Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Chrysanthemums give the brightest colors for fall. Choose them in bloom now at your nursery.

• Feed fuchsias, begonias, summer annuals and container plants to keep them green and blooming right up until frost.

• Matilija poppies are a hardy perennial with flowers that look like “fried eggs.” Plant them in a sunny spot with good drainage.

• Tree collards are delicious winter vegetables. Set out plants now.

• Fall vegetables can be planted now for a fall harvest of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, chard and lettuce.

Silver in Your Garden

One of the fun parts of designing a garden is working with color. Flowers bring the most color to the garden, but the subtle palette of foliage colors is also full of possibilities. Gray gardens are somewhat of a tradition in England, and since there are many drought-tolerant, gray-leafed plants, it’s easy to create one here as well.

A garden of silvery foliage and calming shades of lavender and blue can be a place for relaxation and contemplation. Many of these perennials are wonderfully fragrant and since silvery leaves reflect moonlight as well as sunlight, this is a perfect garden to plant near your patio or deck.

Gray-leafed plants need plenty of sun and excellent drainage with only moderate summer watering. They tolerate tough conditions like wind and rocky soil and most are deer-resistant.

Begin your design with some of the taller lavenders like Lavendula ‘Provence’ which grows 3 to 4 feet tall and as wide. The bright blue flowers have a nice fragrance and are good for potpourri or lavender wands.

Russian sage, Perovskia, is a graceful, upright shrub with sprays of lavender-blue flowers atop its silvery stems. The finely cut foliage is very attractive. Of course the popular wallflower, ‘Bowles Mauve’ is also a fine landscape shrub that blooms with purple flowers over a long season, from February to July.

Once you have the larger plants placed, you can fill in with some smaller perennials. ‘Lamb’s Ear’ is a great favorite for its woolly, silver-gray foliage. Some varieties have flower stalks with small, purplish flowers but ‘Silver Carpet’ doesn’t bloom at all.

For a little flower variety, add Teucrium fruticans. This silver-foliaged evergreen shrub has wonderful azure blue flowers most of the summer on a 3-4 foot shrub. The flowers attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Many of the sages have silvery foliage. Culinary sage, Salvia officinalis, has excellent ornamental qualities, with lavender-blue flowers and wrinkled, gray-green leaves that are frequently used fresh or dried as a seasoning.

Salvia apiana, white sage, is a striking native sage, growing 3-5 ft. tall and wide. The distinctive whitish aromatic foliage cover this shrub with long flower stems of lavender tinged white blossoms. Used in smudge bundles as a natural incense, it is a bee and hummingbird favorite.

Lychnis coronaria, known as rose campion, is an easy-to-grow perennial with fuzzy gray leaves and tall stems of showy, magenta flowers. Lavender cotton, Santolina chamaecyparissus, makes a fragrant, dense mound with attractive grayish-silver foliage. The small, bright yellow button flowers light up the plant in early summer making it a good border shrub.

‘Moonshine’ yarrow has finely cut silvery leaves and yellow flower heads on upright stems 2-3 feet tall. And even old-fashioned dusty miller is a favorite because it looks good with everything.

Explore the colorful world of silver and blue and create a special garden all your own.

• Mottled leaves are often a sign of spider mites. Check for them with a hand lens or bring a leaf in to your nursery, in a plastic bag, for identification and treatment options.

• Japanese maples may be pruned now in order to shape them.

• Sow lettuce seeds now for a fall crop. Set out broccoli and cabbage plants too.

• Trim grapevines to allow more sun to reach the fruit and sweeten the grapes, if they are being shaded heavily by the foliage.

• First-year fruit trees need to be well-watered through the dry weather. If they are neglected the first year, they may never be strong, productive trees.

Choosing Bamboo for your Landscape

Bamboos are evergreen members of the grass family and they range from petite miniatures to massive giants with heights ranging from 2 to 100 feet tall. The beautiful canes can be a slender 1/8-inch or as large as 12 inches across. There are over 100 species of bamboo, found from the tropics to the mountaintops. While most bamboos are tropical or subtropical, there are hardy bamboos that can survive temperatures of –10° to –20°F.

When used properly, few plants are more effective in creating a subtropical mood in the landscape. All species of bamboo are superb soil stabilizers, and the medium or large-sized species can make a durable, fast-growing hedge in places where few other plants would thrive.

