Friday, 10 October 2008
Park's Bio DomeQUESTION:
This is my first time to try to raise plants from seeds. I used the Park Bio-dome and Park seed. To my surprise, I got 100% germination of my impatiens. Great product!
ANSWER:
Thank you. We love emails like yours.
View Park Seed's Selection of the Bio Dome Seed Starting System!
Phlox paniculata 'David'Garden Phlox, creepy-crawly and otherwise, are beauties ready to load up the spring and summer garden with color and presence. Creeping phlox, Phlox subulata, is a tough evergreen plant for hot, dry, hard to cover areas like ditches and hillsides. Its bright pink flowers cover the needle foliage in springtime, making a carpet and a statement. Full sun. Zones 3-9.
Phlox paniculata ‘David’ was a Perennial Plant of the Year Winner in 2002. He is still a winner in the garden today. He has large flowerheads of pure white that keep coming throughout the summer. His foliage is more mildew resistant than the earlier garden phlox, but he would still enjoy good air circulation. Full sun, part shade. Zones 3-8.
Echinacea 'After Midnight'Echinacea is turning into one of the most versatile plants of the century. Moreover, it is not just purple/pink anymore.
Since 1805, when the Native American Indians gave the first plants to Lewis and Clark, Echinacea flowers and roots have been used to treat everything from insect and snakebites to coughs and colds. Its popularity is even more defined today. It is the top herbal choice of many who practice herbal medicine.
This popularity has not been good for the plant. Wild collectors have and are decimating wild populations of this, one of our most beautiful wildflowers of the Great Plains. Do you, as a gardener and environmentalist, believe in its medicinal properties but also do not believe in the greedy destruction of the wild plants?
Echinacea 'Coconut Lime'You can do something to slow the disappearance of this heritage plant. Do not purchase wild collected Echinacea. Only buy from reputable sources that grow their own.
As a gardener, you can also help with the continuance of this beautiful flower. Otherwise, not only will the flower be lost, but also the butterflies and bees that rely on its nectar and pollen.
Wayside Gardens is featuring no less than twenty coneflowers (Echinacea). You could start with the little Prairie Splendor™. It is so compact; it will work as a flowering groundcover or in a container.
Echinacea 'Razzmatazz'I think a splendid display could be made with the unusual green petals of the coneflowers Green Envy™, ‘Coconut Lime’, and ‘Green Jewel’. Add in the pale yellows of ‘Sunrise’ to offset the greens, and you will have a perennial bed like no other, except maybe mine. I might just have to plant it up this year to see how it looks.
If you like more color in your flower borders, then look to ‘Summer Sky’, ‘Twilight’, ‘All That Jazz’, and ‘Sunset’. You will not see these colors often in coneflowers. ‘Sunset’ has orange petals. ‘All That Jazz’ has quilled petals of violet purple. ‘Twilight’ is a rose red, perfect for the softer garden areas. ‘Summer Sky’ is deep pink, coral, orange, and gold. You will seek it out in the garden just to see the subtle blends of the petals.
Then there are all of the shades of pink in the purple coneflower family: Pixie Meadowbrite™, Crazy Pink™, After Midnight™, ‘Fancy Frills’, and ‘Ruby Giant’.
These beauties are all tolerant of drought, heat, humidity, cold winters, and poor soil. They could fill a garden with color and fragrance, their swaying grace even lasting into winter with their distinctive cones held high.
---Posted by Coach Anne, March 27, 2008---
Rose 'Zepherine Drouhin'QUESTION:
Three years ago I planted 2 climbing roses to grow up my arbor. They have gone wild. How do I keep them in bounds and also how do I train them to go over the top of the arbor. Thanks.
This spring, just as the roses start to bud out and leaves begin to appear, trim your roses into the form you want, sort of flat against the arbor, by removing the canes that stick out, cutting them back to the main cane. Tie the canes to the arbor. If the climbers are too dense, remove some of the oldest canes all the way to the ground.
Actually, "climber" is not the correct term for a "climbing rose." They really do not climb or cling, they just get very tall. They have to be supported.
Tie the tops of the roses to the tops of the arbor. You will most likely need to prune and tie side shoots during the summer months, too, as they enthusiastically throw canes out where you don't want them.
Roses bloom best on horizontal canes, so most of your blossoms will end up on top of your arbor.
Halesia Carolina Silver BellI think I’ve mentioned before that I have moved and am developing a new garden. I am patient when it comes to plant growth. I found a couple of trees growing in a wooded area and waited to see just what they would do. The first small tree bloomed last year. I am so glad I didn’t get rid of it. It is a Carolina Silverbell, a native tree with small, dangly white flowers covering the branches in early spring.
If you have a tree you would like to identify, check out this fun and useful site sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation. Answer a series of questions about your tree. After several questions that bring out finer and finer points, like the shape of the leaf, does it have thorns, is it evergreen, the texture of the bark - up pops the answer: Your tree is a… Try it at: http://www.arborday.org/trees/treeID.cfm.
