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The Inquisitive Gardener

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This glorious Ginkgo biloba is located at Kew Gardens outside of London, England. The tree gets its common name, maidenhair tree, because its leaves resemble those of the maidenhair fern. Although it is a very nice tree four seasons of the year, it comes into its prime in the fall when the light green leaves suddenly turn a brilliant yellow. The coloful leaves remain on the tree for a while and then drop all at once. A friend told me recently that the most beautiful tree in our community was a huge Ginkgo he passed every morning on his ride to work.

Ginkgos as a whole may have gotten a bad reputation because, when many think of Gingkos, a foul smell comes to mind. However, that reputation is an ill-deserved one; it is only the female trees who produce lots of messy, nasty smelling fruit. To bypass the unpleasant smell simply plant a male tree.

Ginkgos can reach 80 feet tall (varying cultivars can grow from 40 to 50 to 60 feet also) and only about 1/3 to 1/2 that in width; if you add one to your garden, give it ample space to grow. Ginkgo trees prefer full sun, well-drained soil, and need regular water until they are very well established. They grow fairly slowly about a foot a year; but if they are really happy, they can grow more. Many believe that a supplement made from the ginkgo seed can improve memory.

This splendid tree is one of fall’s most wonderful specimens. Having one in your garden will surely bring you years of pleasure.

While we are talking about planting a tree like the Ginkgo in our gardens, perhaps some very basic tree planting techniques might be helpful. Guidelines for trees (or ornamental shrubs) which will go into a single hole planting – that is one hole for one plant – are simple. These guidelines will apply to container trees; balled and burlapped trees/shrubs have a slightly different set of rules.
• Do not amend the soil for a single hole planting. The tree or shrub needs to acclimate to the native soil as quickly and easily as possible, so put the native soil back in the hole with no added amendments–soil conditioners, compost, etc. Score the sides of the hole with your shovel. The tree should not be planted any deeper that the root ball is planted in the pot. As a matter of fact, it is better if the top of the root ball is a half an inch to an inch over the native soil line. Draw your native soil and mulch back to the root ball. (The quickest way to kill a new plant is to plant it too deep.)
• The hole should be 3 times as wide as the root ball.
• Place the tree in the hole; replace the soil adding water as you go along; firm the soil in. Make a berm around the root ball to hold the water.
• Water gently to allow the tree to get a good soaking.
• Mulch around the base with an inch or two of a good mulch. Mulch, however, should not touch the tree trunk. That invites diseases and pests to attack the tree.  Think bagel or doughnut instead of volcano.
• The best time to plant new trees or shrubs is November through February when Mother Nature can help keep them watered. Energy can be expended by the plant on the roots instead of on the greenery.
• Water, water, water during summer months until the plant is very well established–at least two years –longer if it is very dry and hot where you live.
• Place your new tree carefully, making sure not to plant under power lines or blocking views so that safety is never compromised (entering or exiting your driveway,etc.).

Considered a menace by many in this country, ivy is almost a landscape feature in the English country side. As we drove through many of the small villages I noticed houses virtually covered with it.  From my photographs, a local plant enthusiast was able to identify it as English ivy (Hedera helix).  Notice the tremendous root on this ivy; it was growing on the Manor House Hotel near Castle Combe outside of London. The ivy was absolutely beautiful as it practically glowed red in the sunshine.

In case you need some help encouraging ivy to grow at your house (I frankly need help getting rid of it) it will grow in part shade, part sun to full sun. It appreciates being watered. Some folks even fertilize it with a high-nitrogen fertilizer.  Granted it does make a wonderful ground cover if you can control it; it also can hide a chain link fence. It is a nice addition to a container planting where it can easily be snipped if it grows out of bounds. Deer don’t snack on it. Ivy, as seen in these photos, probably does have its virtues in the landscape. However you may want to keep it groomed as it can make a splendid hiding place for small creatures.

