by Behnkes Woodies Buyer Miri Talabac

Have enough Azaleas? Roses? Bored with yews? I always yearn for the different when it comes to my garden, and these shrubs are some of my favorites.

Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

I love this shrub! It’s native (they pop up from between the rocks at Great Falls), attractive to pollinators (wow! lots of Red Admiral butterflies on them this year both at home and at the nursery) and has multi-season interest. Leaves are either mahogany or gold and flowers are white. Older wood has peeling bark (probably why its named nine-bark) and the seed pods are bright red before they mature to dry brown. I have had one in my yard for ten years now with no problems – and plenty of “benign neglect” the whole time. My deer leave it alone, though I have heard of some snacking on it.

Sweetspire (Itea virginica)

Sweetspire (Itea virginica)

Another native, this is one of my top ten shrubs for fall color. White spring flowers, dark red winter stems, and fall colors ranging through burgundy, red, orange and yellow. They tolerate wet areas, shade and deer, and stay relatively short. And while not evergreen, I do often see plants arrive on the nursery in early spring with several burgundy leaves from last fall still hanging on. Neat!

Summersweet (Clethra anifolia)

Summersweet (Clethra anifolia))

For in-your-face summer fragrance, you can’t beat this. Deer-resistant, wet-soil-tolerant, butterfly-drawing goodness. They’re native too, and in the wild I see them in sunny wood’s-edge ditches and under the canopy itself. Flowers are white (sometimes pink) and can start in late June and end in early September.

Leucothoe

Leucothoe

Part of the large Azalea/Andromeda/Blueberry/Heath family, these low-growers are great evergreens for those pesky deer-infused yards and shady spots. Two cream-splashed plants (the variety ‘Girard’s Rainbow’) that I have in my back yard are content under tall shade trees, not bothered deer or neglect for going on ten years now.

'Blue Chip' Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

'Adonis Blue' Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

Okay, we ecology-minded gardeners know to keep an eye on this one; they can escape via seed into wild areas. However, there are several new series that are both compact growers (the better to reach the seed heads for trimming) and/or don’t even set seed. I happen to LOVE the fragrance, and I’m one of those people who can’t stand the overly-sweet scents of Wisteria and Gardenia. Butterfly bush fragrance reminds me of something like a floral vanilla, if that makes any sense. In either case, it’s one of the few shrubs that blooms from June to October; it also takes hot sun well and rebuffs the deer. Plus, it certainly lives up to its name as a butterfly magnet. Blue-violet, purple, pink, magenta, white or yellow flowers let you match it up to just about anything.

Uncommon Natives

This is a catch-all group, but I just can’t skip over these neat natives that can be hard to find. We have all of these now, but once they’re gone, they’re gone until next spring.

Sweetfern (Comptonia peregina)

Sweetfern (Comptonia peregina) is a toughie that looks like a coarse fern and has nice fall color.

Dusty (Xenobia pulverulenta)

Dusty Zenobia (Zenobia pulverulenta) as bluish leaves and nice fall colors.

Yellowroot (L) and Pipevine (R)

Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissimi) has chains of tiny maroon stars when they flower.

Pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa) has velvety heart-shaped leaves that feed pipevine swallowtail butterflies and clothe a fence, trellis or arbor.

New Jersey Tea (Ceanthus americanus)

New Jersey Tea (Ceanthus americanus) and its new hyrbid with the western native California Lilac (Look ma, blue!) that also attracts butterflies.

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) has white starburst flowers in summer that are very popular with butterflies.

Deciduous Azaleas

More Deciduous Azaleas

Finally, there are several deciduous azaleas that I love.  They have fragrant flowers in white, pink or yellow and fantastic fall color.

Sweetfern photo credit.  All other photos by Miri Talabac.

Jim with a sprig of his beloved Lady Banks climber.

