George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

What Would Happen If…

March 21st, 2023

   One of the best ways to learn gardening is to try a few educated experiments and see what happens.

My gardens have served as test labs often over the years.

   You can’t beat it for first-hand feedback and for determining whether generally accepted advice is going to work in your yard or not.

   I’ve been doing that for more than 40 years now in three different yards. The results contribute a lot to how I garden, which, by the way, is still constantly changing as I find out new things and adjust to the ever-changing climate, environment, and animal situation around me.

   I thought I’d go over some of my past first-hand experiments in hopes that some of them might help you in your own garden… or inspire you to try your own experiments.

Do you have to start over with fresh potting mix every year in your containers?

   The word on potting mix is that you should empty and clean your pots each year before refilling them with fresh potting mix. The argument is that it prevents disease and heads off compaction as the medium breaks down.

   Potting mix got expensive enough that I experimented with salvaging about half of my existing mix each year and blending it with 25 percent fresh mix and 25 percent homemade compost from my bins.

   I haven’t run into disease or compaction issues, and my potted plants seem to do just as well in my “hybrid” blend as 100-percent fresh mix.

This is what wood-chip mulch looks like on a bed.

Can wood chips from ground-up trees be used as mulch?

   I gave this one a first-hand try when I moved and had several dead trees cut down. I wanted to recycle as much as possible, so I had the tree company leave the chipped branches on site.

   I saved a bundle of money on purchased mulch by moving scores of wheelbarrow chip loads to beds that hadn’t been mulched in 10 years.

   The chips looked a little “rougher” than the smooth brown carpet left behind by shredded hardwood mulch, but they did a good job holding down weeds, and they haven’t decayed as fast as shredded mulch (three years of coverage vs. one or two).

   I haven’t seen any detrimental plant effect, including the so-called “robbing of nitrogen” that fresh chips supposedly cause to the soil surface. Verdict: I’ll use whatever wood chips I can get my hands on.

Award-Winning Plants of 2023

March 7th, 2023

   Why wing it with your plant selection when you can weigh the word of experts who know the difference among the good, the bad, and the so-so’s?

Indian pinks are a Gold Medal award-winning plant for 2023.

   Each year, organizations of growers, horticulturists, researchers, and other plant experts bestow awards on what they consider to be the top plant performers – some new, some old, and some just under-used because few gardeners know them. (Disclosure: George is a member of that Gold Medal panel.)

   Here’s a look at plants that have won honors for 2023:

Pennsylvania Gold Medal

   A panel of experts assembled by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (best known for running the Philadelphia Flower Show) each year picks a half-dozen trees, shrubs, and perennials worthy of greater use in Pennsylvania landscapes.

   For 2023, two trees, two perennials, one flowering shrub, and one evergreen shrub made the Gold Medal grade. All happen to be U.S. native species.

Swamp white oak

   This long-lived, native shade tree grows fairly fast to 50 feet and is a good food source for multiple species of pollinators, birds, squirrels, and other native wildlife. It’s tolerant of urban conditions and less-than-ideal soil. Fall foliage is yellow.

Black gum Green Gable

   Black gum Green Gable is a variety that stands out for its pyramidal habit and brilliant blood-red fall foliage. The tree grows about 50 feet tall but about half as wide. It tolerates wet soil, produces few (if any) fruits, and makes a good substitute for the flowering pears that Pennsylvania is banning due to invasiveness.

Indian pinks

   Indian pinks are native perennials that produce red, early-summer tubular flowers that are especially attractive to hummingbirds. Plants grow about two feet tall in full sun to part shade. They’re seldom bothered by deer. 

Ironweed ‘Iron Butterfly’

   ‘Iron Butterfly’ was singled out as a particularly good variety of native ironweed for its compact habit and long-blooming purple flowers that butterflies and hummingbirds like. The fern-like foliage is also attractive. Plants grow two to three feet tall in sun to light shade.

Viburnum Chicago Lustre

   Chicago Lustre is a reliable variety of native arrowwood viburnum, especially known for its glossy green foliage, late-spring white flowers, and bird-attracting blue/black fruits in the fall. Plants grow about 12 feet tall and 10 feet wide in sun or part shade.

Juniper ‘Grey Owl’

   An oldie-but-goodie, ‘Grey Owl’ is a spreading, spray-formed needled evergreen with a proven track record of tolerating heat, drought, and poor soil. The foliage is blue-tinted. Deer don’t bother junipers, and this one also produces small silvery-gray “berries” in fall and winter. It grows about three to four feet tall and six to eight feet wide in full sun to light shade.

Green Ribbon Native Plants

Better Naked

February 21st, 2023

   Traipsing through the winter landscape one day, it occurred to me that some plants are actually better looking with their leaves off.

I like the twisty bare branches of Harry Lauder’s walking stick in winter, top. The plant looks ordinary and even gangly to me in summer, below.

   Whether it’s bright color on the stems or just interesting branching habits that are much more visible in winter, some plants are at their best naked.

   The poster child of that is the shrub known as Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’). This is a shrubby version of filbert grown mainly for its twisty, contorted branch structure.

   However, summer leaves hide or at least downplay that interest. When Japanese beetles show up to eat Harry’s leaves in July and when heat or all-too-common fungal disease attack, the plants look horrid.

   But when the plant finally has the good sense to shed its ratty leaves in fall, its nakedness unveils the plant’s hidden curiosity. You almost wish Harry would croak to keep it leafless for good.

   Another beauty unveiled in winter is the red-twig dogwood (Cornus sericea) and its sister, the yellow-twig dogwood.

A “Jolt of Floral Magic”

February 7th, 2023

   In just a month, a long-time blooming milestone will return to Pennsylvania for the first time in three years.

