Master Gardener

Looking for Shrub Perfection

2009-03-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

I want shrub perfection for my smallish, suburban landscape.
Pitch me an evergreen shrub that grows into its own shape and holds it - no shearing required. Some that top out at three or five feet will be handy, but how about a few that reach only 18 inches tall? I need bushy, leafy shrubs that look as good in winter as in summer, with nectar for the bees and winter berries for Mockingbirds, Cedar Wax wings and robins.
Exciting color is a plus, but the shrub must thrive in my dirt’s pH. Pest-prone bushes need not apply, because no one around my place wants to spray poisons. In our dry and windy land, some supplemental watering is okay, but never more than twice a week in high summer drought. In fact, a little compost from time to time, a little water and frequent admiring glances are about all I want to donate to shrubdom.
If your needs fit mine, may I suggest one of more of the following hybrid varieties of nandina?
Uh oh, I hear the catcalls... “Boring! Nandina is a garden cliché!”
Well, clichés become clichés when they’re foolproof: Nothing sinks like a stone, few things move as quietly as a mouse and very few shrubs offer the fabulous package available from hybirds of the Nandina, family Berberidaceae, native to India and Eastern Asia. They are common because they are great!
But, you may crave something a little less common, more of a challenge.
You could excavate cubic yards of soil and replace it with pecan shells so you can plant azaleas, then water them with alkaline water daily all summer, watching out for ubiquitous, voracious red spiders.
Or, you could invest in glorious, finicky, thorny roses and spritz them with fungicide every time it rains; but please wear protection and keep kids and pets away from the garden.
Or plant a Blue Atlas cedar near the house, then pick bagworms from really stickery branches year after year, as it outgrows its spot. They get forty feet wide, you know.
Or try some new and unusual hollies. Sure, we’re a borderline climate for those $60 mini-bushes, but some of them might survive.
Had enough?
Why not select a few inexpensive, nandina hybrids, knowing that their mature sizes are as predictable as their easy success in the landscape? When they mature, they deliver carefree, colorful foliage, topped in winter with brilliant, red berries, repaying minimal effort with full season pizazz! That’s shrub perfection.

• Woods Dwarf: 1.5 feet tall, red to maroon fall foliage
• Moonbay and Nana Purpurea: 1.5 or 2.5 feet, rounded, spreads, red fall foliage
• Fire Power: very compact, 2 feet tall/wide, has red-tinged leaves in summer and bright red leaves in winter
• Harbor Dwarf: spreads freely, 2 feet tall, good groundcover. Winter foliage orange to bronzy red
• Nana, Nana Purpurea, Atropurpurea Nana: to 2 feet tall, mottled green foliage, purplish-red in winter, no flower, no fruit
• Lowboy: 3 feet tall, flowers, red berries,red fall foliage
• Gulf Stream or Compacta Nana: slow-growing to 3 to 4 feet, dark blue-green summer foliage, red winter foliage, no berries
• Woods Dwarf: 4 feet, dense, rounded, crimson red foliage in winter
• Compacta: 4 to 5 feet, foliage turns red in fall
• Moyer’s Red: 6 feet, good cold weather red pigment

A Purple Delight

2006-03-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

Do you have a wisteria? If not, you should really try to find a place in your landscape for one. I have three in my yard, and I just discovered today that their bloom buds are swelling to fingertip size and are so numerous, I wonder if the plant can hold them all up. Barring another hard freeze, they are going to be quite showy in a week or two. And the aroma of all those blooms is so sweet, it is almost overpowering if you get too close.

Dont' think you have to let a wisteria vine all over the place. They are much more attractive when kept trimmed into a tree form. To do this, you will need to keep the plant staked for several years or until it forms a strong enough trunk to support a tree top. You will need to prune all of the sprouts off the trunk of the tree leaving only a bushy tree top. Every time it grows a runner in the tree top, cut it back leaving only 18 to 24 inches. You will have to cut these runners every two to three weeks during the growing season depending on how much rain there is. Don't be afraid to trim as much as you want off the tree top to get the shape you want. Believe me, it will grow back. Of course, the profuse spring blooms are produced on the old growth, so leave enough in late summer and fall to give you a nice show of flowers in the spring.

