Plant of the Week
Native plant guilt has been simmering this past month with my goings-on about Eur-Asian bulbs that bring us so much joy in spring. But this week I alleviate the shame by celebrating Mertensia virginica, the Virginia Bluebell, which has a native range that spreads over much of the eastern half of the U.S!
Virginia Bluebell pink buds go to blue bells, seemingly in a flash.
The bright green oval leaves start to poke out in mid March around here, and it seems like a minute later that you get tight pink buds. Another 30 seconds go by (this is garden time— it goes very quickly in spring) and you have your lovely, droopy, true blue bells!
So often in gardening the color blue would read as purple in other scenarios. That could be because there just aren’t too many really blue flowers, and we gardeners appropriate the next best thing on the color wheel. But M. virginica really is blue. It’s also quite ephemeral, so enjoy it while you may!
Here are my ‘shady’ Bluebells, and you can see Bleeding Heart, Hostas, and Hakon grass waiting to fill this spot when the Bluebells go dormant, which will be early-mid summer.
Plant Virginia Bluebells in shade or a little bit of sun, in moist soil or normal soil— there are no hard and fast rules. But you will be saddened by a lack of interest when it goes dormant by mid summer, so do plant it among other plants. Good companion plants for Virginia Bluebells are summer interest perennials or annuals.
A good time to buy them is spring! Nurseries generally don’t stock a lot of dormant plants.
And don’t forget that they will spread by self-sowing if they are happy where they are.
Guest: Diane Blazek
Diane Blazek is the Director of the National Garden Bureau and All America Selections, which is an organization that has plants tested out anonymously and compiles the best as AAS WINNERS. These are the “flowers and vegetables that have been "Tested Nationally & Proven Locally.™" Each AAS entry is tested for superior garden performance by horticulture professionals across North America.”
Diane’s picks of the Best Plants of 2022 were so good I had to write an entire separate blog about them, linked below with tempting photos.
Clockwise from upper left: Celosia Flamma Orange, Agapanthus Ever Amythest, Petunia Bees’ Knees (Gold Medal Winnter), Hydrangea Fairy Trail Bride, Zinnia Profusion Red-Yellow Bicolor and Coleus Main Street Beale Street.
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The Play List
Burning Garden Questions for Late March…
Where can I watch Virginia Home Grown?
What’s a cold frame and how do I use it?
How and when should I put my indoor plants back outside?
What is rejuvenation pruning?
And the garden answers…
Where can I watch Virginia Home Grown? Right here, and the show that I am in airs March 29.
My coldframe was built from an old door. My handy guy Tim added plexiglass to the front of the frame. I don’t use it all winter, but it helps start seedlings in spring for me.
What’s a cold frame and how do I use it? A cold frame is a structure where you can put plants so that they are protected from low winter temperatures, but they can access the sun’s light through windows. Wait, you might say, that sounds like a green house. Yes, but cold frames are shorter, and people are generally not able to walk around in them. Mine has a pretty standard look, with glass on the top and it’s built slanted toward the sun. The hinges of the glass door allow me to get the plants inside more or less air, depending on outdoor temperatures. I generally close mine at night.
How do you use a cold frame? You could grow greens all winter long, if you were ambitious enough to do so, or over winter not-quite-hardy plants, or simply admire it as an accoutrement that a gardener should have, even if it sits empty. I use mine a lot that way.
How and when should I put my indoor plants back outside? In this week’s podcast I go into detail about how I handle this situation, and let me summarize by saying my methods do not include coddling and carrying in and out, back and forth, to and fro. But I do keep in mind the following good sense measures for hardening off tender houseplants
No direct sunlight for a week or two, even for sun lovers
I keep them tucked up next to the house so that the outdoor temps are not exactly what they feel. They get a bit of borrowed heat.
I look at the extended forecast and make sure it’s mild
I get ready to apply beach towels and old sheets if a frost warning comes up
BEFORE: In 2012 I could see that this would be my sunny perennial border. I cut these horrible Ilex crenata (Japanese hollies) to the ground to see if they wanted to stick around.
What is rejuvenation pruning? Rejuvenation pruning is hard core, I-don’t-care-if-you-die type of pruning. This is a step taken only when you are seriously considering replacing the plant entirely anyway. With rejuvenation pruning you are giving your plant one last chance, and taking advantage of its mature root system to bring it back to life— a new life that you can control and admire in your garden space.
AFTER: Some of them stuck around, and they are playing their part nicely as green meat balls that are the bones of the border in winter.
I have cut hollies, camellias, boxwoods, azaleas and others back to nubbins, and the idea is to wait and see if they respond by starting again with a shape I can work with, instead of the overgrown mess that I am considering ripping out entirely.
Rejuvenation pruning is a satisfying strategy. Plus, it’s less work than pulling out a mature root system, and less expensive than buying a new plant.
This Holly was 15’ x 15’ in 2012 and it engulfed the stone planter that you see behind it, which we didn’t even know was there. I had it chainsawed back to 6’ and you can see that I had the guys remove major branches. Now, instead of hiding our house, it’s a nice entry plant with lots of berries for the birds to eat.