Can plants really save the planet? The presenters of this three-part course think so. with Richard Hawke, Sue Milliken, Kelly Dodson, and Kelly D. Norris
Earth-friendly gardening practices focus on minimizing the negative impact that gardening can have on the environment. This can include using sustainable gardening techniques such as composting, reducing or eliminating the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and conserving water.
But it also means being incredibly selective about the plants you choose to use in your landscape. Planting native species, which are adapted to the local climate and soil conditions, is an important aspect of earth-friendly gardening. Using ornamental plants that are truly low-maintenance or provide valuable resources to wildlife is another option for gardening in a greener way. It’s also essential to the planet as a whole to protect rare and endangered species that are under threat in their native regions.Can plants truly save the planet? The presenters of this three-part course think so, and they will share exactly why and how they think you can help make that happen.
The course includes over 3 hours of video lessons.
Join us as we take a deep dive into the complex and sometimes controversial gardening topic of sustainability. This on-demand lecture series features four separate classes related to the overall theme. Each highly engaging session is modeled after a college course and is taught by a leading expert in the field. With each class you’ll receive not only in-depth instruction but also informative handouts to help you understand and visualize the concepts being discussed. Each class is offered on-demand, so you can view it at your leisure.
Topics that will be covered include:
Ideas for sustainable garden design
Naturalistic approaches to landscape planning
Native alternatives for common plants
Pollinator-friendly selections for every region
Habitat conservation at the backyard level
Steps for enhancing soil sustainably
Conditional improvements for successful native-plant integration
With a plant that takes so long to mature, there’s a lot of time for things to go wrong. One of the many things that might happen is that your garlic’s leaves may fall over.
It’s not necessarily a death sentence, but it’s definitely something you need to figure out so you can prevent it from turning into a bigger issue.
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Most of the common causes will result in just a few leaves falling over, rather than the whole plant.
If all the leaves fall in the same direction, there’s usually only one cause for that. But discolored and collapsing leaves might indicate yet another cause.
Garlic takes a long time to grow, and you really don’t want to have to deal with problems if you can avoid it – especially when harvest time is close.
See our guide to growing garlic for more of the basics. Coming right up, we’ll go over seven causes of collapsing foliage.
Here’s everything we’ll cover:
1. Bad Weather
Think back over the past 24 hours. Did you have a lot of wind, heavy rain, or some hail? Inclement weather can cause the leaves to blow over or become crushed.
If you’ve had inclement weather since you last looked over your garlic bed, it’s safe to assume that Mother Nature is the cause of the limpness.
If this is the case, the plants should recover on their own unless it appears that the actual bulb has been shifted in the ground.
In that case, you might want to pull up a bulb and see if the roots were damaged if the bulb was severed from the leaves. If that happens, pull the bulbs and enjoy the immature garlic and leaves.
Otherwise, it’s fine to prop the leaves back up if you can, but you don’t need to.
2. Disease
Several diseases will cause the leaves of garlic to fall.
Basal rot, botrytis rot, downy mildew, and white rot can all cause the leaves to turn yellow or brown. The leaves will also collapse, typically after turning brown or yellow, but not always.
Garlic can take nine months to mature. These aren’t plants for impatient growers! And when the time comes, it can be a bit of a surprise.
You get so used to those strappy leaves hanging out that you might not realize it’s time to give them the old heave-ho.
Consider how long it has been since you planted and when the bulbs are expected to be ready.
Make a note of this in your gardening journal at the beginning of the season, or set a reminder on your cell phone. If it’s close to time, it could just be that the plants are mature and that’s why the leaves are falling over.
Another hint is that only some of the leaves will be falling over at first. The leaves will be partially yellow or brown as the plant matures as well.
If you don’t remember when you planted or how long the cultivar you’ve chosen takes to mature, pull a bulb out.
If you can see individual cloves and the cloves are covered in a papery outer skin, it’s probably time to harvest.
4. Lack of Nutrients
Garlic isn’t particularly greedy. I never do more than add compost when I plant and then side-dress with well-rotted manure once in the spring.
But if your soil is particularly depleted, your plants might need some food.
Slow growth and small plants are signs that they don’t have enough nutrients to grow well.
Feed with well-rotted manure or a balanced fertilizer. Down to Earth’s Vegetable Garden Mix has an NPK ratio of 4-4-4, which is about right.
Feed your plants in early spring. I use the day when the cherry blossoms open to remind me. Never fertilize after scapes have formed.
5. Not Enough Light
Garlic needs full sun to grow well. Sometimes, you can get away with a bit less light.
But if your plants are receiving less than six hours of sunlight per day and none of the other causes on this list fit the bill, it could be that they’re growing in a spot with too little light.
When this happens, the leaves might be pale and weak, which causes them to collapse.
Unless you can prune other plants around them that are casting shade, there isn’t much you can do to improve the light exposure for an established crop.
Given enough time, the bulbs might still develop, but plan on planting somewhere else next year.
6. Pests
There are two pests that will cause your garlic leaves to fall over. These are nematodes and onion maggots.
Nematodes are microscopic little worms that can cause big time damage. They travel on dirty tools, gardening shoes, or infected seed cloves. Once they start feeding on your plants, collapsed foliage is a common symptom.
Buying treated, certified disease-free seed and using good garden hygiene practices can help prevent an infestation, and beneficial nematodes can help you kill the bad ones.
Onion maggots (Delia antiqua) are the larvae of flies. When these pests hatch in the soil, they nourish themselves by feeding on the roots of the bulbs.
Since the damage is happening underground, you might not know these maggots are present – until the leaves start to wilt and collapse, that is.
Sticky traps and row covers are effective at preventing the adults from reaching the plants and laying eggs.
Certain mammals may cause problems as well. They won’t usually try to eat the plants, but they might trample through the patch or even curl up to take a nap on them.
When this happens, it usually results in trails through your gardens or areas flattened in a circular pattern.
If you can protect your plants from future traffic, they should recover just fine.
7. Watering Issues
Most plants will wilt if they don’t have enough water, and garlic is the same. Many cultivars require a bit less moisture just prior to harvest time, but it’s possible to take things too far.
If it isn’t harvest time, go out and stick your finger in the soil. Does it feel totally dry?
Try watering your plants thoroughly and then give them several hours or overnight to recover. If they perk back up, then you’ll know that the plants weren’t receiving as much water as they needed.
It might just be that you had a particularly hot day or maybe your irrigation system didn’t turn on.
Going forward, check your soil frequently to determine whether it needs supplemental moisture or not. The soil should be moist during the spring and fall but probably won’t require any additional moisture during the dormant winter season.
The soil should usually be a little bit drier a few weeks before the expected harvest date. Not all cultivars need a period of dryness, however.
Overwatering leads to all kinds of problems. Not only can it drown the roots by depriving them of oxygen, but it can create the ideal conditions for disease as well.
Both over- and underwatering will cause the leaves to collapse. The foliage will typically be soft rather than dry or crispy if you are overwatering. It might turn yellow or brown, or it might stay green. Dry plants will turn brown or yellow and crisp starting at the edges.
At any point except for the drying out period before harvest, stick your finger in the soil. Does it feel any wetter than a well-wrung-out sponge? You might be overwatering.
Try watering less for a few days. You might even allow the soil to dry out completely between watering for a while.
Does it feel dry? You might need more water, unless it’s the short period right before harvest when many cultivars need a period of dryness.
If you suspect disease has gotten hold of your plant, check out the section of this guide on diseases as well.
Stand Up Straight!
Garlic is such an essential, both in the garden and the kitchen. We can’t let it fall down! But don’t feel bad if it happens. We all experience it at some point.
Hopefully, this guide helped you narrow down the cause of your feeble foliage. Let us know in the comments what was going on or if you still weren’t able to determine a cause. Maybe we can help!
Figuring out how to straighten up thosegarlic plants is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more to know about growing this versatile allium.
If you’re ready to learn more, here are a few guides to get you started:
Prepare to rattle your funny bones with this bone-afide collection of skeleton puns!
The best skeleton puns and jokes
Whether you’re a fan of anatomy, crazy about Halloween, or just love a good laugh, these skeleton puns are bound to hit the spot.
Use them at your Halloween party, on instagram captions, in TikTok videos, or just when you need to lighten the mood. They’re family-friendly, so you can enjoy them with people of all ages.
Read on for a whole host of cute skeleton jokes, skeleton puns and jokes about bones.
