Discover Smith Mountain Lake
FALL 2016
35
34
Weeder’s
Digest
Working in a retail environment affords me constant reminders
that the next person who walks into the garden center may not
be learned about the terminology that we use in the gardening
industry.The last thing that I want is for people to feel intimidated
by bloviated hyperbole when they might be just getting started in
the wonderful world of plants.
As the late great Felix Unger once pointed out, quoting Oscar
Wilde: “When you assume...” (Break down the word, and you will
get the picture.)
Assuming that someone knows the difference between an annual
and a perennial is a good way to get off to a bad start. In the greater
scheme of things, bedding plants are not very expensive, but it’s
important to know upon the purchase of that plant whether it will
either come back next year or that it is a “one season wonder”.
Spring time at most Garden Centers explodes with annuals in a
wide spectrum of colors.Annuals are those plants that are defined
as living for one season, in which they grow, flower all season, set
seed, and then die, fulfilling their life cycle. Some can self seed,
providing free plants that will sprout the following spring. They
can be good, but rarely are they of the same quality or color as the
hybridized version that you initially purchased.
Some annuals can be tagged as a perennial, which is defined as a
plant that comes back year after year. One pitfall is the growing
zone, or temperature lows that a plant can withstand. On average,
our region is designated as Zone 7, meaning that typically our
temperature lows are between 0 to10 degrees Fahrenheit. If you
plant a zone 8 perennial, which would survive lows from 10 to 20
degrees on average; it would die in a typical zone 7 winter, and
therefore is considered to be an annual if planted locally. However,
there are no promises or guarantees.Year by year winters can have
fluctuating conditions, and our topography lends itself to vastly
different growing conditions as well.
One disadvantage to annuals is that you have to either grow them
from seed or repurchase them each year. Also, you may have to
regularly deadhead them by removing spent flowers and provide
extra water to keep them thriving.The bonus flip side is that they
generally bloom all season, and you can change the look of your
garden or containers year after year by experimenting with new
colors and the ever changing new varieties hitting the market.
Perennials provide the gardener a long
term pay off, as they come back season after
season. Most are herbaceous, meaning that
after a frost, they die back to the ground to
emerge again the following spring. For the
most part, perennials have a short bloom
period, perhaps 2 to 3 weeks, so choosing
plants with different bloom times will
extend the color in your garden. Woody
perennials, such as caryopteris, lose their
leaves, but their stems remain throughout
winter. They need to be cut back hard in
spring so as to strengthen their base, to
prevent them from flopping over by late
summer when they begin to bloom.
I can remember as a kid, my mother would
take me with her to our local garden
center every several weeks throughout the
growing season, and she would pick out
those perennials that were in bloom at the
time. I would later learn that this process
created a garden that always had something
going in and out of bloom, creating a garden
that always had something providing color
and interest. By intermixing annuals and
perennials, your garden will always be
alive.
The process of organizing a garden bed
can be daunting at first glance, but the
secret is in learning to anchor the bed with
larger growing plants in the backdrop,
with medium to lower growers in the
foreground. Perennials are easy to move,
and most will benefit from division after
3 to 4 years anyway, but at least start with
the premise of positioning them in drifts
and clumps.
Drifts of plants are elongated groupings of
like plants that flow through the garden.
Planting them in irregular patterns draws
interest throughout the bed. Clumps are
either more circular groupings, or a lone
larger anchoring type plant, providing a
bold statement. Foliage, or the leaves of the
plant, is an equally important consideration
when designing a garden; the short bloom
times of some perennials makes this key to
a bed design.
The choice of colors in your design is really
a matter of personal taste.While I do not
think any colors clash in nature, the use
of color can be used as a tool for effect.
Reds, oranges, and yellows are considered
warm colors; they can dominate to the
point where they will visually shrink the
appearance of a small bed. Cool colors like
blue, white, and violet can create a feel of
airiness.All that aside, it really is hard to go
wrong if you liked what you saw when you
bought it.
As long as you follow some basic
guidelines, you will do fine. First and most
important to any purchase is the location;
I can not stress this enough.The amount of
sun or shade, early or late, dappled or full
strength, is your starting point. After that,
consider height and width, bloom time,
and finally color.You will not be chastised
for your preferences, at least not by me,
and there will not be a test.
Light conditions must guide your
selections: 2 hours of afternoon sun can
equal 4 or more hours of morning sun. In
general, a location that gets 3 to 4 hours of
afternoon sun should be considered a full
sun site. Partial shade translates roughly as
up to 3 to 4 hours of full morning sun with
shade in the afternoon, or dappled shade
all day long. Shade loving plants prefer a
site that is dappled all morning and shaded
all afternoon. Failure to plant accordingly
can lead to a lack of blooming, legginess,
stunted growth, or leaf scorch. There is a
difference between living and thriving.
Finally, there are plants characterized as
biennials, which are plants that complete
their life cycle over a 2 year span. If
growing from seed: when sown in summer,
the plant develops by fall, goes dormant
over winter, and then grows the following
season, providing blooms, and then dies.
If you do not dead head them, they will
produce seed and continue the process.
Popular biennials include Hollyhocks and
Foxglove.
I am not going to tell you that building the
perfect garden is easy, or any one method
is perfect, but it surely is fun. Let’s get
growing!
Remember, it never hurts to seek professional advice. You
can reach Bob Siren at Diamond Hill Garden Center at
540-297-7009 or email
Wherewill your
DREAMS take you?
888-880-4655
mantravelteam.com
K AU F F M A N T R AV E L T E A M
13840 B.T. WASHINGTON HWY, SUITE C1
SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE, VA 24121
Listen in to Garden Gab everyWednesday
from 9am - 10am onWSLK Radio
By Bob Siren
