Category: Gardening

I know it’s only been 1 week of winter here in Chicago, but already I’m thinking spring.  I’m thinking shrubs for the backyard.  I found this article that interested me, and I thought it might do the same for you.  Have a look!

Looking for that amazing “pop” of color in your garden or landscape? A plant that makes a statement and really stands out against your backdrop.

Enter… flowering perennial shrubs (or bushes). Perennial shrubs add balance and color to your landscape.

I love flowering shrubs because they can really catch the attention of passerbys. If you’re following my garden pyramid for planting success, you have already chosen your ornamental tree(s) and evergreen shrubs.

Flowering shrubs make the perfect choice for right in front of your evergreen backbone planting. So, place your perennial shrubs in front of a row of evergreens to really make them POP.

These flowering bushes can add lots of long-lasting color and personality and are large enough to make a big statement. In fact, a lot of the perennial shrubs I’ll mention bloom for weeks and even months on end.

And… when they are done blooming, your sturdy evergreen foundation will keep your garden from looking bare and messy.  Once you choose the perennial shrubs that are right for your garden, you’ll see your landscape really start take shape.

The best perennial shrubs for color and texture

Let’s get to the fun stuff! These are my picks for the BEST perennial shrubs to add color and texture to your landscape.

• Perennial shrubs with winter interest
• Flowering shrubs
• Fast growing perennial bushes
• Deer-resistant perennial shrubs

Long Blooming & Easy-Care Perennial Shrubs

Here are some of my favorite perennial shrubs that you can plant in your own garden. I really love these options because not only do they bloom for weeks and sometimes months on end, but they don’t require much effort at all.

The only maintenance you’ll need to do is watering and fertilizing. After planting these shrubs, you should supplement their water supply until the roots get established.  Beyond that, they should be able to handle the weather if you get about an inch of rain each week.

Many people find flowering shrubs to be difficult to grow. The biggest issue that I see, is that most people do not fertilize flowering shrubs at all or enough. Any plant, shrub or tree in your garden that is a prolific bloomer needs to be fertilized.

It takes a lot of energy for her to look so beautiful for you every day! So… you should pick up some flower fertilizer and follow the feeding instructions provided. My favorite is Espoma Rose-Tone Rose and flower food if you are looking for a specific recommendation!

Ok – onto my recommendations for the best perennial flowering shrubs for you to try in your own garden!

Perennial Shrubs to Add Color and Texture to Your Garden

Knockout Rose Bush

Zones: 5-11 | 3-4’W x 3-4’W | Full Sun

Knockout or double knockout roses are easy to grow, don’t require special care and bloom up to 9 months of the year — literally from spring until the end of fall when it starts to frost.

Knockout roses come in a couple different variations of color. Most are in the hot pink (Rosa PINK KNOCK OUT ‘Radcon’) to blush pink (Rosa x ‘Radgor’), or yellow family (Rosa SUNNY KNOCK OUT ‘RADsunny’).

You get the idea.  There’re some excellent tips if you too are looking for a pop in your yard.  Check out this website for more top pick of shrubs.

Prettypurpledoor.com

By teaming stylish pots and planters with the right plants, you can easily transform an outdoor space into a lush oasis.

Shade Lovers

Corpse Flower     

Looking for some flower facts?

Flowers beguile us with their lovely scent and striking beauty, but many flowers have hidden attributes. Flowers and plants have been used medicinally for thousands of years. Some flowers, such as the lotus, have religious or historical significance. Many flowers may also have unusual characteristics or forms. Dive into the fascinating world of flower-lore and gain a fresh appreciation for these plants.

1.     Roses are related to apples, raspberries, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears and almonds.

2.     Tulip bulbs were more valuable than gold in Holland in the 1600s.

3.     Ancient civilizations burned aster leaves to ward off evil spirits.

4.     Tulip bulbs can be substituted for onions in a recipe.

5.     Chrysanthemums are associated with funerals in Malta and are considered unlucky.

6.     The very expensive spice, saffron, comes from a type of crocus flower.

7.     The largest flower in the world is the titan arums, which produce flowers 10 feet high and 3 feet wide. The flowers smell of decaying flesh and are also known as corpse flowers, as pictured at the top of this post. 

