Ornamental Grasses Are Colorful and Require Minimal Care

With Rose of Sharon, zinnias, dahlias, and cosmos in bloom, the summer gardens are at their peak of summer color. However, when the ornamental grasses leaf out, the summer landscape is most definitely completed!

Ornamental grasses are a very popular category of landscape plants for both the residential and commerical landscapes. The grasses are popular because they

• are colorful
• are hardy
• provide different seasonal textures to the landscape other plants cannot
• can be somewhat drought tolerant

Much like the different lawn grasses, ornamental grasses are divided into two categories, warm and cool season grass.

Warm season grasses begin growing quickly in late spring and early summer whereas cool season grasses begin greening up in early spring. Popular cool season grasses include fescues, blue oat grass, and autumn moor grass. Popular warm season grasses include northern sea oats, hardy pampas grass, fountain grass and switch grass.

Care is very simple and may only require

• A very light fertilization if any at all
• Every two to three years a possible divisions of a grass clump
• A spring hair cut of cutting the previous grass leaves  back to 2-6 inches above the ground depending on the variety

Click on picture to enlarge view:

Samples of Ornamental Grasses

For Dramatic Leaf Color Use the Sweet Potato Vine

When driving around neighborhoods or commercial gardening sites, you may have noticed pots or flowerbeds with long light green chartreuse or dark purple leafed vines spilling over flowerpots or out of hanging baskets.

Most likely, you are seeing the ornamental sweet potato vine.

I was introduced to this great plant and now it’s use has moved out of the flowerpots and is planted with greater frequency as a quick growing annual ground cover among annual flowers.
　
The Ornamental sweet potato vine, Ipomoea batatas, is a true sweet potato complete with tubers. Thought the vine is selected for its bolder and more colorful foliage than its vegetable sibling it is not as sweet as those tubers, which are grown for eating.

Though related distantly to morning glories, which are started with seed, cuttings are usually taken  from an existing vine or a cut portion of a tuber to begin new vine propagation.

Sweet Potato Vine likes a sunny, moist well-drained soil and often times will appear to wilt in the hot mid-day sun. With a quick watering, the vine perks right up.

There are three main colors of sweet potato vine. The varieties and colors are:
　

• 'Blackie' which has deep purple to nearly black foliage with large, deep cut leaves.

• 'Marguerite' has bold, chartreuse green, heart-shaped leaves

• 'Tricolor' is a less-vigorous variety with multi-colored variegated leaves in shades of green, white, and pink

Easy To Grow, Zinnias Make Great Cut Flowers and Attract Butterflies

When purchasing flowers for the garden, there is a tendency to want instant gratification and purchase the already grown plants available in plant packets.

If you are doing commercial landscape installation, the need for already grown plants is understood. However, many annual flowers do best when sown directly by seed into the garden.

One such annual flower to grow directly as seed in the garden is the Zinnia.

Zinnias bloom from mid-summer all the way until frost. Though there are about 10 species of Zinnia, Zinnia elegans is most popular and there are many hybrids derived from that species and the crossing of some other zinnia species.

Originating in Mexico, Zinnias thrive in hot climates and need sunny areas to grow.

Depending on the variety, Zinnia plant height range from 2-3 inches to about 3 feet. Besides the size of the plant, Zinnias come in a variety of colors as yellow, orange, white, red, rose, pink, purple, lilac and multi-colored blooms.
　
Deadheading is the removal of dead flowers. To continue to have an extended blooming season, removing the spent zinnia flowers and the flower's attached single stem will assure a longer blooming period.

The cultural requirements for zinnias are simple. As already stated, Zinnias need full sun and a soil which is humus rich and well-drained.

Besides attracting multitudes of butterflies to the garden, Zinnias also make great cut flowers and are a great plant to introduce to young children gardeners.




The Many  Flower Types and Plant Sizes of Zinnias



Rose of Sharon---Late Flowering; Easy to Grow; and Comes in Many Flower Colors and Shapes

The Rose of Sharon is now in bloom in most of the Ohio gardens and this bush brings a great deal of color in addition to the annual flowers and late blooming perennials.

The Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, is a flowering shrub native to Asian and is the national flower of South Korea. Initially treated as a non-hardy plant, English gardeners learned quickly the shrub can survive cold winters quite nicely.

Rose of Sharon has no autumn color and has a stiff ungainly look if badly pruned. Often times, considered to be an old-fashioned flowering shrub, it is often times not recommended to be used in most modern landscaping.

However, this shrub in bloom adds a great deal of color to the home landscape.

Starting to bloom as early as June, it will often time bloom through September.

Because Rose of Sharon readily drops seed, the seedlings will spring up throughout the garden much like a weed. I have allowed many of the seedlings to achieve some height---two to three feet---and then I have transplanted them in other areas of the garden or along my fence line for an informal flowering summer border.

This propensity to drop seed has deemed the plant to be a pest by many gardeners.

Rose of Sharon cultural requirements are:

• full sun is best, but tolerant of partial shade
• not particular about soil types
• easily transplanted ( I have transplanted in the fall and early spring with equal success)
• annual pruning back will result in increases shoot vigor and larger flowers
• likes hot weather
• winter killed stems should be removed and a spring trimming to shape the shrub. Because flowers occur on the current year’s growth, prune right after flowering or early spring before the shrub starts to leaf out.

Rose of Sharon comes in a variety of shades of purples, pinks, and white colors. Again, white is such a great color and mixing it with other darker colors offers great color contrast.
　

　
　

Daylilies Come in Different Flower Colors, Sizes and Shapes

If you have not added daylilies to your garden you are missing a great perennial.

I am not talking about the common orange daylilies that one sees growing along the roadsides of the Midwest in June. Rather, I am referring to the many new cultivars, which seem to be added to the market yearly.

The daylily genus name is Hemorcallis. The genus name Hemorcallis comes from the Greek words "hemera" which is "day" and the word "kalos" which means "beautiful."

The flowers of most daylilies opens at sunrise and whither at sunset. A new blossom opens on the same flower stem or scape the next day.

Though blooming time is seasonal and lasts about one month, with careful planning, a gardener could have an early blooming variety (about the time of the daffodils) and a later blooming variety which goes well into an Ohio or Midwest September.

With over 60,000-registered daylily cultivars, there are many varieties to choose. Some daylilies:

• Bloom through out the season and are generally smaller flowered varieties. The most popular is the Stella d'oro variety which blooms heavily in the early summer and then sporadically through the summer and early fall.
• Are dwarf varieties only obtaining 5-6 inches in height with smaller flowers
• Are fragrant.
• Have two sets of flower petals

The best attribute of daylilies are that they come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes and grow well with minimum care in a sunny or partially sunny area.

As for the pocket book, daylilies are relatively inexpensive and can be easily divided and your favorite divisions can be added to many different locations in the gardens.
　
　
　
　
　

Orange Daylily, Purple Loosestrife, & Ajug Avoid These Plants In Your Garden

Over the years of gardening, one learns, by mistake, that some plants are too aggressive in the garden and should never be planted, as they will crowd out many desirable plants.

From personal experience, I am going to describe three plants to avoid introducing into your perennial beds.

The plants are the common Orange Daylily, Purple Loosestrife, and Ajuga.

I was lured into planting the aforementioned perennials. All three have attractive flowers and leaves and in my design, they would have been perfect. However, in a few short years, I was to learn planting them was a blunder.

This is my list of plants to avoid, but every gardener has their own list of plants, which they could readily compile.
　
The common orange daylily Hemerocallis fulva, is seen blooming along highways in late spring and early July. Native to Eurasia, including Japan, Korea, and China, this orange daylily was introduced in the Americas by the 17^th century English and escaped human cultivation. The orange daylily is now so common, people (myself included) mistakenly think the plant is a native plant.

Years ago when I was landscaping, a person offered me all of the orange daylily clumps I could handle and I readily took them home to add to my small developing perennial garden.

Now, I have a very large garden area of just orange daylilies and can appreciate why the person wanted to get rid of them.

