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A NEW TAKE ON CONTAINERS

I have dozens of containers of all types that I look forward to filling each year. Some go on my large backyard deck in full sun, some go on the shaded concrete patio, one or two go by the front steps.

 

I buy dozens of bags of top soil – probably 500#s or so each year – to fill these pots. I add in some organic matter and sometimes some water retention additives.  

 

Many of my fellow gardeners create gorgeous containers filled with colorful annuals and tropicals using the old “thriller, filler, spiller” formula to create stunning displays. No question, this formula makes for pretty pots.

 

But I tend to use annuals sparingly, preferring to fill my pots with shrubs and perennials that I can transplant into the garden somewhere at season’s end and enjoy for years to come. I spend the same amount of money as my friends do, but the long term benefit – I think – is greater!

 

Inevitably, there are the plants I want to grow somewhere in my garden, but I’m not sure if what I want to grow can thrive in that site. So I buy two closely related varieties and plant each in a large pot. Then I watch them up close for that first Spring/Summer growing season to determine what they can handle.

 

This year, for example, I have two panicle hydrangeas: Sugar Puff and Little Lime that I’m watching. Hopefully one will do well in a sunny, dry site where I want a hydrangea. Early indications are the Little Lime is more drought tolerant than Sugar Puff, so it is likely to go in the sunny, dry site and Sugar Puff will be planted in a less sunny area.

 

I have a place I’d like to grow about five Goldmound Spireas, but I’ve never grown this plant and my instinct is that it needs more supplemental watering than I can give this site. So, I have a lovely Goldmound Spirea in a pot on the deck that I’m studying and enjoying. It is gorgeous, but it does drink ferociously to keep those pretty lime leaves looking lush.

 

I also have one of the new black leaved crape myrtles (Black Diamond Blush) growing in a pot. It is underplanted with a Miss Huff lantana that I’m assured is perennial here and a couple of pretty salmon geraniums I picked up for 75 cents each on sale.   Both the crape myrtle and the lantana are looking like they will become favorite plants for hot & sunny locations. Neither require much supplemental water.

 

 

On my shaded patio, I have pots of astilbe and a few hostas. Well, to be truthful I have a few new hostas in pots EVERY year. I love hostas. I love the endless variation of green, white, gold, blue, yellow that their leaves offer. So I always have a few new hostas in pots every summer that will eventually get transplanted out to the garden. One can never have too many hostas.

 

There is also an Endless Summer hydrangea macrophylla that is currently blooming in a big pot on the same patio. I’ve much admired this hydrangea, but have never had a place to grow it. But my ever-patient hubby is ripping out a bed on the side of the house because it is the one place that is ideal for big leaf hydrangeas, hardy gardenias and camellias. The new hostas, astilbes and Endless Summer will be planted in that bed in the Fall.

 

A new rose often finds its way into one of the containers on my sunny deck. Roses can be so finicky.

 

My husband loves bright colors and the gorgeous orange of the new “Anna’s Choice” Downton Abbey rose really captivated him. We brought it home and put it in a huge glazed ceramic pot on the deck. It is showy and very fragrant.

 

It bloomed heavily in early June and then I deadheaded it. Well, it bloomed even more on 4th of July. It was covered in flowers – at least 25 big peachy orange double blooms. I’ve deadheaded it again and powdered it a few times with Sevin dust to rid it of Japanese beetles.

 

The leaves are gorgeous and blackspot-free – the only damage is from the pesky beetles. It likes a drink, but it doesn’t wilt in the heat. We’ve given it a bit of 10-10-10 – but not much. If it buds up again and blooms as generously as it did in June and July, I’m going to be in LOVE with this rose.

 

In addition to shrubs and perennials, I plant my herbs in pots and then transplant them into the garden in the Fall. Many inevitably make it through the winter and come back to grow as perennials year after year. But I love the convenience of having rosemary, thyme & lavender growing in pots on the deck near the kitchen during the summer.

NEW PLANTS

One of the real joys of gardening is that there is always a new plant to discover. I will never have enough land, enough money, enough time or enough energy to grow everything that catches my fancy, so the discovery of something new to grow is a perennial pleasure.

 

Every year, I eagerly look over all the new award winners written about in the various gardening magazines I read. And I make a list of those I want to study and purchase –IF the real live plants look as good as they appeared in my magazines.

 

This quest for certain cultivars sends me out to nurseries & garden centers early and often until I find what I’m seeking. Inevitably, I will read about something one year that doesn’t appear locally in my area and it gets put on my list the following year.

