Wayside Gardens Voices

Allium Gives your Garden Whimsy

Does your garden take itself too seriously?  The answer to a garden that needs a little playfulness could very well be to grow some onions. Not, of course, the sort of onions that you eat (though that's not a terrible idea, either).  What I'm talking about is ornamental onion plants, Allium. 

"Allium" refers to the entire onion genus, which is one of the largest plant genera.  It includes onions, chives, garlic, shallots, and leeks.  When gardeners talk about growing Allium bulbs or flowers, though, it is usually the ornamental sort that they are referring to.  These drought-resistant bulbs bloom, usually in early summer, with fun, colorful round inflorescences that look almost like balloons or something out of a children's book (these inflorescences are actually "umbels," meaning that the flower stalks are all of the same length and stem from a single point).  These whimsical blooms are sure to get curious comments from the neighbors.  They also last wonderfully in both fresh and dried arrangements, so they're great for adding an unusual touch indoors, too.  The classic ball-shaped Allium blooms range from the smaller 'Purple Sensation,' which carries flowerheads of around three inches, to the huge, 9-inch balls of the Giant Allium.  For something even more eye-catching, try the "Tumbleweed Onion," Allium schubertii.  Its flowerheads grow to as big as 18 inches with pink flowers at all lengths along the flower stalks, creating an effect not unlike a floral firework.

Gearing Up for Fall at Wayside Gardens

Today is an exciting day for us here at Wayside Gardens.  We're shifting our main website over to the fall season offerings, which means a great deal of work, but it also means that we get to start talking about all of the great new plants we've got available this year.

I have my copy of the 2008 Fall Gardening Catalog on my desk now (I promise, getting the catalogs first isn't the only reason I work here), and it is, of course, beautiful.  The cover photo is, I think, the most stunning I've ever seen on a catalog.  It is of the new Coreopsis 'Redshift.'  This Darrell Probst creation is a true improvement over previous red Coreopsis.  The flowers are a blend of a bright, rich burgundy and clean, intense yellow, starting off deep red and maturing through shades of red and yellow to finish a lovely creamy hue.  The flowers are plentiful and large enough to be truly impressive as in a vase (cut or deadhead them to stimulate new flower growth; this Coreopsis repeats heavily).  The most impressive feature of 'Redshift,' though, is that it is a genuinely hardy, vigorous red Coreopsis.  No more will red Tickseeds be grown only as annuals in much of the country; this one is hardy to zone 4!

Of course, for those of you in the Southeast, don't forget that tomorrow is Flower Day!  Come by our home here in South Carolina for guided tours of our beautiful trial gardens and a chance to meet HGTV's Paul James!

Ground Cover Plants Make Life Easier

A clean, well-maintained landscape generally takes a great deal of work.  There are always some areas that take a lot more work than others: sunny spots with plants that need to be watered every day (or more) in the summer, shady spots where grass just won't grow, slopes that make mowing a huge hassle, areas that are easy to see but hard to get to for maintenance.  All of these things can easily take a lot of the fun out of gardening, often forcing us to either pretend that those areas aren't there or obsess over them.

In many cases, though, there is a simple, elegant solution.  There are many Ground Cover Plants that are low maintenance and add great beauty to difficult areas.  Ground covers can take the place of mulch at the base of many other plants, keeping their roots cool and helping to retain moisture in the soil.  Many ground covers, such as Vinca minor, thrive in part or full shade, spreading to softly carpet difficult or out-of-the-way areas.  In many cases ground cover perennials require far less water and maintenance than grass, and they are becoming a popular substitute to save time, money, or even the environment.

