Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Start seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and other cool-season crops now. Transplant them to the garden next month and they will be producing for you this fall.

• Penstemon are bushy, evergreen perennials that attract hummingbirds with their red, pink, lavender or purple trumpet-shaped flowers all summer and fall.

• Roses need water and fertilizer to keep blooming well throughout the summer. Watch for pests and treat immediately to prevent infestations.

• Feed annual blooming plants and hanging baskets every two weeks for prolific bloom. Keep dead flowers pinched off.

• Dig and divide crowded spring-flowering bulbs and tubers including daffodils, scillas, muscari, and bearded iris.

Add a Peaceful Pond to your Landscape

The introduction of a pond into the garden creates a new environment where the flora and fauna will live together in a mutually beneficial relationship.

In order for this to happen, the pond must be designed to reflect natural conditions as closely as possible. It should have marshy or shallow water areas, as well as deeper areas. In the shallow areas live the frogs and newts, beetles and other little creatures along with marsh plants like iris, cannas, arrowhead plant and rushes. Ideally, the marshy area should comprise about one-third of the area of the pond.

The deeper waters of the pond are the home of fish, water lilies and other aquatic plants. Make this section at least 2 feet deep.

The more planning you do, the less work the pond will be later on. Locate the pond where it receives 4 to 6 hours of direct sunshine a day, if you want to grow water lilies and have them flower. Even plants that can take partial sun require 3 hours of sunlight a day to thrive.

If possible, place it away from trees so that the falling leaves and seeds won’t foul the water. The pond should have a surface area of at least 20 square feet so that it will be able to create a balanced water community. The larger the pond the more natural it becomes.

The soil that you remove can be used to landscape the area around the pond or to construct a waterfall. A garden with a natural slope lends itself very well to a waterfall or cascading water feature. Heavy rainfall will cause the pond to fill up, so be sure to install a proper overflow pipe.

A recirculating pump used to run water through a stream or into a fountain will aerate the water, which is particularly beneficial to fish on hot summer days. Ponds don’t use a great deal of water — only that which must be replaced due to evaporation.

Do not locate a pond in a low, wet spot. When the water table is high in the winter, the force of the water underneath will lift the rubber liner, damaging the pond.
Water gardens open up many new possibilities for unusual plants and garden effects. From water lilies and water irises to floating plants and bog plants to go around the edges of the pond, your choice of water plants is wide and varied.

There are two types of water lilies: tropicals and hardies. Hardy water lilies do well in our climate and survive the winters in their pots at the bottom of the pond. Their flowers bloom throughout the summer, with each blossom lasting three or four days. The large, round leaves and splendid flowers float on the surface of the water, opening in the morning and closing in the afternoon. Flowers come in red, white, yellow and pink.

Water lilies require five to six hours of direct sunlight each day. They need 6 to 18 inches of still water over the root ball. Roots are planted in heavy garden soil with no compost.

A garden pond will become more beautiful over time and you will find that it is one of your favorite spots in the garden.

• Attract birds to your garden with a concrete bird bath. They come in many attractive styles and make good gifts.

• New Guinea impatiens have variegated foliage and giant, impatiens flowers. These striking plants will take more sun than regular impatiens and will bloom all summer.

• Pepper plants should be fertilized when the first blossoms open.

• Check roses for black spots on the leaves and treat immediately to prevent defoliation.

• Dress up for the Fourth! Red, white and blue petunias, verbena or combinations of these with lobelia, geraniums, impatiens and salvia will make a nice display for the Fourth of July.

Hanging Gardens for Colorful Accents

Hanging baskets are an easy way to dress up your home and add atmosphere to your patio. Baskets filled with colorful flowers bring outdoor living areas alive and make them a welcome retreat. Whether you have a sunny porch or a shady patio, you can brighten it up with hanging baskets.

Wave Petunias are vigorous growers that produce hundreds of fragrant blooms from spring until frost in sunny locations. They come in bright pink, purple, magenta, as well as soft lavender and white. They are ideal for hanging baskets as they grow in a horizontal habit, draping down over the edge of the pots, sometimes reaching 4 feet long. Their bright colors are very eye-catching. They bloom from spring until frost in sunny locations.

Calibrachoa, or Superbells®, look like a mini-petunias and come in bright pink, purple, orange, red and yellow as well as some new two-toned flowers. They love hot sun all day and make very attractive hanging baskets.

Ivy geraniums will grow well in morning sun and afternoon shade. They have an airy charm and this year there are red-and-white-flowered plants ready for the Forth of July. Their glossy ivy-like foliage is a handsome background for the bright colored flowers that bloom all summer.

Tapien® Blue-Violet Verbena makes a fine hanging basket. It has delicate, feathery leaves and blue-violet blooms all season that attract butterflies. Heat tolerant and compact, it grows beautifully in full sun.

