Category: Home & Garden

Begonia x tuberhybrida

The idea of a “hybrid” has always struck me as super cool.

From demigods in Greco-Roman mythology to the massive feline liger, combining two different species to end up with something new and exciting often leads to greatness… and tuberous begonias are proof of this.

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The Begonia genus is already quite attractive, so the way that Begonia x tuberhybrida is known for being an especially beautiful begonia? Not an easy feat to pull off.

And why wouldn’t you consider it among the best? I mean, these beautiful bloomers are in effect customizable, since there are so many different flower colors, petal shapes, and growing habits to choose from. Just about anyone can find a variety they like.

And after giving this guide a solid read-thorough, you’ll be ready to give your tuberous begonias the tender, loving care that they deserve.

What Are Tuberous Begonias?

Before diving into the specific niche where tuberous begonias dwell, it’s important to go over begonias as a whole.

Unsurprisingly, these plants belong to the Begonia genus, which is part of the Begoniaceae family.

This massive genus consists of more than 2,000 different species of flowering perennials, which collectively hail from tropical and subtropical regions the world over.

An adaptation to niche environments – in combination with a limited capacity for widespread seed dispersal – has resulted in a variety of small, yet diverse begonia populations worldwide.

Such diversity has warranted the American Begonia Society to whip up an informal classification of eight or so different begonia groups: cane-like, rhizomatous, semperflorens, rex-cultorum, trailing or scandent, thick-stemmed, shrub-like, and tuberous – and it’s the latter that we’ll be covering here.

Also known as Begonia x tuberhybrida, tuberous begonias are a group of hybrids which, when compared with other begonias, are arguably the most stunning.

Sitting atop waxy, pointed, and oval-shaped green leaves, the flowers bloom in orange, pink, red, white, or yellow hues. Said blooms emerge from late spring until the first frost in fall.

The plant as a whole grows to a height of six to 18 inches while spreading 12 to 18 inches, and is hardy in USDA Zones 9 through 11.

These plants may exhibit various flower shapes, petal types, and growing habits, which has resulted in the creation of 13 informal tuberous begonia groups for ease in identification.

What every tuberous begonia does have in common, though, is right there in the name: a tuberous root system.

Tuberous begonias also go through a dormant period, when the tubers can be lifted and stored for later replanting.

The tubers actually contain toxic calcium oxalates, which can cause vomiting and salivation in common household pets such as cats and dogs. So if possible, keep your fur babies away from these plantings!

Cultivation and History

As mentioned earlier, begonias can be found in the tropics worldwide.

The 14 or so parents of the tuberhybrida cultivars, however, hail from the high altitudes of the Andes Mountains, located in South America.

In the 1860s, British plant collector Richard Pearce journeyed to the Andes, discovered several begonia species in Bolivia and Peru, and subsequently returned to Europe with specimens.

Some of these were used to hybridize the first tuberhybrida cultivars.

By the turn of the 20th century, the cultivation and sale of B. x tuberhybrida specimens had well and truly begun in Europe and North America.

Since then, tuberous begonias have developed a reputation for flaunting large, gorgeously showy flowers… one that may have drawn you to this very guide.

Propagation

Interested in cultivating tuberous begonias? If so, you’ve made an excellent decision!

To acquire some, you’ll need to propagate them, and your best avenues for doing so are from seed, from stem cuttings, from tubers, or via transplanting.

A brief note on propagation potting sizes: Ideally, make sure the roots have about one to one and a half inches of space available on all sides, away from the container walls.

From Seed

To acquire seeds, you can either purchase them or gather them from accessible specimens, whether in your own garden or a friend’s.

A dried, ready-to-remove seed pod will exhibit a golden brown hue, at which point you’ll be able to gently pluck it from its stem. To dry the seed pods, set them on a piece of paper for three to 10 days.

The tiny, dust-like seeds within will be ready to harvest from the dried seed pots when they’re golden brown in color. If they’re a lighter cream color, then you’ve harvested prematurely.

To access the seeds, dissect a pod over a piece of paper with tweezers to expose the locules, or seed-containing chambers. Once they’re exposed, dump the seeds out onto the paper.

Not every seed will be good for sowing, though. As good seeds roll better than the bad ones, separate them by gently tilting the seed-bearing paper over a second sheet of paper.

The chaff should remain on the first sheet, while the viable seed should roll right onto the second sheet.

You know how the ice in your drink sometimes sticks to the bottom of the cup, and doesn’t come free until the cup angle is perilously steep mid-drink, leaving your face to complete an impromptu ALS Ice Bucket Challenge of sorts? The same principle applies here, so increase the angle of your sheet gradually.

Pour the good seeds into paper envelopes, label them with the date of collection, and store them in the fridge, where they should remain viable for several years.

For summer blooms, you really should start your seeds in December or January.

To do so, fill a seed tray with a 50:50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and perlite, moisten the media, and gently spread the seeds onto the surface in parallel lines spanning the length of the tray.

This can be made easier by folding a piece of paper in half and using the crease to guide the seeds onto the media.

Once sown, cover the seeds with a thin dusting of media. Moisten the surface with a water-filled spray bottle, then cover the tray with clear plastic wrap.

Expose the tray to indirect light indoors, while keeping the media moist. Germination should take around 10 days with a soil temperature of 70°F, or up to three weeks at lower indoor temperatures.

For a few extra degrees of heat, give these high-quality heat mats from Gardener’s Supply a go!

Seedling Heat Mat

Remove the plastic wrap a day or two after germination occurs. Thin out any weak-looking seedlings, and leave two inches of clearance between the healthiest remainders.

At this point, you can expose the seeds to direct light, whether it comes from a nearby window or grow lights.

As the seedlings grow and begin to crowd each other out, move each into its own container, keeping the growing medium moist all the while.

Two weeks before the last frost date in your area, bring the seedlings outside into partial shade for 30 to 60 minutes before bringing them back indoors.

Add 30 minutes to an hour on each successive day, until the seedlings can handle a full day of outdoor exposure.

From here, they’re ready for transplanting!

From Stem Cuttings

If you have an established specimen, you can actually propagate new ones from the stems that grow from the tuber.

A fringe benefit of this is that by taking cuttings, it will also renew the existing tuber’s vigor!

In April, dig up a tuber and gently remove any loose soil. Remove three-inch lengths of stem from the tuber with a sterile blade.

Bonide Bontone II Rooting Powder

Dip the cut ends in a rooting hormone, such as this IBA rooting powder from Bonide that’s available via Arbico Organics.

Stick each cutting into its own container, filled with a 50:50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and perlite.

Moisten the media in each container, seal each inside its own plastic baggie, and expose the containers to indirect light indoors.

Once roots form in two to four weeks, bring the cuttings into direct light and gradually open their baggies over a three-day period to wean the cuttings off of the excess humidity.

At this point you can harden them off outside, using a similar protocol as described above. After that, you’re good to transplant them!

From Tubers

If you choose to grow these plants from tubers, you’ll need to pull the tubers from storage or purchase them. You’ll want to start them in February or March for June or July blooms.

Fill containers with a 50:50 mixture of peat moss and perlite. Plant the tubers just below the surface, concave sides up, and water them in to moisten the medium.

Expose the containers to indirect light indoors, while keeping the media moist and the ambient temperatures around at least 70°F.

Once the stems emerge and reach an inch in height, you should repot the tubers into larger containers.

The number of stems determines flower size. To encourage large flowers, pinch off excess stems once they reach three inches tall.

“Excess” means more than two to three stems for a small tuber, or more than three to six for a large one. For multi-flora varieties where profuse blooms are the goal, ignore this recommendation.

A fortnight before the frost-free date, harden off your plantings using the above protocols.

Now, it’s transplanting time!

Via Transplanting

To transplant tuberous begonias, prepare fertile and well-draining planting sites with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5.

Space these spots about eight to 12 inches apart, in wind-shielded locations that are either partially shaded or exposed to dappled sunlight.

Once your sites are ready, dig holes about the depth and width of the root systems.

Lower the transplant in and backfill with soil, making sure that the tubers are covered an inch or two below the soil line. Water them in, and keep the surrounding soil moist.

How to Grow

Such gorgeous flowers can’t look their best with subpar care. For truly jaw-dropping blooms, the following guidelines should help you out a bit.

Climate and Exposure Needs

In general, tuberous begonias can be grown as perennials only in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 11, as they’re pretty frost-sensitive.

In colder regions you should plan to grow them as annuals, or lift the tubers for winter storage before the first frost.

Partial shade and dappled sunlight are both optimal, along with protection from wind.

But don’t get me wrong – these guys still love fresh air, just not when it’s moving quickly. Remember to provide adequate circulation!

Soil Needs

Provide soil that is well-draining and fertile, with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5. For fertility, working an inch or two of compost or well-rotted manure into your beds each spring is a smart move.

Water and Fertilizer Needs

Tuberous begonias love to sit in moist soils, so be sure to maintain that soil moisture throughout the growing season.

“Moist” doesn’t equal “saturated,” though, so if your plants are sitting in water, you’ve definitely over-irrigated.

Applying a balanced fertilizer that’s diluted down to half-strength every two weeks during the growing season should work just fine.

EZ-Gro Liquid Fertilizer

A perfect product for the job is this quart of 20-20-20 NPK liquid fertilizer from EZ-gro, which is available to purchase from Amazon.

Growing Tips

• For optimal growth, provide dappled sun or partial shade exposure.
• The best soil is well-draining and fertile with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5.
• Maintain soil moisture, and feed every two weeks with a diluted, balanced fertilizer.

