Friday, 10 October 2008
Growing Zone: 8
I am new to gardening, and love flowers. We just had rock/boulder terracing completed in our front yard and would like to have flowerbeds down the front of my porch. I would like easy care, low maintenance, lots of colorful flowers in a lot of varieties, along with some shrubs.
Also, I am thinking of doing an arbor/archway over the boulder sidewalk and I like the Rose Climbing New Dawn. Do you need to cut this back each year and clean off the trellis/archway or will it keep blooming on old wood?
Anxious for beautiful flowers.
ANSWER:
The climbing rose, New Dawn, will only need trimming to keep it in bounds. It blooms on old wood. It is an excellent choice, very fragrant, and blooms throughout the summer.
Before you plant anything, amend your soil with compost and/or composted manure. If you start with the soil, you won't be disappointed in your plantings.
A design rule (which you can break any time you like) is to use odd numbers of shrubs and flowers in the landscape. Plant them in groups of 3's or 5's. Curved beds are more interesting and less formal than straight lines. Use a garden hose to outline the shape of your beds, moving it until you like the way it looks. Then mark the lines with a shovel.
Daylilies, coneflowers, Japanese painted ferns (Athyrium), spring flowering bulbs, salvia, blanket flower, cannas, catmint, pinks (Dianthus), & elephant ears are some suggestions for perennials. You will need to research and plant for the sun or shade in your garden.
Flowering Shrubs: Hydrangeas, camellias, dwarf gardenias, Knock Out roses, azaleas, Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue', daphne, and tea olive.
These should get you started. Part of the fun of gardening is reading about the different plants. Wayside Gardens and Park Seed catalogs are full of useful information.
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For some unknown reason, epimediums are not widely grown. Flowers do come in and out of fashion. Take hostas, for instance. They were big-time in the Victorian era, lost favor, and are now back again stronger, more colorful, and with more named choices than a gardener could possibly squeeze into beds.
Epimediums make good hosta bedfellows. Many of these epimediums are evergreen and clump daintily, washing the hosta bed in reddish-green heart-shaped leaves throughout the winter while the hostas sleep. They show off in early springtime with wee flowers dancing above the foliage on sinewy stems.
Many of the new cultivars sport much larger flowers. Wayside Gardens has three featured epimediums in their "New Shade Perennials" section. All are cultivars from England, introduced by plantsman Robin White of Blackthorn Nursery.
Epimedium ‘Amber Queen’ has a peachy center with tawny-gold wings; ‘Pink Elf’ is a break-through color for these plants, purple and pink flowers opening from almost black buds; and ‘Fire Dragon,’ with topside reddish purple wings drooping above yellow centers.
Epimediums resemble aquilegias (columbine) but bloom far longer; giving way only after the summer heats up. Although epimediums will grow in dry shade, they thrive in moist, well-amended soil.
Their native habitat, consisting of woodsy soil and light shade, gives you the clues to their culture. In your garden, give them plenty of moisture with good drainage and a top-dressing each year with humus rich compost.
---Posted by Coach Anne, December 28, 2007---
HydrangeaQUESTION:
I am new to Florida and love to garden, however I have no idea what zone I am in and what plants are best for this area....HELP...I live in Ormond Beach....thanks
You live in Zone 9. You can successfully grow all kinds of tropicals and many perennials.
Some picks:
Scabiosa
Amaryllis
many hydrangeas
Check out the offerings at Park Seed and Wayside Gardens. They include zone ranges.
Rebecca Koll has some good ideas and instructions for putting together suet dinners for the birds at the National Gardening Association website: http://www.garden.org:80/celebratingtheseasons/?page=holiday-tweets
