Always Growing

This copyrighted post, “Fragrance in the Garden” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

I have often thought of how important the senses are in gardening.  Sight, of course, comes to mind first.  All the pretty flowers, colorful foliage, and textures are a feast for our eyes.  Sound, too, is in our gardens with chirping birds, water features, and the wind rustling through the trees and the occasional wind chime.  The sense of touch is satisfied by fingering the different textures of plants and flowers.  Who can resist walking by lambs ears without stroking the leaves?

But, this morning, the sense of smell was the one that captured my attention.  As I was walking by the blooming Easter lilies, I caught a whiff of their wonderful fragrance.  Of course, it made me stop and lean over for a deeper whiff.  I guess I forgot how aromatic they are.

Some hints for intensifying scents in the garden are to place fragrant plants in a protected area away from winds, place aromatic foliage plants near a path or front of the border so the leaves can be easily rubbed, and place fragrant plants near doorways, open window, and sitting areas so that they can be enjoyed more.  Remember that some plants are fragrant at night, such as night blooming jessamine (cestrum nocturnum) or flowering tobacco.  There is no point in having those plants if you are never around when they are releasing their pleasant smell.

Fragrant flowers are fairly easy to incorporate into our gardens.  There are roses, lilies, nicotina, gardenias, etc.  Aromatic foliage plants that I particularly like are lemon verbena, lemon thyme, rosemary, curry, and pineapple sage.

Year round fragrance is a goal of mine.  In late winter there is sweet olive, winter honeysuckle, and sweet almond shrub.  These are followed by all the jasmines, esp. star jasmine and magnolias.  When spring is in full swing and in summer, too, there are innumerable flowers, vines, and shrubs scenting our gardens.  In the fall, there is sweet autumn clematis, Russian sage, autumn witch hazel to name a few.

Fragrance not only makes for a pleasant experience, creates atmosphere, and also conjures up memories.  I know I cannot smell gardenias without thinking of my daughter as a baby.

Whether subtle or intense, fragrance is important for making our gardens and gardening even more pleasurable.  Think about it.  What are some of your favorite plants that appeal to the sense of smell?

This post, “Striking Foliage” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

We often think of flowers when we think of color in the garden.  It is only after seeing a plant with striking foliage, that gardeners realize that leaves too can add to the landscape.  While different texture is important to garden design, colorful foliage is a great way to put that little extra in our gardens esp. where flowers may not grow because of shade.  It can also help transition from one blooming period to another.

This canna grows in front of red and yellow double hibiscus in my garden.  While the hibiscus blooms almost continuously, when there is a lull, this canna helps carry that area of the garden.  This canna also brings a certain architectural element to the garden.

Dark foliage plants are becoming more and more popular.  Ace of Spades and Blackie in the sweet potato vines are examples.  I grow Ace of Spades and Margarite vines together, and the contrast is striking. Those dark reds, purples, and maroons offer a change and a contrast to lighter and variegated foliage.  The ornamental millets, such as Jester or Purple Majesty, and purple fountain grass are great additions to a garden.  I have purple fountain grass growing in two containers by an arbor.  They seem to set off the arbor and the plants around them.

This Alocasia Metallica and some chartreuse hostas growing in a very large pot make a very stunning arrangement.  Even though there is no flowers around, just ferns, once this alocasia gets growing, this container is an eye-catcher from across the garden.

We no longer have to rely on just coleus and caladiums to give us great foliage color.  Plant breeders have given us many other choices.  Colorful foliage plants can be as effective as flowers in bringing color to a garden.  And, for all season color sometimes, they beat flowers.

This post, “Cool Colors” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

I have always preferred the “cool” colors on a color wheel.  The greens, blues, violets.  This is reflected in my garden.  I don’t know if it is in response to gardening in a hot, humid climate or not, but those colors all seem to make the summer garden seem cooler.  While I love flowers, foliage is just as important.  That is one of the reasons I love hostas and ferns.  This hosta is Blue Cadet.  The blue hostas are not known to do well in the hot, humid South, but this one has been successful for me.  It keeps its blue tinge pretty much all summer long.  I do keep it in the shady areas where it may get only a few hours of early morning sun, and it stays well-watered.

This bougainvillea was obtained from a neighbor who moved and couldn’t take this large plant with her.  It, too, is a “cool” color.  This is the best it has looked since I got it in late 2005.  It sits in front of an azalea border, and the green background really makes the fuchsia color pop.  This is a bright color, but still lends a cooling feeling to that area of the garden.

