Why “Continuously Blooming” Isn’t Necessarily Better

by | Mar 23, 2020

 

We had some glorious early spring weather this weekend. I checked on my roses and realized that some came through the past winter better than others.

Some roses had very little dead or diseased wood needing to be pruned out, while with others I had to cut out almost half of the canes. Unfortunately, that happens frequently here in my Pennsylvania zone 6 garden. Extreme cold is rarely a problem for my roses, but our fluctuating temperatures (first cold, then warm, then cold again) are really hard on some of these shrubs.

Early spring pruning is always exciting though: each little pink bud is the promise of new growth and glorious flowers. If you’re thinking of planting a rose this spring, I encourage you to consider those antique or heirloom varieties that only bloom once each year.

Why do that when we could choose a repeat-blooming rose?

Because my once-blooming roses are some of the most beautiful and most abundant roses I grow. They may flower only once over a period of two or three weeks, but during those weeks the number of roses is astonishing.

These roses are worth the wait.

Consider this: we don’t fault peonies for blooming only once each year. Instead, we anticipate those special flowers all year, and we soak up their beauty while we can. Once-blooming roses are like that: something to anticipate all year, and a fulfillment of anticipation that is almost beyond imagining. I love all my roses, and I am grateful for those shrubs that offer flowers steadily through the summer or in nice flushes in spring and again in fall.

But one-time blooming roses? There’s really nothing else like them. Here are some favorites:

  • Cecile Brunner
  • Madame Hardy
  • American Beauty, Climber
  • Albertine
  • Constance Spry (not technically an antique but a beautiful once-bloomer)

 

Sources for Native Plants

by | Mar 20, 2020

Interested in adding more native plants to your garden?

Whether you define “native” narrowly (your few square miles) or more broadly (eastern North America, perhaps), it’s a wonderful thing to add plants to our gardens that might be losing habitat in the wild.

Here are a few sources to consider:

Are you familiar with other resources? Drop them right here in the comments!

Ornamental Grasses to Consider for Your Garden

by | Mar 19, 2020

Purple Fountain Grass ‘Rubrum’ (Pennisetum setaceum)

 

Ornamental grasses add structure and movement to our gardens.

Even a few grasses tossed by the wind can help bring a static garden to life, and when the sun rises or sets behind grass, the effect is glorious. Even if you don’t have a large garden, you might consider adding grasses to some of your containers.

There are cold-hardy grasses that will be perennial even in northern gardens, or northern gardeners can grow warm-weather grasses as annuals. A little research pays off here, as some grasses can be invasive, especially in warmer climates.

Here are a few varieties to consider:

  • Prairie dropseed (sporobolus heterolepis): A beautiful native prairie grass for home gardens. Great for dry spots.
  • ‘Morning Light’ Maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensus): Soft and fountain-shaped with fine, delicate foliage.
  • ‘Karl Foerster’ Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora): Straight and tall, this grass adds height and structure and looks wonderful even in winter.
  • Japanese Forest Grass (hakonechloa macra): A beautiful grass for shade.
  • Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima): An absolutely gorgeous grass with wispy, feathery foliage. Adds lots of movement. May be invasive in places like California but native to the mountains of west Texas.

My Favorite Shrubs

by | Mar 18, 2020

 

The “My” in the title above is deliberate. Gardening always has a point of view: namely, place. I garden from my place, and you garden from yours. We can be inspired by one another, we can learn from one another, but our gardening practices will always be personal.

These are some of the shrubs I most love to grow here at Maplehurst, and I hope they will spark exploration into the shrubs that might thrive in your garden.

  • Viburnum: I could fill out this list with only selections from this family of shrubs. I’m convinced there’s a viburnum for everyone’s garden. Many have fragrant flowers in spring, wildlife-nourishing berries in fall, and beautiful autumn leaf color. Why choose an evergreen when we can have so much seasonal variety in one plant?
  • Ninebark (physocarpus opulifolius): This native to the United States has grown in popularity with the introduction of some beautiful purple-leaved varieties. I love the contrast of pale pink flowers against maroon foliage on a variety called ‘Diabolo.’
  • Panicle Hydrangea (hydrangea paniculata): A favorite shrub of mine for cut flowers. ‘Limelight’ is very popular and makes a lovely, tall hedge. I appreciate the dark pink-red flowers of a variety called ‘Firelight.’ Panicle hydrangeas are much more forgiving of dry conditions and cold winters than the popular blue and pink mophead types.
  • Oakleaf Hydrangea (hydrangea quercifolia): A beautiful landscape shrub for the edge of woodlands. Summer flowers and autumn leaf color.
  • Bottlebrush Buckeye (aesculus parviflora): A native, summer-flowering shrub happiest in part or full shade. This tall and airy plant looks lovely as filler for the “understory”: that space between our trees and our ground-level plants.

Composting: How to Begin?

by | Mar 17, 2020

 

For those new to gardening, composting is one of those mysterious subjects that can too-easily make us feel inadequate. It’s so scientific, and the instructions we find on the internet all seem so complicated.

However, this is one of those gardening activities where even a little bit of effort is so much better than no effort at all. We don’t have to do it perfectly in order to reap a great deal of benefit.

No compost heap is a failure if it at least keeps our yard waste out of a landfill.

There are precise recipes and instructions and even specially-made composting containers all over the internet. If you want to make excellent garden compost as quickly as possible, those instructions are for you.

If, however, you simply want to begin, here is all you need to know:

  • Layer a mixture of “brown” and “green” materials, with more brown (about 3x as much)
  • Brown materials are dry: chopped, dry leaves, pine needles, small twigs, wood shavings, shredded newspaper or cardboard
  • Green materials are wet: fresh grass clippings, fresh garden debris, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells

If yours is a dry climate, an occasional sprinkle with a garden hose will help promote decomposition.

Turning a pile (perhaps with a garden fork) is supposed to help speed up decomposition, but isn’t strictly necessary.

What about containers? Feel free to forgo all together and simply make a heap. If you’d like to neaten up the look of your pile, any fence or screen that allows air circulation should do the job.

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