 

This year, I was captivated by the newer ‘black’ leaf crape myrtles…especially those with very pale flowers. I wanted Moonlight Magic or Black Diamond Pure White – both offer nearly black foliage with clear white flowers. But I settled on Black Diamond Blush, which should look more like apple blossoms when it blooms. I bought this plant early this season and hope that it will bloom later this year or next year. I’m crossing my fingers that the label was correct and that this will have a near white bloom.

 

Normally I buy crape myrtles and other blooming plants in full flower so I know what I’m getting. I have many lovely plants over the years that were mislabeled and bloomed in a different color than desired. But the only (near) white flowered/black leaved crape myrtles I found were early in the season at a large home improvement store and there were very few of the Blush variety as it seems most gardeners prefer the reds and pinks. So I broke my cardinal rule and purchased a plant not even in bud.

 

Along with the new cultivars, I often come across a plant or two in a nursery or botanical garden that I’ve never noticed that catches my fancy. This year, Vitex (commonly called Texas Lilac or Chaste Tree) and Valerian are two plants I am growing for the first time.

 

Valerian is in a pot on my deck and I’m loving its spicy clove scent. But I doubt I’ll be buying more of this plant as it is taking a LOT of water to grow well. It will be hard to find place it can thrive here.

 

The vitex proved difficult to find. But I just kept my eyes open and looked for one wherever I happened to be. I finally found one on sale this week. I’m not going to try to transplant it in the burning July heat. So, it will summer underneath the huge old maple in its pot until Fall. Then we will plant it. I keep a ‘nursery bed’ in the maple’s shade against the fence for latecomers and pots of trees/shrubs I am growing from cuttings.

 

Every once in a while, I hear of a brand new hybrid I can’t wait to grow…and can’t find — despite my best efforts! This year echibeckia is that elusive plant I could not find. It will be on next year’s list. I read about this cross between Echinacea and Rudbeckia this year, but have found it nowhere. Since I grow scads of echinacea and rudbeckia in my garden now, this hybrid cross which sounds amazing, really intrigues me. I will grow it as soon as I can find it.

 

Sometimes new plant adventures come when least expected. Last January, on a vacation to the Keys, I saw a Tahitian Gardenia for the first time and loved it on sight. I finally found a reasonably priced 3-gallon pot up near Delray & brought it home with us in the car. Wow! I kept it in our unheated sunroom until I could put it outside on the deck in April. It did great inside and never got bugs or dropped a leaf. (I did use some systemic pesticide on it.)

 

That gardenia is a gem! It has NEVER stopped blooming since January. I’ve had hundreds of huge creamy blossoms since I purchased it. They perfume the air and hold their fragrance when cut. And it keeps putting out more buds. I’ll need to pot it up to a much larger pot at the end of the season.

 

This Tahitian Gardenia plant is a keeper and is worth the time and effort it will take to drag into the house for winter and out to the deck for the rest of the year. It cannot take weather below about 45 degrees and it drinks water constantly. But it’s not fussy about over watering, so anyone should be able to grow it if they can supply light, warmth, water and a little food.

Daylilies!

Lovely, lushly green cool mornings and warm Spring afternoons are a distant memory.

Instead it’s hot and impossibly muggy. Gnats abound and — oh yes, ticks seem to fall off every tree. Day after day is a blistering 90+degrees. And as I look out at my garden, I just hope to see more color than weeds in my beds. Because heaven knows, I’m not going to get out in this heat and weed for hours!

I’ve cut back the roses and they are setting new buds. In the one or two places where I have shade and a tiny bit of dampness, the hostas and hydrangeas are doing their best to show off.

Of course, the deer managed to get through the fishing line hubby strung up to foil them, so a few hosta plants are munched down to naked stems. And a couple of baby rabbits managed to squeeze under the fence and eat some asters down to the ground.

But the garden isn’t a total loss. Over by the fence and next to the deck… scattered at the wood’s edge…even along a more formal bed, I’m beginning to see bright pops of color.

It’s daylily season in the garden again.

Everyone who has a flower garden knows something about this popular perennial. Most folks in the country have a clump of old fashioned orange or yellow daylilies somewhere on their lot. And suburban beds are filled with the short, school bus yellow Stella d’Oro daylilies so beloved by landscapers.

My garden is no different. I have clumps of old fashioned double orange daylilies and gleaming coral daylilies with chartreuse throats. I have peachy double flowered plants, a clump with deep purple blooms and pale melon colored miniatures with 3″ flowers.