Family-friendly skeleton jokes
1. What do you call a skeleton who never does his chores? Lazy bones.
2. Why did the skeleton quit his job? His heart wasn’t in it.
3. What did the French skeletons say before eating their dinner? Bone appetit!
4. What’s a skeleton’s favourite thing to do with their cell phone? Take skelfies.
5. Who is the most famous skeleton detective? Sherlock Bones.
6. What do you call a skeleton that looks exactly the same as another skeleton? Dead ringer.
7. Why did the skeleton want a friend? Because he was feeling bonely.
8. What’s the best way to make a skeleton laugh? Tickle its funny bone.
9. Why didn’t the skeleton eat spicy food? He didn’t have the stomach for it.
10. What Spanish food do skeletons enjoy most? Patella.
11. What did the skeleton say when it won the lottery? “I’m feeling bone-afide lucky!”
12. Why did the skeleton go to acting classes? He wanted tibia star.
13. Why do skeletons hate the cold? It sends chills up their spine.
14. How do you imprison a skeleton? Put him in a rib cage.
15. Why did the skeleton go to the library? To bone up on its reading skills.
16. Why does a skeleton make a good manager? Because it’s a natural bone leader.
Funny skeleton puns
17. What kind of TV does a skeleton watch? A skelevision.
18. Why was the skeleton lonely? It had no-body.
19. Why did the skeleton go to the hospital? To have his ghoul bladder removed.
20. What do skeletons say as they head out to sea? Bone voyage.
21. Why are skeletons so calm? Because nothing gets under their skin.
22. What kind of plate do skeletons eat on? Bone china.
23. Why couldn’t the skeleton get out of bed? It was bone tired.
24. What does a skeleton order at a restaurant? Spare ribs.
25. How did the skeleton know it was going to rain? He could feel it in his bones.
26. What did the doctor say to the skeleton who had a temperature of 103 degrees? “Looks like you’re running a femur.”
27. What do you call a skeleton who goes out in the snow? A numb-skull.
28. Where do bad jokes about skeletons belong? In the skelebin.
29. What’s a skeleton’s favourite element? Car-bone.
30. How did the skeleton say to his girlfriend? “Will you marrow me?”
31. What’s a skeleton’s least favourite room in the house? The living room.
32. Why didn’t the skeleton go to the scary movie? He didn’t have the guts.
33. How did the skeleton get into the top university? It won a skull-arship.
More funny skeleton jokes
34. Why did the skeleton go to prison? Because he was bad to the bone.
35. How do skeletons say hello in France? Bonejour.
36. Did you hear about the skeleton who dropped out of medical school? He didn’t have the stomach for it.
37. Why did the skeleton go to the dance? To see the boogie man.
38. What happened to the skeleton who sat by the fire too long? He became bone dry.
39. Why are skeletons so calm? Because nothing gets under their skin.
40. What’s a skeleton’s favourite rock band? Bone Jovi.
41. What’s a skull’s second favourite rock band? The Grateful Dead.
42. Why didn’t the skeleton play football? His heart wasn’t in it.
43. Who is the most famous French skeleton? Napoleon Bone-apart.
44. Why didn’t the police arrest the skeleton? Because they couldn’t pin anything on him.
45. What’s a skeleton’s favourite way to fly? By skelecopter.
46. What type of art do skeletons like? Skulltures.
47. What did the skeleton say to the other skeleton when it was angry? You’re dead to me.
48. What is half the diameter of a skeletal circle? The radius.
49. Why can’t skeletons play church music? Because they have no organs.
Skeleton humour to get the kids laughing
50. What does a skeleton use to cut through objects? A shoulder blade.
51. What did the skeleton say to the vampire? “You suck.”
52. What do skeletons complain about? Aching bones.
53. Who won the race between the skull and the skeleton? The skull, it was just ahead.
54. What do you call a skeleton who hangs out in coffee shops and listens to indie music? A hip-ster.
55. Why did the skeleton student stay late at school? He was boning up for his exam.
56. What’s a skeleton’s favourite shellfish? Mus-skulls.
57. Why did the skeleton start a fight? Because he had a bone to pick.
58. How did the skeleton reprimand their kids? They skull-ded them.
59. How did the skeleton win the talent show? It had an unbeatable “bone”-afide act.
60. What did the skull say when it won the race? “I guess I had a head start!”
61. How did the skeleton know the other skeleton was lying? He could see right through him.
62. What’s a skeleton’s favourite song? “Bone to be wild”.
63. What’s a skeleton’s second favourite song? “I ain’t got no body.”
64. What’s a skeleton’s third favourite song? “Bad to the bone”.
More hilarious skeleton jokes
65. What happened to the pirate ship that sank in a sea full of sharks? It came back with a skeleton crew.
66. What’s a skull’s favourite yoga position? The headstand.
67. How do you call a skeleton? On his cell bone.
68. Why are skeletons so good at telling jokes? Because they have a funny bone.
69. What kind of birds do skeletons like best? Sea skulls.
70. What’s a skeleton’s favourite holiday? Hallowe’en.
71. Who won the skeleton beauty contest? No body.
72. What did the skeleton write in the Valentines card? “I love every bone in your body.”
73. Why do skeletons go to the gym? To develop their mu-skulls.
74. How do skeletons stay calm? They keep their cool even when things get bony.
75. What do you call a lie told by a skeleton? A fibula.
76. Who won the race between the skeleton and the skull? The skull, it had a head start.
77. What do skeletons hate the most about the wind? Nothing. It goes right through them.
78. How do skeletons keep track of their appointments? With a skull-endar.
79. What’s a skeleton’s favourite plant? A bone-zai tree.
80. How did skeletons send mail in the old days? They used the bony express.
Humerus bone jokes
81. What is a skeleton’s favourite instrument? A sax-a-bone.
82. What’s a skeleton’s second favourite musical instrument? A trom-bone.
83. Where do young skeletons go to study? Elementary skull.
84. What’s a skeleton’s third favourite instrument? The xylobone.
85. How do you release a skeleton from prison? Use a skeleton key.
86. Why didn’t the skeleton rob the bank? Because he didn’t have the guts.
87. What do you call a group of musical skeletons? A dead-ication of musicians.
88. Why can’t skeletons fly over Area 51? It’s a no-fly-bone.
89. What is a skeleton’s favourite mode of transport? A scare-plane.
90. What happened when the skeleton ran into the duck? He got his skull quacked.
91. How do you make a skeleton laugh? Tell it a rib-tickling joke.
92. What do you call it when you get two skeletons for the price of one? A bone-dle deal.
93. What kind of pasta do skeletons enjoy eating the most? Elbow macaroni.
94. What do you call a skeleton who’s always late? A bone-fide procrastinator.
95. Why don’t skeletons like Halloween candy? They don’t have the stomach for it.
96. What do bony people use to get into their homes? Skeleton keys.
97. Why didn’t the skeleton laugh at the joke? Because he didn’t have a funny bone.
Clever skeleton puns
98. What is a skeleton’s favourite type of film to watch? A spine-tingler.
99. What do you call a skeleton with no friends? Bonely.
100. How much does an elephant skeleton weigh? Skele-tons.
101. What did the skeleton say when he almost dropped his skull? “Phew, nearly lost my head there!”
102. Where do skeletons stay when they go on holiday? In bone-galows.
103. Who is a skeleton’s favourite female movie star? Ulna Thurman.
104. What do you call a skeleton who rings the doorbell? A dead ringer.
105. What kind of fish do skeletons like to eat? Carpals.
106. What type of candy sent the skeleton to the hospital? Jawbreakers.
107. What’s a skeleton’s favourite place to hang out? A hip joint.
108. Why do skeletons like to drink milk? Because milk is so good for the bones.
109. How much does a pile of skulls weigh? A skeleTON.
110. What kind of jokes do skeletons tell? Humerus ones.
111. There’s not much to this skeleton joke. It’s bare bones.
Tomorrow we’ll be having another plant sale at the friendly little Atmore Flea Market, also known as “Poppy’s Antiques.”
Along with the plant sale, there will be a classic car show and RC drag racing. What a combo!
New plants will be in stock, along with some rare seeds.
We will have:
Cassava Nitrogen-fixing Eleagnus pungens Palmetto (powerful medicinal berries) Mahonia fortunei (a lovely shade plant with edible berries) Chaste tree (medicinal and great for pollinators) An assortment of Lantana (one of our favorite garden flowers) Butterfly bush Honey locust Catawba (great native tree which attracts the best caterpillars for fish bait) Mulberry Papaya Okinawa spinach African blue basil Cat whiskers (pollinator plant and herb) Giant yellow timber bamboo …and more
Experts advise reading contracts carefully, including renewal and cancellation policies. Customers should also make sure their appliances and systems covered by warranties are being used appropriately; improper installation could void it despite having been performed by an accredited contractor.
Note that home warranties are service contracts, not insurance policies. Some states do not regulate them as such.
1. Failing to Read the Fine Print
While home warranties can be beneficial even when dealing with remodelers, consumers must fully comprehend their pros and cons before entering into one. Consumers may make the mistake of thinking a home warranty covers everything – such as insurable incidents usually covered by homeowners insurance such as structural defects. It is essential to also understand any limitations or exclusions to their coverage such as service call fees, repair costs, or maintenance requirements that could lead to costly mistakes if these requirements are neglected.
A homeowner in this story could have saved money and avoided significant mold issues by calling in a plumber right away, rather than waiting until water damage caused significant mold growth and wall problems.
2. Failing to Maintain Your Appliances
Failing to maintain your appliances and systems properly is one of the biggest mistakes a homeowner can make with their home warranty plan, as most require routine maintenance with detailed records kept of it to protect themselves from claims based on misuse or neglect of covered components. This is because many policies do not cover appliances, as you can see here: https://www.cinchhomeservices.com/faq-library/-/faq/home-warranty-virginia
Proper maintenance increases the odds of filing a successful claim in case of emergency or breakdown, and when filing one be sure to adhere to your contract conditions as much as possible – for instance providing details like age, serial, and model numbers of appliances/systems under contention as part of your claim filing.
If your claim is denied, it’s essential that you write a letter outlining why the company made an error. Be sure to communicate calmly and clearly while keeping a log of any customer service representatives who contacted you as well as their dates of interaction with you. Though this process may take time to resolve fully, it will save both stress and money over time.
3. Failing to Report Damage in a Timely Manner
Home warranties require timely reporting of damage; failure to do so could result in denial of your claim. Therefore, it’s crucial that damaged appliances be reported immediately and their repairs checked up on frequently. Keep track of customer service representatives you interact with – names and dates should always be recorded when speaking with customer representatives; remember “squeaky wheel gets the grease,” so don’t be shy if contacting your home warranty provider immediately!
If your home warranty provider denies your claim, it is wise to appeal their decision. Explain your reason clearly and calmly while providing any relevant documentation that supports it. Also try calling or writing to them daily until they respond; although this approach might seem tedious it could prompt them to review your appeal and consider its merits.
4. Failing to Maintain Your Roof
Your roof takes a beating from nature: temperature swings, blistering sunlight and debris-laden winds can take their toll. Unfortunately, homeowners often neglect or postpone maintenance or repairs for too long; doing so can lead to significant problems and increased repair bills; as well as nullifying any home warranty claims you might otherwise file against your warranty company and making their process more complicated and lengthy.
If your home warranty company denies your claim, it’s essential that you state your case clearly and calmly. Keep a log of any customer service representatives you meet with as well as when each conversation takes place; new information or perspectives might allow resubmittal of your claim.
If you’ve fallen in love with bird of paradise plants but live in a cold climate, you can grow these tropical beauties indoors as houseplants.
Given enough sunlight and the right conditions, the plant will put on a vibrant display of flowers, lending an atmosphere of tropical bliss to the interior of your home.
Here in Alaska, I could sure use a little tropical flair inside my house during the dead of winter. Even if the flowers don’t bloom as prolifically as they would outside, you’ve got luscious, green, banana-leaf-like foliage to enjoy all winter.
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In this guide, we’ll share everything you need to know to grow bird of paradise successfully indoors.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Getting Started
There are five species of bird of paradise, in Strelizia genus, and not all of them are suitable for growing indoors.
Larger species like S. nicolai or S. alba grow up to 30 feet tall, which makes them difficult to grow in your home unless you live in a mansion with an enormous, well-lit foyer.
Since most of us don’t have this luxury, make sure you choose the common bird of paradise, S. reginae, which only grows up to six feet tall.
If you purchase a plant at the store that’s in a nursery planter, the first thing you’ll need to do is to repot it.
Find a pot that’s at least 12 inches wide and deep if you have a smaller plant. In the case of a larger plant, choose a container that’s at least 34 inches deep and wide.
You’ll need to make sure that there are holes in the bottom for drainage, and since you’re growing it indoors, you’ll need a draining dish to make sure water doesn’t leak out all over your floors.
I love this 16-inch, black onyx colored planter from Amazon. It’s self-watering, is made of a durable resin, and it matches lots of decor styles.
To repot, fill the container with two parts potting soil and one part perlite to improve the drainage, carefully lift your plant from the nursery planter and and place it in the new planter.
Don’t plant your bird of paradise too deeply. Exposure of the top of the roots can help to encourage flowering.
After transplanting, water the plant until you see drainage trickling into the drainage dish and set it next to the sunniest window possible.
If you’re bringing your outdoor plant indoors for the winter months, learn how to pot it up in our guide to winter care for bird of paradise.
Caring for Your Indoor Plant
Bird of paradise plants won’t tolerate oversaturated soil, so you’ll need to take care with your watering.
To avoid wet feet, allow the top two inches of soil to dry out between waterings. During the winter months, the plant will go semi-dormant, and less frequent watering is required.
And no matter what, avoid water with a high salt content, as this can burn the leaves. If you need to, use filtered water, or collect rainwater, or snow to melt.
You can fertilize every two weeks with a balanced 10-10-10 (NPK) liquid fertilizer in the spring and once a week in the summer. Do not fertilize them in the fall or winter, when growth slows down.
In the summer, you may choose to move your plants outside to a sunny or semi-shaded location when daytime temperatures are consistently above 70°F.
Be careful to introduce the plant to the sun gradually, or the foliage could get sunburned. Set it outside for an hour the first day, two hours the next, over the course of a week or ten days until it’s spending all day outside.
Bring the plant back in when daytime temperatures start to drop below 60°F.
If you don’t have at least eight hours of sun shining through your window during the wintertime, you may want to invest in a quality grow light, like this one from Amazon, and hang it over the foliage.
Turn it on for three hours in the morning before the sun rises and three hours after it sets – or stops shining through the window. In addition to keeping the plant happy, this gives you a better chance of flowers.
You can replace the topsoil annually and repot into a slightly larger container if desired.
Keep in mind that mature bird of paradise plants tend to bloom better if they are slightly root bound, so allowing it to stay in the same container for a couple of years can help it to flower. To replace the topsoil, gently remove the top two inches with a hand trowel and add two inches of fresh potting mix.
And one final note – do not use a leafshine product on these plants. This could damage the natural finish of the leaves. To keep the leaves looking neat, wipe off any dust with a moist towel every week or two.
Bird of paradise is a gift to the world from South Africa and grows happily in Florida, Jamaica, southern California, and Hawaii.
If you live somewhere not-so-tropical, you’ll need to mimic a warm, humid climate for your S. reginae.
The plants prefer nighttime temperatures of 50-55°F and temperatures of 70-75°F during the day, so don’t set your thermostat too low during the colder months.
They also prefer about 60 percent humidity, so you should mist the plants daily – especially during the winter months.
An Indoor Paradise
If you struggle with the absence of greenery in your area during the winter, growing a bird of paradise (or two) indoors can remind you of warmer days and lift your spirits. Or maybe, like me, you just love the idea of growing a striking houseplant inside all year long.
Especially when it blooms with those amazingly birdlike flowers. That’ll spice up your interior decor like nothing else.
Have you ever grown one of these tropical beauties indoors? Leave any tips or questions in the comments below!
And if you want to learn more about bird of paradise plants, check out these guides next:
Long before beets were ever considered a food, they were used as herbal medicine.
Surprising, right?
Even today, research shows that your homegrown beets really can bring a bounty of health benefits!
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Ready to learn more? Here’s what we’ll take a look at in this article:
Beet Background
In Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa where they originate – and long before they were first consumed as a root vegetable – beets’ ancient ancestors were harvested for use in herbal medicine.
Beets are used medicinally to this day to nourish and restore the body in traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda.
But for the most part, beets are grown nowadays for food – to be roasted, canned, or pickled – or to be processed into sugar, in the case of sugar beets.
This vibrant root veggie brings an earthy flavor to any dish that you add it to. It is simple to grow and thrives in full sunlight, and it can be harvested early or left to mature for a larger root.
While the purple or red bulbous root is probably the most familiar form of this vegetable, it also comes in gold, orange, white, pink, and multicolored varieties, and the leaves are also edible and quite nutritious.
The roots are high in several nutrients, and also low in calories. A half-cup serving has 34 calories, 1.5 grams of fiber, and virtually no fat.
For the needs of a healthy adult, this serving will meet over 100 percent of the daily value for vitamin K and 32 percent of the recommended daily intake of folate (vitamin B9).
Vitamin K helps with blood clotting, but intake should be limited for those taking blood-clotting medications. Talk to your doctor if you have questions surrounding this.
