Creeping Phlox
Creeping Phlox
Your Perennial Garden: a Maintenance-Free Zone?
Perennials are not difficult to grow and maintain (after all, they regrow year on year), and they positively thrive in very difficult sites, such as shady corners or areas with permanently moist soil. But does that mean we can have a beautiful perennial garden that is maintenance-free? Well, not quite: in this world you don't usually get something for nothing. Follow a few simple plant care guidelines, however, and your perennial garden will delight you with a healthy, vigorous display for a minimum of work.
Before we look at the different aspects of maintaining a healthy perennial garden, just a few words about the importance of careful planting. The greater the care taken with soil preparation, selection of healthy plants and adequate watering at the very outset, the less work you will have further down the line. You will be able to spend more time relaxing in your garden enjoying the wonderful display if, initially, you have given your perennials the optimum growing conditions in which to thrive.
Both feeding and watering established plants in your perennial garden should definitely not be time-consuming chores. Established perennials, grown on well-cultivated land and well-watered when first planted, require little in the way of feeding and watering. An annual application in the spring of general purpose granular fertilizer or blood, fish and bonemeal should supply all the nutrients your plants will need. Care should be taken to avoid scorching leaves, flowers and stems when applying the fertilizer.
Watering of mature plants should be minimal. Not only does this make sense in terms of conserving precious water, but also in saving you hours of work. Of course, prolonged periods of drought might call for some watering of your perennial garden. Try, though, to use "grey", recycled water or rainwater collected in a water-butt. Remember, too, when you do need to water do so later in the day and direct the water down into the roots. As with fertilizer, keep water away from the foliage: water droplets on leaves evaporate under an intense sun to leave brown scorch marks.
From watering to the dreaded weeding - an audible groan immediately goes up for this onerous chore! But is this really so bad? Why not uproot weeds when they're small? This way you make the job easier and, importantly, avoid disturbing your plants' roots. Better still, why not apply an organic mulch in spring or summer when the soil is moist? You'll suppress weeds while, at the same time, you'll also be helping to retain the soil's moisture and improve its structure. Shredded bark and stone chips make a good, decorative, weed-suppressing soil covering.
Perhaps, though, from a plantsman's point of view, the best solution to weed suppression is planting. Columbine, for example, is a natural colonizer and self-seeder: if allowed to spread quite freely weeds are naturally suppressed. Low-growing, creeping perennials, like catmint, fulfil the same function. A luxuriant, naturalistic planting scheme in a perennial garden is the best weed-suppressant of all; easy on the eye and easy on the back!
Of course, there is a difference between luxuriant growth and congested growth. Foliage and flowering displays can be improved by:
1.Thinning or picking out shoots: delphiniums, lupins, and michaelmas daisies benefit from this treatment.
2.Cutting back old flowered stems to promote regrowth: delphiniums, catmint and salvias
respond well and will give a second display.
3.Deadheading, or removing, flowerheads as they fade: chrysanthemums, phlox, lupins, and panstemons will produce a second flush of flowers.
4.Dividing vigorous perennials every three to five years e.g sedums, irises and bergenias. Replant the healthiest, newest sections.
All the above are hardly arduous jobs and, in the case of division, infrequent. These gentle tasks, carried out regularly throughout the summer, exemplify the more relaxing and enjoyable aspects of maintaining a healthy, aesthetically-pleasing perennial garden. "Little and often" is the key.
Staking perennials is, for many, as much a chore as weeding. Different types of perennials have different requirements:
1.Delphiniums and other tall-stemmed perennials should be tied loosely to a cane when 8-9 ins. tall.
2.Clumps of perennials, tall asters and astilbes for instance, bebefit from link of ring
stakes which can be raised as the plant grows.
But, as with weeding so with staking: why not obviate the need for staking in the first place by choosing free-standing perennials such as hardy geraniums, day lilies and columbine? Alternatively, look out for the newer, more compact versions of old favorites like delphiniums and asters which, when used together with free-standing plants, will still provide you with a wonderful display but little work.
