Yardening end of April 2014 continuation

from
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1355213/#new

Last hurrah for hyacinths, daffodils, tulips coming on, hostas are coming up...looks like we'll have spring to stay!

What a gorgeous pic Sally... Hyacinth?


I've got hostas galore coming up and filling out like crazy. The one next to the back door outside is fully fluffy, she's so pretty! I'll take all sorts of pics when I get home from work today - hostas, Iris buds, and whatever else is having fun out there. =)

Mike, Lowell (his brother), and I have been yardening, yardening, yardening getting Aspen Hill looking its best before the Spring Swap. More than half of the beds have been cleaned up from winter leaves and debris and remulched. Last weekend we focused on getting the vegetable garden ready and cleaning up my plant staging and potting area. Both the vegetable garden and the potting area haven't seen much attention in 2+ years and were in a horrific state. Still not done with them, but made major progress.

This week's agenda includes weeding and mulching the turtle garden. All the plugs that I planted there last year are alive and starting to grow. Just think, if it really takes off and fills in over the next few years, you can say you saw it when it was in its infancy LOL.

Looking forward to seeing it all at the plant swap, Aspen! :-)

So I bought a winterberry holly at the MDH&G show a while back, and was excited to think about where to plant it. Turns out that the plant likes a lot of moisture. :( Does anyone have experience growing winterberry holly in a not-so-moist place? Does it do okay anyway? I want it in my yard, but my yard is decidedly *not* moist to wet.

Also, I was looking at my hosta that leafed out before those frosty temps came last week. The leaves look weird, kind of like they have Hosta Virus X or something. There is no brown areas, like it got dieback from frost. There are white spots on the leaves and crinkling. I haven't been able to compare newer, not cold-touched leaves because no other leaves have unfurled, just the ones that got exposed to cold. Now I know that this plant *looked* healthy up until dormancy last fall. And I didn't do anything with the plant over the winter, didn't even cut off the flower stalks. What gives?

Catmint, I don't remember where you posted this before, but I have the same issue with midday sun. I have spots that are completely shady, except for during the hottest part of the day when the sun is directly overhead in the middle of the summer.

Most shade plants can't handle that intense light, and most sun plants don't like having mostly shade except for a couple of months out of the year. And sun plants get really floppy with that little sun.

This year I'm planting euphorbia, sedum Angelina, and Autumn Joy in those spots.

Progressing well with digging the veggie garden and amending our perennial beds. We'll be at Holly's dads this PM to treat for crabgrass and clean up. I added 2/3 yard of sifted compost to the front bed and need to sift another load.

typwc- some of my hostas have some very pale small leaves as their first leaves, I guessed the cold did that? I had a winterberry once, but it was male and I was 'just learning' about them being male-female- (Dioecious?) so I gave it away. I did have it in a moist spot. Very unhelpful comment, eh?

My front beds have that midday sun issue. I have been back and forth with plants due to that plus poor soil. Phlox subulata loves it, wonder if other phlox would? Erg they might mildew badly. Thanks to the growing dogwood and magnolia it is more of a bright shade place now.

Pardon me Terp, but I thought this care sheet about azaleas was good. I kept wondering about sun VS shade.
(Pardons be cause I do not mean to imply that you have ever been not helpful. Rather than ask a million questions, I came across this and thought I would share)
http://azaleas.org/index.pl/azculture.html

Now, off to examine the yard for my trees that sway with high branching :^D

Typ: I have 2 'Jim Dandy' and 3 'Red Sprite' winterberries. All get 0 supplemental water and are doing fine. The JD in the backyard wasn't doing super well last year but came back this year so perhaps it was a leaf thing. I get buttloads (technical term) of berries off the RS in the fall. Don't eat them though like I did because they don't agree with the belly. I only tried one, good thing too because I would have been hurting had I eaten more. They taste pretty good though :)

No pardoning necessary. It is a good reference. We all stand to learn something through a million questions. That is why we are here!

Thanks Sally and Seq! I know this is a lady winterberry because she still had a few berries hanging on from last year when I got her. However, I don't know that I can provide her with a boyfriend in my urban backyard. I am leaning toward planting her at my work, because it's wetter there and there could be some gents out in the woods for her to 'socialize' with.

I'll have to take a picture of my hosta to show you. very puzzling.

