May 2011 Newsletter©

Some of My Favorite Plants

My garden doesn’t follow any rules, except the cultural ones the plants insist on. 

My garden mirrors my life.  There’s some order and significant chaos.  There are failures and successes.

My garden is not weed free and I’m ok with that. 

My garden is… what I need it to be:  mostly dependable, very colorful, always interesting, a little exotic and sometimes challenging.

My garden is often a quest or should I say “trek” … “To boldly grow where no man has grown before”.

My garden is a peaceful, soothing place that gives me an abundance of colorful flowers, foliage and fruit with little help or interference from me.

My garden is beautiful to me, maybe not to you, for often beauty is in the eye of the owner, but anyway I thought I’d show you a few of my favorites.

I want there to be interest at all levels of the garden.  If I look down, straight ahead or up, I want to see something cool..  So let’s start at the ground and work up.

LEFT PICTURE

In the top left corner, the bright green heart shaped leaf is a Bishop’s Hat (Epimedium versicolor sulphureum). It has evergreen, heart shaped foliage and grows to about 12” tall.  In early spring, it is loaded with spikes of small, deep yellow flowers. It makes an excellent groundcover in part to full shade and likes moist but well drained soil.

The silvery green leaf in the center is Chinese ginger (Asarum splendens).  It’s another good, evergreen ground cover for shady areas.  It gets about 8” tall and also likes moist, well drained soil.

The slightly whorled leaf at the bottom right is a hardy begonia (Begonia grandis).  This isn’t evergreen, but it is a very dependable perennial for shady locations and with sufficient moisture, tolerates a good bit of sun. It can be aggressive and rapidly spread if it likes the location and grows to 24-30” tall with light pink flowers in mid summer through fall.
RIGHT PICTURE

This is a variegated form of Siberian bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla).  This cultivar is probably “Dawson’s White”.  The foliage gets about 5” tall and in early spring it is covered with spikes of the tiny blue flowers.  Notice there is a solid green leaf in the picture center.  Solid green forms tend to be more vigorous than the variegated forms, so to prevent the green from crowding out its variegated sibling, the green form should be removed.

LEFT PICTURE

This is a Leopard plant (Farfugium japonicum aureomaculatum).  This is a spectacular evergreen perennial for shady locations.  It produces a spike of small yellow flowers but it’s grown more for the foliage which gets to around 15” tall.

RIGHT PICTURE

Every shade garden needs variegated Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum variegatum). The variegated foliage to 24” tall really lightens up a shade garden.  It has tiny white flowers in the spring that hang below the foliage so they are often not seen, but this is another plant that should be grown just for the foliage.  It can be aggressive.

I failed to take a picture of it in the garden, but there is a related evergreen perennial that looks similar – Disporum cantoniense “Green Giant”.  The foliage is green and it has small creamy white flowers followed by black fruit but it grows to 4-6’ tall.  Both plants like moist, not wet, soil in the shade.

LEFT PICTURE

I like Columbine (Aquilegia) a lot.  They are available in a wide variety of colors, both solid and bi-color and in a wide variety of heights from 8” to over 36” tall.  This one is one of the Barlow series of doubles that only gets to 12” or so.  Columbines tend to be short lived perennials but they reseed well if the bed is not too heavily mulched.  They also perform the best when planted at the edge of the shade garden where they get some sun.

RIGHT PICTURE

This is a hardy orchid (Bletilla striata).  It flowers in April-May and is another plant that blooms best at the edge of the shade garden.

I can’t get enough Hosta in my garden.  No other plant can give you the variety of color, variegation, leaf shape and plant size.  The small Hosta on the right between the Heuchera is only about 8” tall.  Sagae (in the center) is nearly 30” tall and over 6’ wide and nothing can give you the steel blue color of the Hosta in the left picture in front of the Encore azalea.

LEFT PICTURE

The end of April and this was the last Camellia flower out of the 14 or 15 varieties in the garden.  I have Sasanqua varieties that start as early as September and had flowers on some variety through April.  Even in the bitter cold I had color…the flowers were frozen, but there was color.

RIGHT PICTURE

I’ve mentioned before that most Memphians have an “evergreen” mentality.  Gardeners often miss out on spectacular plants, especially the spring flowering shrubs, just because they are deciduous.  This is a yellow form of Sweet Shrub or Sweet Betsy (Calycanthus floridus).  Normally the flower is maroon red (which is prettier and more fragrant than this one) but it is interesting, so I thought I’d show it to you.  Some other deciduous plants in bloom now include Deutzia, Viburnum, Mock Orange (Philadelphus), Virginia Sweetspire (Itea) and Pearl Bush (Exochorda).

Two of my favorite trees…Japanese Snowbell (Styrax) on the left and American Fringe tree (Chionanthus) on the right.  The snowbell gets to about 25’, the fringe tree to around 35’.  Both have fragrant flowers but the snowbell is more so.

I like vines.  I’d like to cover the fence all around the yard with them, but since my neighbors may not share my sentiment, I keep the common fence clear.  So I let vines do what they want to do naturally…climb tall plants.  Pictured above is a 10’ fruiting pomegranate that has a Cross Vine (Bignonia) and three different colored clematis vines planted at the base.  The clematis doesn’t over power the pomegranate and I thin the cross vine when it gets too thick.  This morning the pomegranate was in bloom with small orange flowers and the white and purple clematis were in bloom.  Strange color combination? Hey, it’s my yard!

This month:

Fertilize warm season grasses (Bermuda, zoysia) with Ferti-lome Classic Lawn Food.

Apply Hi Yield Weed & Grass Stopper (Dimension) to your flower beds after you’ve planted your annuals to prevent weed seed from germinating.  Apply it to your lawn to prevent late germinating weeds like goosegrass.

Lacebugs are already showing up on azaleas, so if you’ve had them every year, start spraying now with Bonide Systemic Insecticide.

Check you pH or bring us about a coffee can full and we’ll test it for free.  Keeping the pH correct is critical to getting your plants to perform well.

Pull mulch away from the trunks, stems and crowns of your plants.  Mulch should not touch the plant at all in the summer.  It keeps the plant wet and as it decomposes you create a suitable habitat for insects and fungal issues. 

If you need to plant Bermudagrass seed, now is the time.

Watch for signs of borers (pinholes, beads of sap, sawdust) on plants that are prone to them…Pine, Cherry, Dogwood, Peach, Plum, Laurel, Ash, Maple, Elm and spray with Hi-Yield Garden, Pet, Livestock spray.

It’s time to plant things that prefer warm ground temperatures…Caladiums, Okra, Vinca and Zinnia.

Last months contest…what is this plant?

It is Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium).  It’s not really a grass, but its thin semi-evergreen foliage and clumping growth habit, give it a grass like appearance.  It has star shaped blue or white flowers and there are several cultivars available. It likes a sunny, well drained location.

This month…What’s this plant?   You may never have seen it, but you’ve probably heard about it.

The contest ends on May 30th.  Drop by either store to enter or you can email your entry to

questions@danwestonline.com. One winner, selected from all correct entries, will receive a $25

Dan West Gift Certificate.

Thanks for shopping with us at Dan West.