The Newsletter for Lazy Gardeners

Well, it has been a cold and sleepy winter but spring has sprung in my world. I was at my first garden talk of the season down in Virginia Beach and welcomed spring with some 75 degree temperatures. I’ve got talks coming up at Canada Blooms (March 4) the Philly Flower Show (March 10) and Homestead Garden Center’s Spring Flower Show on March 20. If you happen to be at any of these events, please introduce yourself – I really like meeting readers.

The newsletter has been produced sporadically over this past winter’s months as I struggled to adjust to apartment living. My indoor plant collection has survived and with spring looming (hellebores are blooming in the nursery) I’m starting to feel a whole bunch more like writing and gardening. So, I anticipate the newsletter will be more regular now that spring is coming.

Interesting Link This Issue

Chicago Botanic Garden released the results of a 7-year comparative study of Epimedium or barrenwort. The goal of the study was to select superior Epimedium based on hardiness, ornamental merit, pest and disease resistance and cultural adaptability. Epimedium can tolerate deep shade and extreme drought. Plants bloom in April and May. Top performers were Epimedium 'Crimson,' E. grandiflorum 'Sonoyzki' and E. x versicolor 'Neosulphureum.' Plant Evaluation Notes (Issue 20), "Barrenworts for the Shade Garden," is available for $3. rhawke@chicagobotanic.org; http://www.chicagobotanic.org

We Get Questions

I'm glad to answer questions for readers. If you have a question, it helps if you ask them in this way:
1) Hit return on your email browser to get the right email address.
2) Please **delete** all the newsletter text so I don't get it all back and have to hunt through it for your text.
3) Give me your location. The answer to a question often is determined by where the garden is located.
4) Have patience. I'll answer as many as I can in the newsletter but there's way more of you than there is of me and I simply can't get to them all. I'll do my best

Doug, I had the pleasure of zooming through Ontario this summer. I was able to see a few of the field trials for roses, etc. I'm wondering what your favorite perennial(s) are, in Canada? Thank you.

A: Well, I do have a problem with listing favourite perennials. The list is simply far too long. Let me say that if you count the number of varieties of plants I had in my garden then daylilies would be one of my favourites. I do like the new breeding of the Happy Ever Appsters and Trophytakers. These bloom for extended periods during the summer and I fell in love with 'Scentual Sundance' last summer. I love hosta in the shade garden and had a fairly large collection of the better varieties. Hosta tokudama aureo-nebulosa was my all time favourite. I'm also a huge fan of lavender and although I gave my collection to friends, I will always have a plant or two around the garden. I also like pulmonaria - it tends to get powedery mildew but it is so gorgeous in the spring. Hellebore, bleeding hearts, fall asters, aconitums - just about anything that has a great flower show and doesn't spread thug-like in the garden has my love while it is in bloom.

I understand what you mean about not rolling the lawn. Everything you say makes perfect sense. But our problem is all the lumps and bumps in the soil. Our soil is heavy clay. We reworked our yard a couple of years ago but couldn't afford to put all the peat moss in it that was recommended for our soil type. The grass is growing fairly well and we are pleased with our project, but all it took was a winter of heavy snow and rain to turn our flat lawn into rolling hills. It's not fun to walk on - or to mow. If we shouldn't roll it this spring to get rid of our hills and valleys, how can we flatten our lawn out again? Thanks,

A: Well, if you have rolling hills, then the single best way to level it out is to add top soil to the low sections. Easy and not to much of a problem! After levelling the lawn, add the recipe for lawn dressing found at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/marticle.html and you'll have a smooth lawn for the season.

Hi Doug. Do you have any suggestions of what to do with a water barrell that has a constant flow of gravity fed water.

Sounds like a pond to me. If the water is fast flowing or cold, then lilies are not going to do well. However, there's always gold fish, floating plants by the bunches to choose from and even lotus if you pot it up and ensure the top of the plant is above the water line while the roots are below the water line. Too cold water is tough on tropical plants while too high a water flow is not appreciated by hardy lilies. If the water flow is so-so, then I'd go with some of the smaller dwarf hardy lilies. If the water was warm with a small flow, I'd be growing dwarf tropical lilies.

Nice to be getting your newsletter again. My question is about Amaryllis. I brought mine inside, but have left them growing in bright light. That is, I didn’t put them into a dark place after the first light frost killed the top foliage and now they have nice long green leaves. I know they will bloom next summer if I leave them alone, but I’m wondering if I can cut the leaves off now and put them in a dark place for about 8 weeks, and then be able to force blooms come January. Or is it too late for this year? Any advice is appreciated. Thank you. Patti, St. Paul, MN Zone 4.

Its not a question of cutting the leaves off unfortunately - its a question of getting the plant to go dormant. Stop watering the plant - this will likely force it to dormancy. After the leaves have yellowed, then let it rest for 8 weeks and then bring it back to the light and water again. Or - as you suggest, allow the leaves to stay and take the blooms this summer. (my choice) Remember not to let the plant get frosted and to start drying it out bit by bit in late fall to force it into dormancy.

