Wayside Gardens Voices

Plant Asters for Bright Fall Color

Asters are full sun perennials that can provide a good bit of late-season color. The playful, daisy-like blooms in bright springy colors start popping up in late summer, keeping your garden bright right up to the first frost of winter. Asters are very easy to care for, making them a real asset in the garden.

Aster 'Alert'  is a bright pink flowering New York Aster that blooms from summer to winter. It's resistant to deer, and super easy to care for. This plant blooms very densely, creating a low blanket of beautiful bright blooms.

Aster 'October Skies' is a medium-height Aster that will form a thick ground cover for your perennial sun garden. It gets it's name from the deep color of the blooms that resembles the New England sky. 'October Skies' blooms through the mid fall.

Fearing a Hot, Dry Growing Season? Try Drought-Tolerant Plants!

If you live in a drier part of the country, sometimes it can be pretty difficult to plan a garden, because there are a limited number of plants than can tolerate severe climates. Here in South Carolina the springs and summers have been very dry for the last two years. If you are looking to conserve water but you would still like to have a beautiful, colorful garden, you should check out some of Wayside Gardens' drought-tolerant plants. These hardy plants will tolerate hot, dry conditions, and you will still have a landscape overflowing with brilliant colors, fascinating textures, and unique forms.

Watering your plants properly will also help you conserve water and save your garden during a drought. Water deeply to ensure that your roots grow deep into the ground - light waterings lead to shallow roots which tend to lose moisture to evaporation during dry spells. Also try to skip a few days between waterings unless your plant is in danger of scorching - this time will force your plants to seek moisture deeper under the ground, promoting strong root growth.

Coreopsis 'Snowberry' Adds Sunny Elegance

This is one of my favorite images from our catalogs and websites.  It is Coreopsis 'Snowberry,' and it's an amazing perennial that will tirelessly produce mounds of these arresting soft, creamy blooms, lending a real touch of elegance to your sunny garden throughout the entire summer.  Even better, the foliage is evergreen, so it is attractive even when it isn't in bloom.  'Snowberry' is a sterile sport of C. 'Nana,' so it won't invest energy into seed production rather than making more flowers.  This allows it to rebloom more quickly than many other Coreopsis, especially if you deadhead it regularly.

Summer and Fall Blooming Perennials

Having a garden full of colorful blooms that last from first frost to last is just a matter of carefully planning and selecting the right plants. Planning an all-summer colorful garden will help you avoid the extra work in the heat, and have a successful garden right until winter.

There are plenty of beautiful varieties that will bloom very late and keep your garden beautiful well into the fall, including Salvia, Lobelia, Echinacea, and etc. Take a look at the full line of Fall Blooming and Summer Blooming Perennials from Wayside Gardens.

As late summer approaches, we tend to hide from the heat and let our gardens wait until fall, when it cools down and we can prep for the next spring. Fortunately, there are some wonderful plants that may be able to thwart that late-summer lull in gardening fervor.

Summer Perennials

Heat Tolerant Perennials

It's getting hotter, and unfortunately there may be a few long periods without rain. There are a few plants that are perfect for those arid spells. These wonderful late-summer plants will bloom right through the hot months of July and August.

Many Echinaceas will tolerate a hot dry climate. These hardy coneflowers will bring brilliant color to your garden, and they are resistant to heat and will tolerate dryer soil. Salvia is another late summer bloomer that will resist the heat. Salvia comes in enough colorful varieties to ensure your garden will stay impressive even as the the temperature rises and the summer showers begin to wane.Also look at varieties of Clematis and Hemerocallis which are also both excellent hot weather plants. For foliage interest you could try one of the easy to grow heuchera varieties which have brilliant colors and great texture throughout the hot summer into the fall.

Full Sun Perennials from Wayside Gardens

For the average gardener, there would be no garden without full sun perennials. They provide most of the colors, textures, and fragrances the serve to give a garden it's basic structure. From spring to fall, these are your staples-- just fill in along the way with a few annuals, tropicals, and short bloomers.

That being said, full sun perennials will also require the bulk of your attention. Full sun perennials will respond positively to regular maintenance. You will need to prune in late winter and spring, deadhead your blooms, and divide your plants when the growth becomes to dense. They also love soils with high organic matter content and good mulch.

