Click here to read Larry Hurley’s fall tips for the perennial garden on our website.

Photo credit.

Calamint with lamb's ears

by Susan Harris

Calamint (Calamintha nepeta) ‘White Cloud’ is one of those plants that I’d never noticed – either at the nursery or in anyone’s garden – until I grew it myself, an experience that’s turned me into a HUGE fan of the plant.  I love it because this one plant has spread in a single season to cover a 2×3′ area, and the white, mint-scented flowers that first appeared in June are still going strong in October!  Four continuous months of flowers!

The butterflies and bees LOVE it.  AND it’s drought-tolerant.  And according to expert sources, it’s longer-lived and better smelling than the similar-looking baby’s breath.

I think the reason I never noticed it is that it’s a filler plant, not a show-stopper.   Like background plants, fillers sometimes get no respect.

Just give it full sun to light shade and wow, what a performer!  It reportedly self-seeds and I’m soooo hoping it does.

Thanks to Larry Hurley for turning me on to this under-appreciated plant.

by Larry Hurley, Behnke’s Perennial Buyer

We have a number of things on sale in perennials this week (starting July 14), including daylilies, the remaining Astilbes, and Heucheras.  Here’s a bit about Heucheras.

Heuchera – one of its common names is Coral Bells – is a North American native plant with several species native to Maryland.

Most of what are sold are hybrids combining the best traits of several species of Heuchera.  Some are grown for the small flowers, some for the bold foliage, and a lucky few for both. Pretty much what we have in stock at the moment are the hybrids featuring colorful foliage.  In the last several years, a number of hybrids with improved summer-heat tolerance have been released for sale, and I have found them to be robust both in pots and in the ground.

Great in containers in morning sun with afternoon shade, they are a good specimen plant or filler plant. The foliage comes in chartreuse, gold, brown, purple or silver tones with the color being strongest in the cooler weather of spring and fall.

Depending on how sheltered they are and the severity of the winter, some of the Heucheras make a good foliage display year-round.

In the ground, they are best in bright shade, or with a few hours of morning sun and shade the rest of the day. They need good soil drainage.  That means no standing water after a rain storm; maybe planted on a bit of a slope.

Planting in the summer is always more challenging than planting in the fall or spring.  That said, if you water them every couple of days for the first two weeks or so, they should get established without any difficulty.

by Susan Harris

Perennials to Prune for Rebloom
It’s late June when not much is blooming (thankfully, my hydrangeas ARE in bloom), and early-blooming perennials are looking pretty bad.  But many of them will perk up, put out new leaves and even rebloom if you just give them a little attention – NOW.

Above are two prime candidates for pruning – the Salvia ‘May Night’ in the foreground and the Tradescantia in the upper left. Both will rebloom nicely if given a haircut after their first bloom.  In the case of the Tradescantia (common name Spiderwort), cut them back hard to remove the really ugly foliage.  New leaves will then emerge.

Perennials to Prune Prevent Flopping, Improve Shape

Tall asters like the ones above are notorious floppers, but if you cut them back now – before the end of June – they’ll be shorter, bushier, and bloom about a week later.  And most importantly, they’ll stand up on their own, so it’s well worth the effort!

Tall Sedums like this ‘Autumn Joy’ also benefit from an early summer haircut, especially if they’re leggy from getting a bit too much shade or overdue for dividing.

To learn MUCH more about care of perennials, especially how to make them look their best, consult The Well Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust.

More from Larry Hurley!  He covered summer tune-up of hanging baskets, annuals and herbs in this blog story from last summer.

by Susan Harris
Have you ever noticed a “Sandy’s Plants” label on one of your new perennials? Well, meet grower Sandy McDougle and her wholesale-retail growing facility on 35 acres just east of Richmond, VA. If you’re in the area it’s definitely worth a stop – not just for the opportunity to buy some rare finds but to marvel at the extensive and well-labeled display gardens. Sandy welcomes groups and is happy to give them a tour through her gardens if they arrange it ahead of time.

(In fact, a day-trip to Sandy’s and to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will leave right from Behnkes -  scheduled for spring of next year.)

Why, here’s Sandy showing off the sun-tolerant Heuchera ‘Southern Comfort’ with Blue Fescue and assorted groundcovers.

Next, the dramatic Arundo donax ‘Peppermint Stick’ with daylilies, cannas and arborvitaes in the background.
Below, hellebores and ferns over a bed of Acorus look fabulous.

More hellebores and their shade-garden companions.

Back in the sun, Sandy’s “Fairy Garden” is fun, and demonstrates some of her favorite Stepables-brand creeping perennials.  Sandy’s the sole grower of Stepables east of the Mississippi River.

Sandy’s Back Story
But enough about plants – how about the woman who’s been supplying them for decades now? I love this story because it emerged organically, so to speak – not planned or inherited from the family.

It all started when, as a young mother and school teacher, she planted a whole lot of creeping phlox in her front yard along the road, and the owner of a nearby garden center asked if he could buy them from her – for a whopping 50 cents each (this was 30 years ago, mind you). She happily agreed – this was found money! The next step toward becoming a big-time grower was her visit to Viette’s Nursery* in Central Virginia, where she spent $167 on 2 boxes of plants and watched her husband balk at the extravagance. But when she discovered that her new hostas could be divided into five smaller ones she caught “propagation fever” in a big way, which not only pleased the husband but also allowed her to feed her plant addiction as never before.

(*Join us July 16 for our trip to Viette’s at the very best time of the year – their Daylily Festival!  It’s here on our Events page.)

These days, Sandy’s Plants is quite a family operation.  Ten years ago Sandy’s then-26-year-old daughter, with a horticulture degree under her belt, took over the management of the business, leaving Sandy to do what she enjoys most – trialing plants, speaking to visitors about perennials and their care, generally spreading the word. Sandy’s tech-savvy son-in-law handles the excellent website and other duties that I neglected to write down (as we chatted over burgers). Sandy’s other offspring went a decidedly different route – into law and now politics. He serves in the Virginia Senate.