Finally, when plants have finished their display, the dead foliage and stems need tidying up and cutting back to the base. But is this all strictly necessary in the fall? Why not leave attractive stems and flowerheads to overwinter in the garden? The rimed forms of asters, sedums and phlomis look truly spectacular in a winter landscape as do the tough plumes and spikelets of grasses. If given a little protection, grasses, like miscanthus offer a welcome sight of warm beiges and browns while the yellow-striped carex and red-tinged hakonechloa persist throughout the winter. In keeping with the principle "little and often", finish tidying up before new shoots appear. That's not too bad, is it?
So, to sum up: plant with care and choose your plants with care. In this way you will enjoy a perennial garden that offers the best of both worlds: maintenance-lite but still offering a visual delight even in the depths of winter.
About the Author
Maureen Cook shows you how you can enjoy a
perennial garden that's maintenance-lite but still
offers a visual delight.
Find out more about
Perennial
Garden, Click Here.
Creeping Phlox Question?
We want to get two different types of Creeping Phlox. However, we'd like the 2 flowers to intermix so it looks like a plant with 2 different flowers, and not to have one flower for 16 inches, then the other flower. Will these grow together or no?
Also, how should we plant them so they grow together? Still 16 inches apart or closer?
I love creeping phlox and have been growing them for over 30 years. They will grow at different paces depending a lot on your soil. They see to like it a little sandy and grow faster there.
If you want to see quicker color combining, you might try breaking the plants in half then mixing the colors and planting them close together. So instead of one big clump of one color, you get a big clump of two colors, then sixteen inches or so apart, you plant another clump of the two colors etc. (You will do need to space them 16 inches apart.)
Creeping Phlox
How to Grow and Care for Phlox Video
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Landscaping With Shrubs
Shrubs and the perennial plants are the most important things that are used in landscaping. Landscape can be improved marvelously if we make use of the seasonal shrubs properly. Majority of the flowering plants bloom in the spring, however there are certain plants that give good foliage in winter while still others who do not dry up and shrivel in the autumn. With the proper use of these shrubs we can create marvelous landscapes and beautiful sceneries.
If you are willing to develop privacy hedges for your home and you cannot wait for too long, quick growing shrubs are the most important plants that can solve your problems. Not only are the quick growing shrubs important for making privacy hedges, but also if you want to maintain separate bushes in or around your home you can take some help from these privacy hedges.
Cotoneaster is a beautiful shrub that bears the berries and has rough, rocky appearance due to its stiff branches. The shrub is very easy to cultivate at home and thus can easily form beautiful foliage. The branches are woody and branch in the V-pattern known as the herringbone pattern. But the rough woody look of these plants is instantly softened by the red colored berries. These small fleshy gifts of nature beautify the whole landscape with their appearance.
If you want to make your home fragrant, there are a lot of shrubs that grow very quickly to make bushes that emit pleasant fragrance. Mock orange is a shrub that grows quickly to form a bush that emits citrus smell. This is the reason that it is named mock orange. The plant has beautiful blossoms that create a striking scene. Other than mock orange we have other plants like lilacs that can be cultivated because of their beautiful smell. The lilacs are not only great in their smell but also their lovely hues.
If it is the winter season and you are looking for some landscaping there are many plants that blossom in winter, and make your home look a cheerful place even when covered with two feet of snow. Maples are the trees that grow very fast and add a lot to the winter scenery. Redtwig Dogwood is beautiful shrub that is well known for its stunning bark that stands vividly amidst the winter giving a beautiful contrast with the white snow.
A beautiful fast growing shrub that bears yellow flowers is Forsythia. With its yellow flowers it says welcome to the spring giving a stunning look to the flower buds. Besides forsythia many other flowers can be easily grown in spring.
Moon gardens are the places where we can enjoy our nights and relax. They are decorated with the white flowers and night bloomers and therefore are named moon gardens. There are a number of bloomers that can contribute marvelously to our moon gardens these are snowdrops, daffodils, bleeding heart, fothergilla and azaleas. We can also add many creepers to our gardens. Creeping phlox is a good creeper when it comes to cultivating creepers at home.
About the Author
Visit landscaping Burlington, landscaping Milton
Creeping Phlox