Pruning and Maintenance

During the growing season, deadheading spent blooms can go a long way in preventing disease and keeping up aesthetics.

For specimens in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 11, you should cease watering and fertilizing once their shoots start to wilt, yellow, and/or drop in fall.

Make a note of where the tubers are located in your gardening journal, so you can resume caring for them promptly once dormancy ends.

In climates colder than Zone 9, tuberous begonias won’t survive the winter outdoors.

If you don’t want to save the tubers, simply composting the plants at the end of the growing season is all that’s necessary. But if you wish to reuse tubers for years to come, here’s what it takes:

Cease watering and fertilizing your specimens before your area’s first frost date.

After that first frost, dig up your tubers, shake them free of soil, cut the shoots to a height of five inches, and allow the tubers to dry out in a warm, moisture-free spot indoors.

Once the shoots are dry and crinkly, you should be able to pluck them off with ease, although it’s best if they fall off naturally.

When the tubers are trimmed, put each in its own paper bag, place the bags in a cardboard box or breathable container, and store it in a dark, cool, and dry spot indoors. If you need an exact temperature, shoot for something in the 40 to 50°F range.

Check the tubers periodically for rotting, pests, and signs of disease.

You can save tubers with little rotted spots by removing said spots, redrying the tuber, and dusting it with a bit of sulfur. But otherwise, you should pitch afflicted tubers.

That’s the beauty of placing each in its own paper bag – if one exhibits rotting, infection, and/or infestation, it won’t spread to the others!

Cultivars to Select

As a group, Begonia x tuberhybrida cultivars are all worth selecting, if you ask me.

But even though they might say otherwise, both human and plant parents are inclined to pick favorites. Therefore, I’m going to touch on five of my top picks.

Hanging Basket Scarlet

When it comes to Hanging Basket ‘Scarlet,’ you get exactly what’s advertised.

Reaching a height and spread of 10 to 12 inches, this variety flaunts brilliant scarlet double blooms from late spring to frost that cascade over the sides of containers.

Emerging from late spring to frost, these blooms reach widths of two to five inches.

If you’re looking for gorgeous blood-red flowers to hang over the sides of your hanging basket, you can hardly do better than Hanging Basket ‘Scarlet.’

Nonstop Fire

Growing up to 12 inches tall and 16 inches wide, Nonstop® ‘Fire’ is the cream of an already creamy crop.

The Nonstop® series is known for its squat and heat-resistant line of long-blooming beauties that don’t require deadheading.

The four-inch flowers of Nonstop® ‘Fire’ bloom from late spring to frost, and are absolutely majestic.

The petals are truly flame-like, with red margins that gradually morph into orange and yellow hues as you approach the center of the flower.

If you ever wanted to combine the lull of staring into a bonfire with the majesty of admiring a flower, try snagging an eyeful of Nonstop® ‘Fire.’

Picotee Lace Pink

With six-inch soft pink flowers that are laced with a frilly white edge, ‘Picotee Lace Pink’ honestly reminds me of a ballerina’s tutu.

Not a look that I thought would work in the garden, but ‘Picotee Lace Pink’ has proved me wrong in spectacular fashion.

As a compact and bushy mound of light pink flowers and dark green foliage, this variety reaches 12- to 14-inch heights and 12- to 16-inch widths, and also has extra heat tolerance!

Blooming from midsummer to frost, ‘Picotee Lace Pink’ proves that good things come to those who wait.

Roseform White

These varieties don’t lead you astray with their names, do they?

Reaching a height of 14 to 20 inches and a spread of 10 to 12 inches, Roseform ‘White’ is an upright-growing knockout that flaunts four- to eight-inch, rose-shaped white flowers.

These blooms blossom from midsummer to frost, and stand out in stark contrast to the more colorful beauties in your garden. Plus, they’re a perfect way to get the rose aesthetic sans thorns.

Roseform ‘White‘

A pack of three Roseform ‘White’ tubers is available for purchase from Eden Brothers.

Ruffled Yellow

“Ruffled” things get a bad rap. Ruffled feathers, ruffled shirts, other examples… But I believe ‘Ruffled Yellow’ can really change things around.

Maturing to heights of 14 to 20 inches and widths of 12 to 16 inches, Ruffled ‘Yellow’ has five- to nine-inch yellow flowers with semi-ruffled petals.

The blooms make their appearance from midsummer to frost, while the plant as a whole is heat-resistant and surprisingly compact.

‘Ruffled Yellow‘

To purchase three tubers of ‘Ruffled Yellow,’ visit Walmart.

Managing Pests and Disease

Keeping your tuberous begonias free of pests and diseases is essential for top-tier aesthetics. And although they’re resistant to deer and rabbits, these plants are prone to a few other issues.

Pests

Along with the damage that they cause, insects can vector pathogens. So by controlling them, you can also help to keep your plants free of disease!

Black Vine Weevils

Also known as Otiorhynchus sulcatus, the black vine weevil is a pest of many different plants.

The shiny black adult beetles reach a half-inch in length, while the C-shaped, legless grubs are white-bodied with a reddish-brown head.

Once they hatch from their eggs in midsummer, these larvae feed on tuberous begonia roots below the soil line well into fall, which can lead to shoot wilting and overall plant death.

To control the grubs while they’re active, a soil drench of beneficial nematodes will make short work of them. Recommended nematode species include Heterohabditis heliothidis, H. bacteriophora, and Steinernema carpocapsae.

NemAttack and NemaSeek Combo

The latter two can be purchased from Arbico Organics.

Slugs and Snails

Whether shelled or shelless, these mollusks are a real pain.

These pests eat irregularly shaped holes with smooth edges from the foliage of your B. x tuberhybrida specimens, leaving nasty slime trails in their wake.

Snail and slug control is multifaceted. First, do your best to eliminate unnecessarily shaded parts of your landscape – pull weeds, remove adjacent plant detritus, and so on.

When placed around vulnerable plantings, physical barriers such as eggshells, coffee grounds, and diatomaceous earth can deter snail and slug movement.

To go on the offensive, you should wait until nightfall when slugs and snails feed. Go out with a flashlight, physically pick them off your plantings, and dispose of them.

Set of Three Slug Traps

You can even set beer traps to attract and drown the pests. For a set of three plastic beer traps, head on over to Gardener’s Supply.

Thrips

Tiny, slender insects from the order Thysanoptera, thrips are pretty tough to see, though the symptoms of an infestation are much more apparent.

Thrips feed by piercing a plant’s epidermis and extracting the fluids within, leading to discoloration and distortion of the afflicted structure.

In tuberous begonias specifically, thrips feeding can form reddish-brown lines on the upper sides of leaves and pale spots on leaf undersides, while warping the leaf’s shape.

For thrips management, you can physically knock them off your plants with strong sprays of cold water.

Chemically, sprays of insecticidal soap during their active period from spring through midsummer can kill them.

Beneficial predators such as spiders and minute pirate bugs help with thrips control, so it’s important to avoid the use of systemic insecticides that can reduce their populations.

Seriously injured and infested plants should be pruned and/or destroyed.

Learn more about how to deal with thrips in our guide.

Disease

Sanitation goes a long way in preventing disease. Using pathogen-free plant stock, clean soils, and sterile gardening implements are but a few ways to keep your plantings healthy.

Powdery Mildew

Caused by a variety of fungal pathogens, powdery mildew is more of a cosmetic issue than a significant health problem… But with plants as stunning as tuberous begonias, reduced aesthetics are definitely cause for concern.

Overwintering in nearby plant detritus, reproductive structures release spores come spring, especially in warm and humid conditions.

Settling on plant tissues, the spores cause a white powder to form on plant surfaces, which can cause the shriveling, yellowing, and dropping off of infected tissues.

Prevent powdery mildew infection by disposing of adjacent plant detritus, providing ample air circulation, and avoiding overhead watering. If the disease is a real concern for you, applying fungicides preventively isn’t a bad idea.

Infected structures should be pruned and destroyed.

Learn more about powdery mildew and how to control it in our guide.

Root Rot

Despite being underground, roots need oxygen. And whenever there’s a lack of it due to soil compaction and/or excess water, the roots and tubers can suffocate, causing the aboveground shoots to suffer in both health and appearance.

Prevention is the best form of cure, honestly – provide well-draining and aerated soil, and do your best to not over-irrigate. Shoot for soil that’s moist, not oversaturated.

If the majority of the plant’s tuber and root system are mushy and beyond saving the specimen should be lifted and destroyed.

Stem Rot

Caused by the soil-borne water mold Pythium ultimum, stem rot leaves infected stems water-soaked and darkened, which can lead to the plant’s collapse.

Not a good thing, even for the pendulous varieties of Begonia x tuberhybrida that rock the “flopped over” look.

As excess water can lead to problems, it’s important to provide adequate airflow while you avoid over-watering. Burying tubers too deeply can also lead to infection.

Rotating between different fungicides can work to prevent stem rot.

But in the case of infection, you should pitch infected plants and either try again in a new planting site, or with fresh soil in a sanitized container.

Best Uses

As any model on LinkedIn knows, being beautiful offers plenty of opportunities.

The versatility of a Begonia x tuberhybrida is well and truly vast. Honestly, you could set one atop a large pile of garbage, and the plant could still bring a tear to your eye… on top of the trash’s eye-watering stench!

Tuberous begonias work wonderfully in large groups, whether as a massed grouping in a flower bed or lined up as a border.

They can also astound and amaze in containers, window boxes, or hanging baskets, and they look absolutely fantastic when placed around a patio.

They can also be grown as houseplants… but that’s a topic for another day. Be on the lookout for our upcoming guide to growing begonias indoors!