“Hot: colors are present in my garden, but they have been used more to complement a surrounding area rather than as a personal preference for those colors.  Even when reds or yellows are in the garden, I always have some blue or purple to tone them down.  I love to look at “hot” tropical gardens.  They can be very striking, but for my home garden, I’ll have to stick with the “cool” colors.

This post, “Inspiration” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

One of the nice things about going to a botanical garden is that it gives you many ideas for your own garden.  While most of us can not afford to do things on the grand scale that these gardens do, it does inspire you to try new combinations or placement of plants on a smaller scale.  At least I am thankful I do not have such a large area to tend.  I have enough to do just keeping up with my suburban garden.  Though to be honest, if money was not an issue, I think I would love to have the space (and the gardeners) to have something just like a botanical garden.

As you can see from the above picture, Saturday’s garden show at the N. O. Botanical Gardens allowed everyone to see how lovely the gardens are at this time of year.  Even with the crowds, we were able to stroll around the grounds and see everything without people obstructing the view.  While I will not be placing such a large statue in my garden, I am thinking about a smaller statue or a large pot for the center of my circle bed.  Instead of water sprays, I may try sky pencil hollies.  I am still mulling over some changes to that bed, but I think I may do something to give a similar feeling as this picture shows.

Because I am in a suburban area, and Louisiana is flat and doesn’t really have rocks or boulders, I have always felt that if I put in any kind of water feature, I would want to have a reflecting pool.   Something akin to the above photo since I am not wild about the ponds most landscapers put in because those ponds would look great in a rocky or mountainous area but not in flat Louisiana.   I have found all kinds of great ideas at the garden show, but, unfortunately, did not find the financing for them.

I did get inspired by the show, and today I was able to put in a full day in the garden.  I continued cleaning out the overgrown property line area and was able to do about another twelve feet.  In that section I  planted a white lace cap hydragea that I had rooted and about six pieces of varigated shell ginger that a friend gave me. 

I also planted the daylilies I bought at yesterday’s garden show - Vanilla Fluff and Misty Mayhaw.  I planted the pink salvia and the red million bells I bought over the Easter holidays, the clematis crispa I bought about a month ago, and Tropical Sunrise canna that my sister just gave me.

Today I realized, that every now and then, it is nice to take a tour of a large public garden for ideas and inspiration.

 This post, “Garden Show” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

We had a great time at the Garden Show that was held in the Botanical Gardens at City Park.  The Rose Garden (pictured above) was gorgeous.  Even I was surprised at how many plants were in bloom.  New Orleans is only about 30 miles south of us, but it is a zone higher.  Their Louisiana Irises were in full bloom, and ours are just showing buds.  Lilies were blooming, and ours are hardly showing buds.  There were many more examples of their being ahead of the northshore when it comes to bloom times.

The picture below shows a spring flower bed in all its glory.  The timing of the show could not have been better.  All the visitors got a great view of what can be done in the fall to make spring spectacular.

This is a picture of a bed backing up one of the many beautiful statues that are in the Gardens.  Even with all the thunderstorms we had last night, the gardens were wonderful. 

I did restrain myself and didn’t buy too many plants like I did at the fall show.  I just bought two rex begonias and some daylilies.  I’ll show pictures of them and other sections of the Gardens on another post.  Right now it is off to take a hot shower and then do some reading in bed.  It has been a long day.

This post, “Finally Getting Things Planted-Part III” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

Today was the third day that I worked on putting the plants I have purchased in the ground.  I thought I would finish today, but instead of a trilogy this is turning out to be a series.

I decided that the winter honeysuckle and sweet almond shrub should go in by the property line on the southeast side of our lot.  The only problem with that was the amount of overgrown material that needed to be pulled out.  When we moved in, there was a row of large gardenia bushes.  These gradually died because of a lack of sun from growing trees (at least that is my hypothesis).  About seven years ago, I put in sword fern to fill in bare areas and give the area a more woodland look.  It did very well, but by two years ago it was doing too well.  It was taking over something awful.  Well, fast forward to this year and the cold weather we had really helped get rid of the excess.  As you can see from the picture below, there is a great deal of dead fern fronds.  (At least the leaves added to the soil.)  So I decided today was the day to start pulling it out to plant the shrubs.

  Before

I started pulling out the dead fern clumps, and most came up easily.  I also had to cut out some oak, maple, and cherry tree seedlings, blackberry vines, and briars.  It is amazing how much unwanted plants can grow in a year or two.  I cleared out about a fifteen foot area. 

