The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Category Archives: Shrubs

A garden update

Posted on by Posted in Perennials, Shrubs .

What’s been doing in my garden these days:

Monarda (Bee Balm) is reliable, spreads as I need it to, has great color and attracts the critters:

 

 

My Purple Coneflower/Russian Sage combo is the oldest in my garden and never disappoints:

 

Hot damn, I love this Helenium (Sneezeweed) ‘Short n Sassy’:

The first of the Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) to bloom. This is ‘Baby Joe’:

The Physostegia (Obedient Plant) is blooming weeks before it ever has before:

Phlox’n awesome:

Man do I love daylillies (‘Little Grapette’) … pause for effect … look up hypocrite in the dictionary … lose my street cred:

 

 

First Coneflower “Sunshine’ bloom:

Awaiting first Coneflower ‘Fragrant Angel’ blooms:

Filling in nicely:

 

 

A favorite photo

Posted on by Posted in Perennials, Shrubs .

Ten reasons why I love this garden vignette/photo so much:

  1. It is sunny and summer

  2. The Allium is still providing interest weeks after it stopped blooming
  3. The way the Iris looks backlit by the sun
  4. The fact that the Monarda and Phlox are blooming at the same time
  5. The contrast of the Barberry branches and the Iris leaves
  6. The combined scent of the Monarda and soon to be blooming Clethra
  7. The creatures drawn in by both the Monarda and the Clethra blooms
  8. It is sunny and summer
  9. The privacy afforded by the mature trees along the back of my property
10. The deer have never touched any of these plants  

    Viburnum ‘Emerald Luster’

    Pruning Ninebark ‘Diablo’

    Posted on by Posted in Pruning, Shrubs .

    I ventured outside early this morning with the intention of … well … I actually had no real intention. It was -10 degrees with the wind chill  (maybe a slight exaggeration) and I wanted to see how quickly my nose hairs would freeze. A fun little test of my intestinal fortitude.

    Conclusion: It was cold and it hurt like hell.

    I lasted about two minutes and then headed back inside. However, I had enough time to check out my Physocarpus ‘Diablo’ and started thinking about how I was going to prune it in the near future.

    And that consumed me all day, all the way up until I started to write this post this evening.

    I have considered pruning Ninebark ‘Diablo’ back hard to within a foot of the ground to get nice fresh and vivid foliage this spring. Of course, that would mean sacrificing any blooms and subsequent red seedheads.

    I have considered cutting out only the dead wood and some of the older branches to the ground to keep the shrub’s somewhat upright shape. You can easily spot said older gray branches in the photo below:

     

    OK hold on a minute. Let me take a step back and think this through a bit and provide you some background before I make any pruning decisions.

    Here is how the Physocarpus (Ninebark) looked this past summer:

     

    Already at its ideal size after only three years in the ground.

    And how good do the dark colored leaves look against the other shrubs and perennials in front of it?

     

     

     

     

    Nice, huh? I wish I could do nothing and it would stay exactly as it looked this spring/summer. But we all know this shrub grows like mad and precautions need to be taken to keep it in bounds.

    Another factor in the pruning Ninebark decision is whether or not I care about retaining the blooms each season. Here they are. They look nice up close:

     

    But I won’t lie, I think they leave a little to be desired from a distance. Quick conclusion = I can survive without them.

    By the way, this deciduous shrub looks pretty fantastic in the fall:

     

     

    And the bark is fantastic when exposed in the winter:

     

    What was I getting at again? Oh yeah, “to prune or not to prune” or really “to severely prune or not to severely prune”. That, my friends, is the question.

    … and you will have to wait for an answer for a few more weeks. Some more in depth analysis is required.

    UPDATE: Here is the link to where I went with my pruning – Pruning ‘Diablo’

     

    Red Twig dogwood ‘Arctic Fire’

    Posted on by Posted in Shrubs .

    Winter interest.

    Oh that elusive winter interest.

    It is in the single digits here today so winter is clearly front of mind.

    With four long months of fall/winter here in the NJ, and as good as the browns and greens may look, anything that can lend a unique color to the landscape is something worth investing in. And after four years of “investing” in a redtwig dogwood (‘Arctic Fire’ to be exact), I am proud to announce that I have successfully kept one alive and thriving, browsing deer be damned.

    More details on ‘Arctic Fire’ (Cornus stolonifera):
    *Typical size is 4′ x 4′
    *Survives in zones 3-7
    *Blooms in May-June (though I have yet to witness, no biggie)
    *Works in full to partial sun
    *Tolerant of most soils, including my almost boggy conditions

    Here she is current state:

     

    And from a few weeks ago:

    Just about bare, and ready to carry me through the winter with her glistening red stems.
    While this shrub puts on its best show during the winter, it looks “nice” in spring/summer with its clean foliage, reddish stems and leaf shape:
    Of course it took me years to get to this point. I have had it chewed down to the ground many, many times and just about had given up on it. But then I took a chance and placed it in a partial shade spot hoping the deer would be dumb enough to miss it.