Quick Reference Growing Guide

Plant Type:	Flowering herbaceous perennial	Flower/Foliage Color:	Orange, pink, red, white, yellow/green
Native to:	Cultivated hybrids	Water Needs:	Moderate
Hardiness (USDA Zones):	9-11	Maintenance:	High
Bloom Time:	Late spring-fall	Tolerance:	Black walnut juglone, deer, rabbits
Exposure:	Dappled sun or partial shade	Soil Type:	Fertile, moist
Time to Maturity:	3 months to bloom from tubers	Soil pH:	5.5-6.5
Spacing:	8-12 inches	Soil Drainage:	Well-draining
Planting Depth:	Slightly below soil line (tubers)	Uses:	Beds, borders, containers, flower beds, hanging baskets, houseplants, window boxes
Height:	6-18 inches	Order:	Cucurbitales
Spread:	12-18 inches	Family:	Begoniaceae
Growth Rate:	Moderate	Genus:	Begonia
Common Pests and Diseases:	Black vine weevils, slugs, snails, thrips; powdery mildew, root rot, stem rot	Species:	x Tuberhybrida

True Flower Power

The power of a gorgeous bloom cannot be understated. And now that you can grow and care for tuberous begonias, you’ve got the floral equivalent of China’s Three Gorges Dam.

A bit of an exaggeration? Perhaps. But the only way to know for sure is to cultivate some for yourself.

Questions? Remarks? All of it and more can go in the comments section below!

Interested in other flowering plants? Here’s a few guides on some summertime bloomers:

I’M CRAZY ABOUT pineapple lilies, bulbs in the genus Eucomis. And though in my zone 5 garden, they aren’t hardy, I can’t imagine a growing season without pots full of them. In his South Carolina garden and the ones he makes for design clients, Jenks Farmer can use them even more lavishly as perennials and beds and even meadows, so Eucomis (no matter where you garden) were the subject of our latest conversation.

Jenks Farmer, a longtime horticulturist and garden designer, is also a writer with several books to his credit and a Substack newsletter that I’m really enjoying and more to come. He’s founder of Jenks Farmer, Plantsman, which makes gardens for clients and is also a mail-order nursery specializing in unusual bulbs.

Read along as you listen to the May 15, 2023 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

Quick note: Because the longtime local radio-station engineer who records and edits my podcasts has been ill, this one has some little bloopers where Jenks and I interrupt each other and such … hopefully those won’t spoil anything for you. Thanks for understanding!

eucomis, with jenks farmer

 

 

Margaret Roach: Hi, Jenks. I’m so glad to talk to you again as always. How are you?

Jenks Farmer: Hey, Margaret. I am great. I’m happy to be here and especially to talk about Eucomis.

When we started this kind of running conversation that we’ve had about Eucomis, I really thought, “I don’t know that there’s enough about Eucomis.” They’re pretty simple. But it’s been fun to delve into them and to hear a lot about how you grow them as container plants.

Margaret: And so you’re what, Zone 8 or some crazy old thing down there?

Jenks: We are Zone 8.

Margaret: Yeah. I’m not. I’m definitely not. I’m a 5. So just a backstory for people, a month or so ago, you and I did a “New York Times” garden column together, and it was kind of like a love poem to pineapple lilies, but from the two very different places and grown in two very different ways, because yours don’t spend winter in the basement, do they, like mine do?

Jenks: No, no, we don’t have basements, Margaret.

Margaret: Oh, sorry. No basements. O.K.

Jenks: No basements. We would have big puddles of water in our basements. No, we are very flat and very warm. So our, let’s see, even in April or in the beginning of May, our Eucomis are already up out the ground probably 6 inches.

Margaret: Wow, O.K. So they’re happy. And I mean, they’re native. There’s different species, but they’re native to different areas in Southern Africa, I believe. Yes?

Jenks: Yes. I would love to see them in Southern Africa. What I know about them there, I’ve read and done lots of, oh, Google research, I guess you would say, and read through old books. I think we tend to think of South Africa as a hot and dry place because those are the iconic climates and ecozones there. But the Eucomis come from all different kinds of habitats, apparently, including those hot, dry habitats, but also some shady streamside places.

Margaret: Right, in uplands, some in higher altitudes; all kinds of different environments. And I think you told me that. And some of those places are summer—what do they call that? Summer rainfall areas. So some of the species can put up with being wet, which you don’t think of a bulb as liking that, right? [Above, ‘John Treasure’.]

Jenks: Yeah. Most bulbs, well, not most bulbs, there are lots of bulbs that grow in wet areas, but the ones that we know most commonly, the ones that we love such as daffodils and tulip and even odder, more specialized things, tend to like dry or typical garden settings. And Eucomis do great like that. The ones that I grow, anyway. But I’ve had some that’ll grow in wet areas. And flooding places are an important part of our climate. So to have a plant that thrives there is always a relief.

Margaret: Yeah, that’s for sure. And for me, in the other kind of a climate, to have a plant that’s very showy—and we should talk about what we love about their looks. And even though it’s not hardy, I can easily, year to year to year—and I’ve had some of my bulbs and their offsets many, many, many years. These are as easy as say, cannas, for instance. These are not tricky. These are not going to give you a hard time storing them, sleeping. And so that’s what’s great is that they are easy despite, for both of us, despite our very different way of having to handle them. So it’s kind of cool.

Jenks: Yeah. Easy and beautiful.

Margaret: Yeah. So let’s talk about beautiful. I mean, they’re called pineapple lilies, so what’s that about?

Jenks: Well, you know how common names are. I guess if you have a really good imagination, they kind of look like a pineapple lily. Right at the top of the stalk of flowers [above, on E. bicolor, for instance], there’s a little tuft of leaflets that looks like the top of a pineapple. So the general flower description is a stalk that’s usually about a half an inch around or so. And all up and down that stalk are hundreds of buds, and each bud opens to a star-shaped flower. And then the top of the stalk has this little tuft of hair.

Margaret: Right. And so it looks like the fruit of a pineapple, but a pineapple’s a bromeliad. And these are not bromeliads. I think they’re related to hyacinths. I don’t know, I get so confused with taxonomy because it’s like, I think they’re in the asparagus family, or I don’t know, or the order. I’m completely lost. But I think they are cousins of hyacinths, aren’t they? They’re related to hyacinths.

Jenks: I think so.

Margaret: Yeah.

Jenks: Yeah, I think so. But they would certainly be a hyacinth on steroids because most of them, most of the ones that I grow, anyway, are not huge, but their leaves will get to say 18 inches maybe long and the flower scapes go from 18 inches, some of them up to 28 or sometimes taller.

Margaret: Right. And so those leaves—I mean, for me, one of the things I love about them, or maybe the thing I love, I don’t know what I love the most. Anyway, there’s no accounting for our plant obsessions is there?

Jenks: No.

Margaret: But the first one I grew was that more common one, Eucomis bicolor, the one that’s kind of stinky [above]. It smells like rotting flesh or roadkill or something, to attract fly pollinators and so forth. But even it has, the leaves are not just long-ish, but they’re freckled and they are wide, and they’re just beautiful. It’s like this whole ruff of… this whole nest that the stem sits in. Do you know what I mean? It goes all the way around. It’s not just a couple of leaves. There’s a lot. And they’re just beautiful. So from the minute it kind of leafs out, I’m happy with the plant. And some of them even more so.

Jenks: I love your description of them sitting in a nest. And if you think about the common houseplant, the bird’s nest fern—in a way, they look a little bit like that. The leaves are generally more narrow, but they have that same sort of tuft or that nest.

And the foliage can go from clear emerald green to dark burgundy. There are even some that have a kind of pale, golden cast. The foliage for me is really important in the garden because of that wider leaf. They’re 2, sometimes 3 inches wide, and it’s narrow, but it adds a lot of contrast in the garden, especially with finer perennials and especially with grasses.

Margaret: Right, exactly. Grasses, again, have a long foliage, linear foliage, but it’s much finer typically. So this is a broader and glossier and different-colored, different shades of green and purple and so forth. Yeah, they’re pretty fantastic. And as I said, I love all the freckled and speckled ones. They have kind of animal-skin patterns some of them [above]. Those are my favorites. And it can be on the stems. It can be under the leaves, I think. They’re just surprising, and so I kind of like everything about them. And then when the flowers are finished, they’re not really finished, are they? I mean, technically they are, but they still look good to me, don’t you think?

Jenks: They lose the vibrancy of each individual flower, but the form stays the same [below, a faded flower stalk]. So you still have that long sphere of texture in the garden. For us, until the end of July or August, they look awesome. The bigger ones especially can kind of get heavy and flop over after that. But one of the things that makes them a really… sorry, you all.

Margaret: That’s O.K.

Jenks: One of the things that makes them a flexible and particularly useful garden plant is that you can cut them at any point and they’ll keep that form and mostly the color for a month or more.

Margaret: So as a cut flower, you mean? Wow. O.K.

Jenks: Yeah.

Margaret: Yeah. That would be pretty dramatic looking.

Jenks: One of the things that we do on our farm is to test new plants, and especially things that I want to use in garden design, but I need to know before I put them in somebody’s garden that they’re going to thrive. And over the past eight years or so, there’s been a movement to use pineapple lilies as cut flowers. And there’s been a lot of work in developing new hybrids, new colors and new sizes, and making sure that we don’t have any of that stinky one mixed in for the cut flowers.

Margaret: No, my favorite Eucomis bicolor’s not allowed.

Jenks: Well, I mean, it depends on the kind of party you’re taking cut flowers to, I guess.