When shopping for a wisteria, always buy one that has blooms on it. That way you won't be left with a large plant in 3 or 4 years that has never bloomed. I have been there and done that, and it is very disappointing. Often, a non-blooming wisteria is the result of plants that were grown from seeds rather than propagated from cuttings. If you want a good blooming wisteria plant, it should be a cutting from a good blooming plant.

Once established, the wisteria require very little care. Keeping it trimmed into shape is the main chore. It needs no fertlizer and only a standard amount of water. Just plant it, stake it, and be ready with the trimmers and the camera. Ken Luper

February Cold Spell

2006-02-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Just as my gardens were beginning to show signs of spring, old man winter had to rear his ugly head again with three days of temperatures below freezing. I decided to do an inspection to see what damage I could find.

The forsythia which was already full of bright yellow blooms was now black in appearance, but it seems to always be in a hurry to bloom and ofter gets nipped by the really cold snaps. The saucer magnolias, which sported more flower buds this year than ever before, now have numerous black buds that had progressed to far to withstand the 10 degrees temperature. Maybe some of the small flower buds will be undamaged and will bloom later. I certainly hope so because it is one of my favorite spring flowering trees. The red maple trees which had already sprouted those attractive early red blooms were likewise black and dreary looking.

Pansies and daffodils which were covered with snow and sleet seem to have survived the 10 degrees temperature quite well. The blossoms on the pansies were somewhat damaged, but in a few days they will put on new ones. The daffodil buds were still young enough that I believe they will yet produce their showy trumpets. The crocus are already blooming again so the cold temperatures appear to have had no effect on them.

Overall, I am surprised that there was'nt more damage from the cold spell, but I had watered everything well and the snow and sleet provided some insulation. Let's hope that we have seen the last of those 10 degree temperature. Ken Luper

Surprise in the Kitchen

2005-04-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Another mouth to feed in the Kitchen

by Schroeder

Just returned from my early morning walk in the garden, flowers blooming, perennials breaking ground, peach blossoms falling, birds singing, and there is a frog in my kitchen. There he stood, eye to eye with my trusting hound. But that lasted only a second. Soon there was a big chaos amid by morning paper and diet coke. The Scottie try to surround the tiny frog creature, wondering what frog would taste like for breakfast. The frog had other ideas! The scottie was quick but the frog could move too. But the pot with the lid scooped up the green amphibian before any blood hit the floor.

Ahh, the hand and pot is faster than nature's creatures. Prey and predator must try another time for their competition. The frog is outside and the dog is still hunting for that pot with the delicious live food. He was a cute little frog, but where did he come from? Every spring it happens, you would think I would get use to it. All the creatures that hibernate over winter in my big plant pots wake up when the weather gets warm. I get quite a few snails, and usually one frog every other spring.

I like the frogs (tree frogs) but the snails meet the heel of my shoes. Yuck!

What's New?

2005-04-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

This morning I had a little surprise waiting for me in the garden. As usual I was taking my early garden tour when I happen upon a new arrival. At first I couldn't see it because it was hiding underneath the hosta shoots. But there it was all purple and shining in the morning light. My new plant was only two inches high, but it's unusual leaf shape was a dead give away. It was the first born of my Japanese Maple (Bloodgood) and kind of a shy little fellow.

I have never seen a Japanese Maple seedling before, so I don't know anything about it's genetic package. Do they reproduce Japanese maples by cloning? Or do the producers use the old methods of planting seeds? I guess what I'm asking will the little maple grow to look like its mother or some variation of an ancestor. It doesn't really matter, I've got the time to watch him develop into anything it wants to be. But I do feel some kind of pride, like I should pass out cigars or something.