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Tranquil Times

Spring 2000

       Check out the:       Perennial Plant of the Year

All Plants listed in the articles below are available for sale at Tranquil Lake Nursery.

Low Maintenance Perennials

The Royal Horticultural Society defines a perennial as "a plant lasting longer than two years." One of my favorite definitions amusingly takes this a step farther cited a perennial as "a plant that comes back every year unless it dies".

Anyone who has ever gardened, knows that all perennials do not behave similarly. Some perennials, when planted in a favorable location, may outlive the gardener with little additional maintenance. Examples include the peony, gas plant (dictamnus) and daylily (hemerocallis). Other perennials require regular attention in order to flourish. The there are those perennials that can languish despite steadfast care.

What are the characteristics that help make some perennials "Low Maintenance?" Robert Hebb, a former assistant horticulturist at the Arnold Arboretum, is the author of Low Maintenance Perennials. I prize my well worn copy, although written in 1975, I don't think it has ever been surpassed. Hebb outlined six characteristics that define these tough herbaceous perennials. These include those perennials

Forget the delphiniums. They certainly do not fit into this low maintenance category, and I do not have the time, energy, water and cultural conditions to grow them. However, there are hundreds of genera and thousands of cultivars of herbaceous perennial that certainly are truly low maintenance. In fact, that's exactly what we grow in the fields, containers and display garden at Tranquil Lake Nursery.

Our field production of thousands of daylily cultivars and hundreds of Siberian iris offers the largest selection in the northeast. In our sales area you will find every tough plant from Achillea to Veronica and Zebra grass. Explore our many display gardens, with their dry sandy soils, where you can get ideas about how these rugged perennials will shine in your garden.

Some of my favorite low maintenance perennials are: Sedum spectabile Brilliant, Coreopsis 'Moonbeam', Helictotrichon (Blue Oat Grass), Perovskia (Russian Sage), Euphorbia amygdaloides, Amsonia ciliata, Peonies, Siberian Iris and of course Hemerocallis (daylilies).     by Warren Leach

Container Gardening

Growing plants in containers creates the opportunity for developing exciting ornamental relationships between the plants, the pot and the garden. Container gardening also allows the gardener to grow plants in locations where there is no soil for traditional gardening or where environmental conditions, such as a sandy beach or the dense root zone beneath a tree might deter the growth of the plant.

Containers literally elevate their contents above the ground and put plants "on stage", where they can really show off their flowers and foliage. The container itself can be neutral in color or it can offer a colorful contrasts and complements. Try planting the silver-leafed Pulmonaria 'Majesty' in a deep-blue glazed jardiniere, and nestled it next to the chartreuse foliage of Hosta 'Gold Standard' for a striking focal point in the shade.

Weatherproof containers, planted with hardy perennials or woody shrubs, add year-round sculptural interest to the garden. There are many durable container materials to choose from: fiberglass, plastic, wood, lead, composite stone and stoneware pottery.

Large stoneware pottery, either glazed or unglazed, is a favorite of ours for furnishing the garden. Stoneware is a high-fired pottery in which the clay turns vitreous - to glass. Unlike soft earthenware, it doesn't absorb water. Stoneware pots will not break in winter if they are filled with a soil medium (with or without plants). Glazed stoneware containers add both sculptural form and a colorful spark to the bleak winter landscape.

Growing mediums for containers are usually best composed of artificial soils. Garden soils will compact and not provide the free water drainage that container plants need. Mixes can be made of a combination of peat moss, composted bark, sand and perlite. Commercially available mixes such as Pro Mix BX provide the right texture for water retention and drainage appropriate for most plants. However, these soil-less mixes must be supplemented with fertilizers. A combination of slow release (Osmocote) and a balanced liquid fertilizer (20-20-20) will promote good growth.

Durable containers can be planted seasonally with annuals or permanently with shrubs, trees or perennials. However, since container culture exposes the plant's root zone to a much colder winter temperatures than plants in the ground, some plants that are hardy when planted in the ground may not be root hardy in a container. Yet many evergreen shrubs, dwarf conifers, grasses and herbaceous perennials will survive these low winter temperatures above ground.

Attractive and hardy container specimens can be found among the many cultivars in the evergreen plant families of pine, Pinus; arborvitae, Thuja; yew, Taxus; falsecypress, Chamaecyparis; juniper, Juniperus; and spruce, Picea. Dwarf Alberta spruce, Picea glauca 'Conica'; mugo pine, Pinus mugo mugo; and Rheingold arborvitae, Thuja occidentalis 'Rheinhold' will grow for many years in a 24-inch diameter pot. Yews and falsecypress offer excellent shade tolerant container solutions.

The fragrantly foliaged bayberry, Myrica pensylvanica, is as sturdy in a container as it is sprawling in rocky cracks in ledges along the ocean. Bayberry's tolerance to drought and ability to fix its own nitrogen are ideal characteristics for container culture. Bayberry grows with nearly complete neglect in a container in the shade of a Norway maple by our garden shed. Ninebark, Physocarpus, is another very tough native shrub with attractive foliage for containers in sun or shade.

Several ornamental grasses have proven to be root hardy for perennial container plantings. Blue oat grass, (Helictotrichon), variegated moor grass (Molinia) and feather-reed grass

Calamagrostis are sun lovers. Blue oat grass, Helictotrichon sempervirens combined with dwarf baby's breath, Gypsophila repens, creeping over the edge is attractive for its blue foliage that also gives winter structure and interest. The beautiful chartreuse foliage of variegated moor grass, Molinia caerulea 'Variegata', provides an accent in a container set on the edge of a mixed perennial border. The yellow foliage echoes golden daylilies and coreopsis. Molinia has proven hardy at the nursery (Zone 5) even in a shallow 18-inch diameter stoneware pan.

Cotinus coggygria 'Purpureus' offers a red foliage accent for full sun. Cotinus is a member of the same plant family as cut-leaf staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina 'Laciniata'. Both have hardy constitutions for container planting. Containers can be used to offer a good-looking solution to restrain the spreading habits of some plants. Blue dune grass, Lymus glaucus, is quick to spread by stolons. An old gardening trick is to plant it in a pot sunk in the ground. Thus tamed, its powder blue leaves provide a fabulous accent without overrunning the border. Try potting it up.   by Warren P. Leach

Container Candidates

Perennial Plant of the Year for 2000

 Scabiosa columbaria

'Butterfly Blue"

This beautiful perennial originated in Ireland forty years ago. Spotted by a keen gardener, it moved on to Sussex, England. It has proved to be a hardy grower, and offers a wealth of blue flowers all summer long. Plant in full sun in good soil.

Tranquil Lake Nursery

45 River Street

Rehoboth, MA 02769-1395

(508)  252-4002    fax (508) 252-4740

www.tranquil-lake.com

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