Next came the digging of the planting holes.  We have hard clay that is filled with tree roots.  I have learned from planting shrubs before that a shovel just won’t make it.  I use a post hole digger.  That way I can cut through tree roots and can make a big enough hole with less effort. I did hit tree roots for every hole I dug.  This makes slow going.  I planted the Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) first, and then about four feet down I placed the Sweet Almond Bush (Aloysia virgata).  Finally, I dug up a white lacecap hydrangea that had rooted when a branch had been bent to the ground.  It had rooted last summer and now was too big to do well next to the mother plant.  I placed this about four feet down from the sweet almond shrub. 

 Already things are starting to look better.  I want the area to have a semi-wild, woodsy look.  The next door neighbor has some azaleas on her side which makes a nice backdrop for my side. There are some Beautyberry bushes here, and I am thinking of adding some more hydrangeas and maybe some holly ferns.  Parts of this  area do not get a great deal of sun, so I am going to have to figure out what should go into the rest of the area.

 After

Even  thought I did not get to plant everything today, I do feel that I have accomplished a lot.  An overgrown area has started to be cleared out, plants are in the ground, and I have a better vision of what to do with the overgrown area on the property line.  So all that’s left is a soak in a warm Epsom salts bath to soothe my aching muscles.

This post, “Finally Getting Things Planted-Part 2” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

Well, today was another fantastic day weather wise.  Cool, breezy, and sunny.  The perfect day to work in the garden.  More and more plants are popping up and showing blooms.  One of the daylilies I received from Oakes Daylilies already has a bloom, as does one of my January Wal-Mart purchases.  Also showing blooms are woodland phlox and a yellow native azalea.

I continued planting the container plants I had bought but never planted in the ground.  At the fall garden show in New Orleans, I bought a Harlequin Glorybower (Clerodendron trichotomum), and that was the first thing I planted today.  It went in at the side edge of the entry garden away from the walkway.  It gets rather large, but I may keep it trimmed into a small tree.  In late summer or early fall it puts out fragrant, white flowers that have bright red calyxes that last through the winter.

 Harlequin Glorybower finally planted in the garden next to red amaryllis.

Next on the list was a Coral Bean tree (Erythrina x bidwillii).  This, too, was purchased at the same garden show.  I also put this in the entry garden because it will have bright red seed pods.  Since my color scheme for that garden is red and purple, I figured I would try it there to repeat the red color.  This is a very small plant, but from my experience with a Crybaby Tree, I know it won’t be long before it is a small tree.

 Coral Bean tree surrounded by guardian birds.

Another plant purchased at the fall show was Pinecone Ginger (Zingiber zerumbet).  This I planted in the back garden where it will be in partial shade.  It is totally dormant right now, but it should be starting to show growth soon.  My Hidden Ginger (Curcuma alismatifolia) is also dormant at this time, but I am sure it won’t be long before that, too, is up.  These gingers seem to be some of the last to show in the spring.  They are not like the other gingers I have.  The shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) wasn’t even nipped by the frost, the variegated shell ginger was frost damaged but has already sent up shoots, and the butterfly ginger (Hedychium coronarium) is about two feet high now.

The reason that I didn’t plant these when I bought them in September was that I was unsure if they would survive the winter.  Because the plants were small, and I didn’t know how severe our winter could be, I opted to keep them in their containers until springtime.

I did plan on planting more today, but for some reason there is a person in this house who likes to eat, so I had to go to the grocery.  With it being a holiday weekend, of course, it was very crowded, and everything took longer than usual.

So with still more to plant, it looks like this posting is going to end up being a trilogy.

This post, “Mother Nature Is Always Right” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

The one piece of gardening advice I have to give is don’t fight Mother Nature.  If a plant needs sun, don’t try to grow it anywhere else.  If it needs part shade, don’t try to grow it in the sun.  Good drainage?  Grow it where it will not sit in water.  Label says it grows five feet wide and ten feet tall?  Don’t place it where it can’t spread out.

Trying to plan what to plant in the shade can be a challenge.  As a gardener who has a great deal of shade from tall pine trees, a big magnolia and a two-story house, I have had to learn to deal with shade.  Deep shade, dry shade, wet shade, dappled shade.  I have them all.  I learned through trial and error what will or will not grow in shade.  And believe me, there has been a lot of error.

Shade doesn’t have to mean just green.    Impatiens will bloom in shade, and they last from spring until the first frost.  Caladiums, variegated or golden-hued hostas, and coleus will give shade colors that pop.  But, by no means, are these more common plants the only ones to look for in a shade garden.  Hellebores do well in dry shade.  I can even grow them in my zone 8 Coastal Southern garden.  I also use hardy begonia (Begonia grandis) which blooms summer into fall with pink flowers.