Margaret: I guess. Right.

Jenks: So we started four or five years ago testing a lot of these cut-flower cultivars to see if they were garden-worthy, because the two goals are often not the same when somebody’s doing…

Margaret: Boy, that’s for sure.

Jenks: Yeah. And you get tricked I think sometimes. When hybridizers are doing work for the cut-flower industry, they’re very focused on production. And that production often takes place in greenhouses or in covered houses. So the flower doesn’t have to deal with the elements. And they’re focused then on post-production and shipping, and not necessarily on the genetics of something that would make a plant a great garden perennial.

Margaret: Right.

Jenks: So we’ve had a lot of fun testing all these cultivars.

Margaret: Right. Do you remember the first Eucomis you grew? Do you know which one it was?

Jenks: I think it was probably ‘Sparkling Burgundy.’ [Above.]

Margaret: Oh, really? O.K. So that’s a Tony Avent of Plant Delights’ introduction from, I forget when, but a number of years ago. And that kind of shook things up for the pineapple lilies. That was a dramatic plant. So sort of describe what—and you use that in gardens and so forth—sort of describe it and what you do with it.

Jenks: So it was the first of the cultivars that I was aware of that had really deep burgundy, kind of mahogany, leaf. It has a shiny leaf and then the flower and the stalk has a burgundy cast to it. So that contrast that I was talking about earlier in the garden is intensified when you have a dark color that stands out against lots of greens. So that one for me was a real eye-opener. And the other benefit is that it’s a really strong perennial, at least in our climate. So it multiplies well, and you can go from one bulb that’s…

Usually, the bulbs that I start with are about… they fit into your hand like a little satsuma orange or something. And so you can go from that. And then over the years, those start putting off little side pups, and you get a clump that’s eventually as big as say a daylily.

Margaret: And you showed me a picture [above] of it that almost looks like a meadow. And you look out into the distance and there’s, as you said, grasses and other more expected plants. But then there’s this broad but long, arching purple foliage of these ‘Sparkling Burgundy,’ for instance. And it’s just so different. It just draws your eye out into these beautiful plantings that are kind of wildish looking.

Jenks: I do a lot of naturalistic plantings. And I’m afraid to call them meadows, because meadows don’t really do so great in the deep South.

Margaret: Right.

Jenks: But in those naturalistic plantings, I want to see what I call some fireworks, some things that let people know that this is a cultivated planting—that this is intentional, that this is a garden. It’s not just grasses and wildflowers I’m kind of growing in a matrix.

So that garden that you were talking about, we did a meadow using native grasses like broomsedge. We even used little pine trees. So long-leaf pines are beautiful when they’re small. They look like these little tufts of emerald green strings. Then mixed in the lower level was a tiny rain lily, tiny pink rain lilies. And to add the contrast, to add the fireworks to all of that were these clumps of the burgundy, the ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ pineapple lily.

Margaret: Yeah, it was really… I mean, just because again it’s a plant that I have, but I have mine on the patio in a pot and then in my basement the rest of the year, it was like, “Really, wow.” There it was just stretching its legs and spreading and just being so beautiful out there in the open. So I loved that.

Jenks: I’m curious about how you keep them in your basement. Can we switch to that?

Margaret: Yeah.

Jenks: Do you take a pot inside and let it go dormant and leave them in the dirt?

Margaret: Yeah. So everybody that I, all my as I would say, “investment plants”—things that I’m going to have for many years, or I hope to have for many years that are not hardy here and that are not adaptable to being grown on as a houseplant, for instance—I gradually dry them down and I’ll move them from out in the garden to the porch, where it has a roof so they’re not getting rained on anymore. I let them sort of dry before the super-cold weather comes.

And then they’ll go to sleep, I’ll cut them back, and then I’ll carry the pots of these pretty much dormant things into the cellar. And they just sit there. I even stack them up. I mean, it’s like they don’t even seem to care. Some things are harder to do that with than others, but Eucomis and then voodoo lilies, which we both also love, the Amorphophallus, and I also love the Sauromatum [above], those are dead-easy to do, too, this way.

The other thing is you can take them out of their pots. If you had big pots and you don’t want to carry it down some stairs or something, you could unpot them and just store them dry. But what I tend to do is leave them in their pots and then every second year or so I unpot them, because they’ve taken up all the space. They seem to multiply and they’ve exhausted their resources in the confines of the pot. So I’ll kind of divide them somewhat and then pick same-sized bulbs and put those all in one pot. And then the smaller ones I’ll put in a different pot with fresh soil.

But they don’t seem to miss a beat. I’ve never lost any. I’d never had decay or mold or rot or anything. And my basement is not super-dry and it can go down to 40, but it’s frequently around 50 in the winter because there is a furnace down there. Not that it’s heating down there, but there’s a little heat from it. And it’s underground. But it’s an old, 140-year-old, house. It’s nothing fancy. So they do real well. They do real well. And as I said, I’ve had some of them or their offsets for 15-plus years easily.

Jenks: Wow, that is a great investment plan, isn’t it?

Margaret: Well, right. And the canna is the same thing. I mean, for me, they’re rock hard. They don’t rot. They’re fine. I’m a little more iffy with dahlias; I can have a little bit of mold or loss. They’re a little more juicy. So you have to be a little more careful, though it’s totally doable. I’m just saying, the voodoo lilies, the cannas, and the Eucomis are just—anybody could do it I think. I think they’re…

Jenks: We do some tropical bulbs like that. We’ll do some of the bigger dahlias and caladiums for sure. But those things, you have to add a little fungicide and it’s a bit of a pain. So honestly, I don’t do it all that much because they tend to rot.

Margaret: Well, because your temperature, like you said, and you don’t have a cellar, for instance, so you don’t have a place that stays say 40 something degrees all winter, right? You don’t have that kind of a spot, do you?

Jenks: No, I would put them in a barn, which means the temperature fluctuates. [Below, ‘Tugela Jade.’]

Margaret: Right, right, right. So yeah.

Jenks: And that may be part of the problem. That may be where we get a lot of rot.

Margaret: I think that, yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So I wanted to just ask about some others that you really like. I know that you grow a couple or different kinds that have green flowers. And you’ve made me laugh when you told me once that customers don’t want to buy green flowers, and yet they’re so gorgeous. So what about those?

Jenks: Yeah. Well, you know the old gardener’s trope is that green flowers are for the jaded.

Margaret: Oh, dear. Oh, boy.

Jenks: I’m sorry, I had to say that. I learned that from one of our mutual friends, Glenn Withey, out on the West Coast.

Margaret: Oh, yes. Sure.

Jenks: I love pole-evansii [above] and pallidiflora. And I think those two are actually the same. Maybe one’s a subspecies of the other. There’s a new cultivar that’s called ‘Green With Envy.’

Margaret: Oh.

Jenks: These are, they’re kind of lime, limey, so they’re bright. They stand out in the garden, and especially when you mix them with intense colors. I have some cornflowers or bachelor’s buttons that bring those blues, and I tried them one year. I was just in a hurry gardening. And so we have a big row of green ones; it’s 75 feet of green flowers. And we have garden tours and I had to get something in, so I used a red salvia, and it sounds like it would be a terrible combination, but…

Margaret: Christmas, right?

Jenks: … it’s really cool. Yeah, a little Christmas in July.

Margaret: Yeah.

Jenks: So I think the greens are my favorite. There are a couple of other smaller burgundies that I like a lot. One’s called ‘Coco.’ It’s really hard to come by. And ‘Maraschino Cherry.’ And those two last ones are ones that we’ve tried from the cut-flower industry that have done really well.

Margaret: Yeah, I mean, I just want to try them.

Jenks: The ones I have problems with though are the little tiny ones that are really seductive. And I try and try to get them. They have 6-inch- long leaves and they’re spotted, like you were talking about.

Margaret: Yes, yes.

Jenks: Like leopard-skin spots.

Margaret: Like the ‘Tiny Piny’ series. Yeah.

Jenks: Yeah. All of those I just lose, and I don’t know if that’s because of their genetics or, as I’ve told you, I just like big plants. And in our climate, plants tend to get big and sprawl, and maybe I just smother those out.

Margaret: Yeah. And for me, they do well in pots but that sort of makes sense because they’re precious and I’m giving them the little world to live in and I’m taking care, you know what I mean? They’re not out competing against other things, out in the world.

You have this thing for specialty bulbs. And so I’m looking in the catalog or on your website, and like I said, we both have a passion for the voodoo lilies, the Amorphophallus, which again, have those animal spots. You have something called blood lily, Haemanthus [below].

Jenks: Hey, I just sent you some blood lilies. Blood lilies would, yes… Yeah, get another pot and find some more room in the basement.

Margaret: O.K.

Jenks: So they have these softball-sized brilliant red flowers. And for us, they’re a perennial. The flowers though, the flowers don’t show up until the end of July. So in doubt, every year somebody will call me and say, “My blood lilies didn’t come back.” Like, “No, just hang on. They’re just not ready for you yet.”

Margaret: Right.

Jenks: So they’re grown all around the world and especially in Northern Europe as a container plant. And because they have handsome leaves, it can continue looking good into the winter. People will take them into the house and use them as a houseplant.

Margaret: Oh, O.K. Oh, I’m going to read about it. That’s totally interesting. And I mean, you have all kinds of other things, the Hymenocallis, the spider lilies.

And then of course, your main thing, Crinum, which we talked about [on a previous podcast] and you wrote a book about. We talked about that on our last podcast together. But the Crinums, are a lot of people adopting a Crinum, one of your many Crinum?

