Oh Those Spireas! Proven Winners and More to Boot

I love spireas! I feel awful guilty about saying that too. Terribly guilty. Spirea japonicas are listed as a significant threat by the Tennessee Exotic Plant Pest Plant Council. Significant threat means that  the plant possesses invasive characteristics; not presently considered to spread as easily into native plant communities as severe threat. This fact makes me watch my spireas closely for self seeding tendencies. My spireas have never self seeded in my garden but do tend to spread by rooting along the plant. That is a good thing for divisions but if a gardener is lazy the plants can take over a select area. Nonetheless, I love my spireas and will not garden without them. I've removed ALL other invasives on the TNEPPC list but am keeping the spireas. Can you see why?

The spireas shine and are so easy to grow. They are not fazed by drought, floods, clay, sand, or anything else in the garden. They bloom on and off all season and even when the shrubs are bare of leaves in the winter the shrub provides structure in the form of dense twiggy growth. The growth of spireas is a perfect mounded shape that spreads to about four feet wide by three to four feet high. No trimming is needed but a good haircut in the early spring may help the spirea to push out more blooms. This was the first time I have given my spireas a haircut and they sure are rewarding me with lots of blooms.

Spireas can be added in mixed borders or can be used as foundation plants. They are best used in my garden as weavers. That is they are the glue that ties together plantings. Their pillow form is a form that can fit in anywhere. Spireas are not fussy about conditions so using them in inhospitable spots is a bonus I take advantage of. I have spireas planted under trees, alongside a driveway, and in a shady border. All locations are diverse but work for the spireas.



The blooms this year have been fabulous. I have several cultivars including: Double Play Big Bang, Goldmound, Little Princess, and Dart's Red. I also just received a shipment of Proven Winners plants to trial and advertise recently that included two new spireas. They are: 'Big Bang Gold' and 'Big Bang'. I am ever so excited to add them to my garden and they are tucked into good spots on either side of a Japanese kerria in my Secret Patio Garden. I'll be sure to let you know how they do but for now those spireas are simply spectacular.



Also from Proven Winners are some daylilies called 'Going Bananas'. I already grew several of these daylilies in my garden but when my box arrived from Proven Winners it included another 'Going Bananas' daylily. I like this sunny diminutive daylily. It is a repeat bloomer and does well in my garden. The Proven Winners says this daylily "intermingles well with other plants" and I have to agree. I have it planted in my Front Sidewalk Garden right behind a 'Homestead' verbena. The yellow and purple combination rocks. Speaking of going bananas. At one time I grew some really REALLY tall hardy banana trees. This marker stone is a relic of those days and I thought it appropriate to include it in this post for you all to tie in with my Proven Winners daylilies.







Another few lovely plants in my box from Proven Winners this spring were some calibrachoas (Superbells). The two varieties pictured here are Sweet Tart and Cherry Star.

The 'Sweet Tart' superbells are the pink ones while the 'Cherry Star' ones are the bright red ones with the yellow star. I am not usually a container type person but decided to fill a few planter boxes with these Superbells. The superbells are doing great. I have another one in a hanging basket that only has the moss on the outside (allowing water to drain through quickly) and that one is doing just as well as these ones and I haven't even watered it! I received a few other plants from Proven Winners but will post on them at a later date.



And one last picture is of my beautiful golden retriever/lab mix dog who came from our local shelter ten years ago. BJ is an old man now and feeling every single one of his years. Like me he creaks a bit when he walks and sometimes just doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Here he is looking at me longingly because he feels he should not be locked up. He is perfectly able to wander around with me in the front yard but the evil dog (Lady) feels that if BJ is able to wander around then so is she. She will jump over our four foot tall chain link fence and leap high hurdles to follow BJ. So my poor BJ is relegated to the backyard when Lady is outside. BJ has been on my mind lately because he has a bad urinary tract infection and prostatitis. Poor guy. We are getting him better though. Note the ball right next to him on the ground? BJ is of course my avatar picture on my profile. He and I share many of the same traits and I find him to be a great friend so I borrow his picture for this part of my world in blogging....


in the garden....

