded areas. It has dark green oval-shaped foliage and conspicuous blue flowers in early spring.

Native plants lessen invasive concerns

2009-11-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

Selecting plants that are right for your landscape takes more than sticking a pin in a catalog or clicking a picture on the Internet. It’s important to consider what impact that plant could have on the rest of your landscape.

In a recent Plant man column, I addressed the frustration many people feel when they find that their prized plants have been chewed to the ground by deer. I also referred readers to a Web site that listed plants that are “deer resistant.” Although deer will eat almost any plant when they are hungry enough, they find some plants somewhat unpalatable and some plants downright unpleasant.

A few days later, I received an e-mail from reader Ethan Kaiser, referring to one of the plants mentioned in the column. Ethan wrote, “Japanese barberries and their cultivars are actually exotic invasive species in the U.S. and are known to take over woodland areas and forest edges, especially in Wisconsin and the Midwest as a whole. They outcompete many native plants that the deer would munch on instead of landscaped plants.”

Ethan makes a good point. Japanese barberries are indeed deer-resistant but, left to their own devices, can become invasive. In fact, Japanese barberries are prohibited in the state of Massachusetts. As you may know, this column is published in newspapers in 30+ states, and can be read world-wide on the Internet. As such, unless we are answering a specific question regarding a particular geographic location, some of the information has to be somewhat generalized.

As visitors to our Web site www.landsteward.org know, Cheryl and I are strong advocates of selecting native plants when ever possible, but we do understand that in quite a few cases, it isn’t practical or feasible.

We strongly encourage everyone to do a few minutes homework and check out the pros and cons of any tree, shrub or groundcover before introducing it into your landscape. So what can you do?

For a start, what works well in New Mexico might be a dud in New Hampshire. Is this plant recommended for planting in your USDA zone? If you’re not sure of your zone, go to http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/
You can also find a comprehensive state-by-state list of plants that are found where you live at http://plants.usda.gov/ but note that these lists do include plants that are considered to be invasive.
At that same Web site, you can click on a link to a list of noxious and invasive plants that you can sort by state, common name or scientific name. If you want to steer clear of possibly invasive plants, this is a good reference.
Adamant about using native U.S. plants in your landscape? Take a look at a collection of articles and links on a Web site hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency titled “Landscaping with Native Plants” located at http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/
Aptly titled “Native Gardening and Invasive Plants Guide,” http://www.enature.com/native_invasive/invasives.asp provides easy to follow information on using native plants while avoiding invasive plants. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a guide written for the home gardener rather than the horticulturist!
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is a good resource for a lot of current information on invasive plants.
Go to http://www.fws.gov/invasives/ where you can click on a lot of links, including one titled “What You Can Do.” A note at that site points out: “In addition to the many invasive species from outside the U.S., there are many species from within the U.S. that are invasive in other parts of the country.” What is just fine somewhere else might be considered invasive in your location.

Again, before you plant, I strongly recommend taking the time to find which plants will thrive where you live and meet your requirements, both esthetic and environmental. It’s an investment that will pay dividends for you and the landscape.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

American chestnut trees: on their way back

2009-11-12T10:25:00.001-08:00

If you had given up hope of ever again gazing up at the vast leafy canopy of an American chestnut tree, take heart! The majestic tree was almost completely wiped out several decades ago by a disease and it seemed that the American chestnut had gone the way of the passenger pigeon and the dodo.

However, plant scientists are working diligently to bring back the American chestnut in a stronger, disease-resistant form.

The magnificent tree had been a familiar sight on the American landscape. Its timber was used for building homes and barns. The chestnuts provided food for livestock and wildlife. Its canopy provided shade for both humans and animals.

But all that was about to come to a rapid end. Asian chestnut trees were imported into the United States and those trees carried with them a fungus that quickly transferred to the American chestnuts. Over centuries, the Asian trees had learned to resist the fungus but their American cousins had no such immunity.

In 1904, botanists at the Bronx Zoo in New York were the first to notice that the chestnut trees there were infected with a fatal fungus. The disease swept quickly across the continent and by the early 1950s the American chestnut had all but disappeared. As many as four billion trees were wiped out.

Botanists have undertaken a long-term project to revive the American chestnut. They have planted 1,200 chestnut tree saplings in national forests in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, and are watching over them as closely as a mother hen with her chicks.

In a November, 2009, story reported by USA TODAY, Ron Sederoff, professor of forestry at North Carolina State University said that the American chestnut was one of the most important trees in the ecology of the Apalachian Mountains. “There were communities that depended on it. There was wildlife that depended on it,” he said. “When the blight came through, all of those things were lost.”

According to the USA TODAY story, those 1,200 saplings survived their first year under the care of the Foundation, the U.S. Forestry Service and the University of Tennessee.

But the scientists have taken steps to help their new trees survive the deadly fungus. Although the saplings are 94 percent American chestnut, they have been crossbred with Chinese chestnut trees that are resistant to the blight.

This is by no means a quick fix. It will be at least 15 to 20 years before botanists can determine if the trees are able to fend off the blight and continue to grow well enough to compete with other trees.

So let’s wish Good Luck to those little saplings and to the scientists who are nurturing them. Hopefully, the American chestnut tree will again be reaching 100 feet into the sky. With today’s focus on climate issues, the American chestnut would be a very welcome addition to the landscape as it stores carbon dioxide on a massive scale and, as such, will be an ideal – and all-natural – tool to fight climate change.

Meanwhile, if you can’t wait 20 years but would like to grace your landscape with some spectacular trees, consider these:

Black Walnut (Jugans nigra)

A majestic tree with a moderate growth rate, the Black Walnut Tree is prized for its wood veneer at maturity used in fine cabinets, gunstocks, and furniture. The Black Walnut Tree makes a wonderful shade tree, and when planted for a wood plantation, is a long-term investment. Zones 4 to 8.

Oak Gobbler Sawtooth (Quercus acutissima)

Gobbler is the same as the Sawtooth Oak but produces a smaller acorn that is desirable as a food source for wild turkeys. Oak Gobbler Sawtooth is the first choice tree to plant for wild turkey and wild game enthusiasts. Oak Gobbler Sawtooth will begin to provide acorns in 4 - 6 yrs. Zones 5 to 9.

Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)

Probably the most widely used native oak for landscaping, Pin Oak is one of the faster growing oaks, 12 to 15' over a 5 to 7 year period, reaching 75 feet at maturity and can also be used in a wetland environment. Zones 4 to 9.

Stinky ginkgoes offend delicate noses

2009-11-04T04:51:00.001-08:00

What rhymes with ginkgo? For people in many American cities, the word is STINKO.

The ginkgo tree has a long history, dating back to the Permian era which lasted from 290 to 248 million years ago. As you might guess from that statistic, the ginkgo is recognized for its remarkable hardiness, able to overcome extraordinary adversity. Legend has it that ginkgo trees survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

That hardiness is an asset prized both by private landowners and civic planners. What could be better than a row of trees with attractive foliage that are also exceptionally hardy?

Ah, well…

There is one major drawback, at least in the eyes (and noses) of many people. The ginkgo is one of those trees that is gender specific: they are either male or female. Mature female ginkgoes produce ovules which when fertilized by pollen from the male tree grow into bunches of seeds that look like fuzzy green cherries.

Now here’s the problem, at least from a human point of view. The fleshy coating around the seeds contains butyric acid, the same stuff that gives that distinctive smell to rancid butter. In addition to the rancid butter smell, many people complain that the odor reminds them of vomit, rotten eggs or even doggy-doo.

Not everybody finds the odor offensive. Depending on your olfactory sensibility, you might feel that the smell is really awful or not too bad or just one of those “nature smells.”

But the seasonal smell isn’t the only potential problem. The slimy seed pods can make sidewalks slippery and some municipalities are concerned about the possibility of lawsuits resulting from injuries caused by slipping and falling on pods dropped from city-owned ginkgoes.

As a result, many cities are deciding to plant only male ginkgo trees and/or removing and destroying existing female ginkgoes. Cities as widespread as Lexington, KY, Bloomington, MN and Easton, PA have taken action to limit or remove ginkgoes.

To me, it seems a great pity to destroy trees because some people find the odor offensive for a few weeks each year. At the same time I can appreciate the problem faced by a city that wants to avoid injury to citizens and the subsequent lawsuits.

Should you plant ginkgo trees on your property? That depends! If you don’t mind the odor or if the trees are a fair distance from your house, the smell issue (and probably the slippery sidewalk issue) shouldn’t be a major problem. Alternatively, you can plant only male ginkgo trees. Ginkgoes are very hardy, long-lived and attractive so there definitely are benefits.

But what if you really want trees and shrubs that are pleasantly fragrant? What could you look for? Here are some you can consider:

Mock Orange Philadelphus Innocence x. lemoinei

This is perhaps the most fragrant of the Mock Oranges. Cheryl and I love to inhale the sumptuously intoxicating orange sweetness given up by Mock Orange Philadelphus Innocence's, pure white blossoms. This variety grows to 5 – 8 feet at maturity in USDA zones 5 to 8.
Old Fashion Lilac, Syringa vulgaris

Old Fashion Lilac is perhaps the most popular of all lilacs due to its rich color ranging from purplish red to lilac and purple. Old Fashion Lilac has extremely fragrant with a broad, rounded habit. It is a moderate growing shrub with attractive dark green foliage. It is great for hedges, or screens, and can also be planted as a specimen plant, growing to maybe 20 feet in zones 3 to 7.
Carolina Jessamine Gelsemium sempervirens

A fragrant, early-blooming perennial, the yellow Carolina Jessamine is an attractive semi-evergreen vine that tends to remain bushy and compact when grown in bright sun. When shaded, Jessamine Carolina can climb up and over adjacent shrubs and trees to heights of more than 20 feet. Carolina Jessamine will rapidly cover arbors, tree trunks, trellises, etc. in a season or two. Zones 8 – 10.

And of course there’s honeysuckle and fragrant, low-growing plants such as lavender and rosemary that produce delightful aromas.

So go for ginkoes if you can shrug off the stinko, or select more fragrant plants that bring a smile to your nose.

Hydrangeas are failing to bloom

2009-10-28T13:09:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: “I have two hydrangea plants that grow every year in a sunny location, with large bright green leaves. The plants never make flowers, however, even though the woman who gave them to me years ago took the small plants from her garden where she had many flowering specimens.

“At the end of the summer, I have those long spikes which I carefully protect through the frosty winter, but by spring they are dried up and appear dead. As the new leaves start to grow, I lose hope and cut the pale spikes down. Most of the time, the deer eat the tops anyway. Any hope? Should I transplant them?” – Faith Gitlow

ANSWER: Hydrangeas can be tricky. According to the experts at www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com (my favorite hydrangea care site) there are three main reasons why hydrangeas fail to bloom:

A late spring freeze arrives and ruins the developing bloom buds.
Improper pruning.
Planted in wrong zone. If you have had the bad luck to plant a hydrangea that has not bloomed after the first year you planted it, you may finally have to concede that this particular variety is not cold hardy in your area.

If you go to their Web site you can find more information about all kinds of hydrangea problems.

QUESTION: “I have a problem with my blossoming Kwanzan cherry tree. The leaves are turning brown and falling off. Is it dying? I live in the California sierra foothills (elev. 1500ft.). It can get very hot during the summer months. The tree is planted in the middle of my lawn on an island of top soil with 2" of wood mulch on top. The island is about a foot and a half high and less as it spreads out.

“I water about every other day for 20 minutes at 4am. There are plants and flowers around it but not any closer than 2 ft. It also has new growth coming in. I just don't get it! Do you have any ideas?” – Dan Buchholz

ANSWER: Over the past four years or so, flowering cherry (and other varieties including birches) trees have been going dormant earlier and earlier each year where we live here in Tennessee which is zone 7. For the most part, it is attributed to the lack of rainfall (actual drought some of the years).

Around early to mid August, they begin to lose their leaves. Their coloring doesn’t fade to a lovely fall color, just brown. As long as there are no other issues with the tree, I would say it is the same problem. Cheryl and I have been receiving many emails this summer concerning trees doing this.

QUESTION: “For the past three seasons my pin oak trees have lost their leaves in August. The leaves turn translucent first before falling from the tree. I have used an insect treatment that you add to water and pour at the base of the tree for the past three years and it doesn’t seem to help. In the spring and during the summer the trees are full of leaves but in August they turn white and fall off the tree. The trees are 30 to 40 feet tall (I have two of them on the west side of my home).” – Susie Brown

ANSWER: Here is a link to the University of California at Davis Extension site with an article on diagnosing oak tree diseases.
http://ceventura.ucdavis.edu/newsletterfiles/Landscape_Notes11016.pdf
This article will give you a detailed listing to work with, but the most common reasons for early leaf loss with oaks is lack of water or cool wet spring/summer weather which typically causes fungus.

If you can’t figure it out with the article, contact your local agricultural extension agent for their opinion and how to proceed. To find the Extension Service nearest to you, visit this Web site: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/ or go to my Web site www.landsteward.org find this column and click on a direct link. Good luck!

Deer-resistant plants mean less landscape damage

2009-10-21T13:07:00.001-07:00

I think we’d all agree that deer are hungry critters. However much you enjoy wildlife, you can be disheartened, or even outraged, to find your prized shrubs chewed down to the stumps with tell-tale hoof prints in the surrounding soil.

In the previous Plant Man column, I described ways to determine if deer are the real culprits, and I took a look at some deer repellent products, both commercial and home-made. If you missed that column, you can find it at my Web site www.landsteward.org

Today, we’ll take a look at some deer resistant plants. As far as I know, there are no “deer-repellent” plants; the kind that would send deer scurrying away in panic. No such luck. So your best bet, if deer are a potential problem, is to select plants that hold the least possible attraction to deer. Unfortunately, in times of scarcity, deer will eat almost anything green, but you can put the odds in your favor so they will ignore your landscape in search of greener – and tastier – pastures.

Do a little homework and you’ll quickly discover which plants attract deer and which plants they find less desirable. A good place to start is http://njaes.rutgers.edu/deerresistence/ a Web site hosted by Rutgers University.

That Web site consists of a long chart of alphabetically-listed plant names, color-coded to indicate which are rarely damaged, seldom severely damaged, occasionally severely damaged or frequently severely damaged.

Using the Rutgers chart, you can determine if a plant on your wish list might be better replaced with a less deer-yummy one. Although it’s a long list, I can think of other plants that you could select when deer are a potential problem. Here are some to consider:

Boxwood Wintergreen (Buxus microphylla)
I’ve found that deer don’t particularly care for the taste or aroma of boxwoods under normal circumstances. This popular low growing evergreen shrub is commonly seen as a low hedge or border defining the edges of formal and informal gardens. The Wintergreen Boxwood offers dark green lustrous leaves and creates a striking hedge with year round color, holding its green color all winter long. Suitable for USDA zones 5 – 9.

Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia Goldsturm)
Black Eyed Susans are true perennials, returning larger each year. They are great for mass plantings and provide wonderful contrasting colors when paired with ornamental grasses, Shasta daisies, Russian sage or dianthus. Black Eyed Susan should be deadheaded regularly for continued blooms. They are a native North American wildflower as well as being deer and rabbit resistant yet attracting butterflies. Zones 4 – 9.

Barberry Rose Glow (Berberis thunbergii)
This is an eye catching form of Japanese Barberry, emerging with early foliage that is a rosy glowing pink color that turns a crimson burgundy as it matures. Full sun produces the best foliage, looking good as foundation, border or mass planting. Barberry Rose Glow needs a well drained area and can tolerate some drought in zones 4 through 7.

American Holly (Ilex opaca)
You probably wouldn’t relish eating holly and, as a rule, neither do deer. Left untrimmed, American Holly can reach a height of 30 feet or more with a spread of 18 to 30 feet. Bear in mind you will need at least one of each sex to produce berries that will attract birds and butterflies but not deer. Hardy in zones 5 to 9.

Bamboo Sunset Glow (Fargesia rufa)
A favorite of the Giant Panda but not that attractive to deer. This is a clumping (non-running) variety. Growing to 8 feet in height, the orange-red sheaths and deep green leaves will provide a nice hedge or screen at maturity when planted in groups. USDA zones 6 – 9.

Sage, Thyme and Chives
Deer don’t particularly care for these herbs but humans do, so they’re not a bad choice as attractive groundcover and as a great, fresh addition to many home-cooked dishes.

Again, no plant is 100% deer-resistant. But when you select plants that are less attractive to deer and employ some of the deterrents we discussed in the previous column, you should find that deer will generally look elsewhere for their salad buffet.

Dense evergreens make perfect living fence

2009-07-27T10:19:00.001-07:00

Fences make good neighbors, according to the old saying. This can be particularly true for homeowners living on relatively small lots in urban or suburban neighborhoods or in so-called “cluster home” developments.

“Living fences” of fairly dense shrubs and evergreen trees can disguise existing wood or chain-link fences or even replace them altogether. Cheryl and I planted a stand of Thuja Cedar Green Giants several years ago and they are growing by leaps and bounds, robust and healthy, creating a natural perimeter between our lawn and an expanse of wilder woodland.

Cedar Green Giants can be pruned annually to keep them at a manageable height, but left to their own devices, Cedar Green Giants can reach heights of 30 to 50 feet, growing three to five feet a year. Another benefit is that Cedar Green Giants are without serious pest or disease problems, giving them an advantage over Hemlocks and the disease-prone Leyland Cypress. Plant Cedar Green Giants three to five feet apart and you’ll soon have a natural screen for added privacy and as a sound barrier if traffic noise is an issue.

Another fine choice would be the arborvitae “Emerald Green” with its dense foliage and pyramidal shape. Arborvitae Emerald Green has a very bright green color and appears to have a tinge of gold to it if the sun hits it just right. Arborvitae Emerald Green grows to a height of 10 - 15 feet, with a spread of 3 - 4 feet. Emerald Green displays its bright lustrous green color all year and does not discolor in winter, adding a feeling of life to what might be an otherwise barren landscape. Its very compact and tight growth pattern make it an excellent choice for a screen when spaced 2 - 3 feet apart in the row.

Here’s a reader looking for some guidance with her arborvitae.

QUESTION: “We have a row of emerald green arborvitae across the back of our yard. We use it as a screen between our yard and the neighbors’ yard behind us.

“Starting last year six evergreens in a row started to get all brown, mostly on our side, which faces SE. We have a maple tree shading them some that has really started to grow in the last few years.

“We don't know if it's the shade or nutrients or what, but if they can't grow there, do you have a suggestion as to what would thrive there, and not look so out of place because of being something different in the row?” – Elaine

ANSWER: There are a number of reasons why this could happen to your arborvitae. Here are some of the most common:

Dogs urinating on the plants
Spider mites
Not mulching enough
Wind burn
Over fertilizing
Not hardening off before winter

As for the last two potential reasons, bear in mind that you should fertilize only one time during the year (with something such as Hollytone) and spring would be the best time to do it.

Do not water regularly after fall frost. Watering should begin to gradually taper off in late summer (such as late August to September depending on your location) so that the plant can harden off for winter. Arborvitae are not drought tolerant so when tapering off, simply stretch the number of days between watering. Should there be no regular rainfall during that period, supplemental watering will be necessary, just less frequently.

From the photographs you e-mailed to me, most of your plants look fine, just the ones on the inside look somewhat stressed. Take a look at the possible list of causes, above, and taking into account your local weather conditions, you should be able to narrow it down.

If you identify and rectify the problem, there should be no need to replace your arborvitae.

Never too early to plan fall planting

2009-07-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

Fall planting? But it’s only just summer! It’s way too early to be thinking about fall planting, isn’t it?

Nope.

This is an excellent time to be thinking ahead to the cooler days of fall and what you can plant to enhance your landscape. What makes “right now” so special?

Right now your landscape is probably at its high point. The foliage on shrubs and trees is full and lush. Many of your late spring and early summer plants are in bloom. Take a look around your landscape. Walk around and see it as if with fresh eyes. This is the best time of year to see where the gaps are. Later in the year, and of course in winter, this is less obvious as deciduous trees have shed their leaves and even evergreens are more dormant.

What do I mean by “gaps” in your landscape? I don’t mean to suggest you should necessarily fill every square foot of soil with plants. But when you look at your landscape, as if for the first time, you’ll see areas that don’t look complete, somehow.

Perhaps there’s an awkward space between plants that looks empty, like a smile with a missing tooth. Maybe a dead plant had been removed and never replaced. Or perhaps an older plant has outgrown its usefulness, dwarfing smaller plants around it and preventing sunlight and rainwater from reaching them.

Not only that, but at this time of year you can look at your landscape and see some of your favorite plants at their best and decide if it would be a good idea to invest in one or two more. At our nursery, it is not unusual for Cheryl and me to hear from customers who bought shrubs from us one or two seasons ago and want to buy more of the same, once they’ve seen how well those plants enhance their particular garden plan.

As a general rule, it makes sense to place low-growing plants at the front of the beds with medium sized plants behind them and the taller shrubs in back. Now is the time to look at your beds and determine if there are some plants that are “out of whack” in your landscape. Instead of waiting until fall or next spring, decide now if any plants need to be retired and replaced, and which ones you’d like to see more of next summer.

Need some idea starters? Here are some plants you can research right now and probably pre-order for fall planting. Let’s start with the low-growers…

Ajuga Black Scallop PW http://www.greenwoodnursery.com/page.cfm/87441
A neat little fast-growing ground cover with deep, dark burgundy leaves and blue blossoms in spring, lingering into summer. I prefer this one to regular Ajuga bronze due to its larger leaves and deeper color.

Creeping Red Thyme http://www.greenwoodnursery.com/page.cfm/13373
(Thymus praecox subsp. Arcticus) This is a fast-growing evergreen ground cover with wonderfully aromatic foliage. If you’d planted it last season, right now you could be enjoying a profusion of lovely red flowers. Easy to grow and good between pavers, too.

Moving back to some medium-height plants…

Heuchera Lime Ricky PPAF http://www.greenwoodnursery.com/page.cfm/87490
This would be superb choice to plant behind the Ajuga Black Scallop (or adjacent to any dark foliage plant such as Black Elephant Ears or Black Mondo grass) because the scalloped leaves are a glowing chartreuse in spring turning lemon-lime in summer, emphasizing the contrast with black Ajuga foliage. Mature height: around 2 feet.

Heuchera villosa Tiramisu PPAF
Imagine these splashes of brick red color spattered around your garden, lightening to chartreuse in summer with a light silver overlay.

And now some taller plants…

Carolina Allspice http://www.greenwoodnursery.com/page.cfm/11681
(Calycanthus floridus) A dense, deciduous shrub that can grow to 5 or 6 feet (or more) at maturity, Carolina Allspice has lustrous dark green foliage and very fragrant, brown to reddish-brown flowers.

Buddleia Bi-Color http://www.greenwoodnursery.com/page.cfm/47058
Easy to grow and extremely fragrant, this variety sports two different colors on the same bloom stalk: rich lavender and butterscotch yellow. It will bloom all summer and attract swarms of colorful butterflies to your garden. Mature height: 5 to 6 feet.

Survey your landscape, plan for improvements and pre-order plants now for fall planting. Let me know if you need some more suggestions.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

White spots on leaves could be powdery mildew fungus

2009-07-22T11:31:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: “I just planted some salvia in my garden and noticed some white spots on the leaves. Any suggestions?” – Mazzocco

ANSWER: The white spots could be from mineral deposits from watering, fertilizer residue or a fungus known as powdery mildew.

You will need to determine what is causing them before you can take any action. Fortunately, the first two wouldn’t require any action, but if they are caused by a fungus, you might want to apply a fungicide.

Powdery mildew is one of the most common landscape fungus problems. The first sign is often curled and twisted leaves before the white or grey powder is apparent. When the mildew appears, you might see the grey patches gradually enlarge and spread until they cover large areas on one or both sides of the leaf. If you are seeing that, then you have powdery mildew.

Severe infection can result in yellow or dry brown leaves and disfigured shoots. Although powdery mildew is not usually fatal, it can bring on early defoliation and unsightly plants.

Powdery mildew fungi are most likely to produce airborne spores and infect plants when temperatures are moderate and will not be present during hot summer days. When plants are overcrowded and shaded, creating a cool, humid environment, they are at greatest risk for powdery mildew infection.

Pick up any fallen infected leaves and pick off any severely damaged or dead leaves and destroy them, preferably by burning. If it’s any consolation, powdery mildew generally won’t adversely affect a plant’s overall health, so if it appears to be quite mild, or if you can live with unsightly plants, you could probably ignore it, other than destroying the infected leaves.

However, you can use a fungicide to treat the problem. For best results, begin to spray the plants as soon as the mildew is detected. Repeat the spraying as needed, which is usually during the cooler weather seasons. Not all fungicides are suitable for all plants, so be sure to check on the recommended usage before you spray. Read the package directions!

Here are two very useful sites with photos to help you identify powdery mildew and helpful instructions on how to treat the problem and create an environment that will discourage the fungus from returning. One article is posted by Cornell University’s Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic and the other is from Ohio State University’s Extension Service.

http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/powdery/powdery.htm

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3047.html

You can click on direct links to those sites when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

QUESTION: “I have a very steep slope in my back yard leading from a patio down to our lake front. There is a retaining wall at the top and a retaining wall at the bottom. I would guess that the incline is about 45 degrees in some areas. There are trees on one side leaving part of the slope in deep shade, part is dappled shade and a few areas get a
good bit of sun, but the bulk of the area is pretty shady.

