Last weekend was a bit of a lark. I went to my first plant sale in a very long time and I confess I had forgotten how plant crazy some folks are. I thought the sale started at 9:30 and arrived fashionably ten minutes late to discover I was really 20 minutes early. But the line for the door was already 75 people long. I dropped over to the local grocery store for a few things and when I got back with 8 minutes to go, the line was 100 gardeners deep. Precisely at 10am, the doors swung open and the herd trumpeted into the auditorium.

It was pretty much a wasted 8 minutes for me as by the time I got in the door, there were very few plants remaining from three sets of tables that ran the entire length of the hall.

We’re talking a lot of plants here.

And we’re talking rampaging beasts fighting for every little bit of plant scrap on each table. Heck, they were even politely discussing who was going to get the last Lysimachia ‘Alexander’ – one of the most noxious plant thugs in the garden. Gardeners were two deep reaching over each other for something. Anything. They couldn’t even see the labels from that far away but they were taking ‘em anyway. I haven’t seen such enthusiasm since the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967. My goodness, but gardeners were enthusiastic. I chatted with a fellow behind me in line and he had driven 20 miles to attend this sale so I hope he got a lot more than I did. But the smartest ladies were in the parking lot when I got there and never did move out of their car before I left. Maybe they’re the clean up crew. I didn’t take a single plant home and I doubt there was much for them to clean up.

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Tough week last week. The email servers were out for several days and I got a last minute “rush” writing project I had to get done. Not much in the way of web writing or answers got done. But I did manage to plant up quite a few containers and do some weeding so the week wasn’t a total gardening loss. :-) One more rose – “Knockout” to go into a big clay pot and I’m done.

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Some great questions this week - and a big THANKS to those who wrote to tell me of the link problems in the newsletter. Fixed it! (insert crossed fingers here!) LOL!

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Your Questions Answered

My Miss Kim liacs have a lot of limbs that appear to be dead but occassionally have leaves on the ends - however, others are dead, especially in the center of the plant. I read that you should trim off the flowers after they fade, which I just did, but I haven't done this in the past - just picked some to enjoy in the house. However, I have never heard of people who have lilac bushes doing this

A: Well, to begin with I never did deadhead lilacs. I know some compulsive gardeners and even more compulsive garden writers recommend it but I’ve never figured out why. They bloom quite nicely if you leave them alone and the size of some of my old lilacs meant I would have had to get up on a ladder to do this work. Crazy. So no, I don’t recommend pruning lilacs unless you’re compulsively neat. Then go for it without guilt.

And yes, if you do decide to prune them – do so within six weeks of them finishing blooming or you’ll cut off next years blooms.

Limbs that are dead but occasionally have leaves on the end are, I suspect, rather ugly. I don’t expect leaves on the interior of a lilac as there’s not enough sunlight there for them. But if the branch looks dead except for the rosette of leaves at the end, I’d be tempted to prune it off. Not that anything will grow in its place but at least you can get rid of the ugly stuff and have a pruned up tree form instead of a bush. I note that they tend to do that anyway as they age – we either let the old fashioned ones throw suckers to form a bush or the bottom branches die off and we wind up with sparse bottoms and thick tops.

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My question is about mouse damage to clematis stems. I have grown clematis successfully for years but in the last couple of years many of my clematis have wilted and died. They usually start with one stem followed by the rest. Sometimes only part of the plant is affected. I always water and feed them well and they are in good soil.I have considered everything as a possible cause but recently it has been suggested that it could be mouse damage which is causing the problem. The stems of my plants -especially the lower stems have turned white and the bark looks as if it has been sheered off.Do you think this could be causing the problem and if so have can you suggest a solution? Thank you . Teresa

A: As long as you don’t have clematis wilt, something that sounds much like you are describing – one branch or more suddenly wilting – then mice are a suspect. Not usually I note but it does happen. Normally in the summer they have much more tender food sources than clematis bark but who knows the mind of a mouse. Trapping is the quick and easy answer. Peanut butter is the bait of choice. And I hope Aunt Vi doesn’t like mice as much as she likes chipmunks…

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I really appreciate your article about plants suited to clay soils. After 5 yrs of struggling to amend my intractable clay soil I am ready for a different approach! I can add a few more to your list: peonies do very well, as do wild violets, oriental lilies, asiatic lilies, echinacea, and daffodils. Also I have had some success with dandelions...

A: Hey – great dandelions survive in clay soils. This is really, really good news. I can hardly wait to pass that bit of news up onto the hort grapevine. Thanks for your note!!

p.s. compost tea is a good thing to try with clay – you’ll find some soil improvements with both the compost and tea. The added bacteria tend to hold soil particles together, increasing the drainage. Well worth a try.

