Shasta Daisy 'Becky' and Easy Evergreens

To make up for it – I put two articles onto this edition of the newsletter and apologize if it clogs up your mailboxes.

Speaking of clogging up the mailboxes – if you have a spam filter, you might want to ensure the newsletter gets put on the “white” list or good guy list so you get it without it being filtered out.

Too many plants – so little time. I did get a double Echinacea ‘Razzmatazz’ and its sitting on my windowsill awaiting planting next week. I also have a few new Phormiums for my containers and replacement lavenders for those that died over the winter (all the variegated cultivars perished). The houseplants are now being acclimatized and will spend the summer outdoors after all danger of frost is past. Ahh, lots to do in the gardening world but that’s the important stuff in life. eh? :-)

My New Book is Out! :-)

Here's the link to get my new book at 30% off the bookstore price!

Perennials All Season

I'll be constructing a page in the next few days to tell you all about the book but in a nutshell - it tells you how to get your perennial garden to bloom all summer long. Not only are there growing tips, there's design instructions and plant choice suggestions.

If I do say so myself :-) - it is a great book! :-))

We've got 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.

A: The proper time to feed most bulbs is post-blooming when they are growing and storing energy for next year’s blooms. I’d recommend heavy doses of compost (1/2” deep) laid around the bed or compost tea sprayed onto the leaves to assist them in putting on good strength for next year.

Whatever you do – do not cut off the foliage before it starts to yellow and fade by itself. Removing foliage too early is removing the energy gathering system and is the quickest way to kill off bulbs (other than by overwatering or feeding to squirrels) :-)

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Is there anything I can do to stop cats from doing their business and digging in my flower garden? Thank you. Bonnie

A: Hmmm – how about a big dog? This is a perennial problem in the flower border (pun intended):-) A “scarecrow” is the solution of choice I’ll be using this year in my new city garden. This is a water sprinkler controlled by a motion detector and when kitty trips the switch – she gets a dose of cold shower water. A good deterrent. Available through leevalley.com or other suppliers.

There are also sonic deterrents (the best are motion detector controlled again) but they’ll send the dogs howling too. And sprays are liked by some gardeners but I’ve never found one that works. I’m also told that cats don’t like heavy coco-bean mulches but I’ve never tried that given the expense of establishing a heavy layer of coco-bean mulch (and the smell of chocolate is enough to put on 25 pounds anyway)

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Can u tell me what plants rabbits don't eat only my rabbit as eaten all my plants.And could u tell me the best time to move my plum trees and replant them. Thanks Sthacey

A: I don’t think rabbits eat cactus. After that, they’ll eat almost anything that’s green or barklike. Particularly if they are hungry. (same as deer) If you have a plant that you guarantee a rabbit won’t eat – I’d be delighted to hear about it. I have plants the rabbits prefer (like geraniums, leafy vegetables, flower buds on lilies) and plants they don’t eat if the others are around (heuchera, daylilies) but if hungry – gardens are smorgasbords for bunnies.

Comments gang?

Trees are best moved when they are dormant – when the buds are not swelling getting ready for growth and no leaves are present. Early spring and late fall are best for trees.

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Hi. I was wondering if it is ok to plant parsley, oregano, basil, mint and catnip together. Thanks!

Sue :)

A: Sure. Can’t think of a single reason why not. Just watch the mint – it’s a spreading plant (an Attila the Hun type) and make sure you give each plant enough room to grow.

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Hi Doug, I'm in NE Ohio, 30 miles SE of Lake Erie. I used your method of starting perennials in baggies in the frig...The Sweet Williams & Lupins have sprouted so I planted them in those new peat pellets. The S. Williams are getting leggy so should I put them out in the garden under a plastic pop bottle cover? Or in the cold frame until the second leaves appear.?