Very aggressive, this common orange daylily spreads by its rhizomes and cannot be bound by rock boundaries or edging. Hard to eradicate, the common orange daylily has been deemed a noxious and invasive weed by some states.

A gardener needs to be very careful before introducing the plant. It is not a matter of will the orange daylily takeover the garden, but when will the orange daylily takeover.

Because the orange daylily is here to stay I can recommend a landscape use. Still keep it out of the gardens because you will not tame this beast.

However, the orange daylily makes an effective plant to use on eroding banks of soil.  Because of the plant's very hard and compact roots, soil erosion is prevented.   When in bloom, this  daylily's orange blaze of color is to be appreciated.
　

Another plant that has been sold and is still regrettably continuing to be sold in some Ohio garden centers is Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). I purchased several plants for my own garden and gave a plant to my parents because of the purple-pink midsummer blooms.

Big blunder. Though the Loosestrife flowers are pretty in midsummer, the plant’s stems are very woody and has overtaken many wetlands and crowded out other beneficial native plants which provided nesting habitat for birds.

A heavy seeder, Purple Loosestrife will take over your flowerbeds and appear in the flowerbeds of your neighbor, along fences, and cracks in the pavement.

By law, Purple Loosestrife is a nuisance species in Wisconsin. Being deemed a nuisance plant, in Wisconsin, Purple Loosestrife is illegal to sell, distribute, or cultivate the plants or seeds, including any of any of its cultivars.

Most of us have had some need for ground covers in the landscape.


Ajuga was one plant that caught my attention. Ajuga has purple leaves, hovers close to the ground, can grow as an understory plant to the taller perennials, blooms, and can be tucked into the crevices of a rock garden.


Unfortunately, Ajuga likes to move around and will eventually creep into your lawn. In a season, where there was lawn, soon there will be patches of blue blooming Ajuga in the spring.

　
　
　
　
　
　
　　
　
　

The Basics of Sweet Corn

This is the time of year sweet corn stands are being set up throughout northeast Ohio.

There are many local sweet corn growers in our area of Copley, Ohio. As most of you who like sweet corn, locally grown sweet corn is the best and best served the same day it is pick. Running a bit later than next year, growers are starting to harvest their corn this week.

Like most gardeners, I have grown sweet corn; however, it is too late to put it in now. This blog will serve as a guideline for planting sweet corn next year!

To understand sweet corn, one has to understand the physiology of the plant.

But let’s go back a little bit further. Sweet corn has very different uses than field corn.

Field corn is harvested for use as animal feed, cooking oils, corn syrup; cornstarch; and corn meals. Besides animal and human consumption, corn by-products are used to produce ethanol, batteries, medicines, paper and adhesives. Unlike sweet corn, field corn is allowed to dry in the field before it is harvested. This is truly a very valuable commodity.

Sweet corn on the other hand stores two times more sugar than the seeds of field corn and is served frozen, canned, or corn on the cob. Unlike the field corn, the kernel is not served as a dry kernel.

Despite the difference in uses, field and sweet corn grow much  the same way.

Corn can be planted from seed when there is no more risk of frost, and the soil temperature has reached about 50 to 60 degrees.

Corn requires pollination in order to grow healthy stocks. Corn pollination depends on the wind. Yield is increased if corn is planted in patches or blocks rather than singly in long rows.

Actually, the slightest of breezes help the tassels drop their pollen on to the female silks of the corn plant.

After the pollen has dropped on the plant, in about 5 days the corn is fertilized and the kernels start to form and are mature in about 20 days. (Again sweet corn is harvested when the kernels have just matured and field corn is allowed to dry out in the fields.)

Because of pollination needs, corn is planted in several rows so they can pollinate and is planted far from other varieties so cross-pollination does not occur.
　
Think of corn as a variety of grasses and therefore the corn plant requires heavier  amounts of nitrogen  than those plants, which are grown to produce fruit. Fertilizer recommendations would be 10-10-10 or 10-5-5 with nitrogen being offered in the highest ratio.


　

A great blog to read is Growing Corn.