Help Wanted -- Weeds Over Roots

Hm... Any ideas on how to remove these tap-rooted weeds without damaging the roots of the red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) growing in the same spot?

OK, all you Jedi-level Master Gardeners out there... What's your secret for removing perennial weeds perched precariously close to valuable plants?

In this case, I'm talking about a taprooted weed of some sort growing right on top of the crown/roots of a red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia).

How can I get rid of the weed without harming the desirable plant growing in the same place?

Thoughts? Suggestions? Prayers? Expressions of sympathy? :)

Some Things Get Better with Age....Others Not So Much

I've been feeling more than the usual aches and pains recently in the garden.

Blame it on the fact that my wife and I planted four trees, several large shrubs and dozens of perennials over the past few weeks.

After all the heavy digging, it was ironic when I somehow strained a back muscle planting a tiny 4-inch Salvia greggii.

Don't worry -- the pain isn't too bad (as long as I don't bend over). ;-)

So I've been thinking about how age is reflected in the garden. I don't know about you, but when I plant a perennial, a shrub or a tree (most anything but an annual), I have high hopes that the plant will get better and stronger with time.

Sometimes, this wish comes true. Perennial Lemon Queen Sunflower looks about five-times bigger, bushier and stronger than it did last year.

Perennial "Lemon Queen" Sunflower doing its best impression of a shrub
only a month after emerging from dormancy

All the aronias have been going from strength to strength in the past couple of years -- more flowers, more berries, more healthy foliage, taller plants.

But then there are other plants that seem to have a tougher time of it with each passing year. (I can sympathize!!)

I'm talking about plants like Gaura lindheimeri. I've seesawed back and forth in the past on whether I love this plant (gorgeous pink flowers over a long bloom season) or whether I'm ready to shovel-prune it (mass of ugly dead stems in the spring that seem to take forever to green up).

Gaura lindheimeri in late April. Not looking promising.

This year, I think Gaura is trying to save me the trouble of making up my mind. All of the gauras are a little later than usual in making their spring comeback. When I didn't see any growth at all, I started hacking down through the dead stems and found that many of them were rotted and could pretty much twist away in my hands. Not a good sign.

It looks like what they say about Gaura needing good drainage really is true. And my heavy clay soil just isn't cutting it.

(I know that when some perennials start dying out in the middle, it's time to try to divide them, but I've heard that gaura is taprooted and therefore does not take well to division. Has anyone successfully divided a gaura before?)

That said, when I ripped away all the dead foliage, at least I discovered what looks like a bit of healthy foliage on the outskirts of the plant. Maybe I'll get at least one more good year out of the gaura? And I think there are a couple of seedling plants nearby.

A tiny bit of healthy foliage offers hope that a piece of Gaura may have survived to bloom another day

That's more than can be said for Russian Sage. Initially one of our favorite plants due to its silvery foliage and pretty blue flowers that attract bees, Russian Sage has gone downhill year by year. The experts say to cut Russian Sage back in the spring when it starts leafing out, but the plants aren't regrowing any leaves on the old wood, they seem to be sending up new shoots from the base. That creates a bit of an issue with new foliage emerging from a mound of dead wood.

New foliage (surrounded by dead wood) growing from the base of Russian Sage 

Worse than that, much of the new foliage starts wilting and browning within a few days of unfurling. This happened in earlier years too, but the whole process seems to be happening even faster this year. I suspect poor drainage may be the culprit here too.

New Russian Sage foliage wilting just days after appearing. Not a pretty sight.

I tried cutting away as much dead foliage as I could and leaving the healthiest looking new stems, but I suspect that these Russian Sages may all go to the great compost pile in the sky before the year is out.

Leaving the best Russian Foliage intact in the hopes it will serve as the core of a healthy plant this year

What's the lesson here? I guess for me it's a reminder not to rush to judgment. For better and worse, I'm often quick to praise a plant to the skies or heap scorn upon it.

Patience....Patience.

Sometimes a plant that soars in the spring will flame out before the year is done. Other times (frequently?) it can take a plant several years to settle into a new home, prove its mettle and show its true colors.

Which plants in your garden get stronger year by year? And which ones have petered out over time?

Creeping Raspberry, Inflated Expectations and Beautiful Treasures

Creeping raspberry vines do not appreciate -2 Fahrenheit temperatures. This plant seems to have died back to the roots and the new foliage is emerging from below ground.

Update 3/4/15 - This plant has since been shovel-pruned from Garden of Aaron. Click here to find out why.