I love the news letter........ Barb

A: I know this is probably late but the reason plants get leggy is because they aren’t getting enough light. Combined with too much heat in the house, perennials will stretch miserably. The secret to growing any garden plant indoors is to give it full gro-lights about 3 inches above the leaves and keep the plants cool (50F) Or, grow them in a greenhouse. :-)

News Releases and Interesting Sites

Littleflower's Medicinal Plants of North America http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/Mall/4992/medmain.html

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If you want to see what the government is up to with nutrition guidelines, you can now access their entire database by going to

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp

Under the red "Search the Nutrient Database" label, click on "Download Software." You’ll get the entire thing (a 70mg chunk) for your interest.

From My Garden to Yours

To begin with, ‘Becky’ and her cousins are reliably hardy from zone 4 through 9. We can grow this plant almost anywhere and as long as we give it full sunshine or very light morning shade, it will thrive. The plant will strut its stuff best in a good garden soil; this means a well-drained soil but one where moisture is present and organic matter is excellent. Mind you, it will survive in your basic garden soil too (who has that perfect garden soil the books all ask us to have?) but it doesn’t like clay soils. It will live for the summer in clay soils but it will tend to die over the winter in heavier, wetter soils.

‘Becky’ blooms for an extended time and if you deadhead the blossoms, it will produce new ones that further extend the blooming time. Deadheading means to cut off the flower and stem as it starts to fade and die but before it has a chance to set seed. Deadheading is a basic gardening skill and most annuals and daisy family plants will bloom heavier and for longer periods if they are regularly deadheaded.

Becky is a plant with a bit of a history because we know that Jim and Becky Stewart of Atlanta, Georgia got a plant from their neighbour Mary Ann Gatlin who in turn received it from Mary Ann’s mother, Ida Mae. Now Ida Mae had a florist business and sold ‘Becky’ as a florist cut flower (hint: Becky makes a great summer bouquet) and as a garden plant. Several other nurseries picked up the plant and it was also grown as ‘Ida Mae’ and ‘Ryan’s Daisy’ (named after nurseryman Ryan Gainey who also got it from Ida Mae) but it became ‘Becky’ to the plant world when Wayside Gardens adopted the name in their catalog and started making the plant available across North America. You will find it as ‘Becky’ in local garden centres this spring.

‘Becky’ makes an excellent specimen plant with its forty-inch tall flower stems in the garden. When massed in large numbers it provides a spectacular show of brilliant white flowers (with a yellow centre) Its mid-summer blooms make it a backbone plant for the perennial garden and other plants that will go well with it include: Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’ or Veronica ‘Royal Candles’. I note that Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’ blooms almost all summer right along with Becky so the combination will last a long time. Perovskia with its grey foliage and blue flowers is also a good combination next to ‘Becky’. You might try planting a brilliant red annual such as salvia in front of ‘Becky’ to go for a red-white combination that will be quite dynamic in the garden.

Many of you would like to know how to get extra plants once you purchase your first hybrid ‘Becky’ and have grown it for a season. The good news is that this plant will root easily from a soft cutting or it can be divided easily in the spring or fall to give extra plants. I would divide it in the spring in my garden (I hope to plant at least one plant this summer as a trial) as then I could see what was alive or dead. You will see some dying out in the centre of old plants and all you have to do is dig up the entire plant, throw away the dead centre and replant the babies from around the edges. As long as they have a bit of root on them, they will be fine and you’ll have a garden full in two seasons.

And for the lover of plant names, ‘Becky’ is actually a Leucanthemum in the Superbum group. Shasta daisies used to be members of the Chrysanthemum family but were moved over to the Leucanthemum in a general name switch a few years ago. What is interesting is that the Shasta was first bred by that interesting plantsman Luther Burbank in 1890. He named it “Shasta” because he apparently thought the petals were as white as the snow on top of Mount Shasta in California.

Whatever the plants history or name, ‘Becky’ is a good perennial plant and beginner and garden expert alike will enjoy the flowers produced by this new award winning perennial.