Caring for full sun perennials may be taxing, but you will apprecial your garden when the work is done. To browse through a few full sun perennials take a look at the link from the brand new Wayside Gardens Site: Full Sun Perennials

John Durst
Wayside Gardens Voice

Echinacea, The Hardy Coneflower

Coneflowers are especially hardy, Japanese beetles can be a problem in some areas, but they are resistant to mostly everything. They are beautiful and showy no matter what cultivar you choose. They have large brightly colored flowers with the big cone-like centers that give them their name. They grow to be about three feet tall and have big coarse leaves. They love sunlight and well-drained soil.

Echinacea, the hardy coneflower is a long-time garden favorite. This year's line-up from Wayside Gardens is perfect for collectors and classic gardeners alike. As soon as you open the Wayside Gardens Spring Gardening 2007 catalog you are hit on pages two and three by the beautiful Big Sky series Echinaceas which you can buy separately or together in the “Cone Crazy” Echinacea collection. On pages 90 and 91 you can see the rest of the the Echinaceas offered this spring, including Rassmatazz, the first ever double Echinacea. There is plenty to choose from at Wayside Gardens if you are looking for coneflowers this spring.

For more information about the care of your Echinacea from GardenerHelp.org

Why Daylily Eleonore is expensive

Dear Sharon,

Eb Monroe here, from upstairs. I thought that since nobody else was champing at the bit to get your question answered, I'd have a go at it. Turns out 'Eleonore' is my favorite of our new Daylilies this season, so you might say I've got a vested interest!

If you look at the flower, you see that the lower layer of petals is pale lavender, while the upper layer are a much richer color. This is called a clean color break, and it's as rare as hen's teeth in Daylilies. Unless things have changed since I was in the game, it's much easier to breed a double-flowered Daylily than to get one with that kind of color break. You just don't see many like 'Eleonore.'

And also, before Kay jumps down my throat, it's no more expensive than our other new varieties for spring 2007 -- $14.95 for one. But I know what you mean; it's easier to explain why twice the petals would cost more, harder to talk about color breeding!

Well, I hope this helps. Back to the phones for me!

Over and out,

Eb

ebbettmonroe@gmail.com

The scoop on Pardancanda

It has been a week, hasn't it? But you'll be pleased to know, Kay, that I've found a Rose to end all Roses for spring. And that's all I'm going to say on the subject.

Now, your Pardancanda question. That's x Pardancanda, if you please -- it's an intergeneric cross of Belamcanda chinensis x Pardanthopsis dichotoma. The name is taken from part of each genus name: Pardan + canda. I have wondered if they knew they were going to call it "Candy Lily" when they came up with the new genus, because the "canda" bit does fit in nicely. (And if you've never heard of Pardanthopsis, it used to be called Iris dichotoma. It's one of the beardless Irises, and has the lovely common name of Vesper Iris -- presumably because the blooms opened at the hour for Vespers? If you ever want to explore Irises further, you must read two people: Molly Price, who will make you realize you know nothing about Irises whatsoever; and Louise Beebe Wilder, who grew only what she loved and didn't mind telling you what she thought of any given plant.)

Anyway, where was I? x Pardancanda was introduced by our own Doc Alston in the early '70's, but Doc will tell you that all the breeding was done by Sam Norris, who purchased the original plants from Park Seed. The species is named for him, but Mr. Norris never released any varieties onto the market, so Doc redid the crosses and came up with the mix that Park has been selling so successfully for 30 years or so. Doc claims he played around with selecting individual colors but was never satisfied with the results, which does sound just like him -- too modest by half! At any rate, there have been other selections, but I believe 'Sangria' is the first individual color. The flowers are larger and the season of interest even longer. Candy Lilies have those big, shiny, blackberry-like seedpods that people are keen to use in indoor arrangements, so after the blooms pass in late summer or early fall, the performance continues with a new look.

Have you seen the photo of 'Sangria' yet? Kay, you are going to fall hard for this one!

My phone will not stop ringing. More in a while. Please, please, Los Hermanos for lunch?

What's the story on Pardancanda?

Dear Tamsin and Ebbett:

Do either of you know the origin of Pardancanda norrisii? I was entering information about the new variety we're offering this spring, and I was surprised to read that the original was developed at Park! Why have I never heard this claim to fame for our sister company?

Curiously,

Kay

Product Administration

KayRavenel@gmail.com