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Month: February 2014

Garden Planning 101

Kniphofia 'Border Ballet' in garden
Remember that many great gardens have been planned on scrap paper and built on a shoestring. (Photo by Jessie Keith)

In February, home gardens may be covered with snowdrops or blanketed with snow, depending on climate zone and the whims of Mother Nature. Either way, it is time for garden planning. New ideas are ready to break dormancy, even if the outdoor plants aren’t quite there yet.
Fafard Premium Topsoil packSomewhere there is a vast garden planning spectrum, with places on it for all of us who love to dig in the dirt. The meticulous planners are at one end, plotting layouts, bloom times and expenditures in careful detail every year. They keep excellent records and can tell you precisely how much they paid for a new lilac in 2002 and the exact day that it produced its first blossom. The seat-of-the-pants gardeners are at the extreme opposite end. These are the people who make every garden decision on the fly. When spring arrives, they get in their cars and create highway havoc by braking suddenly in front of every alluring garden center display. Often these mercurial individuals go on to jeopardize their credit limits by making extravagant impulse purchases of plants, tools and garden décor. No matter where you are on the spectrum, a little planning is a good investment.

Dream Big

Define your dream garden in words or images, even if your vision goes way beyond your current means. Great gardens or landscapes begin with big plans. The same goes for plant lists. When you first page through paper or online plant catalogs, flag anything that catches your eye. The process will help you understand the colors, shapes and plant types that you love best at this particular stage of your gardening career. It will also speed you through the end-of-winter doldrums and pave the way for the list-whittling and prioritizing you will do down the road.

Some of the best garden ideas have been inspired by “borrowed” landscape elements. Start Your Garden Plan

Think about your entire landscape, including hardscaping, structures and established plantings. Decide what you want to keep, modify or eliminate completely. Even if you are starting with a property that has been completely cleared, at least one landscape element is already in place—the view. For better or worse, the view of your own property and that of your neighbors, is part of the existing scheme. Some of the best garden ideas have been inspired by “borrowed” landscape elements. Some even better ones have sprung from the necessity of hiding something ugly.

Plan a Garden You Can Manage

Get a realistic grip on your gardening/landscape resources. This includes your discretionary time as well as money. Figure out how much of both you have available for garden-related expenditures and tasks. Your dreams may include large, color-themed beds and borders, with razor sharp edges and hundreds of linear feet of precisely clipped hedges. If your reality includes about an hour a week of garden maintenance time, you will either have to hire someone to do much of the work, stretch out your plans over a long time frame or redefine your goals.

Making Arrangements for Your New GardenWinter Landscape

Once you have defined your vision and resources, it’s time to move ahead. Do you have the time and/or money to make big changes, like removing a mature tree or building a water feature? If so, get contractor recommendations from friends and family and call contractors for quotes. In spring, landscape professionals and builders have full calendars. Starting early ensures that your jobs will be on them. If smaller DIY changes are more your style, figure out how best to accomplish them. Sketch out planting schemes or designs, either on paper or with the help of online gardening tools. Whittle down plant wish lists and, if possible, order plants that you won’t be able to find at local garden centers. Many vendors offer early bird discounts to gardeners willing to order at the end of winter. Make a list of the basic supplies you will need, including new or replacement garden tools and products like Fafard Premium Organic Compost and Premium Topsoil.

Garden Limits

Imagination has no limits, but most other resources do. If money is a problem, borrow tools or buy them cheaply at garage and tag sales. Plan to divide existing perennial plants and ask friends if they will share divisions or cuttings from their gardens. Start annuals and edible crops from seed. If your soil is bad or non-existent, plan a container layout using repurposed vessels. Remember that anything that can hold a quantity of damp dirt can serve as a plant pot. Start small, with a simple plan, and add to it as time and finances permit. Remember that many great gardens have been planned on scrap paper and built on a shoestring.
Planning ahead lets you make the most of whatever you have and gives you a jump-start on the gardening season. It is also an excellent tonic for the winter-weary soul.

Planting during gardening season
Planning ahead lets you make the most of whatever you have and gives you a jump-start on the gardening season. (Photo by Jessie Keith)

Indoor Bloomers for Midwinter Cheer

Streptocarpus 'Party Pinafore'
Streptocarpus ‘Party Pinafore’

Most of us in the Frozen North could really use a hit of spring about now. How about flowers, for instance? Or better yet, how about a lush plant in full bloom, providing a colorful (and therapeutic) dose of midwinter cheer?
That won’t be happening in most of our gardens for a few weeks yet (although here in southern New England the early witch-hazels often open their spidery blooms before February is out). On the other hand, any number of plants will provide a bevy of winter blooms in a sun room or kitchen or any suitable indoor space, given a modest investment of care. Furthermore, some of them double their display with equally showy foliage.