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My garden has several parts to it and the best designed of these parts is my shrub and spring bulb garden. If I do say so myself, it looks pretty good all year round. And as it emerges from under the snow banks (it created some fantastic shapes in the banks this year) the reason for this success becomes clear. While this garden has its share of large rocks (read huge boulders) and undulating soil levels, the major reason it works so well is because the evergreens are maturing. It is these slowly enlarging and maturing shrubs that give the garden a sense of permanence, of classic good looks. I have a few good varieties tucked into this bed and I thought I would share their names with you so you can look at them yourself this spring in your favourite garden centre.

To begin with, I have two dwarf Serbian spruce (Picea omorika ‘nana’) anchoring one end of this bed. This sun-loving pine only grows to five feet tall and at its now-mature height, it continues to get a bit fatter each year. Each of these plants is now approximately 4 feet wide and are showing no signs of slowing down the increase in girth each year. I really like their soft spring foliage with the silver tones to the underside of the short green needles. These spruce have been in this garden for approximately fifteen years now and are quite mature.

I also went looking for some dwarf pine. This bed runs down the entire side of my house and I did not want the house to be dwarfed by taller evergreen shrubs. There are three types of evergreen pines along this bed. The most common are the mugo pines (Pinus mugo mugo) and I have pruned them to keep them short, bush and spreading. Every spring as soon as they grow new shoots (called candles) I cut these shoots in half. This forces the plant to grow sideways and spread rather than growing upright and tall. It is a small trick but it works wonders to keep this plant looking good for years. You will be able to find mugo pines in every garden center this spring. Less commonly available is the waterer dwarf pine (Pinus sylvestris ‘Watereri’) This pine only grows to twelve feet tall and I have one of those planted approximately half way down the garden. It has been slow to reach its present 6 feet in height (about 8 years now) but its blue green needles are wonderful and it is well worth the wait. This will be an impressive evergreen shrub when it reaches its mature height. I also planted a dwarf white pine (Pinus strobes ‘Nana’) towards the front of the garden. This dwarf white pine only grows to three feet in height and it is just about there in my garden. It too is very slow growing with a soft, light-green needle.

Closer to the house, in a shadier area that only gets morning sun (not enough for pine and juniper) I planted my favourite evergreen shrub. A Sargent’s weeping hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis ‘Pendula’) was planted to take into account its mature height and spread. At maturity, this plant will reach 8 feet wide and approximately 5 feet high. I also took advantage of its weeping nature by planting it at the top of a small hillock next to the house; this will let it weep down the hill and increase its apparent size in the landscape. This is a fine textured, but very, very slow growing evergreen shrub and it will live comfortably in sun or shade. I also took advantage of a plant sale to purchase a Jeddeloh Dwarf Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis ‘Jeddeloh’) and this evergreen (also for sun or shade) will eventually reach a height of four to five feet with an equal spread. This too is slow growing and requires patience in the landscape.

I did plant a few upright Junipers but I confess if I were to do it over again, I would probably not do so. They have been heavily damaged in the last few years by cold winds browning the needles and by ice and show twisting the branches into unusual shapes. I also should have pruned them heavily to force them into a conical shape but I was looking for a more natural look. I got it. I also planted two blue chip junipers (Juniperus horizontalis ‘Blue Chip’) but ripped them out two years ago when they threatened to grow over the entire garden. This low growing evergreen shrub is perfect if you want something ground hugging and is one of the fastest growers around. Readily available every spring they are perfect for a full sun garden.

Sungold threadleaf false cypress was one of the gold leaved evergreen shrubs I installed at the front of the garden. This yellow toned plant only grows to three feet tall and three feet wide (maybe more in a slightly warmer garden than mine) but planted next to blue spruce, the yellow tones stand out and are quite fun. The dwarf blue spruce also called globe blue spruce (Picea pungens ‘Globosa’) is another shrub that I would plant in an instant in a new garden. Reaching three feet tall and potentially six feet wide, the blue needles are a garden design winner. Plant this in the full sun and you won’t regret its hefty price tag.

Planted so they touch at maturity, these evergreen shrubs have made this section of my garden something to be proud of. And I am.

The Last Word

Ruskin quoted in The English Flower Garden