This rendering of the planned 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show main-entrance gardens shows how designers hope to immerse visitors in a natural setting.

   The Philadelphia Flower Show – the world’s biggest, oldest indoor flower show – is headed back inside March 4-12 to its end-of-winter “natural habitat” over 10 acres of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

   I, for one, am glad to see this return to normalcy after the show was forced outside in June for the past two years because of the COVID pandemic.

   While some people actually preferred the FDR Park outdoor venue, it just couldn’t capture what I’ve always liked best about the Philly show – namely, how special it is to see instant spring unfold in full bloom while it’s still so cold and gray outside.

   The designers of this year’s show are seizing on that intangible to craft a 2023 theme that aims to “jolt” visitors with maximum color and give them some of the biggest display gardens in the show’s nearly two-century history.

   The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which produces the Philadelphia Flower Show, recently unveiled details of what the 2023 show will look like.

A mesh scrim will function as a “grand reveal” at the entrance to the 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show.

   “The Garden Electric” theme will start right at show’s main entrance, where a large, web-like mesh scrim will partially obscure and “gray out” the blooming gardens on the other side. The idea is for the vibrant flower colors to suddenly come alive once visitors step inside this garden cocoon.

   PHS calls it a “jolt of floral magic” that will immerse visitors “in a 360-degree world of unique floral pairings, textures, light, fragrance, and vibrant colors.”

   “We’re working hard to create a cohesive and fully immersive experience for show attendees,” said PHS’s creative director, Seth Pearsoll. “Design choices are intentionally being made to mimic the feel of being outdoors in nature by creating larger displays that surround guests.”

   Some of the main-display gardens will cover 2,200 to 2,900 square feet – the largest sizes the show has ever presented.

The Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2023

January 31st, 2023

   The world’s first cascading hydrangea, a lime-and-black-leafed weigela, and a really skinny arborvitae are among the most interesting new trees and shrubs hitting the market for the 2023 growing season.

Hydrangea Fairytrail Bride, the first “cascading hydrangea.” (Credit: Proven Winners)

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts mentioned the following 14 choices for the Best New Trees and Shrubs installment of my annual four-part, best-new-plants series.

   In case you missed them, posts on the Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2023, the Best New Annual Flowers of 2023, and the Best New Perennial Flowers of 2023 appeared here in the past three weeks.

   Some of the following new tree and shrub varieties are available online and in some plant catalogs. Most also will be available in local garden centers beginning in April.

   The details:

Hydrangea Fairytrail Bride

   Japanese plant breeder Ushio Sakazaki married three different species of hydrangeas to create an all-new type of hydrangea that Proven Winners is introducing to the U.S. in 2023 – one with a cascading habit and flowers that keep coming throughout the season.

   Fairytrail Bride is the “No. 1 plant on my hit list,” says Dauphin County Master Gardener Kevin Kelly. “It’s a break-through, a whole different class of hydrangea.”

   Kelly says the variety, which won the Best Plant Award at the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show when it debuted in Britain, “has flowers at every node. There are so many flowers that the weight of them pulls the branches down, which gives the plant its trailing habit.”

   Fairytrail Bride’s lacecap flowers open white in June, taking on a pink blush as they age.

   Proven Winners is billing the new introduction as the “world’s first cascading hydrangea” and says it’ll grow three to four feet tall and slightly wider, in full sun or part shade, and in pots or the ground.

Hydrangea Endless Summer Pop Star (Credit: Tracy Walsh/Bailey Nurseries)

Hydrangea Pop Star

   The biggest issue with common bigleaf hydrangeas is that cold winters often kill the flower buds, meaning the plants bloom poorly or not at all.

   Pop Star is a new variety coming to Bailey Nurseries’ Endless Summer line that’s exceptionally bud-hardy as well as being compact (three feet tall and wide). It’s also a rebloomer.

   “Pop Star is an amazing advancement in the crowded space of bigleaf hydrangeas,” says Bailey’s marketing and communications manager Ryan McEnaney, who rates the variety as his favorite new plant of 2023. “I’ve had this plant in my yard for three years, and it continues to keep its compact size and bloom like crazy, even in my Zone 4 landscape.” (That’s two zones colder than the Harrisburg area.)

   Pop Star also won the Retailer’s Choice award at the 2022 AmericanHort Cultivate industry show as the best new shrub with the potential to become a garden-center best-seller.

   Like all bigleaf hydrangeas, Pop Star does best in sites with morning sun and afternoon shade.

Hydrangea Seaside Serenade Glacier Bay (Credit: Monrovia)

Hydrangea Seaside Serenade Glacier Bay and Fire Island

   A second new bigleaf hydrangea debuting in 2023 is another compact rebloomer called Glacier Bay that sports pure-white lacecap blooms with nicely contrasting black stems.

   “Glacier Bay doesn’t look like a traditional hydrangea,” says Monrovia Nurseries’ chief marketing officer Katie Tamony, who rates the variety as her favorite new shrub. “The dramatic black stems and lovely star-shaped white blooms make this an elegant specimen for more modern gardens.”

   Glacier Bay blooms in early summer and again in fall on plants that grow about three feet tall and wide.

   Newly retired Penn State Master Gardener coordinator Nancy Knauss likes another new Seaside Serenade entry called Fire Island.

   It’s a reblooming bigleaf/mophead-type but has flowers that are “white with a frilly, rosy-pink edge when they emerge, slowly maturing to deep pink with age,” as Knauss describes it.

   She adds that Fire Island’s foliage takes on an attractive maroon color in spring and fall.

   Ideal siting for both of these varieties is morning sun and afternoon shade.