Bamboo “canes,” known as culms, grow from a branching underground root structure called a rhizome. The branching habit of the rhizome determines the growth habit of the bamboo.

There are two main types of bamboo: running and clumping. Running types send out spreading rhizomes and can colonize large areas. Clumping types stay in tight clumps that slowly increase in size. Running bamboos are hardy to frost while clumping types are not as hardy.

As they grow, bamboos store food and energy in their roots and rhizomes. When growth begins in the spring, the canes shoot out of the ground and reach their maximum height within a month. Young bamboos are usually slow to establish, but established plants grow very quickly.

Bamboos like full sun or partial shade. They tolerate a wide range of soil conditions as long as moisture is present. They will grow faster and taller with frequent watering and fertilizing. To control their growth, water and feed less.

Golden bamboo, black bamboo and giant timber bamboo are all running types. Golden bamboo makes a good screen or hedge and does well in containers. The canes of black bamboo turn black their second year and are very attractive against the green leaves. Give them some afternoon shade. Timber bamboo makes huge canes 6 inches in diameter. They make beautiful groves if the lowest branches are trimmed off.

Golden Goddess bamboo is a clumping type with graceful, arching growth. It makes a good container or screening plant. Dwarf white pinstripe bamboo makes a fine groundcover, growing 1-3 feet tall. Is is a running bamboo that is a fast spreader. The light colored leaves are attractive in light shade.

Giant Leaf bamboo has the largest leaves of any bamboo, up to 24 inches long by 4 inches wide. It adapts easily to growing in pots and does best in a shady location out of the wind.

Choose bamboo carefully and you will find that it can be a beautiful addition to any garden.

• Replace codling moth pheromones now to make your apples as worm-free as possible. Replace the sticky papers at the same time.

• Set out starts of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and lettuce for a fall harvest. Spray weekly with BT to keep the cabbage worms at bay.

• Roses have more flowers all summer long than any other shrub. Plant them in a sunny location and feed monthly for continuous blooms.

• Cut back leggy annuals by half and feed to encourage a longer bloom season.

• Impatiens will give you instant color in shady areas and continue blooming right through the fall.

Summer Houseplant Care

Houseplants love summertime. During the summer months, the light is strong, the days are long, the air is warm and plants are eager to show new growth. But sometimes they need your help to do their best.

Summer is the best time to fertilize your houseplants. If you have never fertilized your houseplants, then summer is a great time to start. Look for a general, well-balanced fertilizer and follow the directions for mixing and frequency of application. Proper fertilization will help give your plants the nutrients they need for proper growth during the summertime.

Summer is a good time to go through your houseplant collection, and re-pot any houseplants which are root-bound. Choose a container that is only slightly larger than the one it is in and use a good quality potting soil. Firm the soil gently around the root ball, but do not press so hard that the soil becomes compacted.

Give shiny-leaved plants a good cleaning. If you can, take your plants outside in a shady place and hose them off. Then take a soft cloth and wipe down the leaves to leave them clean and shiny again. Take this time to trim off brown leaves and look for pests. Treat for insects as soon as you see them, as they multiply rapidly during the warm summer months.

Often during the summer, plants will dry out faster, and need to be watered more frequently than at other times of the year. Be sure to keep an eye on your plants’ watering needs (especially during very hot days), and be prepared to water more frequently if need be.

Summer is also a great time to propagate new houseplants. Cuttings taken during this time will root and become established quickly. Root them in water and as soon as they have sufficient roots, plant them into a container with good, fresh potting soil.

If you have a shaded porch or a safe place under a large tree, most houseplants will benefit from spending part of the summer outdoors. Remember that most houseplants are shade-loving, low-light plants, and they should not be placed in direct sunlight. Many houseplants can be revitalized by growing them outside during the summer. Plants with large leaves should be placed where they get good wind protection, since their leaves are easily torn.

Plants summering outdoors are exposed to summer heat, and brighter light, so they will dry out faster than if they were indoors. Be sure to keep plants properly watered while they are outdoors. Plants receive more light when they are outdoors which stimulates growth and sometimes stimulates plants to bloom. Houseplants should be brought back indoors by mid-September, before the weather turns cold.

Houseplants add so much to our indoor environment. Take this time to give yours a summer vacation, or to add to your collection with a new plant.