Monthly Archives: May 2013

The Heat Is On…These Annuals Can Take It!

Gomphrena, zinnias, red cuphea, mexican heather, vinca…have you tried one or more of these in your garden or planters? If you haven’t, you should!

Gomphrena & narrow leaf zinnias in a hot, sunny bed

Gomphrena & narrow leaf zinnias in a hot, sunny bed

Gomphrena is one  that you might not look at twice in its little pot on a table at a nursery…but it is one of the toughest plants – and the prettiest, come the dog days of August. In fact, the heat seems to bring on more blooms, and the more sun the better. It is more difficult to find, but we have gotten some in recently. The taller varieties are particularly nice in the garden, and they come in purple, red and sometimes pink and white.  If you have a tough, hard to deal with spot in your garden, gomphrena is one to try.

bat face cuphea

bat face cuphea

Red cuphea, or batface cuphea, is another underused but tough plant for our summer heat. If you’ve ever noticed the bright red blooms in our sign planter at the shop in the middle of summer, you’ve seen bat face cuphea in all its glory. While butterflies flutter and land on the gomphrena, you’ll see the hummingbirds feeding on the cuphea – they love it! With its trailing habit, it works quite well in planters.

Profusion zinnias

Profusion zinnias

 

 

 

 

Zinnias are another go-to flower that can’t be beat – the best for disease resistance (no ugly leaves) are the narrow leaf zinnias, the Profusion and Zahara zinnias. You’ll find narrowleaf zinnias in yellow, white, orange and a mix of these three colors. Both Profusion and Zahara types have larger bloom and come in some pink colors too.

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Finally, vinca is one of the most drought tolerant and forgiving plants out there…in fact, overwatering is the main culprit if plants don’t make it – how great is that? The clear, pretty colors of vinca and both upright and trailing habits make them the perfect candidate for beds and planters alike.

So, it’s the middle of summer and you say you need a little color? These are the annuals that can take the heat!

Summertime is day lily time!

imageThis ‘Siloam Double Classic’ daylily’s first bloom in my garden marks the beginning of summer for me. Blooming right around Memorial Day, it is also a reliable rebloomer and the last to bloom at the end of summer – August 22nd last year, to be exact!

Blooms aside, daylilies also add another important element to a garden, particularly in a mixed perennial/annual bed – foliage form.
We talked about the importance of foliage in the garden in an earlier post on perennials…the fountain like leaves of large daylilies can break up the monotony of masses of other plants, and the lily bloom can be placed in contrast to other flower shapes as well.image

Summer is the season for these lovely plants, and the best selection will be available in the coming days and weeks.

After you’ve chosen and placed your daylilies, don’t forget about them. They benefit from an (at least) weekly walk through the garden, to pick off faded blooms. If any leaves are yellow, pull them out as well, to keep plants looking well tended.
imageOnce the bloom period ends, cut the old bloomscapes completely to the ground, tidying the plant. If the leaves begin to look tattered at all, don’t hesitate to take the entire plant and cut all the foliage back by half. Your daylilies will reward you with fresh foliage the rest of the season, and, if they’re rebloomers, you’ll have another round of flowers!image

Divide your daylily when it becomes too large for its spot. This is best done on a pleasant fall day after the heat of summer has finally passed…this chore will be the subject of a future post.

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Shade Containers…No Impatiens? No Problem!

Because of the threat of downy mildew on impatiens, this year has seen all of us having to rethink what to plant in our shady beds and planters. In an earlier post  I explained what downy mildew is and offered some alternatives. After planting these pots (located in a very shady spot in front of Chez Fonfon downtown), I thought they offered a good example of a planting that utilizes different foliage and blooming options.

imageOwners Frank and Pardis Stitt prefer white and green for the front of this  French cafe, located next to their acclaimed restaurant Highlands in downtown Birmingham. These are fairly large, tan colored  cast stone planters  with nice clean lines.  A mix of contrasting green and variegated foliage with a touch of white add light to this shady spot,  and the stone wall adds a pleasing backdrop to the planting.