One last announcement for my local readers. The Tennessee Yards Done Right workshop is scheduled for this Saturday. Call Karla Kean at 9316485725 to register.

Note: I had this post all ready to go and then last night the worst thing happened, the Ramsey's best friend and faithful companion for the past ten years, BJ, passed away suddenly. We are heartbroken and will miss him dearly. This last picture was taken the day before he died and shows him as he truly was-a beautiful and happy dog. 

I will be hit or miss on the computer as we grieve. We went through this last year with our dear dog Link so we know we will get through it but the pain is so real. The good part is that he did not suffer and all three of us were with him at the end. We are thankful for these small miracles to aid us in our daily lives because if we can see the good parts then perhaps the bad parts are not so devastating....

in the garden with my dear friend BJ.  

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

A New Broken Concrete Patio Tucked In the Garden-Walk Around Time

What is that way in the distance? Could it be a chaise just waiting for a tired gardener to have a seat? Let's take a closer look. Come walk with me.





As we get closer we can surely see it is indeed a chaise with a few chairs, a lovely table and umbrella and a patio! The patio is tucked into two gardens. Shall I talk about the gardens as we walk? The first garden we come upon is surrounded by rocks lovingly collected by me in Louisville Kentucky from my daughter's subdivision. Boy was that a lot of work~! I need a seat just thinking about it. The Redbud Garden is so named due to the 'Forest Pansy' redbud tree growing in this garden. A funny story about how this garden started. I had an extra load of dirt and no where to put it. This particular area was a difficult area because the grass would not grow here no matter what I did. So, I dropped the dirt in this location and planted the Forest Pansy. The rocks and other perennials came later. Tip: start your gardens with the structure-trees and/or shrubs then fill in with perennials.





Ah, here we go. We can get a close up look at the broken concrete. The iris foliage you see to the right of this small patio is from the irises growing in the Redbud Garden. We shall walk to the left of this patio in a minute and take a look at the Walled Garden. If you have a chance do go back and look at this post on the Walled Garden. It shows the garden NEWLY planted. My, what a change. I will talk more of the changes as we walk around the gardens and patio.


The particular location we are standing in is on the north side of my front yard. It has a great view to the side gardens and backyard. The 10' x 8' patio area is somewhat sloped to the north. As such I had to elevate one side of the patio. Mr. Fix-it and I did this by applying a layer of gravel ranging in depth from 2-6". Under this gravel we applied landscape fabric to prevent weeds from growing. I won't go into detail about building this wonderful patio (because I have already posted on that part) but just let me say it has exceeded my expectations. When we first placed the concrete on the gravel surface the cracks and gaps were so big I was afraid my footing would be shaky when walking on the patio. Not so! After packing in the crushed limestone this patio is as solid as they get. It has worked out wonderfully.









And here we are just waiting to take a seat! That chaise sure looks comfy. My two tulip chairs now have a permanent home out front and don't need to rest on my lawn anymore. A nice thing. Okay, let's move around the Walled Garden now. We will walk to the left (north) and I will talk of the plantings along the way.





This area is sloping to the left (toward the north) of my property. I wanted to level this area and keep soil from washing away so I acquired some old concrete blocks that are made to look natural from a fellow Freecycler in Evansville Indiana. On these I placed flat concrete stones as a cover. My cat Orkin loves walking on this wall. The wall serves to delineate the boundary of the garden and holds in some backfilled soil. Not only that but I think the wall helps to hold in moisture. This is most important because there is a mature oak and mature cedar tree growing in this bed. The soil can be very dry. The outer rim of shrubs is a group of PeeGee Hydrangeas I propagated from cuttings in the year 2007. I hate propagating shrubs. It takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r for them to mature to good sized shrubs. Soon these shrubs will be in full bloom. The first time since I planted them! There are about 10-12 of these shrubs. A tip: when you have a seating area it feels more comfortable and natural to have a backing in place. In my case my backing is actually three walls of shrubs (two rows of the PGs, and in between them directly in the middle of this garden are three 'Nova Zembla' rhododendrons; which are evergreen shrubs. This garden is dark and barely gets any sun so only shade tolerant plants can grow in this location. There are a few perennials in this garden as well. Namely hostas and columbine but they will soon come out so the shrubs can take over and provide the structure and impact I desire.The hypertufa pots are not normally located on this wall. They have been relocated there temporarily while we have some work done on the house.