With some caveats ivy can be a beautiful addition to your garden. There are many interesting selections on the market. In the right place, even ivy be the right plant!

flower markets on London streets

Two weeks ago (mid October) my husband and I traveled to London, England. We had a glorious time. I truly got my flower fix. I saw landscapes in the Cotswolds and Bath so immaculately tended and loved that they took my breath away. We went to Kew Gardens where we joined a guided tour entitled “Tapestry of Trees,” led by a gifted volunteer who was both knowledgeable and personable. We traveled to Hampton Court, originally the home of Henry the VIII, where we saw intriguing formal and informal gardens; on our last day we went to a gardener’s paradise, The Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley. Oh my goodness! I have never seen anything so beautiful. I will be sharing photos and highlights of all those locations in the next weeks. I wanted, however,  to start with the flowers of the London Streets. Corner flower markets, window boxes, roof gardens, hanging baskets, hotels with intricate flower arrangements surrounding their doors and, yes, the star of this blog, a pub whose exterior was almost completely covered with flowers. This sight made my heart skip a beat; impatiens, begonias, fuchsias and others in every color of the rainbow were in full bloom. Even in late October the flowers looked like they were at the peak of their season. My annuals are long since a memory soon to be replaced with the flowers of winter. I hope that you will enjoy looking at what I call my London street scenes (for flower lovers everywhere).

one confederate rose plant with all these colors

Pink ribbons are everywhere lately as our communities observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Pink abounds in our fall garden too. In a month usually known for falling leaves of red, bronze, yellow, and orange there is a plethora of pink in the garden. Take a look at the lovelies blooming right now in and near my garden in East Central Alabama. The crinum lily, encore azalea, and the confederate rose are all glorious now. Also in spectacular bloom are Leslie Ann sasanqua camellias and Japanese anemones (my last blog featured one with a white flower but soon after that one a pink one began blooming).

The crinum lily is the epitome of the pass - a - long plant, providing it is not too well established in the owners garden. Friend and gardening expert Hayes Jackson told me that once these jewels are well established it is tough to move them as the bulbs can become huge. Crinum lilies can be difficult to find in garden shops but are available readily online; our local Master Gardener group propagates them and sells them at our yearly spring plant sale. Crinums, like many other plants in the south, like lots of sun but relish some shade from the sun in the hottest part of the day. I have found that mine need regular water to flourish. Crinums also love well-drained soil that has lots of good stuff added. This particular crinum ( I apologize because I no longer remember its name) has bright green sword-like foliage which disappears in the winter. Mulch them really well over the coldest months. The flowers have an exquisite fragrance; and as you can see the bloom is just beautiful. If you find a friend who has them, ask for a piece of this tough - as - nails plant; if not, do a little searching on the net to locate one to add to your garden. A word of caution; put it in the right place and just let it be because, after several years, a crinum is almost impossible to move.

I am also posting a photo of the encore azaleas blooming their hearts out for their second time this year. Encores, unlike the traditional azalea, which blooms only one time a year, bloom in the spring, sometimes sporadically during the summer, and then also put on a great fall show. The one pictured has flowers has solid and variegated flowers and is a joy in the garden. Encore azaleas can take more sun than our spring blooming azaleas; other than that, their culture is like the typical azalea we southerners adore. They do just fine here in our zone 7B/8A winters. Check with your nursery if you plant outside the Lower South climate range to make sure they will be cold hardy as encore azaleas hail from Mobile, Alabama.

The next plant in the triumvirate of pink beauties is the confederate rose (Hibiscus mutabilis), an old-fashioned plant if there ever was one. Easy to propagate from cuttings taken before the first frost, this woody perennial may reach 12 or more feet and can form a small tree. This plant needs lots of room in a sunny place, although it also will welcome a little relief from the hottest sun.  The plant opens from a pink bud and then can vary from pink to white and then get darker as the day wears on; in this case blooms of both colors are on the same bush. This particular one has a double flower but there also is also a plant with a single flowered bloom and plants that have red single blooms. The red ones actually bloom all summer whereas the pink and white ones bloom only in very, very late summer through early fall to the first heavy frost. If you see someone with confederate roses, ask nicely for a cutting. They root so easily before long you can have a row of them in your yard. Confederate roses seem to do fine without a lot of watering provided there is some rainfall during the summer. This rose is in my neighbor’s yard and they don’t baby it at all except for cutting down the dead stalks during the winter.
Now we know why we can think pink in the fall –  so when you consider adding plants for fall color think in or outside the box and say pink is my favorite fall color.

mums

sedum

japanese anemone

Fall is officially here, but in East Central Alabama it is still warm and muggy. We have just about drowned with the heavy rains over the last week or so. Usually September is a month where we see long stretches of drought. Not so this year. Remembering days of endless dry heat without a sign of water makes me glad for the recent rainy days. The mushrooms are, indeed, flourishing providing a daily job for my husband as he removes them from my curious puppy.