Oh you guys, speaking of plants at work. We just took delivery of a Redbud 'Ruby Falls' in bloom! It will be planted as a specimen near the front door so that visitors will see it as they come in. So excited!

Lol..'socialize'. My ladies are well 'socialized' as I have 3-2 ratio :) They grow really slowly (at least in my yard) so you wouldn't have to worry about them taking over or getting too big.

LOL you guys!
So phlox subulata and euphorbia might work in this difficult spot! What about the winterberry. Do you think that might work? Yes that's the problem exactly-- sun is too intense for a lot of shade plants but not enough sun for plants that like sun....

What spot are you talking about Cat? Is this a part shade spot?

How about Baptisia australis, or Amsonia hubrichtii? Both are native, but might be taller than you had in mind.

Nevermind...I read up a bit farther. SSG, do you have a picture of this spot? Also how long does the intense sun last?

Seq it lasts a good 3 hours from eg 2-5 pm. Not quite long enough for most part sun plants. So technically it's 'shade' but a lot of shade plants don't like that much bright sun.

What about deciduous azalea? What type of plant are we looking for? Perennials? Shrubs?

Seq, I would post a picture, except that it's just a brick wall at this point! This is the Death Bed where plants go to die. I've tried azaleas, rhododendrons, astilbes, camellia, etc. I didn't realize how dry it was until recently. Oh and I've had phytophthora on this bed.

I wanted a flowering evergreen shrub, but it may not be possible. I'm just gonna try the euphorbia and sedum this year and see how they do.

I thought native azaleas liked a lot of sun?

Not necessarily. They can take whatever since they are an understory shrub. It's how many blooms do you want? If you want a good bunch of blooms then you need to get them out in more sun. Now you say this bed is dry too? That is a tough spot. You may turn your attention to Rocky Mountain native plants that are good for part/mostly shade and somewhat xeric.

If it's not too dry what about photinia fraseri?

http://ag.udel.edu/udbg/broadleaf_evergreen/p_xfraseri.html
http://www.pnwplants.wsu.edu/PlantDisplay.aspx?PlantID=342
http://www.public.asu.edu/~camartin/plants/Plant%20html%20files/photiniafraseri.html

There are a few cites which list that it can be grown in drier conditions and part shade.

SS--
What kind of a Euphorbia will you be planting?

I know there are many kinds--but I just dug out a pile of these (see pic)
from a bed.
It is evergreen-so-so, and pretty when it "blooms".
I know I posted it a while ago--now cannot find it....

You can have all of them! G.

Here's an idea for an evergreen bloomer that can tolerate anything from FULL sun to FULL shade, and every variance in between: Otto Luyken Laurel. I've got them in my front; they are under the over-hang of the house, so rain never get to them, and NEVER remember to water them... they're LUSH right now and just about ready to bloom. They get stems full of adorable teeny little white blooms that the bees love. (pic #1)

Got a few shots of some of the babies that I talked about earlier.
#2- A few of the Irises' buds.
#3- Ms. Paeony
#4- The Hosta right outside my back slider door
5- One of the many volunteer Columbines with buds. :)

SSG, How big of a bed is it. At my parents house, there is a narrow strip bed between the walk and the side of the house. Plus there is an overhang where the second floor extends and then the roof line that extends beyond that. They just couldn't seem to get any thing to grow there. They hardly get any rain in that bed. So Ric and I dug it up, added compost and water crystals to the soil. It is only a small bed where we only plant flowers not bushes but it has really made a difference. I don't usually add water crystals to beds but it really helped.

Speedie, that's a good idea about the Otto Luyken Laurel! Your plants all look great--can't believe you have columbine almost ready to bloom. And Miss Peony looks great--and can't believe how far along your hosta is!

Here's a photo of my shed bed. I don't think it's as dry as SSG's, but we have similar problems with light only for a few hours in the hottest part of the day. As you can see the bed is nearly empty! That's because virtually everything there dies! Arggh!