The boost of folate helps your body to make DNA. Folate is also an important component of cell division, which is necessary for growth.
A full cup of roasted fresh beets also offers 9 percent of the daily value for vitamin C and 7 percent of the daily value of iron. While these amounts do not meet the 10 percent minimum requirement to be considered good sources of these nutrients, they do contribute to your total intake.
Vitamin C and iron pair well, as the vitamin C helps your body to better absorb the iron.
Note that just because granulated beet sugar comes from a vegetable, this doesn’t make it any healthier. In its refined form, sucrose from beets is still calorically and nutritionally identical to cane sugar.
Unrefined, or in the form of a sweet syrup or beet molasses, you will find some essential vitamins and minerals. But keep in mind that minimal processed sugar intake is recommended as part of a healthy diet.
Health Benefits
The vegetable is rich in nitrates, nutrients that have a bad reputation when they appear in processed meats like bacon.
In these meats, they act as a preservative, in the form of sodium nitrate. These nitrates are not harmful themselves, but can become so when cooked with high-heat methods like we typically do with bacon.
In vegetables, with lower heat cooking methods, nitrates can actually help to improve heart function and regulate blood pressure – particularly high blood pressure.
Research has also shown that nitrates may help to maintain brain health and support cognitive function in aging populations. Further study is required in this area.
Additionally, the betalains that give the root its red or golden color (and which also impart that earthy taste) are responsible for some of their most potent health benefits – including anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
These may help to reduce the risk of chronic heart disease, and also work to combat cell-damaging free-radicals.
Now, you probably can’t cure heart disease, cancer, or inflammatory conditions by eating them. The scientific evidence thus far does not suggest this. But consuming beets regularly could help to prevent some of these health issues – along with providing you with healthful nutrients.
Keep in mind that most research is conducted on fresh cooked beets or sometimes juice, not those that were canned or pickled. Beets pickled with vinegar tend to lose some nutrients, while lacto-fermented beets actually gain beneficial probiotic bacteria that can support gut health.
The nutrition content and health benefits may vary slightly based on how you prepare your beets. Regardless, they will still retain some of their healthful goodness!
Recommended Cultivars
All of these benefits, and with so few calories? Amazing! Surely you’re itching to add these earthy roots to your garden.
Detroit Dark Red
One of my favorite heirloom cultivars is the popular ‘Detroit Dark Red’ for its deep red flesh and versatility in the kitchen.
If pickling or canning is your goal, look for ‘Ruby Queen.’ This heirloom cultivar is perfect for these uses, and it will retain its beautiful color even after processing.
If your aim is to eat both the roots and the greens, ‘Lutz Green Leaf’ may be a better choice. Its leaves are similar to swiss chard and they produce nearly double the amount of leaves as other varieties.
Whichever variety you choose to grow in the garden, or whatever you pick up from the farmers market, you will be able to find multiple uses for these little gems.
Get started with this quick oven-roasted recipe from our sister site Foodal, and then get creative on your own from there!
Increasing your beet intake will make your taste buds happy, and consuming these nutritious root vegetables can potentially bring some health benefits as well.
Are you growing these delicious roots? What is your favorite way to eat them? Let us know in the comments below!
And for more information about growing beets in your garden, check out these guides next:
Cherry says that seeing this and other spectacular welcome containers at the entrance made one her friends say, “We all definitely have to up our coleus game next year!”
A cool garden sculpture rises up over the huge leaves of a gunnera (Gunneramanicata, Zones 8–10). Gunneras have some of the biggest, coolest leaves of any garden perennial but can be difficult to grow in most climates, as they require both mild winters and cool summers to thrive.
Stacked stone sculptures with the cool, dangling flowers of Datiscacannaniba (Zones 4–8)
Blues for the garden are always wonderful, and this willow gentian (Gentianaasclepiadea, Zones 6–8) is to die for!
Huge masses of gaura (Oenotheralindheimeri, Zones 5–9) in the urban meadow garden surround a bench like hundreds of butterflies.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
This week, we are revisiting some of our favorite summer-centric Gardenista stories. Remember this one?
A few months ago, I planted a random vegetable garden, jamming $50 worth of plants into any empty spot I could find. Hoping for a harvest big enough to make a noticeable dent in the grocery bill and create an endless supply of tomatoes, I threatened my family with homemade ketchup. How did it turn out?
Truthfully, the results were mixed. Everything grew, enthusiastically, and my biggest success has been a steady supply of herbs–cilantro, basil, parsley, chives, and thyme, mostly–that has added up to big savings. Compared to the old days, when I used to regularly drop $1.99 per herb bunch at the grocery store, I probably saved $8 a week by growing my own. Over the course of five months, that added up to about $200 in savings and paid for the original investment many times over.
As for the lettuces, well, I got about a dozen dinner salads–delicious ones–out of my crop. However, when I was out of town for two weeks in late July, most of the lettuces bolted and I came home to towering, flowering red leaf bushes. Overall, I probably shaved $30 off my lettuce bills.
And what of the tomatoes, you ask?
Above: Photograph by John Merkl for Gardenista.
My five bushy tomato plants–beefsteak, plum, and cherry (both red and orange) pretty much took over the yard. I was lazy about staking them, and so they behaved like passionflower vines, growing into adjacent plants for extra support. From August on, there were plenty of tomatoes to pick. And plenty more rotting on the vine.
“It’s a crime the way you are letting all those tomatoes go to waste,” Julie said the other night when she was visiting. The next day she sent her husband back to fill a backpack, with which she managed to make enough tomato soup to serve eight at a dinner party.
“It’s a crime the way you are letting Julie take all our tomatoes,” my husband complained on the way home from the dinner party.
And so one day last week, I decided to can my remaining tomatoes–ALL of them. I bought a dozen canning jars in preparation, then went into the garden with a bushel basket and picked every ripe or semi-ripe tomato I could find. There were about a million.
As a big pot of water came to a boil on the stove, I felt as virtuous as a pioneer and began fantasizing about all the compliments I would be getting at a winter’s worth of dinner parties where I’d be serving tomato soups, sauces, and chili. “Yes, they are delicious, aren’t they?” I’d say. “And there seems to be an endless supply.”
Little did I know…
Above: Photograph by Michelle Slatalla.
My recipe is a simple one (in addition to tomatoes, I add lemon juice, salt, and basil to each jar; for step-by-step instructions, see below). But with so many tomatoes, it still took me the better part of a morning to sterilize, peel, crush, seed, cook down, fill jars, boil jars…and after all that, I ended up with five jars of canned tomatoes.
Five.
Yes, the jars are beautiful and jewel-colored when the light catches them just right. And I am sure that these will be the most delicious canned tomatoes ever. They will make a fantastic sauce, an ambrosia soup, a chili to make men weep. But: five jars?
Above: Photograph by Michelle Slatalla.
I have just enough canned tomatoes for one batch of sauce, one pot of soup, and one night of chili. So much for a winter’s worth of tomatoes. I figure I saved myself $10 at the grocery store on canned tomatoes, but the canning jars cost me $11.
To recap:
Net savings on herbs and lettuces: $180
Net loss on tomatoes: $1
Thrill of having a random vegetable garden: Priceless
Still want my canned tomato recipe? See below.
Above: Photograph by Michelle Slatalla.
Canned Garden Tomatoes
Ingredients:
Every tomato you can get your hands on (you can mix plum and beefsteak varieties, no problem; I didn’t use cherry tomatoes because after you skin them, what’s left?)
Salt
Lemon Juice
Basil
Instructions:
While you sterilize pint jars and lids in a 225-degree oven (arranged in a single layer on a cooking sheet to heat for 20 minutes), fill your biggest stockpot halfway with water and bring to a boil.
Cut an “x” in the bottom of every tomato and toss tomatoes a few at a time into the boiling water (you don’t want to overcrowd them). Fish them out with a slotted spoon when the skin starts to look loose and flabby.
Let the tomatoes cool in a colander for a few minutes before handling. Peel, core, and cut into quarters, removing tomato seeds and the mushy jelly.
Heat a saute pot and add tomatoes, smashing them with a potato masher to make them into a saucy consistency. Cook for 10 or so minutes on medium until some of the water boils off.
While tomatoes cook, prepare each jar by adding to it a pinch of salt, a sprig of basil, and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Then add tomatoes to fill the jars, leaving a 1/2-inch of breathing room at the top of jar (the tomatoes will expand). Wipe off the jars so there will be a tight seal. Screw the lids on tight but not overly tight–air will need to escape.
Refill your biggest stockpot with fresh water and add the jars. The water level should be an inch above the top of the jars. Bring the water to a boil and simmer the jars for 45 minutes. You can cool the jars in the stockpot to avoid burning yourself.
Finally, get more ideas on how to successfully plant, grow, and care for tomatoes with our Tomatoes: A Field Guide.
Interested in other edible plants for your garden? Get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various edible plants (including flowers, herbs and vegetables) with our Edible Plants: A Field Guide.
Be prepared with something that’s durable enough to carry and transport the cutback perennial foliage, because it will add up quickly! A large bucket or a tarp are ideal, or you could try a large basket or wheelbarrow.
One of my personal favorite perennials, blanket flowers are easy to prep for winter.
Photo by Matt Suwak.
If you like a tidy garden, cut back the flower stalks in late fall. But if you don’t mind their presence in the garden, you can leave them until next year.
Blanket flowers are sensitive to soggy soils, so avoid mulching them over the winter.
A favorite meal of swallowtail caterpillars, bronze fennel is becoming an increasingly popular addition to gardens. Just watch out for that prolific self-seeding!
I’ve got a love-hate relationship with catmint. It’s a fantastic plant for adding cool hues to an area, so long as you have a LOT of area for it take over. Luckily, catmint can be pruned back heavily any time of the year.
In the fall, you can cut these back to as low as a few inches from the ground, but you’ll have a hole in your garden until they flush back in the spring.
More modest cuts of about half the height of the plant during the fall are recommended if catmint is a foundation of your perennial border, coupled with regular summertime pruning.
The flowers of columbine remind me of futuristic spaceships, and that’s cool… But their ceaseless self-seeding is not so cool in contained areas.
Photo by Matt Suwak.
Pruning columbine flowers and seedpods back in the fall helps to prevent self-seeding. Otherwise, it is recommended to leave the foliage of the plant to overwinter as is.
I’ve always been a fan of the native daylily, even with its not-so-affectionate name “ditch lily.”
If you leave the foliage on these plants to overwinter, they’ll offer you an unattractive but free mulch. If you want to plan ahead for an easier springtime, cut back the foliage of the daylily in the fall to save yourself a headache in the future.
You can leave the fall-blooming anemone standing over the winter, but if the foliage and stems turn black after frosts they should be cut to the ground.
Another victim of “too much fungus!” the peony is a gorgeous bloomer that leaves an often unpleasant heap of fall foliage.
Most gardeners are chomping at the bit, ready to prune these guys back at the first moment. Wait until the first hard frost, then cut the leaves back to the ground.
Woody salvia should be cut back regularly throughout the season by removing spent flowers, and does best when it receives a heavy fall pruning, reducing the size of the plant by about half.
Veronica
A beautiful plant to have in any garden, veronica is an easygoing perennial that requires minimal care.
After the first hard frost, cut veronica (aka speedwell or gypsyweed) back to a few inches above the ground. It’ll bounce back happy as a clam in the spring.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
A favorite and necessary addition to any meadow-like border, yarrow offers a unique flower shape and some interesting foliage.
Photo by Matt Suwak.
These respond very well to fall pruning, cutting the plant back to the basal leaves.
Another icon of meadows and roadsides in the country, aster is a tough plant that wants to be left alone over the winter.
Allow it to enjoy the snow and the cold while adding some cold-season interest to the garden. For whatever reason, aster thrives on being left alone over the winter.
I would have voted for astilbe if it ran for president. Delicate and pleasantly-colored foliage pairs with spires of colorful flowers. Better yet, it’s a plant that requires minimal care and maintenance.
The old foliage helps protect the plant from winter damage and requires minimal cleanup in the spring.
Beautifully hued and delicate flowers adorn these beauties.
Balloon flowers grow well in clumps, and are eager to self-seed. This means that it’s best to leave balloon flowers standing throughout the winter. They also add some interesting winter form to your garden!
If you have somebody close their eyes and imagine the first flower that comes to mind, chances are that it’s a black-eyed Susan. Wonderfully reliable and eager to take root in many places, black-eyed Susans are also vigorous self-seeders.
If you leave them standing in the winter they’ll offer a food source to birds. Clean up the debris in the springtime.
An icon in the garden, butterfly bushes offer a wild growth habit highlighted with brightly colored conical flowers.
Photo by Matt Suwak.
Leave these standing over the winter, and watch for the first signs of new growth popping out before cutting this vigorous plant back to a height of about one foot in the spring.