Many often consider this time of the year to be rather blah. The summer annuals and perennials have faded . The fall color is not yet visible on the trees, and it is too early for the pansies. However, if you planned for four season bloom, there is still lots going on in the garden. You can find beautiful sedums, glorious sasanqua camellias, brightly colored mums, and the dainty but dear japanese anemones. Toad lilies (mentioned in an earlier blog) are still blooming.

If you have not planted japanese anemones, you surely should add this fall blooming perennial to your garden. Happiest in part sun and watered regularly, the japanese anemone will happily spread over time. One of its major disadvantages may be that the blooms grow on stems which can get leggy and need some staking. The one that I have pictured above is ‘Honorine Jobert’.

Sedums flourish in full sun, although they will tolerate a little shade. Their claim to fame is they don’t need much water. There are literally dozens of these succulent perennials on the market–some with large leaves, some with small leaves; some are trailers; others grow upright. Many are evergreen; others disappear over the winter. I have them in a range of colors from chartreuse to bright green to variegated. Sedums make wonderful container plantings.  Although most are not grown for their flowers; many (such as the one in the photograph: Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’) have a beautiful fall bloom.

As far as mums go, I don’t have much luck growing them as a perennial. They get leggy and fall over and never seem to look like the ones available in all the garden shops right now. About the first of September I replace all the spent annuals with pots of mums; they really do brighten up the landscape and can be enjoyed for weeks; however they do need frequent watering. My sister grows ‘Ryans White’, ‘Ryans Pink’ and ‘Ryans Yellow’. She says these old-fashioned mums are prolific spreaders but not invasive and the clumps just get larger and more beautiful as the years pass. They grow without care and really add a lot to the late summer/early fall garden. She tells me they are a great pass-a-long plant and she has shared them with many friends over the years.

Please do remember – as you shop garden catalogs and shops and the internet – to plant for 12 months of bloom in the garden. With the choices available to us all now, it is not hard to do and the rewards are great!

This little jewel with its pink flowers with purple stripes is a mallow, more specifically Mallow sylvestris (french hollyhock). The gardening source I turned to remarked that it needed good drainage and preferred regular water (“The Southern Living Gardening Book”); mine, however, is growing between rocks set out as stepping stones under an overhang so it frequently misses the rain, and regular sprays from the hose. But it grows happily. When I first got a mallow from a local nursery, I planted it in a beautifully groomed flower bed with great soil; not only did it refuse to prosper, it died. Some may view this mallow as a pest because it reseeds so prolifically that there can be dozens and dozens of plants almost overnight and they can spread throughout the garden. This is not a problem to me as it is so beautiful. When there get to be too many, I just get out my pruners. Although it does best in full sun, mine is planted in part sun. Many would refer to this mallow as a pass-along plant. If you can’t find a friend with an extra plant, perhaps he/she will share the seeds.

At Master Gardeners we define a weed as “a plant out of place.” Thus, for some, this mallow may be a weed as it is likely to turn up way far away from its original home. But for me it is a joy! 

toad lily

diamond frost

The summer garden is winding down and late summer flowers, like toad lilies and Japanese anemones, are in bloom. I love the delicate toad lily (tricyrtis); the tiny little flower resembles an orchid.  This shade lover is a precious addition to the garden. It is partial to rich, well drained soil ( but what plant isn’t?). Although I have read that this plant can become invasive, it never has been so in my garden. Unfortunately, it is irresistible to voles who may also be snacking on the surrounding hostas. I also have noticed that it does require water; in a spot where it did not get regular water it just disappeared. It is an easy plant to grow if you give it the conditions to make it happy.

There are still so many beautiful things growing.  This is really a good time to take stock of what did well in your garden and what did not. Jot this information down in your calendar, along with how many plants you bought and where you planted them. Somehow, whenever I get to the garden center to buy the plants for my color beds, I never remember how many to purchase and invariably I come home with too many or too few.

Among my favorites this summer is the diamond frost euphorbia. Planted in part to full sun in pots or in the ground this annual is both tough and beautiful. However, it does like to be watered. So plant it where watering will be easy. Billowing clouds of tiny white flowers make this plant easy to love.

I am also sending you a verse I saw at Brookgreen Gardens in Litchfield Beach in South Carolina.  The garden features an amazing children’s section with lots of wonderful verses mounted on large signs placed among the glorious sculptures and beautiful plants. Although this verse is in the children’s section, the words speak to the heart of all gardeners.