Jim Dronenburg is a long-time employee of Behnkes who also runs the Four Seasons Garden Club and is a certifiable plant nut and amateur rosarian, but claims no formal training in roses.  To my mind, he’s grown enough different roses – at least 40 varieties – over enough years that I want to hear what he recommends, which he did the other day at a seminar at our Beltsville location.

Species Roses

Dog rose

First, I want that Lady Banks climber Jim’s showing off in the photo above!  If only I had a large country garden like Jim’s to give it enough space.  Lady Banks is a species rose that produces flowers like crazy but no thorns, so handling it doesn’t endanger the gardener (like the “horribly thorny” ramblers do).  What it’s missing is scent.  Its scientific name is Rosa banksiae, which you can see from these images is a lovely muted yellow.  Lady Banks roses are remarkably disease-free.

Another species rose, Chestnut Rose, produces pink double flowers, and is slightly fragrant. (It’s shown here.)  Another is the Dog rose, or Rosa canina, which Jim wants, despite its flowers being “nothing to write home about.”  Well, I beg to differ – just look!  Not something for the vase, sure, but hundreds of these simple, single flowers on one old shrub is something I’d love to see.

 Modern Roses

'Blue Girl' hybrid tea

Modern Hybrid Tea roses are the type of rose we’ve come to expect in vases, those big double flowers that come one on each upright, stiff stem.  Not only are they perfect for cutting, but they’re what Jim calls a “massive improvement over once-bloomers” because yes indeedy, they rebloom.  And while once-bloomers have their fans – lots of them – most homeowners now look for roses that bloom throughout the season.   The popular ‘Blue Girl’ shown on the left is, you’ll notice, more pinkish lavender than actually blue.  But then blue roses are the Holy Grail that breeders have been seeking for many decades.

Floribunda roses are also popular, with similar reblooming characteristics to hybrid teas, but the blooms come in clusters on each stem.

Speaking of reblooming, Jim warns us not to expect constant blooming – that’s something different, and maybe only annuals can boost that accomplishment.  It takes the plant three to four weeks to gear up for each subsequent rush of blooms, of which there are perhaps six throughout the season.

Knockout Roses

Knockout Roses at Bethany Beach, with Daylilies

This very modern landscape rose was released to the market in 2000 and is now the best-selling rose in the U.S.  That’s because it blooms abundantly until December in our region, with almost a total lack of disease.  I’ve grown them myself and never seen a single speck of blackspot fungal disease, even late in the season.  The Knockout has won awards and many regard it as having single-handedly brought rose genetics from the 20th Century into the 21st Century.  Knockouts are now available in these colors:  red and double red, pink and double pink, rainbow, blush (very light pink) and the lovely yellow called Sunny.

Knockouts grow to about 4 by 4 feet, a perfect garden size, and I recommend them to almost all my garden-coaching clients.  For shorter shrub roses I love the ‘Flower Carpet’ and dwarf ‘Drift’ roses (photos coming soon of my new ‘Apricot’ purchases).

But back to Jim.  He likes Knockouts, too, remarking that they can take “enormous abuse” and are “indestructible”.

David Austin's 'Teasing Georgia'

David Austin’s “English Roses

Also in a category by themselves are the modern roses developed by the English breeder David Austin.  He developed them in response to hybrid tea roses that had lost their scent, with upright forms that are harder to incorporate into mixed gardens (as opposed to stand-alone rose gardens).  And Austin’s roses are indeed are fuller, more shrub-like than hybrid teas, and they have amazing blooms, like the ‘Teasing Georgia‘ variety you see here. The bloom is beyond double – it’s quartered, according to Jim, with “zillions” of layers. And don’t you love that subtle apricot color! David Austin roses are also pretty good at resisting disease.

An important point about David Austin roses grown in our region is that they can be substantially larger than claimed – because our climate is so much warmer and sunnier than most sites in England.

Got Fungal Disease?

Jim doesn’t mind a bit of blackspot himself and claims that his roses look like Bill the Cat by the end of the season but if you prefer a more robust look, he recommends using two different fungicides and spraying them alternately so the plants don’t develop a resistance to any one product.