Okay, we have now reached the lower end (northern side) of the Walled Garden. This picture shows the PG hydrangeas a lot better. They are getting big-finally! Even though I started this garden in 2007 the PGs (big ones) were actually started from cuttings in 2005. Looking straight ahead past this garden we can see parts of the Northside Shrub Border and the Roadside Shrub border. Directly straight ahead on the other side of the shrubs is the road. Let's look at a focal point in this garden. A special treat in the form of a Japanese maple.





This is one of six Japanese maples in the front yard. Most are planted as an understory interest tree. All are under existing mature trees. The shade tends to slow the growth a bit but I think in the long run it will be okay because with slower growth the tree will hopefully put on a good structure and grow nice roots. This tree started as a 2-3' tall seedling. I do not know the cultivar. Last winter it had the most glorious orange fall foliage. It is simply splendid. I tucked it in between two PGs. The hosta growing here will soon be divided and moved. It is a 'Christmas Tree' hosta. I have found this hosta to be one of the very best hostas in my garden. It gets nice and large and looks good all season. It does not tend to fade away like a good many hostas do here in the south.



We are rounding the bend of the U shaped Walled Garden and are now looking up toward the house from the northeast corner of my front yard. You can just make out a 'Nova Zembla' rhododendron between the two PG hydrangeas that are in the foreground. If you look past the rhododendron you'll then see the back side of the new Broken Concrete Patio.

Let's look back to where we just came from in order to round the bend shall we? On the right we can see the Northside Shrub Border. This border follows the outline of the Walled Garden and there is a bump out between the Walled Garden and the Crabapple Garden. I planted an 'Empress of China' evergreen dogwood in that bumpout just this past fall. It is doing wonderfully. Trees and shrubs are my passion here but I am really running out of spots to plant them.

Looking to the south we can now make out the mature cedar tree (Juniperus virginiana). I love my cedar trees for their toughness and food they provide to wildlife. Unfortunately they are very dark underneath. The only thing growing in this area are some Solomon's Seal and a few azaleas. Generally speaking all of my gardens are loaded down with perennials. You usually cannot see the ground because of all the plants. Some areas like this one though are too challenging even for tough perennials. It is here that I prefer only shrubs with a good ground cover under the shrubs. This area is inhospitable to most plants due to the tree roots from the red cedar. Oak tree roots are not as bad as cedar tree roots and I have a lot of oak trees. Tulip poplars and even river birches have very thirsty and very hungry roots that simply clog up the ground and hog all of the soil. No matter what kind of trees you have in your garden just know the ground is normally very tough for perennials to grow in because the perennials simply cannot out compete the trees. In these situations only tough shrubs and mulch will work. As a rule I generally do not water. At least I try not to. If you are a gardener who waters a lot you may have better luck trying to keep perennials alive under mature trees. Good luck.

Looking through to the patio we can see the three rhododendrons. On the other side of the rhodies are more PG hydrangeas. They are smaller than the ones I previously showed since they were only propagated a few years ago and just planted last fall. To the left and where you can see the green water fountain is the start of the Redbud Garden. The Redbud Garden gets a bit more sun and has several perennials growing in it under the redbud.

Just past the water fountain is where the concrete wall will turn to stone and that signifies we are almost back to where we started-at the Redbud Garden. Here you can see several perennials growing in this garden. This garden is viewed prominently from my front porch as you can see in the above picture.

Looking through the gardens we can see not only the patio (remember it is tucked in between these two gardens) but also some of the foundation beds and back toward the Northside Shrub Border and backyard.This is our view looking to the west from our new Broken Concrete Patio.

Finally we are back to where we started the tour and walk around. This large island bed is one of five large island beds in the front yard. So far we have walked around the Front Center Garden and now this combination Walled/Redbud Garden. Soon we'll see the Crabapple Garden, the Mahonia Garden, and the Front Sidewalk Garden. 


Shall we have a seat and a spot of lemonade on the patio....


in the garden....


Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden