Plants for Non-Gardeners

November 28th, 2009

   One thing I like to do is take regular strolls around the yard to check out what surprises the landscape has conjured up.

   It’s kind of like inspecting the troops.

Dwarf Hinoki cypress 'Nana Gracilis' ... a virtual no-care plant.

   On one of these inspections, it occurred to me that I haven’t done a darn thing to some plants in years.

   Plants such as dwarf Hinoki cypress, dwarf ‘Mt. Airy’ fothergilla, birds nest spruce and hardy camellias have been happily growing away year after year while demanding zero maintenance from me.

   I got to thinking… wouldn’t these and most of the one-job-a-year plants be perfect choices for people who can’t or don’t like to work in the yard?

   They’re the things that non-gardening yard-owners should gravitate to instead of the much more common but higher-work choices of bug-prone euonymus, trim-happy yews and drought-wimpy azaleas.

   Now before you get too excited, no plant is zero maintenance from the beginning through forever.

   If that’s what you want, Michael’s and A.C. Moore craft stores have nice selections of fake flowers that you can jam in the ground.

   Even the toughest, least-work live plants need to go in the right spot and in reasonably decent soil. So that’ll mean a bit of pre-purchase homework and most likely working some compost, rotted leaves or similar organic matter into your lousy clay before planting.

   Also figure on doing some regular watering that first growing season. Even the most drought-tough species need moisture to entice their young roots out into the soil.

   Topping the beds with a 2- or 3-inch layer of bark mulch also is a good idea to hold down weeds and slow evaporation loss from the soil.

   Once those basics are in place, that’s when low-maintenance plant choices pay off.

   Two of the best general categories for work-savers are dwarf conifers and dwarf flowering shrubs.

   Conifers are cone-bearing plants, which for the most part are needled evergreens such as spruce, juniper, fir, cypress and pines.

   These come in all sorts of sizes, needle colors, textures and growth rates. If you opt for dwarf types and allow enough growing room for the size listed on the labels, you’ll totally eliminate pruning.

   One caveat: Dwarf doesn’t necessarily mean little. All it means is that a dwarf version will be smaller and usually slower growing than the “regular” version.

   Also go with types that are least likely to get bugs. Hinoki cypress, green- and gold-thread cypress, Japanese plum yews and most of the firs get my vote here over most spruce (spider mites), arborvitae (bagworms), junipers (bagworms and tip blight), pines (scale) and hemlock (woolly adelgids and mites).

   In dwarf flowering shrubs, you’ll find a lot of great new low-work choices.

   These include some down-sized versions of old favorites as well as a lot of under-used shrubs that grow to 4 feet or less.

   Breeders know people want less work and smaller yards, so there’s been a lot of effort on breeding for smaller plant size.

   Breeders have even managed to give us more shrubs with interesting foliage and longer bloom time in addition to compact size.

   Some of the best newcomers: ‘My Monet’ weigela, a no-prune May bloomer with variegated leaves and a mature size of under 3 feet; ‘Kaleidoscope’ abelia, an early-summer white bloomer with yellow-green leaves that turn a kaleidoscope of hot colors in fall, and even 3-foot versions of the age-old summer favorite hydrangea (i.e. ‘Pink Elf,’ ‘Tovelit’ and the new ‘Forever and Ever’ reblooming series).

   If your idea of acceptable work includes choices that need only one or two bits of attention per year, the pickings are even broader.

   ‘Knock Out’ and some of the other new shrub roses need nothing more than an end-of-winter whack-back. Power shears or a machete is fine.

   Viburnums, ninebarks, fothergillas and sweetspires are other shrubs that need just occasional trims and branch thin-outs and maybe a once-a-year shovel stab to keep runners from running.

   And hosta, liriope, ornamental grasses and coralbells are among the perennial flower choices that need little more than an end-of-winter cutback and maybe a clump division every 3 to 5 years – if even that.

   Loading up on these kinds of things may not get you off the garden hook altogether. But at least your spouse won’t have to surgically remove the pruners and hose out of your hands at season’s end anymore.

  George’s assessment of plants by their work demands:

   * Fruit trees. Great rewards but high on the work scale. Figure on annual pruning, endless spraying and cleanup of fallen fruits.

