A Plan for All
Seasons
Please
excuse the pun, but we do need a plan if we want easy care and year
around interest in our home landscapes. If you are diminishing the
size of your grass area as a way to reduce the time and money spent
on it, that plan should focus on small flowering shrubs as the
plants that require the least care but offer the most interest.
Small flowering
shrubs whether used as an island or on the borders of your property
have flower and foliage diversity in all seasons. Rhododendrons,
especially the smaller species we call Azaleas dominate our spring
gardens and by using evergreen cultivars that bloom early,
mid-season, and late the color is extended. But the often neglected
deciduous Azaleas are even lovelier.
In a landscape
of high shade nothing is more elegant than these plants that show
early buds on bare branches. A truly late bloomer is R. arborescens,
Sweet Azalea, that surprises you with white or light pink blooms in
late July. The leaves turn red before falling so it has color in
fall. It is native from Pennsylvania to Alabama so will survive our
hot summers especially if given shade. Another deciduous native is
the Coast Azalea, R. atlanticum with leathery blue/green leaves and
pink buds opening to fragrant white flowers.
These natives
have been encouraged to intermarry and many of the hybrids have
brilliant colors, not just peach and raspberry but yellow, gold and
orange. Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill, N.C. grows quantities of
natives, including Rhododendrons. They suggest light shade and
morning sun for deciduous species that bloom from early spring until
fall in a spectacular range of color. Many are tall but one, R.
atlanticum ‘Marydel’ is only three to six feet. If you are shrinking
your lawn area with an island or linking two stand-alone trees, you
probably do not want to hide the front door. If you are on a busy
road, conversely, you may wish a tallish mixed group of shrubs at
the front of your lot to provide quiet and privacy.
One old
favorite, the fragrant Mock Orange, Philadelphus, is welcome in late
spring but its large ungainly presence is deservedly ignored the
rest of the year. This pet has been glamorized: P. ‘Snowbelle’ is a
double-bloomed darling reaching only four feet. If you wish to taper
the boundaries of your property from tall shrubs or small trees, to
a mid-size shrub border, ending in short plants linking the border
to the lawn, look for dwarf cultivars of your favorites.
There is a
golden leaved Spirea, ‘Golden Elf’ that grows only six to eight
inches but spreads one and a half to two feet wide. It even
tolerates full sun without its golden leaves toasting. Bright red
fall color means you won’t mind that the flowers are modest. Shrubs
with stems that arch toward the lawn are effective as bridge plants
between taller shrubs and your grass. There is a new Lespedeza
thunbergii ‘Pink Cascade’, pink bush clover, that is only three to
five feet tall and has pink pea-like blooms trimming the long
weeping branches. I tried L.t.’Gibralter’, the purple bush clove,
because they are easy to grow, tough plants. In dry, miserable soil
it died, expectedly. Only Juniper survives on that bank.
For a plant that
blooms a month earlier than Forsythia, try winter Jasmine, Jasminum
nudiforum. Its yellow blooms burst along arching green stems and it
stays three or four feet high unless you train it on a trellis or it
stretches into a nearby Azalea. As familiar as it is easy to grow,
Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ has huge fat creamy globes all
summer on a plant that spreads to five feet but is only three or
four feet tall. It may be pruned lightly in late winter as it blooms
on the current season’s growth. I thought I had planted the native
oakleaf Hydrangea, H.’Pee Wee’, two to four feet: it is surely
oak-leafed but six feet tall. Be sure to check the ultimate size!
CHIGGERS
We who live here know all
about chiggers but a lot of what we know is wrong. Chiggers are the
larval form of a specific family of mites, the Trombiculidae. Mites
are arachnids, like spiders and scorpions and are related to ticks.
It is only this larval stage that is interested in biting: adult
chiggers are vegetarian. Too small to be seen with the naked eye,
they do not burrow but when they bite they inject saliva that
contains a digestive enzyme that dissolves the skin it touches,
liquefying it for food, that the chigger is able to suck up. Ugh.
The resulting red welt does itch like crazy but soap and water right
away after being out where they lie in wait, i.e. weedy places, will
get rid of them before they bite. Wash all your clothes as well!
Once bitten, forget the nail polish. Any salve or ointment for bites
will help, antihistamines etc.
Chiggers are
affected by temperature, most active in the afternoon when the
temperature is between 77 and 86. Below 60 they are inactive and 42
degrees will kill them. Mosquito repellents will repel them but need
to be reapplied after a few hours. Powdered sulphur from the drug
store keeps them off, if you can stand the smell.