Welcome to week nineteen!
Nurseries were buzzing today. Individuals, couples, and families all trekking the nursery grounds to find that one plant to fill that one spot. We all have that “one spot”. The spot out front, the one where you feel like your living room is a fish bowl for the whole neighborhood to see in and if you could just find that “one plant” you would have your privacy back.
The large blank spot at the corner of the house where the spouting runs down and the bed is only three feet wide, if you could just find that one tall thin plant to soften that corner– the Big Chuck and Little John of plants. Maybe your spot is fifty feet long and twenty-five feet wide – Oh, did you forget to mention it was on a steep slope? You just need to find a plant that will tolerate baking in the sun all day, thriving in the cracked clay of the hillside and enjoy watching rainwater rush by as the water heads to lower ground. Confucius says hillsides hold no water. Your “one spot” may be where a tree died last season from the drought, the overgrown yews from that trendy 50’s planting – it lost its grandeur about 5-10 years ago, life just got in the way – Now if you could just find that one plant. I have good news, if you have that “one spot” whether it was mentioned or not, I promise you there is a solution. 97.5% of the time there is the one plant or maybe an option of plants to manage to add function and aesthetics to that “one spot”. Sometimes, once in a great while, we will come across the “one spot” a plant cannot fill – there is always a solution – statuary, garden art, water feature, faux river bed, seating, birdbath, feeders, or something else creative such as a topiary in a pot.
Speaking of topiaries which require attentive trimming – it is time to trim back your heaths. If you have a spring bloomer you will want to wait until it has finished blooming. Remember to trim your Forsythia, Lilac, Viburnum, Rhode, Azalea and other spring blooming shrubs within a few weeks of them finishing their bloom. Most spring blooming shrubs will set bud for bloom next season very quickly after blooming this season. I met a customer who asked me to identify a shrub at the corner of her garage. It was a Lilac. She insisted it was not. I asked why she felt this way. She told me it has not bloomed in the five years she had it. I asked her when it was trimmed. She told me the maintenance crew who worked with the association trimmed it every year in early March. There is where the bloom went – hauled off in a truckload of debris. Wait until they finish blooming and then don’t wait to trim.
You will want to wait until the leaf tissue has hardened off on your boxwood before trimming them. This is true for most evergreens. You can tell when it is time to trim, as the new leaf tissue will match the color of the older existing leaf tissue, this is call hardening off. If you trim them before the tissue has hardened off you are creating an environment for the plant to feel stressed and attract predators. If you want a thriving landscape and not a surviving landscape – make sure you trim the proper plants at the proper time. There really is a science to it.
Some varieties of our Rhododendron and Azalea are finishing their bloom shortly – if you need to treat them for lace fly you will want to do this once they have finished blooming. You can purchase Bayer Azalea Camille and Rhododendron insect control to treat them at the appropriate time.
If you are reading this, then you are vertical and breathing – that is a good thing! Vertical and breathing – the most we can ask for when we go to sleep each night, to wake up. When you awoke this morning and took your first conscious breath, were you thankful to be vertical and breathing? I find an irony with the numbers of people I meet and consensus shows we seem to be more concerned with the health of our plants than our own.
Mother’s day is arriving soon, some of us are still blessed to have our Mothers vertical and breathing, some of us are not. Either way if we wake in the morning and inhale deeply, it is going to be a great day. If when you walk through your day you are surrounded by people who love you, respect you and cherish you, your day has just reached superb – You’re enjoying a picnic in your thriving garden with your loved ones? PERFECT
Make the most of each moment and fill that “one spot” with something you can cherish!
