Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Plant pansies, snapdragons, stock, calendulas and primroses now to replace summer annuals.

• Garlic sets can be planted now for an easy crop that you can harvest next spring. Choose from hard-neck, soft-neck or Elephant garlic varieties now available.

• Compost your leaves as they fall, don’t burn them! Leaves make wonderful compost that breaks down into rich humus by next summer.

• Chrysanthemums can be planted in pots or flower beds for bright and cheerful flowers to enjoy this fall.

• Look for rich, bright colors in the foliage of deciduous trees and shrubs. Burning bush, Liquidambar, snowball bush and maple trees are beautiful right now.

Pest-resistant Flower Bulbs
What to plant this fall where deer & squirrels are voracious

Garden pests such as deer and squirrels are a real problem, especially in the fall. Despite centuries of land development, the deer population in the U.S. is far greater now than when the Pilgrims landed. For gardeners in rural areas where such creatures are voracious, the big question is: what won’t those animals eat?

In fall, gardeners gear up to plant spring-blooming bulbs. Some of the most popular bulbs, such as tulips and crocuses, are considered treats by animal pests. While others, such as daffodils and hyacinths, are generally shunned because of their bitter taste.

Of course, if deer are truly starving, they’ll eat just about anything, including the bark off trees! But planting bulbs they don’t like will greatly improve a garden’s overall survivability in problem areas.

Daffodils and Hyacinths are poisonous to squirrels and rodents, and when interplanted with edible bulbs, will protect them from burrowing animals. All kinds of Daffodils are shunned by deer. You can plant the large King Alfreds or the small, fragrant Narcissus and they will bloom for you year after year without fail. The bulbs spread and multiply each season, so you’ll have more to enjoy every year.

Hyacinths come in beautiful bright colors: red, pink, blue and white. Their strong fragrance is a sweet breath of spring, so plant some where you can enjoy their rich perfume.

Chionodoxa or glory of the snow is one of the first flowers of spring. Its elegant, sky blue flowers with white centers have 4 to 12 florets per stem. The delicate six-inch tall flowers bloom in February-March. They prefer full sun, but tolerate partial shade, and adapt beautifully to the rock garden, the flower border, or under trees and shrubs, and naturalize easily.

Grape hyacinth, Muscari armeniacum, is an all-star performer. Its long lasting flowers and long blooming season make this brilliant blue flower a champ in endless garden applications. Mass plantings are spectacular, especially when combined with other bulbs like yellow daffodils or tulips of any color. Four to eight-inches tall, muscari performs best in well-drained locations. Try planting these little bulbs close together in mass plantings in the lawn or garden to create a blue “river of Muscari” effect made famous at Holland’s Keukenhof Garden. Muscari also naturalizes easily.

Snowflakes, Leucojum aestivum, are among the easiest bulbs to grow. The nodding, white bell flowers tipped in green on 12-inch stems have as many as nine flowers to a stem. They flower in full sun or part shade and bloom more profusely if left undisturbed for several years.

Enjoy creating a beautiful spring garden with bulbs that are ranked high on beauty and low on pest-appeal.

• Fragrant hyacinths make a colorful display in a garden bed, or can be grown in pots. They come in red, pink, blue and white and can be planted now.

• Naked lady amaryllis have lovely, fragrant pink flowers that bloom in late summer with little or no care. Plant the bulbs, available at local nurseries, now.

• Protect the pond from the worst of the leaf fall with a fine-mesh net over the surface of the pond.

• Ornamental kale makes a dramatic planting in flower beds over the winter.

• Plant lawns now to have them ready for next summer enjoyment. Ask at your nursery for the best grass seed for your situation.

Enjoy the beauty of fall with colorful trees

The cold nights of fall bring beautiful colors to the leaves of deciduous trees. Liquidambars, maples, Chinese pistache, Raywood ash, European white birch, dogwoods and flowering pear trees brighten the landscape with their colorful leaves. Now is a good time to choose trees that have fall color, and fall is an excellent time to plant trees of any type.

When choosing a tree, it is important to decide just how large a tree you want. Width is easy to measure and for height, figure that a building is about 10 feet tall per story, plus attic height. So a one-story house may be 15 to 20 feet tall, and a two-story house 25 to 30 feet tall. Most trees are at least 30 feet tall and some grow to 60 feet or more, providing good shade over the roof for summer cooling.

