Truth Is … Bittersweet
No doubt bittersweet is beautiful in fall arrangements. Just search Pinterest and you’ll see it featured in many fall container gardens.
While I understand bittersweet’s appeal I NEVER advocate it.
Oriental bittersweet (celastrus orbiculatus) is invasive.
Our feathered friends feast on the orange/yellow berries and then do their business in the woods. Bittersweet is a thug. Once it starts growing it takes over, monopolizing light and water, and choking out native plants. Bittersweet will either climb over plants and smother them or twine tightly up the plants and constrict them. If you like the look, consider using artificial. You’ll not only help save native plants you’ll save money by having a garland you can use for many years to come.
Fall – One of the Best Reasons to Live in New England.
It happens slowly enough. You wake early and it’s not quite light yet. You have dinner on the patio and find you need to turn the lights on or light the candles. Or wear a miner’s cap. The hummingbirds have stopped coming to the feeder. You use the fan, rather than the air conditioner. You find that long pants actually feel comfortable. These are all signs that summer is drawing to an end.
While it may seem sad to say goodbye to summer (unless you are one of the mothers at the bus stop I see high-fiving each other) we do have fall to look forward to and it’s one of the best reasons to live in New England. No one is exactly sure how the drought will affect our foliage; the consensus is the foliage may still be good but will not last as long. I’ll take what I can get because I know after the beautiful colors of fall comes the white of winter. Despite summer’s finale, there’s still plenty you can do in the garden.
Read More»Sayonara, Summer
As Fall approaches, we take a final look at some of our favorite summer projects.
Houseplant (sansevieria), perennial (heuchera) and million bells. Who says only annuals can go in containers? This mixed container is looking good 7 stories up!
This riot of colors on a South End balcony gets tied together with coleus ‘The Flume’.
Read More»Plant Lust
I was fortunate to accompany my friend, Kerry Mendez, on a recent garden tour where we were both stopped in our tracks by the most beautiful shrub. As we fumbled for our phones to takes pictures we asked the homeowner its name. Clerondendrum, or Harlequin Glorybower.
The name felt vaguely familiar but I could not recall it from the catalogs I routinely poured through. Apparently, it is hard to come by; which made me want it even more.
I did some research to find out if this beauty would do well in my garden.
Clerondendrum needs full sun (yes!) and grows between 10-15 feet tall and wide (no problem). It is covered with fragrant jasmine-like flowers in late summer (great!) which are followed by bright blue berries accented by pinkish-red calyxes (even better). When bruised, the leaves are thought to smell like peanut butter (I like peanut butter) which explains clerodendrum’s other common name, Peanut Butter Tree.
Clerodendrum can be marginally hardy in zone 6 (I will site it near a wall) but if it suffers dieback it will most likely rebound in spring.
It looks like I need to go on the great plant hunt to find a clerondendrum. If you spot one, please let me know.
Landscape Overhaul
Sometimes it’s time for a fresh start. And for this project, we knew it was that time. Our client, a member of the local garden club, was frustrated with the old, tired overgrown plants that were not contributing to the landscape and wanted to completely renovate her gardens. The area around the home had become overgrown, threatening to obscure its classic Royal Barry Willis lines.
So where did we start?
While some designers might favor a “blank slate” approach I prefer not to destroy material that is viable. Maybe it’s my frugal Yankee nature. If a plant doesn’t work where it is we can often move it and give it a second chance. After a thorough plant assessment, decisions are made as to what stays and what goes. When it comes to the “what goes” part all I can say is THANK GOD FOR A GREAT CREW.
Read More»Petunias Stopped Blooming? It’s Not You, It’s Them.
I recently received this email from a client with a roof garden in Boston:
“Just got home . Garden is beautiful!! Thank you.
In contrast, our Cape containers look terrible. They (mostly petunias ) were pretty good all summer. Then all of a sudden they stopped blooming. I had been using a fertilizer in solution weekly. The product is supposed to stimulate blooms. I did it weekly for about a month—the last time I doubled the dosage.