8.     Almost 60 percent of fresh-cut flowers grown in the U.S. come from California.

9.     Hundreds of years ago, when Vikings invaded Scotland, they were slowed by patches of wild thistle, allowing the Scots time to escape. Because of this, the wild thistle was named Scotland’s national flower.

10.  The lotus was considered a sacred flower by ancient Egyptians and was used in burial rituals. This flower blooms in rivers and damp wetlands but may lie dormant for years during times of drought.  It rises again with the return of water. Egyptians viewed it as a symbol of resurrection and eternal life.

11.  Scientists discovered the world’s oldest flower in 2002, in northeast China. The flower, named Archaefructus sinensis, bloomed around 125 million years ago and resembles a water lily.

12.  The juice from bluebell flowers was used historically to make glue.

13.  Foxglove is an old English name, derived from the belief that foxes slipped their feet into the leaves of the plant to sneak up on prey.

14.  Dandelions might seem like weeds, but the flowers and leaves are a good source of vitamins A and C, iron, calcium and potassium. One cup of dandelion greens provides 7,000-13,000 I.U. of vitamin A.

15.  The flower buds of the marsh marigold are pickled as a substitute for capers.

16.  Sunflowers move throughout the day in response to the movement of the sun from east to west.

17.  Moon flowers bloom only at night, closing during the day.

18.  Flowering nicotiana is related to tobacco, from which cigarettes are made.

19.  Gas plants produce a clear gas on humid, warm nights. This gas is said to be ignitable with a lit match.

20.  When Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they subsisted on the roots of the Sego Lily Plant. This plant is the state flower of Utah.

21.  The cornstarch-like powder known as arrowroot is derived from the plant, Marantha arundinacea, and is native to India. It was used by indigenous people to draw out the toxins from a poisoned arrow wound. Today, it is used to thicken pies and jellies.

22.  Angelica was used in Europe for hundreds of years as a cure for everything from the bubonic plague to indigestion. It was thought to ward off evil spirits.

23.  Blue cohosh, also known as squaw root or papoose root, was used by Native American women to ensure an easy labor and childbirth.

24.  During the Middle Ages, lady’s mantle was thought to have magic healing properties.

25.  When Achilles was born, his mother dipped him headfirst in a bath of yarrow tea, believing it had protective qualities. Yarrow is still known for healing and was used during World War I to heal soldiers’ wounds.

The next time you walk through a flower garden, take a minute to consider the individual plants growing there. One of them may hold the secret for curing a dreaded disease. Another may have a long, illustrious history. Every flower has qualities and attributes worth admiring.

gardeningchannel.com

Flickr photo courtesy of un_cola.

Whether your yard just needs new plantings or a complete refresh, redesigning the landscape can be overwhelming. Here are seven must-know landscape design tips for the perfect garden.   If you’ve never tackled a landscape design before, you might be overwhelmed by all the choices you can make. But, if you think of it as a room inside your home, it makes it a lot easier. The same principles that guide your room setup inside should guide your designs outside, too. You know how to put together a room—so your landscape should be no problem! Here are seven landscape design ideas for beginners.

1. Determine Landscape Needs and Wants

Make a list of needs and wants. Do your kids need a play space? Do you want to grow vegetables? Would your family gather on a patio? Do some very rough sketches of the yard with thoughts of where you want to place things; it’s a great organizing principle for landscape design for beginners. They don’t need to be master plans. They can just be ideas, a few lines and a couple of circles. You can easily play around with ideas without a lot of time and commitment.

2. Think About Location

Study the sun and wind patterns. You might want to place a patio on the west side of the house, but it will get lots of afternoon sun, which means dinnertime in August won’t be relaxing—just hot. And wind whistling around a corner will quickly extinguish a fire pit. Those are common mistakes in backyard landscape design for beginners. Your design should take into account what the sun and wind do at different times of the day and year.

3. Sit Down and Enjoy Your Landscape

Live with it for a while. Coming to quick conclusions about your yard can lead to choices that don’t work in the long term. After spending more time outdoors, you’ll start to see areas where you want to go and sit that you wouldn’t have thought of at first.