Jenks: Yeah, definitely. When I started with Crinum 30 years ago, I could hardly give them away because people thought of, well, people here thought of them as kind of old country plants. They were a little white trash. And then people in Northern places, into Northern places would say, “Hey, no, they won’t work for us.” So I started shipping them to friends in Baltimore area, and we now have them growing in Pittsburgh and all up on Long Island and into the Midwest, but probably not as cold as you are, probably say in the parts of zone 6. But to do that, you have to pick the right species. [A field of Crinum at Jenks’s farm, above.]

Margaret: Right. Right. And you have quite the assortment to choose from that’s for sure. Yeah. Well, Jenks, as you know, I could just talk to you all the time, forever, about all these crazy things that we both love, and adopt more things that I’ve never tried, and hopefully maybe turn you on to some that you haven’t tried. So thank you for making time. Thanks for taking time out of the garden today to talk, and I hope I’ll talk to you again soon.

Jenks: Definitely. Thank you.

more from jenks farmer

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MY WEEKLY public-radio show, rated a “top-5 garden podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK, began its 14th year in March 2023. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station in the nation. Listen locally in the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Eastern, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the May 15, 2023 show using the player near the top of this transcript. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

Growing potatoes at our previous property was quite disappointing. We had issues with rot, insects, blight, terrible yields and more.

The dirt was atrociously bad, acid and worthless. Even with fertilization, cover crops and amendments, the potatoes failed to yield well at all. We might have done been better off eating the seed potatoes instead of planting them.

Here on the new property, we are really starting to see the difference between dirt and soil. The initial yields are coming in for spring and it’s looking much better.

We pulled 23lbs of Adirondack Blue potatoes yesterday.

The scale is one pound off, so we always have to subtract a pound when we weigh.

We’ve already made up for the amount of seed potatoes we planted  and still have a half-bed and and another 5′ x 5′ patch of potatoes to pull.

Most of the Adirondack Blue potatoes were planted in one of the yam beds, which you can see better in this video we posted yesterday.

The yams produce in later fall, early winter, and the potatoes produce in spring. By alternating harvests we can get two high-calorie yields from the same space.

Last night Rachel baked two trays of blue potatoes for dinner and we had friends over to enjoyed our strangely colored spuds. They don’t taste different from white potatoes, that I can tell, but they do bake to a pale lavender color which is quite fun. Apparently, the anthocyanin content makes blue potatoes healthier for you than plain white ones.

However healthy they are, they sure are fun to grow. I was pleasantly surprised by the vigor and yield of the Adirondack Blue variety in our Lower Alabama backyard. Many of the potatoes were of a good size and the productivity was high per plant, especially considering that we had cut each seed potato into small pieces with single eyes.

We’ll grow these again. We also got a plant that set fruit, so we hope to plant those seeds next year and see what interesting potato plants result.

The Adirondack Blue potatoes also grew and died back faster than our Yukon Golds, Russet, Red La Soda, Pontiac and Kennebec potatoes, producing a good yield in a short time period. This is good in our heat, as potatoes that take too long often suffer from the heat, humidity, rain and insects of summer.

It will be interesting to see how potatoes do in future years as the soil improves.

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Your home outdoors tells a story of who you are, how you live, and your priorities. Whether you have a large backyard with many possibilities or a small urban patio, consider ways to enhance it to meet your needs and reflect your style. As you will realize, you’re more likely to enjoy the space if it’s comfortable and attractive. Here are five outdoor home improvements you should prioritize: 

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Your home outdoors tells a story of who you are, how you live, and your priorities. Whether you have a large backyard with many possibilities or a small urban patio, consider ways to enhance it to meet your needs and reflect your style. As you will realize, you’re more likely to enjoy the space if it’s comfortable and attractive. Here are five outdoor home improvements you should prioritize: 

Take Care of the Fence

Not having a fence or broken-down one makes your yard feel uninviting and unsafe. Consider what fencing is best for your outdoor area. Vinyl, cedar, wrought iron, and chain-link are great choices, but make sure it’s regularly maintained. 

Lighting the fence lends a warm and inviting atmosphere and improves security. Outdoor led fence lights are ideal as they consume less energy, are easy to install, and last longer. Check whether the gate and hinges are properly adjusted and in good condition to prevent accidents.

Create a Sitting Area

Comfortable outdoor seating, whether a bench, chairs or a hammock, makes your backyard feel cozy and inviting. You can also add larger furniture, such as sofas and tables if you have a large family or entertain often. 

Choose furniture designed for outdoor use, such as items made from weather-resistant materials like wicker and aluminum. Add outdoor accessories like pillows, cushions, rugs, and umbrellas. A patio or fire pit is also a great way to bring people together and enjoy the outdoors.

Install Outdoor Lighting

The right outdoor lighting makes your space feel welcoming, even after the sun sets. Use path lights, step lights, or spotlights to light walkways and stairs for safety. Soft lightings, such as string lights or lanterns, create a festive atmosphere. Don’t forget to install motion-sensor lights for added security. Solar-powered lights are a great energy-saving choice.

Plant Greenery

Adding greenery to your outdoor space makes it feel like an extension of your home. Create a lush garden with colorful flowers, shrubs, trees, and other plants. Install planters, window boxes, or hanging baskets to maximize space. Planting in containers allows you to move greenery around easily and add height with trellises or arbors. 

Consider a vegetable garden to enjoy homegrown produce if you have a bigger yard. Select varieties that withstand the weather in your region and require less maintenance, especially when you’re just starting. Don’t forget to add a water feature, such as a fountain or pond, to attract birds.

Fix All Issues

Address issues such as damaged siding, peeling paint, or a leaky roof before landscaping. Inspect any steps, decks, and railings for stability. If you have an older home, update electrical lines to accommodate landscape lighting or other features. Plumbing upgrades may be necessary for an outdoor kitchen or bathroom, fountains, ponds, and a swimming pool.

Take Care of Functional Deficits

Functional deficits are areas of the landscape where there’s an absence of elements that would provide a specific purpose. These may change as your lifestyle and needs change. For instance, if you have a toddler, install child-friendly features such as a sandbox or play area. 

Once the hardscape elements are in place, add plants that reflect your personality, style, and preferences. Before long, you’ll have a functional and beautiful outdoor space uniquely yours. However, it takes careful planning, testing different styles, consulting experts, and making frequent changes as your family’s lifestyle evolves. 

Tomatoes are one of the most popular avenues to begin gardening. Nothing you could find in a grocery store compares to the taste of a homegrown tomato, warm from the sun, fresh off the vine. With popularity comes options, however. There are so many tomato varieties out there that it is difficult to provide a clear-cut answer for how far apart to plant tomatoes. Here’s how to determine what is best for your tomatoes.

How Far Apart to Plant Tomatoes

As a general rule of thumb, each tomato plant should be planted about 24” apart from one another, with tomato rows spaced 36” apart.

The biggest factor in determining how far apart to plant tomatoes is whether it is a determinate or an indeterminate tomato.

Determinate tomatoes produce one crop in a short period. Most of these are bush tomatoes that stay stocky and branch out. They’re great for containers and can reach up to 5 ft tall, but most average about 3 ft. Determinate and bush varieties should be spaced 18-24” apart.

Indeterminate tomatoes will continue to produce tomatoes for weeks. These are most often vining types, which get leggier and have a substantial amount of growth.

These can grow up to 12 ft in optimal conditions but reach about 6 ft more often. Indeterminate and vine varieties should be spaced 20-30” apart.

Indeterminate tomatoes seem like they need more space because of how big they get, but they can easily be pruned and staked to grow upwards rather than outwards.

Tomato Spacing for Popular Types of Tomatoes

Different varieties will have wildly different spacing requirements depending on their growth habits and also how you plant them. Here’s a general guideline for some of the most popular types of tomatoes.

Cherry Tomatoes

While the tomatoes themselves are small and circular, the plants can get quite large. Most types of cherry tomatoes are vine plants and indeterminate. Space them 4 ft apart without any support and as close as 18” if you stake them to grow vertically.

Beefsteak Tomatoes

Beefsteak produces some of the largest tomato fruits, which are good for burgers and Caprese salads. Most beefsteaks are indeterminate and should be planted about 3-4 ft. apart.

Due to the size of the tomatoes, stakes, and wire cages will be necessary to keep the plant from toppling from the weight.

Grape

It’s common to find grape tomatoes as either a determinate or indeterminate variety. They’re often mistaken for cherry tomatoes, but the fruit tends to be slightly smaller and more oval-shaped. Following the general guideline of 24” spacing is a safe bet for grape tomatoes.

Roma

Roma tomatoes are one of the most popular tomatoes for making sauces. A Roma tomato will be determinate, meaning its length won’t extend too much. Space them 24 inches apart.

Square Foot Gardening Tomato Spacing

For those wondering how far apart to plant tomatoes in a raised bed, another option for growing tomatoes is using square foot spacing. This is a system of growing to maximize smaller spaces and raised gardening beds. Separating your beds into squares allows you to grow more and plan out a garden more easily.

For tomatoes, you will need 1 square foot for a vining plant, but you will have to use a stake or trellis. For bush varieties, you can grow 1 per 4 sq. ft. As you can tell, these take up a lot of room, so people tend to grow them in containers rather than a square foot garden.

Intensive Planting With Tomatoes

Tomatoes can take up a lot of space in the garden, but you can try out intensive planting to help you reclaim some of that space back. As the tomato plants get taller, it’s a good idea to prune the lower branches to prevent pests and diseases.

Afterward, you’ll have lots of space underneath these tomato plants to grow smaller plants that don’t mind a bit of shade, like beets, radishes, lettuce, and mustard greens.