Liquidambar and European white birch are both tall, slender trees. White birch trees grow to 45 feet tall with a spread of 30 feet. They turn bright yellow in the fall. Their white bark is particularly attractive in winter.

Liquidambar trees grow to 60 feet tall with a narrow pyramidal form. Their fall colors range from yellow, peach and orange to flaming red and burgundy. They are tall, stately trees which make attractive street trees where overhead wires are not a problem.

Chinese pistache is a round-headed tree that turns a fiery ball of red, orange and green in autumn. It is a very eye-catching tree. It grows to 35 feet tall and 25 feet wide. Raywood ash trees are fast-growing with fine-textured foliage that makes a dense, rounded crown. They grow to 35 feet with a 25-foot spread and turn a beautiful reddish-purple color in fall.

Red maple trees have striking fall color, grow to 40 or 50 feet tall, and make wonderful shade trees. Big leaf maple is native in this area growing along stream banks to 60 feet tall. Its bright yellow leaves in fall glow like candles among the evergreens. Japanese maples turn brilliant reds and yellows in the fall, lighting up the yard.

The flowering pear trees are known for their beautiful white spring blossoms as well as their colorful fall foliage. They grow 35 to 40 feet tall with a 25-foot spread, and turn red and gold late in the fall season, holding their colorful leaves most of the winter.

Dogwood trees are beautiful small trees growing 20 feet tall and wide. In spring, white, pink or red blossoms cover the tree and in fall their round leaves turn beautiful shades of red. Japanese maples are another small tree with delicate green or red leaves throughout the summer which turn a bright scarlet in the fall.

Choose trees now for fall beauty in your yard.

• Holland flower bulbs are now available for fall planting. These lovely gems will bloom for you next spring.

• Plant cover crops in the garden where summer plants have finished. Fava beans and crimson clover will grow through the winter and improve your soil for spring planting.

• Wildflower seed broadcasted with the first rains will take root over the winter and burst into flower next spring.

• Divide artichoke plants which have been in the ground for three or four years. Mulch established plants with steer manure.

• Choose shade trees for fall color now and plant them while the soil is still warm.

Cheery Winter Containers

When the days of autumn turn cool and crisp and the leaves begin to show their colors, it is time to replant your containers and flower beds for color and interest in the months ahead.

Planting winter containers garden is possible by using plants that are cold hardy and tolerant of temperatures that can get below freezing.

Pansies and violas love the cold. They bloom continuously through the winter months and even have been seen blooming underneath the snow.

Ornamental kale and cabbage have beautiful purple leaves which intensify with the frost. They make colorful arrangements with their bold, round heads.

Primroses have bright-colored flowers that just keep on coming. In bright red, blue, yellow and pink they are very showy in containers.

Ranunculus and anemone bulbs can be tucked into containers for spring bloom. They come in a wide variety of colors.

Speaking of bulbs, combining bulbs with winter annuals is a great way to get two seasons of bloom out of one planting. Since bulbs are buried deep, plant them first, then plant flowers between the bulbs so they aren’t right on top of them.

The flowers will start growing and fill in by the time the green sprouts of the bulbs begin to show. Then in March, April or May, when the bulbs come into bloom, you will enjoy the beautiful combinations that you have created. After the bulbs have finished blooming, the flowers will hide the foliage of the maturing bulbs.

For pinks and purples, combine lavender pansies with pink and white tulips. Or plant purple and pink tulips in a bed of fragrant, flowering stock, which bloom in pink, white and lavender.

Blue and yellow are always a nice combination. Plant yellow daffodils with dark blue pansies or the lovely ‘Morpho Blue’ pansies, which are pastel blue with yellow markings.

Crocuses bloom early and will look cute coming up through a bed of Johnny-jump-ups. Use your imagination to make other attractive combinations.

It is best to plant your containers in the early fall when the sun will still warm the pots in the daytime. You should place containers in as much sun as possible for the most flowers.

If we have a dry spell, be sure to water the containers, especially if very cold weather is expected. Make sure your containers have drain holes in them and use fresh potting soil for best results.

Let the happy faces of cool-season flowers and bulbs brighten your containers through the winter months.