Do you ever have a plant that crushes your hopes and dreams?

OK, maybe that's a little melodramatic, but I was sure I'd found the groundcover of my dreams when I read descriptions of Creeping Raspberry or Crinkle-Leaf Creeper (a.k.a. Rubus hayata-koidzumii, Rubus calycinoides or Rubus pentalobus). I should have known better than to trust a plant with so many aliases!

I was under the impression that Creeping Raspberry would make a solid weed-suppressing evergreen groundcover with the benefit of some flowers and even a few edible berries in springtime. It did relatively well in my garden last year - well enough for me to add another plant last autumn.

I should have known better.

Reviewing my sources, I see that the people and organizations praising Creeping Raspberry as an evergreen groundcover are one to one-and-a-half zones warmer than me gardening in places like Statesboro, Georgia (zone 8a) and Clemson, South Carolina (zone 8a).

Here in my zone 6b/7a garden (low temperature -2 Fahrenheit this past winter with no insulating snowcover to soften the blow), Creeping Raspberry apparently acts like an herbaceous perennial - dying back to the roots and slowly emerging in early April.

Creeping Raspberry tentatively steps back onto the stage

Maybe I should be grateful rather than exasperated?

After all, even though some sources do list Creeping Raspberry as being hardy to zone 6, there are others that only rate the plant for zone 7 or above. Alabama's Cooperative Extension System recommends Creeping Raspberry except in the northeast corner of the state, where it acknowledges that winter hardiness can be a problem.

Well, northeast Alabama (perhaps the Huntsville area?) is still solidly in zone 7a - I'm guessing at least a few degrees warmer than my Middle Tennessee garden on most winter nights. If the extension service is worried about Creeping Raspberry surviving in Huntsville, I guess I was inadvertently pushing my luck in the Nashville area.

So, will I pull the plants from the garden? I don't think so. I think it's just a matter of recalibrating my expectations.

After all, I believe the meteorologists said last winter was the coldest winter here in 20 years. Perhaps in a gentler winter where lows dip "only" into the single digits or a warm winter where temps stay in the teens, Creeping Raspberry's vines will survive and the plant will act more like an evergreen groundcover?

And even if it does die back to the roots, how is that any worse than other groundcovers I enjoy - like Rozanne Cranesbill Geranium, Lamb's Ear or Lady's Mantle? (Although I will say that all three of these alternates spring from the ground much more quickly in the spring and all are rated to hardy to zones 4-5.)

For now, I've scrapped any plans to add additional Creeping Raspberry plants to the garden, but I do look forward to seeing how/whether the three Creeping Raspberry plants recover in 2014.

Meanwhile, I have a choice - I could be envious of all those gardeners in slightly warmer zones whose gardens are apparently better suited to so many of the plants I'd love to grow (not just Creeping Raspberry, but everything from Camellia and Choisya ternata to Loquats and Japanese Persimmons).

But gardening reminds us of an important life lesson - we can lament the things we lack, or we can be grateful for whatever beautiful treasures we are privileged to experience.

Aronia arbutifolia buds stretch out in preparation to bloom

An unknown Camellia japonica survived the winter to bloom with exuberance

Native Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia "Snowflake") leaves embrace the sunshine

And They're Back!

Daffodils have been blooming for weeks now in Middle Tennessee
The earliest blooms got felled by nights in the teens, but new flowers have taken their place

If you’re anything like me, you start looking forward to spring around, oh, January 2^nd. 

But it’s a long, cold slog from the dawn of the New Year until many plants starting showing signs of life here on the zone 6-7 border in Middle Tennessee. Trees like Crape Myrtle and Vitex may be able to handle our summer heat, but they can take until mid-April to start leafing out. And perennials like Hardy Hibiscus can hide below ground until at least that time.

Since this winter was particularly harsh, I was worried that Spring would come late. But a stretch of temperatures in the 50s and 60s has breathed new life into the garden. 

(Note that the forecast over the next few days calls for a cold spell with lows in the lower-20s. I'll post updates of any damage. If I don't show damage, that means the plant seems to have emerged unscathed. No news equals good news in this case.)

Fuzzy new growth on an Arrowwood Viburnum
These plants sat in the garage all winter with barely any water.
I bought them too late last year (via mail order) and the weather turned brutal before I could get them in the ground.
Mea culpa. 
And yet, they survived. Color me impressed.