The Importance of Proper Spacing for Tomatoes

When the tomatoes are little, it can be tempting to space them closer than recommended. Avoid doing this, as this will encourage more pests and diseases and less fruit production. Air circulation is essential for keeping plants healthy, and since tomatoes can be affected by many different pests and diseases, you want to follow the guidebook on this one.

So, there you have it! Now you can know with confidence how far apart to plant your tomatoes for the best yield and flavour possible.

More Posts About Tomatoes

Amanda Benick is sharing with us today from Cincinnati (Zone 6b). Amanda says that she has been having a bad spring, with lots of up-and-down weather, going from freezing cold to super hot, sometimes all in one day!

Amanda loves making bouquets from the garden and is sharing those with us today.

I cannot believe what cool, quirky bouquets columbine (Aquilegia species and hybrids, Zones 4–8) make, especially in a glass soda bottle.

Sand cherry (Prunus × cistena, Zones 2–8) is a PERFECT bouquet filler, with its dark red leaves. I’m learning that azaleas (Rhododendron spp.), although woody, make excellent bouquet flowers. Seen here is a peach-colored Azalea mollis hybrid. I can’t remember the name, but it has the most vibrant reddish green leaves in cold times. Another excellent bouquet woody is lilac (Syringa species and hybrids). This is the ever famous lilac ‘Miss Kim’. Having a strong shrub game really shows in a bouquet. ‘Miss Kim’ smells amazing! ‘Red Barlow’ columbine joins it the shrub cuttings, along with a white bearded iris (Iris hybrid, Zones 3–8).

The bearded irises are some of the best-smelling plants I’ve encountered. This yellow one smells like fresh air with a burst of sweet lemon!

My Iris cuts are terrible, too short. I just love these irises so much that I never want to cut a whole stem! I want to show you these colors. The smells are amazing and totally a reason to grow them. This is my favorite color—pale lilac with peachy-orange falls.

The green filler in this arrangement is German chamomile (Matricaria recutita, Zones 5–8).

On the right you can see the seedpods of money plant (Lunaria annua, Zones 5–9). Money plant is a bad reseeder, I’ve read, so I may need to keep snipping.

Quirky columbine, the blooms of money plant as well as new seedpods, and the white flowers of yellow-twig dogwood (Cornus sericea ‘Falviramea’, Zones 3–8)

The black/purple bearded iris, which smells like sugar-crusted berries, is joined by a peach tulip (Tulipa hybrid, Zones 3– 8) and a yellow-twig dogwood.

 

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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.

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Best for Spring Flowers

“There are so many places. The Met Cloisters is spectacular when all the tulips and bulbs are in bloom. The incredible setting transports you in time and geography. It’s fantastic.

I also love to visit the tulip trees in Green-Wood Cemetery when they are in bloom. I’ve never seen such a density of tulip trees, and these gigantic ones are beyond anything I’ve seen. It’s transporting to think of what was here before. There were giants in the forest before we cut everything down.”

Shady Summer Go-to

“The Battery is one of my favorite places in summer. When the plantings are dense and knitted together, you see the genius of designer Piet Oudolf. It’s also the shadiest spot downtown in the summer. It is more a garden than a park, with Oudolf’s planting as the star.

Also, I love to visit the Liz Christy Community Garden, the city’s first official community garden, when the metasequoia tree is in full leaf. It was the first tree planted there, as a tiny seedling decades ago. It’s now huge. It’s lovely to see that embodiment of the garden’s history. It’s a beautiful metaphor: this tiny thing that has grown and has had such a huge impact.”

Favorite Fall Spot

“I love to go to Central Park to see the Chrysanthemums in the Conservatory Garden. I normally don’t like that almost eye-candy-like kind of gardening, but it’s done so well. The colors are eye-catching without being garish. The Korean chrysanthemums are so graceful. And it’s just a beautiful sentiment.”

Dreamiest Winter Wonderland

“I love Prospect Park after a snowstorm when the trees are beautifully crystalized. You feel like you’re in a winter wonderland.

Then the Heather Garden at Fort Tryon Park in late winter when the heath are in bloom. It’s unique; you can’t see that anywhere else in the city.

It’s also always a treat to visit the New York Botanical Garden to see all the colors in their annual Orchid Show.”

Best-Kept Secret Garden

“The New York Chinese Scholars Garden on Staten Island is such a gem. You go there and suddenly you’re in China. You’re completely transported in both place and time.

I also love all of the community gardens I visited, like Gil Hodges Community Garden in Brooklyn. It’s a tiny place but I gave it six pages because I wanted to talk about how every little place can actually play a part in green infrastructure and water management. It’s amazing what they’ve done.”

See also:

(Visited 2 times, 2 visits today)

In other words, if temperatures drop from 70°F to 10°F very quickly, the plant will be less likely to be undamaged than if the temperature had decreased more gradually.

Cold-Tolerant Varieties to Choose

Check out this list of cold-hardy fig varieties that could soon be enlivening your landscape and tickling your palate.

1. Brown Turkey

These big beauties can grow to 20 feet tall, but can also be pruned to a more manageable size – around 8 feet tall is most desirable. Some people even prune ‘Brown Turkey’ trees into bonsai plants!

‘Brown Turkey’

‘Brown Turkey’ does well in Zones 7 to 9, but with extra attention will overwinter in Zone 6, as well.

This tree has shallow, somewhat invasive roots, so keep that in mind when selecting a site.

Find a ‘Brown Turkey’ plant in a four-inch pot from Hirts: Edible Figs via Amazon.

You can also order live plants from Home Depot.

2. Brunswick

Also known as ‘Magnolia,’ the ‘Brunswick’ variety grows to about 10 feet tall by 12 feet wide.

This tree produces medium-to-large purple fruit, and the pink to amber flesh is especially well-suited for preserving.

‘Brunswick’

‘Brunswick’ does well in USDA Zones 7, 8, and 9. It is hardy to 5°F.

Live plants of three to eight inches tall for this variety are available from Wellspring Garden Store via Amazon.

3. Celeste

‘Celeste’ produces small, brown-purple figs that are rich and sweet – so sweet that another nickname for this variety is “sugar fig.”

The attractive tree can get quite large at 15 feet tall and wide.

‘Celeste’

‘Celeste’ is cold-resistant to 0°F – like what you will find in Zones 5 and 6 – and does especially well in Zones 7 to 9.

Keep in mind that you will have to offer the tree protection, as described above, in the colder zones.

This low-maintenance tree is self-fertile, meaning you need only one tree to get fruit. It’s not picky about soil, as long as it is well-draining.

You can find ‘Celeste’ plants in #3 and #5 containers available at Nature Hills Nursery.

Home Depot carries plants in two-gallon pots.

4. Hardy Chicago

This variety produces sweet, light purple-brown figs that ripen in late summer. The tree grows 10 to 15 feet tall, with a spread of nine to 12 feet.

‘Hardy Chicago’

Among the hardiest of fig trees, this one will withstand Zone 6 winters, and maybe even Zone 5, if planted in a sheltered location. Its stems are hardy to 10°F and its roots can withstand temperatures down to -20°F.

Stems that die back will likely resprout in spring and produce fruit on the new wood.

This cultivar is also known as ‘Bensonhurst Purple.’

You can find plants in #3 containers available at Nature Hills Nursery.

Or see our guide to growing ‘Hardy Chicago’ fig trees here.

5. Petite Negra (Negri)

With a mature size of three to four feet tall and wide, the highly prunable ‘Petite Negra’ is particularly well-suited for container growing.

It’s hardy to Zone 7, but if you grow it in a container, simply move it to a sheltered spot or indoors to overwinter.

This plant is self-pollinating. Its medium-to-large, deep purple-black fruit has a thin skin and is quite tasty, and you’ll likely get two crops a year.

6. Violette de Bordeaux

Also known as ‘Negronne,’ this variety is on the smaller side, growing to six to 10 feet tall and spreading four to five feet wide.

‘Violette de Bordeaux’

The blackish-purple fruit with purple-red pulp is known for its lovely fragrance and rich, sweet flavor.

This one does well in Zones 5 to 9, though it will need winter protection in Zones 5 and 6.

You can find ‘Violette de Bordeaux’ available at Nature Hills Nursery.

7. White Marseilles

This fig was apparently a favorite in Thomas Jefferson’s gardens; he is said to have discovered it in France and introduced it to the United States.

‘White Marseilles’

This variety is particularly well-suited to northern climates, and is considered appropriate for Zones 6 to 9.

Its fruits are greenish-yellow and have sweet yellow flesh. It grows to a height and width of 10-12 feet.

Live plants of this variety are available at Burpee.

Plenty of Fig Options for Colder Areas

If you’re looking to grow this Mediterranean favorite in a chilly part of the country, as you can see, you have choices.

You may have to take a little more care than those of us in the south do, but with the proper varietal selection and a bit of TLC come fall, your tree should do just fine.

Do you grow figs in the North? In the comments area below, tell us your favorite type and any tips you have for fellow cool-weather gardeners.

Looking for other fruit trees for your orchard? Check out these articles:

Edible and adding curb appeal, lemongrass is the multipurpose plant you’d want in your garden. Native to Asia and Australia, it’s used to tropical conditions so you can grow it as a perennial in zones 10 and 11 but as an annual in other regions. Whether you want to grow lemongrass for culinary use, insect repellant, or ornamental purposes, this hardy plant can grow in your garden as long as you provide it with the ideal care and conditions.

 

Source

Is lemongrass easy to care for?