The photos shown here were taken right after planting, so you can imagine how much they will grow up, out and over the planters. By the end of the season they should be quite lush…and the folks at Chez Fonfon do a great job maintaining them.

The cast iron plant, aspidistra, stays in these planters year-round and is the backbone of this planting. Occasionally in the spring  it needs to be pulled out and thinned; at the same time any damaged leaves from winter are cut off. Once that is done, the planters are topped off with fresh potting soil, Osmocote is mixed in,  and they’re ready to plant.image

I started with the ‘Aaron’ caladiums first. (These will work in full sun as well!) The white center on the leaf really brightens this planting and is the direct opposite of the Algerian ivy leaf with its green center and white outline…foliage is so fun to work with! The tiny needlepoint like ivy is a big contrast – a much smaller and darker green leaf than the first two. Difficult to see, but, right up against the aspidistra, I added a blue-green grass-like juncus – it picks up the gray-green color in the Algerian ivy.

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Next, the blooms – white New Guinea impatiens (These and the Sunpatiens are NOT affected by the downy mildew disease.) and some Euphorbia ‘Silver Fog’ to brighten this spot even more. The euphorbia is difficult to see in these photos, but it is a very nice filler for sunny spots too – I’m hoping it will get just enough light to bloom well and add its airy texture to this composition.

 

Last, a bit of the tiny, low growing baby tears – a lighter green to brighten the very lowest level of the planting, next to the dark green ivy. Eventually this will get engulfed by the rest, but until then it will be another lighter green in the mix…

So…no impatiens? No problem!  Want to see another example? Take a look at this massive moss hanging basket – it’s planted all for shade too!

 

 

 

 

 

Perennial To-Dos For A Great Garden…

Perennial chrysanthemums benefit from being cut back once or twice or they tend to get lanky with fewer blooms.

Perennial chrysanthemums benefit from being cut back once or twice or they tend to get lanky with fewer blooms.

May and June are key months to keep an eye on your perennials as they’re coming up and (hopefully) growing like gangbusters.  A few tasks to do now involve some summer perennials and many of your late blooming fall plants. Of course, the  following tips are not something you have to do, but are only suggestions gleaned from my gardening experiences through the years. Remember, gardening is not one-size-fits-all!

Do you have summer phlox in your garden? Now is the perfect time to selectively thin your clumps, especially if they’re large. (If they are outgrowing their space or haven’t been blooming well, divide them this fall.)

To thin your summer phlox, simply reach into the clump and pull out the smallest stems. This effectively allows better air circulation – which in turn leads to a healthier clump less prone to mildew problems. At the same time, cut back by half some of the remaining stems. A longer bloom period will be the result…

Perennial sunflower - just about to be cut back in late May.

Perennial sunflower – just about to be cut back in late May.

Asters in front of Texas sage in late May after their first cut-back. Hedge shears do a great job quickly!

Asters in front of Texas sage in late May after their first cut-back. Hedge shears do a great job quickly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more blooms on your late blooming perennial sunflowers, salvias, asters, Joe pye weed and chrysanthemums,  now is the perfect time to get in the garden and cut them back – if you have large areas, use a hedge clipper and cut them back by half. (Hedge clippers – the old fashioned manual ones –  work best on asters and perennial mums.) When you cut a stem, it will respond by creating two stems, so you’ll have a fuller, shorter plant with more flowers later.

Perennial sunflower getting cut back. It will create two stems here - more blooms!

Perennial sunflower getting cut back. It will create two stems here – more blooms!

Now you don’t have to do this, (I’m not the garden police!) and, if you don’t, they’ll just be taller and bloom earlier in the fall, growing to their full height in your garden.
I do like cutting mine back now though. I also make a second cut-back on half the clumps about a month later. This effectively “staggers” the bloom time – those not cut back this second time will bloom first, and be a bit taller, and the plants that are cut back the second time will bloom a bit later.  More blooms, longer! It’s a win win!

Late blooming Salvia madrensis - forsythia sage...cut back at least 3 times during the growing season.