My question is about Clematis "wilt". Is there any way to avoid it? Are some varieties less susceptible than others? (I love and grow Nelly Moser). How do you handle it when it comes? I don't like or want to use the fungicides and besides I don't think from past experience they work anyway. Cutting off the diseased portion is truly a hit and miss affair because the plants I have are mega bushy and I could never extract the diseased portion without almost destroying the plant. This year I decided to do nothing and have big vigorous plants with a couple of dead stems running through them that don't really detract from the plant. Where do I go from here?

A: The only research I've seen on clematis wilt suggested that compost - heavily applied - would help grow the plant and help it "outgrow" the wilt. Also, burying the bud-eyes several inches deeper than normal produced extra shoots and somehow reduced wilt problems. I believe the trick is to ensure the plant is stress free (water and feed it) so that it outgrows the wilt problem. Compost is my first line of defence here.

I have a question about Blue Flax - someone told me that the Flax Seeds you buy at the health food store are actually the seed from the Blue Flax. Is this true? I love these perennials and they spread beautifully but I have a hard time believing that the edible seed and the plant are the same.

A: There are over 200 species of Linum (flax) L. perenne is the perennial garden flax flowering blue all summer long. L. usitatissimum is the flax commonly grow for fibre and oil content of the seeds. This latter flax is an annual. I'd suspect the health food seed is L. usitatissimum.

In case you wanted to see how I set up my book on designing and planting a perennial garden to bloom all summmer, I put together a webpage that describes the contents of the book.

Well, it’s a new year and the various plant associations have started announcing their “Plants of the Year” awards. I love getting these announcements because it usually lets me look at a new plant or an old plant in a different way. This year falls into the old plant in a new way category because the 2004 Perennial Plant of the Year is Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum’. I can just hear you saying, “What?” We’re talking about the perennial, low-maintenance Japanese Painted Fern, one of the showiest ferns for just about every garden. This is one hardy plant, unless you live in the deserts of Arizona or somewhere north of North Bay in frigid USDA zone 3.

This fern – let’s call it ‘Pictum’ from now on grows around twelve to eighteen inches tall and slowly multiplies to form a large clump twenty four inches across. The fronds are approximately eighteen inches long and are a soft-grey metallic colour with hints of red and blue. The centre stem is red so the contrast is excellent. It is a lovely plant preferring partial shade rather than deep shade; I grew mine under the soft shade of an old crabapple tree. It does not appreciate drying out however as I’ve discovered more than once in droughty years, when dry conditions prevail, it loses its leaf luster and droops badly. In one particularly dry year, it disappeared completely in mid summer but it did shoot up again the following spring. So do plan on watering it to help it hold its wonderful colour. If you have to give it sun, give it morning sun because the afternoon sun is too intense and will bleach out the colours. Plan on making the soil quite organic by adding several inches of compost to the planting hole or mulch with equal amounts of compost each spring. You could also add several inches of peat moss to the planting hole as this plant appreciates a bit of acidity. If grown in a good soil, it will hold its colouring all summer long, from the earliest spring fronds right through until a good hard frost knocks it to the ground.

The Japanese painted fern is native to Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan and once you see it unfurling its metallic grey frond in early spring, you’ll be a convert and want a bit of the oriental influence in your garden. This fern colouring lends itself to being an excellent contrast plant to other shade perennials. Try growing it with Hosta (I particularly liked the combinations of gold leafed Hosta with this plant), bleeding hearts, columbines, astilbe and heuchera. One combination that has been recommended is Japanese painted fern with Hosta ‘Patriot’ and ‘Ginko Craig’. For a wonderful combination, all three of these plants make excellent container plants. If you like the blue Hosta, try planting H. sieboldiana ‘Elegans’ with this fern. And if you want a different and more modern look, try combining some of the shade loving sedges with the Japanese fern. Carex morrowii ‘variegata’ and the new Carex ‘Lemon Zest’ would be excellent choices for contrast and shade garden or container use. I have not tried Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ with this plant but the silver tones of the Brunnera should compare quite nicely with the silver tones in the fern.

While most of the plants you’ll see in garden centres are tissue cultured, this plant is fairly easy to divide if done in the early spring. Wait until you have a good sized clump and dig it out of the ground. You will be able to split each clump into three or four equally sized divisions. Replant immediately after dividing and add compost to the planting area. I used to use a shovel to divide mine but any sharp tool will do equally well. Do not worry too much over whether the cuts are equal, as long as the division is done in the early spring before major growth has started for the year, and there are roots and crowns (growing points) on each of the divisions, your plant will survive and prosper.

There are several new varieties of Japanese painted fern that you might want to search for at your favourite garden centre. ‘Pewter Lace’ has metallic pewter to mint-green fronds (two toned) with red stems and extremely lacy foliage. I saw this plant last year and I can tell you it will wind up in one of my garden containers this spring to fill a contrast plant role. The second new introduction is ‘Ursula’s Red’ and this variety has large silver leaves but the centre of each leaf is flushed with wine-red colour in the spring. I haven’t seen this one yet but I have hopes of finding it this spring as well. When you add ‘Pictum’ to the garden mix, you have an difficult choice to make as to which to grow.