Lemongrass is great for a low-maintenance garden because it requires minimal care once it’s stable. Since it’s a tropical plant, providing it with a warm and humid environment will ensure it will thrive in your garden.

With the right conditions, it can grow quickly up to a height of 3-5 feet and can spread to 2 feet wide. If you don’t have a lot of space in your yard, you can also place it in a pot and it will grow just as well.

But if you have pets, make sure to secure them away since lemongrass leaves contain natural oils that are mildly toxic to cats, dogs, and horses.

How long does lemongrass take to grow?

If you plan on growing lemongrass from seeds, the time between sowing and harvesting can take between 75-100 days. For best results, make sure to plant them in the spring when the frost has melted and the sun is out.

Lemongrass cuttings will be easier to grow since all you’ll need to do is wait for its roots to form. You can even buy some lemongrass from your local supermarket and use the leaves for cooking but set the white stems aside. Make sure not to cut the base of the stems since this is where the roots will grow.

Place the cuttings in a cup of water and wait for the roots to come out. This process can take about a week, so remember to change the water daily. After 2-3 weeks, the root system will be strong enough for the soil so you transplant the cuttings in a pot. 

How can I grow lemongrass at home?

Although lemongrass is relatively easy to grow, there are certain factors and conditions you’ll need to keep in mind to keep your plant lush and thriving.

Climate

Lemongrass loves hot and humid climates due to its tropical origins. Make sure to plant it in a sunny area where it can get at least 6 hours a day of direct sunlight. 

If you’re in zone 10 and above, you can leave the plant outside all year long. But if you’re in zone 9 and below, lemongrass tends to die back in the winter and grow back in the spring. 

So if you prefer to keep it alive all year, plant it in a pot where you can move it indoors before the temperature drops. Just make sure it can stay at a temperature above 60°F (15°C) and still get up to 6 hours of sunlight a day.

Soil

Lemongrass will do well in a well-draining standard potting mix. It prefers to keep the soil moist, but not to the point that it’s constantly soggy. Lemongrass growing in pots may need more frequent watering, while in-ground plants will depend on the frequency of rain. But once its roots are stable, lemongrass can be drought-tolerant.

In the colder seasons, cut back your watering schedule to 1-2 times a week, since constant moisture can cause it to rot.

Pests and diseases

Due to its citrus scent, lemongrass can be an excellent natural pest repellant in your garden. Placing it with the right companion plant can also allow its neighbor to reap the same benefits.

Be careful not to keep the soil too dry to prevent spider mites from appearing. They can cause small yellow or white spots on the leaves, so sticking to a weekly watering and misting schedule will keep them at bay.

Another thing you have to watch out for is rust fungus that’s caused by excess moisture and humidity. If you spot a few brown marks on the leaves, reduce watering and remove infected foliage. Weekly treatment of fungicide or neem oil will also help eliminate the fungus.

Pruning

Lemongrass can benefit from pruning once a year to remove dead leaves and tidy up their shape. During the winter, leave the brown leaves alone since this will protect the p[lant against the frost. But by the end of the season, cut it up to 6 inches high to make it easier for new growth to sprout once the weather starts to warm up. Remember to wear gloves when pruning your plant since lemongrass leaves are serrated and will cut you if you’re not careful!

The American Southwest has indelible ties to Mexico that run even deeper than its architecture, food, and culture. Many of the literal roots of our gardens can trace their lineage to Mexico’s wild biodiversity. Some of Mexico’s native plants would seem familiar to us, but not just because they have been in cultivation for so long. Indeed, many Mexico-native plants and their relatives also grow northward into the Southwest and are well distributed throughout our own mountains and deserts.

The various climates of Mexico

With its extreme elevations and innumerable habitats, Mexico is one of the world’s greatest hotspots of biodiversity. Nearly 24,000 native plant species are found there. Many are endemic to small regions, found nowhere else in the world.

Though largely bound by water, Mexico’s massive mountains create both cloud forests above and dry rain shadows below. With such a range of climate types, the drier areas of Mexico host a diversity of cacti and succulents, among other plants, that give our Southwest gardens their distinctive look. Hundreds of species grow naturally in complex plant communities yet adapt easily to cultivation. Here are some of the most spectacular Mexican plants that are perfect for Southwest gardens.

Whale’s tongue agave

Agave ovatifolia, Zones 7–11

Agaves range from massive 12-foot-tall giants to pint-size gems. There is a size and shape for every garden. The waxy blue rosette of whale’s tongue agave makes it a must-have. Originating in the state of Nuevo Leon and growing at a 3,000-foot elevation, this agave is hardy to Zone 7 and grows happily in filtered sun and well-drained soil. Specimens, which are stunning as they mature over about 10 to 15 years, reach about 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide. Be sure that nearby plants can adjust to whale tongue agave’s expansion. Its flowers are spectacular, with blooms reaching up to 15 feet tall, but flowering will be its last hurrah. Though it can produce abundant seed, it does not typically leave any offsets behind. For this reason, I plant a new seedling somewhere in the garden about every five years to ensure continual future displays. Feeling extravagant? The variegated cultivar ‘Orca’ fetches a high price but has no equal.

Golden barrel cactus

Echinocactus grusonii, Zones 9–12

Cacti are at an apex of diversity in Mexico, with nearly 700 species growing across a wide range of habitats. The columnar species are most conspicuous, from the massive candelabra types such as Pachycereus weberi (Zones 9b–11) to the more orderly Mexican fenceposts (Pachycereus marginatus, Zones 9b–11). The star of Mexican cacti has long been considered the ubiquitous golden barrel cactus. Sometimes a plant’s abundance in the market breeds contempt, but in this case, I have no such aversion. After all, this plant is seriously endangered in its wild habitats of Hidalgo, so I take comfort in its abundance in cultivation. And it is spectacular in garden situations, hardy into the mid-teens, and forgiving in both blazing sun or bright shade. It also works great in containers and looks luminous when backlit by the sun. Best of all, this plant is affordable, even when sold at an impressive size. A well-placed group of golden barrel cacti will enhance any planting of succulents and cacti like no other plant will.

Texas sacahuista

Nolina texana, Zones 6–11

Plants in the genus Nolina range throughout Mexico and well into the southwestern United States, reaching even as far as Colorado. Texas sacahuista is native to northern Mexico and into New Mexico and Texas. The other common name of this plant, devil’s shoestring, is apt enough, given its dense shining mounds of cordlike evergreen leaves. Equally at home in its native habitat or on a sunny slope in Denver, this plant looks superb where its 2- or 3-foot-long leaves can cascade over a rock wall. It also works well as a textural underplanting around xeric trees. Texas sacahuista tolerates some wet periods of weather with good drainage but prefers dryness, especially in winter. Its early summer blooms look like compact ostrich plumes tucked into the crown of the plant. They are a soft cream color with an elegant overlay of lavender-pink. As with many plants in this genus, Texas sacahuista is irresistible to pollinating bees.

Ponytail palm

Beaucarnea gracilis, Zones 9–11

One of the great giants of the succulent world, ponytail palm eventually develops a hulking, elephant’s-foot-like base, much like the related ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata, Zones 9–11) so commonly grown as a houseplant. Scattered in arid habitats in the southern Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca, B. gracilis tolerates full sun and arid conditions better than some others in the genus. The leaves are rigid and tufted at the tips of ascending to contorted branches. On maturing plants, creamy flowers will appear in frothy pyramidal panicles held aloft in midsummer. I consider this plant a worthwhile investment as a long-term living garden sculpture.

These are just some of the many Mexican-native plants that are perfectly at home in the American Southwest. Any one of them will add a touch of flair and sense of place to your garden.

For more Southwest regional reports, click here.

 

—Dan Johnson lives and gardens in Denver and in Tucson, Arizona. He is an associate director of horticulture for the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Photos, unless otherwise noted: Dan Johnson

As summer approaches it will bring with it long and sunny days, increasingly warmer temperatures, and scorching conditions that can tip our region into heatwave territory.

Here on the Pacific Coast, we have had plentiful rain to replenish our groundwater sources this year, and our landscapes and plants have reflected this with abundant new growth, bumper spring crops, and bountiful blooms. Everything is ticking along nicely in our gardens right now, making it the perfect time to plan ahead and get ready for the inevitable summer heat. The following tips will help maintain the health of your plants and keep your garden thriving, not just surviving, throughout this summer and fall.

1. Add compost

Whether they’re in your vegetable patch, containers, or perennial beds, your plants’ root systems need adequate access to moisture all summer long to keep them flourishing. To ensure your soil is up to the task, enhance its moisture-holding qualities by digging in well-aged, organic compost. Not only does this add organic material, which soaks up and holds moisture longer, but it also improves soil structure, attracts beneficial organisms, and adds valuable nutrients.

2. Ensure your containers are properly equipped

Larger containers hold more soil and need less-frequent watering than smaller pots, which dry out faster on a hot day. For summer planting, store away your small pots for winter use, and make your life easier by just using larger pots (the bigger the better). Terra-cotta, concrete, and ceramic pots are all slower to warm up than plastic pots. Reflective metal or lighter-colored planters are less likely to absorb heat than darker containers. If it works for the plants, consider moving more heat-sensitive containers into shadier locations for the hottest months, or when you leave for any extended periods.

