Articles

During the off-season I took a series of landscaping classes at Longwood Gardens. The instructor was a landscape architect.

Most, if not all of us in the class, were amazed at the magnitude of the projects he did. To clarify the last sentence, magnitude and money start with the same letter.

At one point a brazen classmate asked what was the smallest project he had ever done. His answer was $500. The project consisted of planting one tree. My imagination isn't stretched too far by that number because today we have the ability to successfully move rather large trees. Large trees require large machinery, which easily equate to large bucks.

Whether your budget demands one tree or nearly a forest for $500 I'll offer a few thoughts.

If you are transplanting a large tree, it is most likely a job for a professional with the necessary equipment. What I can suggest is that a large tree takes a rather long time to recover from transplant shock and you need to be vigilant with attention, especially during dry periods.

The rule of thumb is that it takes one year for each inch of trunk size for the transplant to get acclimated. In other words, if the trunk diameter is three inches the tree will take at least three years to totally recover from transplanting.

If your budget aims at smaller trees, the question is how to successfully guide them to become the large tree that you want. Of course don't plant too deep, look out for circling roots and keep the mulch away from the trunk. We'll revisit this general topic again in the near future.

The real challenge is developing a strong stem and establishing the lowest limbs at the height you want. A sturdy stem should have a tapered trunk. If you can't see the taper your tree will be weak. To develop the desired taper you must keep the branches that form along the trunk.

That leads to the contradiction of having branches well below the height of the lowest desired permanent branches. The strategy is to let the lower branches grow but to head (remove) them maybe two feet from the trunk.

Even headed, these first branches will provide enough leaf surface to permit normal tree growth. Continue this process until you reach the height to let the first permanent branches grow. As the leaf surface advances up the trunk into the permanent branches, the headed lower branches can be removed. >

Photo courtesy of North Carolina State University

Before you cut, notice that every branch will have a noticeable collar near where it joins the trunk. Cut close to but just outside the collar and the cut will heal quickly. The literature suggests cuts up to two inches in diameter heal quickly but I think you can get the job finished long before temporary limbs develop to that size.

Enough about trees for today. Let's talk about Longwood. If you are serious about gardening they offer lots of classes to enhance your knowledge and skills. I've done single sessions, multiple sessions and their college level certificate courses. I have yet to be disappointed.

Last Wednesday as the temperatures bounded into the seventies, I was surprised at the number of people who needed reminding that winter is dying but not dead. The dirt is beckoning many of us.

If you're impatient, you can look at the bag of pea seed. You can move there with the next warming trend. I'm sure a few pea seeds are already hiding under the soil. Shortly you can add onions, potatoes, spinach, dormant shrubs, and maybe lettuce to the list. Personally, over the years, I have seen little gain rushing to plant before the end of March. I refuse to get nervous until the calendar puts April Fool's Day in the rear view mirror. With peas you may gain a few days at the risk of poor seed germination.

I did spot one garden project that is begging for my attention. About five years ago I planted three hellebores in the bed leading to my front door. The first year they were small and offered only a few blooms. The second year I was in love. Year three the leaves looked tattered and I was disappointed.

> >

Last year the tattered leaves were removed and within days a miracle occurred. They were magnificent. As I watched them this winter I was amazed at how well the leaves were holding up. That was until recently when I realized that another razing is urgently needed.

The clumps at age five are now maybe 18 or 24 inches across and should carry enough flowers that counting them is a time consuming job. I would expect bloom within a week or so of when I get the leaves off. From my experience it is no wonder that the hellebore was named the Perennial Association's Plant of the Year last year.

The common name is Lenten Rose. There is also a type with the common name Christmas Rose. I have no experience with that one. If you are familiar with Lent and Christmas you can get an idea of when they bloom.

Five years ago most Lenten Roses bloomed a purple shade with several related plants that bloomed white. Today, after some delays and disappointments, a variety of flower colors are becoming available.

In addition to the purples, you can find red, white, yellow, various spotted ones and even double flowering cultivars. Since most are grown from seed, there is still quite a bit of variability in the bloom colors. The seed companies claim that about 80 percent of the seeds will come true.

That can be exciting or disappointing. In any case I find it difficult to believe that you will be disappointed with this plant.It took me several years to realize that this plant needs quite a bit of moisture. Not soggy, but damp. They should do well in a moist site protected from the hottest afternoon sun.

Fortunately, I have saved some clean-up to occupy any garden time I have this early in the season. Two final warnings. Don't rush to prune your butterfly bush. Wait at least three weeks or more if new growth is not showing. The second is that spring is near. Have patience.

One of my favorite things about gardening is that you can easily see the results of your efforts. Those last six words can be addicting.

For those who wish to push a little deeper into gardening starting your own plants from seeds is one route to take. If this is a new venture, I would start with some of the easy ones.

Marigolds, cabbage (cole crops in general), tomatoes, zinnias, asters, salvia, and portulacas are the first seven easy ones that come to mind. Portulacas are easy, but illustrate one of the first problems you will meet. Some seeds are tiny.

For successful seed starting you need several basics. Most important is to use a fine grade potting soil. There are special seed mixes available. Garden soil will not work in a seed tray.

Next on my list is moisture. Too much and you invite disease, too little and the seeds will die from dehydration as they try to germinate. Several paragraphs back I suggested some easy ones to start with primarily because learning the proper use of water is the most difficult part of seed starting and growing young plants. On second thought, that's an issue with growing any plant.

A misting system works great, but is generally impractical in a home situation. You can get good results with a mist bottle if you put the seed tray in a plastic bag. Get rid of the bag once you see germination beginning.

The third issue is light. Grow lights work fine as does a small greenhouse. Next best is to find a bright spot with indirect sunlight. Direct sunlight makes it almost impossible to keep your seed flats moist without over-watering or overheating.