The image here was taken on August 16th, and the plant itself was cut back on March 15th. That’s a lot of growth!
Although there are a tremendous variety of coneflowers out there, most of these hybrids seem to revert or reseed back to their true purple color. That’s no problem, because these long-lasting flowers are vital food sources for various types of of wildlife over the winter months.
Leave them standing and enjoy their snow-capped flower heads being pecked apart by eager birds in need of a meal.
Coral bells are a great companion to many perennial plants and can even stand on their own in the interest department. However, they are prone to ground heaving, when the frost pushes a plant up and above the surface.
Leave the foliage intact on coral bells to guarantee an extra level of protection from the cold.
Coreopsis
A perennial tolerant of just about any harsh conditions you can throw at it, coreopsis is one tough plant.
Leave the flowers and foliage intact over the winter. Also commonly known as calliopsis and tickseed, coreopsis prefers being undisturbed until springtime.
The icon of summertime, it’s important to recognize the difference between Montauk daisies and Shasta daisies.
Montauk daisies.
Montauk daisies (Nipponanthemum nipponicum), which genreally open later in the year, should be treated more like a woody shrub than a perennial. Leave them alone over the winter and only cut back dead stems.
Shasta daisies.
Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum × superbum), on the other hand, respond better to being left alone over the winter, and then having last year’s growth removed in early spring.
Dianthus
Dianthus barbatus or sweet william is a common variety.
You can usually leave this softly-hued perennial in place during the winter. These don’t produce much in the way of foliage or mess, and will only require a quick and light cleanup in the spring.
Lovely flowers on spindly growth are an attractive element in the garden, but gaura is hardly a long-lived perennial.
Also known as Lindheimer’s clockweed, Lindheimer’s beeblossom, or Indian feather, the best chance to have these make a return appearance next year is to leave them undisturbed over the winter, so that they may self-seed.
Cut liatris (aka blazing star or gayfeather) back to the ground in the winter.
Most of these have difficulty reflowering, or simply won’t, so leaving the seedheads attached during the early stages of the cold season allows the seeds to disperse and replenish the plant next year.
Probably the most well-known plant to have in the garden, these are sometimes referred to as plantain lilies or giboshi. Hosta is a vigorous and incredibly hardy perennial. I’ve dug them up and divided them in July, then sipped a cool mojito and admired their blooms in August.
Still, hosta prefers to have its leaves left alone over the winter, to serve as a mulch for the roots. Remove the old, shriveled material in the spring to make room for new growth.
Watch out for those spiky flower stalks on this silver-hued, low-growing perennial! Lamb’s ear is just as easygoing in the winter as it is the rest of the year.
You can completely ignore it over the winter, and give it a quick cleanup in the springtime.
Like a handful of other perennials on this list, lavender is more sensitive to soggy soil than it is to the winter cold.
To ensure that this fragrant staple in that sunny corner of your yard makes it back next year, wait to prune it until after the last hard frost, to protect new growth that is particularly sensitive to the cold.
These guys remind me of dusty miller, and for that their soft-hued, blue-green foliage is welcome in my garden!
Leave it standing throughout the winter and cut it back in the springtime.
Plumbago
I have a lot of experience planting plumbago, but that’s because it has a difficult time making it through the winters, and because it seems to disappear in the spring! It sometimes goes by the common name leadwort.
The only trick I’ve found to knowing exactly where my plumbago will appear again is to leave the old foliage attached throughout the winter.
Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
After coming up with a plant list for this guide, I’ve realized how much I love the silvery-blue-hued perennials, and Russian sage is at the top of that list.
If you have room to let this guy grow, it will provide a beautiful and reliable wall of blue.
Like lavender, the new growth is sensitive and does not react well to winter cold. Wait to cut back until after the last hard frost, or when you see new growth starting in the spring.
With a tough common name like “stonecrop,” it’s no wonder that these guys like to be left alone in the winter. Lucky for us, they offer some winter interest in the garden.
Sedum is one of the first plants to push out new growth in the spring, so when you see those new rosettes forming, you’ll know spring has sprung.
For much of his young life, my son has carefully pre-screened each item of food he puts in his mouth.
You might also call this picky eating. But one day, he started randomly wanting to eat carrots.
Better yet, if I purchased a bunch of colorful organic ones from the grocery store, he’d say, “Purple carrot?” one day, and “Yellow?” the next.
I’m just happy he’s finally eating more veggies. So happy, in fact, that I decided to start my own indoor carrot garden.
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I’d tried growing this tasty root veggie from the Umbellifer family in my raised flower bed the summer before, but because of the rocky topsoil mixed into my outdoor soil mix, they all turned out like this:
I realized that if I grew carrots indoors, I could sow five to seven crops a year, if each crop takes about two to two and a half months to mature. Or even more if I chose to succession plant in multiple containers.
I was really looking forward to having a supply of homegrown veggies for my son to enjoy – and to get him excited about gardening!
In this article, I’ll share what I’ve learned so you can get started with growing your own carrots inside.
Why Grow Indoors?
Aside from the delight of reaping a year-round harvest from your own indoor garden, why else should you grow these bright and sweet veggies indoors?
When they’re grown outdoors, these tasty roots often struggle to push down through dirt that isn’t loose, resulting in deformities.
Nonetheless, I was so proud of my deformed carrots, the first grown in my outdoor garden since moving to Alaska. But when I put one in my mouth, I was met with a bitter shock: they did not taste good.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
When I look at the photo above, it seems like my carrots have way more going on in the way of tops than they do roots. Maybe there was too much nitrogen in the soil, which causes an overabundance of leaf growth.
Or perhaps there wasn’t enough potassium to support healthy root development.
Maybe the roots were straining to thrive simply because of Alaska’s great heatwave that year, when temperatures consistently hovered at 90°F for what felt like eternity.
For reference, temperatures in Alaska don’t typically rise above 80°F in the summer, and even that feels HOT. Very few of us have air conditioning in our homes up north. Maybe exposure to consistently hot temperatures caused the bitterness.
While the carrot, Daucus carota subsp. sativus, can grow in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-10, too much heat can turn roots bitter.
When you consider that summertime in Zone 10 can average 90°F, this spells trouble for our brightly colored root veggies. They would much prefer it to stay under 80°F, thank you very much, and they’ll protest bitterly as their nutrients and moisture get sucked away by the sun.
So that’s another plus of growing them indoors: you can control the temperature and keep a close eye on their moisture levels, even in the summer.
Growing carrots indoors can benefit those in cold climes, too. Even if you live in Zone 2, you – and your kids! – can grow them indoors and enjoy healthy, garden-fresh snacks all year long.
Getting Started
The first thing you need to do is decide how much space you can devote to your indoor garden, because that will determine two things:
The size of your container(s)
The variety of carrot(s) you choose
If you only have a small amount of extra space, like a spare windowsill, you’ll want a planter that can fit comfortably on it, something rectangular and long.
It should be eight inches deep at the very least, or preferably 12 inches deep, with a base at least four inches wide.
Someone with more space can, of course, use a larger container and reap a bigger harvest.
For my own indoor carrot garden, I chose an eight-inch-deep, 24-inch-long window box.
This fit nicely on a spare chest, under a grow light, and alongside a few other plants.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
If you have the space and enough grow lights (if you need them), by all means, select a 10-inch-wide or even 20-inch-wide container.
A round eight-by-eight-inch container would only fit about four mature “standard” carrots. A ten-by-ten could fit five. A 24-inch-long window box can fit 12.
Any container you choose should have a draining grid or holes in the bottom, and a draining tray underneath.
No matter what type of space you have or what size container you choose, there’s a cultivar to fit your needs.
Let’s take a look at a few of the smaller varieties that, due to their shorter roots, are perfect for growing indoors.
Chantenay Red Cored
An heirloom variety that grows 5-6 inches long, ‘Chantenay Red Cored’ is perfect for 8-inch-deep containers.
Plant seeds two inches apart to give plenty of room for them to grow round and juicy. With a golden-orange color and an extra-sweet flavor, this carrot is sure to make you smile.
Originally from the Chantenay region of France, and first introduced by Ferry-Morse in 1930, ‘Chantenay Red Cored’ features – you guessed it – a reddish core, and matures in 70 days.
Ideal for 10-inch-deep containers, ‘Danvers’ grows 7-8 inches long. This is an excellent choice for those who prefer long, slender carrots over short, stubby ones.
Developed in 1870 in Danvers, Massachusetts, this type grows well in relatively shallow soil, and delivers a timelessly carroty crunch. Sow seeds two inches apart and harvest 75 days after planting.
‘Little Finger’ is about the size of a finger at maturity, but no less beautiful for its small stature. Sow two inches apart to give plenty of room for healthy root growth.
Maturing in just 65 days, you can find ‘Little Finger’ seeds in packets of various sizes at Eden Brothers.
Royal Chantenay
Bred from ‘Red Cored Chantenay,’ ‘Royal Chantenay’ was released by Northrup King Seed Company in 1952, and is rounder with blunted edges.
It’s another sweet variety that kids are sure to love, and even better? It offers a dependable, heavy yield.
Sow two inches apart to allow room for that plump cylindrical growth. Roots only grow 5-6 inches in length, so this cultivar is ideal for nearly any size container.
Find seed packets of various sizes at Eden Brothers and watch your carrots mature in 70 days.
Sweet Treat Hybrid
A couple summers ago, my next-door neighbors here in Alaska generously shared tons of their garden produce with me. They brought homegrown carrots and peas one day, which I sliced and shelled, and I sauteed them together in butter.
The end result tasted like candy. Ever since then, my goal has been to grow carrots that sweet. So I chose this cultivar, ‘Sweet Treat Hybrid,’ which promises to be as sugary as a lollipop.
Since the roots grow six inches long, I planted them in my 12-inch-deep container and am eagerly awaiting their maturation in another month. They mature in 70 days, and like most cultivars, they need to be sown two inches apart.
Now it’s time to get growing. You’ll need your selected container and seeds, along with:
Loose, well-draining potting mix.
A low-nitrogen fertilizer, such as 5-10-10 or 4-10-10
A grow light, if you don’t have a window or area that provides at least six hours of sunlight
While you’re welcome to try starting your seeds in trays, it can be easier just to start them in containers. However, this is the method that I used, and I’ll include a little more information on how to do this in the next section of the article.
Starting your indoor carrot seeds directly in pots can give them an extra jump because their tender roots don’t like being disturbed, and they don’t respond well to transplanting.
First, fill your container with potting mix and a 4-10-10 or 5-10-10 fertilizer – follow the instructions on the package to determine how much to use, as this will depend on the size of your container.
Make 1/8 to 1/4-inch-deep holes two inches apart – check your seed packet for the recommended planting depth of your chosen cultivar. Drop two to three seeds in each hole, cover lightly with soil, and spray with water. Keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate.
Set your container in a sunny location or under a grow light. The seeds should germinate in 14-17 days, though some can take up to 21 days.
When the seedlings are 1-2 inches tall, check to see which ones are the most robust and green. Thin out the weaker extras with sharp scissors so only the strong seedlings remain, spaced every two inches.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
Before long, the first true leaves will emerge and your plants will look a little bit like praying mantises.
This root veggie needs moist soil that isn’t waterlogged. Water deeply, pouring slowly over the plants, and let it soak all the way into the soil.
It’s crucial to make sure the roots get the moisture they need.
Give your young plants at least six hours of sunlight (or its artificial equivalent) every day.
Seed Trays
Even though these roots don’t love being moved, I took the seed tray route because I still hadn’t purchased a container large enough for planting when I was getting started.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
I do feel that a covered seed tray can help the seeds germinate more quickly – all the extra humidity helps a lot.
Fill each cell with potting mix and then make 1/8 to 1/4-inch divots in each cell. Drop two or three tiny carrot seeds into each divot, cover lightly with soil, and spray with water so as not to displace the seeds.
Germination can take up to three weeks, but I found that by keeping the seeds in their mini greenhouse and setting them under a grow light, they germinated in just six days.
If you don’t use a grow light or place them in a sunny window pre-germination, be sure to do so the instant you see green shoots emerging.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
I had yet to learn my lesson about grow lights and legginess back when I planted my carrots indoors. So, like my container-grown rhubarb, my greens ended up being a bit “leggy.”
If you use a grow light, you must make sure it is positioned about two to three inches away from your newly sprouted seedlings. The recommended distance may vary depending on the specific type and strength of light you are using.
This is something I failed to do.
Also, ensure that your grow light provides full-spectrum white light, or a mix of red and blue light, to facilitate healthy growth.
Using an LED grow light is ideal because it doesn’t emit as much heat as most fluorescent lights would. If you put a heat-emitting light too close to your plants, this can overheat the leaves and cause them to wilt.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
My seedlings grew tall, thin stalks because they were straining toward the enchanting glow of the grow light.