“Since it is so steep, we have concerns about erosion control. It's steep enough to be difficult to get out there and weed or do any other normal garden "tending", so it has to be very self sufficient. Can you give any advice on types of plants to use?” – Margaret Wilson

ANSWER: Anything you try to plant will most likely take several years to fill in at best. Vinca, pachysandra, purple wintercreeper and liriope will grow well on sloped shaded areas. Ivy might grow well, too, but may be a bit too invasive for your landscape.

If there is a problem with erosion now, I would recommend putting down erosion netting first and then planting. You can plant right through the netting, just cut an X out where you want to insert each plant. Erosion netting decomposes over 5 or so years allowing the ground cover time to take hold and spread. In the meantime, it does a good job at keeping weeds at bay. I hope this gives you some ideas to build on.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Landscape tips for a faster home sale

2009-07-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

If you are hoping to sell your house during these challenging economic times, remember the old saying: you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

When it comes to real estate, that’s always been true. But in a tough economy, there are more houses than usual on the market and fewer buyers. Those buyers that are out there are almost spoiled for choice: a large number of available homes, probably offered at fairly competitive prices.

To make matters worse, slow home sales mean that houses that might have been snapped up quite quickly a couple of years ago and languishing on the market much longer now. If you’ve decided to sell your home, take a look around your neighborhood. You will probably notice quite a number of For Sale signs in the front yards. These homes all share the same basic benefits as yours, such as the same school district, proximity to the same transportation or commuter drive times. They might even have been built by the same builder in a very similar style to yours.

Frankly, you’ve got a lot of competition.

Potential buyers will drive around neighborhoods that interest them. They will glance at a home with a yard sign for perhaps 3 to 5 seconds before moving on. Unless they see a reason to linger. In those few seconds, they have formed opinions as to whether the home meets their personal definition of ‘attractive.’

Is it neat and well-kept? Is the lawn lush and nicely trimmed? Are the shrubs neatly shaped and not obscuring the windows? Is the walkway clean and weed-free? Is the entryway welcoming? Could we live there without having to invest in landscape upgrades? Most of all, they are deciding if this home could provide them with pride of ownership. Would we feel proud to have friends and family visit us here?

And all this in about 3 to 5 seconds… before they pass by your home without ever looking inside and move on down the street!

But there IS good news. You can make your home stand out from the crowd and you don’t have to spend a fortune to do it.

First of all, go out and look at your home from the street, they way a prospective buyer would see it.

If shrubs have grown to the point where they are obscuring the front of the house, trim them back. If necessary, remove them altogether and replace them with fresh, attractive evergreen shrubs, such as Boxwood Winter Gem, Euonymus Manhattan with its colorful fruit or the dense rounded Red Barberry.

Add some annuals to put splashes of bright color in front of the shrubs. Pick up a few bags of dark mulch and carefully layer it around the shrubs and annuals. The contrast will make the colors pop!

How about the lawn? Keep it mowed (no shorter than three inches) and watered (about once or twice a week) so it looks green and lush. Edging the lawn, where it meets the flower beds, is worthwhile as it projects the impression that this house has been well cared for, so the inside should be as neat as the exterior.

Look at the entryway and front porch. Place a couple of containers there and add some economical plants. Pick containers that match the scale of your porch, neither too small and insignificant nor too large and overpowering. Plant some perennials such as geraniums, daylilies and varieties of Achillea including Summer Berries and Moonshine. Add a few annuals for instant color.

Look down at the walkway. Keep it swept and clean. If weeds are growing up through the pavers pull them out or kill them by spraying with vinegar.

Of course, you’ll want to be sure that the area is free of toys, bicycles and any items that distract the eye.

If you feel that some of these tasks are beyond your capabilities, such as mulching and lawn edging, call in a local landscaping service. A one-time service would not be too expensive and would be seen as a real investment when your home sells.

Remember, all you can really do is “put the odds in your favor” by giving your home a slight edge in the eyes of prospective buyers.

If you’re still stumped for ideas, go to my Web site, www.landsteward.org and click on the Slide Show link to see lots of ways to spruce up your home for a faster sale.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Never too early to plan fall planting

2009-07-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

Fall planting? But it’s only just summer! It’s way too early to be thinking about fall planting, isn’t it?

Nope.

This is an excellent time to be thinking ahead to the cooler days of fall and what you can plant to enhance your landscape. What makes “right now” so special?

Right now your landscape is probably at its high point. The foliage on shrubs and trees is full and lush. Many of your late spring and early summer plants are in bloom. Take a look around your landscape. Walk around and see it as if with fresh eyes. This is the best time of year to see where the gaps are. Later in the year, and of course in winter, this is less obvious as deciduous trees have shed their leaves and even evergreens are more dormant.

What do I mean by “gaps” in your landscape? I don’t mean to suggest you should necessarily fill every square foot of soil with plants. But when you look at your landscape, as if for the first time, you’ll see areas that don’t look complete, somehow.

Perhaps there’s an awkward space between plants that looks empty, like a smile with a missing tooth. Maybe a dead plant had been removed and never replaced. Or perhaps an older plant has outgrown its usefulness, dwarfing smaller plants around it and preventing sunlight and rainwater from reaching them.

Not only that, but at this time of year you can look at your landscape and see some of your favorite plants at their best and decide if it would be a good idea to invest in one or two more. At our nursery, it is not unusual for Cheryl and me to hear from customers who bought shrubs from us one or two seasons ago and want to buy more of the same, once they’ve seen how well those plants enhance their particular garden plan.

As a general rule, it makes sense to place low-growing plants at the front of the beds with medium sized plants behind them and the taller shrubs in back. Now is the time to look at your beds and determine if there are some plants that are “out of whack” in your landscape. Instead of waiting until fall or next spring, decide now if any plants need to be retired and replaced, and which ones you’d like to see more of next summer.

Need some idea starters? Here are some plants you can research right now and probably pre-order for fall planting. Let’s start with the low-growers…

Ajuga Black Scallop PW

A neat little fast-growing ground cover with deep, dark burgundy leaves and blue blossoms in spring, lingering into summer. I prefer this one to regular Ajuga bronze due to its larger leaves and deeper color.

Creeping Red Thyme

(Thymus praecox subsp. Arcticus) This is a fast-growing evergreen ground cover with wonderfully aromatic foliage. If you’d planted it last season, right now you could be enjoying a profusion of lovely red flowers. Easy to grow and good between pavers, too.

Moving back to some medium-height plants…

Heuchera Lime Ricky PPAF

This would be superb choice to plant behind the Ajuga Black Scallop (or adjacent to any dark foliage plant such as Black Elephant Ears or Black Mondo grass) because the scalloped leaves are a glowing chartreuse in spring turning lemon-lime in summer, emphasizing the contrast with black Ajuga foliage. Mature height: around 2 feet.

Heuchera villosa Tiramisu PPAF

Imagine these splashes of brick red color spattered around your garden, lightening to chartreuse in summer with a light silver overlay.

And now some taller plants…

Carolina Allspice

(Calycanthus floridus) A dense, deciduous shrub that can grow to 5 or 6 feet (or more) at maturity, Carolina Allspice has lustrous dark green foliage and very fragrant, brown to reddish-brown flowers.

Buddleia Bi-Color

Easy to grow and extremely fragrant, this variety sports two different colors on the same bloom stalk: rich lavender and butterscotch yellow. It will bloom all summer and attract swarms of colorful butterflies to your garden. Mature height: 5 to 6 feet.

Survey your landscape, plan for improvements and pre-order plants now for fall planting. Let me know if you need some more suggestions.

Landscape tips for a faster home sale

2009-06-29T10:40:00.001-07:00

If you are hoping to sell your house during these challenging economic times, remember the old saying: you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

When it comes to real estate, that’s always been true. But in a tough economy, there are more houses than usual on the market and fewer buyers. Those buyers that are out there are almost spoiled for choice: a large number of available homes, probably offered at fairly competitive prices.

To make matters worse, slow home sales mean that houses that might have been snapped up quite quickly a couple of years ago and languishing on the market much longer now. If you’ve decided to sell your home, take a look around your neighborhood. You will probably notice quite a number of For Sale signs in the front yards. These homes all share the same basic benefits as yours, such as the same school district, proximity to the same transportation or commuter drive times. They might even have been built by the same builder in a very similar style to yours.

Frankly, you’ve got a lot of competition.

Potential buyers will drive around neighborhoods that interest them. They will glance at a home with a yard sign for perhaps 3 to 5 seconds before moving on. Unless they see a reason to linger. In those few seconds, they have formed opinions as to whether the home meets their personal definition of ‘attractive.’

Is it neat and well-kept? Is the lawn lush and nicely trimmed? Are the shrubs neatly shaped and not obscuring the windows? Is the walkway clean and weed-free? Is the entryway welcoming? Could we live there without having to invest in landscape upgrades? Most of all, they are deciding if this home could provide them with pride of ownership. Would we feel proud to have friends and family visit us here?

And all this in about 3 to 5 seconds… before they pass by your home without ever looking inside and move on down the street!

But there IS good news. You can make your home stand out from the crowd and you don’t have to spend a fortune to do it.

First of all, go out and look at your home from the street, they way a prospective buyer would see it.

If shrubs have grown to the point where they are obscuring the front of the house, trim them back. If necessary, remove them altogether and replace them with fresh, attractive evergreen shrubs, such as Boxwood Winter Gem, Euonymus Manhattan with its colorful fruit or the dense rounded Red Barberry.

Add some annuals to put splashes of bright color in front of the shrubs. Pick up a few bags of dark mulch and carefully layer it around the shrubs and annuals. The contrast will make the colors pop!

How about the lawn? Keep it mowed (no shorter than three inches) and watered (about once or twice a week) so it looks green and lush. Edging the lawn, where it meets the flower beds, is worthwhile as it projects the impression that this house has been well cared for, so the inside should be as neat as the exterior.

Look at the entryway and front porch. Place a couple of containers there and add some economical plants. Pick containers that match the scale of your porch, neither too small and insignificant nor too large and overpowering. Plant some perennials such as geraniums, daylilies and varieties of Achillea including Summer Berries and Moonshine. Add a few annuals for instant color.

Look down at the walkway. Keep it swept and clean. If weeds are growing up through the pavers pull them out or kill them by spraying with vinegar.

Of course, you’ll want to be sure that the area is free of toys, bicycles and any items that distract the eye.

If you feel that some of these tasks are beyond your capabilities, such as mulching and lawn edging, call in a local landscaping service. A one-time service would not be too expensive and would be seen as a real investment when your home sells.

Remember, all you can really do is “put the odds in your favor” by giving your home a slight edge in the eyes of prospective buyers.

If you’re still stumped for ideas, go to my Web site, www.landsteward.org and click on the Slide Show link to see lots of ways to spruce up your home for a faster sale.

Ivy alert! It can be a wall killer

2009-06-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

Ivy is a beautiful plant that creates mental images of both dignified, established structures and cozy old homes. Think Ivy League Universities on one hand and Hollywood’s idea of a quaint English cottage on the other hand. But ivy can cause big problems and you need to exercise great caution if you are thinking of adding it to your landscape, as I point out to this reader:

QUESTION: “We have some sort of non flowering vine that is growing on our brick
building. Will the plant damage the brick & mortar?” – Dawn Borg

ANSWER: Although, a vine (such as ivy) growing on buildings creates an attractive look, it can damage the brick and mortar by hiding insects, including termites, and other sneaky critters, as well as concealing cracks in the brick or mortar and wood rot damage around the doors and windows. The vines gradually work their way into the mortar causing cracks and loosening the bricks. However, usually you cannot see the damage until it is too late because it is hidden by the dense foliage of the vines.

QUESTION: “I have ten Kwanzan Cherry Trees that I planted about two years ago. They have been doing well and now are about 7 to 8 feet tall. Two weeks ago I noticed that two trees have a problem the leaves are turning brown and falling off. The branches are still pliable, right now anyway. Now it is happening to a third tree. The leaves look like they are starting to wilt. What could the problem be? I want to save these trees if possible.” – Carmine Sarno

ANSWER: My first consideration would be the possibility of either over watering or under watering, assuming there is no evidence of root damage from outside forces such as moles.

If your area has had a lot of rainfall, over watering could be the issue. On the other hand, if your area is lacking rainfall, the trees may be stressed. Plants will exhibit the same characteristics whether they are suffering from not enough water or too much water. Also, consider if it is possible that they could have been sprayed accidentally from an herbicide or lawn fertilizer. Hopefully, it is a “water” issue, from which the trees should recover if that problem is not of a long duration.

QUESTION: “I think my Burning Bushes are being eaten by rabbits. Piles of small pellets are around where the bush is disappearing. What can we do to stop it? Will the bushes survive?” – Vicky

ANSWER: Burning Bush plants are a favorite for bunnies and mice. To try to limit rabbits from nibbling on trees and shrubs, you have to work to remove their habitats. They live in areas where they are protected (much like mice) such as grassy fields, rock/stone, wood, and brush piles. As long as they have a place to live, they will be around and they will require food.

To keep them from nibbling on the trunks of the plants, loosely wrap hardware cloth around the trunks extending several inches into the ground, covering back with soil for security. This is about the safest way to handle the problem.

As long as the critters haven’t done extreme damage to the plants, wrapping them should allow them time to heal.

Cheryl and I are getting quite a bit of feedback from readers about the slide show at our Web site www.landsteward.org The slide show – which we add to regularly – features photos of lots of different garden projects along with descriptions so you can understand what you’re looking at. After years of answering readers’ questions we believe you’ll find this a useful (and free) resource when you’re looking for landscape solutions. Go take a look!

Waterlogged landscape creates special problems

2009-05-11T09:24:00.001-07:00

An area of landscape that is saturated with water on a fairly regular basis can be a real problem for homeowners. Similarly, sloping terrain can be a daunting challenge when it comes to lawn care and choosing suitable plants.

Put those two challenges together in one spot – damp conditions and sloping ground – and you’ve got the potential for major headaches! If that’s a problem you’re dealing with, you can sympathize with the reader who sent me this question, and hopefully my answer will give you some inspiration too.

QUESTION: “My family is moving to a new house soon in zone 6. Although very little of the property is landscaped, I'm lucky in that the previous owners clearly prepared much of the ground so it's in great shape for planting. That said, there are some tricky areas, and I'm not sure how to proceed.

On one side of the house, the ground is consistently damp. It's a combination of being mostly shaded and being on the "downstream" side of a long slope. While we don't get puddles, it's pretty soggy. There's virtually no grass there, and I can't imagine trying. I'd like to plant perennials and/or shrubs that will "sop up" some of the moisture and prevent erosion, and of course survive in the process. It doesn't have to be drop dead gorgeous, because it's not an area that's very visible, but of course I'd like it to be reasonably attractive. I'd love to know what options I have. I'm thinking various ferns, but what else?
At the top of our driveway, there's a short but fairly steep slope (the driveway goes up the side of the house, and the backyard lawn is elevated above the driveway). I'd say it's about four feet from the base to the top. This area gets a few good hours of sun, but also some shade. It's very visible from the street, so I'd like it to be attractive as well as functional.
In the front of our house are some huge broad leaf evergreens. The areas underneath and around them are very bare. The front yard slopes gradually but visibly down towards the street. What can I plant there?” – Marcy Rosen

ANSWER: As a rule, grass doesn’t usually grow well in wet, shaded areas. You might consider putting in a dry creek bed to try to move some of the dampness to another part of the yard. There are plants that will grow in wet areas, but they will only absorb the amount of moisture that they need and no more. The only way to reduce the dampness is to divert the water (from wherever it comes) to another area of the yard.

Having said that, there are plants that grow well in damp areas. There is an excellent article, titled “Qualifiers for Quagmires: Landscape Plants for Wet Sites” posted online by the Extension Service of NC State University. You can find it at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-646.html and you can click on a link from this column at my Web site www.landsteward.org

That article includes a comprehensive list of damp-tolerant trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials, including those species have been known to tolerate flooded conditions for extended periods of time. Well worth checking out if you’re a victim of wet landscape.

Concerning the sloped area at the top of your driveway, you might want to look at junipers, evergreen euonymus (such as manhattan), hydrangeas, bamboo and nandinas.

On planting something underneath your broadleaf evergreen trees, it kind of depends on what the trees are, how dense they are in the front yard and how much space there is before the first branching. It is often difficult to get shrubs or perennials to grow in heavily shaded areas such as that. There are a number of groundcovers that can perform well in situations such as yours. Consider planting vinca, pachysandra and wintercreeper. Groundcovers are a very viable and attractive alternative to both grass and shrubs in conditions such as you describe.

Planting for privacy and peace of mind

2009-05-04T07:59:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: “I am wanting to plant something around one end of my pool for privacy. My only concern is that the plants should not have a very big root system due to it being around 2 – 3 feet from my cement. I also need something that will grow 10 – 12 feet high. I do not need total privacy, just something that will break up the view of my pool.” – Ronnie Holloway

ANSWER: Tall growing ornamental grasses work beautifully in pool areas as do clumping bamboo (which I would recommend planting in large pots for extra height). Most shrubs or low growing trees are going to produce root systems that may bump up against the concrete. Another thought is to berm the area so that shrubs such as junipers or cypress (evergreens) can be planted with root space.

Since space may be limited, landscaping with large pots or containers is a gorgeous way to bring in tall growing plants (depending on where you live, of course). Bamboo, grasses, holly, other broadleaf evergreens with a blending of seasonal color (perennials) can create a most interesting setting and provides needed privacy.

I hope this gives you some ideas to build on.

QUESTION: “We bought a home in the woods. We have a lot behind us that is approximately one-half acre and narrow. The lot was sold and all the beautiful 200 year old pine trees were taken down. They built a home on stilts and proceeded to put a dog pen attached to the home in the back. I planted a few Thuga trees in anticipation of this but we have many deer and they have feasted on them this winter. The house is placed directly behind us, giving us about 30 feet between the two homes. Help! What can I do?” – Carole

ANSWER: That does sound terrible. Step one would be to install panels (you know, like the lattice type or fencing panels) so that they are more tall than wide. This will at least give you immediate privacy and peace of mind. Then you can work (gradually if necessary) on providing landscaping to fill in with the fencing.

If you choose the lattice panels, plant some type of ivy or Carolina Jessamine to grow up and fill that in.

As you begin to fill in with landscaping keep in mind to layer plants. Larger (or taller) plants especially evergreens planted in the back half of the area coming forward with shorter deciduous, ornamental grasses and other evergreen plants finishing off with colorful perennials in front.

Cheryl and I have put together a slideshow that you access via our Web site www.landsteward.org It should give you a few ideas on layering plants in the landscape. Look for the link on the right of the home page that says Ideas Slide Show.

The next question comes from a reader who brings up a very good point about being careful about what can be planted in proximity to blackberry plants.

QUESTION: “I have 18 blackberry plants. My question is how far from the blackberries can I plant tomatoes? My blackberry plants have been in the ground approximately 12 months.” – Harold Daniels

ANSWER: Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant carry root rot called verticillium which can harm blackberry and raspberry plants. Berry plants should not be planted in soil where these vegetables have grown within the past 4 years. 30 to 50 feet away might be a good distance. The biggest thing you will want to look for is drainage. When it rains or you water the tomatoes or other vegetables, you do not want the water draining down towards your berry plants.

As I mentioned above, Cheryl and I have put together a slide show of color photos and descriptions, and readers are writing to tell us they are getting some good ideas from them. You are welcome to go to our Web site and “slide” through the pics!

Five ways to keep it simple in your garden

2009-04-27T12:49:00.001-07:00

“Simplify, simplify!” said Henry David Thoreau. But you don’t have to live in an isolated cabin at Walden Pond to enjoy the benefits of simplification, particularly when it relates to your garden and landscape.

Life today makes so many demands on our time, particularly with work and family-related issues, that the garden gets pushed further and further down the priority list. As a result, we put off doing anything because we have more important matters to deal with, or we start a major landscape project and realize we’ve bitten off more than we can comfortably chew.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Just let Thoreau’s famous quote be your guideline and simplify. Here are some ways that you can K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple… Sweetie!

Take smaller bites.
You’re not building the Hoover Dam in your backyard (I hope) so you don’t need to regard your landscape improvements as a single huge project. Certainly, have an overall plan for the way you want the finished result to be, but don’t set yourself the task of completing it all in one season.

Pick one of two smaller areas that will be part of the whole. Select the trees and shrubs for those areas, prepare the soil and plant them. Throughout their first season, you can concentrate on tending to their needs. This “smaller bite” will consume less of your time and energy than attempting a full-court makeover, and as the year progresses, what you see emerging may modify your original master plan, allowing your creativity to grow along with the plants. Spread your project into manageable “bite sized” segments and simply work on one at a time.

Go low-maintenance
As you plan your landscape, make a point to look for low-maintenance plants. Ideally, a low-maintenance plant will be have a fairly slow to moderate growth habit, is resistant to pests and diseases, and doesn’t shed a lot of bits and pieces requiring constant clean-up. There’s no such thing as a perfect plant, but seek out those with the fewest potential maintenance problems.

For example, if you have Dogwoods in your plan, look for varieties such as the gorgeous Dogwood Appalachian Spring that is highly resistant to dogwood anthracnose, the fungal disease that has killed off millions of trees.

If you need a maintenance-free ornamental grass that can even do well in spots that stay damp, look for a variety named Grass Acorus gramineus Ogon.

Go for quality
Buying the cheapest plants is not usually a good investment, particularly if your time is worth anything to you. If plants look limp, tired and spindly at the garden center, you could be buying trouble, including the introduction of plant disease to your garden. Weak, unhealthy plants require a lot of care and are more likely to fail, which means buying more plants later to replace them.

Invest in healthy plants and you’ll spend less time caring for them and less money replacing them. For example, if you’re planning on evergreens such as the deer-resistant Juniper Blue Point, choose those that are larger and further along in their growth cycle by the time you buy them, probably shipped in gallon containers.

Do it right the first time
Follow the planting instructions precisely. If the instructions tell you to dig a hole of a particular dimension and add some organic matter, then that’s what you need to do if you want the plant to do well without a whole lot of attention from you.

Cut (out) the grass
If you hate spending a lot of your valuable time mowing your lawn, or it local conditions make it difficult to grow and maintain good sod, reduce the size of your lawn and replace with low-maintenance ground cover.

Here are some easy-care ground covers that could replace a lot of lawn:

Pennsylvania Sedge (grows well under trees)
Ajuga Black Scallop PW
Mazus Reptans Purple Creeping
Nandina Dwarf Harbor

If you need some specific answers to garden problems, drop me an e-mail at steve@landsteward.org Meanwhile, keep it simple so your garden is a joy not a chore.

The five transplant trees make for easier, more successful planting

2009-04-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Quite often Im asked a variation on the same question. Sometimes the question is asked by visitors to my nursery; other times I find the question in my e-mail from a reader of this column. And sometimes the question remains unasked by someone who doesnt want to appear dumb.

This is the question:

How easy is it to plant a tree?

That is most certainly not a dumb question. But often its only half a question. Why? Because when most people ask the question, they really want to know how easy it is to plant trees successfully so that they thrive and grow to maturity.

Another point to remember is that some trees are easier to grow than others, regardless of your level of expertise. Ill have some suggestions for you in this column. But first, lets think about the absolute basics of introducing the tree into your landscape.

Different varieties of trees have different needs, but a non-profit web site operated by American Forests has some excellent general tree-planting tips, including the following:

Select a site with enough room for roots and branches to reach full size. Avoid overhead and

underground utilities.

Prepare a planting area as deep as the root ball and three to five times its diameter by loosening the soil.

Dig a hole in the middle of the area and set the root ball even with the ground level.

Use water to settle soil and remove air pockets in planting area.

Stake the tree to flex with the wind only if tree is unable to stand up to wind.

Spread a two to three inch layer of mulch on entire area, but not within six inches of tree trunk.

You can find the entire article, along with some helpful diagrams here: http://www.americanforests.org/resources/howtoplanttrees/ and there is a direct link from this column at my web site. Go to www.landsteward.org then find this column under The Plant Man heading.

There are ways you can put the odds in your favor when it comes to planting trees that are more likely to thrive and grow successfully. Heres a word I want you to remember: Transplants.

Transplants are hardier, huskier, and more allaround balanced plants than seedlings. When planted in your landscape, the transplant has a greater chance of survival since it has already survived the shock of being transplanted once at the nursery.

With spring in the air, lets think about some beautiful flowering trees that work very well (and are much easier to grow) as transplants.

White Flowering Cherry (Prunus yedoensis). This is also known as Yoshino Cherry and is a rapidly growing tree that is extraordinarily beautiful in Spring when it is covered with white blossoms that resemble cotton candy. These trees can eventually reach 40 ft. and make excellent street trees.

Kwanzan Cherry. Id say this is the showiest of all Japanese trees. I love the awesome bundles of large pink blossoms that last longer than those of other flowering cherries.

Cleveland Select Flowering Pear. If you like to see a lot of blooms, the Cleveland Select seems to have more than other varieties of flowering pear. This variety is hardy, deciduous, disease-resistant and grows more upright than the Bradford to around 30 - 40 ft high.

Forest Pansy Redbud. Something a little out of the ordinary, but well worth planting if you can find it! It is a beautiful ornamental tree that perfect for the small garden as well as more ambitious landscaping projects. Unlike the native Redbud (cercis Canadensis), the Forest Pansy has blooms of a deep maroon color.