Most seeds should be covered lightly. The old rule of thumb is the larger the seed the deeper you should plant. Most seeds need a little bit of light to germinate. My daughter often lays the seeds on top of the potting soil and covers them with vermiculite.

Next you need to think about temperature. Bottom heat is best and temperature near 70 degrees is desirable for most plants.

Here comes a couple of quick lists. Seeds that germinate and grow rapidly include marigolds, zinnias, vine crops like cucumbers and melons, cabbage, and salvia. Plants that take a long time from seed to the garden include snapdragons, pansies and begonias. In between I would list tomatoes, peppers and impatiens.

Read the seed pack. That should help you navigate the last several paragraphs for a particular seed.

Finally here is a short list of plants I wouldn't include in my first try. They are gomphrena (requires soaking and a cold pretreatment) lobelia, alyssum, celosia and poppies. These last are slow and prone to a fungal disease commonly known as damping off. Most perennial seeds are difficult to germinate. Some are easy, but many are finicky and require well-defined procedures to produce success. Sometimes we have more seeds in our freezer than food.

I doubt that starting your own plants and avoiding the greenhouse will greatly fatten your wallet, but if you have the interest, it is a challenge you may wish to undertake. You can certainly seed the results of your efforts. >

In early January someone asked me, I hope jestingly, whether I had my peas in yet. They got the look of disbelief I bet they were looking for.

But to be honest, I did dig a few holes in early January and sneak a few plants into the ground. I guess I did it because I had never done that before. If those plants die I will never mention it again.

It doesn't take any more than the above to jolt the memory about the weather we had in December and January. I took all the precautions of late season planting when I dug in January. The soil was fine, the temperature was good, the ten-day forecast favorable, and a good shower was promised that evening.

After a shower or two and the soil froze on top, I mulched. Three weeks later as the weather turned much colder, I put my Christmas tree to use covering them with a loose pile of evergreen branches.

The early winter weather also spawned a report from the Arbor Day Association that they thought the climate zone maps should be redrawn. According to their plan, we would shift into zone 7. That would suggest that we don't get winter lows below zero.

Without uncapping the global warming argument, one must admit that the last several winters seemed to support the zone 7 claim until we encountered February.

I know that the real groundhog saw his shadow and thus we are having six more weeks of winter. My guess is that he looked at the ten-day forecast a day earlier and it was a no-brainer.

What the groundhog proved to me was that his handlers here were just more literate than those in the western part of the country. Does it make you suspicious of the news when the national newsmen give all their attention to that western one?

Sorry, I wondered off. Back to the idea of us being Zone 7. Several years ago I was at a Zone 7 public garden. I knew the gardener and I raved about a rhododendron look alike enough that he gave me two seedlings.

They came home and I planted them in a sheltered spot. I was so sure that they were doomed that I have forgotten their name. Since they seem quite happy I may have to try to figure out what they are.

Many of us are growing crape myrtles as bushes with relative amounts of winter injury. Some of this may be climate, but much of it is the work of the breeders. Camellias have recently joined that list.With both of these and other tender plants you may wish to try the following suggestions. Don't plant too late in the fall. Maybe mulch well after the ground freezes to protect the roots. Finally, wrapping the first season or two will help, too.

Last summer we planted two rather expensive, moderately tender Japanese maples at the entrance to our house. We wrapped them in old sheets ahead of the February blasts and they seem to be doing well. In all honesty, that is the first time in nearly sixty years of playing in the dirt that I have ever wrapped a plant.

Zone 7 or Zone 6. I don't know. Right now I don't flinch if a plant has negative 5-degree winter hardiness, but I am still haunted by that morning in 1993 when I looked at the thermometer in disbelief when it said minus 22. >

When considerations or words like balance, form, texture, color, repetition, scale, rhythm, accent, dominance or contrast start to appear in your garden thinking, you have climbed to another level. There are other landscape words of equal importance, but this is what I got with a brief head scratch.

Balance implies that as you look at your landscape a large tree on one side should not look like it is about ready to tip your lot on it side. Balance can be symmetric or formal which comes from putting the same plant scheme on each side or informal by putting equal masses of plants on each side.

One way to think about it is to think about a seesaw. How many grandkids does it take on one side to balance grandpa on the other side? I still have a long ways to go.

Think of form as shape. Texture is usually leaf shape and direction. Add in color and this permits you to sequence plants in the garden. Avoiding abrupt changes is often the glue that makes a garden look like a unit.

Color is not my best cup of tea. Sure, you can go to the color wheel and group opposites or neighboring colors. I can do that but still an artist friend's combinations always look better than mine. Fortunately most flowers are pastels and it is tough to get too far off course with them.

Repetition comes in two forms. The experts demand groupings of odd numbers of plants up to seven. In other words, a single plant is a specimen but when grouping you need three, five or seven plants in a group. Repetition also encourages that elements or groups of plants be repeated throughout the garden. This creates rhythm that leads the eye through the garden.

Almost always when considering landscaping you must start with the existing buildings. If you are renovating an existing landscape, you need to carefully think about what existing plants you wish to keep.

Scale suggests that larger trees match taller buildings while a low rancher might look dwarfed by giant trees. This raises the conflict between getting an instant landscape and waiting for the plants to grow. This is a budget issue and a cultural issue since larger plants take more maintenance for their first years in the landscape. That essay is in my mind for a future date.

Accent is my favorite. Plantings should frame a good view or hide a bad one. Accents can be created with specimen plants or man-made objects like statues.

Dominance describes the main elements in the plant landscape while contrast is used to connect the dominant elements. Contrast is created by varying plant heights, shapes, or, textures.

That is a short list. I'll end with a few additional thoughts. Evergreens are often over-used. Don't lose sight of simplicity. Often less is more.