This caused problems later on. (Stay tuned for more details about “leggy” carrot tops below.)
In addition to ensuring they have enough light, you should also give your seed trays a slow, deep watering when you begin to see green tops.
Transplanting Seedlings
If you start your seedlings in trays or peat pots, transplant them when you see two or three lacy, carroty true leaves appear.
Get your container ready the same way I described above for planting directly in containers, by filling it with potting mix and that 5-10-10 or 4-10-10 fertilizer.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
Follow the instructions on the fertilizer package to see how much to add to the soil. Again, this all depends on the size of your container. Make sure to mix the fertilizer into the soil well.
You want to space your seedlings two inches apart in your container. Dig each hole the same size as the root ball of the seedling you are transplanting.
Photo by Laura Melchor.
Spray the seedlings with water and let it soak in for a few minutes to make the plants easier to handle. Then pop the seedlings out and set each one gently into a planting hole.
If you’re using peat pots, soak them in water first to get them nice and mushy. When you transfer them to the holes, work the peat until it breaks apart. This will help to keep the pots from inhibiting root growth.
Tuck the soil back in around the seedlings and water well, pouring slowly and allowing it all to soak deeply into the soil.
Set your container back under the grow light or in a sunny location, and watch your little shoots grow.
Growing Carrots Indoors
There are a few important things to keep in mind when cultivating your indoor carrot garden. All of these are crucial not only when starting seeds, but throughout the lives of your crops.
Watering
First, you’ll need to be vigilant about watering. While most roots need about two inches per week, your indoor garden may require more.
I’ve found that the heating system in my home dries out the dirt in all of my indoor plants very quickly, so I actually water my carrot garden every two days.
Anytime you see that the potting mix looks dry on the top or is pulling away from the edges of the container, add an inch of water to your plants. You can feel with your finger an inch down into the soil, and if it’s dry, your crops need watering.
Fertilizer
It’s also important to keep your plants well fed. When the seedlings are about three inches tall or have three or more true leaves, give them some more of that low-nitrogen fertilizer.
Gently work half a teaspoon of fertilizer into the area surrounding each carrot top, making sure to mix it in well. Water the plant when you’re done. You’ll want to do this every three weeks.
Light
An issue to watch out for when growing indoors is floppy tops.
For me, leggy, floppy tops weren’t a problem when I planted carrots outside under the warm, never-ending Alaskan summer sun.
But grow lights aren’t like the sun. They need to be close to the plants that you are growing in order to work effectively.
The next time I sow carrots indoors, I’m going to keep the lights two to three inches away from my seedlings, instead of five to six inches away. Now, as my seedlings continue to grow, I adjust the lights so that they are always just a couple of inches away.
And I’ve learned a few tricks to strengthen leggy seedlings that you can try, too:
First, after adjusting your grow light to be close to the tops of your plants, be sure to keep it on for six to eight hours per day, every day.
Second, bring a fan into the room for a few hours a day. On the lowest, gentlest setting, position the fan a few feet away from the seedlings.
You’re trying to mimic wind here, which sends a signal to the plant that it needs to grow a thicker stalk.
Lightly running your fingers over the tops of the plants a couple times a day can help too, for similar reasons.
Finally, try mounding extra soil up around your stalks to help support them. Just be sure not to cover the cotyledons or any true leaves.
Here’s why all this matters: legginess makes for weaker plant stalks that are too thin to support themselves. Young, weak seedlings are more susceptible to damping off, a fungal infection common in seeds started indoors, which we’ll talk more about in a moment.
So it’s worth strengthening your leggy shoots in every way possible.
Succession Planting
It won’t be long before you’ll be pulling juicy carrots from your indoor garden!
But what if you’re craving an even bigger harvest? If you have the space for it, wait about a month after starting your first batch of seeds, and then plant another container. This way, just as your first harvest is dwindling in your refrigerator, you’ll be ready to harvest another.
Or, once your carrots are about 45-50 days into their growing journey, plant more seeds directly into the same container in between the carrots you’ll be harvesting. These new seeds should be planted about an inch away from the maturing plants around them.
By the time they germinate and begin to grow roots, you’ll be harvesting the mature carrots and can plant more seeds in their place.
Just be sure to fertilize the soil before each new planting to ensure it doesn’t get depleted. Every two plantings, remove about half of the old potting mix and add new soil so that you continue to provide a healthy, nutrient-rich environment for your container garden.
Keep this succession going indoors all year long if you want to – because you can!
Growing Tips
Choose a variety that fits comfortably in your selected container and growing space
Make sure your grow lights are close enough to the seedlings – usually 3-5 inches for small home units
Provide even moisture, but do not allow the containers to become waterlogged
Managing Pests and Disease
Since you’re growing your carrots indoors, the only malady you really need to worry about is a potential fungal infection, or damping off.
If your seedlings all suddenly wilt for no apparent reason, you can probably blame damping off. Stems often have a water-stained base and slump sadly onto the soil.
Seedlings affected by damping off.
Caused by the fungi fusarium, phytophthora, pythium, or rhizoctonia, it’s impossible to treat damping off once it begins. It spreads quickly, obliterating all your precious seedlings.
Space seeds two inches apart and thin after germination
Remove humidity covers as soon as germination happens, to prevent overly moist conditions
Make sure the soil is loose and well-draining
Provide good airflow, with a fan on its lowest setting
If a tray is overtaken by fungal disease, dump it out, clean and disinfect it, fill it with new soil and seeds, and try again.
Harvesting
These roots have one clear, easy way of saying they’re ready for pulling: they show off their pretty orange shoulders.
If the tops aren’t pushing out of the soil after the number of days when your seed packets indicate they should be ready, scrape your finger around the base of the leaf stem. If you see a plump-looking carrot just below the surface, that means they’re ready.
Shoulders will be about a half inch to an inch and a half in circumference, depending on the cultivar.
Firmly grip the carrot top at its base, just above the root, with your thumb pointing down, and gently tug the carrot out of the soil.
Of course, if you want tender, tiny roots, you can harvest earlier than the specified number of days to maturity listed on your seed packet.
Spring carrots (or “baby” carrots, which are different from the baby carrots at the store that are actually mature carrots cut down to remove damaged portions) will be about the length and width of your finger for most cultivars.
You can also plant crops that you plan to harvest as babies about an inch apart for a larger harvest, since they don’t need to grow as big around.
If you’re growing a smaller variety, it’s not really worth it to harvest early since the finished product is already going to be so small when it’s mature. I recommend waiting for those to reach their full size before harvesting.
A Year-Round Feast of Sugary Roots
When you grow carrots indoors, there’s nothing to stop you from enjoying the sugary spikes all year long.
Imagine setting down a dish of roasted carrots at Christmastime, like in this recipe from our sister site, Foodal, and proclaiming that you plucked them fresh that morning from your very own indoor garden.
Or dazzling guests with super-sweet, indoor-grown roots even when temperatures rage into the 100s outside.
Won’t your guests be delighted?
Have you ever grown carrots indoors? Let us know about your experience in the comments!
If you want to learn more about growing carrots, you’ll need these guides next:
Perhaps you once bit into an underripe fruit and it conjures up a memory of that tingly, cottony feeling you get on your tongue when you’ve eaten something full of tannins.
Or maybe you think of the wild trees growing across the southeastern United States, and the wildlife that lines up to nibble the fruits as they fall to the ground.
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If you’re like me, you think of the slick, sweet flesh as you bite down and are hit with something that tastes like a honeyed mango met a mild apricot, mixed with a bit of cinnamon and nuttiness.
Persimmons offer these qualities and more, and they come in a range of sizes, shapes, colors, flavors, and textures.
The trees can range from tiny to towering, and the flesh of the fruit can have a texture ranging from crisp and jicama-like to jiggly like a bowl full of jello.
So, how do you decide which types are right for you to grow in your garden? We’re here to help with that.
15 Asian Persimmon Varieties for Your Garden
To begin, there are two categories of persimmon: astringent and non-astringent. You’ll sometimes see all astringent fruits generalized ‘Hachiya’ and all non-astringent fruits as ‘Fuyu.’
Astringent varieties don’t become sweet until they’re fully ripe, while non-astringent types are sweet even while still firm and not quite ripe.
There is a second classification that relates to pollination. These classifications are known as pollination-constant and pollination-variant.
Pollination-constant varieties produce fruits with the same color and consistency regardless of whether they are pollinated or not.
Pollination-variant types typically produce fruit with light colored flesh when they are not pollinated (and seedless), and brown colored flesh as a result of pollination.
Collectively, the fruits are grouped as pollination-constant astringent (PCA), pollination-constant non-astringent (PCNA), pollination-variant astringent (PVA), pollination-variant non-astringent (PVCA).
There are two different types of persimmons commonly found in the US: Diospyros kaki, the Asian species, and D. virginiana, the “common” or American persimmon.
In this roundup, we will focus on our favorite cultivars of D. kaki that are perfect for growing at home.
Note that all D. kaki cultivars can handle temperatures down to 10°F and all require about 100 hours of temperatures below 45°F to blossom and fruit. However, some can handle colder temps, and a few don’t need any chill hours. Those are noted below.
Also be aware that unlike many fruit trees, most Asian persimmons you’ll find at nurseries don’t need a companion to grow fruit.
Thousands of cultivars have been developed to date in China and Japan, some of which were brought into the US in the early 1900s.
In the US, far fewer named cultivars are available to home growers. Here, we’ll share 15 of our top picks that we think you will enjoy.
1. Chocolate
‘Chocolate’ gets its name because on the outside, it looks like your average persimmon, with bright orange flesh.
But when you take a bite, the flesh is brown like chocolate jelly, as if a magician had transformed it into a cocoa-based confection.
‘Chocolate’
Sadly, it doesn’t taste like chocolate. But this “fruit of the gods” is almost as good. It’s sweet with a bit of nutty spice, and incredibly juicy.
Even before you take your first bite, it’s clear that this variety is special. The medium-sized fruit has bright red skin that looks stunning in a bowl on your table. Even better, the fruit is seedless.
Eureka! We’ve struck gold with this persimmon! At least, that’s what I imagine the breeder shouted after tasting the fruit of this particular variety.
‘Eureka’ is a pollination-constant astringent cultivar that is popular across the US and Asia.
The fruits are medium in size and are ready to pluck from late October through early November. The skin is a pleasing red color.
But the top reason why this type is one of the more common varieties is because of the texture that holds well even as it sits on the shelf.
Many Asian persimmons are seedless, but this particular variety has seeds.
3. Fuyu
‘Fuyu’ is one of the most widely-grown non-astringent cultivars in the world, and there’s a good reason for that. This tree has a lot going for it.
The fruit doesn’t have a core or seeds, and the pumpkin orange skin matches the interior.
The squat fruit is topped with a tiny green cap that isn’t as large as some other varieties, which makes it just about picture-perfect for a fall display.
As it’s non-astringent, so you can bite into the medium to large fruits straight off the tree, even when they are still firm.
They have a luscious texture that varies from crisp and apple-like when it’s young and softens as it ages. The flavor is more sweet and rich, with a hint of clove, as it further ripens.
One of the great things about this type is that the fruits rarely have imperfections, so if you’re selling these at the farmers market, you’re likely to get a high rate of sellable fruits.
‘Fuyu’ is ready for harvest later in the year. Picking time typically arrives from the middle of November to the middle of December.
Another pollination-variant astringent variety, ‘Giombo’ produces massive fruits with a slightly conical shape.
Unlike some others, this type bears fruit every other year when it’s young. After it matures, it bears fruit annually.
When it’s ripe, the skin is a pretty, almost translucent orange, wrapped around jelly-like flesh.
What sets it apart, though, is its flavor. It has a spicy-yet-sweet taste that only improves the more ripe it gets.
‘Giombo’ is ready for harvest from mid-September to mid-October.
Watch out, though. It can leaf out early, making it susceptible to late frosts. If you do have a late frost, cover the tree with a tarp or blanket to protect it. Remove the covering when temperatures are above 34°F.
5. Great Wall
This pollination-constant cultivar got its name when plant geographer J. Russell Smith spotted one growing near the Great Wall of China in the 1920s and brought it back to the US.
Since then, some growers have grafted it on to American persimmon rootstock to make it more tolerant of colder temps.
An astringent type that stays within a compact 20 feet tall, the flesh of ‘Great Wall’ turns a cinnamon-orange shade when the fruit is ripe. The skin is medium orange.
This one ripens in late September through late October.
6. Hachiya
‘Hachiya’ produces pretty fruit, with an acorn-like shape wrapped in a bright orange skin. It’s one of the most popular types and is widely grown in California.
Inside, the flesh can be incredibly astringent, so you need to let this one ripen significantly before you’ll get a good flavor out of it.
Given time, the overripe fruit is even sweeter than non-astringent types like ‘Fuyu.’
This is another popular type, perhaps because it’s one of the earliest to ripen.