Like Cut Roses?

Jim does, and that’s why he grows his own for cutting.  To disabuse you of the very notion of buying just any old cut rose, he recommends reading Amy Stewart’s Flower Confidential.  I’ve read it, too, and agree that finding out what’s sprayed on the typical cut flower makes for some scary reading.  (Full disclosure:  Amy and I blog together at GardenRant.)

When it comes to flower arranging, Jim is of the “cram school” himself, choosing the informal look over the more studied, formal one.  So the less formal shrub roses are great for Jim’s arrangements – no stiff hybrid teas are needed.

Cooking with Roses

Finally, true rosarian that he is, Jim also cooks with roses – think jams and jellies.  He also makes rose wine and says it’s easy, but according to his own mother, it’s “undrinkable.”  She compares it to drinking cologne.  (Okay, I’ll pass.)

Text by Susan Harris.  Dog rose credit.  Blue Girl photo credit.

Drift Roses
One of the first plants I’ve bought for my small new-to-me garden is the fabulous new Apricot-colored Drift groundcover rose, shown above.   I bought five, and they’re going to quickly grow together to form one traffic-stopping mass of color, I humbly predict.

Here’s why I chose them, besides their two-toned, double flowers that no gardener in her right mind could resist:  they flower from spring until late fall, and they’re extremely disease-resistant.  That means no spraying (something I never do out of sheer laziness) yet sporting healthy, dark green glossy leaves all season long.  No fungal disease unsightliness!  Their success in disease-resistance is no surprise, coming as they do from the same people who introduced the super-popular, super-performing Knockout family of landscape roses.

Knockouts, which I also love (and I’m not alone – it’s the top-selling plant in the U.S.) grow to at least four feet by four feet, and are too large for my little townhouse garden, but Drifts are just right – just 1.5 feet tall by 2.5 feet wide.  True groundcovers.

Here’s the whole array of colors they come in.  I chose Apricot because it’s new and to my eyes, really interesting.

Flower Carpet Roses

There’s another short landscape-style rose that I grew and loved in my last garden – the equally disease-free ‘Flower Carpet‘.   Having envied my neighbors’ pink Flower Carpets for years, I finally made space for a nice mass of them and chose the Apricot color that’s in the lower left collage above.   It was blooming like crazy in its first year in the ground and would no doubt have been even more impressive this year, but I had to leave it there after selling my house and garden.  (I checked the contract and discovered that all woody plants had to stay, so I took just a few favorite perennials with me when I moved.  Thankfully, the buyers of my old and beloved garden are eager gardeners, which made moving a lot easier for me.)

Now I could have just replaced them but decided not to because Flower Carpets, at three feet tall, are too tall for the bank I need to cover;  I looked for something shorter and the Drifts fit the bill.

With all these great choices in short, shrub-shaped roses that bloom for a very long time while staying disease-free, I’m betting that they become just as popular as the larger Knockouts.  They sure seem perfect for today’s busy, eco-conscious gardener who won’t spray with even organic products, but wants color – lots of it.  That’s me!

Posted by Susan Harris.   Drift Roses photo credit.   Flower Carpet photo credit.

Our woodies buyer, Miri Talabac, shared her favorite new and (mostly) underused shrubs and vines with customers recently, and this blogger HAD to get hold of the visuals and share them with readers.  Shrubs are my favorite plant group and these 35 slides had me wanting more, more more.

So here they are, with my comments.  Just click “Read the rest of this entry” at the bottom to continue.

Got Questions about any of them?  Just leave them in a comment to this blog story and I’ll get an answer from Miri to post for all to read.

The ‘Marshy Point’ varieties have blooms in two different colors.

Read the rest of this entry

John Shearin demonstrates rose-pruning.

Woodies expert John Shearin demonstrated techniques to an eager class of pruners at our Beltsville location over the weekend, and we’ve captured the highlights for blog readers.