Some gardeners don’t want to plant daylilies because inevitably the plants grow too large and need to be divided. And it’s true, they do. Every 3-5 years, a clump will benefit from division. Dig around the clump in the fall, lift it up with a shovel, divide it into two or three pieces with 3 or more eyes each, then pop it in the ground where you want more daylilies. Or trade clumps with friends who garden. Water the transplants well to help them acclimate.

Daylilies are super hardy and usually thrive, whether you buy them bare rooted, in a pot or as a division. Since they will need dividing, they are not completely fuss free, but they are easy. Dependable. Cheap. And come in so many colors, shapes, sizes and varieties that no gardener could ever grow them all.

One of my all-time favorite daylilies is a bright lemon yellow spider flowered clump with blooms 10″ across that I can see from my desk. It’s in full bloom now and the clump will need dividing this autumn. Oh well!

It beckons me with its ‘happy face’ blossoms as surely as the intoxicating Tahitian Gardenia I grow on the deck beckons me with its scent. And, just like the gardenia… when I get up close, I can’t help the big, silly grin that spreads across my face despite the sweltering heat.

The garden manages to lure me outside regardless of the weather & delight me. It’s a quiet joy. Life is good.

LATE SEASON SALES

I just can’t resist a really good sale! I’m hardwired to stop, look, pick over and purchase. And – in my experience – late autumn end-of-season sales for nursery plants are my favorite and the very best sales for low, low prices.

 

That’s why last week just before our weather turned awful and frigid this week, we were frantically digging holes and planting a 5-gallon redbud I picked up for $6. And a 7-gallon Jane magnolia I picked up for $10. And a couple of 1 gallon purple Encore azaleas, I picked up for less than $3.

 

We still have ten 8” pots of ‘Neon’ sedum in the garage to get into the ground when it warms up again this weekend. My husband picked those up for 75 cents apiece. Normally they would have cost us $60. So, for an investment of $7.50, ten of these babies are hiding out in the garage until we can get them in the ground. Since the temps will go back up into the 50s/60s/70s this weekend, they shouldn’t be hiding out for long.

 

End of season (truly END of season) sales are hard to resist – so I don’t. It is a great way to pick up something you really want but just haven’t been able to justify the expense. But when you can pick something up for 70/75/80 or even a 90% discount, then my philosophy is to take a shot at it. You potential loss is very little and your potential reward is very great.

 

Trees and shrubs are my favorite late season rescues. Our property is heavily wooded, so I always have a place to plant them immediately alongside the woods, in wooded areas just outside our fence, etc.

 

I plant them and water heavily to get them to settle. I mound up shredded leaves around them. If they are broadleaf evergreens and I’ve planted really late, I may loosely wrap them in burlap during the coldest weeks of the first winter to protect them fully.

 

Occasionally, I will pick up a small tree or shrub and winter it over in the pot. When this happens, I move it to the north or east side of my home and put it somewhere it won’t get wind-whipped all winter and mound leaves, mulch or soil around the pot. Again, if it is a broad-leafed evergreen, I may loosely wrap it in burlap to protect leaves from wind damage. Even with very cold winters, about 90% of the time, I end up with a healthy specimen to plant in early Spring as long as the pot is plastic or foam and at least 1 gallon in size.

 

If you live in an area with a prolonged Indian summer that has a habit of turning cold and then warm for several days/weeks again before staying cold, you still have a good shot at getting all those ‘rescues’ into the ground and settled in even if you purchase plants in mid November. Beware, however, that you may have missed the opportunity to truly get a ‘jump’ on Spring.

 

I find that if I plant very late in the fall, I need to give the new transplants a little more attention that first year to get them acclimated. The following Spring, I may not see the profusion of flowers or new growth I anticipate – or at least not nearly as many as I’d hoped.   But I rarely lose something by planting late.

 

Fall planting just makes more sense for me. I lose a lot more when I plant in Spring and it gets hot more quickly than anticipated than I ever do by planting in late Fall.

 

I don’t tend to do a lot of supplemental watering in Summer. I live on a well and I expect plants to settle in if they are sited appropriately, mulched properly and planted in Fall or early Spring. Those planted in the Fall have had a longer time to acclimate to the site and set roots, so tend to be happier overall once Summer descends and the temps soar.

 

A couple of things I do that help get my plants through that first summer: I tend to add water retentive soil mixes when I plant to help moisture loving specimens make it through the dry spells. And I do water heavily for the first few weeks. But I don’t water much after that initial week or two.

 

I also harvest rainwater in barrels throughout the year for those plants (like my fussier roses and hydrangeas) that need more consistent watering than rain provides.