   * Vegetables. Also high in the payback department but high in labor, too. Annual planting, ongoing warfare with bug and animal pests, regular watering and regular soil improving are among the jobs.

   * Herbs. Most are low work, especially perennial types such as lavender, thyme and oregano. Harvesting, annual cutbacks and replanting tender herbs are the main jobs.

   * Roses. Those perfect hybrid-tea show roses are nearly a full-time job. Many roses are subject to a laundry list of bugs and diseases, not to mention being heavy feeders and water-users. Main exception: shrub types such as ‘Knock Out,’ ‘Home Run,’ the ‘Flower Carpet’ series, the new groundcover ‘Drift’ series, etc. need annual pruning and that’s it.

   * Flowering shrubs. Depends on what you pick and where you put it. Homework is important. Some types are prone to problems, others aren’t. Especially important: picking a type that matures at the space you’ve got.

   * Evergreens. Ditto. Lean toward dwarf varieties, give ample space, and you can almost eliminate pruning. Lean toward low-trouble choices (i.e. Hinoki cypress, blue holly, birds nest spruce, Russian cypress, dwarf boxwood) over more trouble-prone choices (i.e. azaleas, rhododendrons, pieris, mugho pines, mountain laurel, dwarf Alberta spruce) to cut out need for spray.

   * Ornamental and shade trees. Generally low work, especially if you choose pest-resistant species. Main job: give them adequate water until the roots establish, and prune for good shape in the early years. After that, almost nothing… not even fertilizer.

   * Ornamental grasses. Low work but not no work, as some people think. The biggest job is digging and dividing them every few years. They also need to be cut to a stub each fall or early spring.

   * Perennial flowers. More work than people think. You don’t have to replant them every year, but most types require at least a once-a-year cutback. Some also need in-season cutbacks and/or removal of spent flowers. And most need to be dug and divided every few years.

   * Annual flowers. These are replanted each May and pulled each fall after frost. Opposite of perennials, people think these are more work than they really are. They need regular water to establish roots, but newer varieties bloom better and usually don’t need the preening of old-fashioned geraniums and marigolds. Dig compost and/or a timed-release fertilizer into the soil at planting to avoid in-season fertilizing.

   * Spring bulbs. Most people know tulips, which have trouble with rodents, rotting and generally petering out after a few years. Go with daffodils, Siberian squill, glory-of-the-snow and/or hyacinths instead, and you’ll do nothing other than scatter fertilizer on the bed once a year and cut back spent foliage in late spring.

   * Vines. Most need only an annual pruning to keep the growth from getting out of bounds. A once-a-year scattering of fertilizer is all most want. Spraying and in-season preening seldom needed.

   Some of George’s favorite low-work plants for central Pennsylvania:

   * Trees: American and Chinese fringetrees, silverbell, snowbell, Japanese maple, Kousa dogwood, Korean and Japanese stewartia, Japanese tree lilac, paperbark maple, Persian parrotia, serviceberry, sweetbay magnolia.

   * Conifers: Birds nest spruce, Douglas fir, Serbian and Oriental spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Hinoki cypress, dwarf gold-thread cypress, Japanese plum yew, Russian cypress, weeping Alaska cedar.

   * Broadleaf evergreens: Blue hollies, hardy camellias, dwarf boxwoods, cherry laurel, dwarf nandina, ‘Goshiki’ osmanthus, ‘Dragon Lady’ and ‘Red Beauty’ hollies.

   * Flowering shrubs: Beautyberry, caryopteris, fothergilla, hydrangea, dwarf lilac, ninebark, red-twig dogwood, shrub roses, spirea, St. Johnswort, viburnum, Virginia sweetspire, dwarf weigela, winterberry holly.

   * Ornamental grasses: Feather reed grass, switchgrass, Japanese forest grass.

   * Perennial flowers: Barrenwort, brunnera, dwarf campanula, coralbells, threadleaf coreopsis, dianthus, euphorbia, foamflowers, foamybells, hardy geraniums, hosta, dwarf goldenrod, Japanese painted fern, lamium, leadwort, liriope, purple coneflowers, sedum.

   * Annual flowers: Angelonia, wax begonias, blue salvia, dwarf celosia, coleus, dusty miller, new varieties of petunias, ‘Profusion’ zinnias, vinca, euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost,’ Persian shield.