In most years ‘Winter’s Star’ camellia (Camellia x ‘Winter’s Star’, below) flowers beginning in early to mid November, and continues for several weeks, and sometimes a month. Occasionally, if temperatures remain moderate there will be a few blooms into the start of the new year. I don’t get too worried if flowering is delayed by…
Author: Dave
I've been in the landscape business with Meadows Farms since 1976. I have a one acre+ garden in Warrenton VA started in 1989 that I test new plant introductions and landscape products. I have 6 ponds in the garden and a number of patios and paths.
Encore!
I’ve written in the past about Encore reblooming azaleas, though I blame no one for failing to pay full attention. I’ve been known to occasionally pay only part of a mind to reading or conversations, and to remember nothing a few minutes later. Ask my wife. For those who have read and remembered I won’t…
What to do with the bananas?
I have a problem. There are too many tropical plants that have grown much too large to fit back into the house to overwinter. I could possibly fit them all indoors if my wife and I decided to give up the den for the winter. But, it’s not only the winter, it’s half the autumn…
Waiting, waiting …..
Surprisingly, the purple flowered hybrid passionflower (Passiflora x ‘Jeanette’, below) that was planted in early spring has just begun to bloom at the start of October. It is sterile, so it doesn’t develop seeds, and thus more energy is devoted to flowering so that it is supposed to flower over a more extended period than…
Caught speeding – 0-60 in 23 years
It seems like yesterday. Well, actually it doesn’t. I’ve been gardening this plot now for twenty three years, and it’s grown up. There are beeches and hornbeams that have rocketed past forty feet, and wide spreading Japanese maples and flowering trees. Small shrubs have sprouted far above my head, and some areas are planted so…
Soft or spiney
‘Soft Caress’ mahonia (Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress’, below) is marginally cold hardy for the mid Atlantic region, but this, of course, is according to standards from before our winter temperatures began to warm so drastically so quickly. I first saw ‘Soft Caress’ in a North Carolina nursery where it was being tested for vigor and…
Complications
After a particularly brutal summer the remontant (reblooming ) mophead hydrangeas are flowering only sporadically (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Penny Mac’, below). Their foliage remains lush and green, but there are many fewer flowers than most years and few buds that will bloom later in October. A year ago temperatures were nearly as hot in July, and…
Tall and ruggedly handsome
No, not me. Tatarian daisy is a tough and beautiful perennial that shines in the early autumn garden. ‘Jindai’ Tatarian daisy (Aster tataricus ‘Jindai’, below) grows nearly five feet tall, but it’s habit is more compact and a few feet shorter than other Tatarian daisies (really Asters, but this is the hazard of common names)….
Bulbs for spring and autumn
When I first started the garden twenty some years ago I planted a few thousand bulbs in early autumn, mostly tulips, but also lots of daffodils and some spring flowering crocus. Occasionally I’d walk the area where the tulips were planted to find scattered divots where squirrels had pilfered the bulbs, but the first spring…
No mulch, lots of plants
A friend of my wife recently remarked that our large garden must require truckloads of mulch each year. I don’t know how my wife responded, but she should have told her that no mulch is added annually, and most parts of the garden haven’t been remulched since they were first planted (twenty some years ago)….
Surprise
Long ago I planted several tall verbenas (Verbena bonariensis, below) in the garden, and as it is prone to do, it seeded itself about so that tall seedlings sprouted just about anywhere with a bit of sun. The plant is barely obvious until it blooms, with tall stems and few leaves, and it’s easily mistaken…
Aggressive or invasive?
I’ve been warned. You’ve heard, I’ve heard, I’m certain there’s not a single gardener who hasn’t heard horror stories about planting mints (Mentha). They run amok, overwhelming everything in their path, particularly in damp soils. I know, I know. So, what have I done? Well, I’ve planted a few varieties of mint, and not only that,…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 