New leaves on Alleghany Viburnum. Actually, the leaves have looked this way for weeks now.
It's my first spring with this plant, so I'm not sure if this is normal or when they'll unfurl.

"Vera Jameson" Sedum  

Salvia nemorosa (either May Night or Blue Hill, not sure which)

Red buds on a redbud tree

Phlox paniculata "David", third year in the ground
I do like that P. paniculata emerges so early and the young leaves look beautiful.
They tend to look tired and tattered later in the summer in Middle TN.
I may try thinning out the stems this year to see if that helps improve air circulation and prevent mildew.

Phlox paniculata "Blue Boy"
Beautiful foliage

Mock Orange, Philadelphus x virginalis "Natchez"

Hydrangea quercifolia, Oakleaf Hydrangea "Snowflake"

Maple tree flowers

Nigella damascena, Love in a Mist, self-sown seedling

Loads of Love in a Mist (and a little Henbit, which is a weed, but a pretty one)
If you grow Love in a Mist, be aware that it can self sow enthusiastically unless seed heads are removed.
(The seed heads do stay on the plant a long time without shattering, so it should not be too hard to prevent or limit self-seeding if desired.)

Stachys byzantina, Lamb's Ear "Helene von Stein"
Note that I left last year's dead leaves to decay. 
Most sources advise raking the dead leaves away in the spring, but I wanted to see what would happen if I left them. So far, the Lamb's Ear seems to be doing just fine. I hope the old leaves will decay in warm weather and provide the plant with nutrients. It's a little unsightly at the moment, but I presume the new leaves will soon cover the old foliage.

Close up on the Lamb's Ear. 
Love the fuzzy foliage.

Geranium x Cantabrigiense, Cambridge Geranium "Biokovo"

Juniperus virginiana "Grey Owl"
(I cheated here a little. There are no flowers or new leaves to show here, but this new addition to the garden performed beautifully through the cold weather and deserves a moment in the spotlight.)

Viola tricolor, Johnny Jump Up
I had lots of these last year, but this is the only flower I've seen so far this year. 
Hopefully more will soon appear.  

 Gaillardia grandiflora “Arizona Apricot”
Gaillardias reportedly are susceptible to root rot in heavy clay soils, so I wasn’t sure if this would come back at all, but it seems to have survived. (Plus you can see how poorly the plant was rooted last year. Now that it's taken root more firmly, hopefully it will perform even better in 2014.)

My neighbor's forsythia. All the forsythias in the neighborhood have burst into bloom in the past few days.

Daylilies. 
As I've mentioned in other blog posts, I'm not a huge fan of daylilies for most of the year.
But I do love the exuberant fresh green foliage in early springtime!

Clematis "Crystal Fountain"
I'm trying to train this clematis to climb a crape myrtle, so far with limited success.

Echinacea purpurea, Eastern Purple Coneflower
I leave the seedheads standing over the winter  both to feed the birds and to help the Coneflowers multiply.
This strategy seems to be working!

Rubus calycinoides (a.k.a. Rubus pentalobus), Creeping Raspberry
I was under the impression that Creeping Raspberry was an evergreen groundcover, instead it seems to be performing like an herbaceous perennial in my zone 6/7 garden. 
This is a little disappointing. 
But I'll be patient. Perhaps the old stems will sprout new leaves later in the spring?
Anyway, it's nice to see new growth and know the plant is not dead!

Unknown camellia.
Several young camellias were severely damaged by our cold winter.
You can see that this established camellia suffered some foliage damage too. 
Still, I'm impressed it did not drop its buds. They seem poised to bloom any day now.

Sedum "Autumn Joy"

Alchemilla mollis, Lady's Mantle
As with the Lamb's Ears, I'm experimenting with leaving the old foliage in the hopes it will decay and fertilize the plant.

Aronia arbutifolia "Brilliantissima", Red Chokeberry

Ajuga genevensis, Geneva Ajuga

Agastache foeniculum, Anise Hyssop "Golden Jubilee"
Love the coloration on these early leaves. Later, they'll turn bright gold.

Close up on a bunch of tightly-packed cocoons on the old stems of the Golden Jubilee Agastache.
I've no idea what species spun these cocoons, but perhaps I'll get to see if/when they hatch! 
Anyone have any guesses?

So...how’s spring shaping up in your garden?

Signs of Life ... and Death?

With the shot of warm air that finally hit Middle Tennessee yesterday (and looks like it will stick around for a while), I had the urge to go out and stroll the garden, taking photos of comeback kid plants and those that have put on a disappearing act.