Do you think that I over-fertilized? Any thoughts? Can you do magic on Cape Cod?”
While I am more than happy to do magic on Cape Cod I, unfortunately, cannot do magic with petunias. I have never succeeded with them long-term. Perhaps I am doing something wrong but it’s one reason petunias made my lecture “The 10 Most-Popular Container Plants – And Why You Shouldn’t Use Them.”
Petunias peter out, let’s be honest. They look gang-busters when you buy them in May and I think that’s why so many of us are seduced by their vibrant, brightly-colored little faces. We don’t look down the summer months and see that those same faces will resemble Grandma Moses. You can whack petunias back in July and hope that your hard-pruning will put the fear of God into them so they will bloom for your anticipated graduation/christening/bridal shower/first communion get-together. But that doesn’t always work. As I get older I get less sentimental. I am not interested in a plant that requires constant deadheading to look its best.
As my friend Kerry Mendez says “plants are not children or pets” we can get rid of them without guilt.
Which is what I do with petunias.
Out they go and are easily replaced with another colorful annual that will look even BETTER in August than it does in June. Are you wondering what that annual is?
Read More»Great Alternatives for Shade Garden Plants
During a recent shopping trip to one of my favorite wholesale nurseries, I overheard a woman (who I assumed was a designer) explain to her client, “Well you have shade options here…basically begonias and begonias.” I had to bite my tongue. Which I do frequently. For example, at one of the big box stores when I saw the person in line in front of me with a container and a bag of garden soil. My tongue wanted to say “Excuse me, you cannot use that soil in a container, it won’t drain well.” But one look at my daughter and I bit my tongue. Apparently being, what I consider “helpful and friendly” is actually “weird and embarrassing.” So I also bit my tongue when I heard another one of the salespeople remark to a customer, “Why you can put a mountain of this granular bug killer on your lawn and it won’t harm anything.” Really? Jaw clenched I retreated to the plumbing aisle.
But back to shade options. Begonias are fine, as are impatiens, but is that really the only material the aforementioned designer could offer her client?
Had she never heard of coleus?
Read More»A Plethora of Pots
May and June have been a crazy, busy time; a “hair-on-fire” time for those of us in the gardening business. Or as my kids say a GYO time, which stands for Get-Your-Own, as in dinner.
I have lost track of the number of summer pots I have planted over the last two weeks. Each pot I planted was unique. While I know using a formula, for sun or shade, for instance, would make things go more quickly I would rather create custom work which reflects the style and preferences of my clients. I have one client who only wants green and white. Her container featured spathiphyllum, white verbena and New Guinea impatiens, helichrysum and lamiastrum.
A new client with a roof deck liked only vibrant colors – no pale pinks or lavenders for her. Some croton in her planters anchored the “hot” color palette on the sunny side of the deck….
Read More»Garden Design Inspiration
Sometimes an inspiration “bouquet” helps clients see my vision for their garden design.
We can play with the different plant combinations until we like the result.
Change Your Bulb
Everyone knows fall is a great time to plant bulbs.
This year why not try something a little different? Garlic.
This delicious bulb is easy to plant and the steps are simple.
Start with a nice full head of garlic – best to use one from the Farmers Market rather than one from the supermarket which could have been treated.
Break apart the cloves but leave the paper husks on.
Plant the cloves about 2” deep and 4” apart in sunny, well-drained soil.
Cover with a layer of mulch and check back in spring.
Cut off flowers in spring to guarantee the biggest bulb.
Fertilize if the leaves start yellowing.
Harvest when the tops turn yellow and start to flop over.
Use a spade to dig up the bulbs, brush them off and let them cure in a shady spot for two weeks.
When the husk or wrapper is dry and papery and the bulb is hard, the garlic is ready to store.
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