    I am proud to announce the deer were indeed dumb and have not touched it since. Here are some of the old pics as the dogwood struggled to find its footing:

    As dumb and counterproductive as it sounds, I plan on pruning this shrub back severely in spring to maintain that bright red stem color and will be sure to track its success/failure. Until then, bank on way too many photos of the stems covered in snow.
    UPDATE: To see how I’ve handled pruning this shrub each winter/spring, read here.  

    Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’

    Viburnum berries

    Posted on by Posted in Shrubs .
    I love me some Viburnums. 
    That is what consumed me on my ride into work this morning. And here’s why:  
    They give you:
    • Stupendous flowers 
    • Phenomenal scents 
    • Gloriously lustrous foliage
    • Pleasant fall color
    • Mutha f’n eye popping berries (if you are so lucky)

    For today, I would like to wax poetic on bullet #5 above. Berries. Can I get a “hell yeah”?

    If you gave me the choice of berries or flowers on a particular plant, berries win about 78.9% of the time. Of course, getting said berries to even exist isn’t as easy as it seems. I am by no means smart enough to fully understand the science behind how they are produced (the male/female thing is a bit familiar though). 
    To date, I’ve only once attempted to grow two different cultivars of a plant in order to produce berries and that failed miserably when both of the hollies I planted died in year one. 
    With my Viburnums, I decided they kicked enough buttocks without berries so I didn’t even bother worrying about how to produce them. In the ground they went and that was it. 
    Those beautifully colored orbs were nowhere to be found the first few years so I never gave them a second thought … until last year … when two of the cultivars produced berries like mad. Hot damn!!                  
    From what I could gather from my research, Viburnums typically need overlapping bloom periods between two different cultivars of the same species and they need to be in relative proximity to each other in order to produce berries. 
    *Disclaimer – I have no idea if that previous sentence made any sense. Please don’t judge. Also, I like run-on sentences. Deal with it.
    And we’re back. 
    Coming into this year, I didn’t want to screw up my fruit production on the Viburnums so I changed nothing. That strategy paid off, as I’ll show you below.
    Here is Viburnum plicatum ‘Shoshoni’ at the end of April:    
    And then in the middle of June: 

    I can confirm there were no other Viburnums blooming at this time, and as far as I know, not another plicatum in the same zip code. So, not sure how this happened. But I will take it.  

    Next, is Viburnum bracteatum ‘Emerald Lustre’ in early June:

    And then in the middle of August:

    Again, there doesn’t appear to be any sort of cross pollination going on here so not sure what suddenly  changed after years of no berries. I did read one comment somewhere that this cultivar may actually self pollinate (is that even possible, self-pollination?). Hmmmmm … little help here please?  

    Finally, we have Viburnum carlesii ‘Aurora’ which typically blooms for me in the middle of April:

    To date, this shrub has not produced a single berry. Maybe the waiting game will work for this one too.

    So faithful readers, what have you experienced with Viburnum berries? Any words of wisdom? Just keep it simple so this dolt can understand it.

    Thank you in advance.

    John

    Viburnum activity

    A shrub bounces back, a grass holds up and my daughter is impressed

    Posted on by Posted in My garden, Shrubs .

    I’m still carrying the momentum and excitement of the past few days out in the garden so I figured why not keep this massive positivity thing going, eh?

    Here’s what else is going down at Les Jardines D’ONG:  

    The Clethra (Summersweet) ‘Ruby Spice’ did not bloom at all for me last year but it has bounced back like mad this year. I’d love to report on how phenomenal the flower scent is, but you know, I have virtually no sense of smell:  

    The blooms on Pennisetum (Fountain grass) ‘Karley Rose’ are so underrated even when they are no longer a bright pink color. Note to self: need to add more:    

    I’ve seen very little on the internet regarding Panicum (Switch grass) ‘Ruby Ribbons’ and it has honestly underwhelmed ever since I picked one up a few years ago. But ….. just look at that leave color and you can see the potential it has:

    It has taken a while to establish, but Acorus gramineus (Sweet Flag) ‘Oborozuki’ is starting to look good lining my driveway. It takes well to all of the water that drains off of the driveway and it is one of the few plants where I can actually pick up the scent on the leaves when they are scratched up a bit:

    And whenever you can impress a six year old, you do it:

    Garden your ass off!

    John

    Viburnum bracteatum ‘Emerald Luster’