Late blooming Salvia madrensis – forsythia sage…cut back at least 3 times during the growing season. Shown here just beginning to bloom – this will turn into a mass of yellow salvia blooms…

Many southern gardeners say “Don’t cut late blooming perennials back after July 4th”.

Rule breaker that I am, I have cut perennial mums, asters and sunflowers back as late as mid-July and had no ill-effect. But I like extending my blooms well into fall – it’s one of my favorite times of the year!

Perennial sunflower - 'Marc's Apollo' beginning to bloom in mid-September...

Perennial sunflower – ‘Marc’s Apollo’ beginning to bloom in mid-September…

 

 

 

Above all, enjoy your garden – after all, that’s what you planted it for, right? Hopefully by following these tips you’ll be able to enjoy it even longer!

***One of my absolute favorite reference books on perennial gardening is The Well-Tended Perennial Garden by my friend, Tracy DiSabato-Aust. If you enjoy perennials and gardening, this is a must have!!!

 

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A Real (And Really Big!) Clam Shell Planted With Succulents..

imageimageWOW! A customer brought this in the other day and I was the lucky one that got to plant it up! This clam shell is the real deal…a beautiful, large piece of natural art that had found its way to us.

Before it was even planted, I was bringing customers back to the work area to take a look at how amazing this natural container was.

Here it is, planted with various succulents, all sharing quarters quite comfortably in its large confines…flapjack kalanchoes, sedums, hen and chicks, sedeveria, and rhypsalis all create a tapestry of color and texture that compliment the white, smooth inside and rough outer portion of this very large clam shell.image

 

We’ve seen many replicas of clam shells lately; in fact, we’d been discussing this for quite a few weeks now – the proliferation of the clam!

This real one, unexpected and  quite wonderful, really was the icing on the cake. It’s also the type of thing that makes this job so much fun!

If you like succulents, take a look at this post for more inspiration – they are incredibly diverse plants to work with!

 

A Hedge of Hollies and Wax Myrtles…A Peek At Billy’s New Yard

imageSome of you may know that the owner of Oak Street Garden Shop, Billy Angell,  recently moved into a new house on Euclid Avenue  – quite visible to all of you who live in the area! Coming from his old house at which he’d created an extensive woodland, cutting, vegetable, and herb garden was quite a drastic change. This yard is nice and flat, but that was pretty much it. Now, if you know Billy, you also know that a nice, flat yard is one thing, but he needs a few plants out there too!

Billy's newly planted holly hedge

Billy’s newly planted holly hedge

He’s only been there a year or so, but already there are shrubs going in around the perimeter of his corner lot. His vision is to create a mixed border of hollies, magnolias, viburnum and wax myrtle for the outer edge, to screen the road and the back of his property His plans for the rest of the yard will unfold for all to see…and we’ll be watching!

Here are some pictures of the beginning of his new landscape: He invites any of you to come by and take a look at the shrubs he’s planted so far, many of which we have in stock now. These include:

Southern Wax Myrtle: This is a beautiful screening shrub. He’s using this on the back and side of his property to compliment the neighbor’s already large wax myrtle hedge. The only warning about wax myrtle is that the stems are brittle and they will break if we get heavy, wet snow (Rare, but it could happen!) You also need to be aware that they do sucker, so if you don’t want them to spread, remove suckers as they form.

The neighbors established wax myrtles show the size Billy's will get...

The neighbors established wax myrtles show the size Billy’s will get…

Hollies: These are large, and will grow 20′-30′, effectively screening his property from the busy road. They are drought resistant once established and are a haven for wildlife, creating nesting sites,  as well as food for birds.

Three of Billy’s favorite hollies planted along the streetside are ‘Nellie Stevens’, Emily Bruner’, and ‘Mary Nell’. These are all hybrids created by crossing two old hollies, Ilex cornuta and Ilex latifolia. The results are these excellent plants, bred for hardiness, berry production and growth habit.

‘Foster’ holly, is another that Billy has chosen for his landscape. This is another old holly developed by Mr. Foster, a plant breeder for Fraser’s Nursery of Birmingham many year’s ago.