Dogwood Kousa (Cornus kousa). Also known as a Japanese flowering dogwood, the Kousa is not as susceptible to disease as the white dogwood, and that’s a major benefit. Great as a specimen, in groupings or near a patio, it blooms later, around June with a softer petal flower.

So, if youre looking for an easier and more foolproof way of planting healthy successful trees without a lot of worry or risk, remember to look for transplants!

Let me know if I can help you with your specific tree planting challenges. Note that some of the information here appeared in an earlier Plant Man column published in April 2003 and included here by reader request.

Herbs: the finishing touch for your human habitat

2009-03-18T04:44:00.001-07:00

Ornamental grasses add tranquility to human habitat

2009-03-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Your garden can be a human habitat

2009-03-04T06:42:00.001-08:00

When landscapers use the word ‘habitat’ it’s almost always preceded by the word ‘wildlife’. Nothing wrong with that, to be sure. But what about you? What about a human habitat?

Landscape designers can create environments that make birds and other wildlife feel right at home. They feel safe and relaxed and they are likely to spend more time there.

If you are like many homeowners, your backyard doesn’t seem to be beckoning you outside, inviting you to kick back, relax and become one with nature.

Sound familiar? If so, stay tuned because I have a few suggestions that will help you create a delightful human habitat that can adapt to any budget and any skill level.

When Cheryl and I create a new garden, we focus on elements that allow us to be enveloped by nature, to enjoy the peace and tranquility that nature provides. (If you’d like to see some photos, see the note below.) A human habitat garden should resonate with the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.

The sight of foliage in different shapes and sizes and shades of green and other colors; the sight of flowers as the progress from tiny green buds to full blooms, then to the gold and copper of fall.
The undulating sound of leaves rustling together as the breeze wafts through the tree canopy above.
The smell of roses and other fragrant perennials and the burst of aroma released when fresh herbs are rubbed between your fingers.
The touch of different textures from the rough bark of a tree to the velvety-smooth feel of a petal.
And yes, taste too, from the herbs that go from your garden to your kitchen pots.

For us, nothing beats taking a cup of coffee out to our garden first thing in the morning and letting the sights, sounds and smells of nature give us both peace and energy. Twenty minutes like that and we’re ready to deal with whatever life can dish out for the rest of the day! Nature, yes; but nature to which we’ve lent a helping hand.

If you’re feeling that you could do with some of that right now, here’s how you can start.

Don’t plan anything too grand. It can become overwhelming and you are likely to give up in frustration. Remember, this is your own personal human habitat. It doesn’t have to be big or take up your entire yard. Start with a small area. You can expand later if you wish.

Think ‘scale’. You’re not Gulliver. You don’t want to be dwarfed by trees that will, in the course of time, soar into the sky on trunks wider than an oil drum. Nor do you want everything in your habitat to be so miniscule and close to the ground that it is little more than a lawn. Think different plant sizes that complement each other (and you) without overwhelming.

Evergreens. Plan on including some evergreens so you have some greenery in your habitat year round. There will be warmish days in early spring and late fall that will tempt you outside and the evergreens will be there to welcome you.

Yarrows. They’re easy to grow and are some of the most popular plants as a result. Look for Achillea Moonshine with its canary-yellow flowers and silver-green foliage that goes with just about everything. Add in some Achillea Paprika or Achillea Terra Cotta for an eye-pleasing mix of colors.

Ornamental shrubs. Yes, they’re ornaments but living ornaments. Think about Carolina Allspice with their aromatic leaves and fruits that have almost a strawberry fragrance. Check out Fragrant Honeysuckle with its heady perfume and delicate pink and white flowers. Don’t forget Spirea Gold Mound with its clusters of tiny, light-pink flowers on reddish-hued foliage.

Hardscape. A wooden bench where you can sit and enjoy your habitat. A pergola or even a gazebo can be found ready-made or in kit form if you’re not skilled in carpentry. Find paving options at hardware stores and garden centers.

Yes, there’s much more and we’ll pick it up in the next Plant Man column, with a focus on herbs and grasses to make your yard a true human habitat.

If you’d like to see some examples of gardens that Cheryl and I have created over the years, send an e-mail request to steve@landsteward.org and we’ll e-mail you some pics.

More human habitat tips next time!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Your garden can be a human habitat

2009-03-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

When landscapers use the word ‘habitat’ it’s almost always preceded by the word ‘wildlife’. Nothing wrong with that, to be sure. But what about you? What about a human habitat?

Landscape designers can create environments that make birds and other wildlife feel right at home. They feel safe and relaxed and they are likely to spend more time there.

If you are like many homeowners, your backyard doesn’t seem to be beckoning you outside, inviting you to kick back, relax and become one with nature.

Sound familiar? If so, stay tuned because I have a few suggestions that will help you create a delightful human habitat that can adapt to any budget and any skill level.

The sight of foliage in different shapes and sizes and shades of green and other colors; the sight of flowers as the progress from tiny green buds to full blooms, then to the gold and copper of fall.
The undulating sound of leaves rustling together as the breeze wafts through the tree canopy above.
The smell of roses and other fragrant perennials and the burst of aroma released when fresh herbs are rubbed between your fingers.
The touch of different textures from the rough bark of a tree to the velvety-smooth feel of a petal.
And yes, taste too, from the herbs that go from your garden to your kitchen pots.

If you’re feeling that you could do with some of that right now, here’s how you can start.

Yes, there’s much more and we’ll pick it up in the next Plant Man column, with a focus on herbs and grasses to make your yard a true human habitat.

If you’d like to see some examples of gardens that Cheryl and I have created over the years, send an e-mail request to steve@landsteward.org and we’ll e-mail you some pics.

More human habitat tips next time!

Keeping dogs away from tender plants

2009-02-25T10:24:00.001-08:00

Having your pet dog join you for some outdoor fun is one of life’s pleasures. But when Fido decides to hone his digging and chewing skills on your tender plants, man’s best friend can find himself in the dog house!

Here’s a reader who needs help with a dog-gnawed magnolia.

QUESTION: “Last spring I planted a magnolia Jane and crape myrtle in my garden and they were doing very well until my two dogs got inside the garden and chewed the magnolia down to 5 inches with several small branches attached and chewed the myrtle. I managed to prune the myrtle back to beauty but the magnolia didn't fare so well. Is there any hope in saving the magnolia? ” -- Juan Luciano

ANSWER: Pets can be harsh on new plants in the landscape. You may have to try several different things before you find the one thing that will encourage the dogs to leave the plants alone.

A few things that come to mind are putting wire cages (chicken wire or stronger) around the trees for the first few years until they can fend for themselves. Sprinkling cayenne pepper around the area of the plant can sometimes keep the dogs at bay as their nose/tongue will burn (nothing violent!) for a few hours. As the trees grow, if the dogs continue to chew on the bark, loosely wrap the trunk with hardware cloth. It is a woven wire type cloth that dogs or wildlife such as rabbits and mice can’t gnaw through.

I don’t know if the magnolia will come out from the damage. It will pretty much be a wait and see. Give it some protection and if it begins to leaf out, build a sturdy cage around it so the dogs can’t get near it.

Another option, until the magnolia is a little larger, is to relocate it to a large (tall) garden pot. I had to do this last year after my dogs decided to dig up the two new crape myrtles that I used to replace two oriental maples that had died over the harsh Easter weekend two years ago. They had never done anything so drastic before, but after they dug up the second set of myrtles planted, we decided to put the plants in some tall garden pots and they didn’t bother them anymore.

QUESTION: “I just recently purchased a home. The lawn is something to question, but anyway I was planning to rake and apply fertilizer with weed control. One person recommended that I use lime as well. Could you explain the benefits or why should I use lime in addition to my fertilizer treatment? Also, I have a hearty hibiscus. Do they return yearly? Can I just plant the seeds that they bore before fall/winter?” -- Daniel Felicien

ANSWER: The first thing you should do is have your soil tested. Too often, many chemicals are added to soil haphazardly without testing the soil to make certain that is what is needed, even fertilizer. You can obtain soil testing information through your local Conservation District Office (also known as NRCS), Soil Conservation Service or contact your local Department of Agriculture.

Here is a link to the NRCS. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov You can find your nearest office by going to that site and clicking on ‘Find a Service Center.’

Fertilizers are only used to bring soil into a neutral level (pH) while chemicals are used to combat specific problems. They do not make the soil healthier, which is where soil should be. Amendments such as organic applications, aged compost, aged manure mix, etc will build up the soil with nutrients making it healthy and less susceptible to weeds and pests. Weed seeds have a difficult time growing in healthy soil.

If the hibiscus in your landscape is a temperate variety (usually a hard bark shrub) and not a tropical variety, it is only dormant and will leaf out in mid/late spring. Temperate varieties of hibiscus (also known as althea and Rose of Sharon) are generally propagated through cuttings. Any seed produced by the plant may not come back true to the parent plant.

Five new books to fascinate armchair gardeners

2009-02-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

With spring fast approaching, this is a good time to catch up on some practical and fun how-to advice from garden experts. Here’s my look at five new garden books.

Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love

Julie Moir Messervy (Taunton Press)

As the author notes, most of us have the confidence to improve the inside of our homes with a fresh coat of paint, new rugs, furniture and fixtures. But when it comes to the outside of our most prized possession, we don’t know where to start.

In “Home Outside” landscape designer Messervy provides an intuitive, easy-to-follow guide that demystifies the art and practice of landscape design. Divided into sections such as Comfort Zones, Making It Flow, Placing the Pieces and Sensory Pleasures, the book combines no-nonsense text, excellent color photos and diagrams and plans.

Messervy says that she wants to get people back outside onto their land by helping them realize the pleasure that’s involved in being out of doors.

If you gaze at your yard and wish it looked better but don’t know where to start, “Home Outside” could be the book to get you off the dime and fired up with ideas from the modest to the grandiose. Have a pad of those sticky yellow notes handy. You’ll probably want to bookmark a lot of pages in this, one of the year’s best landscape design books for both homeowners and design pro’s.

Deer-Resistant Landscaping

Neil Soderstrom (Rodale Books)

If you’re one of the thousands of homeowners in the depths of despair and depression due to finding your lovingly cared-for plants reduced to stubble by hungry deer, this is a must-have book for you.

Suburban sprawl has created an ideal habitat for wildlife, free from most natural predators and off-limits to hunters. For lovers of wildlife, this can be a joy, but the joy can be short lived when deer see your landscape as an all-they-can-eat buffet.

In this book, Soderstrom tells you what works, what doesn’t and why, based on the latest scientific research, advice of landscape and wildlife-control professionals, all without resorting to poisons or firearms.

Not just deer, by the way, but also twenty other “pesky” mammals from bears, beavers and chipmunks to moles, mice, rabbits and voles.

Perhaps best of all, Soderstom lists, describes and depicts more than 1,000 plants that are resistant to deer and other wildlife.

Understanding Perennials

William Cullina (HMH)

Cullina has created a visually beautiful guide to working with perennials and, most importantly, helping them flourish. Rather than coming up with yet another plant encyclopedia, Cullina offers what he describes as the “psychology” of perennials: their needs, wants and potentials.

Starting with the basics, such as the difference between bulbs, corms and tubers, the book literally takes perennials from the ground up, with sections on roots, leaves, stems, flowers and seeds. There’s also a handy reference section on pests and diseases that attack perennials and how to control them.

Perennials are the basis of virtually every garden and Cullina’s book deserves a place on the shelf of every gardener wishing to bring out the best in their plants.

Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

Edited by Fern Marshall Bradley et al (Rodale Books)

Unlike Cullina’s book, this one really IS an encyclopedia, and at around two inches thick, quite a hefty one! This edition, newly revised and updated for 2009, must be the most up-to-date and complete resource on the subject of organic gardening.

After 50 years it is still the go-to reference for both novices and seasoned organic gardeners. If you’re intrigued by the idea of applying organic methods to fruit and vegetable crops, herbs, trees and shrubs, perennials, annuals and lawns, here’s where you’ll find in-depth information on earth-friendly techniques, using water wisely, managing invasive plants and more.

Kitchen Garden Box: Save and Sow Seeds of Your Favorite Vegetables

Mike McGrath (Quirk)

Organized on cards in a sturdy flip-top box, this fun little package shows gardeners how to collect, store, use and replant seeds of their favorite tried-and-true veggies.

In addition to handy cards with step-by-step instructions, growing tips and recipes, the kit includes ten seed storage envelopes and coupons for two free seed packets. A fun gift for a friend or for yourself, Kitchen Garden Box is scheduled for publication in April 2009.

Landscape for privacy and sound barrier around new home

2009-02-12T13:39:00.001-08:00

Moving to a new home, particularly if it’s your first, is an exciting venture. But deciding what to do about your new landscape can seem overwhelming. That was the problem faced by these new homeowners whose question was answered by my wife Cheryl, below.

QUESTION: “My husband and I are in the process of purchasing a property.
Temperatures are usually warm and the backyard is small with a fair amount of sunlight. We'd like to keep the landscaping cohesive with the style of this Spanish Cottage, but more importantly, we need it to do several things.

“First, we need it to build privacy since two story buildings can see into our yard. We also would like to reduce sound. My husband is a musician and frequently has "jam sessions" in the garage, but we don't want to disturb neighbors. What types of trees
and plants do you suggest for this?

“Finally, if we'd like to grow some light ivy over the house to give it that "cottage" feel, how would we do this? The front of the home faces south. Thank you so much.” – The Schlarbs

ANSWER: Planting trees and shrubs in fairly close proximity and then pruning them to form a hedge is a time-honored way to create a feeling of privacy and at the same time muffle sound, both incoming and outgoing.

But for you’re thinking of something a little less formal, here’s a link to a very informative article from the L.A. Times in praise of what the author calls “hedges without edges.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/23/home/hm-hedges23

You can always use bamboo, but there are other plant varieties out there that may be more of what you would prefer. Layering different types of plants can help create privacy, such as a dense hedge that may only grow 5 to 8 feet tall but give you the sound block you desire with a tall growing bamboo or other plant variety to block the view from the taller buildings.

Concerning growing ivy on your house, this isn't something that I would recommend. Ivy, like many other vines, will attach itself to the structure eventually causing serious damage. However, if you like the idea of ivy, remember that it will grow on a chicken wire frame, lattice or arbor where it would be less invasive and easier to control. The latter, an arbor, would help to give you privacy in your back yard area.

I have e-mailed you some specific links to pages at Sunset Magazine’s Web site. Sunset Magazine always has some wonderful ideas for landscaping, particularly southwestern landscaping. Sunset Magazine is one of my favorite all-around magazines because they always give such great tips. What I am trying to do with these links is to show you how color and plants can liven up a home and give you the cottage feel that you are looking for.

For other readers who are interested in this subject, your best bet is simply to go to http://www.sunset.com/garden/ and then click on the menu items such as “Landscaping and Design,” “Earth Friendly,” etc.

Some colorful plants that you may want to include in your landscape are: roses, lantana, hibiscus, fuchsia, camellia, and bougainvillea. Many of these plants also offer climbing varieties that could be considered for the arbor instead of the ivy.

This is a lot of info to take in, but I hope it gives you some ideas of your own to build on.
Good luck on your project!

A few days later, this follow-up note was in our in-box:

I can't thank you enough for such a helpful email! My family and I will certainly be thinking of your kindness as we work on landscaping for our yard. Being that this could be our first home, we are very excited , but felt overwhelmed at the thought of sorting this out on our own. When we finally get around to it, I'll be sure to send you photos. Many thanks! Warm regards, Adriana Schlarb & Family.

Roses: the language of love lasts long after Valentine’s Day

2009-02-05T07:49:00.001-08:00

Roses. Ask almost anyone what roses symbolize and they’ll tell you, “Love.” In February, our thoughts turn to love, thanks to St. Valentine, Cupid’s little arrows and, of course, roses.

If you’re thinking of treating your Special Sweetie to roses on February 14, I say, “Good for you!” But I have an idea that will put a unique tweak on your gift that will show your love lasts longer than just Valentine’s Day. Doesn’t that sound good?

But first, before you rush out and plunk down your hard-earned cash for a bunch of blooms, take a minute to think about the language of flowers; what the color of the rose says about you and your feelings.

Yes, strange as it might seem, flowers really do have a language, a code if you will, that legend says originated in 15th century Persia, coming to Europe over the next three hundred years. By the 19th century, people in Europe and America were using this floral code to send wordless messages to each other. Because each flower, color, and even number of flowers and how they were arranged in the bouquet had special meanings, lovers could converse secretly without ever exchanging a word.

Roses are the flowers most associated with the emotions, particularly love. But are you sure those roses you’re about to grab at the supermarket express exactly the feelings you wish to convey? For a start, there are many shades of red rose, each expressing slightly different emotions. Consider this:

Mid red roses: romantic love and respect
Amaranth red: long standing desire
Cardinal red: sublime desire
Carmine red: deceitful desire
Fiery red: flames of passion

It doesn’t stop with red, of course. Other colors have special meanings that you might want to consider, depending on the message you wish to convey:

Lavender/purple: grace, gentility, refinement
Peach: sociability, friendship
Pink: appreciation, gratitude
Red and white together: unity
Red and yellow together: happiness, gaiety, fun
Yellow: joy, celebration

So lavender roses might be perfect for grandma or your inlaws, perhaps. Peach roses could be could be a nice choice for your best friend, and pink roses to say thank you to a co-worker. Yellow roses are often seen at wedding showers and receptions, but be careful! In Islamic tradition, yellow roses symbolize treachery or deceit, in Mexico they are associated with death and to the French they imply infidelity!

Well, here’s my “unique tweak” to make this Valentine’s Day the most memorable ever. Give your Honey a rose bush rather than a bouquet. Why? A bouquet will fade and wither in a few days, but a live, growing rose bush, planted where she or he will see it everyday, year after year, speaks of a love that is perennial!

I strongly recommend Knockout Roses because they are relatively easy to care for and produce an amazing amount of gorgeous, fragrant blooms, often twice as many as other varieties. Look for:

Rose Knockout Red

This is an excellent choice for a low-maintenance, disease resistant rose. Fluorescent, fire-engine red in cooler temperatures turning deep, dense pink in the heat of summer.

Rose Knockout Double Red

Ooh, the passion! This one has deep iridescent burgundy red. You’ll find 5 or 6 blooms per stem giving a luscious, luxurious display.

Rose Knockout Double Pink

The Double Pink is a little more dense and compact than some other Knockouts, reaching about 3 to 4 feet high with those eye-popping, blushing-pink double blooms.

Rose Knockout Rainbow

This is one of my favorites, blooming from spring to fall with blooms that open orange from coral-pink buds, and then quickly turn soft coral-pink shading to gold at the base, surrounding a yellow center.

Look for knockout roses in one gallon containers as they’ll be further along in their growth cycle and more likely to thrive once planted.

Knockout roses will bring a perennial display of passionate color and heady fragrance to your loved one’s garden. What better way to say “I love you” on Valentine’s Day and every day for years to come?

Feel free to send me an e-mail if you want more information on Knockout roses or need some buying information.

Plant Man column celebrates seventh year

2009-01-29T13:31:00.001-08:00

'The Plant Man,' the self-syndicated gardening column by Steve Jones, marks its seventh year of continuous publication in February 2009.

The weekly column, currently published by 85 newspapers in 33 states across America, focuses on trees, shrubs and groundcover that even 'green-thumb-challenged' readers can plant and care for with relative ease.

"Attractive landscaping doesn't have to be expensive or difficult to maintain," insists Jones. "And in the current economic climate, some neat, attractive planting in the front yard adds curb-appeal and dramatically enhances the perceived value when you're ready to sell."

Each week, 'The Plant Man' offers helpful tips and planting suggestions. Quite often, the column includes reader questions that Steve answers in print. "I also make a point of e-mailing back a personal reply," says Jones, "Because often a reader has a problem that needs a solution right away!"

Steve Jones also hosts a non-profit Web site, www.landsteward.org that includes archived columns as well as other articles and helpful links. Jones has traveled to African nations with the USDA investigating ways to enhance plant production for food, fuel and other uses.

“It’s hard to believe that it’s been seven years,” says Jones. The best part? “Hearing from all those readers who have questions or comments about how much they enjoy reading the column!”

Steve says he plans to keep writing ‘The Plant Man” for many years to come. He can be reached at steve@landsteward.org

Heucheras: easy-grow perennials in “gourmet” varieties

2009-01-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

As regular readers know, Cheryl and I are strong advocates of native plants because they are less inclined to come with the potential problems sometimes associated with exotic imports.

However, native definitely doesn’t mean dull! In this, the third column on perennials that will give your landscape a unique, colorful sparkle, we’ll take a look at some of our favorite heucheras.

The original, wild heucheras have been found growing for centuries all across the continent from New England to Western Canada and even as far south as Mexico. Most wild heucheras aren’t particularly colorful, but some recently-developed hybrids are spectacular while retaining the sturdy attitude of their wild cousins.

Cheryl and I cannot get enough of the heucheras. With all the new heucheras being developed we seem to be putting clusters of the new introductions in threes all around the garden. If you want easy no-fuss plants, these are the ones. Both novices and seasoned gardeners get hooked on heucheras.

Here are some of our favorites, with appropriately appetizing names…

Heuchera Peach Flambe PPAF

As the name implies, Peach Flambe glows in spring with eye-popping peach-colored leaves with red overtones. The leaves turn a beautiful deep purple with cooler fall weather. Creamy white flowers on 16 inch spikes emerge to give a great summer contrast. Like all heucheras, Peach Flambe is easy to plant and easy to grow. It is great for the low-maintenance landscape, borders, or patio additions.

Heuchera Lime Ricky PPAF

From peaches to limes… This one makes a nice color contrast with Black Elephant ears, Black mondo grass, or any other dark foliage plant. The scalloped leaves have a chartreuse glow in spring, turning lemon-lime in summer and forming a sturdy evergreen mound. The taller sprays of ivory flowers appear in late spring. It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds to the garden.

Heuchera Plum Pudding

I love the evocative names horticulturists come up with! I think this is one of the finest heucheras, The plum-colored, evergreen foliage is outstanding and holds its color well even in full shade. This little perennial is worth growing just for its foliage alone, although the white flowers are striking on the dark plum stems. I should say that Cheryl and I remove the stems and use them for cut flowers, as we consider the flowers detract from the plant, so for us, Plum Pudding does double duty. The plant is more compact than most heucheras and is excellent for use around trees and shrubs.

Heuchera villosa Tiramisu PPAF

The foliage is mainly chartreuse with a brick red coloring originating from the inside and radiating outward. During the summer, the leaves lighten to chartreuse with a light silver overlay. Tiramisu grows 10 inches in height with a spread about 12 to 15 inches, making it useful as a colorful ground cover displaying white blooms in summer. You will want to plant with 3 plants per mass (triangle form) for best display.

Heuchera Sparkling Burgundy

From fruit to puddings to wine! This is a heuchera with beautiful mounds of glowing foliage that deepens to a warm burgundy, hence the name. Its giant six-inch leaves glow all spring and summer. Multi-seasonal interest begins with bright rose burgundy spring foliage and clean white flowers followed by leaf colors that become orange and white veiled as the season progresses to a final summer color of veiled burgundy and olive tones. The evergreen leaves darken in winter to a rich wine-red.

Heucheras are easy perennials to grow and fit nicely in the front of any border, rock garden, or container. They grow most vigorously and have the strongest colors when grown in partial shade (preferably afternoon shade). By the way, heucheras can be grown under Black Walnut trees because they are resistant to the toxin Juglone which the trees emit from their roots.

If you missed the two previous columns with ideas for easy, colorful perennial gardens, you can find them at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

Achillea: Perennial favorite for easy, colorful gardens

2009-01-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

You probably know certain people who are just so easy to get along with. They are popular, colorful characters. They’re great at parties because everyone likes them and they can fit in with just about any company. In fact, they’re very much like Achilleas.

Achillea is one of the easiest perennials to grow and I think it’s a good choice for beginners. Pretty much all it needs is full sun and well-drained soil. It thrives in average to poor soil and is drought tolerant once established. Once the flowers have faded, you can cut the plant back by half and this will probably stimulate a second flush of blooms in late summer.

Here are some Achillea varieties to look out for:

Achillea Moonshine

This is still one of the most popular garden plants today, and for good reason. Achillea 'Moonshine' is a good landscape investment because it combines well with almost everything. The bright, canary-yellow blooms are terrific foil for many other colors in your garden including purple, blue and pink.

This is a clump-forming selection that blooms over a long period beginning in early summer. Plants will rebloom if they are cut back after the first round of flowering.

Achillea Paprika

If paprika makes you think spicy and red, you’re on the right track. This Galaxy hybrid selection is known for its large clusters of bright red flowers, and each individual flower in the cluster also has a distinctive yellow eye, kind of like a tiny reverse bullseye.
Plant it where sun gives way to afternoon shade and you’ll slow its natural tendency to fade a bit.

Adding to its good looks is the fern-like deep green foliage. Paprika’s blooms just keep on coming all season long if you deadhead the spent flowers. It does its best in a perennial border where it can enjoy enriched soil and regular watering. It is irresistible to butterflies, too.

Achillea Summer Berries

This Achillea variety is another easy-to-grow perennial favorite and is quite often first year flowering. Summer Berries creates an eye-pleasing mix of fruity colors: salmon-apricot/yellow, cherry-red/apricot, white-pink/cream, two-tone pink, and more. It is a good choice for the border and as a cut flower, fresh or dried, keeping colors bright for months when dried.

