ANOTHER WORTHWHILE NATIVE TREE

By now it should be apparent that I have a 'thing' for deer-resistant natives. Here is yet another smallish, early-blooming tree that fits in any garden and deserves to be planted more - the 2-winged Silverbell - often listed simply (and slightly incorrectly) as Carolina Silverbell (Halesia diptera). This is a nice understory tree for part-sun to full sun. I have it growing at the edge of the woods, where it must fight for sunlight with a Sourwood (more about that in a later post), a white pine, and a holly, so it is rather open and irregular. Blooms are white and bell-shaped, hanging down from the branches, and faintly fragrant. Seed pods are interesting and so is the bark, rather striated and furrowed. Fall color is variable but last year was a nice, clear yellow. After about 15 years, mine is about 20 feet tall.

It's not up there with the Serviceberry or dogwood, but worth thinking about if you have space, especially in an informal or semi-wooded setting. It never fails to draw comments when in bloom.

The yellow shrub below and behind the silverbell is the non-native Kerria japonica. This unusual shrub is upright and vase-shaped, with green stems filled with yellow blossoms in the spring, and thrives in part sun. So easy to grow! I especially appreciate the fact that the stems tend to stay green in winter, thus giving us additional interest in the garden when it's most needed. Avoid the double-blooming form; the single is more graceful.

Not the best photo but hope you see the charm!

EVERY GARDEN SHOULD HAVE ONE.....

I have the luxury of space (1.33 acres!) in my garden, but I often work with clients whose space is very limited. Making plant choices is difficult with so many great options, but there is one shrub I keep returning to, especially in early April, the invaluable Burkwood viburnum (Viburnum x burkwoodii) and its cultivar 'Mohawk' (pictured). I have 3 of these beautiful deciduous shrubs in my garden, in full sun, semi-shade, and dappled shade. All are thriving.  Their early April dark-pink blooms open to white, and smell heavenly. They are well-behaved, with a medium growing rate, and can be pruned or shaped easily. My oldest is now about 8 x 8 feet, with little shaping, but you can also keep one smaller. It looks great as an anchor or in the shrub border. Fall color brings additional interest in shades of red or orange-yellow, and good form for winter. Oh, and it is highly deer-resistant. What more could a girl want?

In my opinion, these are superior in form, adaptability, and fall color to the Korean Spice viburnums which are often pushed by the nurseries. I wish this was a scratch-and-sniff post so you could decide for yourself!

INSTEAD OF ANOTHER CHERRY,TRY A SERVICEBERRY

I am probably one of the few native Washingtonians who does not get that excited about the cherry blossoms. Yes, they're beautiful - for about 10 days, if we're lucky. Then the tree has little to recommend it for the remaining 11-1/2 months - early leaf drop, no fall color, etc. (well, the bark isn't bad, I guess). My quest for multi-season interest leads me to another tree in bloom now, our native serviceberry.

There are several species from rangy shrubs to graceful 25' trees perfect for our gardens. My favorite is the tree form cultivar 'Autumn Brilliance' (Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance'), pictured below. All serviceberries provide 3 full seasons of interest - early spring blooms - white and fluffy - followed by edible blue berries in June (grab them quickly before the birds get them - they taste a little like blueberries!) - and gorgeous red-orange fall foliage. Oh, and the light-grey winter bark and shape is lovely too. All in all you get a lot of interest for your effort. And did I mention they're native and great wildlife trees?

Look carefully at labels and don't settle for incomplete information - these trees are often mis-labelled or incompletely labelled in commerce. Dirr has a good description of the many forms in his Manual of Woody Plants; I've seen 'Autumn Brilliance' at many local nurseries.   BTW, this photo doesn't do the tree justice.

HOW I SPENT MY WEEKEND.....

Well, having been away for a few weeks, and with the snow finally gone, this was a working weekend. I leave about half my leaves, as well as perennial seed-heads, on the beds in the fall for soil improvement and as cover and food for animals and insects. That makes my fall clean-up better, but late March is pay-back time, as all of the beds must be cleaned out, ornamental grasses and perennial seed-heads cut back, and winter weeds rooted out. Here we're just getting started. Despite the pay-back, I still prefer leaving things a little messy in the fall - it's more sustainable.

SMALL MIRACLES IN UNCERTAIN WEATHER

I returned from a few days in Sarasota (also experiencing wide variations in weather) and missed the late snow here. My magnolia and camellia are done for the season (I was not around to cover their tender buds with sheets!) and my cherry bloom is damaged, but as I gingerly raked some of the leaf debris from the small woods, the early spring ephemerals - especially native Virginia bluebells and celandine poppy -  were apparent and sturdily growing upward. They don't look like much now but wait a few weeks. These tough plants belong in every garden - they bloom in early spring, then, like bulbs, the foliage fades away til next year so that you can overplant (carefully!) with summer and fall interest plants. I use a lot of ferns for those seasons because they are so deer-resistant.

WINTER ARRIVES IN EARLY MARCH

This weekend's frost was not helpful to my garden, but thank goodness I hadn't removed all of the protective leaves as many yard crews in the neighborhood had already done - the leaves provide a layer of protection to roots. My ancient camellia, tempted by February's warmth, was breaking bloom early, although it appears that many of the flowers were saved by my frantically throwing sheets over it Friday night. My mature winterhazel (Corylopsis spiccata), was in full bloom and too tall to be sheeted and unfortunately was damaged. The jury is still out on the early deciduous magnolia 'Jane'. Luckily the bulbs and hellebores were ok and will recover, as expected - they are used to this cold/warm variation.

WINTER MAINTENANCE

Hopefully this isn't the extent of our snowfall this winter (although spare me the monster storms!). Remember that even though your plants aren't growing in the winter, they are still subject to drying out and damage from strong winds, especially when there is little rain and no snow cover. On a warmer day give newly-planted or delicate specimens some additional water to help them survive til spring rains.

The snowdrops started blooming already - that means the early witch hazels aren't far behind! Late January and February is a great time to prune evergreen and deciduous shrubs. For the latter, you can see the plant structure much better now than in spring, and can remove crossed and unsightly vertical branches as well as generally thin out and 'open' the shrub. Don't remove more than about 25% of the total volume.

FALL PLANTINGS - BULBS

For those of you who've asked, no, it's not too late at all to plant bulbs. Not that I recommend it, but I've been known to plant my last package with a maul (for the near-frozen ground) on or after January 1. I know everyone is busy now and turning to interior projects, but think of your rewards come spring! I especially recommend the smaller - so-called 'minor' bulbs - such as squills, snowdrops, muscari, Spanish bluebells, and the dwarf irises (4 inches tall!) and daffodils. These are probably not available at your local big box but definitely worth mail ordering through a supplier. I have found them all to be deer-resistant.