'Nellie Stevens' and 'WillowLeaf' hollies

‘Nellie Stevens’ hollies

All of these hollies (and more), are available now for you to try in your own landscape…Billy invites you to come by and look at his if you’d like to see what they look like as they grow.

He pointed out that we also have one ‘Miss Patricia’ holly left in stock at this time – he has used it in the border but commented that it would be beautiful in a large container.

 

 

 

 

Need Veggie Plants? We’ve Got Them Now!

If you want a good selection of tomatoes, now is the time to come in! One of our small, one man operation wholesale growers decided to get out of the business and go to work for a larger grower – and we told him we’d buy his inventory of tomatoes and peppers to help out. So….we have a LOT of tomatoes and peppers right now – please come and take a look! Most of those we have are heirlooms, and there are some hybrids as well.

 

A sampling of the tomatoes in stock now...

A sampling of the tomatoes in stock now…

First, here are some garden preparation and planting tips for growing the best tomatoes:

Tomatoes grow best in a spot with lots of sun – at least 8 hours. Try not to plant tomatoes in the same spot as the year before.

Prepare your beds well. Loosen the soil and add soil amendments – some good ones are mushroom compost, cow manure and soil conditioner.

Rotating them to different spots will help keep soilborne diseases like bacterial spot and blight to a minimum.

When you plant them, plant deeply, burying the stems – new roots will form on the stems under the soil and make a sturdier plant with more fruits.

After planting, water well and add mulch. Mulch will help conserve water in the soil and moderate soil temperatures too.

Be sure to water them deeply each week.  Watering every 5 days or so during the height of summer deeply is much better than watering a little bit every day. To prevent foliar disease, water the soil beneath the plant, not the leaves, and water early in the day.

Pinch out suckers – non fruiting branches that form between fruiting stems. It’s best to pinch them out when they’re young, so keep up with this!

Stake them. Put in stakes when you transplant them to avoid damaging roots later. We have 7′ bamboo stakes and garden twine.

Determinate tomatoes will produce one big yield and be finished. Celebrity is a determinate tomato. Most of those we carry, though are considered indeterminate, meaning the vine continues to grow and as it grows, will produce more flowers and more tomatoes as the season progresses.

On a quick perusal of our stock, here is the list as of this week:

SunGold: Very popular cherry tomato, SunGold was developed by a Japanese breeder in the 1990s. Good disease tolerance.

Yellow Pear: Another that folks ask for every year. Heirloom, with yellow, pearshaped, sweet fruit.

Red Cherry: An heirloom, cultivated since the early 1800s. High yielding.

Black Cherry: A hybrid, bred in Florida. Sweet, deep red tomatoes with a blackish hue.

Mortgage Lifter: Indeterminate heirloom that produces large, pink low acid fruits. Originated in the 1930s, and the developer  (with no breeding experience)  paid off his mortgage selling his seedlings.

Cherokee Purple: Heirloom with a unique dusty rose color. Extremely sweet with a rich, smoky taste.

Brandywine Red: An old Amish heirloom from 1885.

Beefsteak: Heirloom with 4″-5″ slightly ribbed bright red, sweet fruit.

Better Boy: Classic – prolific producer – hybrid.

Talladega: Hybrid – developed for the Southeast, it’s a midseason deep red beefsteak tomato.    

Park’s Whopper: Hybrid – Large, 4″ fruits.                                                                                     

Green Zebra: Hybrid developed in the 80’s. Popularized by Chef Alice Waters at Chez Panisse. It’s ripe when the light green stripes turn yellow.

Black Krim: An heirloom, it’s a medium size very dark maroon beefsteak tomato.

Atkinson: A good hybrid for the Southeast. Developed by Auburn University.

Celebrity: Another disease resistant hybrid, this one is determinate, but still will get quite large and produce a lot of fruit. A solid, all purpose tomato.

 

 

 

 

Perennials – Plant Some Now!

Mexican sage, Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara'

First things first…what is a perennial? Well, a perennial is any plant that will be with you for the long haul – some will disappear completely during the coldest months of the year and reappear with the first warm days of late winter.