Again, you’ll attract a host of butterflies and bees to the garden with this hardy perennial that grows to a height of 28 inches and a spread of about 20 inches. Space the plants about a foot apart in a sunny garden and between June and September you’ll see an unbroken swirl of multiple colors.

Unlike most other Achilleas, the blooms on Summer Berries refuse to fade, even in punishing heat and sunlight.

Achillea millefolium Terra Cotta

Terra Cotta was introduced by the world-famous German horticulturist and perennial breeder Ernst Pagel, so you know it has an admirable pedigree. It is an upright, clumping perennial reaching a mature height of around thirty inches spreading to nearly two feet. It likes full sun and can even do well with very little water in sandy soil with good drainage. You don’t need to fertilize; in fact they have a tendency to become droopy if over fed.

Terra Cotta blooms with multicolored flower heads that range from salmon-peach to pale yellow-orange to terra cotta, all appearing at the same time. It will flower all summer if dead-headed often. The foliage is silvery in color. As an added benefit, they are deer resistant.

You can plant them about two feet apart and they will fill in the first year. You might even want to use it as ground cover and simply mow it off in the fall.

Achilleas are the ideal plants for the gardener with limited experience who might be faced with less-than-perfect soil and daily hours of bright sunlight. But, newbie or expert, it’s hard to go wrong with this perennial favorite.

In future columns, I’ll take a look at more perennials that can make even the most “green thumb challenged” look like master gardeners!

These perennials bring new style to your garden

2009-01-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

Perennials are the best investment for your garden, coming back year after year, better and more impressive. Here are five slightly unusual perennials that would add a unique personality to your landscape.

Monarda didyma Fireball PP14,235

If you’re looking for a neat little plant that has a wonderfully compact habit and is a heavy bloomer mid-summer with scarlet-red flowers, you need to take a look at Fireball, sometimes known as Bee Balm. I really like the look of the fire-red flowers that bloom from June to August. Fireball spreads quickly and puts on a great show of summer color that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden.

The aromatic glossy green foliage is highly resistant to mildew and is also deer-resistant. Fireball has a mature height of between one and two feet, prefers moist soil and does fine in full sun, partial sun and shade.

Sedum Autumn Fire PW

Cheryl and I have several varieties of sedum in our garden and we just love them in the fall. Well, this selection is very similar to Autumn Joy, but was selected for its tighter growth habit, thicker foliage, and more brightly colored rosy flowers which are produced from late summer into fall.

Sedum is one of the most popular perennials grown in American gardens because it is very easy to grow and hardy in most areas of the country. Because of its thick, succulent leaves which can store water, sedum is drought tolerant. It should be sited in average to poor soil that is well-drained. Most varieties should be grown in full sun to light shade. If you like to plan a garden that produces relays of color throughout the year, make a note of this one that blooms between August and October.

Salvia East Friesland

I’m a big fan of Salvia in the garden. It is a must-have addition for borders, mass plantings, or just that little nook that needs a splash of color to complete your pallet.

If you're looking for a summer blooming plant with a show of intense color then this could be a fine addition for your garden. Salvias are easy to grow and perform best in full sun. The almost iridescent color of this salvia is deep-purple.

East Friesland is a heavily flowering over textured leaves with vivid spikes of color, 1 ½ inches long, starting in mid-June.

Walkers Low Cat Mint

Now here is a plant that is not only beautiful and useful in the landscape but is suitable for a wide range of climatic conditions. It is low maintenance, disease and pest resistant.

It has deep lavender-blue flowers that bloom profusely in early summer and then sporadically throughout the growing season. If sheared back after the first flush of bloom, you can expect another significant bloom.

Walkers Low attracts butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. You'll want to plant in full sun, although it can tolerate afternoon shade. This is a very drought tolerant plant but does need a well drained area.

Aster English Country

Asters are counted among the great garden plants, because many of them hold off blooming until late summer and fall when most garden plants are spent. Plants grow and flower best in full sun and evenly moist soil; they do not like drought.

Bees, butterflies and birds find them attractive and they bloom with an almost iridescent blue from late summer to fall, grow to a height of 20"and are resistant to disease. They make an excellent container plant or in front of the garden feature and look great with ornamental grasses.

I suggest that you look for plants sold in one-gallon containers. They are larger, further along in their growth cycle and will have an expanded root system. Gallon container plants may be a little more expensive initially, but have a better survival rate and will “perform” more quickly. If you have specific questions about any of these perennials, simply drop me a line.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Birds will flock to your winter haven garden

2008-12-24T06:24:00.000-08:00

Recently, several readers sent me e-mails about birds and the winter garden, and I had a request from a reader asking me to send her a column on the subject that was published a few years ago. Here’s that column, somewhat updated, with some thoughts about birds in winter.

Birds and gardens. They just seem to belong together. A landscape without birds would be a sad place indeed. In fact, we take the presence of birds in our lives so much for granted that we hardly even notice them for the most part. They=re just ... there. But we=d certainly miss them if they weren=t!

At this time of year, birds have three basic needs: food water and shelter. We can do quite a bit to provide for all three of those needs.

There are a number of good bird feeders available in specialty stores or from online sources. Some claim to be "squirrel proof" but for the most part I'd say "squirrel resistant" is a better description as the little guys seem capable of overcoming even the most ingenious obstacles!

Think carefully before you position your new bird feeder. If you like to watch the birds as they munch away, you’ll obviously want to place the feeder where you can easily see it from your window.

Birds prefer to visit a feeder that is fairly close to a dense bush or two. This gives them a staging post where they can land before approaching the feeder. It also provides a nearby refuge in case they have to escape from a predator such a hawk or your neighbor's prowling cat.

It is a temptation to buy a sack of the cheapest possible bird feed at the supermarket. Feeds that contain a high proportion of cracked corn, milo and wheat are generally low cost, but aren’t particularly desirable to a lot of birds. You’ll tend to find a lot of spilled and uneaten feed beneath your bird feeder, and that can attract rats. Not such a good idea!

I find it's worth paying a little more and getting a sack of sunflower seeds which seem very popular with the birds who visit my garden! If you intend to attract a particular breed, you might want to consult a specialty store or look online. I found a long and very helpful article online at http://helmboldt.us/birdfeed.txt titled "Overview of Wild Bird Feeding" by Aelred D. Geis, Ph.D. If you go to my web site, www.landsteward.org and find this column under "The Plant Man" heading, you can click on a direct hot link to that article, which I highly recommend.

By the way, Dr. Geis advocates keeping bird feeders stocked year round, rather than just in winter, even though other sources of food are more readily available in the warmer months. If you enjoy seeing birds in your back yard, it sounds like a good idea.

At this time of year, I also hang cakes of suet from tree branches. I buy them ready-made, but it=s fairly simple to make your own if you prefer. I found a number of recipes at http://www.birding.about.com and again, there's a direct link to that site from this column at my web site.

In addition to food, it is important that birds have clean, fresh drinking water available.

The best bird baths have a wide, shallow bowl, no more than two to three inches deep at the center. The bird bath can be as plain or as fancy as you wish: the birds won=t mind either way! A friend of mine set up a "dripper" in his bird bath and says that birds seems to be particularly attracted to the sight and sound of the dripping water.

Check your bird bath regularly to make sure the water is clean. Leaves and other debris that fall into the bird bath quickly turn to slime, making the water unpalatable. When the temperature falls below freezing, add warm water to the bath several times a day.

Now would be a good time to take a moment to check that your bird feeder is well stocked and the bird bath is clean and fresh!

Don’t forget the garden this Holiday season

2008-12-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

The Holidays are here again, and with short days and so much to do, it’s not easy to focus on what needs to be done in and around your landscape. That’s particularly true when there’s a cozy fireplace indoors and it’s cold and windy outdoors!

However, we shouldn’t totally ignore our garden because some things really can’t wait until spring. Once again, here are a few of my “What To Do Before Santa Gets Here” tips. Or, if you must, after he’s flown back to the North Pole.

Take care of your tools

If you’re like most people, your tools are leaning against the wall in the garage or shed, just where you left them the last time you were working in the garden. And they probably still have chunks of dried dirt and dead grass stuck to them. A few minutes invested now will pay dividends next spring.

Start by cleaning mud and dirt off shovels, forks and trowels. That’s a minimum, but it’s also a good idea to rub the metal parts with an oily rag. If you have a can of WD-40 on the shelf, that'll work fine. If you have any linseed oil, rub it on to the wooden handles to prevent them drying and cracking.

Remember the mower

Trying to start a lawn mower for the first time in the spring can be a hassle, particularly if it hasn’t been touched since the fall. If you haven’t done so already, now’s the time to start up your mower and let it run until the gas tank is empty.

Clean off the mower blades to remove the clumps of compacted grass, and if they need sharpening, this could be a good time to call up a mower service shop and see if they have any winter specials. For a more comprehensive look at winter tool care, see a previous Plant Man column archived at my web site. You can find it here:
www.landsteward.org/page.cfm/5220

Snow covered limbs

Tree limbs, that is, not yours. Remember that trees and shrubs can be damaged by the weight of heavy, wet snow. To prevent or minimize damage, gently shake the branches of delicate trees and shrubs so the heavy snow falls away. You can also use a broom to brush snow from the branches. But be gentle as you don’t want to cause trauma to your tree.

Christmas trees

If you’ve selected a real tree this season, remember the magic word: Water! A “living” tree needs a thorough watering before you bring it into the house, and it shouldn't stay indoors much longer than ten days if you want it to survive outdoors after the Holidays.

A “cut” tree needs water, too. Saw a couple of inches off the cut end and check the water level once or twice a day. You might be surprised to know that a cut tree can absorb as much as a gallon of water a day.

As always, the Internet is a superb resource for both professional landscapers and home gardeners. Here are few winter-related sites you can browse:-

Titled “Winter gardening: design tips that work,” this is a useful article published by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden:
http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/design/1998wi_winter.html

For a comprehensive list of plants that look good all year but add special interest during winter months, check out this article published online by Iowa State University:
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1996/4-5-1996/hiver.html

For a list of books on winter gardening, prepared by the science reference service of the Library of Congress, go to:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/SciRefGuides/wintergardening.html

David Beaulieu, the “guide” at landscaping.about.com is always a good resource and his Web site is loaded with helpful articles. Go to the site, below, and simply type in “winter” (or any other topic) in the search window:
http://landscaping.about.com

Expert (and free) help can usually be found at your nearest Agricultural Extension Service. For your nearest location, go to this USDA site and click on your state on the map:
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension

And as always, I’m happy to help with your garden and landscape questions, many of which are featured in the column.

Holiday gifts that gardeners will love

2008-12-10T11:34:00.001-08:00

The Holidays are upon us! If you have a garden lover on your gift list, you might be wondering what to buy for him or her. After all, it’s not as if you can cram a dogwood tree into a stocking. No, really, I mean it. Kids, don’t try this at home.

But at this time of year, those of us who love to be outdoors working with our plants get the winter blues as we stare out the window at a bleak landscape, wishing it was spring time. Here are a few gift ideas, under $30.00, for garden lovers…

“The Botanical Palette” by Margaret Stevens, PSBA

Both Cheryl and I enjoy painting. Because our home is surrounded by many acres of trees and shrubs of every size and variety, both wild and cultivated, plants are frequently the subject of our paintings.

We were fascinated by “The Botanical Palette,” subtitled Color for the Botanical Painter, and published by Collins in association with the Society of Botanical Artists. It features 20 step-by-step demonstrations to address the problem that many aspiring artists face when trying to find the ‘right’ colors. The detailed demonstrations reveal exactly how each flower painting is created, from the initial drawing to the finished illustration.

But you don’t even need to be an artist to appreciate this book. With over 300 superbly reproduced color illustrations, this is an excellent gift for anyone who loves the beauty of nature.

The Planket

I’d mentioned this product briefly in a recent column about protecting tender plants from frost, but only now has the weather been cold enough for me to try it. This would be a very practical gift for your gift-list gardener who is concerned about losing plants in a cold snap this winter.

Unlike plastic sheeting or garbage bags, the Planket allows plants to breathe while covered. Plankets are lightweight and easy to handle, and the drawstrings mean they are easy to secure around the base of the plant. They also have grommets in case you need to peg down the cover more securely.

They are available in four sizes: 6 ft, 8 ft and 10 ft diameter and a really big 10 ft x 20 ft rectangular blanket. Cheryl and I first saw the Planket on HGTV’s “I Want That” and you can see a clip from that show at www.theplanket.com

No, a Planket won’t replace diamonds as the most romantic gift, but a true garden fanatic could find one or two of these plant savers very welcome this winter.

Butterfly houses and bat houses

Gardeners love to see butterflies flitting silently around them as they work with their plants. One very good way is to ensure an abundance of butterflies is to provide them with some free lodging. (Another good way is to plant butterfly-attracting shrubs such as Buddleia.)

A butterfly house helps increase the butterfly population and protects them from predators and the elements. The vertical slots let butterflies sneak in safely while the weather and their enemies are kept outside.

If you dislike mosquitoes as much as I do, bats are your real-life heroes, rather than that comic-book superhero. Bats can eat hundreds, even thousands, of mosquitoes in a single night, meaning there are fewer skeeters to feast on me. Hang a few bat houses away from your house and you’ll encourage them to nest there rather than in your attic.

Many bat houses come in kit form so they can be a fun family project. Both adults and kids enjoy assembling the kits, and it’s a good way to understand how beneficial bats are to our environment.

Be sure that any bat house kit you pick is open at the bottom so birds cannot nest in it. You can find good butterfly houses and bat houses for under $30.00.

AccuGrow Soil Test Strips
Testing your soil is the smart way to grow beautiful vegetables, flowers, fruits, lawns and houseplants. Only by knowing the nutrient levels in your soil can you determine what you need to add to maximize growth.

With this product, you simply dip e test strip into a soil sample and you get test results within minutes. Each strip has a chemically impregnated pad that changes color when exposed to soil and is then compared to a color chart to indicate levels of pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. A good gift, under $30.00, for your gardener!

Abandoned rail tracks become green space haven

2008-11-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

When the original use for a piece of land becomes obsolete, it’s an excellent opportunity to turn it into an area that the entire community can enjoy as an attractive green space, rather than allowing it to degenerate into a weed-covered eyesore.

When a stretch of disused railroad track became available, this reader jumped at the chance to put her green thumb to good use.

QUESTION: “I love your articles and I have a few questions that hopefully you can answer. There is an old railroad track here that has been turned into a bike/snowmobile trail. There is a neighbor’s house next to it but there is enough space to put in a nice size hedge with no problem. The area is quite long before it meets the woods and starts at a city street.

“The suggestion from the County (I am volunteering myself because I am in a landscape horticulture program) was a line of evergreens/shrubs. The department just didn’t exactly know what to put there. On the other side of the trail is a large ditch that I thought may need to be covered in slabs as it is too steep to be easily mowed. Right next to that is the parking lot that needs a fence for bikes and a barrier for the cars to go no further.

“I have been looking for ideas as to what to put for the hedge without just using one type of evergreen but I am not sure how to go about making the easy transition into bringing other types of plants/shrubs to add some variation and would be pleasing to those that are on the trail or from the street where the trail begins.

“Any ideas that you think may be helpful?” – Sue Crabb

ANSWER: This sounds like a very exciting and worthwhile project! I think the evergreens would be excellent as a backdrop for other shrubs that you could plant in front of them. A rule of thumb is to plant the evergreens in odd-numbered groupings such three, five, etc.

For the shrubs, the key issue is “easy to grow.” Avoid high-maintenance plants and look for shrubs that are fairly self-sufficient. Create interest by selecting shrubs of different heights, shapes and colors. Mix evergreens and deciduous perennials, and think about planting some low growing groundcovers, such as creeping red sedum, along the front of the row.

Speaking of groundcovers, rather than cover the ditch with slabs, I suggest you investigate to see if groundcover would be a practical alternative. A hard-to-mow slope is often the perfect place for a dense groundcover that is green and attractive while keeping the weeds at bay.

Vinca minor or trailing periwinkle is a fast growing excellent evergreen groundcover for full sun, shaded and semi-shaded areas. It produces dark green oval-shaped foliage and conspicuous blue flowers in early spring. You can combine trailing periwinkle with Pachysandra if each kind is kept in large colonies, not mixed together. It grows almost flat on the ground, so in the location you describe it would follow the contours of the ditch creating a visually-pleasing undulating line.

You could also use evergreens as a “living fence” to form the barrier for the parking lot. or centerpiece for both sides. A good choice might be pyramidal arborvitae, an evergreen tree with bright green foliage. Most pyramidal arborvitae can reach a height of fifteen to twenty-five feet and have a spread of about three to five feet, but can of course be trimmed to give a lower and flatter topside. They make an excellent screen, and can grow at a rate of about one foot per year. When young, the pyramidal arborvitae has a bright green color to its foliage, which darkens as the plant ages.

Remember, this is not something that needs to be done all at once. Do the base plantings first and then add to it as time and money permits. It makes the task more fun if you can make it a community project in which a number of people can get involved.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Select trees that fit the scale of your landscape

2008-11-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

Just as cute little puppies grow into big dogs, small trees can grow until they overpower both your garden and your home, as I explain to this reader…

QUESTION: “I have a 10' x 12' section of lattice work that I want covered with climbers. It is in a shaded part of the yard. What would you recommend that would be a fast grower?

“I also want to get a fast growing tree for my front yard. Any help will be appreciated.” – Brian

ANSWER: I can suggest several climbing plants that you should look into. You might consider five leaf akebia, variegated porcelain vine, and Boston ivy for your lattice panels. You can find pictures, descriptions and growing tips for them with an online search or a visit to the library.

When it comes to fast-growing trees, take a look at birch, poplar, green ash, and sycamore. An important consideration is size. Be sure to find out what the mature height and spread will be before you plant any tree. If you select a tree that will be much too large for your yard, it will not only be out of scale for your landscape, it has the potential to interfere with overhead power lines, drop heavy limbs onto your roof in a storm or even damage your home’s foundation with its root system.

QUESTION: “My parents have a garden that is overfilled with columbines, a breed named ‘Aquilegia Vulgaris – Clementine Dark Purple’. We have tried two seasons in a row now to rid the garden of these, as my parents aren’t gardeners and these are multiplying by the dozens all over their property. I’ve tried to dig them up in early spring before they flower but each year I must have missed one of two, hence they grow and multiply….. Please help!” - Shannon Genier

ANSWER: You have my sympathy as I am trying to get rid of Wisteria which is one of the tough ones. I’m a little puzzled as the columbine variety you mention is supposed to be non-invasive. In any case, I am using a product called Vine-X.

The active ingredient in Vine-X is in a special vegetable oil formulation that actually penetrates the waterproof bark of invasive vines and brush plants. Once applied to the stem, Vine-X moves through the plant's internal capillary system to the root, where the active ingredient works to disrupt the plant's growth activity.

This may work for you but will have to be done on different sprouts throughout next summer.

QUESTION: “I have an odd entrance area at my condo that was constructed in the early 1970s. I’ve tried several types of container plants in an effort to add some green to the space in the spring and summer, but everything seems to fail. I’ve resorted to artificial boxwood topiaries and hanging baskets with ferns (I set them out for some sun periodically and they last for the summer).

“I was thinking about building window boxes that are about 24” deep so there’s plenty of soil, rigging up grow lights on a timer, and planting ‘Bamboo Green Screen’ in the boxes. I’m questioning if a high wattage grow light will do the trick for this variety of bamboo that says it requires “Full Sun”; would that be successful or would you suggest something else? I’d like to stick to something evergreen and non-flowering.” – Brian Cunningham

ANSWER: I hate to be discouraging, but I have to tell you that it is difficult to take plants that are normally grown outdoors and keep them permanently in such an enclosed area without being subjected to any of the elements. Those types of plants do need at least some rainfall, wind and filtered light in addition to regular watering and fertilizing. There are bamboo varieties that will grow in shaded areas, such as the fargesia panda. Also, hostas, Solomon’s seal, clematis, ferns and astilbes could grow there as well.

But when taking plants out of their normal environments, it can be trial and error to find those that will do okay. Be prepared to experiment until you find those that work best!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Bed sheets keep plants cozy on freezing cold nights

2008-11-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

QUESTION: “I am from Texas and currently I’m living in Ft. Drum, NY, because my husband is in the service. I am not used to snow and I have some plants that I need to know how to take care of.

“They are in my flower bed and are perennials and I don't know if I am supposed to cover them with some sort of plastic or mulch or just dig them up and put them in the garage. I have a red spike plant, lavender salvia, dusty millers, and hostas. I also have a tomato plant that is in a flower pot with a tiny tomato beginning to grow on it.

”Since the weather is changing here, I need to know what I can do. If there is any advice that you can give me, I would appreciate it.” – Brenda

ANSWER: No need to dig them up, Brenda! I know that some gardeners like to put plastic garbage bags over vulnerable plants, and that’s okay in a pinch; for instance if you find out that a freeze is imminent and garbage bags are all you have.

However, my best suggestion is to use cloth sheets, such as old bed sheets. If you don’t have any old sheets, you could invest in some ultra-cheap bed sheets from a dollar store or a thrift store and keep them in the garage or shed specifically for this purpose.

I prefer cloth sheets to plastic sheeting as they allow a better and more natural air flow around the plants. Gently lay the cloth sheets over the plants in the evening, weighting down the edges with rocks if you are expecting strong winds that might blow them away. The next morning, after it begins to warm, simply remove the sheets and put them where they can dry out a bit and are ready for the next chilly night.

On the subject of adverse weather conditions, several readers have asked about an article that my wife Cheryl wrote on the subject. Titled “Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Flooding and Storms,” it includes tips on what to do when natural disasters strike. You can find it on her blog at cherylsnotebook.blogspot.com

QUESTION: “I was wondering if you could help me decide what kind of hedges, trees, etc. to plant along our property line. The area is WET. We’ve tried growing evergreens (3 rounds) and every time they die — too much water. Our neighbor planted river birches along his property line, but I want some hedges as well. Any ideas as to what kind of hedge can withstand lots of water? I would appreciate your help.” – Cristina Elliott

ANSWER: There are a number of plants that like nothing better than a location that keeps their feet wet! When you have a wet landscape, it is pointless to plant shrubs and trees whose natural environment is normal to dry soil as they’ll never live up to your expectations… or even live, for that matter.

Several azaleas (including Coastal, Sweet, Pinkshell and Swamp) like wet areas, as do the Dogwood varieties Tartarian, Silky and Red Osier. In fact, those three can even grow in a certain amount of standing water.

Winterberry, some varieties of Viburnum, Fothergilla and Red Chokeberry are also options, as is Bordeaux yaopon holly, which has the charming scientific name Ilex vomitoria Bordeaux!

There’s an excellent Web site, hosted by North Carolina State University that provides a comprehensive list of wetland-loving plants. Click on each listing and you can see descriptions, details, growing tips and (in most cases) photos. Well worth a visit if you’re dealing with soggy soil! You can find it at www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/quickref/shrubs/shrubs-wetareas.html
As that is a long address, you might prefer to find this column at my Web site www.landsteward.org where you can click on a hot link.

A bog garden turns wet area into beautiful feature

2008-11-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

Unless we are very lucky, most of us have issues with at least part of our landscape. An area that is nothing but heavy clay that won’t drain, a deeply shaded section that receives little or no sunlight, or an area baked by the sun all day, for example.

It’s tempting to give up on that area and assume that nothing can be done. But quite often a solution can be found, if you are creative and tenacious like this reader…

“Dear Steve: Thank you for addressing the issue of soggy, boggy lawns, and thanks for your link to Brooklyn Botanic Garden [in a recent Plant Man column].

“I live in Washington State, adjacent to a slope which apparently developed a natural spring which flooded a part of the hill and spread into our lawn this summer. Since our soil is mostly compacted clay, my solution was to transplant about 3 feet of the lawn, break up the clay and mix some topsoil and peat moss to about 10" deep. I have planted Louisiana iris, plus some evergreen plants (sword ferns and Ogon) for winter interest. It solved my problem and looks lovely!

“I admit this was hard work, but simpler than the complicated instructions suggested by Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I'm not really into hard labor. I think my bog garden will work as well as theirs with about half the work. Just a thought for your readers ...” – Anne Botwin

Well, Anne, I’m glad this column inspired you to make lemonade out of lemons… or in your case, a bog garden out of a “soggy, boggy lawn”.

When you’re dealing with a sizable area of heavy clay soil, there’s no getting around the sweat equity involved, unless you have some strong, young friends who owe you a favor and are willing to donate a few hours of hard labor. But the results are definitely worth the effort. When you’re done, you have a thing of beauty where once was an eyesore.

Other readers might want to check out the link to the article at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Web site: http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/design/handbooks/watergarden/8.html

As that’s a long URL, you might prefer to find this Plant Man column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org, where you can click on a hot link to the article.

In fact, the article is an excerpt from a book that is the ideal reference for anyone looking for help with creating a bog garden. Titled “Water Gardens: Pools, Ponds, Marshes and Bogs for Backyards Everywhere,” it is a collection of highly detailed how-to articles by several acknowledged experts and is part of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 21st Century Gardening Series.

Another benefit of this book is that different chapters address specific geographic regions with chapter headings such as “Wetland Plants for the Southeast & Deep South” and “Wetland Plants for Western Mountains & Pacific Northwest” so that readers anywhere in the United States will know what will or will not work well in their location.