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I live in Calgary AB. I am moving on June first, and I have quite a few perennials I would like to take with me. Do you think they will survive if I transplant them this late in the season??

A: I get quite a few notes about now with this kind of request. The quick and dirty reply is that I’ll share this with you if you promise not to tell anybody.

Yes, you can move perennials or transplant perennials at any time of year. You can move shrubs and evergreens at any time of year.

All the books are wrong.

But there’s a trick! (isn’t there always)

You have to spray them with an anti-desiccant first. Once they are sprayed (thoroughly I note) they will not lose water. If they don’t lose water from the leaves then they won’t wilt and transplanting is a breeze. I’ve seen mature shrubs sprayed with this stuff and then barerooted (all the dirt taken off the roots) and moved. The shrub never blinked – kept right on growing. I’d recommend you take as much dirt as you can to speed up the transition but it’s that spray that does the trick. (I note you can get it as wilt-pruf or much more cheaply as Christmas tree preservative – the stuff that stops your Christmas tree from dropping its needles).

Once in their new home, do ensure they have adequate water for the rest of the growing season.

Seriously.

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can regular sugar cause damage to garden plants/bushes? can it be helpful?

A: LOL! This sugar thing is a product of the imagination of a well known garden celebrity that recommends a ton of funny stuff as part of his gig. I once saw him add all kinds of household products to a noxious chemical and then spray the entire thing around with a hose-end sprayer. He had the stuff everywhere – on himself as well as the picnic table and even a few plants. He broke every rule in the chemical handbook on that one and if he had done it as a licensed applicator, he would have lost his license immediately.

Is sugar helpful? Not unless you want to feed ants, then it is wonderful except the ants will get tooth decay. So on balance I’d say no.

Will it hurt the plants? Not likely. Except to make them sticky and then when you’re weeding them, you’ll get sticky. Then you’ll stick to something. That could hurt. But it would hurt you and not the plants. So, I guess it won’t hurt the plants unless they got cavities too. So don’t feed it to carnivorous plants.

Go with compost – that’s all the sweet stuff a plant needs.

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Where do you garden? and whats your opinion of mushroom compost?

A: I garden in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Love it. But the last three years I traveled extensively from Michigan to Va Beach visiting garden centres and gardens as part of my job with Canada’s biggest perennial nursery. Now, I’m a full time garden writer again. (with a tiny garden)

My opinion of mushroom compost is pretty straightforward.

It is really expensive organic matter. Peat moss is much cheaper. So is buying a bale of straw.

Mushroom compost is essentially treated straw that has been chemically fertilized and then mushrooms are grown in it. The straw breaks down in the process of adding nitrogen (feeding to grow the mushrooms). What is left is a form of broken down straw. Not really composted given the definition of compost but not really straw either.

The tests I’ve seen at the university levels using this as a growing medium have been poor. Lots of salt in the stuff and this isn’t great for plants. While the salt can be melted out with water, it has to go somewhere. (like into the water table where you get to drink it.)

If you mix it into the soil, it is OK but expensive peat moss. If you try to grow in it, you’ll have mixed results until you get that salt cleared out and then you’ll have other problems like lack of drainage. If you use it as a mulch, the salt will go into the soil and then you’ll simply have expensive mulch.

I know a lot of folks really like the stuff. I don’t given the info I have from the plant/nursery trials. Too expensive for me.

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Hi Doug, this is my first question to you cause I know you're a very busy man. Gotta ask, I have tulips planted under a white river birch tree which I understand needs a lot of water anyway. When my tulips got thick, my tree almost died, I'm thinking cause they hogged the water supply. So I moved them and my tree showed a great come back, but now I see new bulbs growing again so obviously I missed a few. Would you recommend I move them again now that my birch tree has come back to life and blame the tulips for causing that. Thank you in advance, Diane

A: Hmm, I doubt that tulips are going to kill a tree but one never knows about these things.

Upon serious deliberation of this subject, my opinion is that you should water the tree and the tulips much more in the spring and very early summer. Tulips then go dormant and don’t want any water. So both the tree and the tulips will be very happy – the tree because it will get all the summer water and the tulips because they are dry.

I have this picture in my mind of masses of tulips surrounding a birch tree. The birch has its branches in the air – surrendering. The tulips all have little bandanas tied around their stems and are pointing their leaves in attack position at the tree. Sorta brings a new meaning to the term tulipmania.

But ignore me – I’ve had too much coffee this morning.

