Gardening Bytes

Archive for the ‘Shrubs’ Category

Deer will eat just about anything if they are hungry enough, so be prepared to see nibbles on your plants if food is scare. Here are some plants and shrubs that will help keep the deer from being interested in eating them. Low growing heathers are a good choice because they always look good with only a trim of old flowers off the stems, they tend to be strong growing shrubs. Kramer’s Rote is a beautiful green leaf heather with abundant pink and cream flowers that looks good all year long and grows about a foot tall and twice as wide. Catnip may float cat’s boats but deer do not like the aroma of this plant. Blue Wonder is a dwarf catnip that grows about a foot tall. Periwinkle (Vinca minor) is another choice for planting that deters deer and always looks good in the garden. Lilyturf (Liriope spicata) is an ornamental grass that grows only 1 inch high and produces a spikey flower when blooming. Low growing herbs such as Thyme are a good choice for gardens and less appealing to Deer. Wooley Thyme (creeping thyme) is a good choice for a thicker version of thyme with a wooley texture that forms a wide mat when growing, keeping weeds down and looking attractive beneath the base of other plants. Lambs Ear Silver Carpet is a perfect low growing ground cover, give it a lot of room to grow. This non-flowering Lambs Ear creates a thick carpet of silvery shaped leaves that crowds out weeds and makes a great easy care groundcover for hard to plant areas.

Brugmansia, also known as Angel’s Trumpets, is a striking flowering plant that grows to the size of a small tree. The plant has large leaves, a woody stem and huge dramatic pendulous tubular flowers in beautiful colors. Angels Trumpet are long lived plants that grow to 6 to 20 feet tall. Angel’s Trumpet flowers may be single or double and come in yellow, pink, white, orange or red, with a faint scent of lemon most noticeable in early evening. Angel’s Trumpet is a tropical plant that does best in frost-free climates and should be planted in fertile, moist, well-drained soil, in part shade to full sun. For those living on the coast I have seen specimens grow very well in the coastal climate so look for this plant in your local nursery. Angel’s Trumpet can be used as a wonderful focal point in your garden. Every part of the Angel’s Trumpet is highly poisonious if ingested to humans and animals so use caution when including this plant in your garden.

Beautyberry (Callicarpa) is a woody shrub or tree that hosts tightly clustered magenta colored berries on bare stems in winter, making this a standout plant for cold months in the garden. Beautyberry prefers to be planted in sun or light shade as long as it has well-drained soil. Beautyberry flowers in June through August then fruits form in September, the leaves drop, and the brilliant colored berries line up along the bare stems of the shrub, making for a lovely winter display. Beautyberry is a native southeastern American plant that can reach 3 to 6 feet in height. Interestingly enough beautyberry is a natural insect repellent, simply rub leaves on the skin to chase away pests. Planting a few of these shrubs in your garden may help with keeping pesky mosquitoes out of your garden. Beautyberry berries are a source of survival food for birds in winter although they are not their first choice due to the astringent flavor of the berries. Beautyberry shrubs will provide bright color and shape to your winter garden.

Shrubs with brightly colored berries in winter draw in wildlife to your yard and lends color and interest in your garden. Winterberry holly, cotoneaster, holly, pyracantha, barberry, and beauty berry are a few examples of trees with brightly colored berries in fall and winter. Berries not only provide much needed food for birds but add touches of bright color in the garden. Be prepared that shrubs with berries may drop its fruit if not eaten by birds and can become messy in the garden.

The winter garden can often seem bleak with few flowers or colors. Planting early blooming bulbs will provide some promise of spring. Make sure you have a few evergreen plants with green leaves to provide shape and sculpture to the garden area. Shrubs and trees that drop leaves but have interesting bark and stem shapes, are a great addition to the winter garden. Incorporate hardy shrubs in your garden like heaths and heathers that provide bloom color and leaf color throughout the winter months.

Got a small garden or patio area? A great way to bring life to your small space is to plant in containers. Plants in pots require plenty of water, so water at minimum once or twice a week and preferably more in hot weather. Container plants can be moved easily in the garden and stacked in areas to provide different levels of plantings, making your small garden look lush. A good choice for container plants are herbs, which look good and can be used for cooking, and a single lavender plant in a pot, providing evergreen color and bright purple flowers in summer. Easy care succulents are another good choice for low growing plants potted up in terra cotta pots.

Heaths and heathers require a gentle touch when newly planted. As hardy as the plants are the roots are fragile and must receive regular weekly watering during their first year in the ground or the roots may suffer, causing the shrub to die. Once heaths and heathers are established in the ground for the year they are drought tolerant. I regularly water my heaths and heathers once a week even after they are in the ground for a year. Heaths and heathers need free draining soil since they do not like wet feet, make sure they are planted in well draining soil and they will provide beautiful flowers and leaf color for your garden.