Purple-leaved Oxalis

One sure sign of spring’s approach is the mass arrival of purple-leaved oxalis (Oxalis triangularis) in supermarkets and department stores, in anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day. This handsome and easy-to-grow perennial is much more than a one-holiday wonder, however. Although the deep-maroon, three-lobed, shamrock-like leaves give it obvious St. Patty’s Day caché, they are perhaps even more appealing in winter, especially when punctuated with the pale pink, funnel-shaped flowers that this South American native produces year-round. Plants can also be purchased as “bulbs”, which are actually scaly, caterpillar-like underground stems (rhizomes) that should be planted horizontally an inch or two below the soil surface in Fafard® Professional Potting Mix. Full to partial sun, almost any potting mix, and anything but total neglect will keep this tough perennial happy. It is also remarkably cold-hardy, functioning well as a foliage accent in mixed borders and other perennial plantings from Washington DC into the South.

Calathea 'Holiday'
Calathea ‘Holiday’

Calatheas

Calatheas, like purple-leaved oxalis, are typically known and grown for their showy foliage. Yet, a few surprise us with blossoms that stand clear of the foliage in an arresting and anything-but-drab display – rather than cowering blandly near the bases of the leaves. Among the best of these showy-flowered peacock plants are a series of hybrids developed in Indonesia in the early 2000s. And none is better than the cultivar ‘Holiday’, whose striking blooms – with rose-pink, pale-eyed petals tipped with olive-green – open sporadically throughout the year. When not in flower, ‘Holiday’ provides ample ornament with its broadly oval, bright green leaves marked by purple-black chevrons and silvery, purple-edged margins. Other ever-blooming calathea hybrids include ‘Constellation’, ‘Jungle Cat’, ‘Maria’, and ‘Royal Standard.’ (Their flowery parent, Calathea loeseneri, also makes a wonderful subject for a shady indoor nook.) All calatheas prosper in full to partial shade, warm humid conditions (although they’ll tolerate less), and a coarse humus-rich potting medium. Fafard African Violet Potting Mix is a good fit. Repot and divide plants yearly or once every two years.

Cymbidium orchids
Cymbidium orchids grow beautifully in the cool winter months.

Orchids

Terrestrial to semi-terrestrial orchids of many types bloom beautifully in the winter months. Most notably are Cymbidium, Paphiopedilum, and Phaius species, grexes, and cultivars. All provide bright, long-lasting floral color and thrive in Fafard’s Premium Orchid Mix, which offers a perfect blend of fir bark, chopped coir and perlite. 

Spiral Ginger

For sheer nonstop flower power and ease of care, few plants can match spiral ginger (Chamaecostus cuspidatus, formerly Costus cuspidatus). The golden-orange, ruffle-edged, blooms look almost orchid-like and appear year-round on cane-like, 2-foot-tall stems clothed with glossy, dark-green, broadly lance-shaped leaves. Flowering is most abundant in summer, but blooms continue to open throughout fall and winter, particularly in warm humid niches. Give it bright shade, a fertile compost-rich growing medium, such as Fafard® Organic Potting Mix, and moderate watering for maximum display. Other members of the costus tribe, like dwarf cone ginger (Costus woodsonii) and crepe ginger (Cheilocostus speciosus), thrive in similar conditions, and are also well worth seeking out.

Oxalis triangularis 'Francis'
Oxalis triangularis ‘Francis’

Streptocarpus

No discussion of winter-blooming (and ever-blooming) houseplants would be complete without mention of cape primroses. Members of the southern African genus Streptocarpus, and close relatives of African violets, these little evergreen perennials perch easily on a modest windowsill (fitting happily in a 4-inch pot), where they bloom their heads off year-round, the funnel-shaped flowers smiling from atop wiry, 4- to 8-inch stems. Hybrids abound in all manner of luscious exotic colors and patterns, with the flowers’ two rounded, ear-like upper lobes typically differing in hue from the three lower ones, and their throats often bearing dramatic contrasting streaks. Partial shade, Fafard African Violet Potting Mix, mild humid summers, and coolish somewhat drier winters will result in nearly constant blooms, and loads of midwinter cheer.

Flower Traits for Pollinators: Understanding Pollination Syndromes

Flower Traits for Pollinators: Understanding Pollination Syndromes Featured Image

Flowers are pollinator magnets—each holding the secret for pollinator attraction. Flowers communicate to birds, bees, bats, or butterflies through special cues. These cues are essentially groups of traits relating to things like flower size, shape, color, scent, as well as nectar and pollen characteristics. “Pollination syndromes” is another term for these trait groups, and they can be helpful for gardeners, too. If you know them, you can better understand how to design your gardens and containers to draw specific pollinators.

Pollination Syndromes

A tiger swallowtail butterfly takes nectar from a summer zinnia.
A tiger swallowtail butterfly takes nectar from a summer zinnia. (Photo by Jessie Keith)

Showy flowers are displaying their NEED to be pollinated by insects, birds, or other pollinators. Truly, floral displays are about two things: sex and competition. Pollination is required for cross-fertilization (gene exchange to keep plant populations healthy and species surviving). Flowers also offer essential food rewards for pollinators. So as pollinators compete for flowers and flowers compete for pollinators our gardens reap the reward of color and movement. Types of pollinators are many, and some flowers and pollinators are specially designed for one another. One pollinator to one plant species relationships are very rare. More often plants have pollination syndromes directed towards broader pollinator groups, like bee, bird, butterfly, and bat. Once gardeners know these, they can choose flowers with specific pollinators in mind.