Once it’s mature, you can expect to be plucking fruits off the tree by mid-September, and harvests may last through mid-November.
The fruits are medium to large in size.
A pollination-constant non-astringent variety, ‘Izu’ has a compact growth habit and the fruit is very sweet.
Young trees are a bit slow to start growing, but once established, they are reliable performers.
8. Jiro
‘Jiro’ is another popular type, but the drawback here is that when the tree is young, yields are unpredictable and erratic.
‘Jiro’
Once the tree matures, harvests are more consistent. The fruit is medium to large, ready to harvest from mid-October through mid-November. Watch out for tip cracking.
This cultivar is prone to splitting at the end if it experiences strong, lashing wind or extreme heat. You can’t prevent it, so if you see fruits cracking, pluck and use them right away if they are ripe enough.
‘Jiro’ is a pollination-constant non-astringent variety. It’s more cold-hardy than most Asian persimmons and can handle temperatures down to 0°F.
9. Maekawa Jiro
You might have guessed from the name, but ‘Maekawa Jiro’ is a bud sport of ‘Jiro.’ While the tree isn’t very vigorous, the fruit is large.
However, these fruits are prone to tip cracking, as well.
Harvesting time is from late October through late November.
Non-astringent and pollination-constant, ‘Maekawa Jiro’ lacks the spicy notes of other persimmons, with a flavor like sugar cane.
The trees stay compact at under 15 feet tall, which makes harvesting a breeze.
Like it’s parent ‘Jiro,’ the tree can grow in temperatures down to 0°F.
10. Midia
While ‘Midia’ fruit are extremely large for a non-astringent pollination-constant variety, up to 12 ounces each at maturity (0.75 pounds), the trees aren’t particularly vigorous.
On top of that, you may need to thin the fruits to achieve a good harvest, a practice that isn’t required for most Asian types besides ‘Fuyu.’
Don’t let that scare you off. The incredibly flavorful fruits have beautiful orange skin and an indented ring that makes them stand out.
You can expect to harvest fruits from late October to late November.
11. Saijo
If you love the taste of honey, ‘Saijo’ is the persimmon for you. The flesh is intensely sweet and juicy, and seedless or nearly so.
The flesh of this astringent pollination-constant variety is medium orange and the fruit has a conical shape.
Like ‘Tanenashi,’ below, this is a good choice if you want to dry your persimmon. Otherwise, wait until it gets soft, like a ripe tomato, before digging in.
You should be able to start gorging yourself (am I the only one who does this during persimmon season?) in mid-September through mid-October.
12. Sheng
This cultivar has distinctly gelatinous, medium to large fruit that’s ready to pluck from mid-September to mid-October.
I think the fruits are particularly cute because they’re quite squat, sort of like tomatoes that someone (gently) sat on.
When ripe, this pollination-constant astringent type is incredibly sweet, with a nutty flavor that sets it apart.
13. Suruga
‘Suruga’ produces incredibly sweet medium-to-large fruits. The pollination-constant non-astringent fruits are incredibly sweet and spicy, and they hold their flavor off the tree for a long time.
This type is typically ready to harvest from October through November.
14. Tanenashi
‘Tanenashi’ is a pollination-constant astringent cultivar with light orange to red skin and yellow-orange flesh. This cone-shaped fruit is a popular variety for drying in Japan.
Fresh and fully ripe, it has a sweet and rich flavor, and the fruit typically ripens from September to October.
15. Triumph
You can hardly blame plant growers for choosing a name like ‘Triumph’ when they create a cultivar that really stands out.
This cultivar is notable because it doesn’t need a period of chill hours below 45°F to bloom, unlike some persimmons.
A pollination-constant astringent variety, ‘Triumph’ produces small, squarish fruit, which is extremely juicy with few or no seeds. It also has a lengthy harvest time, from September through November.
It has firm skin, unlike some other varieties, even when it is ripe. That makes storing and handling easier.
This variety is commonly grown in Israel, where it is often called “Sharon fruit.”
Persimmon Perfection
While some people still might not be able to recognize a persimmon when they spot one at the grocery store or farmers market, or they have no idea what to do with it after they bring it home, it’s clear that this delicious delicacy is getting the attention it deserves in some circles.
With more and more cultivars available in the US, it’s easier than ever to grow your own at home.
Whether you’re an old hand at growing persimmons or you’re a new grower looking for a few options to add to your orchard, you can’t go wrong with picking one of the beauties described above.
I can’t wait to hear about which cultivar you end up going with and what you think of the tasty fruit. Be sure to come back and tell me all about it (and don’t forget to share a few recipes)!
And for more information about growing persimmons in your garden, check out these guides next:
Pruning hydrangeas improves their shape, encourages new flowers, and increases the size of the blooms.
But if you’re doing it for the first time, you may be unsure about what time of the year to trim them and the techniques to use.
Luckily, it’s an easy skill to learn, and in this post I’m going to explain the process step by step and show you all you need to know.
By following my tips, you’ll learn how to prune hydrangeas the right way and keep your plants looking healthy and beautiful for years to come.
Do Hydrangeas Need To Be Cut Back?
If you want to keep your hydrangeas healthy and maintain a stunning display, I recommend pruning them regularly.
Removing damaged, dead, or diseased branches keeps them healthy, prevents them from getting tangled, and encourages new blooms to form.
Regular trimming also gives your shrubs a pleasing, balanced shape so they don’t become unwieldy and overgrown.
Why Prune Hydrangeas?
There are lots of good reasons to prune your hydrangeas on a regular basis. Here is a complete list of all the benefits of keeping them well-maintained.
Encourages new growth – Trimming away dead or damaged branches invigorates your shrubs and promotes the development of fresh, new blooms.
Controls the size – Hydrangeas can become quite tall and leggy without pruning, or they could end up outgrowing their space and crowding out nearby plants.
Provides a balanced shape – Pruning can help create denser foliage and give your shrubs a more pleasing appearance.
Prevents congestion – Branches that cross each other may become damaged from rubbing together, and flowers in these areas may be crushed or stunted.
Keeps them healthy – Removing dead or unhealthy stems and foliage helps to prevent issues with diseases, fungus, and pests.
To determine exact when to prune your hydrangeas, you first need to establish whether your bush flowers on old or new wood.
Shrubs that flower on old wood will generally bloom in the spring, then fade sometime in mid summer. You should trim these varieties after they have flowered.
Hydrangeas that flower on new growth tend to bloom from late summer to fall. Prune these varieties after the shrub goes dormant in late fall, or before it comes out of dormancy in early spring.
If your shrub is large, hedge shears, an electric hedge trimmer, or a hand saw can make the job easier. You may also find a lopper useful for reaching down inside the plant or removing thick branches.
Before you start pruning, make sure your tools are clean and sharpened. This will give you precise cuts that heal quickly without damaging the plant.
Techniques For Pruning Hydrangeas
There are three techniques you can use to prune hydrangeas. You can trim back stems and branches, remove the dead or fading blooms, or cut the shrub all the way down to the ground.
Trimming Back Stems & Branches
You might need to remove stems or branches from your hydrangea if they’re dead or dying, growing at irregular angles, or because the shrub is congested.
Remove shriveled, brown tips by cutting back to the next healthy set of leaves or buds. Trim dead branches all the way to the base of the plant.
Make your cuts at an angle, just above and away from the node. Be careful never to prune more than one-third of a healthy stem at a time.
Deadheading Hydrangeas
You can deadhead your hydrangeas as the blooms begin to fade. Removing the spent blossoms makes the plant look tidier, and also encourages new flowers to open.
Using sharp, clean pruning shears, simply snip off the flower and its stem to a point immediately above the next set of leaves.
The dead flowers can also help protect the plant from being damaged by extreme temperatures during a harsh winter.
Cutting Hydrangea Down To The Ground
Most hydrangeas are deciduous and can be cut all the way to the ground without any harmful effects. This can be a convenient alternative to pruning if you have lots of plants and little time.
It’s also a good way to gain back control of an extremely overgrown shrub or rejuvenate one that’s been neglected for many years.
They won’t be as large or full next season, however, so I don’t recommend doing it if you want to preserve the size of your plant.
If you choose to prune them all the way back, the best time to do it is in late winter or early spring before new leaf buds form.
Finding where to cut back my hydrangea
Hydrangea Pruning Tips
Pruning is the best way to keep your shrub healthy, and improve the appearance of a leggy or overgrown hydrangea. Here are the techniques to use for the best results.
Pruning A Leggy Hydrangea
Over time hydrangeas can become tall and leggy, giving them an unhealthy look, and exposing bare wooden stemsthat spoil their appearance.
Cutting back the long, spindly stems will give them a fuller, more balanced look, and encourage branching.
Hydrangeas are very forgiving when it comes to pruning, but it’s a good idea to decide ahead of time which parts to cut.
Step 1: Remove any dead or damaged stems – Trim away any brown or shriveled branches down to the next set of healthy leaves, or all the way to the base if they’re dead.
Step 2: Trim back the longest branches – Trim the longest branches back by one-third of their length, making clean cuts at 45-degree angles just above a pair of healthy buds or leaves on each stem.
Step 3: Look for droopy or curved stems – Some stems get so long that they begin to droop or curve, so trim those back next.
Pruning An Overgrown Hydrangea
If your hydrangea bush has become huge and overgrown, pruning will restore its balanced appearance, and ensure that it thrives.
You can remove any dead or dying leaves and branches, too, which will divert the plant’s energy to new growth.
Step 1: Remove all dead leaves and branches – This will tidy things up and give you a clearer picture of your shrub’s overall shape.
Step 2: Locate dying or damaged stems – Trim dead or damaged branches back to the points at which they’re healthy.
Step 3: Step back and assess your progress – Consider the shape you’re aiming for and use string to mark the parts you want to prune.
Step 4: Trim to a balanced shape – Continue to prune carefully, standing back between cuts to see how you’re doing. This will prevent you from trimming off too much in one area and giving your bush a lopsided look.
Hydrangea blooming beautifully after pruning
FAQs
Here I’ll answer the most common questions I receive about pruning hydrangeas. If you don’t see yours listed, please ask in the comments section below.
Do hydrangeas need to be cut back for winter?
Hydrangeas don’t need to be cut back for winter. In fact, many gardeners like to leave the dried flowers on the plant for winter interest in their garden.
Do you cut back hydrangeas in the fall or spring?
You should cut back hydrangeas that flower on new wood in either the late fall or early spring. Prune the varieties that flower on old wood immediately after their blooms have faded, sometime in mid to late summer.
What happens if you don’t prune hydrangeas?
If you don’t prune hydrangeas they may get tall and leggy over time, or the branches could become tangled and unhealthy. They may also produce smaller, less impressive blooms.
When is it too late to cut back hydrangeas?
It is too late to cut back hydrangeas that bloom on new wood once they start leafing out in late spring, as you risk removing flower buds. Hydrangeas that flower on old wood need to be cut back immediately after they have stopped blooming.
Do you cut off hydrangea blooms when they turn brown?
It is safe to cut off hydrangea blooms when they turn brown, and many people do this to keep the shrubs looking attractive. But it isn’t necessary, and leaving dead flowers on will not affect the health of the plant.
When should hydrangeas be pruned?
Hydrangeas should be pruned immediately after they have stopped blooming if they flower on old wood. Otherwise, prune them in late fall or early spring.
More About Pruning Plants
Share your tips for how to prune hydrangeas in the comments section below.
Step By Step Instructions
How To Prune Hydrangeas Step By Step
Learn how to prune hydrangeas with my step-by-step instructions. Discover my tips for success, including how to determine exactly when to trim them, as well as the best techniques and tools to use.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Active Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Notes
Always make sure your tools are sharp and clean before pruning hydrangeas. Dull, dirty tools can damage the plant or introduce disease.
Never remove more than ⅓ of the healthy foliage at one time or your bush may struggle to recover.
You can cut your shrubs all the way to the ground, but they won’t be as full or as large the following season.
Camellias are often the anchor of the garden. They stand tall with glossy evergreen leaves and elegant, eye-catching blossoms that appear when everything else is still in its winter sleep.
They act as both a stalwart background plant and, at other times, a striking focal point.
There’s no question in my mind about why camellias are at the top of so many growers’ best-of lists.
Another reason people can’t get enough of camellias? They’re generally problem free. They don’t often succumb to diseases, and pests are rarely a significant problem.
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Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like camellias never have disease problems. But when they do strike, it’s usually something we can safely ignore or treat easily.
If you’re seeing something weird going on it’s crucial that you are able to identify the problem, or in this case, the specific disease.
That’s how you’ll know how much you should panic and what steps you can take to fix it.
There are a few physiological disorders that mimic diseases, and these are worth a quick note as well before we begin.
Scab isn’t technically a disease, it’s a physiological condition. But it looks like a disease has set in, with corky, irregular brown spots that appear on the undersides of leaves.