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From My Garden To Yours

The rains of last week really boosted my garden growth. I have some hellebore blooming as well as Brunnera and Pulmonaria. My Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’ is looking quite stunning with its variegated leaves edged in pink. I have it in a shady location so we’ll have to see if it gets enough sun but right now, I’m in love with this plant. It will be available this spring in limited numbers (and a high price) but it did survive the winter and it does look like the best Polemonium on the market. The variegated daylily is doing better than I’ve ever seen it grow. Last fall, I removed all the non-variegated shoots and so far this year it hasn’t produced any more. I’ve had this plant for about ten years now and every time I dig it up and remove the green shoots, it produces even more variegated shoots rather than green ones. One of these divisions/years, it will stop producing green shoots and produce only the variegated ones I like so much. Last fall’s planting of variegated Geranium macrorrhizum is also starting to leaf out and it looks quite strong so I’m encouraged I’ll see some of that this year as well.

When I went through the garden this morning, I was surprised to see how many variegated plants I have. Well, actually I’m not surprised. I’ve really liked variegated plants for quite a while but when you crowd them all into a tiny garden, they surely stand out in a hurry. I’ve already mentioned the Pulmonaria, the stunning Polemonium, my Geranium and my favourite old daylily. I haven’t mentioned that the Brunnera is also the variegated ‘Jack Frost’ with its silver leaves and mint-green veins. This plant has blue forget-me-not flowers first thing in the spring yet creates summer-long interest in the shade garden with its show of bright silver leaves.

Somewhere deep in the garden is also a Hakonechloa, a gold leaved form named ‘Aureola’ that has gold foliage rather than green, is a grass that prefers a shady location rather than the full sun and if you’re looking for a great grass to start with then you’ve found your plant. I note that putting this plant in the full sunshine will cause it to bleach out the leaves and be very unhappy. Yet, in the shade, its bright golden leaves are a great focal point. And no, it doesn’t like dry shade; you will have to water it. It is a late starter and I’m not sure where it is in the garden as I’ve forgotten where I planted it. I hope to see it soon.

I also haven’t seen my two variegated Echinacea or coneflowers. They’re out there and I know where they are (the flower stalks are still sticking up) but I haven’t yet seen any leaves. Both ‘Sparkler’ which has a semi-ugly flecked leaf and ‘Prairie Frost’ with a gorgeous white edged leaf are taking their time sending up shoots this spring. While I wouldn’t miss ‘Sparkler’ because I really think the leaf looks sick rather than variegated, I would miss ‘Prairie Frost’ with its rose-pink daisies that seem to last from mid-summer to frost.

To round off the no-shows, my favourite bleeding heart, the fantastic gold leaved Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’ has not shown its face this spring. I moved it last fall and it didn’t look too happy. The lustrous gold leaves and pink flowers were one of the spring highlights on the farm and I’ll be unhappy if it didn’t survive the move. It is one of those few plants that I’ve grown and lost that I’d gladly open my wallet to replace. Most of the time, if a plant dies, I’ll find another plant to experiment with but this plant is a keeper.

I’m quite pleased that my variegated Japanese honeysuckle vine has survived the winter. The buds are starting to swell on this first year vine and I intend to grow it as a ground cover scrambling over a nearby statue in the garden. It can be used as a regular climber although you may find it will die back in a zone 4 or 5 garden. As a ground cover or scrambler type of plant, I don’t care if it dies back to the ground as otherwise I’ll have to whack it back every fall so it doesn’t take over the garden.

I’m really pleased that all of my Japanese toadlilies have survived the winter from first year plantings. These late fall bloomers for shade have delicate flowers that are one of the last plants to bloom in the fall. In fact, they are so late that I seldom see seed on the plant as frost kills off the pollinators before they have a chance to work their magic. The variegated Tricyrtis ‘Samurai’ has dark green leaves with gold edges and is planted where I can appreciate its small purplish flowers with dark blotches next fall. ‘Gilt edge’ is another toad-lily with cream-yellow edges and a soft lavender pink flower with dark blotches and its standing up in my garden looking ready to grow nicely.

I confess I already know I lost my variegated Lavatera. I is really too tender to survive outdoors so you have to bring it inside to overwinter in a pot. Well, ummm you see, I killed it. I’m not sure how it happened other than it just started to wither up around January and that was that. It was a love affair that was not meant to be I guess. If you see one at your favourite garden centre, I’d recommend you snap it up and enjoy it. Just understand that while it is a little fickle about returning your love, it will make an excellent container plant.

But fickle is as fickle does. Enjoy the rest of your garden.