The Online Garden Gossip
April 2007/Issue #12

My Monet weigela -- this year's biggest small shrub 2007's top little shrub is My Monet weigela.  At only 12-18 inches tall and wide, this little plant features green leaves with creamy white edges that change to pink and is topped with pink flowers.  It can't be beat!  Use it in your garden to line a path or as a border to set off a bed -- or pop it in a container for a stunning display all summer.  It does best in full sun to part shade.  And hummingbirds love it.

2007 Perennial Plant of the Year: Nepeta 'Walker's Low'

The Perennial Plant Association has awarded the Perennial Plant of the Year to  Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low.'  This catmint has grown in popularity thanks to its beautiful blue-violet flowers, its long bloom time, and its attractive gray-green foliage.

It does best in full sun, but can tolerate some shade.  It's a good companion plant for early and late blooming plants -- and it's deer and rabbit resistant.

Gaillardia 'Oranges and Lemons' -- add a little zest to your perennial beds

These large peachy-orange flowers have yellow tips and large central cones that appear for a long time in summer.  Light blue-green foliage enhances the warm flower color.  The upright growth habit reaches 22-26 inches -- a nice way to add some spice to your summer flower garden!

Feature
Stepables: Plants you can walk on

Most of us have at least one spot in our yard or garden that we struggle with.  Maybe it's a hillside that suffers from erosion, or a spot under some trees where you just can't get grass to grow.

Why not consider planting some Stepables -- a selection of groundcover plants designed for any and all situations.  And yes -- you can walk on them!

Stop in to Sugar Creek Gardens to view our Stepables display and ask one of our horticulturists for advice on your tough spot.

Attention rose lovers: NOW is the time to treat for Japanese Beetles

Even though it will be another two months before we see any Japanese beetles, the grubs are starting their spring feeding.  Now is the time to treat your lawn and garden with milky spore or a granular grub control product, such as Bayer Advanced Season-Long Grub Control Ready-to-Spread Granules.

To learn more, read our Japanese beetle handout.  Treat grubs now to save yourself -- and your plants -- a lot of heartache this summer.

Upcoming talks at Sugar Creek
You're invited, and they're free!

Colorful Combinations to Light Up Your Shade Garden, Tue., April 17, 6 p.m., Tina Paletta, Horticulturist.  Explore the ever-expanding selection of shade plants.  Learn how to combine flower and foliage color, form and texture for season-long interest in your garden.   

Best New Annuals and Perennials, Tue., April 24,
6 p.m., Roxanne Cronin, Horticulturist.  Talented hybridizers have concocted truly remarkable plants for 2007.  You’ll hear about the exciting new creations that have the garden world amazed, awed, and just plain star struck. 

Fairy Garden Demonstration at Garden Party Thurs., April 26, 6-7:30 p.m.  Due to the large migration of fairies, elves and gnomes to our area, we have created habitats for these creatures.  Whimsical miniature gardens will be on display during the party.  Bring your family and friends for an evening of merriment.  You’ll enjoy:

• 10% off your total purchase between 6 and 7:30 p.m.

• FREE refreshments, punch, wine and snacks

• Door prizes

• One FREE herb for every guest (with any plant purchase)

• Surprise specials during the evening

Captivating Containers Tue., May 1, 6 p.m., and Thurs., May 3, 9 a.m. with Tina Paletta, Horticulturist.  Learn from the best!  Tina is legendary for her creative combinations of plants, colors and textures.  Learn stunning plant combinations for your window boxes, moss baskets, hayracks, and pots.  Always fun!

Have a question or comment? Send us an e-mail.

Karen's gardening calendar

Karen Collins, a longtime Sugar Creek employee and master gardener, has identified things you can tackle in your garden this month:

• Remove winter mulch from rose bushes.
• Remove dead wood from climbing roses.  Lightly cultivate Cotton Burr Compost or Rose Bed Amendment or other organic matter into soil around base of roses.
• Raise mowers to highest setting and mow groundcovers to remove winter burn and tidy appearance. 
• Shrubs and trees best transplanted or newly planted in spring, rather than fall, include butterfly bush, dogwood, rose of sharon, black gum, vitex, red bud, magnolia, tulip, poplar, birch, gingko, hawthorn, and most oaks.
• Prune all dead and weakened wood from shrubs due to winter injury.
• Established roses may be fertilized once new growth is 2 inches long.  We recommend Bayer Advanced All-in-One Rose and Flower Care Concentrate.
• Also use the Bayer All-in-One product to pretreat plants that are susceptible to mildew, such as monarda, phlox, and syringa.
• Begin spraying to control black spot disease.  We recommend Ortho Rose Pride Rose and Shrub Disease Control.
• Carefully cultivate soils to avoid injury to balloon flowers (platycodon), gas plant (dictamnus), hardy hibiscus, plumbago (ceratostigma plumbaginoides) and some lilies as they are slow to show in the spring garden.
• Easter lilies may be planted outdoors.  Set bulbs 2-3 inches deeper than they grew in pot.  Mulch.
• Boxwoods can be pruned after April 15.
• Use Espoma Holly-Tone for control of holly leaf miner. Apply when new leaves begin to grow.
• Now is the time to shape evergreen and deciduous hedges.  When pruning, it is important that the top is narrower than the base so that sunlight can reach lower limbs.

Unusual
plant of the month
Digitalis Camelot Mix

A foxglove that blooms every year?  The digitalis Camelot mix meets the challenge.

With full sun and well-drained soil, established plantings can become self-sustaining colonies. And hummingbirds love them.

Camelot Lavender drips lavender bells with blackberry spots on tall, 40-inch spikes.  Camelot Rose is a new hybrid with large, deep rose-pink flowers with burgundy spots.  Secondary flower spikes extend the bloom time.