Parrot’s beak, or Lotus, have orange flowers that look like flickering flames which contrast with the feathery blue-green foliage. Hang them in a sunny location.

Fuchsias are popular for shady areas. Their lush foliage and bright hanging flowers are frequently visited by hummingbirds. The flowers come in many shades of red, pink, purple and white and they bloom all summer if the seed pods are removed.

Hanging begonias are ideal plants for the shade. Their bright colored flowers are produced in profusion from mid-summer to frost. The bulbs can be stored and grown again and again.

Specialty baskets are combinations of colorful annuals that bloom all summer. ‘Spring Picnic’ has bright red and white verbena and blue calibrachoa. ‘Color Wheel’ calibrachoa is a bright combination of red, yellow and purple flowers. ‘Summer to Remember’ is a real heat lover with dark purple angelonia, white scaevola and red-and-yellow lantana.

You can create your own hanging gardens with combinations of colorful annuals. Impatiens, begonias, lobelia and coleus provide summer-long color in shady areas. Petunias, alyssum and verbena give lots of color in sunny locations.

If you like the mossy look, you can create a hanging basket using a wire basket and some green moss. With flowers growing out the sides as well as the top, it makes a spectacular lobe of color. For an easier, but similar, look use a coconut liner and slit holes in the sides for plants or just plant the top with trailing plants.

Hanging baskets should be fertilized weekly and watered daily in hot weather. Pinch off faded blossoms for continuous color all summer and enjoy the beauty of summer flowers all around you.

• Spray roses every two weeks with Neem oil to keep leaves free of black spot and mildew.

• When fuchsia blooms fade remove the whole flower stem to prevent it from developing seed pods which reduces continued blooming.

• Feed rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias with an acid plant food to encourage lush growth. Pinch or prune to promote full, dense growth.

• Stake or cage tomato plants before they get any larger.

• Red, white and blue petunias, verbena or combinations of these with lobelia, geraniums, impatiens and salvia will make a nice display for the Fourth of July.

Lovely Lavenders

Lavenders are a favorite group of ornamental herbs native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean. They are sun loving plants that thrive in hot weather and grow well in California. Their gray or gray-green, aromatic foliage contrasts nicely with the lavender or purple flowers.

Known and admired for their fragrance, lavenders are used in dried or fresh bouquets, potpourri, lavender wands, oil and perfume. Most lavenders dry beautifully for bouquets and attract bees and butterflies. They make fine landscape plants in perennial gardens or mixed with other Mediterranean plants like rockroses, sunroses, catmint, rosemary and germander.

English lavender is the best known for the fragrance of its flowers. Its oil is used in perfume, potpourri and soaps and aromatherapists use it for its healing qualities. It is also good for flavoring ice cream, jams, and pastries. The whole bush is fragrant and it make an attractive 3 to 4-foot shrub.

Cultivars come in a wider range of colors than other lavenders: white, pink, the familiar blue ‘Munstead’, and the darker purple ‘Hidcote’. They are particularly suited to small flower beds and containers, growing to about 18 inches tall.

When French lavender growers crossed English lavender with the longer-stemmed spike lavender, they created hybrids which were larger and produced more oil. These are known as lavandins and they now dominate the world’s lavender oil industry. They also are the best plants for lavender wands because of their long stems. ‘Provence’, ‘Grosso’, and ‘Fred Boutin’ are three fine varieties.

The Spanish lavenders are the show-stoppers in the garden. They are the first to bloom in the spring and their flower petals look like “rabbit’s ears” rising above the large, dark purple spikes. New cultivars, like ‘Bandera Purple’, have mauve-lilac spikes. They make small evergreen shrubs about 30 inches tall and grow very well in containers. Cut off faded flowers to keep new blooms coming.

French lavenders are evergreen shrubs to 30 inches tall and 6 feet wide. They have condensed spikes of purple flowers that bloom for many months. Their leaves are indented and green or gray depending on variety. Plants are hardy to about 20°F.

By planting several varieties you can give your garden months of delightful flowers. The Spanish lavenders are the first to bloom, followed by the English lavenders. The lavandins, ‘Provence’ and ‘Grosso’, bloom last.

Give lavenders an open exposure with as much sunlight as possible to promote flowers. They require well-drained soil and hate wet feet in the winter. In the summer, established plants need little water. Water plants deeply but infrequently, when the soil is almost dry.

Lavenders in the ground require no fertilizing, but container plants should be given a light feeding in the spring. They grow best in gravelly soils with low fertility. Excess nitrogen encourages soft, succulent growth that is low in oils.

Lavenders are also impressively deer resistant; snails leave them alone, and bees and butterflies love them. Plant lavenders in pots or in the landscape, and then relax and enjoy that fragrance!