For example, Anne mentions that she planted sword ferns (Polystichum munitum) in her new bog garden. An excellent choice for her northwestern locale, but I would certainly not recommend it for a bog garden in, say, the southeast. Sword ferns’ natural habitat is the very moist understory of coniferous forests found in low elevations in the northwest. Sword ferns are difficult, if not impossible, to grow in eastern areas.

With bog gardens, as with any garden project, your best bet is to stick with plants that are native to your geographic area, rather than opting for plants that would thrive elsewhere but are unlikely to work in your garden.

Anne used the Botanic Garden article as a starting point but then decided to adapt the guidelines to suit her own preferences. Cheryl and I do exactly the same thing. When necessary we’ll call on experts, such as landscape architects, but we don’t feel obliged to follow everything slavishly. Ask experts, read articles and then personalize with your own creativity!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Black spots on holly bush: fungus or aphids?

2008-10-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

For many gardeners, their plants are like children that they rear, nurture and care for with lots of TLC. When a plant shows signs of illness or trauma, the proud “parent” wants to put things right. But these “kids” can’t tell you where they hurt!

That was the problem faced by two readers who wrote to me when they noticed problems with their holly bushes.

QUESTION: “I was wondering if you know why my mature holly bushes have dark black fungus that looks like mud on the leaves? I have landscaping with over 50 hollies and only the four that are against the house facing west have problems with the leaves.

”Also, why do I have moths in the lawn? I noticed them today while cutting the grass. Is there any way to get rid of them? I have fertilized the lawn twice this season already, the last having insect control in it.” – Laren Imperatore

ANSWER: I believe the black spots could be a result of aphids. Once you control the aphids the black should eventually wash off. Using a systemic insecticide for aphids, spray both tops and bottoms of the leaves as directed on the label. Concerning your lawn moth problem, here is a link to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on lawn insects. It is a big document but on page 9 you will find thee information you need on sod webworms.
http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/PB1158.pdf

QUESTION: “Last year, in the spring, I planted a holly bush in my front yard which gets
lots of sun. By about September/October last year, the leaves had started to turn brown and fell off. I just bought another one and have planted it in the same place. Do you have any advice on how I can make sure this one survives?” -- K. Roy

ANSWER: Holly bushes like full sun with well drained, highly organic acid soil. Aside of that, they generally will grow fine.

When you went to purchase your new holly, it would have been a good idea for you to have taken pictures of the one that died to let the sales person work with you to find out why it died. This would have been beneficial in knowing before planting another in
the same place so you could be careful to check for those signs.

Continued plant care is important. You should follow the same path that the garden center was using in caring for the new holly. When you purchased the plant, they should have given you care information to continue with after planting. If you didn't receive any info, you should contact them on this matter.

QUESTION: “I have a hedge of 12 emerald greens on the south side of our house. They have been in the ground for about six years and have grown nicely. Our winter was colder than normal by a few degrees with a bit of snow several times and a late spring. The shrubs have been beautiful and green all winter but now all are showing some brown on one side. There is new growth on top.

“Is this a disease or anything to remedy or be concerned about? We live on Camano Island, about 90 miles north of Seattle but with better weather than Seattle due to the shelter of the Olympics to the west. We are on the northern end of a "convergence" zone which brings weather in around to mountains to Everett, WA.”

ANSWER: From what you tell me, it sounds like freeze damage. It doesn’t always show up in late winter. Sometimes it takes warmer temperatures for the plant to realize it is wounded. If the browning continues to envelope the plants, you may need to look further, for other suspects such as spider mites or too much dampness in the soil. With the plants producing new growth, it does sound like they are trying to work their problem out.
Good luck with them.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Bog garden could be solution to waterlogged yard

2008-10-15T09:42:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: “We live in a small neighborhood of stone houses built in the late 1920's. Moving into a stone house was a dream come true. However, we quickly found out that the water table in the area is quite high, and the soil is mostly clay.

”Fortunately, the house already had a sump pump system that drains out into the front lawn. Unfortunately, it runs every 10 to 15 minutes and because the soil in this area is clay, it was creating an un-mowable bog in the front yard. We have added to the drainage hose so that it now goes all the way down to the storm water ditch that runs across the front of the property. Now all that water sits across the front of the lawn next to the street. It still doesn't drain back into the ground, and is starting to creep into the neighbor's property (making him not so happy with us.)

”I've looked at installing a rain garden or bog garden along the side of the ditch, but I'm not sure it will look nice enough for the neighborhood since this would be along the front of the house. We've also considered pulling the water to the other side of the basement, collecting it in a rain barrel, and creating a water garden in the back yard. The engineering of that would be tricky and I'm not sure the water wouldn't just overflow and come back into the basement (causing more problems). Also, I am unclear as to whether either of these options would actually move the water far enough under ground to keep it from just coming back up in the sump pump.

”Do you have any suggestions or creative ideas on how to turn our extra 75gal/hour of water into an attractive part of this home?” -- Jessica

ANSWER: That is quite a problem. From the high water table (and maybe also from wet weather springs) it sounds as though your lawn is completely saturated. Because you do live in a suburb area and are most likely under building and hardscape code limitations, I would recommend talking with someone in your local building codes office. They should be able to discuss possibilities with you within the neighborhood restrictions.

The easiest solution would be for the city to allow you to pump the water up to the street level to run into the storm drains. But, some cities have restrictions against that. This is something that does need to be handled so that it doesn't create damage to the structure of your home (or create interior mold problems) and put further strain on the relationship with surrounding neighbors. Here is a link to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with an article on creating a bog garden. http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/design/handbooks/watergarden/8.html

QUESTION: “I have a question about what kind of worm this is and how to get rid of it. It is green worm that lives in trees and eats the leaves. It produces rat-like feces on the ground below where it eats and it sticks to the tree. We have tried to get rid of it and spray the tree but they still keep coming back. Can you please tell me what this is and how to get rid of it? Thanks!” – John M. Engrisch

ANSWER: From what you tell me, I am not sure what the worms are or the type of tree they are feasting on. I think they might be pearslugs, sometimes known as cherry slugs (Caliroa cerasi). According to the Integrated Pest Management Program at the University of California, almost immediately after hatching, a pearslug exudes a slimy green coating that covers its entire body and gives the appearance of a slug, although in reality it is a sawfly wasp.

The UC site suggests that a pesticide called Spinosad could be effective. You can read more about pearslugs and other garden pests at http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/pearslug.html
As it is a long URL, you can click on a direct link when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

I suggest that you make a point to spray the soil underneath the tree that is encircled by the drip line. I would do this every time you spray in order to break the cycle.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to "mailto:steve@landsteward.org">steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Bird lovers: these plants make your garden irresistible

2008-10-08T09:11:00.001-07:00

Imagine your garden without birds and butterflies. What a quiet, still and lifeless place it would seem! If you, like most gardeners, cherish the sights and sounds that birds bring to your landscape, there are simple ways to make your landscape irresistible to flying wildlife.

Remember the movie “Field of Dreams”? To paraphrase the famous line, “Build it and plant it and they will come.” Today I have a quick rundown of tips and plant suggestions to help you do just that.

To create a garden that’s a haven for songbirds, you simply need to supply them with three basic requirements for survival: food, shelter and water.

Bird Feeder(s)

Feeders range from almost free to madly expensive. If you decide to put out a bird feeder, look for one that is difficult for squirrels to access, and resolve to keep the feeder stocked through the winter as many birds will come to rely on your specific feeder as a major food source.

Bird House(s)

Birds that like to nest in hollow trees are finding fewer and fewer potential homes. Add a couple of bird houses and you are helping to resolve the problem. Buy them ready made at home and garden stores or make it a family project with some simple tools and free plans available at http://www.freebirdhouseplans.net

Water
A birdbath, or better still, a water feature will provide birds with another reason to visit. In summer, you’ll need to be sure the water is fresh and not merely a mosquito farm, and it winter check to see it isn’t frozen.

But the best thing you can do is plant an environment that provides food and shelter while adding beauty to your landscape. Some examples:

American Bittersweet (Calastrus scandens)

This is a fast-growing climber producing beautiful clusters of yellow-orange fruit in the fall that birds seem to love. It’s a native plant, usually sold bare root, and adapts to almost any kind of soil. It also looks spectacular in flower arrangements around Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Carolina Alspice (Calycanthus floridus)

Dense, fast-growing shrub with lustrous, dark green foliage that turns yellow in the fall. The dense foliage provides welcome cover for birds. The fragrant reddish-brown flowers give way to urn-shaped seed capsules that mature in fall and persist through winter.

Black Lace Sambucus

Aptly named, this elderberry variety is often described as “stunning” with its finely-cut purple-black foliage, similar to that of a Japanese maple. It can be a better choice than other acer varieties due to its adaptability and durability. In the spring, creamy pink flowers contrast with the blackish foliage, but the birds will enjoy the black-red berries that emerge in fall. Leave the berries for the birds or harvest for elderberry wine or jam!

Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa)

A delightful flowering shrub that produces edible fruit for human or bird consumption. Considered a good “wildlife plant,” Nanking Cherry can create an attractive flowering hedge or windbreak and a good refuge for birds making for the high ground when danger (e.g. kitty) approaches. Mature height: 6 to 10 feet.

Crape Myrtle “Natchez”

The abundant clusters of long-lasting, delicate, white flowers, along with the attractive peeling bark, make this a popular choice for garden designers. The birds will thank you for the brownish fruit that arrives in fall and persists through winter. Natchez can reach a height of 30 feet at maturity in full sun and loamy soil.

Red Barberry (Berberis thunbergii)

A great “dual purpose” shrub for birds! It is dense, rounded and thorny, providing safe cover, and the bright red berries provide food from late fall through winter. You’ll love the masses of small, deep red-to-purple leaves that make it a spectacular hedge or filler shrub.

If possible, leave an area of your lawn unraked in the fall. You’ll see ground-feeding birds busily flipping through leaf litter searching for insects.

Give them a few good reasons and the birds will come!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Creeping plants can climb down as well as up

2008-09-29T07:31:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: “I have a concrete wall that is 4 foot tall, and the only place to plant is on top of the wall. We’d like to have ivy or creeping fig, but everything I read indicates that it "climbs". I need something that will grow down and yet cling to the wall. Is there such a thing or do I have to provide wire outlines and try to train it downward? I cannot find any solution to this question on the internet.” – Tom Wigley

ANSWER: That’s a great question, Tom! With some plants, yes, you do have to provide wire or string for them to get the “hang” of where to grow. A few creepers that I am familiar with that will naturally grow down are sedum (angelina variety), wooly thyme, lemon thyme, creeping rosemary (which will branch down when its growth falls over a wall) and creeping phlox.

QUESTION: “We have what is probably a 38 year old hawthorn tree which sustained quite a bit of damage from heavy snow and wind over the winter. I cut off some of the broken branches and left the fine tuning to my husband. There were originally four sturdy limbs attached to the main trunk. I thought perhaps that we would have to totally remove one limb but that the rest would be ok with some careful trimming.

“Well, my husband really got carried away cutting away everything but four bare limbs which are 4 to 5 feet long. It looks kind of like four fingers sticking up, one longer than the others. In other words… awful!

“My question is whether the tree will send out new branches and if it could ever look attractive again. Or would it be better to have the tree removed and start anew with another small attractive tree. I like the looks of the Red Bud Forest Pansy, but would it be suited to the weather in Eastern Washington. I would appreciate any advice you can give me.” – Teresa Hathaway

ANSWER: When an older tree is severely damaged, it is difficult to say whether or not it will come out of the shock and begin to grow again. Given the age and what sounds to be the severity of the damage, you might want to consider taking the tree down.

Should you decide to give it some time to see how it performs, it’s worth bearing in mind that it will take years for the younger branches to grow out. It sounds like the kind of cutting that we often see along the sides of the road where the electric companies harshly prune old maple and oak trees. They never really look good after that.

Red buds should grow well in your area as well as poplars, dawn redwood and magnolias. Good luck with your tree.

QUESTION: “Our neighbors installed a chain link to keep their dogs in their yard. The problem is, they do not weed whack the grass along the fence. The clumps of tall grass are an eyesore. I would like to plant shrubs and flowers to hide the mess. Some ideas of what to plant that would require minimal maintenance would be very helpful. The span is about 100 feet.” – Lana

ANSWER: Tall growing ornamental grasses would blend in very nicely such as many of the miscanthus varieties and also the panicums. The panicum northwind is a tall straight growing thick grass that is quite pretty. Ornamental grasses only need to be weed whacked down in early spring. Otherwise they look good the other 3 seasons.

As for some shrubs, you might look at the euonymus manhattan (an evergreen) or althea (also known as rose of Sharon and hibiscus). These would be my best suggestions on dealing with your situation, replacing an eyesore with your own “fence” of grasses and shrubs.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Storm-damaged gardens need special TLC

2008-09-25T17:18:00.000-07:00

As many regular readers know, my wife Cheryl often answers many of the questions we receive regarding gardens, landscaping and plants of every variety. Cheryl recently started a blog in which she addresses topics that affect garden lovers of every level of experience from beginner to professional and everything in between.

Because of the recent spate of damaging weather that has affected so much of our country, I thought this would be a good time to include in this column an excerpt from Cheryl’s latest blog entry, titled “Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Flooding and Storms:
What to do next!” You can read the entire article, and others, at Cheryl’s blog: cherylsnotebook.blogspot.com At that blogspot you can click on numerous helpful links with a great deal of information for people whose landscape has suffered weather-related damage.

Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Flooding and Storms: What to do next!

After these natural disasters, I always receive emails from our members who are concerned about how to go about saving their trees or what to do about their lawn.
In addition to preparing your dwelling for a hurricane or tropical storm, be sure to store lawn ornaments and all lawn furniture. Stake all young trees. Mow the lawn. Short grass doesn’t accumulate as much debris as tall grass lawns. In areas where there are regular storms, check out a series of online articles posted by Louisiana State University that will help you prepare your trees to limit weather damage. (Direct links can be found at Cheryl’s blog.)

Young trees, shrubs, perennials, gardens and lawns are most affected by the saline dropped by rainfall from hurricanes and tropical storms.

Let’s address lawns first. The dried sediment accumulation on your lawn and around your landscape should not be tilled into the soil until you are certain that it does not contain high levels of saline. For large accumulations (more than a couple of inches) of sediment, scrape or otherwise remove it. High levels of salt in the soil will kill plants. Initially, the plants will appear as though they have been burned, but when replanting in the same spot, future plants will react the same way. If you are near the coast, you may want to have your soil tested for salinity.

Remove all trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses that appear to be dead. If the sediment doesn’t have saline, you can now till the sediment into the soil. At this time, it would be a good idea to also add in aged compost or other organic matter and if your soil compacts easily, add in coarse sand. Till well, level and reseed.

Fruits and vegetables aren’t always at the top of the list to be concerned about. However, if your area experienced a hurricane, tropical storm or heavy flooding, be cautious in eating from your garden as well as any locally grown produce as it could be contaminated with bacteria. Fruits and vegetables that were mature at the time of the disaster, should be disinfected, peeled and thoroughly cooked before eating. Leafy vegetables and fruits, such as berries, tomatoes, squash, are highly susceptible to bacteria contamination, while root crops such as beets, onions, and potatoes, are less susceptible but still should be disinfected, peeled and cooked.

Immerse produce for 15 to 20 minutes in a chlorine solution, rise thoroughly with safe drinking water, peel and cook before eating.

Household bleach contains 2 to 6% chlorine. One chart that I came across breaks it down as this:

If your bleach contains 2% chlorine bleach, add ¾ tablespoon to one quart/water
If your bleach contains 4% chlorine bleach, add 1 teaspoon to one quart/water
If your bleach contains 6% chlorine bleach, add ½ teaspoon to one quart/water

Again, rinse thoroughly with safe drinking water, peel and cook before eating.

To read the entire article, including links to some very helpful Web sites, go to http://cherylsnotebook.blogspot.com

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Fungi thrive in waterlogged soil

2008-09-08T11:58:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: “I am asking for your advice to rid my shrubs of what my agricultural county agent has told me is a 'fungus'. The shrubs are large, about 8 ft tall, and I let them grow at will with not much trimming as a divider in my huge backyard. The leaves look similar to Red Tip, but are not red.

“Last year, about this time, a white, chalky, grainy residue affected one plant. It lost a few leaves and then regained itself with no help from me. This year however, I have a different situation. It has attacked three of these shrubs which do touch each other and whole, large limbs have lost all their leaves and stems have turned crispy as if they are dead.

“My ag agent suggested a spray with a fungicide which I did about 2 weeks ago. I really don't think the fungus is spreading, but I wonder if I don't need to cut out the affected areas and maybe need to treat another time or two.

“I've heard of home remedies for some things and would like your 'recipe' for a homemade concoction to use as the commercial spray was quite expensive.” - Nancy Grimes

ANSWER: I don’t know of a specific “home remedy” to use as a fungicide. Perhaps one of our resourceful readers has one! If so, please let me know.

Meanwhile, here is a link to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with a great listing of organic ways for disease control that they should find quite helpful. http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/sustainable/handbooks/naturaldisease/leasttoxic.html As that’s quite a long URL, you might prefer to find this column at my Web site www.landsteward.org where you can click on a direct link.

However, one of the best methods is to control the watering situation as many fungi begin with over watering in areas where there is not enough light to provide adequate evaporation. As listed in the Brooklyn Botanical link link, copper and sulfur have been used for a hundred years or more can control most rusts, but great care must be taken as they can be toxic to humans and animals.

QUESTION: “I have a statuary fountain that stand about 7 feet tall. Around the fountain is a full-surround planter, 18 inches wide. Half of the planter gets adequate water from splash and the other half gets so much water that it is more like a pond or riverside.

“Can you point me in the right direction to find wet soil plants? I believe you’ve written about them before. I live in the southwest USA and the summers are hot and dry. The wet side of the fountain is probably the result of wind and is unique on my property.” - Patrick Abernathy

ANSWER: The first thing to do is double check to make sure that the far side planter is draining properly. During hot, dry summer days, the splashing from the fountain could be burning (scorching) the plants, causing them to die from the top down. Also, if you are adding any chemicals to the fountain water to prevent mold, it will affect the plants.

You might consider a few plant varieties that will grow in damper soils such as:

You could also consider hostas and ferns that will do well if the area is shaded.

QUESTION: “I have a problem with mushrooms coming up in my yard where a tree was taken down last year. They are coming up mostly at any area that had root runners from the trunk that was ground. Is there anything you can spray on them as they come up in large groups and continue to come back even if you dig them up.

“Also, when is the best time to trim Crape Myrtles?” – Tommy Neal

ANSWER: Wet soil is frequently the reason for mushrooms. We have similar problems in our garden. I don’t know of a spray you could use, but just let the area dry out and get a lot of sun.

Crapes should be trimmed after leaf drop in winter or in spring before they begin to leaf out.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Fall planting: your plants will thank you next spring!

2008-08-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

Professional gardeners and landscapers know an important “trick of the trade”: Fall isn’t the end of the growing season, it’s the beginning! And here’s why you should be thinking about planting right now.

Coo-ool weather
If you were the proud parent of an infant who was just a few months old, would you take her outside in her baby carriage under a blazing sun? Or do you think she would be more comfortable enjoying the open air on a cooler, less muggy day?

Think about your “plant babies” in the same way. In most parts of the nation, planting in spring means the tender little guys are soon exposed to the scorching heat of the sun and must endure it throughout the summer during a crucial time in their development.

However, fall planting is far less stressful on your plants. Shrubs and trees planted in the fall have the advantage of a cooler environment above, and perhaps something even more beneficial, out of sight below ground. Roots have the perfect opportunity to grow and establish themselves without the need to concentrate on providing nutrients as well.

In fact, the root systems of fall-planted plants can continue to grow throughout autumn and into winter, usually becoming dormant only when ground temperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Essentially, planting in fall, instead of waiting until spring, gives your plants a head start of several months. By next summer they will be sturdy, resilient adolescents instead of vulnerable, tender babes, and far better prepared to take on the rigors of a hot, and possibly dry, summer.

Save water
Did I mention “dry”? Most trees and shrubs planted in spring require regular watering during this vital “establishment” phase of their development. Summer’s heat makes this even more critical.

But in the fall, you will not need to provide your new plants with nearly as much water. As you might imagine, evaporation is much less of a factor in the autumn, so water loss is greatly reduced. Additionally, a plant’s water requirements are considerably diminished when the natural process of photosynthesis slows down as the days become shorter.

Another water-related benefit is that in the fall you are unlikely to be faced with municipal watering restrictions that might affect your new plantings during a long, hot summer. Nothing is more depressing to a garden lover than to see new, young plants dying because of lack of water.

Lower prices
We all like to grab a bargain and smart gardeners can take advantage of sales and clearance-priced plants at this time of year. If you’re buying from a reputable nursery, the plants now on sale have probably been cared for throughout the summer by knowledgeable professionals and should be ready for fall planting… but at a much lower price!

It’s worth asking an expert at the nursery, or at least carefully reading the plant’s tag, to be sure of the best time to plant as this can vary from zone to zone.

Because the Internet makes just about every kind of shopping easier, don’t forget to do some research on your computer. Simply go to Google and type in “online nursery” and you’ll find perennial shrubs and trees ideal for fall planting at bargain prices.

Forget the fertilizer
Plant in the fall and forget the fertilizer until next spring. Why? Fertilizing new plants at this time of year could force new growth that would then fall victim to frost damage during the winter before it has time to harden off. Buying and using fertilizer is a chore and an expense you won’t need to worry about, at least until spring!

More fun, less stress
Many people tell Cheryl and me that they find fall planting more enjoyable. The reason, they say, is that they can concentrate on the planting in the slower-paced ambience of fall. With so much to do in a spring landscape, it’s easy to be distracted from the joy of planting.

It’s fair to say that some plants, including many groundcovers, may prefer spring planting, so it’s advisable to ask at your nursery or check the plant’s tag. But for the most part, planting now will give your garden a powerful head start on spring. The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Snakes? Deterrent tips to keep them away

2008-08-19T09:42:00.001-07:00

Perhaps you enjoyed “Snakes on a Plane” as an entertaining movie. But it’s a whole less fun when it’s snakes in your home’s foundation, as this reader discovered.

QUESTION: “How does one get rid of snakes without poisoning pets? The snakes are around the house foundation and we believe they are Racers.” – Teresa Finch

ANSWER: According to the Web site www.snakesandfrogs.com “Black Racers are slender black snakes of adult size from 30 to 60 inches in length. They are called ‘racers’ because they are active, fast moving snakes. Usually, these snakes quickly slither to the safety of thick grass or brush when encountered. If cornered or grasped, they will bite viciously in defense.” However, they are not venomous.

As you might guess, snakes generally go where there is a food source. Chances are that they are eating rats, mice, frogs and large insects, and the black racers also eat poisonous snakes.

When it comes to snakes, and most other unwanted critters for that matter, prevention is the best cure. Limit the habitat and food source for the snakes’ prey and you reduce the likelihood that snakes will take up residence once those tasty rodents and insects are scarce.

Here are some quick and simple ways to achieve this:

Keep the area around you house mowed. Tall grass invites small rodents and insects.

Trim or prune excessively dense or overgrown shrubs for the same reason.

Be sure that garbage containers are covered.

Remove all brush and stone piles that would attract rodents.

Patch all holes into the foundation or crawl space of your house, including drain pipes.

Steve and I live way out in the country where most of the adjoining property isn't cleared off, and outside cats and large dogs have pretty much kept snakes away from the immediate area around the house.

Here’s an idea you might want to consider. Water soluble granulated sulfur can be spread over the yard and watered-in to keep fleas and tick under control, but I have also read where it will keep snakes at bay as well. Check your hardware store or farmers’ co-op for a supply source. If you do decide to use granulated sulfur, it’s essential to read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions and avoid inhaling the dust.

QUESTION: “Our backyard has been a challenge since we bought our home. We have always teetered on the fine line of lawn and weed infestation. Well, last summer we let it do itself in and we have since been unable to reverse the affects.

“The lawn was Bermuda with rye grass and many different weeds mixed in from the neighboring vacant lots. The Bermuda was not well established when we bought the house and I'm not sure there is even any Bermuda left at this point. Our back yard is a smorgasbord of weeds, rye grass and dirt spots and, newly added this summer, thorns (goat heads). What can we do to fix our lawn?

“My husband seeded it but they were choked out at a delicate age (and probably not done correctly, don't tell him I said that). We don't have the money to do sod so what are our cheap options to fix a dying lawn in a hot area? What can we do to conquer the weeds once and for all and get rid of the goat heads which so conveniently came up around our children's swing set? ANSWER : There are a multiple of things going on in your yard. It sounds like everything from poor drainage and compacted soil, to unhealthy soil. (Weeds do great in unhealthy soil) But the good thing is you are coming into the fall that is a great time to start over and you should be able to do it yourself.

Here is an online site I have used in the past for lawn questions. It is a commercial site for Scott’s turf builder but does give great advice. http://www.scotts.com/smg/brand/scotts/scottsBrandLanding.jsp?branPage=scotts

You can also click on the link when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Transplanted blueberry plants need soil boost to thrive

2008-08-13T08:23:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: “I was looking for information online about blueberries, plants for shade and composting and found your site. Could you email me the article on composting as I would like to start a compost pile.

”Also I did have a question on my established blueberry plants. They are 6 mature plants; they are 4 feet high and I know two of them are Northland variety that were here when we moved in three years ago. I transplanted them in a row about 2 feet apart, to the east side of our woods as we live in a wooded two-acre lot. They were near the house where they received only a few hours of sun midday so I thought they would get more sun on the outer edge.