Container Citrus Trees Give More Than Beauty

This weekend I bought a big bag of kumquats.  I had never actually tried one, though I've been fascinated by the little guys for years.  Not only is it one of the most fun fruit names to say, they're like tiny, perfect little oblong oranges.  I was pretty sure that you're supposed to eat the fruits whole, so I rinsed one off, popped it into my mouth and bit down, ready to savor the citrusy goodness.  Not, as it turns out, how you eat a Kumquat.  The taste of the pulp is much closer to that of a lemon than that of an orange (only even more tart), and when you just eat it like that the rind is very bitter.  To the internet I went, looking for the proper way to eat them (peeling them all seemed just too ridiculous to contemplate).  The trick, I discovered, is to roll the fruit between your fingers before eating to release the essential oils in the rind.  Then you need to chew thoroughly.  The sweetness of a kumquat is in the rind, and it needs to be chewed into the sour pulp.  Once you've got the trick down, though, it is an amazingly delicious, complex fruit.  This, I thought, is a fruit that I want to grow for myself.

It turns out that I can.  Wayside Gardens has several citrus trees that thrive in containers, so all of us can grow delicious citrus fruit almost anywhere in the country.  I might just grab up a Citrus kumquat 'Nagami,' which will produce those great little fruits that I've just discovered I love.  Plus, it's an evergreen that will, in the right indoor conditions, produce intermittently year-round.  If you're looking to grow limes for Mexican cuisine or mixing drinks, you can't go wrong with the seedless lime Citrus 'Bearss.'  You also might consider the Citrus limon 'Meyer Improved,' one of the most popular container citrus trees ever.

Festival of Flowers: Come Tour Our Gardens!

Each year, Wayside Gardens and Park Seed open up our amazing trial gardens to the public.  For one day we have our professional horticulturists give guided tours of these beautiful 9 acres of garden.  This year we will have over 2,000 varieties of plants at their peak, and anticipate that thousands of visitors from hundreds of miles around will be joining us in our Greenwood home.

This amazing day is called Flower Day, and it is the very soul of the South Carolina Festival of Flowers.  It is an opportunity for you to meet many of the people behind this company and to see the passion that we all have for bringing you the finest plants in the world.  More importantly, it is a chance for us to meet you, the most important people we know of.

This year we will be featuring Eric Johnson, our Director of Horticulture and Cohost of PBS's GardenSMART, who will be speaking at 8:30 on New and Exciting Plants for 2008.  Stephanie Turner, Park Seed's Director of Seed Product, will be giving a presentation on "Great Annuals and Tropicals for Containers." 

Most exciting, though, is that HGTV's Paul James will again be joining us for tours of our gardens as well as Q&A Sessions at 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM.  If you don't know, Paul is the star of HGTV's Gardening by the Yard, one of the most popular National gardening shows (as well as my personal favorite).  He is known for is uniquely oddball and personable approach to gardening advice, so be prepared for anything.

Our gardens will be open from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM on Saturday, June 21st.  I have been attending this event with my family for many years, and I hope that you will join us this year.  [Directions to Wayside Gardens]

Korean Fir: One of the Most Unique Conifers Around

We're always on the lookout for unique and interesting trees and shrubs, and it always pleases us to find a quality plant that will really stand out in your landscape.  Our Korean Fir 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' (Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke') is definitely one of those plants.  Korean Fir is a real show-stopper, featuring dark green needles that are recurved back to show the bright, silvery-white undersides, making the irregular branches almost seem to glow.  It produces many cones that sit upright on the branches and are an eye-catching steel-blue with hints of violet.  These cones take several months to mature, meaning you get these interesting accents on your tree for much of the year.  This particular selection of Korean Fir is exciting, because, as natives of the high mountains of Korea, most Korean Firs do not do well in warmer climates.  Horstmann's Silberlocke, on the other hand, is noteworthy for its ability to tolerate the heat all the way to zone 9.

If you are looking for a quick growing tree, Korean Fir is not for you.  It is an unusually slow-growing conifer.  However, the beautiful growth of this unusual plant is more than worth the wait for a majestic tree, and it is stunning almost from day one.  Several of my coworkers are already finding planting spots on their landscapes for this exciting Abeis koreana.