Here's what I found...

The pink camellia (not sure of the name since it was here when we moved in) is still going strong and covered in blooms. I only fertilize this plant once a year with an acidic natural fertilizer! Yesterday was the first day this year to see a bee working the camellia bush. Definitely a sign of spring!

I wasn't too impressed with Dianthus Firewitch last year. It just kind of sat there, but at least it didn't die in full sun, intense heat and drought. This year, it seems to be expanding. All of a sudden, just in the last couple of days, it is shooting outward in all directions. Love the foliage color. Curious to see whether this will be a long-lived perennial...

One of the two native coral honeysuckles flanking the front steps. LOTS of buds on the plant this year (its second year in the ground). Looks to be establishing nicely. Can't wait to see if a profusion of flowers will attract hummingbirds (as it is supposed to do). Last year, it had a sparse bloom and I didn't see any hummers...

Phlox paniculata 'David' - tall garden phlox. I planted three small plants back in 2011 (so two years ago). All three have come back and multiplied. From one initial stalk on this particular one, it looks like I have about a dozen stalks this year. Exciting!

I was worried that I had killed my Rozanne Geraniums by transplanting them twice last year - first from the full sun back of the house to the afternoon shade in the front. Then transplanted them again to bring these low plants closer to the front of the border where they would be more visible -- and also because I needed the space to put in an oakleaf hydrangea (see below). Anyway, I'm pretty sure these small leaves are the reemergence of one of the Rozanne Geraniums. I see another plant emerging nearby. So that's 2 out of 3 (at least). Not bad for plants that were manhandled roughly last year.

I forgot about this lily altogether until I saw it pushing up boldly in the front of the house! We put in three Stargazer Lilies when we moved in back in 2011. I remember the two in the back of the house in full sun, but the one in the front in afternoon shade has never done much. It looks really strong this year though so I have high hopes!

This is the oakleaf hydrangea I mentioned above. The new leaves are unfurling at the tips of the branches even as the old leaves still hang on. I'd say that our oakleaf hydrangea was semi-evergreen in its first winter, but the old leaves are still beautiful - colorful and almost like they are etched with frost. I think it's exciting to see the new and the old side-by-side, each beautiful in its own way. Look forward to watching this plant undergo its metamorphoses throughout the year.

And now for some not-so-great news. As you can see, the buffalo grass patch is still looking pitiful. Not a single sign of green on any of the tufts. They might be dead for all I know, or maybe just still dormant. Either way, I can't imagine planting a larger patch of buffalo grass here in Middle Tennessee. Even if it is low-growing and green in the summer, I can't imagine having the lawn look like this (or a version of this with the dormant grass more filled in) during 5-6 months from November to April.

Trying to find the bright side of the ridiculously awful buffalo grass, I will say that all the spaces between the dormant tufts provide room for self-sown annuals like this volunteer lettuce to pop up. I plan to eat this soon. It looks better in real life than in this top-down photo.

And alongside the lettuce amid the dormant buffalo grass, I also like to see these adorable violets. They popped up early despite the cold spring and have added a touch of color and movement at a time when almost everything else was dead, dormant, brown or grey. I know some people think of violets as weeds, but I like them in my garden :)

Here's a close-up on a dormant tuft of buffalo grass so you can see just how pitiful and scrawny it looks. Not surprisingly, I had to weed this patch heavily earlier in the winter...

Moving to the front of the house, there are no signs of life on this Clematis integrifolia. I did not really like the plant last year - the flowers were pretty but down-turned on a low plant so that I would have had to lie on the ground to really see them. That's my own aesthetic sensibility - just not much of a fan of down-turned flowers. I don't mind them on Aquilegia (Columbine) but I'm not particularly longing for a Hellebore either for the same reason. Anyway, I figure I'll give this Clematis another week or two to make an appearance or show some signs of life before shovel-pruning it. Or perhaps I'll just cut it way back and see if it ever makes a reappearance...

This is actually one of my biggest disappointments of the spring! You're probably thinking, "That doesn't look like much." You're right - that's the problem! This is one of the three Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Hardy Blue Plumbago) in my garden. All three of them are just bare little sticks right now. I loved these tough plants last year - they were pretty slow-growing, but they slowly did expand over the course of the growing season and they had the prettiest blue flowers plus lovely red foliage in the autumn. But I have heard these are very late to leaf out in the spring and they seem to be sticking true to that description. It's a pity, because I was thinking to try to propagate these and divide them and buy more to get a large scale Hardy Blue Plumbago groundcover, but I'm not sure I want to do that if they're going to stay dormant this far into the spring. (And that's presuming they do make an appearance and didn't bite the bullet for some reason over the winter...)