4. Start Small

Home and garden television shows are masters at revealing complete outdoor makeovers in just three days—but they have a crew of 60, which is not a situation enjoyed by most beginner gardeners. Part of creating a landscape is slowly developing a plan and enjoying the process. From your master plan, start with a small flower bed. Go out and work on it for an hour or two when you have the time and worry less about filling everything up right away. Take your time, so you don’t take shortcuts or get too sloppy with your DIY landscape design.

5. Find a Focal Point

Any good garden design has a focal point or series of focal points, and it’s an easy principle to put in place in landscape design for beginners. That may be a sculpture or a stunning plant, a tree, or a series of shrubs. Let the design draw your eyes around the landscape.

6. Focus on Scale and Pacing

It’s the trickiest principle in landscape design for beginners, but scale and pacing give your yard a pulled-together look. There will be variations in size, shape, and color, with tall plants against a building or in the back of a flowerbed, and paths that lead people through the space. It’s about the importance of finding a good balance between repetition and new elements. Repetition gives a sense of cohesion, but you also don’t want it to be monotonous. An occasional new element is better than having all different elements throughout.

7. Be Open to Change

Unless you’re strongly devoted to something, be honest about what you like—and what may fall out of favor. Even discovering elements once liked that no longer reflects your style—it’s okay to take those out and try something new.

Remember: Patience is key to landscape design for beginners. If all of that bare space is too much to look at, and the kids and dogs are tracking in mud, rely on temporary solutions—annuals, mulch, fast-growing ground covers—to cover an area while you’re figuring out what you want. Rely on annuals and small perennials as you’re waiting for larger plants to fill in. You can always move them if you realize they’re in the wrong spot later on.

By Kelly Roberson for BHG.com©

Photo by lunarlandscaping.com

Blue fescue One of the most versatile ornamental grasses, blue fescue can be used in many different ways. Plant it at the base of leggy shrubs or tall perennials, such as lilies, to help them blend

Slender, wiry blades of blue characterize blue fescue plants. The ornamental grass is a tidy evergreen that is very tolerant of a wide range of sites and conditions. This plant is one of the “no fuss” plants perfect for the low maintenance garden.

Choose a sunny location when planting blue fescue. Follow a few blue fescue growing tips for a brightly colored, mounding accent plant for borders, rockeries or even containers.

About Blue Fescue Grass

Blue fescue plants are evergreen, but they do lose some of the older blades and grow new fresh deep blue leaves in spring. The older leaves adhere to the plant and spoil the bright coloration.

However, you can simply comb them out with your fingers. The grass forms low tight mounds and produces tall flower tipped stems in May to June. A key fact about blue fescue would be its zonal tolerance. It is suitable for USDA zones 4 to 9 but prefers areas without blistering hot summers.

Extreme heat causes the plant to die back. There are several varieties of blue fescue grass for the garden. The large blue fescue (Festuca amethystine) is hardier than the regular blue fescue (Festuca glauca). The plant also has several cultivars, such as the popular Elijah Blue. There is even a golden colored blue fescue.

Planting Blue Fescue

Place blue fescue grass in clusters along a border as a bright accent to other perennials. The grass is also an attractive foil for wide, leafy plants and provides contrasting texture. Wherever you decide to put the plant, it must have well-drained moist soil in a full sun position for best growth. The roots are not deep on this grass, and they perform well for many seasons in containers, too, with Golden Barberry or other yellow or variegated plants.

Care of Blue Fescue Grass

Caring for blue fescue ornamental grass isn’t difficult. Blue fescue grass needs average moisture and will require supplemental water in summer. The plant may die back if the soils are too heavy and full of clay, so amend the area prior to planting with plenty of compost.

Blue fescue plants do not need fertilization as long as an organic mulch is used around the base of the grass. Keep the foliage looking its best by hand combing out the dead blades of grass and removing the flower heads. Remove the flower heads to help promote the tight mound shape of the plant. If you choose to leave the flowers, be aware the plant may produce some seedlings.

Blue Fescue Growing Tips

Older blue fescue plants tend to die out a bit in the center. One of the useful blue fescue growing tips is division. The dying plant simply needs to be dug up and cut in half. The center part will pull out by hand, leaving you with two plants full of healthy foliage. Division can be done every three to five years or as the plant begins to slow blade production in the center.

Source:  gardeningknowhow.com©