”I haven't pruned them yet as I didn't know how to do it. (They really need it!) I recently found this information that recommends peat moss, sand, or sawdust in the soil. My question is: should I dig up the plants and re-plant them with the adequate soil content? The soil we have has more clay matter. I do not know the pH level of the soil. They did better last year for bearing fruit but have much new growth this year. Thanks for your help!” – Karen

ANSWER: Here are links to the composting articles that I believe will be helpful: http://landsteward.org/page.cfm/33585, http://landsteward.org/page.cfm/8875

Additionally, if you simply go to the landsteward.org site and put “compost” in the search field, you should find about ten Plant Man columns and articles on aspects of composting and soil enrichment.

As for the blueberry plants, I would not dig them up and replace the soil, at least until after dormancy. I would, however, begin to add organic things to the soil as a top dressing that will leach down and become part of the soil over the years. The best thing I have found is a product called Black Kow. It is a composted manure and as a top dressing it is really wonderful on the plants and leaves no odor.

QUESTION: “We have a steep hill in front of our house. The house was built on a "pad" which was carved out of the hill. We are new to the house but we suspect that erosion has taken place beyond the front yard down the steep slope. I have thought of terracing but it is hard to imagine how to terrace it as it is so steep. We would like to do this the most inexpensive yet productive way.” – Liz

ANSWER: For serious erosion problems, you should install erosion netting. This will control the situation and allow you time to consider what you would like to plant there. You can follow up with ground covers, ornamental grasses, shrubs, perennials, etc, by cutting X's in the netting and planting.

However, you will need to set a sprinkler on the area for longer periods to make certain that the water goes through the netting and into the ground. Mulch wouldn't be a good idea over it as it would only wash away.

QUESTION: “I have recently purchased a farm that included a pond. However this pond looks like it was designed to grow duckweed! Do you have any suggestions on how to kill this pest without the need for store bought highly priced chemicals?” – Victor Cummins

ANSWER: Duckweed is a simple plant without any obvious stems or leaves. They float on or just below the surface of the water and are a food source for water fowl (and even humans in parts of southeast Asia). Once established in a pond, duckweed can be difficult to eradicate. If a colony of duckweed covers the water surface, oxygen depletion can occur, killing any fish in the pond. These plants should be controlled before they cover the entire surface of the pond Here is a link to Perdue University on controlling duckweed and watermeal. Good luck on the situation. http://www.btny.purdue.edu/pubs/APM/APM-2-W.pdf The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Steve’s ten turf tips for a healthy summer lawn

2008-08-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Of all the plants in our landscape, it seems the one area that needs the most attention is the lawn. Trees and shrubs seem content to live pretty much without our constant attention. But ignore your lawn and before long you’re living in a wild meadow.

Here are my Ten Turf Tips to get your lawn safely through the heat of summer.

Don’t over-water
At the height of summer, there’s a temptation to water your lawn every day. Just because you need a drink of water doesn’t mean your lawn does. Instead of daily watering, give your lawn a thorough soaking less frequently, once or perhaps twice a week. This practice forces the grass to push down deeper roots making it stronger and healthier.

Avoid over fertilizing
If one pound of lawn fertilizer is good, ten pounds must be ten times as good, right? Wrong. Apart from being a waste of money, applying too much fertilizer or applying it unevenly can burn the blades of grass, leaving brown spots. Overdoing the fertilizer, in combination with over-watering, can also increase thatching which prevents water reaching the roots and encourages disease and pest problems.

Natural fertilizer
Leave grass clippings on your lawn after you mow. As they decompose, they will naturally add a certain amount of fertilizer back into the lawn. I should add that this works best when you’re mowing on a regular basis so that the coverage of clippings is fairly light.

Naughty Fido
Another cause of brown spots is dog urine, particularly female dog urine. If you see it happen, your best bet is to grab the hose and give it a quick blast of water. The lawn, that is, not the dog. This will dilute much of the urine before it has a chance to “burn” the grass. I’ve heard from readers who recommend feeding dogs a low protein diet to reduce nitrogen in the urine, or adding tomato juice to the feed or baking soda to the water. I strongly suggest asking your veterinarian before trying any solution of that nature!

The mower did it!
No dogs in the neighborhood, but you still have a brown spot? If you refuel your mower while it is standing on the lawn, spilled or runoff fuel could be the reason. Refill the mower’s tank away from the lawn or place a tarp under the mower. Or be very, very careful.

When to water
Regardless of where you live, the best time to water your lawn is between 5:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Watering in the heat of the afternoon means that much of the water will evaporate before it can filter down to the roots. Watering at night can increase the likelihood of pest and disease problems.

How much water?
One way to see how much water your sprinkler is putting out is what I call the Tuna Can Test. Put a few empty tuna cans or cat food cans out on the lawn and turn on your sprinkler for exactly 15 minutes. Turn it off and measure the depth of the water caught in the cans. Take the average depth and multiply by two, to tell you how much water you grass would receive in 30 minutes. As a rule of thumb, that should ideally be about one inch.

Keep off the grass!
As much as possible, avoid walking on grass that has just been watered or when dew is still on the ground. This is also true for frost-covered lawns in the winter. You could bruise or damage the blades of grass making them susceptible to disease.

Walk on the grass
… when it’s not wet, that is. Put on a pair of golf shoes and stroll around your domain while your body weight pushes the spikes into the lawn to provide much needed aeration. You can actually buy lawn aerator overshoes, but some people find them awkward and difficult to keep on.

Use a reel mower
Sometimes called a push mower, a reel mower can be a good solution for a small to mid-sized lawn. No more buying expensive fuel, inhaling smelly fumes or splitting your eardrums. Plus it’s healthy outdoor exercise! The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Pear trees need a pair for pollination

2008-07-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Even without a partridge, a pear tree can add a special touch of beauty to almost any landscape. But, depending on your needs – ornamental or fruiting - you should do a little research before you plant.

QUESTION: “I have been told you need two pear trees to produce fruit. I just planted an ornamental pear, FLW Cleve Select. My neighbor just across the road was told if you have another pear tree within a half mile, that would work for the second tree. He wants to plant a pear tree. My question: will my ornamental work for his "second" pear tree if he plants a fruit bearing pear or does he need two of his own? Thanks for your time and help.” -- Mickey VanSickle

ANSWER: Ornamental flowering pears will not work to cross pollinate fruiting pear trees. When planting a fruiting pear tree, a second variety of a pear tree should be planted within about 300 feet for cross pollination. The two fruiting pear varieties should either bloom at the same time or overlap their blooming period. Otherwise, pollination will not occur.

QUESTION: “I have a Cleveland pear tree and half of the leaves are dead-looking and brown colored. Any idea what is causing this problem? Your help is appreciated.” – John Young

ANSWER: It sounds as if your tree is showing signs of stress. A few things that you will want to check are: Fire blight Freeze damage Frost damage Wind damage Over/under watering Borers Residue from chemicals sprayed in the area

These are probably the most common reasons for pear trees to show stress. You can narrow the list by eliminating any that you know definitely could not be responsible. When you’ve narrowed the list, you might want to take a sample twig or a photo to a garden center or better still, call your nearest Ag Extension Service, as they might be knowledgeable about any causes specific to your local area. If you need help locating your local Extension Service, drop me an e-mail.

QUESTION: “I am having a problem with some of my trees that I plant that die due to girdling. The root just goes in a circle and kills itself. What can I do to prevent this?” – Fran Imlay

ANSWER: For readers who are unfamiliar with the term, girdling refers to the tendency of the roots of some trees to grow tightly around the main stem of the tree and slowly restrict the movement of water and nutrients. As a result, leaves become smaller, paler in color and less dense.

One preventative action is root pruning and/or fraying out the roots of container-grown plants before transplanting.

Here is a link to very helpful online article from the University of Ohio Extension Service about root girdling: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1139.html You can also click on a direct hot link to that article when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

QUESTION: “I am wondering if you can suggest to me what to plant in my backyard that seems to be damp and moist most of the time. We are having three of our Austrian pines removed because of the drought last summer. We have been told they are dead. The area is in direct sunlight and the ground area seems to be damp due to a water drop off. What are some good trees or plants to replace in this area? We want something for privacy as well as beauty.” -- Vernice

ANSWER: Sorry to hear about your pines, Vernice. I suggest you take a look at the following trees that could be what you need: Maples, bald cypress and river birch. Something you might not have thought of: Growing bamboo and taller growing grasses in larger containers. They provide quick privacy and can be moved around as other plants begin to grow taller. Some other plants that I’d suggest for your backyard are Canna lilies, Nandina, Hibiscus and laurels. I hope this gives you some ideas to build on.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Sustainable landscaping saves time, energy and money

2008-07-23T08:48:00.001-07:00

Is your garden a sustainable landscape? Ideally, it should be. By “sustainable” I mean that it is in balance with the local climate and requires minimal resource inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides and water.

Take pesticides for example. One survey indicates that homeowners use ten times more pesticides per acre than farmers and two thirds of household users dispose of excess pesticides in the trash or down the drain. Detectable limits of pesticides have been found in 5% to 10% of wells as a result.

When it comes to your pocketbook, a single acre of lawn will cost you between $400 and $700 per year to maintain. And approximately 75,000 people require medical treatment every year for mower-related injuries.

Perhaps because of these factors, many homeowners are turning to a more naturalistic garden design. A naturalistic landscape requires less maintenance, reduces environmental harm, can benefit wildlife and still provides seasonal interest.

One way to create a successful naturalistic garden is to focus on native plants. Native plants are those that grow naturally in your geographic area rather than plants that are introduced from other parts of the country or from overseas.

Native plants are best adapted to local conditions and thrive with minimal care. Generally, native plants won’t harm natural areas. In a book titled “Wildflowers Across America,” Mrs. Lyndon Johnson wrote, “Wherever I go in America, I like it when the land speaks its own language in its own regional accent.”

A basic rule of thumb for a naturalistic sustainable garden is to select the right plant for the right place. By that, I mean it’s important to assess the site conditions, such as soil type, sun and shade and rainfall, and then select plants that thrive under those conditions.

I often hear from readers who say they have a sloping area of land that is experiencing soil erosion. The ideal solution is to plant some native groundcover plants that require little or no maintenance. The roots of groundcover plants hold the soil in place and also hold water, creating a healthy environment that prevents soil erosion and doesn’t need dangerous or risky mowing on a slope!

If you have a soil erosion issue or a hilly, sloping area that is hard to mow, a groundcover plant would probably be you best solution. You are welcome to send me an e-mail at steve@landsteward.org with some brief details of your situation and your geographic area and I’ll be happy to respond with some suggestions.

Meanwhile here are a couple of groundcover “idea starters.”

Bronze Ajuga
Sometimes known as Ajuga reptans or Carpet Bugle, this evergreen plant produces crowns and spreads by horizontal above-ground stems called stolens. It grows only to a height of 6” to 8” and produces spikes of attractive purple-blue flowers each spring.

Grass Carex Pennsylvania Sedge
When readers ask me what they can plant beneath trees, I often recommend Pennsylvania Sedge. It’s a native plant from West Virginia to Georgia to Alabama and forms soft, grass-like, 15 inch clumps of very narrow bright green leaves.

Heucheras Plum Pudding
This little guy won my heart! It grows well in shade and around trees. It’s a tough, long-lasting perennial that requires little maintenance.

Additionally, if heating and air conditioning costs are a concern, remember that trees on your landscape can lower energy bills by about 25% .

Recently, I’ve been traveling to some East African nations to assist in developing plans for sustainable agriculture that will boost their economy while growing much needed plants for the world market.

While in Ghana, I saw people carrying sturdy, colorful baskets that were so much better than the plastic or paper bags we use here to bring home groceries from the supermarket. I found that they are called Bolgatanga Market Baskets. They are hand-woven by Ghanaian artisans to provide income during the dry season. I brought home several baskets and now Cheryl and I use them constantly. If you’re interested in owning one or two of these baskets, drop me an e-mail and I’ll give you some shopping information.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Weeds? The remedy could be in your kitchen

2008-07-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Drought might be a landscape’s biggest enemy, but sometimes too much rain can bring problems of its own, as this reader found.

QUESTION: “Following some recent heavy rain, I noticed a LOT of tiny bright green weeds suddenly sprouting up through the mulched beds in front of our house. I mean there are hundreds of them.

“My question is this: Is it safe to get rid of them by spraying them with Round Up? The beds contain several established evergreen shrubs, no small plants or flowers. The prospect of trying pull up each and every one of the little pests is almost too much to imagine, so I'm hoping I can get rid of them some other way, but of course I don't want to risk damaging the shrubs. What do you suggest?” – Mike H

ANSWER: Cheryl saw your question and said, “Put some white vinegar in a spray bottle and have at it. The vinegar in cooperation with the summer sun will kill off weeds. It may take a couple of good sprays, but you have to be stronger than the weeds. You can do it!”

Good advice, to which I would add this. Stir up the mulch every so often to disturb the roots of the little weeds. Do this in the hot part of the day so the ones on top do not have a chance to re-root. Round Up is good if the weeds are a certain height but not before that. A benefit of Cheryl’s solution is that it’s all natural. Use ordinary white vinegar, full strength. However, you still have to take the same care as if you were spraying Round Up and be careful not to spray the vinegar onto your non-weed plants.

A few days later, I received this e-mail from Mike: “Steve, I’d read one of your Plant Man columns that included a question from someone looking for highly concentrated vinegar to use as a weed killer. Because of that, I didn’t expect much from the ordinary vinegar I bought at the supermarket, but decided to give it a try. I put the vinegar in a plastic spray bottle and carefully sprayed the baby weeds. For good measure, I also sprayed some weeds coming up between the cobblestones in the front walk.

“When I looked the next day, the weeds I had sprayed had all shriveled up! As you suggest, I will stir up the mulch a bit and keep the vinegar spray handy for the next time the weeds emerge.”

QUESTION: “I have a Kwanzan cherry tree about 5 feet tall. It was doing GREAT… then a deer ate the leaves and as it pulled away it snapped the trunk (below the branch development). It was still hanging on so I taped it back up hoping it would heal. What should I do?” – David McDonald

ANSWER: There’s really not a lot that can be done over and above what you have done already. Frankly, the chances are it will not come back from the trauma caused by the deer.

However, one thing you can try is to angle-cut the tree at the base about 3 inches from the soil. It will sucker out stems if the tree is still viable. When most of the stems reach about 6 to 12 inches, cut off all except the best. You may have to stake it but probably not.

If your tree has a good root system, the roots will cause the “new” tree to grow to maybe where you were before the deer damage. Good luck!

You might also want to invest in a product called Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent. You can buy it as a 40 ounce concentrate or as a Pump & Spray combo pack that includes a 48 ounce pressure sprayer and 6 ounces of Liquid Fence, enough to make three quarts of repellent shat should be enough to treat 1,500 square feet. If you need some shopping information, drop me an e-mail.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Books and products that add to garden fun

2008-07-09T07:58:00.001-07:00

I’ve always thought that cooking enthusiasts and garden lovers have a lot in common.

For example, cooks tend to have a shelf full of cookbooks and always seem to have room for “just one more.” Additionally, they love to find cool tools and gadgets that will make their lives easier and more productive.

In the same way, gardeners tend to be voracious readers of books on every aspect of plants, garden design and landscaping. And no shed feels complete without an array of garden tools and related outdoor products!

Today, I’ll point you at a few items that you (or your garden-obsessed significant other) might find fun, useful or maybe even both.

Let’s start with books…

“Don’t Throw It, Grow it” by Deborah Peterson When is a leftover piece of gingerroot not merely destined for the compost heap, or a wrinkled potato well past its prime more than just an affront to the eye and nose? When Deborah Peterson gets her hands on it and transforms it into a windowsill plant.

Visitors to our Web site www.landsteward.org know that Cheryl and I are strong advocates of recycling. If kitchen scraps can find a new life as attractive houseplants or even homegrown food, so much the better.

Peterson’s book includes growing instructions for 68 plants in four broad categories – kitchen vegetables, fruits and nuts, herbs and spices, and more exotic plants. With Peterson’s help, a sweet potato turns into a blooming vine; chickpeas transform into cheery hanging baskets; a humble beet becomes a dramatic centerpiece; and gingerroot grows into a three-foot bamboo-like stalk.

“Designer Plant Combinations” by Scott Calhoun If you’ve watched the HGTV show about the 25 biggest landscaping mistakes, you’ll remember that one of the mistakes was called “scattered color.” Professional landscape designers think in terms of a palette of colors that enhance each other, whereas amateurs often scatter colors like randomly-dropped crayons.

In this new book (available August 2008) Calhoun demonstrates 105 plans that use six plants or fewer. Rather than complete garden designs, these combinations are small, understandable pieces intended to demystify the design process for home gardeners, particularly those dealing with small spaces.

Filled with photos and illustrations, this book should inspire the exterior decorator in every homeowner.

Moving out of the bookshop and into the back yard…

Bat House Kit
The most natural way to control mosquitoes is to allow bats to feed on them. A single bat can eat hundreds or even thousands of mosquitoes in a single night, and a bat house kit is a fun project to share with the kids or grandkids.

Mosquito Repellents
For the skeeters that escape from the bats, you need a way to keep them away from you when you are outdoors. Apart from that annoying itch, insect bites can cause West Nile virus, Lyme disease and malaria. Two new products claim to repel mosquitoes and other flying insects without the use of DEET.

Don’t Bite Me! patches are discreet, all-natural transdermal skin patches that deliver a blend of protective Vitamin B1 and aloe throughout the body. The manufacturer says that the waterproof patches can protect against bites from mosquitoes, gnats, ticks, chiggers and sand fleas for up to 36 hours. Unlike a spray, the patch will protect often-missed body areas such as ears, nose and scalp. The patches are available in 5-pack boxes for $4.99 and 10-packs for $7.99.

BugBand is another DEET-free repellent designed to protect you from biting and blood-sucking insects. It’s a wristband impregnated with Gerantol, a natural plant-based that keeps flying insects at a safe distance. BugBand is reusable (for up to 120 hours) and each band comes with its own storage pod in which to keep it between uses. Individual BugBands cost $4.95 and a four-pack is $14.95.

Liquid Net for Horses is a DEET-free pump spray specifically designed for horses. Spray it on your horse before you hit the trail and the flies, gnats and mosquitoes will stay away from your horse… and you.

So put on some bug repellent, build a bat house and relax in the garden with a couple of inspirational books.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

These Hellebore “ladies” arrive early, stay late

2008-07-02T08:52:00.001-07:00

The height of summer might be an odd time to be thinking of winter but that is just what I was doing the other day. Cheryl and I were looking at some of our Hellebores and I was reminded that these plants are among the very first to bloom each year. In many areas, Hellebores are blooming as early as February.

The Hellebore genus is native to Europe and varieties can be found from the Mediterranean region to the northern reaches of Ukraine and into the Caucasus states such as Georgia, Armenia and Southern Russia. Perhaps this diversity explains why many Hellebore varieties feel at home in the varied climates of the United States.

If you are considering adding Hellebores to your own landscape, I will describe four easy-care hybrids that might be perfect for you. But first, let me share some fascinating facts and myths about these intriguing plants.

At first glance, it seems that the Hellebore’s petals remain long after you would have expected them to wither and die back. The reason? They are not petals at all. Each flower has five petal-like sepals that surround a ring of small nectaries that are the “real” petals, secreting nectar that attracts pollinators. The true job of a sepal in nature is to protect a flower in bud. In the case of Hellebores, the sepals themselves remain to become a delightful, and often colorful, feature of the plant.

One variety of Hellebore is nicknamed “The Christmas Rose” even though it is definitely not a member of the rose family and does not bloom at Christmas. Legend has it that it sprouted up through the snow from the tears of a little girl crying because she had no gift for the baby Jesus.

On the other hand, there are folklore tales of witches adding Hellebore to their cauldrons to summon up demons. However, other legends describe Hellebore being used to ward off demons. A versatile plant indeed!

There is evidence that the Ancient Greeks used certain Hellebore varieties for medicinal purposes, often as a purge or an emetic. However, the roots of certain Hellebores can be highly toxic and I strongly advise you not to self-medicate with any Hellebore plants!

Leaving aside tears in the snow, demons, medicines and poisons, Hellebores can certainly be an excellent addition to your landscape, particularly when you want to see some floral color in later winter and early spring.

Hellebore Red Lady
This hybrid produces red-maroon sepals in winter that persist into May.

Hellebore Blue Lady
This is one of the darkest forms of Hellebore with deep purple-blue flowers that I find breathtaking.

Hellebore Pink Lady
If you prefer a more delicate color, the Pink Lady could be for you, with her showy, cup-like sepals in shades of pale pink.

Hellebore Ivory Prince Plant this handsome young fellow alongside one (or more) of the beautiful Ladies. Prince’s creamy-white coloring compliments his showier companions.

All of the hybrids I’ve described here have lush, shiny, evergreen foliage that is very attractive even when not in bloom. Growing to a height of only one to two feet, these Hellebores can make a delightful groundcover forming clumps about two feet wide.

If your landscape includes a raised bed, so much the better as you’ll be able to really appreciate the beauty of their colorful, gently nodding heads.

In a perfect world, these Hellebores would prefer being placed on the edge of a woodland setting with moist loamy soil. To approximate these conditions, plant them in a semi-shaded area in soil that is rich in organic matter. Dig a hole twice as large as the root ball and add some compost or other bulky organic matter before planting the Hellebore.

These deer-resistant hybrids are long-lived and require little or no care once established, but they seem to flower more vigorously when organic matter is added in the spring.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Defensive planting deters moles

2008-06-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

In a recent column there was a question from a reader who had a problem with moles. I asked for suggestions from other readers and I received a lot of response. If moles are giving you headaches, you might find these ideas helpful.

DEAR STEVE: ”I'm not quite sure what eats tulip bulbs, but I seem to have hit on a solution. The first year we had our country weekend place I planted tulips and saw not a single one in the following spring. Whatever it was did not eat or burrow through the daffodils or the bearded iris I planted.

”Last year I decided to try again and planted a circle of daffodils shoulder to shoulder around each clump of five tulips. This involved opening a 12-14" diameter hole of the appropriate depth so that all bulbs could be deployed at the same time at the same depth. I covered them all up and when I was up to the appropriate depth, I put in aconite, muscari and crocus. Everything arrived in its turn this spring.

“The burrowing creatures at the bottom of the garden - moles or voles or likely both - almost killed Madame Isaac Periere by tunneling right under her this year, but avoided the chionadoxa planted in little clumps between the roses. I'm thinking they are planted at just about the same depth as the tunneling denizens of the lower yard and I am going to try tight phalanxes of such things around the ornamentals down there, making sure I have something planted at every depth I've seen the tunnels. It's the Catskills; you don't go too deep before you hit rock and the rock attracts the earthworms and the excavations I hog out to put in ornamentals like the roses make easy ground for burrowing creatures.

”I don't know if this sort of defensive planting will work in this case, but the iris and daffodils I planted that first year are still there after four years in the middle of mole/vole metropolis. The iris are planted deeper there than I would have done down in Virginia where I come from because of the hard winters, so you'd think they would be subject to mole damage, but I've never found any tunnels under them. They thrive and grow enormous in the mountain climate and I have not seen any rhizome rot issues even though they do have to be covered with about an inch or two of earth.

“My suggestion: I'd try the repellant you described and some defensive planting. Other things down there that have never shown any sign of tunneling damage are coneflower and black-eyed susan, daylilies, peonies and shasta daisies.

“The garden backs up against a rather boggy bit of meadow that slopes down to our pond and nothing in that meadow seems bothered and the main residents are an assortment of grasses as well as Joe Pye weed (pink eupatorium) and its cousin, White Snake Root, white turtle heads further down, solidago in several varieties, blue vervain, elderberry, both the early purple and the later red, cuckoo flower (cardamine p.), false solomon's seal, Canadian Mayapple, an assortment of asters and daisy fleabane, blue cohosh and trout lily at the higher dryer part, wild strawberries and other things too numerous to mention that grow and bloom and contribute to the lovely tumble.

“More cultivated things that were planted before we arrived up at the dry part where tunneling has been observed are Russian sage, creeping phlox and lamium, Mallow and butterfly weed also persist as well as chives. The clump of chives the former owners left behind is now a five foot swath. Onion-like plants might be a clue!” - Alice Standin

DEAR STEVE: I read your column with a question from a woman having critter problems. How well I know the problem! A friend gave me a Spurge plant a couple of years ago that truly works. As you know, they are quite invasive and toxic. As my garden is extensive, I have a “Spurge purge” about once a year, but now I have no moles or voles”. – Jo Laxton

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Plant your way to a private backyard haven

2008-06-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

During spring and summer we all tend to spend more time enjoying the outdoors part of our home. A lazy lunch on the patio on Sunday, perhaps, or relaxing on the deck with a cool drink as the sun goes down. Maybe an impromptu picnic in the backyard.

If you happen to live in a remote country setting, your closest neighbors are probably deer, bunnies and other assorted wildlife. But for most of us, suburban living means that our homes are in fairly close proximity to those of our human neighbors. Sometimes a little too close for comfort.

You don’t have to be a hermit to want a little privacy when relaxing in your backyard. But at the same time, you don’t want to build a mini version of the Berlin Wall and alienate everyone in the neighborhood. What can you do to create a private haven in your backyard while continuing to live in harmony with your neighbors?