Typically, the problem starts as water-soaked lesions on the underside of the leaves, but we rarely notice scab at this stage. It’s not until the corky growths develop that most of us realize something is going on.
It’s pretty common and appears in areas with poor drainage and poor air circulation.
Sunscald or sunburn is also common. Leaves that are facing south or southwest will take on a papery tan or brown appearance.
Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
This often happens after you’ve had a cloudy period followed by heat and sun. Or it might occur after you trim back a nearby tree or shrub that was providing shade.
New leaves will be better adapted to the change and will come in healthy.
A lack of nitrogen or iron can also cause the leaves to turn yellow. Once the plants are fed, they’ll recover and grow new, healthy leaves.
Now, let’s examine our first potential disease:
1. Algal Leaf Spot
The algal plant pathogen Cephaleuros virescens can sometimes be found on camellias, but typically only on those that are already stressed by some other pest or disease.
In order for this disease to really take hold, it needs two things: direct sunlight and lots of moisture.
When both are present, raised silvery-green, grayish-green, or tan spots and splotches develop on the leaves. It can also cause spots on stems.
If a damaged branch or twig has a wound that the algae can enter through, it can cause cankers that result in swelling. This swelling cuts off water to the rest of the area, and the twig or stem might die.
This pathogen may infect hundreds of plant species, so it’s entirely possible that other specimens in your garden might be infected as well. It doesn’t appear west of Texas or in the northern part of the US, so if you’re living in California, consider something else.
A small area of infection can be treated with pruning, but for a larger area or if the camellia shows symptoms throughout, use a copper fungicide every two weeks until no new symptoms develop.
Copper fungicide is one of those things that I always keep around. It works on so many fungal diseases, including a few others on this list.
If you don’t already have some, I highly recommend picking some up.
Lots of well-known garden brands like Bonide and Monterey make their own.
Arbico Organics carries Bonide’s Liquid Copper Fungicide in 32-ounce ready-to-use sprays, 16- and 32-ounce ready-to-spray bottles, and 16-ounce concentrate.
2. Dieback and Canker
For those living in the south or along the Atlantic coast, dieback and canker can be a severe issue. This disease loves it hot and humid.
The fungus that causes this disease goes by two names: it’s Colletotrichum gloeosporioides when it’s in its asexual state, and Glomerella cingulata when it’s reproductive. I’m sure growers dealing with this problem have some other choice names for this disease as well…
When present, the stems of the camellia will form cankers that might strangle the tips, or might cut off food and water to small stems, causing their death.
Unless you’re in the habit of checking your plants closely every few days, which isn’t a bad idea, you probably won’t realize anything is happening until you notice that some of this year’s new growth is suddenly wilting.
A short while later, the leaves turn dull green, then dull yellow, before they turn reddish-brown and drop off.
Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
The disease can attack older branches, too. In this case, the leaves will turn brown, but they’ll stay on the branch rather than dropping. If you bend the branch, it will be brittle and will break rather than bending.
If you scrape away the bark, you’ll notice that the wood underneath is discolored.
Most of the time, the canker isn’t visible, but it’s possible that you might see a sunken canker just below the dying areas.
If a canker forms on the main trunk, your camellia will die. Fortunately that’s rare, and you’ll likely just have to deal with some dead twigs or small branches on an otherwise healthy plant.
Still, you don’t want to give the disease a chance to become a serious problem, so address it the moment you see it.
First, prune off every symptomatic twig and branch back to the next largest branch. Then, spray the entire plant, top to bottom, with copper fungicide.
You won’t need to reapply unless you have a period of high humidity or rain within the next few weeks. If you do, reapply the copper fungicide on a dry day.
To avoid spreading the disease, always clean your tools with hot soapy water between plants.
The pathogen needs a damaged area on the plant through which to enter, so do your best to keep pests away and avoid damaging your camellia.
3. Flower or Petal Blight
If your camellia looks healthy otherwise but the flowers are rapidly turning brown and falling off after developing brown spots, it’s likely you’re looking at the effects of flower blight, also known as petal blight.
Caused by the fungus Ciborinia camelliae, it usually starts as small brown spots before the edges of the petal turn brown.
That browning spreads to the center of the petal, and the flower will fall from the plant. All of this can happen in as little as 48 hours.
Beyond depriving you of all those lovely flowers, this disease is particularly unwelcome because the fungus lives in the soil for years and can spread on the wind or water.
That means once you have one infected camellia, it’s not too long before you will likely have multiple infected plants.
You most often see this on C. japonica plants and cultivars, not because they’re more susceptible, but because the flowers open during the same time of year when the pathogen is most active.
4. Leaf Gall
Leaf gall is a disease that truly stands out. It causes the foliage on the camellia to develop yellow, cream, pink, light green, or red galls.
Photo by Matthew Borden, Bartlett Tree Experts, Bugwood.org.
The leaves become thick as the infection spreads. If you didn’t know better, you might mistake them for succulent leaves. They eventually start to peel, revealing a white interior. This is the fungus Exobasidium camelliae, which causes the disease.
The leaves will eventually fall from the plant and land on the ground, where the fungus lives during the winter.
Leaf gall is usually seen on C. sasanqua and its cultivars, especially those grown in humid conditions.
Typically, pruning off the infected leaves before they start peeling and releasing the spores is enough to control the problem.
Also known as purple-bordered spot or eye spot, Phyllosticta spot is a fungal disease caused by Phyllosticta camelliae in camellias.
As the alternate names suggest, this disease starts out as purple, semi-circular blotches on the margin of the leaves. As the spots expand, the margin remains purple while the center turns papery tan or gray. You might also see black fungal spots on the dead area.
Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
This disease can be confused with sun scorch, which causes gray or tan papery lesions. Look for the purple border and the presence of the black fungal bodies to confirm eye spot.
This disease is especially common in areas with a humid, temperate climate like the Pacific Northwest.
Unless you have a young camellia that is otherwise stressed, it won’t kill your shrub and might not require any treatment.
The easiest way to treat purple-bordered spot is to pull off infected leaves, but you can also treat it in the same way you’d treat flower or petal blight.
6. Root Rot
Camellias infected with the fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi will begin to rot underground.
The roots will turn black and mushy, and are no longer able to take in nutrients and water for the rest of the plant to use.
When this happens, the upper parts of the camellia start to wilt. If the roots continue to rot, the leaves might turn soft and yellow, and the plant might not grow well.
The older foliage is usually the first to go, followed by the younger growth.
This can happen over one growing season, or it might happen slowly over several years. If you were to dig down into the soil, you’d see that not only were some of the roots rotting, but the infected plant doesn’t have any smaller feeder roots either.
C. sasanqua and its cultivars are resistant, so either choose one of these or one with C. sasanqua rootstock if you have challenging soil that doesn’t drain well, or if rot has been a problem in your garden in the past.
7. Viruses
So, here’s the thing. You never want a disease to turn up in your garden. Diseases are, by definition, bad. But I kind of don’t hate this one.
Camellia ring-spot virus 1, 2, 3, and 4 (formerly referred to as camellia variegation virus, camellia infectious variegation virus, and camellia yellow mottle virus) causes the leaves or flowers (but not both) of plants in this genus to turn yellow, pale green, or white, to varying degrees.
Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
Some of the patterns that appear, which are totally random, can be quite striking. Leaves might have white and yellow mottled margins, or the entire leaf might show symptoms.
Sometimes signs of the virus disappear altogether and plants are asymptomatic, and sometimes one leaf will have yellow splotches while another nearby will have white lines.
If I could reproduce some of these patterns without spreading the disease, I would. In fact, some growers intentionally introduce the virus to young camellias to see what they can get.
The viruses that cause this discoloration are spread through cuttings and by grafting infected material onto non-infected plants.
Once a plant is infected, there is nothing you can do. But since it doesn’t spread readily, you might as well leave it and enjoy what you see. Rarely, a plant might be slightly less vigorous than it would otherwise, but that’s the worst that might happen.
Don’t confuse the symptoms of this disease with signs of low nitrogen or low iron, which causes leaves to turn entirely yellow.
This disease stands out from those physiological problems because it causes patches of color to appear, not solid yellow leaves.
Show Diseases the Door
I know a lot of people who have torn out fussier plants like roses to replace them with reliable camellias. I get it.
Camellias are pretty tough and, as you can see, even the diseases they do experience are rarely fatal or bad enough that you need to pull the plant.
Which disease do you think your camellia is experiencing? What symptoms do you see? Let us know what’s going on in the comments.
Being able to identify a disease isn’t the only thing you need to know to grow big, happy camellia plants. If you’d like to expand your knowledge even further, you might find these guides helpful:
Having a practical kitchen is a fantasy for some property holders, taking into account how costly kitchen redesign is. One method for adding usefulness and further developing your kitchen space’s general use is by introducing kitchen worktops.
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Added Kitchen Space
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Added Kitchen Tasteful
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Simple To Clean
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Keeping a spotless and clean yard can be a demanding task, particularly when confronted with a wealth of fallen leaves and trash. In the quest for the best leaf blowers available, “This Old House,” an eminent expert on home improvement and planting, has handpicked the main five leaf blowers accessible on Amazon in 2023. Among these tip-top determinations stands the SnapFresh Leaf Blower, a strong and flexible device intended to reform your yard upkeep schedule.
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A food forest is a long-term proposition, generally taking a few years to really get kicking.
We posted this video on “How to Start a Food Forest the Easy Way” at the end of July and since then it’s gotten a lot of response.
This morning I saw a comment which read:
“Hi David I understand your principles. But can you elaborate on how long it will take before the food forest will provide enough supply of vegetables for one person. Thanks.”
This sounds simple, but is in reality a very complicated question.
First of all, what climate are you growing in? A cold temperate climate food forest has a much shorter growing season than a tropical or subtropical food forest, and the selection of vegetables available will vary.
Secondly, how much time are you willing to invest? If you were to pour yourself into gardening, you could make beds all over a new food forest and simply grow vegetables like you would in any garden. If you planted even a tenth acre of vegetables at the beginning and tended them well, your kitchen would be overflowing in a few months. Unless you mean to provide all the calories for a single person, in which case you would need more space to grow an abundance of storable root, grains and winter squash along with your green vegetables. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, long-keeping pumpkins and squash, grain corn, dry beans, rutabagas and other crops would be key. And I would highly recommend adding a pig pen plus ducks, chickens or both so you have animal foods as well.
Thirdly, what type of soil do you have? If you have rich soil, growing an abundance is easy without spending much time improving the soil. If your soil is poor, you might have to spend a year or more improving the land so it will grow you lots of food. Cover cropping, bringing in mulch and manure, double-digging, making compost piles, gathering fall leaves and sheet-mulching – there are multiple things you may do to improve the ground, but all of them take time and effort.
Fourthly, what type of ecosystem are you starting with? If you’re eliminating grass, you’ll need to till or sheet mulch or meticulously fork and pull weeds. If you’re starting with a patch of brush or woods, you’ll need to eliminate lots of woody material and chop roots to get planting. If you have high rainfall, you may be able to grow with the rain. If you’re in a low rainfall area, you’ll have to find a way to irrigate.
In a tropical climate, we planted pigeon peas and corn, taro and tannia, cassava, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, papaya, melons, bananas, plantains and other fast-producing crops all over our food forest projects. Within a year, we had abundant food. In a temperate climate, our projects usually took a few years to give us abundant food.
Yet if we had gardened in beds through the food forest, we would have plenty more. At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, we threw ourselves into gardening – often working most of the day on it – and were rewarded quickly with lots of produce. In normal years, however, we lived our lives with gardening as something we mostly did on weekends and in a few minutes here and there, and we reaped accordingly.
The integration of annuals into our food forest systems has generally been secondary to the primary goal of getting the fruits and nuts and shrubs and other perennials rolling.
The idea was to link the fast production of annuals with the long-term production of tree crops. Thus far, it has been quite successful. It’s not the wild apparently anarchy and flowing lines and vignettes you find in our food forest projects, but it’s quite productive right from the beginning.
But back to the food forest question.
If you wish to quickly produce lots of vegetables in your food forest, simply create lots of annual garden beds around your long-term perennials in the early years so you have plenty of early yields. When your trees are young, they cast very little shade – so take advantage of that window of time to grow all the sun-loving high-yield annuals you can.
Assuming you have some decent soil and a moderately long growing season, along with available water, the main limiting factors will just be your time and will. Put both of them on the task and you’ll have an abundance of food in months, not years.
If a Grocery Row Garden is more your style, we build one from start-to-finish and show results in this video:
The South Garden at Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessen, Delaware, has been nicknamed the “pizza oven” by those who tend it. It sits in full sun, and its antique brick walls and pathways radiate a lot of heat. Yet this garden looks fresh and appealing throughout the seasons, thanks to a colorful palette of North American natives that are perfectly adapted to flourish in this hot, bright spot. Visitors who are inspired to plant these beautiful, border-worthy selections will also be helping to feed the local wildlife that depends on their gardens for forage and shelter. Here are some of the spring and summer stars that brighten the South Garden.