This is Geranium maculatum, just purchased via mail order. I don't have a good feeling about this plant to be honest (or most of the other plants that arrived in the same order).  The plant is quite small and some of the leaves have died since I planted it. But Geraniums are kind of tough plants (see the Rozanne above that I transplanted twice last year and still survived) so I'm hoping this one will pull through. I put it near the Rozanne to have a nice mixed Geranium area. That's the idea anyway.

This is Hexastylis arifolia, an ornamental ginger native to the Southeast. It arrived in the same mail order package as the Geranium maculatum above. Again, I think it's looking really pitiful. Only one of the leaves is hanging strong and the rest of the stems have pretty much keeled over. I'll give it time to recover, but I don't think it's looking good. 

OK, let's finish on a high note with some upbeat images. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm loving the Veronica Georgia Blue so far. I added two to the garden last autumn and both stayed evergreen through the winter and are now blooming their pretty little heads off in March and April. They are most floriferous on sunny days. Just beautiful!! Love that shade of blue :)  (This one is in afternoon shade and seems to be spreading a bit wider than the one in full sun, but the one in full sun looks good too, just growing a little tighter.)

I don't have the tag for this anymore, but I believe this is a variegated variety of Agastache foeniculum, a.k.a. Anise Hyssop. I bought this plant late last autumn and it did not have much time to settle in before it went dormant for the winter, so I was a little worried about it, but it seems to be coming back nicely this spring. It is actually supposed to prefer full sun (I have it in an afternoon shade setting) but it's related to mint and mints like moist soil and the full sun areas on my property tend to bake and dry out in mid-summer. So even though it is supposedly drought tolerant, I placed it in afternoon shade. So I may not get as many flowers as I would if it were in full sun, but hopefully the plant will survive and thrive. If I ever get another one, I'll probably try it in full sun just to see what happens, but I'm trying to minimize supplemental irrigation in my garden and find plants that can survive just on rain water (with an occasional  assist in extreme droughts), and I'm not sure that Anise Hyssop would fit that bill in a full sun setting.

Here's another plant that I added late last year. It's hard to tell what's going on from this photo, but trust me when I say this is a top-down view of a dogwood that was sort mistreated by being partially buried alongside a brush pile last winter. Some branches were broken and/or perhaps nibbled by the mice who made their home in said brush pile. Nonetheless, the dogwood seems to have pulled through and is starting to leaf out! Exciting stuff!!

Here's another perennial with a reputation for breaking dormancy late in the year. But it's still up and growing before the Hardy Blue Plumbago. You're looking at the emerging stems of the balloon flower - Platycodon grandiflorus, Mariesii variety. Again, I added this late last year and it still flowered prettily in the autumn, but I was not sure if it had time to settle in before winter. Looks like it did just fine. I love the fleshy purple stems. I believe Platycodon is supposed to be long-lived and able to thrive with little human care. My kind of perennia! Plus the flowers are amazing.

Again, it's a little hard to tell from this photo (given the difficulty my camera has with focusing sometimes), but this is Aronia arbutifolia Brilliantissima variety. All three of my aronias struggled with the heat and drought last year, but they all pulled through and are leafing out nicely. The two A. melanocarpas on the other side of the front steps are a bit smaller, but this A. arbutifolia has lots of leaves and seems to be covered with buds. I'll be amazed if it blooms when it is this small (only about 12-18 inches tall) but it looks like it might just do that! Wow.

Finally, to finish with a favorite, this is the impossibly fresh and clean green foliage of Sweet Woodruff. One of three patches that I have in the garden (another one smaller than this and one that's much bigger). This came from Gardens in the Wood of Grassy Creek (GITWOGC) last autumn and it looks just beautiful. Based on my experiences so far, I can say that GITWOGC is the only mail order nursery that impressed me with the size and health of its plants and their vigor. I placed another order from Dottie at GITWOGC this spring and am looking forward to receiving my plants next week. (Normally, I think she would ship earlier, but North Carolina's spring has been as cold as ours here in Tennessee.) Some folks say that Sweet Woodruff is invasive. I'm sure I'll regret saying this later, but right now I'm hoping it will invade a lot of the bare ground in my landscape beds! ;)