Creating privacy with trees, shrubs and other plants provides a number of benefits. Firstly, of course, living plants are a lot more aesthetically pleasing than a “dead” wall or an expanse of bare fence. Additionally, a hedge or some appropriately-sized trees are a friendlier barrier between you and your neighbors than a solid wall.

“Appropriately sized” is an important factor here. A relatively small space would not be a suitable location for a stand of trees that would grow to a great height because they would eventually dominate your yard, blocking out all sunlight and probably becoming a bone of contention with your neighbors! Always determine the expected mature height before you invest in any trees that are intended to form a barrier.

So what to plant? Every situation will have its own unique characteristics, but a good starting point would be to look at…

Cedar Green Giant
I find myself recommending Green Giant more and more these days, particularly to homeowners looking for some privacy. For a start, it’s remarkably fast growing, shooting up three feet or more every year. Green Giant is an evergreen conifer with a delightful conical habit and dense, dark green foliage that reaches right down the ground. A few Green Giants, planted 3 to 5 feet apart will create a very dense screen; plant them further apart for a more open feel.

Green Giant doesn’t need a lot of TLC. It’s a hardy plant that tolerates almost any soil and is resistant to damage from ice and snow. Additionally, it is heat and drought tolerant, once established, and resistant to disease, pests and even deer.

Although it doesn’t need to be pruned, you should be aware that it can grow to a height of 30 to 50 feet. If you are planting a row of Green Giants as a living fence, you can easily keep it trimmed to 8 feet, 10 feet or whatever works in your situation.

This is a good time to be planning your privacy needs because fall will be here before we know it and Green Giant is ideal for fall planting. As you can see, this tree is definitely a favorite of mine! But there are other ways to use plants to enhance your privacy.

Emerald Green Arborvitae
If you can wait until next spring, you might consider Emerald Green, my favorite Arborvitae. Plant bare root Emerald Green in a row about 2 to 3 feet apart in the spring and in a few years, you’ll have a lustrous green hedge that maintains its color through the winter. You’ll need patience as it’s not a fast grower, but it is worth the wait.

Trellis plants Just a reminder that, in a recent column, I described some “social climbers;” vine-like plants that cling to pergolas, gazebos and latticework. If you missed it, you can find that column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org A strategically placed trellis can provide privacy but in a more open, less dense way than a row of Green Giants.

You are welcome to send me a few details about your specific challenges and I’ll try to help you create a private haven in your backyard.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Invite these social climbers into your garden

2008-06-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

If you have an ugly fence or a bare expanse of wall, a lush, green vine might be the answer you’re looking for.

The word “vine” once referred only to grape plants, but now in American English usage, vine can include many varieties of climbing and creeping plants.

I know some people are hesitant to plant any kind of vine as they fear its potential to become invasive. However, if you are aware of this potential at the outset, you can either select varieties that are minimally invasive or decide to control the spread of your vines to keep them manageable.

Most vines are remarkably versatile plants, able to grow vertically if given a trellis or wall to cling to, or to spread horizontally across the landscape, creating a dense and verdant groundcover.

Let’s take a look at a few vines so you can see which ones might work best for you.

Climbing Hydrangea
A good choice if you will be planting away from direct sunlight because Climbing Hydrangeas are tolerant of shady areas. Actually, they prefer at least partial shade in hot areas of the country. However, they bloom more profusely when exposed to a fair amount of sun.

In early summer, Climbing Hydrangeas produce fragrant white groupings of blooms called lace caps, each about five inches across. The dried flower heads and reddish brown, peeling bark are attractive in winter. Climbing hydrangeas prefer moist but well-drained soil that is at least moderately rich.

Wisteria sinensis Also known as Purple Wisteria, due to the color of its blooms, this is a fast-growing vine that is ideal for trellises and arbors. You can also train it into tree form if you prefer. The bright purple flowers are about one inch long, appearing in late May, borne in dense, 6 to 12 inch long racemes.

Wisteria is actually a member of the Pea family and is named after an eighteenth century anatomy professor named Caspar Wistar. You can read a helpful fact sheet titled Growing Wisteria, published by the Ohio State University Extension Service at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1246.html

English Ivy
Yup, this one really can be invasive, so understand that you will probably need to keep an eye on it and be prepared to take steps to contain it if it begins to spread beyond your desired area. Having said that, English Ivy is a very attractive plant (except to those who consider it a pest) and its dark green, glossy leaves, growing vertically in a dense mass can add an established characteristic quite quickly to new construction.

Baltic Ivy
As much a spreader as a climber, Baltic Ivy is often used as a groundcover in northern zones as it is an evergreen with remarkable cold hardiness properties. In fact it was brought to America from Latvia in 1907 by Alfred Rehder, curator of the Herbarium at Harvard University, who gave it the name “Baltic” Ivy.

A university bulletin, published in March 1932, stated that the plants: “have grown into a solid mantle of green reaching well above the second story windows.” As a consequence, in 1937, a journalist coined the term “Ivy League” to describe Harvard and seven other northeastern universities.

Purple Wintercreeper
Although it certainly can climb, given the opportunity, Purple Wintercreeper is seen most often as a groundcover. It can spread almost indefinitely by way of rooting stems, and thus it could be a good choice for an edger alongside a path or driveway that would act as a natural container.

Purple Wintercreeper can be a useful plant to battle erosion on slopes and hillsides and I have seen it climbing walls and the outsides of chimneys. It works equally well in the sunny or shady areas of your landscape.

Just a reminder: as I’ve mentioned before, a product that can be effective in controlling spreading vines is an herbicide called Vine-X Vine and Brush Control. Vines can be a pleasing addition to your landscape when kept properly under control. The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Holy Mole-y! Reader needs help with burrowing critters

2008-05-28T11:14:00.001-07:00

Garden pests come in all shapes and sizes. Some have four legs, some have six or even eight legs. Some, with no legs at all, slither on their bellies, while others fly or creepy-crawl. But sometimes the most frustrating critters are the ones that tunnel below the surface and chomp away on your plant roots.

Perhaps you have a solution to help this reader with her problem…

QUESTION: “Any new ideas on how to deal with a serious mole problem in our acre of heavily landscaped yard and gardens?

“We live in the country, and our house is on former farm land and pastures. I understand that moles are supposed to be very territorial creatures, and that only one or two moles are supposed to inhabit an acre of land, but we know that we have many more, because we can visibly see them tunneling along in different areas of our garden.

“My husband and I respect all forms of life and refuse to attempt to trap, poison, harpoon, electrocute, gas, or shovel-bludgeon these little creatures to death, but we are very tired of repairing all the damage that they do to our beds and the expensive plants that they manage to uproot. We've tried all kinds of folk lore remedies to discourage them from our yard (such as pepper based products), and we've tried the commercial castor-oil based sprays (makes your soil terribly sticky and sickly!), to no avail.

“We've also tried the ultrasonic in-ground devices, but I swear that the moles seem to be attracted by anything new that we introduce to the ground and they do MORE damage in the areas that we try to protect with such devices. We've also tried to plant things in plastic or wire mesh cages to prevent root damage as they tunnel around, but again, these little critters seem to go berserk in the "protected areas" and tunnel out all the soil surrounding such cages, thus defeating the purpose of this time-consuming effort.

“In frustration, I bought traps, but couldn't bring myself to use them. We've considered getting a cat, or perhaps a couple of ferrets, or maybe a boa constrictor to set free in the yard... but, alas, we have a thriving bird community that would be threatened by the cat... and recruiting other critters to kill the moles isn’t really consistent with our "violence-free" philosophy, is it?

“Have you any other ideas that might make our garden a little less appealing to these creatures?” – Deborah Abraham

ANSWER: I can empathize with you because we have similar problems in our gardens. I have used a product called Liquid Fence Mole and Vole Repellent and it works for us.

It’s a simple product to use in that you simply attach the container to your garden hose and spray the ground. Apparently it works by coating earthworms and plant roots with something highly distasteful to moles but harmless to humans and animals. The moles tunnel elsewhere in search of tastier meals. Contrary to popular belief, moles almost never eat plants, subsisting on worms and other small invertebrates, but they can damage plants by undermining the roots and often create molehills on lawns.

However it is a constant problem. When you use the product the moles move on but within a month more are back and you need to repeat the process. We feel the same way about killing the little things and that is why we do this once a month rather that put out traps or poison. The manufacturers claim that the product is biodegradable and environmentally safe.

You mentioned folk remedies, and I’m guessing that there are hundreds out there! So come on, readers: Share your mole-be-gone solutions and help Deborah and other frustrated gardeners! Remember, your remedy must be effective in your experience (rather than hearsay) and should be humane and non-toxic. You might see your remedy included here in a future column. Send your suggestion in an e-mail to steve@landsteward.org You can also contact me there if you need shopping information for the Liquid Fence Mole and Vole Repellent.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

“Alien” slime mold invades mulch!

2008-05-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: “A couple of mornings ago, I noticed a strange yellow clump of something had appeared, apparently overnight, in one of our flower beds. It was a bright, almost neon, yellow and very moist and slimy. It looked almost like some kind of alien being! “By the next day, it had formed a skin or crust on top and was turning brown. It now looked like a very large, stale egg foo yong! The following day, a second patch appeared, about six feet away in the same bed. Is this some kind of fungus? I am planning to remove the two clumps with a shovel and replace the mulch. But I'd also like to know if there's a way I can treat the soil to discourage it from happening again.” – Mike H

ANSWER: We’ve had these things show up too and they do look weird, don’t they? The good news is that they might be unsightly but they are not plant parasites.

Slime mold is indeed a type of fungus that produces large, single-celled bodies called plasmodia. Plasmodia are the feeding stages of the fungus and can be seen on mulch, lawns and dead wood, according to the folks at the Plant Disease Clinic at Cornell University. You can read their complete article at http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/slimemold/slimemold.htm or click on a direct link when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

Although slime mold is not a plant parasite, small or vulnerable plants can suffer if the mold covers or shades them. Slime molds will eventually disappear if left alone, but they are unsightly and you might want to remove them.

The folks at Cornell say that on mulch, they can be raked or turned under and on turf they can be mowed. In my case, I wait until the slime turns to a dry, flaky crust and remove it with a shovel. It will probably return when the conditions are right, but it’s good to know that slime mold isn’t really harmful to plants.

QUESTION: “Thank you so much for your helpful tips each week! I have a question about pruning in general. We have two azalea bushes and a very large bush (8-10 feet in diameter, 12 feet high) in our back yard (I'm afraid I don't know what kind it is, but its leaves turn bright red in the fall and it has small leaves about the size of a large thumb nail).

“We need to prune these back, as they are starting to creep into walkways and phone lines. What is the best time to prune? I don't want to kill the azaleas and the bush, but I want to keep them under control. The azaleas are currently blooming, and the bush has produced leaves. I appreciate any advice you may have.” – Sonja R.

ANSWER: From your description of the large bush, it sounds as if it is a non-blooming variety so you should be able to trim it now or most any time. As for the azaleas, the best time to trim these is after the blooms are spent or finished.

I received the following note from a reader in response to a question here about spiders:

“My brother has a good solution for spiders but it must be used with care.

”Old fashioned mothballs will kill spiders and insects. When my brother is going to be gone for a few days he throws a few under his trailer. He never has problems with the black widows, etc., that frequent his area. They die because the mothballs close off their lungs. (They will also damage human lungs if we are inhaling those fumes for any length of time.) Besides putting them under porches or other areas spiders love, you can sprinkle them around the outside of your arbor, house, etc. Note that they should not be allowed to vaporize close to food.

”I prefer to use more natural methods but this is a solution that works with some very unwelcome ‘critters’.”

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Colorful plants bring both excitement and tranquility to garden

2008-04-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

This time of year has a special place in my heart. Every season has its own characteristics and I wouldn’t want to change any of them, even the so-called bleak midwinter. But right now, at the height of a new spring season, I feel that exhilaration and contentment common to gardeners and horticulturists around the world.

Even the smallest garden can be a tranquil reminder that Nature knows what she’s doing. When Cheryl and I are outside, tending our plants at this time of year, we can almost hear the garden say, “I’m here, growing, glowing with life and beauty. Nurture me, cherish me. Let us grow together, and I will reward you with sights, sounds, tastes and aromas that will both stimulate and calm your senses.”

Forgive me for waxing poetic, but this IS a special time of year filled with fresh colors and new life springing from the soil. It is hard NOT to be upbeat and optimistic when you are outside among the plants that grace your landscape.

If worries about gas prices and a troubled economy are beginning to depress you, resolve to stay home a little more this spring and summer. Let the car stay in the garage. It deserves a rest and so do you.

For less than the price of a tank of gas, you can plant a tree. You will be doing your part to help the environment because a mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year.

Splashes of brilliant color are appearing in gardens about now, and this brought to mind a few of my favorites.

Arizona Sun (Gaillardia aristata)
The name certainly creates an appropriate visual image! Arizona sun sports large fiery orange red blossoms tipped by a ring of rich flame yellow. They create a dramatic burst of color in almost any garden or border.

Arizona sun is sometimes call “blanket flower” because at one time they blanketed the North American prairies with their blooms. I can just imagine the amazement felt by a family of pioneers cresting a ridge in their Conestoga wagon and being dazzled by millions of these blazing blossoms as far as the eye could see!

Arizona Sun is fairly compact in growth, reaching about 8 to 10 inches. Too much shade makes them liable to flop over so be sure to plant these perennials where they’ll get plenty of full sun. They prefer moist, well-drained soil but are drought tolerant. Do not add compost when planting as they do best in “poor” loose soil and do not thrive in clay soil.

Coneflower “Prairie Splendor” (Echinacea purpurea)
Thinking of Arizona Sun on the prairies reminded me of this beautiful Coneflower. While Coneflowers are regarded as a mainstay in today’s gardens, the Prairie Splendor has the added benefit of being an earlier bloomer than other varieties, sporting 4 to 6 inch rose-pink blooms from late June to first frost.

Coneflower “White Swan”
If you prefer a more traditional Coneflower, this variety of Echinacea purpurea is a good choice I enjoy the sweet, honey-like fragrance and so do the masses of butterflies who are attracted to the White Swans in our garden. White Swan’s large daisy-like flowers appear from mid-summer through fall, continuing after many of the other perennials have finished their blooming cycle.

Columbine Aquilegia “Swan Pink and Yellow”
From white swans to pink and yellow swans! Horticulturists consider this a breakthrough in color combinations for columbines. Soft coral-pink outer petals with creamy tips blend harmoniously with pastel yellow inner petals. The blooms of 'Swan Pink and Yellow' face outward and show off perfectly.

From the eye-popping blaze of Arizona Sun to the soothing palette of Swan Pink and Yellow Columbine… colors that bring excitement and tranquility to your landscape. Enjoy them all as you grow with your garden, and drop me an e-mail if you want more information about the plants I’ve mentioned. The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Shady gardens can be colorful and exciting

2008-04-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: “I am new to gardening and seem to have a tough time getting plants to grow. Most of the area is full shade to partial sun and it does not have the best of drainage either. I do have a big patio that I pot flowers on as well. If you have any suggestions on some flowers that even a beginner can grow, I would greatly appreciate it.

“Also, I see that you have mentioned ways of deterring our animal friends. Would you have any suggestions on how we might get rid of a squirrel problem? I love to watch the little critters but they have made a home in the attic of our house. Nothing we seem to do deter them. They are very smart and they do not have a problem letting you know when you do something they do not like!” – Mary Wheeler

ANSWER: “Mary, I have e-mailed you a link to the extension office site in Missouri with a great article on controlling your little furry critters. For other readers, you can read the article here: http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/wildlife/g09455.htm and you can click on a direct link when you find this column at my Web site www.landsteward.org

Yes, you are correct in that there is little or nothing that will control them other than just protecting what you have. Don’t forget things such as screening any vents or other openings in your gable or attic areas. The Missouri extension article says that if a squirrel is found in an attic or another part of the house, do not try to chase it out. Open a window or door and allow the squirrel to find its own way out. Alternatively, bait a live trap or cage trap with peanut butter or nutmeats. Once the squirrel is trapped, release it outdoors.

Many people believe that nothing will grow in shaded or poorly drained areas but that isn’t the case. In planting in a wet area, you can always plant in containers rather than directly in the ground. Container gardening allows for much better control for the water situation.

Here is my own listing of plants that will grow in such an area: Astilbes, Hostas, Ferns, Dicentra, Irises, Daylilies, Salvia, Heucheras, Hellebores.

As you are someone who is fairly new to gardening, I suggest you surf the ‘Net for as much information as possible. One excellent article, titled “Flowers for Shade or Part Shade” can be found at www.suite101.com The direct link to the article, subtitled “Easy to Grow Shade Loving Annual and Perennial Flowers,” is http://flowergardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/flowers_for_shade_or_part_shade Cheryl fielded this next question from a reader with a poison ivy problem.

QUESTION: “My son planted Myrtle on a steep bank beside his house. Now poison ivy has taken over. We have tried for years to pull it up and spray it, but it still hangs on and is getting worse. How can we kill it for good?” – Sally

ANSWER: We have been using a vine and brush control product called Vine X. It comes in a container that you apply directly on the ivy itself. The ivy absorbs the product and dies off. It worked beautifully for us when last year, the Easter weekend freeze wiped out all of our hybrid wisteria that covered our garden arbor.

The root system, which was not the same as the top grafted part, began putting out sprouts everywhere. Steve started using the Vine X everywhere he found sprouts, as well as the trunk where we had to cut down to, over summer. By late summer, the root system had died and no more sprouts.

Vine X is much safer and easier to apply than roundup or other herbicides. You may want to consider it. Otherwise, the only way to get rid of poison ivy is to regularly apply herbicides, which can also kill other plants in the vicinity.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Deer resistant plants can keep critters at bay

2008-04-16T07:53:00.001-07:00

However much you like wildlife, it can be disheartening to see deer and other critters munching away on plants to which you have devoted so much of your time and money. If you see this as a potential problem, the most sensible solution is to start out with plants that deer are less likely to find desirable.

QUESTION: “We have just moved to a new home and the back yard is heavily treed with pines and a few hardwoods. Therefore it is partial sun to shade. We're interested in purchasing some shrubs and ferns which are resistant to deer. What are your suggestions?” – Dave Whiting

ANSWER: Being “deer resistant” is a relative phrase. If deer are not getting food from their normal sources, they will eat anything and everything. With that noted, some plants that will grow at least in partly shaded areas and that are not on the top of the list for deer to eat are:

Sage, Thyme, Chives, Hellebore, Ferns, Yarrow, Bamboo, Blue fescue, Boxwood, Dogwood, Euonymus, Forsythia, Holly, Japanese red maple, Junipers, Sambucus, Viburnum.

QUESTION: “We’ve been thinking of planting some Barberry and we looked at a variety called Crimson Pygmy. However, we were told there is another variety that has even redder foliage. Can you tell me what it’s called?” – James T.

ANSWER: I believe you’re thinking of a Barberry named Berberis thunbergii, Royal Burgundy. Royal Burgundy has a number of benefits over Crimson Pygmy. For one thing, I prefer the reddish-purple foliage of the Royal Burgundy. It holds its color throughout the summer before turning to a darker, almost blackish-red in the fall before defoliating for winter.

Royal Burgundy is also smaller with a more compact shape compared to Crimson Pygmy with a mature height of around 18 inches and a spread of 30 inches or so. Although it is tolerant of shade, you’ll see the best color when it is planted in full sun. It is quite drought-tolerant and can be used in xeriscaping.

Planting Royal Burgundy en masse adjacent to gold or blue evergreens allows the contrast to make the color really “pop.” Remember that it is thorny so handle with care.

QUESTION: “Having read your article on raised boxes, I have a question. In making the raised boxes can one use treated lumber? Sounds hideous, I know, but I’ve seen it done and it raises the question in my mind of leaching chemicals from the wood to the soil and then to the roots to the edibles. Really bad idea or am I worried unnecessarily?” – Erik Jansen

ANSWER: No, actually you are correct to question their use. But, you know, I have read arguments from both sides. Gardeners and the nursery industry alike have used pressure treated wood for raised beds for decades and have not experienced any problems.

However, there are arguments that the chemicals used on this lumber leaches into the soil. I have e-mailed a link to you from Fine Gardening Magazine that will offer you much more information. (If other readers want to see this article, drop me an e-mail at steve@landsteward.org and I’ll send you the link. Alternatively, go to http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/ and type “pressure treated lumber” into the search window.)

You can isolate pressure-treated wood by lining the inside of a bed with heavy plastic to prevent leaching of chemicals from the wood into the soil. Some landscape designers are now using recycled plastic lumber, such as the brand name Trex, when building raised beds.

Redwood, cypress, cedar and straw bales can be used as organic materials to create beds as well as many inorganic products such as old tractor tires, large garbage bags (heavy mil), and masonry, and now kits are available for raised beds in many garden centers and hardware stores.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Spreading plants have their place in landscape

2008-04-09T07:37:00.001-07:00

“Yes, those plants look nice enough,” I sometimes hear. “But don’t they have a reputation for spreading?”

Yes, there are a number of attractive plants that have a reputation for spreading out across, and sometimes beyond, the area in which they are planted. This can be a problem and it is advisable to investigate the “spreading habit” of any plant before you buy, if that is a potential problem in the designated planting location.

But a plant’s “spreadability” is not necessarily a bad thing. Spreading plants can be just what you are looking for in the right circumstances. They can choke out weeds, reduce soil erosion and beautify a sloping or rocky area that is difficult to mow.

Here are some of my favorite plants that you should take a look at if you have an area that could benefit from some low-growers that tend to spread.

Purple Creeping Mazus (Mazus reptans)
In my opinion, this is one of the most versatile groundcovers you can find. Throughout the growing season, you’ll see a virtual carpet of bright green foliage that continues right into winter. In June/July, it produces a mass of tiny purplish-blue flowers with white markings. A tough, long-lasting plant, Mazus reptans is easy to grow. Each plant reaches a height of no more than two inches, spreading out to six inches or so, making it ideal for rock gardens and in between stepping stones. It does well in full sun to light shade and prefers moist but well-drained soil.

Verbena “Superbena” Burgundy
The Superbenas are a variety of Verbenas that have been bred to withstand heat and mildew, and that can be an important benefit in some areas. It produces large burgundy blooms on dark green leaves and will regenerate vigorous growth when you cut it back. With a maximum height of twelve inches, it makes a colorful groundcover that is popular with Swallowtail butterflies, and is a good choice for containers, baskets and window boxes.

Creeping Red Thyme (Thymus praecox subsp. arcticus)
You might be aware of the fragrance before you even see this fast, low-growing evergreen that is a good choice as a groundcover or between pavers for an attractive, rustic look. Easy to grow in full or partial sun and shade.

Phlox, Creeping Emerald Blue (Phlox subulata)
A rocky embankment or outcropping where weeding, tending or mowing is hazardous or impossible? Creeping Emerald Blue Phlox could be an ideal solution. I’ve also admired it in the nooks and crannies of dry stone retaining walls and around rock waterfalls. Locations of that nature are ideal for Phlox as it enjoys the good drainage provided by elevated planting. For contrast, try mixing it with Creeping Candy Stripe Phlox with its tiny pink and white flowers.

Liriope Big Blue
For some thing a bit taller, try this tufted evergreen groundcover with its arching, grass-like foliage. In the summer, you’ll see an abundance of blue flower spikes that are followed by clusters of black berries in the fall. In addition to hard-to-get-at areas, Liriope is a good choice for borders and edging.

Trailing Periwinkle (Vinca minor)
Continuing the “blue” theme, don’t forget Trailing Periwinkle, a delightful evergreen with dense, shiny, oval-shaped foliage that forms an almost flat, springy carpet adding soft, rolling contours to landscaping. In early spring, the foliage is covered with blue (yes, periwinkle blue) flowers. Vinca minor likes fairly good soil and does well in full sun, partial sun or shade.

Pachysandra terminalis
Introduced from Japan circa 1882, pachysandra is one of the most planted groundcovers in America. Most everyone is familiar with this rapidly spreading plant that thrives even in the dense shade of evergreens.

A spreading plant isn’t necessarily a negative, as long as you plant it in a location where its natural tendency is a benefit rather than a nuisance.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Storm-damaged trees need special TLC

2008-04-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: “Last week, during a storm, a 40-ft. limb was ripped down from an 80-ft tree, leaving a hole about 5-ft. diameter. Should I seal this somehow?” RaDonna

ANSWER: It sounds as though your tree has experienced some pretty significant damage and an older tree will have a difficult time of repairing itself. At this time you may want to have an expert in your area look at the tree to see if there is a chance it will be healthy enough to do this. Check with your local agricultural extension agent, your local conservation district office (also known as NRCS) or an arborist.

Quite often, younger trees can get by on a broken limb and, without any sealing, make it through and remain healthy. Older trees are different in that respect and a 5 foot hole is quite large.

Do try to contact one of the people that I suggested and I hope your tree makes a good recovery.

RaDonna’s question reminded me that a lot of people all over the country have experienced weather-related damage to trees and shrubs recently. This prompted me to do some online research to find information that readers with storm-damaged trees would find useful.

First up: an article, by Consumer Horticulturist Erv Evans, at a Web site hosted by North Carolina State University.

“Treatment of storm-damaged trees requires wise decisions and prompt action if the maximum benefit from repair work is to be achieved,” says Evans. “Repairs come in two stages: first aid for immediate attention; and follow-up work to be distributed over a period of months to several years. Care for damaged large trees is best left to professionals.”