What I have growing there right now that seems to have done okay:
--skimmia
--pulmonaria (can't really see it in this photo but it's on the other side of the skimmia, so gets some shade from that)
--4 hostas which are just tips right now; they never got very large last year, but at least they are coming back
--A caladium also did well there last summer so I'm hoping some more will this year
--there is some astilbe leafing up there now also

I won't list all the plants that have died there, but it is definitely my Death Bed... :-(

I appreciate all the input regarding my Death Bed! It's a big source of frustration for me, because it's right at the front of the house and it's the ugliest bed I have. No one sees the prettier backyard. :(

Good idea about Otto Luyken! I'm definitely going to look into it. It's probably much less finicky than any rhodie spp. I've had phytophthora there so I'm a little scared of using water crystals, but I might mix in more Turface.

Gita, I'm using euphorbia Ascot Rainbow. The yellow of that euphorbia pops against the dark brick.

Can anyone tell me what these might be? They are coming up in one of my containers.
The other pictures are of a viney shrub with white flowers out by the shed. No idea what it is either.

SSG, is this the bed that also has all the tree roots in it? What about a shallow-rooted ground cover of some kind?

I was thinking the same thing! I'm planning to transplant some sedum Angelina there as well, but the brick wall really needs a big evergreen against it.

Yes, so not only is it the shade/sun problem, but it's also the roots that are hard to dig deeply in? My skimmia has worked well as a shrub for the difficult lighting issue. Is there more digging space against the wall?

Catbird, I think what you have in the first picture is Campanula Elizabeth. We have offered it at a couple of the swaps, and it is not shy about coming back. Ours is emerging now and looks a lot like what you photographed. Picture below is from it in bloom in a prior year.

Could that shrub be Mock Orange?

Tee--hee-Pat

I have now had your C. Elizabeth for quite a while...nicely existing by my shed door
in a decent-sized unfinished ceramic pot....

Learned my lesson this winter. DO NOT leave anything in a porous, ceramic pot
outside all winter like this one...It is like a clay pot.....
Water absorbs in it--then freezes--and then the pot cracks to pieces.
Mine split in half--and the outer layer just peeled off the outside.

Have to now find a new pot to put all the "progeny" into.
Will make it a plastic pot this time.

G.

We made the mistake of leaving some glazed pots out, too, and they did not do well. Pieces came off and I don't know if we can patch them or not. I did see this on Pinterest for using the broken pot pieces. Perfect for a spot in someone's death bed, and has a sign saying Rest in Pieces.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/475833516851528377/

Cat bird your white bush looks like some kind of cherry. It's not Mock orange, those have four petals per flower.

Bwahahaha! Rest in pieces!

Catmint, it's not hard to dig by the wall, because it's been dug up there already. Lots of rocks and boulders and roots have been excavated.

Heeheeheee "Rest in Pieces", Love it!

Gita, I did the same thing!!! I left ALL my pots outside out back, 'cause they're all annuals back there and wanted 'em to over-winter outside. BAD idea for the un-finished ceramic pots! I have one that I'm afraid to touch 'cause it looks like it'll fall apart in my hands if I do! Don't remember what's in it, but I hope it was something that didn't live through the winter! ;) Gonna need to bring home some replacements from work. =) (darn, hate when that happens, huh? HA!!)

Catbird, I keep thinking that white-blooming viney shrub you've got is some sort of wild Rhodie/Azalea of some sort,... probably wrong though. =/

Ssg, while I'm out and about today I'll get a couple pics of my Otto Luykens to show you what they're looking like now.

LOL--yes perfect for my Death Bed! :-D

SSG, if you can dig between the roots near the wall, then maybe try a skimmia? It's been one of the few things that has worked for me in my similar spot. I have a couple photos from last year.

In the second photo, you can see it in the back center, and in the first photo is a close-up of the berries. I'll try to get a better photo of it today. This particular 'cultivar' has both male and female plants grafted on--the female has the berries, and the male part has tiny white flowers. The berries need the male white flowers nearby in order to fruit.

In addition to this male/female blend, I also have a small 'male' skimmia plant which I got as a plug late last summer and it has been growing slowly but steadily. Would you like to try it? It doesn't bear fruit--just the tiny white flowers--but it might work in your spot. I'll try to get a photo later.

Ooh, I need to look into skimmia as well. Thanks, Catmint! Ii like pictures of Skimmia japonica I'm seeing online.

Yes, this is Skimmia japonica 'Berri-Magic' (has the male & female grafted into one plant).

My only question is how it would do in drier soil, since my soil is more on the average to moist side.


This message was edited Apr 23, 2014 5:33 AM