Bee Pollination (Melittophily)

Highly fragrant flowers in blue or yellow shades that are designed for landing are bee favorites.
Highly fragrant flowers in blue or yellow shades that are designed for landing are bee favorites. (Image by Jessie Keith)

There are lots of bees with around 20,000 known distinct species. Nonetheless, specific floral traits attract them all. Bees are attracted to yellow, blue and ultra-violet colors, they eat pollen and sugary nectar, have a strong sense of smell, and they land on the flowers they pollinate. In turn, most bee flowers are either in yellow or blue shades or have nectar guides (petal marks indicating nectar) in these colors or ultra-violet; their nectar is sugary nectar, the flowers are fragrant and they produce lots of pollen. Finally, the flowers are designed for landing, offering bell or bowl shapes like bellflowers (Campanula spp.), heads like sunflowers (Helianthus spp.), or wide tubes like snapdragons (Antirrhinum spp.). Planting for bees has become more and more important as bee populations decline.

Bird Pollination (Ornithophily)

Flowers pollinated by birds are usually red or orange because birds are more sensitive to red and insect pollinators are less sensitive to it. Red and orange also indicate big nectar rewards, another trait of bird-pollinated flowers. Hummingbirds are the most specialized bird pollinators on the planet. Hummingbirds are very sensitive to red, hover while feeding, have long beaks/tongues and must consume lots of nectar to keep their wings flapping at 18 to 200 beats per second. They also have no sense of smell. So hummingbird flowers are odorless, typically red or orange-hued, tubular, nectar-filled and lack landing pads. Trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), red beebalm (Monarda didyma) and fuchsia (Fuchsia spp.) are all hummingbird-pollinated flowers.

Butterfly Pollination (Psychophily)

Monarch butterflies love milkweed!
Monarch butterflies love milkweed! (Image by Jessie Keith)

There are nearly as many butterflies as bees with around 17,500 different known species. As a group, they have a sense of smell, long curled tongues (proboscis), sharp color vision, and they must perch to feed. So, most butterfly flowers are brightly colored, lack a scent, are shaped for perching and have long, tubular nectaries perfect for a butterfly’s proboscis. Everyone wants to invite butterflies to their garden, and there are lots of garden flowers that attract them. Madagascar periwinkle, Lantana and phlox blooms are just three examples of the many flowers uniquely designed for butterfly pollination.

Moth Pollination (Phalaenophily)

Pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) attracts a hawkmoth in the evening.
Pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) attracts a hawkmoth in the evening.

Nighttime pollinators like moths have good night sight and an excellent sense of smell. So, moth-pollinated flowers are always highly fragrant and pale or white. Lots of moths are also hover feeders, so many moth-pollinated flowers are funnel-shaped and large, in addition to being very fragrant at night. Some classic moth flowers include angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia spp.), moonflower (Ipomoea alba) and woodland tobacco (Nicotiana sylvestris). (Click here to learn more about moth gardening.)

Bat Pollination (Chiropterophily)

Bats pollinate large, fruity-smelling flowers with lots of nectar.
Bats pollinate large, fruity-smelling flowers with lots of nectar.

If you live down South or out West, you can expect to be able to invite a bat or two into your garden, if you choose the right flowers. Most bat pollinators are nocturnal and rely on echolocation, as well as smell, to find food. These fruit and nectar feeders have very high metabolisms, so they are attracted to large lightly colored nocturnal blooms that smell strongly of fermenting fruit and have lots of dilute nectar. The fruity flowers of mangoes, bananas, and guava are all bat pollinated. Many species of cacti have flowers that draw bats as well.

Pollination Generalists

Some flowers are “smart” and appear to have lots of bells and whistles to attract lots of different pollinators. These flowers are generally very successful and buzz with activity when in bloom. Flowers like goldenrod and thistles draw diverse groups of beetles, bees, butterflies and even flies.
Many other pollination syndromes exist, but these are the most common for gardeners. Knowing the basics allows garden planners to plant for the birds, bees, and butterflies to make our gardens and world a better place.

Pollinator Container Plan:

Sun-loving flowers

This trio of everblooming, sun-loving flowers look great together—with their warm and cool hues—and will attract lots of pollinators. Begin by choosing an attractive, 5-gallon flower pot and fill it ¾ of the way full with Fafard Ultra Potting Mix with Extended Feed. Then plant together the following:
1. Gaillardia Heat it Up Scarlet (12 to 24 inches, bushy perennial, attracts bees and butterflies)
2. Lantana montevidensis Luscious® Grape (10 to 14 inches, trailing bloomer, attracts butterflies)
3. Agastache ‘Kudos Ambrosia’ (16-22 inches, upright perennial, attracts hummingbirds (seen left))
With good care, this perfect summer pot will look great all season long.