Plant of the Month-April 09

From In the Garden

There are so many good plants in bloom this month that I had to narrow my choice down to one single question:

What is a show stopper in the garden right now?

The answer to that question has to be the Japanese Rose, aka Kerria japonica. My particular cultivar is 'Plenifora'; which is a double kerria that grows to about 6 feet tall and spreads slowly by suckers. It is growing in a spot where it only gets afternoon sun and it is doing great! I planted this shrub last spring and rarely watered it last summer. Despite neglect it bloomed off an on all summer and fall. And just look at it now! I think a showstopper indeed. Especially more so since it is sited under mature oak trees.

According to this website the kerria is hardy to Zone 5. Yeah for northern gardeners! This plant is a must have in all gardens. I like the green stems in the winter and I like its ease of care and long period of bloom. On my recent trip to McMinnville with my friends Judie and Phil, I insisted they should also get a kerria, and they did. You see, kerrias are poisonous and are listed as rarely damaged plants when deer maraud your garden. A good thing for gardeners with deer problems like my friends Judie and Phil. So far I do not have a deer issue here, and my dogs do not eat my plants so I do not worry about the kerria being poisonous. If you have plant eating children or pets take care when planting the kerria.

I also wanted to show you some other plants in the running for the coveted title of Plant of the Month in my garden. Last April's Plant of the was pulmonaria, a stellar performer even this year but not quite the showstopper like the kerria.

Grape hyacinths are a real stunner this year. I love the blue of them.

Camellias are still blooming strong. This particular one is a Camellia japonica. It is one of only two japonicas I grow and only because it was a markdown plant.

The 'Perfecta' bergenias I recently planted are trying to bloom.

Pieris is an outstanding shrub in the garden. I posted on this plant this time last year.

The tulips look pretty good. I enjoy them each year though hybrids are not my favorite. A post will come concerning the differences between species tulips and hybrid tulips at some point. Stay tuned.

Candytuft, aka Iberis sempervirens is hard to beat no matter the month of the year. I love this perennial very much!

Hyacinths are wonderful this year. I planted several hundred bulbs last fall. These were all marked down to cents at Rural King and I think I bought them out. The results show. And the bonus of hyacinths is that they will return each year.

Sorry about the other plant pictures, but I thought I'd use these as part of my bloom day post too and I also thought some of you might have these plants growing in your garden. I bet one of them could be your choice for your 'Plant of the Month'-so do let us know which one it is or if it is one not pictured....

in the garden....

Patio Garden

I talked about building my new Secret Patio last week, so I thought I'd talk about the garden itself this week. There is still one more post concerning this garden, but I'll post it tomorrow.

The soil that was excavated from the hole for the patio itself was turned and spread around the patio itself in order to create a garden area. While I am lucky with my soil in that it is not too clayey, I find it best to build up gardens rather than going down. This was the case in this area. There are some mature trees around and I am pretty sure they extend to this area, so I went up with the soil, but I did turn the existing sod prior to adding the extra soil. The few inches of extra soil added here will not hurt the surrounding trees and will make an ideal garden area.

Since the soil excavated and moved contained some turf, I not only turned it over, but amended it with organic matter such as coffee grounds and rabbit 'beans', and then covered both beds with lots of newspapers, leaf mold, and hay to hold the leaf mold in place. The coffee grounds and rabbit pellets will provide a good source of nitrogen for microbes to work on decomposing the grass, and the newspapers will ensure the grass rots by blocking the light. This is a good procedure I have used many times on new gardens. It works well for me.


This picture simply illustrates a part of the pre-existing garden. Since the area slopes slightly to the west, I had to compensate for the slope in this raised bed. Nothing grows in the bed since it holds two oak trees and a cedar tree; which make the soil so root bound that it dries out too quickly to support good growth on any plants. However, I added some soil and the bricks to raise the bed up a bit, and planted a 'Tamukeyama' Japanese Maple. This is one of two which are planted around the Secret Patio. The 'Tamukeyama' is a weeping Japanese maple. I already had a 'Crimson Queen' weeping Japanese maple, but added these two when I found them marked down to only $15 for a 3 gallon pot at a Home Depot in Maine last fall. Yes, they traveled back from Maine in the back of our truck. What a trip! Good thing they were and still are dormant. I also planted one for my mother in her Maine garden. I so hope it does well for her. This area of my garden where my small trees are planted are on the downhill slope, I expect moisture will be fairly adequate here but will watch them closely. If they do not work in this garden, I will surely move them.
The patio area is in a partly sunny area. It probably will only get about 2 hours of sun max. You see this area is surrounded by mature oaks and faces west where some more mature oaks grow. There is a gap in between the oaks to the east and the oaks to the west so the area directly above the patio is fairly open. I am thrilled with the area and its light. I think light is very important in a garden and one must first always determine the light the garden receives, and of course, the type of soil the garden contains. Since this area is mostly shade and I had planned from the very beginning to install a very special tree in it, I have planned for mostly shade perennials. Some of the perennials planted here are: Tiarella Foam Flower, Bergenia 'Perfecta', Leucothoe 'Rainbow', Candytuft, foxgloves, Yellow Twig dogwood, and a 'Rocky Mountain' penstemon. I am still in the process of adding perennials. Hostas will join the mix, as well as heucheras, a Night Blooming Jasmine (aka Cerastum nocturnum), Star Magnolia (Royal Star), several oakleaf hydrangeas, some annuals, and who knows what else? You can see many of the new plants in the picture above. I also added several daffodils into the mix.

In case you did not guess the 'pigsqueak' plant I mentioned in my Patio Post, it is Bergenia cordifolia. It is Carolyn Gail's Signature plant. She blogs at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago. I used to grow bergenias in Germany and really liked them. I am not sure how they will do in the heat and humidity of our southern climate, but I'm willing to give it a try since all I've read on the bergenias say they are quite adaptable to moist or dry soils. We will most likely have the dry soils. I am hoping that the fact I have them sited under a special tree in the shade will help it even more to withstand our summers. This plant is evergreen and changes color in the winter. It turns a red/maroon and I just love it. I was fortunate to find a bunch of these at a favorite nursery in Indiana where the kind owner let me have them at 50% off since they were left over from last fall. He told me, "They are still good though." A very nice elderly gentleman who was adamant these plants were still good; which of course I knew. If any of you all ever travel to Evansville, Indiana, or there are readers in this area, do check out Hillside Commercial Landscaping just outside of Evansville on St. Joseph's Avenue. I love this place and posted about it before.

While at the nursery I was ever so fortunate to find my long sought after tree. It is a special tree for me and one I had planned would grace this garden way before I even began building the patio. More on it tomorrow, but I'll leave you with some hints to get you thinking about this tree.

This tree is: native to the United States, can be grown as a tree or shrub, blooms white in the spring, is small to medium sized with a moderate life span, its roots are not invasive, its bark is quite thin, it grows blue/black berries that are delicious for humans and birds, and is a highly recommended tree for street side and residential plantings alike. It is susceptible to some pests and diseases since it is in the Rosaceae famiy, so it is not a perfect tree.

I bet this will be a very easy tree to guess if you are of the mind to do so. I'll post the answer tomorrow.

in the garden....

Don't forget about Skeeter's contest.