Herbaceous perennials have a specific bloom period when they offer their largest show, then continue to grace the garden with their foliage the rest of the season. Or, their foliage will be the show through the summer and their bloom time will be in fall.

French hollyhock - Malva sylvestris

French hollyhock – Malva sylvestris

However and whenever they bloom though, please understand that for the majority of their life you’ll be looking at the shape, texture and color of their leaves. When you’re deciding where to place them this is one of the most important things to remember!

Perennial salvia leans over a carpet of thrift (Creeping phlox) in this border...

Perennial salvia leans over a carpet of thrift (Creeping phlox) in this border…

Used well, perennials are a wonderful addition to a landscape filled with trees, shrubs and annuals. They add their period of bloom and, when grown well, should get larger with each season. (We’ll talk about dividing your perennials in another post.)

However, perennials are not no-maintenance plants. Some, like Japanese aster, thread leaf coreopsis, catmint and dianthus need shearing back after bloom. Others, such as daisies, coneflowers and rudbeckias appreciate general dead-heading (Cutting off individual blooms.) to keep them blooming longer. When they’ve finally played out the entire stems need to be cut to the ground. Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, benefits from deadheading blooms if you don’t want it to reseed. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on it, so deadhead below the bloom only.

Still others benefit from being cut back by at least half early in the season to control height, or this can be done with half the plant to create a staggered bloom time. Many late season bloomers fall into this category. These include many of the tall salvias, perennial sunflowers, tall rudbeckias, pink muhly grass and joe pye weed (Eupatorium). These late blooming perennials are quite beautiful in combination with perennials grasses.

Summer phlox is one that benefits from up to half its stems being cut back early in the season. This promotes good air circulation, which in turn helps to prevent mildew problems on the leaves.

when the ligularia on the left and the iris aren't in bloom, it's the foliage contrasts that will capture your attention...

when the ligularia on the left and the iris aren’t in bloom, it’s the foliage contrasts that will capture your attention…

 

 

 

None of these tasks is difficult, and, if they’re done a little at a time, your plants will look well tended and cared for.

If you’re in the Birmingham area, please stop in and take a look at the perennials in stock now. The selection of plants is excellent!

Some favorites for part sun to full sun:

Iris – Japanese, Siberian, Louisiana, German  and our native copper iris
Coreopsis ‘Full Moon’, and many others
Summer Phlox – Phlox paniculata  ‘David’, ‘Franz Schubert’,  Common Purple (mildew resistant)
Daisies – Leucanthemum (formerly Chrysanthemum sp.) ‘Becky’ daisy
Japanese aster – Kalimeris pinnatifida
Day lilies (many) – Hemerocallis                                                                                                     Rudbeckia fulgida – Black-Eyed-Susan  Rudbeckia ‘Herbstonne’
Echinacea  – purple coneflowers ‘Magnus’, ‘Pow Wow White’, many others
Salvias – Salvia leucantha – Mexican sage, ‘Indigo Spires’, ‘Mystic Spires’                                          Dianthus – many…the old standby is ‘Bath’s Pink’                                                                            Creeping phlox or thrift – Phlox subulata

Favorites for light shade to full shade:
Hostas (of course!)
Woodland phlox  –  Phlox divaricata
Solomon’s seal (green or variegated) – Polygonatum sp.
Japanese painted fern -Athyrium nipponicum
Autumn fern – Dryopteris erythrosoris
Tassel fern – polystichum polyblepharum
Indian pinks – Spigelia marilandica
Heuchera
Tiarella
Heucherella
Aspidistra – cast iron plant
Carex (many)

Don’t let the latin names intimidate you!  They are just the best way of knowing for sure what you are asking for. Common names, though easy to remember,  can bring on even more confusion when there’s more than one plant with the same name…at any rate, try a few perennials in your garden soon – you’ll be hooked in no time!

 

 

This is just the beginning of the perennials that are out there. Ask us for advice if you need help choosing – we’re happy to advise you on the right choices for your garden. And, if you’re adventurous, try one even if you’re not sure if your spot is exactly right – plants don’t always follow the rules!

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