 There are also plants like variegated lirope or English ivy that I have growing on the north side of my house next to a large planting of bamboo.  They add color along with the variegated toad lily.  So don’t think of just flowers.  Persian shield, sedges, perilla, the spotted aspidistra, and acanthus also work well for me in shady areas.

I also use hanging baskets of begonias and plectranthus mona lavendar to add color.  In some areas, esp. the dry shade with tree roots, I set out potted plants of angel wing begonias, alocasia, and wax begonias.

One thing to keep in mind when planting in the shade is to first amend the soil.  I use a great deal of compost that I make myself.  I am lucky that I have a large oak tree that makes fantastic leaf mold.  That, along with the other material I compost, gives me a way to improve the soil.

So years ago, I gave up trying to fight Mother Nature, and now I make sure to place plants where they will be happy and will thrive.

This post, “Winter Petunias” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

Petunias have been a favorite bedding plant for years.  Most gardeners plant them in the spring after the ground has warmed up.  In the Deep South, however, we plant them in the fall.  Even the Wave petunias can’t take our intense summer heat.  By May we are pulling them out and replacing with more heat tolerant plants.  That being said, you just can’t beat them for color from late September till May.  They may not have many flowers in the dead of winter, but by early February they are starting to put out blooms again.

Because I have a red front door, I try to pick up or at least coordinate that color with what is growing in the entry garden.  A few years back, I saw a house that had dark red petunias and deep purple petunias planted around crepemyrtle trees in the area between the sidewalk and the street.  It was a very striking combination.  So I decided to try that color too, figuring it would look good with the front door.  Also, since I have red flowers that come up in the spring, this combination would not clash as the season progressed, and these other plants put on their display of blooms.  It has worked out well for the last three winters.  Sometimes I have a little trouble finding the right reds and esp. the purples.  The best combination is a dark, almost maroon, red with the purple “Sugar Daddy” petunia.  This year I couldn’t find either one, but the dark red and dark purple I did find looks almost as good and gives a little change from last year.  The red petunias in the picture below are a deeper blue red not the tomato red that came out in the photo.

Now, my sister always plants the pastel petunias because she says they bloom longer in the spring than in the fall and winter.  She is right about that, and her garden is always so colorful and spring-like when Easter rolls around.  I would do that too except for that red front door.  Pale pink and pale lavender just wouldn’t look as good in my entry garden as it does in her garden.  I wish that the petunias would last longer than they do down here, but I guess having petunias blooming in February is a good trade off.

This post, “The Royalty of the Garden” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

One of the signature plants of the South is the azalea.  Did you know that the azalea is called the Royalty of the Garden?  The American Azalea Society has a very informative web site about them.

Some have been in bloom now for about a week, while others are just starting to show a little color in the buds. When buying azaleas, I always buy when they are in bloom to ensure that the color is the one I want.  Even though they are only in bloom a short time, I feel their color should coordinate with house color and the rest of the garden.  Remember to keep in mind the ultimate size of these shrubs.  Some are only a foot tall, while others can grow to ten plus feet.  I have seen so many people plant the large ones near their houses, prune them yearly, get tired of pruning them, and then yank them out and replant with something else (usually a loropetlum that also grows too tall).

Since azaleas set their flower buds by late summer, it is important that they receive adequate water to make sure that the following spring there are many flowers.  A good layer of mulch will help keep the moisture around the plants.  Azaleas do need good drainage, and acidic soil, and they do very well under large pine trees.

I feel azaleas look their best when planted in blocks of color or in a sweep of a single color.  This sets off their billowy shapes better.  I also think that they look best in a natural, loose mounding form rather than clipped into boxes or balls.   One thing I have been seeing a little of lately in the older areas of town is the shaping of old, large azaleas into small trees.  This seems to work best with the leggy ones with sturdy trunks.  By pruning out the lower limbs and some of the interior branches something attractive is created.  So instead of scraggly, overgrown, untended azalea there is now a small specimen tree.

Two years ago I bought a yellow deciduous azalea that seems to be settling in nicely.  I am thinking about adding a few more because of the colors available.  The Encore azaleas that have come out in the past few years look interesting, but I have not seen them planted out in gardens, so I am unsure if I should use them in the garden or not. 

Evergreen or deciduous, once blooming or repeat blooming, large or small, azaleas are striking, beautiful shrubs that the South can’t do without.