Why Prune?

Indeed, it’s best to have a reason to prune before picking up the loppers and lopping away willy-nilly.  So here are some good reasons for pruning in a non-willy-nilly fashion.

• To remove the 3 D’s – dead, diseased and damaged branches or stems.  Also in this category would be a C for crossing branches (those that cross other branches or stems) because that crossing and rubbing against will cause one of the 3 Ds sooner or later.  The 3 Ds can be pruned away any time of the year.
• For flowering shrubs, to get a fuller plant and more flowers, rejuvenation pruning is called for.
• Sometimes to prevent disease.  One example is the dreaded lilac bore, damage from which can be reduced or prevented or removing the oldest canes

When?

• Evergreens can be pruned now, or really any time of the year except late summer/fall.
• Spring-flowering shrubs and trees are best pruned soon after they flower.  If pruned now, you’ll be cutting off the buds that are about to turn into flowers, so why not wait and enjoy them first?  So forsythias, azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs, early blooming hydrangeas (lacecap and mophead types especially), early blooming spireas, and weigela should be pruned – if they need pruning – before summer.
• Summer and fall-blooming trees and shrubs like crape myrtle, oakleaf and Annabelle hydrangeas, caryopteris and butterfly bush should be pruned between the tune they bloom and early the next spring – so NOW if you haven’t already.  After this month you run the risk of removing their new buds for this season.
• Shrub roses are best pruned in February or March – President’s Day is the usual starting date for rose-pruning, though this year we could have started even earlier.  Old-fashioned climbing roses and most ramblers flower only once a year, usually in late spring or early summer, so should be pruned right after they finish blooming.  Not now.

How to Prune Roses
In the photo above John is demonstrating how to prune a rose (except for climbers), by cutting above existing buds or forks in the branch, and cutting at a 45-degree angle.  Shrub types should be cut back to about 18″ off the ground and tiny canes removed entirely.  Prune out any canes that criss-cross each other to ensure good air circulation and healthy stems.  A dab of Elmer’s Glue on the ends of the cut canes can help discourage rose can borders, a type of beetle.

Knockout and other types of landscape-style roses can be pruned back to close to the ground if you want to control the size – they’re very amenable to pruning.  Knockouts will also rebloom better and faster if they’re deadheaded – their spent flowers removed back to the next stem.  For many years rose-growers were told to dead-head rose flowers back to a “true leaf”, which means a stem that held 5 leaves.  Now that that advice has been debunked, we’ve stopped counting leaves to find the “true” one and just prune back to where the next stem starts.

Climbing roses are different.  Correct pruning for climbers is designed to trick the plant into growing where YOU want it to grow and blooming where YOU want it to bloom, too – not just at the very top.  Here’s a video from a plant expert at the New York Botanical Garden that shows you how to do that.

John shears a topiary juniper.

Shearing, if you Must
John, and most woody-plant experts, avoid shearers most of the time but true to his name (Shearin!) John does shear occasionally, and demonstrated the technique on this topiary juniper.

Another plant that’s amenable to shearing is the yew  Though many boxwoods are sheared, John doesn’t shear them because doing so leaves the remains of half-chopped-off leaves.  Asked about the difference between electric and manual shears, John answered:  speed, which is a good thing if you’re in a hurry but in situations where you want to really see what you’re doing, not such a good thing, so manual shearers may be best.

A Word about  Conifers
So we’ve learned that yews can take shearing, but they’re unusual among conifers for their ability to support new growth from the inner branches and main trunk.  Hemlocks are also.  Other conifers can only be trimmed at the outer few inches only.

A safe generalization about conifers is that when it comes to pruning, they’re a very unforgiving bunch!  So do the research – by putting “prune” and “Mugo pine” or whatever the plant name is into that search box and reading sources that end in “edu” or “gov”.  Also, Fine Gardening Magazine has good advice from experts on their website.

Posted by Susan Harris.