1. ‘Pica Bella’ purple coneflower
Name:Echinacea purpurea ‘Pica Bella’
Zones: 3-8
Size: 18 to 36 inches tall, and 1 to 2 feet wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; dry to medium, well-drained soil
Native range: Central and southeastern United States (straight species)
‘Pica Bella’ purple coneflower was a standout in Mt. Cuba Center’s trial garden. It is disease and pest resistant, and its vibrant blooms attract bees and butterflies from June through September. With a long season of interest and a tidy form that requires no staking, this plant can do a lot of heavy lifting in a design. Individual plants last for many years, especially when divided every 3 years to keep them in prime health.
2. ‘Valerie Finnis’ artemisia
Name:Artemisia ludoviciana ‘Valerie Finnis’
Zones: 5-10
Size: 18 to 24 inches tall and wide
Conditions: Full sun; dry to medium, well-drained soil
Native range: Throughout North America
When given its preferred conditions—sandy soil, full sun, and moderate humidity—‘Valerie Finnis’ artemisia will produce an abundance of cool white foliage that gives any garden a Mediterranean feel. Use it to add a soft glow at the front of a bed. Be forewarned, though: This plant can be an aggressive spreader; tame it by pinching or shearing the flowers. Plant it in the sunniest, best-drained spot in your garden because shade will shrivel it.
3. ‘Short and Sweet’ catchfly
Name: Silene caroliniana ssp. wherryi ‘Short and Sweet’
Zones: 4-8
Size: 4 to 8 inches tall, and 8 to 12 inches wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; dry to moist, well-drained soil
Native range: Central, southern, and southeastern United States
‘Short and Sweet’ catchfly lives up to its name, making it the perfect choice for taming a border’s edge. In May, it will be covered in dianthus-like flowers, and the foliage remains attractive long after the blooms pass. Try raising it to eye level in a container, where it will appreciate the extra heat and drainage.
4. ‘Arizona Apricot’ blanket flower
Name: Gaillardia ‘Arizona Apricot’
Zones: 4-9
Size: 8 to 10 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide
Conditions: Full sun; average to poor, well-drained soil
Native range: Western and northern United States into Canada
‘Arizona Apricot’ blanket flower is another low grower, with nonstop flowers that glow like a sunrise. The key to maintaining this plant is grooming—it responds well to rejuvenation pruning, and, if the flowers are deadheaded when they start to fade, it may bloom well into winter. ‘Arizona Apricot’ will be happiest in a spot with low humidity and well-drained soil. Be prepared to replace this short-lived perennial when it starts to decline, around 2 years after it is planted.
5. ‘Dark Towers’ beardtongue
Name: Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’
Zones: 3-8
Size: 1-1/2 to 3 feet tall, and 1 to 2 feet wide
Conditions: Full sun; dry to medium, well-drained soil
Native range: A hybrid of species from south-central and eastern United States and Canada
‘Dark Towers’ beardtongue offers 3 seasons of worry-free interest. Rosettes of deep purple basal foliage persist almost all winter. Then in late spring, 3-foot-tall, ruby red flower spikes emerge, studded with pale pink, gem-like flowers that attract bumblebees and hummingbirds. Once the blooms are spent, its shiny red seedheads and thick, dark foliage look beautiful in the garden or in a bouquet.
6. ‘Carolina Moonlight’ baptisia
Name: Baptisia ‘Carolina Moonlight’
Zones: 4-9
Size: 3 to 4 feet tall and wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; average to dry, well-drained soil
Native range: A hybrid of species from southern United States
Baptisias (Baptisia spp. and cvs., Zones 3-9) are close-to-perfect garden plants. They are long lived, disease free, and deer resistant, and they thrive in poor soils due to their nitrogen-fixing root nodules. Once established, they require little, if any, watering. ‘Carolina Moonlight’ is a compact cultivar with a vase-shaped habit that sends up spikes of buttery yellow, pea-like flowers for about 3 weeks in late spring. Its nectar is a valuable early-season food source for bumblebees, perfectly timed to provide nourishing meals for emerging queens.
7. Coast azalea
Name: Rhododendron atlanticum
Zones: 6-8
Size: 2 to 6 feet tall and wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; light, acidic, well-drained soil
Native range: Coastal eastern United States
You will want to plant coast azalea close to a window or a sitting area, where its sweet spring fragrance can be enjoyed. This coastal plain native blooms and sheds its spent flowers before the foliage fully emerges, giving it a neat and tidy appearance when bloom time is done. Due to its compact size, it will not require frequent pruning. Flower color varies within the species and by cultivar and includes a range of whites, pinks, and yellows. For healthy plants, not to mention a stronger floral scent, give coast azaleas what they want: full sun.
8. Turk’s cap lily
Name: Lilium superbum
Zones: 5-8
Size: 4 to 7 feet tall and 6 to 12 inches wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; average to moist, well-drained soil
Native range: Eastern United States
Turk’s cap lily towers over the rest of the garden, which is fortunate because its graceful, nodding blooms are best viewed from below. Its height makes it well suited to the back of a border, where in spring its foliage will telescope upward, branching outward at the inflorescence. This long-lived lily is easily propagated by dividing bulbs, but it must be protected from deer, rabbits, and rodents.
9. Giant coneflower
Photo: Carol Collins
Name: Rudbeckia maxima
Zones: 4-9
Size: 5 to 7 feet tall, and 3 to 4 feet wide
Conditions: Full sun; moist to dry, well-drained soil
Native range: Central and southern United States
Nothing delights quite like a goldfinch bobbing up and down on the stem of a giant coneflower, working to pry seeds from its cone. You can invite charming avian guests into your garden by planting this prairie native, which produces flowers that arrive with the heat of summer and persist through July. This is a plant that needs full sun, high heat, and lean soils, and it may require staking in more fertile conditions. If the stalks are cut back when flowers fade, you might get a second, shorter-stemmed batch of blooms. These plants are exclamation points in the garden, sure to catch the attention of any garden visitor, be it human, bird, or insect.
10. Tiny Wine® Atlantic ninebark
Photo: Carol Collins
Name:Physocarpus opulifolius ‘SMPOTW’
Zones: 3-8
Size: 3 to 4 feet tall and wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; dry to medium, well-drained soil
Native range: Central and eastern North America (straight species)
The deep bronze foliage of Tiny Wine® Atlantic ninebark and its contrasting warm red bark add a transfixing sense of depth to a garden design. This shrub grows wide and dense as it fills out and requires pruning maintenance to keep foliar disease at bay. No need to shear it; just prune out the 3 to 5 oldest canes in the shrub after it finishes blooming. This will open up air circulation between the leaves, and the shrub will still look full and healthy.
Choose border-worthy native plants for your garden
Three members of Mt. Cuba Center’s horticulture staff planned the South Garden’s plant list and bed layouts over the course of more than 20 meetings. Here are some of their tips for choosing the right native plants for any bed or border:
“Start with a list of native species that will survive and thrive in your garden’s particular conditions. Narrow the list down by imposing a color scheme, then think about bloom times: What will be blooming together? Will you have color in each season?”
—Donna Wiley, formal gardens horticulturist
“Remember that foliage colors will carry a design through the seasons. Let flowers be the icing on the cake.”
—Vic Piatt, horticulturist and gardens manager
“For a formal border, consider a blocked planting design in which groups of each plant are massed together to create bold swaths of color that shift throughout the seasons. It looks great and also helps pollinators and other wildlife forage from their favorite plants more efficiently.”
—Travis Beck, director of horticulture
Katie Bohri is the marketing and communications coordinator at the Mt. Cuba Center.
Photos, except where noted: courtesy of Mt. Cuba Center
In Issue 181, we got to know some of the plants that grace Mt. Cuba Center’s hot, sunny South Garden during the spring and summer months (10 Great Natives for a Sunny Border). The garden had been recently redesigned to showcase a collection of borderworthy natives that can take the heat of the Zone 7 summers in Hockessin, Delaware.
Light-catching plants make the most of autumn sun. Despite its name, ‘Summer Sunshine’ coreopsis is a fall bloomer, the perfect foil for asters and ornamental grasses.
At season’s end, the carefully planned color palette transitions from the warm pinks and oranges of summer to an explosion of blue, gold, and burgundy. The plant list includes well-known fall favorites as well as a few up-and-coming autumn attractions, such as ‘Summer Sunshine’ coreopsis and ‘October Skies’ aromatic aster. Both top performers in Mt. Cuba Center’s plant trials, they definitely deserve to be grown in more gardens.
By massing several plants of each variety together and repeating these blocks of color throughout the garden, the horticulturists who designed the garden struck a delicate balance. The double borders feel formal but not forced, and each plant has enough space to really show what it can do.
Two asters are even better than one. ‘Bluebird’ smooth blue aster (left photo, top left and right) has flower spikes up to 3 feet tall, while ‘October Skies’ (left photo, bottom right) has a low, mounding habit. ‘Concord Grape’ spiderwort (right photo) provides a warm violet accent for those cool blues.
When planning your garden’s fall finale, don’t overlook your region’s native plants. There are many excellent species and cultivars that look perfect in a more formal setting, and your local pollinators and wildlife will appreciate the autumn bounty.
Try these at home
Donna Wiley, horticulturist at Mt. Cuba Center, was on the South Garden’s design team and has tended this collection of heat-tolerant natives since it was planted in 2015. Here are her tips for enjoying these autumn beauties in your own garden.
1. ‘Shenandoah’ switchgrass
(Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’, Zones 5–9)
‘Shenandoah’ has a long season of interest, with attractive foliage that remains upright. It starts to flower in late summer; the airy pink flower spikes turn beige in the fall and persist through winter.
2. Giant coneflower
(Rudbeckia maxima, Zones 4–9)
To encourage more silver-green basal foliage late in the season, cut stems to the ground after the flowers fade, and clean any bad foliage from the base. The new leaves that emerge will look good through fall. Stalks left in place may flop over, but if you have room for them to do their thing, goldfinches will visit often to feast on the seeds.
3. Tiny Wine® Atlantic ninebark
(Physocarpus opulifolius ‘SMPOTW’, Zones 3–8)
The foliage of this shrub provides rich, dark color throughout the season and takes on a reddish tint in fall. Prune it in late spring after it flowers to keep it in scale with the rest of your garden. Its flowers attract plenty of pollinators.
4. Willow-leaved blue star
(Amsonia tabernaemontana var. salicifolia, Zones 3–9)
After spring flowers fade, blue star can be cut back by about half to keep the plant’s habit more full and compact. The foliage stays attractive all season, turning golden yellow in late fall.
5. ‘Summer Sunshine’ coreopsis
(Coreopsis palustris ‘Summer Sunshine’, Zones 6–9)
From late September into October, this low-maintenance plant provides bountiful blooms. It has a sturdy, upright habit and light-green foliage that is disease free. It tolerates full sun, hot weather, and well-drained soil.
6. ‘Dark Towers’ penstemon
(Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’, Zones 3–8)
This dark-leaved plant produces a bounty of attractive burgundy seed pods after its early summer flowers fade. It looks equally nice either cut back to expose the rosette of burgundy foliage or with seed spikes left on for a taller show. Cutting the seed stalks off in late autumn helps the basal foliage toughen up for the winter; it also prevents unwanted seedlings.
7. ‘Concord Grape’ spiderwort
(Tradescantia ‘Concord Grape’, Zones 3–9)
Unless the weather is wet, ‘Concord Grape’ needs supplemental water to get through the heat of summer. Cut stems to the ground in midsummer after flowering starts to slack off, leaving any new foliage emerging at ground level. Fresh foliage will start to grow soon after.
8. ‘Arizona Apricot’ blanket flower
(Gaillardia ‘Arizona Apricot’, Zones 4–9)
This little powerhouse blooms all season long, provided it has excellent drainage and loose soil, not clay. If it is deadheaded as the flowers fade, it can bloom from early summer through late autumn.
9. ‘Bluebird’ smooth blue aster
(Symphyotrichum laeve ‘Bluebird’, Zones 4–8)
This pollinator-pleaser is a Mt. Cuba Center introduction. It shouldn’t be pruned or shaped, because its habit is different from many asters; it produces flower spikes that emerge from basal foliage. Give it plenty of room, and enjoy the show!
10. ‘October Skies’ aromatic aster
(Symphyotrichum oblongifolium ‘October Skies’, Zones 3–8)
The shorter of the two asters grown in the South Garden, ‘October Skies’ (photo p. 65) only grows about 2 feet tall. It may be cut back by about half in June to make it fuller. In fact, most North American asters (Symphyotrichum spp. and cvs., Zones 3–8) may be pruned or shaped before July 4 without reducing their bloom.