All the experts agree that the first thing to do is decide if the tree is actually worth saving. Is there a sentimental or historical value to the tree? Does it serve a particular function that makes extraordinary action worthwhile?

Evans makes the point that if more than 30 to 50 percent of the main branches or trunk are severely split, broken, or mutilated, the benefit of extensive repairs is questionable.

If a damaged tree does need to be removed, it’s probably a job for experts, particularly if it’s a large, older tree or has precariously hanging, damaged limbs. Removing a tree that’s close to overhead power lines or with roots possibly near underground utilities is always a job for the professionals!

To read the entire article, go to http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/text/tree_damage.html or go to my Web site, www.landsteward.org and click on a direct link from this column.

“Repairing Storm Damaged Trees,” is a very practical “how to” article by Melvin R. Koelling and Russell P. Kidd of the Michigan State University Forestry Department.

Before you start cutting, they say, assess the damage to decide which branches should be removed and where to cut. There are several good diagrams with the article that show you where – and where NOT – to cut.

Koelling and Kidd state that branches smaller than 3-inch diameter can best be removed using a pruning shears or a pole-pruner. A sharp, properly aligned shears or pruner will make a clean cut, not crush or tear bark tissue and reduce clean-up time.

Use a sharp saw to remove larger branches. If a power saw is used, a safety rope and harness are essential, they say. Be particularly careful when footing is unsure. At all times, use common sense and follow all recommended safety precautions when working with equipment in and around trees.

Again, my personal advice is to leave anything more than minor trimming to the experts to avoid the possibility of serious injury.

You can find the entire article at http://www.kbs.msu.edu/extension/storm/ which is a “must read” if you are unsure what to do about a tree that has taken a hit from a recent storm.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Pruning plants keeps them healthy and shapely

2008-03-26T06:49:00.001-07:00

Pruning. You stand in front of the shrub, shaking hands clutching the shears. Where to start? What if I clip off too much? Maybe I’ll just leave it…

Actually, pruning doesn’t have to be scary. Unless you are severely brutal, like the arboreal version of a slasher movie villain, you are unlikely to do irreparable damage.

QUESTION: “I planted about 8 Knockout roses last spring. They did nicely through the summer and fall. What do I need to do to get them ready for another good year?” – Bob B.

ANSWER: This is a good time of year to prune those roses. Clip out all dead, broken and damaged branches, and those that are crossing, and touching. Once that is accomplished, you can decide if you want to take any off the top as this is when you can shape your rose shrubs.

If you want to apply any fertilizer to them, this would also be the time. I should say that, better than fertilizer, you can put a fresh supply of aged compost around the base of each one (leaving a well area at the base of the plant so that the trunk doesn't touch the compost).

They don't require deadheading, but I always clip the tops of the plants back around the latter part of July. They flush out beautifully for the last part of summer and early fall. Enjoy those beautiful Knockout roses!

QUESTION: “We planted Sunburst Honeylocust trees 2 and 3 years ago. They have had very rapid growth this season. The problem is this. The new growth is growing so fast that it is getting a weeping form with branches weeping too low to the ground. If I remove the entire branch it will really become top heavy. Even the top branches of the leader steam are weeping – a lot.

“From what I have read, I don't want to tip the tree branches, but how do I trim the top heavy weeping from a young Honeylocust without completely removing the branch? There aren't that many branches on the tree so I don't really want to remove any. They are all weeping but the lowest and the highest are the most bothersome. It appears that the new young growth is so soft it cannot support its own length. What do I do? I'm afraid they won't make it through the winter without substantial breakage if I leave them the way they are.” -- Alysia Iosty

ANSWER: This one should be fairly simple. When removing the lower branches just remember the fewer branches for growth, the more energy will go into what is left. If the lower branches need to be removed because of the need to mow under the tree or just for esthetics I would simply go ahead and remove them.

The top leader is the only one to be concerned with, but again, not that much! You can take a ladder if necessary, go to the top part of the tree and snip back right above the bud where you will top the tree. The following season, it will create another top leader but by doing this you will cause it to do more branching down below. This is more desirable in the overall appearance and strength of the tree. Side branches can be trimmed the same way back to where it is not weeping. Trimming will make it a more desirable tree.

QUESTION: “Our hostas have holes in their leaves! They appear to be eaten by a bug. Any recommendations on what we should do?” -- Pat Smith

ANSWER: From what you tell me, an educated guess would be that the culprits are the common garden variety of slugs. We also have them. You can find molluscicides at many garden centers, but a popular home remedy is a bowl of beer. Slugs are attracted to the beer, get in the bowl and drown. Use a container that slugs would find easy to climb into.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Raised beds can help gardeners’ aching backs

2008-03-19T11:47:00.001-07:00

If your knees creak and your back aches when you are gardening, perhaps you should build some raised beds to make your life easier.

There are several advantages to raised beds. The first and most obvious benefit is to your health and wellbeing Regardless of your age, kneeling or bending over your plants even for a few minutes can cause aches and pains. After a while, you can be tempted to leave plants untended and bed beds unweeded. A raised bed avoids that temptation!

Additionally, standing or walking on your garden can compact the soil which can adversely affect drainage and the flow of oxygen to the plants’ roots. Hopefully, you wouldn’t be standing on a raised bed!

When you have a raised bed, you can plant, weed and harvest while sitting or standing, which eliminates pressure on the soil and on your bones and muscles. In many cases you can’t plant earlier in the spring and harvest later in the fall because raised beds warm up earlier in the spring and stay warm later in the fall. And a raised bed is the ideal location for potentially invasive plants such as horseradish or mint.

If someone in your family is elderly or physically challenged, a raised bed can allow them to enjoy gardening again, perhaps for the first time in many years. A recent Plant Man column on the subject of gardening for the physically challenged brought a number of responses from readers, showing me just how important a topic this is. Here’s an e-mail I received from Shelby Snider in Virginia.

“As a Virginia Master Gardener, I do Horticultural Therapy at an Assisted Living home near me. With the help of a few good companies donating material and the help of my husband with the labor, we put in a therapy garden for the residents a couple of years ago.

“I am sending some pictures of the residents working there. Sometimes the residents just go out and sit in the chairs and enjoy the gardens. Before this there was nothing there but grass.

“We have two brick companies near us and they donated brick pavers for all the walking area. A block company donated concrete blocks for the raised beds which are four feet wide by 10 ft long. After we put the blocks up for the beds I sprayed the inside of the beds with a spray adhesive and lined the beds with a heavy grade of black plastic. I did this so the concrete blocks would not change the pH of my soil. I folded the top of the plastic back under the concrete caps that were put on top of the wall. I then painted the blocks and did a faux finish on the outside.

“I like the blocks because if the residents want to sit while they work or just enjoy the garden, they have a place to sit. This same concept could be done on a smaller scale. Yes, you can use concrete blocks if you do what I did.”

Although building a raised bed can be quite a labor-intensive project, it is not exceptionally difficult nor does it require advanced carpentry skills. You can find a lot of information on the Internet when you initiate a search for “raised plant beds.”

You can use concrete blocks, as Shelby did, or opt for wood instead. For a low bed, railroad ties or landscape timbers are fine. For taller beds, 2 x 12 lumber is a better choice.

Whether it’s for practical reasons or purely aesthetic, a raised bed can be a great addition to your garden.
The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Pine cones keep kitty out of flower beds

2008-03-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

If neighborhood cats or other critters are digging in your flower beds, try this neat tip from reader Nancy Jones:

“I have tried something I read about to help keep the neighbors’ seven cats out of my side flower garden where the soil is loose and rich with peat moss and they love that for their personal bathroom. “I go to an apartment complex near my house and gather up laundry baskets of pine cones and then spread them around in my garden. This seems to work. “I have noticed the fecal matter problem has disappeared since I started doing this. Of course, it will need a little renewal of the pine cones, but they seem to last and last. “I should say that I don't put them down really thick. I just sort of sprinkle them around the plants. The reason this is supposed to work is because the cats don't like the feeling on their little paws. I have done this for about ten years and it works for me!”

QUESTION: “My husband & I planted a Bradford pear tree in our front yard when we built our house six years ago. We don't have a sprinkler system and the yard gets direct sun most of the day. The tree has not grown much in this six year period. Our next door neighbor planted the same type of tree after ours and theirs is huge.

“We planted two autumn maples two years ago and they are not growing either. We are concerned that we did not dig the holes wide enough and that the roots are not spreading as they should. What do you think? If the holes are not wide enough, can we dig around the trees to widen the holes?” – Sheri Brooks

ANSWER: Maples are slow growing trees, so don’t count on a lot of activity (at least noticeable activity) with them for awhile. Regarding the Bradford Pear, if it is producing any growth at all, then what you are seeing may be the plant’s natural growth rate. Is the tree beginning to bloom in early spring, followed by normal leafing out? If it is, then it has settled into a slower growing phase.

All factors would be based on the environment, which will include maintenance, unless you have noticed any health issues with the tree. Although it is difficult not to make comparisons with your neighbor’s tree, plants are living things just like people and will grow and develop at their own rate. I wouldn’t recommend digging around the tree’s root system as you suggest because you are likely to cut off growth that the tree has made over the past 6 years.

If you believe that there is a problem with the plant, you can contact your local Conservation District Office (also known as NRCS) which will be listed in your local phone directory under your state’s department of agriculture.

QUESTION: “I have an amateur greenhouse and want to start some seeds. Every time I have started seeds in the past they come up spindly and I still don't know what I need to do to correct this.

”I have panoramic light, air circulation and regulated heat, as well as good humidity. All my plants I winter in the greenhouse thrive in these conditions. Thanks for any info!” – Bonnie Meador

ANSWER: When seeds are allowed to sprout and grow too fast they become spindly. Once the seeds have sprouted they need to be “tempered” by placing them into a less desirable environment. In your case you could try cutting back on the water and reduce the humidity by taking the extra hothouse-type screen off the top. The environment in the rest of the greenhouse works for your developed plants but is not good for your new sprouts once they come up. It just sounds as if you are babying them too much after they emerge. Just cut back some on the water and nutrients until they begin to fatten up.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

New plant varieties surprise even seasoned gardeners

2008-03-04T10:24:00.001-08:00

One of the delights of owning a nursery, as Cheryl and I do, is the continual discovery of new plants or plants we never before knew existed.

Just when we think we must have seen it all, botanists and horticulturists surprise us with new varieties that still make us say, “Wow!” after all these years.

Often, these new varieties are developed under a cloak of secrecy with as high a regard for security as, say, an automobile company designing and testing a new car. It might surprise you to know that botanists submit their new varieties to the U.S. Patent Office, along with lengthy descriptions and illustrations of their “inventions.” Highly precise detail is required in order to demonstrate that the plant in question really is a new variety, developed by the horticulturists who are submitting it.

If you would like to see what a plant patent submission looks like, you can find one for a peach tree named Corinthian Rose at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/PP11564.html You can click on a direct link when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

The Corinthian Rose (Prunus persica Corinthian Rose to be precise) really is a spectacular flowering tree judging from the pictures I’ve seen. We have planted some already and we are looking forward to watching them develop, as we do with all of our new “discoveries.”

If you’re looking to start a peach orchard, this isn’t the tree for you. Corinthian Rose bears little or no fruit. This new cultivar is intended for ornamental use in the home landscape.

One of its most distinct characteristics is its narrowly columnar growth habit. The tree will reach a height of 20 to 30 feet at maturity with a spread of only 10 to 15 feet.

So why is “rose” part of its name?

Around May and June, it bursts forth with double pink rose-colored blooms, giving the appearance of an unusually large and impressive rose bush, rather than an ornamental peach tree. When the blooms are gone, Corinthian Rose can still be enjoyed for its distinctive dark purple leaves.

I think this would be the ideal tree to enhance a patio area for any sunny spot in the garden that could become a focal point of its surrounding landscape. It has a vigorous growth pattern, reaching 14 to 16 feet in about four years. You would need to follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season in order to establish a deep and extensive root system. Before new growth begins in spring, feed it with a general purpose fertilizer.

You can find more information and where to buy Corinthian Rose peach trees by going to Google and simply typing in the words Corinthian Rose.

Horticulturists develop new varieties to create plants that are beautiful and esthetically pleasing to the eye. However, they will also develop cultivars for more practical reasons.

Take, for example, Wintercreeper. It is an attractive family of plants but some varieties are known for their spreading characteristics.

As a result, a relatively new variety was developed that has a much-reduced spread pattern. Known as Emerald Gaiety Wintercreeper or Euonymus Emerald Gaiety, this variety is a versatile and undemanding shrub that does fine in full sun or fairly deep shade and even in quite dry soil.

Emerald Gaiety has green and cream variegated foliage that turns to pinkish red in winter. It can reach 4 to 5 feet in height and a width of about 3 feet with a dense, erect branching habit that makes it a good choice for a hedge or screen.

Of course there are times when a spreading or climbing plant is exactly what you need. For example, Emerald Gaiety’s smaller cousin, Purple Wintercreeper, is an ideal choice if you’re looking for a low-growing groundcover for a hard-to-mow slope with the added benefit that it can help to control soil erosion.

New varieties can please the senses and serve practical purposes. There’s always something new to grow in the garden!
The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Clean up, fix up garden in time for spring

2008-02-27T10:02:00.000-08:00

The first day of spring is just around the corner. All over America, garden lovers are coming out of their metaphorical hibernation and beginning to head back outside with that eternal optimism that this year’s garden will be an improvement over last year’s!

The Vernal Equinox, to give this day its official title, falls on March 20th, 2008, with day and night being of equal duration. There’s something about the first day of spring that lifts the spirits of everyone. But those of us who spend a lot of time outdoors for work or pleasure take particular delight in the official arrival of spring.

Even chores seem less chore-like. Just as preparing a meal is more enjoyable than doing the dishes afterwards, spring garden tasks are more fun than stowing away everything as the winter chill approaches.

Here are just a few items to put on your garden to-do list.

Clean up
Rain, frost and winter storms can cover your landscape with twigs, small tree limbs and other debris. During those cold weeks, you didn’t feel motivated to go out there and pick up all those bits and pieces, but now it’s time. Patrol your land with a lawn and leaf bag to collect the smaller bits and haul away the big pieces. Make this your first task because, in addition to cleaning up your space, you will discover any areas that might have become damaged over the winter and will require some TLC.

Weeding
Soft moist soil makes weeding much easier and this time of year usually provides those conditions. Look for weed seedlings that you can remove before they mature. It might be tempting to add these pulled weeds to your compost but resist the temptation. You’ll simply be creating a weed farm!

Compost
However, non-weed material can be added to compost. Many gardeners like to start a new compost pile alongside last year’s “mature” pile. You can add leaves, grass clippings, vegetable peelings and even straw and paper. As well as weeds, avoid adding any plant material that appears to be diseased.

Pruning
There’s a lot of fear and trepidation about pruning, particularly when it comes to when and how much to prune. Pruning at the wrong time might cause a shrub to not bloom that season, but is unlikely to be a death sentence. Among the plants that can be pruned in early spring while still dormant are: Flowering Dogwood, Bradford Pear, Wisteria, Red Bud, and Crape Myrtle.
If you are in doubt about pruning, I recommend a visit to this Web site http://gardening.about.com/od/treesshrubs/a/PruneTreeShrubs.htm for a comprehensive “how and when” guide. You can also go to gardening.about.com and simply search the phrase “When to prune.”

Ornamental grasses
If you left your ornamental grasses untrimmed over winter, now is the time to trim them back. Simply snipping away at them gives you quite a lot of clean-up. To prevent this, gather together the stems in bundles and wrap masking tape tightly around the mid-section. Lean the bundle to one side and use shears or a hedge trimmer to cut the grasses back to ground level. Take the bundles to your compost pile and snip off the masking tape.

Preparing new beds
The ideal time to dig a new bed is in the fall. The soil is usually drier and the warmth of late fall sunshine helps along any soil amendments you added, working through the winter, ready for you to plant in the spring
But it’s still possible to start a new bed in the spring. Avoid this task when the soil is wet and heavy. You’ll find it is far easier once the soil is drier.

As you can see, this is just a quick overview of early spring garden needs. I’m happy to respond to any specific questions that you wish to send me via e-mail. You can find literally hundreds of in-depth articles at my Web site. You might also wish to visit a site hosted by the National Gardening Association: http://garden.org/home where you can type in your zip code for a report for your geographical region.

Spring fever… catch it!
The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Vinegar may be a potent weed killer

2008-02-20T09:21:00.000-08:00

Wherever possible, I prefer to find organic solutions to garden problems. Several readers have asked me about using vinegar to eradicate weeds.

QUESTION: “I am looking for some info on organic weed killers. I have numerous recipes for organic weed killers with testimonials on how effective they are. They all call for high acidic vinegar or industrial vinegar. I have searched high and low and have not found where I can purchase this miracle of modern man! I have been in the gardening business for years and have had my own business for the past three years (organically based as much as my customers will allow) and find myself feeling grossly inadequate when it comes to this. If you could please let me in on your wonderful wealth of knowledge and pass on the golden key, it would mean the world to me.” – Laurie Orsini

ANSWER: There is quite a lot of research under way into the effectiveness of vinegar as a weed killer. I found a online article that you should definitely look at. You can read it at http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/VinegarKillsWeeds.html

The writer, Patricia Diaz, notes that regular household vinegar is a 5% acetic acid concentration. While this works on some weeds, a greater concentration is needed for other or more mature weeds. By distilling, a 15% concentration can be obtained, and a 30% concentration can be obtained by freeze evaporation. These concentrated acetic acids, if they are derived from plant sources and not from chemicals, are acceptable for agricultural use by the organic community.

The vinegars used in the field tests came from three sources: Knouse Foods, Biglersville, PA, Burns-Philip Food Inc, Baltimore, MD and Heinz USA, Pittsburgh, PA. Be cause the studies are still in their infancy, I don’t believe these companies are offering these highly concentrated vinegars to the public, but you might try contacting them.

Note that vinegar with acetic acid concentrations greater than 5% may be hazardous and should be handled with appropriate precautions.

You can learn more about the use of vinegar as a weed killer at this USDA site: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2002/020515.htm

Aside from pulling all the weeds out, Cheryl and I have found the best solution is to use organic material to build the soil. If you keep soil healthy, weeds do not seem to do as well. Most of the time you see weeds growing where more desirable plants have a tough time. Again, this is because there is some kind of deficiency. Calcium deficiency is a common cause. Organic products such as Turf Tea Quality Grow, Prosper Soil Conditioner and Smart Coral Calcium can be effective in building healthy, robust soil.

QUESTION: “I have a question regarding a column of yours that was published in the newspaper on July 19, 2006. In the article you discuss the control of the Japanese beetle with the use of "milk spore." Since then, I have asked several area nurserymen if they have this product. None of them had heard of it. Can you please give me more info regarding this?” – Carol Schick

ANSWER: Milk spore is safe around pets and children but kills grubs. It is considered a disease, but it only affects beetle larvae (grubs). Once built up, milk spore can remain dormant in the soil, only reactivating when new grubs appear. It is applied in powder form, using approximately 10 lbs per acre. Here is a useful link I found for you. http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hi_safety/article/0,,DIY_13930_3632735,00.html Look for the section on "healthier pest control."

You should be able to buy Milk Spore powder at larger garden centers. It's also available online. You can find suppliers by Googling "milk spore powder." I hope you are successful in your battle against the grubs!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Physically challenged people can still enjoy garden

2008-02-06T10:58:00.001-08:00

Recently, I received an e-mailed letter from a lady who described herself as disabled. She wrote that she had always enjoyed tending her garden, but, due to her physical disability, she felt nervous about trying to work around her flowers and shrubs. She wondered if I had any ideas that would be useful to physically challenged people such as herself.

I shared the e-mail with my wife Cheryl who immediately recognized the importance of the subject. Cheryl went to work on some research, and what follows is largely based on the response that she sent to the lady and to others who are faced with similar challenges.

Here are some tips on how to make gardening easier for those with disabilities, whether they have arthritis, are in a wheelchair or are visually impaired. Maybe you or someone in your household has difficulty getting around in the garden, so let’s see what can be done to make it easier and more enjoyable.

Raised beds and planters
Gardening in raised beds and planters makes the plants much more accessible to reach. A raised bed about 2 to 3 feet wide should work for most people, but you can make it wider than that if you will be able to access it safely from both sides. An important consideration is the height of the bed and it should match the needs of the person gardening in it. For example, a person in a wheelchair would want the height anywhere from 18 to 24 inches tall, while someone with arthritis may want to garden standing and could use a height in the 3 to 4 foot range.

Containers
Instead of planting at ground level, use lots of pots or other containers such as window boxes at an appropriate height. To help reduce the weight, use Styrofoam peanuts in the bottom half of the containers and fill with soil. You can plant just about everything from seeds and perennials to small shrubs and small trees in containers. For ease in moving the pots, use wheeled caddies that are available at most hardware stores.

Hanging baskets
Gardeners who have difficulty reaching up or need to remain seated can still enjoy planting in hanging baskets. Simply locate the baskets at lower levels or place them on benches while you work on them at a convenient height.

Garden up!
Another way to avoid excessive stooping or kneeling is to use trellises and other types of plant supporters. Once climbing plants grab hold of the trellis, fence or pergola, they quickly climb to eye level and beyond, so they can be clipped and trimmed, or simply enjoyed, while standing or seated. A climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea Petiolaris) is easy to grow, care free and very long lived. American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) is another good choice with its yellow-orange fruit that attracts birds in the fall, or perhaps English Ivy.

Walkways and paths
Walkways should be a minimum of 3 feet wide. Ramps should be made of a non-slippery material and a handrail may be necessary. There are many possible surface materials for walkways. While packed soil is one of the cheapest, it will be muddy during wet weather. Sandstone pavers and brick are also good options but will be more costly. Remember, wood will work, but will be slippery when wet.

Sight and sound
For the visually impaired, choose plants that offer bright colors, variety of textures and lots of fragrance. A wide assortment of perennials and herbs works wonders for the senses. Group large areas of plants according to colors for more impact, as those with only partial visual problems will be able to locate them easier. Use sound effectively. Add into the garden chimes, wind mills, fountains, and birdhouses to create soothing sounds.

For further reading on how to remake a garden to be more accommodating for those with physical disabilities or limitations, check out these books at your local library, bookstore or online: “Accessible Gardening for People with Physical Disabilities: A Guide to Methods, Tools, and Plants” by Janeen R. Adil “Accessible Gardening: Tips & Techniques for Seniors & the Disabled” by Joann Woy

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

Non-flowering plant needs “spa therapy” to bloom

2008-01-29T14:37:00.001-08:00

QUESTION: “My hydrangea plant is healthy but has only put out one flower in last four years. Do I need a second plant to make it flower?” – Darlene

ANSWER: I guess you are thinking that you might need another plant for cross pollination in order to get your hydrangea to flower. In this case, I don’t think you need a second plant. My suggestion is to wait until after it has bloomed (or should have bloomed) and then trim back the bush somewhat. Then, in the fall after leaf drop, mix one tablespoon of Epsom salts to one gallon of water and pour on the soil around the base of the plant and let it soak into the ground.

The following spring, you should repeat the process just as the leaves are starting to emerge. Regular readers know that Cheryl and I use this “plant spa treatment” to help stubborn plants bring forth more blooms. Keep in touch and let me know if it works for you.

In last week’s column, I discussed some plants that will thrive in shaded areas where nothing else seems to grow. If you missed that column, you can find it at my Web site, www.landsteward.org Look for the column titled “Shade-loving groundcovers perfect for sun deprived gardens.” Here’s a question that my wife Cheryl answered regarding herb gardening in the shade.

QUESTION: Which herbs can I plant in fully shaded areas? I’ve read other sites that recommend parsley or chives for fully shaded areas. Do you agree? If not, which herb would you recommend planting in shaded areas, if any?” – Maria

ANSWER: I like to plant and play around with herbs, too. From experience, most herbs do like full sun, though some will also grow in a filtered shady area. My chives have always grown and done well in full sun. You need to be sure to not let the heads go to seed and drop or you will have chives popping up all over the place! Even though thyme generally requires sun, I have golden thyme under a wisteria covered arbor and sage has grown well there also.

Try the same herbs in sun and shade to see which ones will grow for your area. Herbs that are hard to control, such as mints, should be planted in containers or they will be growing everywhere.

Playing with plants is part of the fun and at the same time becomes a learning experience.

All of the questions in this column were originally addressed in a recent edition of my weekly e-newsletter. If you’d like a free subscription, simply send me an e-mail with your request.

QUESTION: “I have several Blue Spruces that are at least 20 to 30 feet tall. Every year they get a parasite that looks like soft brown cones that hang down from their small branches. If you know what these things are, could you advise me on how to rid the trees from these parasites? Thank you.” – Jose

ANSWER: What you have there are known as bag worms. As soon as you see them appearing you will have to pull all of them off carefully, put them in a paper sack and take them away from the area to burn.

At least twice each season you will have to spray the trees and the ground under and around them with an insecticide such as malathion in order to keep your spruces free of bag worms. A word of caution: be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after spraying and leave any boots or clothing outdoors that might have been sprayed. Malathion has a low human toxicity but if it enters an indoor environment, it can break down into malaoxon which can be quite poisonous to animals and humans.
You will eventually reduce the bag worm population, but I’m afraid they are here to stay.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org