3. Install and check irrigation

Make sure you have a watering plan in place to keep your plants appropriately hydrated all summer long. A drip system is the most efficient way to ensure that moisture reaches directly to their root systems; plus, it uses less water than overhead watering. Educate yourself about the various irrigation systems available as well as your plants’ needs to ensure you have the right irrigation for each plant. For example, a 5-gallon drip emitter delivering water to a 4-inch succulent will drown the poor plant in no time. Already have a drip irrigation system in place? Now is the time to inspect it, paying attention to every tube and emitter in order to catch any leaks, breaks, or blockages that always seem to occur during winter. As wonderful as a drip system is, check it frequently during the season, and be sure to get out there with the garden hose during exceptionally hot spells. Regular, consistent water is essential for the survival of your garden during the summer months. Keep in mind that it is best to water early in the morning or late in the afternoon to minimize water loss through transpiration, and to avoid potential fungal problems.

4. Keep the weeds out

Weeds are resilient, opportunistic plants that will rob your precious plants of much-needed moisture, so it’s vital to nip that problem in the bud. Stay on top of weeding throughout the summer and into the fall.

5. Be sure to deadhead

Remove spent flowers regularly from all flowering shrubs and perennials. Setting seeds expends a lot of a plant’s energy, and your plants may already be stressed from hot summer temperatures.

6. Provide a little shade

Plan ahead and plant your more heat- and sun-sensitive annuals and vegetable crops in the shade of taller plants (sunflowers, towering tomatoes, fruit trees) if possible. Be ready with shade cloth or a sun umbrella during particularly scorching days.

7. Switch crops in the vegetable garden

Switch over to heat-loving summer crops (e.g., tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, squash, peppers, pumpkins, corn), and avoid planting cool-season vegetables (e.g., peas, brassicas, escarole, onions, chard) to ensure the best results from your veggie patch. Cool-season carrots, beets, and lettuces can be grown in afternoon shade all summer long (though they prefer full sun during the cooler months), but monitor for signs of bolting, and be sure to harvest while the leaves are young and tender.

8. Mulch, mulch, and mulch again

Mulch not only suppresses weeds and adds organic matter, but it also keeps soil temperatures cooler and reduces water loss from the soil’s surface. Avoid bare patches anywhere in the garden by adding a 3- to 4-inch layer of your favorite mulch to your perennial beds, flower borders, and vegetable garden.

9. Don’t forget the wildlife

Keep your garden’s wildlife population happy by topping up your birdbaths regularly so that feathered visitors can stay hydrated and bathe happily even on the hottest days. Well-placed rocks in your birdbaths allow bees and other pollinators to rest and quench their thirst too, while submerging a terra-cotta saucer filled with sand or soil right under an irrigation emitter creates the perfect watering hole for butterflies.

 

—Fionuala Campion is the owner and manager of Cottage Gardens of Petaluma in Petaluma, California.

Photos: Fionuala Campion

Spreading ground covers are invaluable in certain garden situations. Over the years they creep along the ground to fill in large spaces easily, saving you a lot of time and money that could be spent on other plants. Sometimes creepers can be aggressive, but other times a fast-growing plant that fills up an area quickly is just what you need for a particular spot. Here are some of my favorite creeping ground covers that appreciate sunny areas.

Veronica

Veronica spp. and cvs., Zones 4–9

Complementary to most every other color, blue is a lovely addition to any garden. Usually seen as an upright plant, veronica (also known as speedwell) can also be found in low-growing and spreading forms with stunning blue flowers. These varieties are drought tolerant and take full sun. Cold hardy and at times evergreen, they are attractive to pollinators yet resistant to grazers such as deer and rabbits. Clip or sheer them periodically to clean up spent foliage and maintain a dense habit. Here are two great creeping veronicas.

Turkish speedwell

Veronica liwanensis, Zones 4–9

This veronica is known to be a sturdy little plant with deeply green evergreen foliage. Growing only to a height of 2 feet yet reaching from 12 to 18 inches wide, this plant’s fine texture makes for an attractive contrast to stone paths. It is also tolerant of occasionally being stepped upon. Early spring rewards you with displays of delicate bright blue flowers. Intense summer heat will turn the foliage a bronze shade of green.

‘Georgia Blue’ veronica

Veronica peduncularis ‘Georgia Blue’, Zones 5–9

Four weeks of spring floral displays are only one reason to include ‘Georgia Blue’ veronica on your shopping list. This perennial grows 4 to 6 inches tall with a spread of 18 to 24 inches. This plant is a good choice for containers, slopes, rock gardens, and edging. Its blue flowers with white eyes at their centers are quite unique, contrasting nicely with the purple cast on the evergreen foliage.

Sedum

Sedum spp. and cvs., Zones 3–11

Plants that have been available forever are sometimes overlooked, but let’s not forget them. Sedums are workhorses in the garden that are easy to grow and simple to maintain. Pollinators love them, rabbits, deer, and other pests rarely give them notice, and many turn color in fall and are evergreen. With some hardy to Zone 3, sedums prefer soil on the dry side and locations that are sunny, although they will tolerate sites with partial shade, growing less densely but happily just the same. The many varieties available provide a wide diversity of leaf form, color, and texture. Here are just some of the standouts.

‘Blue Spruce’ sedum

Sedum reflexum ‘Blue Spruce’, Zones 4–9

With blue-green foliage, ‘Blue Spruce’ sedum has low-maintenance, needlelike succulent leaves. Small yellow flowers resembling stars appear for over a month during the summer. Hardy to Zone 4, this sedum grows 6 to 8 inches tall and 12 to 24 inches wide. A wonderful addition to sunny containers or the top of a wall, this sedum works great around the base of containers that I place inside beds, just off the edge of a patio or walkway.

‘Lime Zinger’ sedum

Sedum ‘Lime Zinger’, Zones 4–9

For a more traditional look, ‘Lime Zinger’ sedum, which belongs to the SunSparkler^® series, is exceptionally tough. A bright red edge surrounds the compact lime-green foliage. The cheery pink flowers of this tough little wonder reach no more than 6 inches high, and the plant has a spread of 18 inches.

‘Angelina’ sedum

Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’, Zones 5–9

‘Angelina’ sedum brings a bit of sunshine with its needle-shaped foliage in shades of chartreuse, pink, and gold that shift to amber as fall arrives. Golden flowers held upon red stems sit in clusters 6 inches above the ground as the plant reaches 18 to 24 inches wide. This plant is beloved by butterflies.

Thyme

Thymus spp. and cvs., Zones 2–10

Fragrance is a wonderful ingredient to include in one’s garden. Some herbs are as useful for their fragrance as they are for cooking. One of my favorites is thyme. With some species hardy to Zone 2 and enjoying dry and sunny conditions, thyme is tolerant of salts and is useful in containers and for filling nooks and crannies. Pollinator friendly and critter resistant, it handles foot traffic well. When needed, prune it after the blooms have finished. Here are two dynamic creeping thymes that make great ground covers.

Red creeping thyme

Thymus praecox ‘Coccineus’, Zones 5–9

At only 2 to 4 inches tall and 12 inches wide, red creeping thyme forms dense evergreen leaves that are covered in miniature red or purple flowers from early to mid-summer. The fall foliage is a lovely bronze.

‘Purple Carpet’ creeping thyme

Thymus praecox ‘Purple Carpet’, Zones 4–9

At 3 to 6 inches tall and 12 to 18 inches wide, ‘Purple Carpet’ creeping thyme is slightly larger than red creeping thyme. With bright purple blooms and dark green leaves that turn a dark purple in the fall, it looks stunning in the garden. These two cultivars make a nice combination.

When you are planting your little spreaders, either to fill some gaps or create a mass of color or texture, leave some space between them, not only so they have room to grow but also to allow for some small spring bulbs to be popped in next fall. Some early spring color peeking out of your ground cover will look lovely.

For more information on ground covers, check out:

And for more Northern Plains regional reports, click here.

 

—Marti Neely, FAPLD, owns and operates Marti Neely Design and Associates in Omaha, Nebraska.

Growing your own avocado tree is a great option if you love the rich, creamy fruits, and they’re easier to care for than you might think.

The first step is learning about what conditions they need to thrive and produce at their best. This guide is designed to teach you just that.

Below you’ll learn all about growing avocado trees, from planting, watering, sunlight, and soil to fertilizing, pruning, harvesting, and everything in between.

Quick Avocado Tree Care Overview

Scientific name:	Persea americana
Classification:	Fruit
Common names:	Avocado, Alligator Pear
Hardiness:	Zones 8-11
Temperature:	60-85°F (15.5-29.4°C)
Flowers:	Yellow-green, blooms winter-early summer, depending on the variety
Light:	Full sun
Water:	Allow soil to dry between waterings, do not overwater
Humidity:	Average-high
Fertilizer:	Citrus tree slow release granules, spring after 2 years old
Soil:	Fertile, well-drained, loamy
Common pests:	Thrips, whiteflies, borers, scale, caterpillars

Information About Avocado Trees

Avocado trees (Persea americana) are a subtropical evergreen perennial native to Mexico, Central and South America, and West India.

They can reach heights ranging between 15-60’ with a canopy that spreads up to 30’. Branches have oval green leaves up to 10” long.

Small greenish-yellow flowers grow in clusters and bloom between winter and early summer, depending on the variety.

Fruit shape and color also depend largely on the type you have. The fruits can range from light to deep green, be smooth or pebbled, and have a rounded, oblong, or pear-shape.

Different Types Of Avocados

There are 3 main ‘races’ of avocado trees: Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian. Mexican one are the most cold-hardy, while West Indian types are more heat tolerant.

Many popular varieties are hybrids or grafts of two races. The variety you buy affects the shape, flavor, and harvest period.

Thankfully all avocado trees can be cared for in the same way. Some of the most popular types are:

• Hass – The most consumed avocado in the US, known for creamy, high fat flesh and deep green skin when ripe. The fruits can stay on the tree for over a year, making it a great choice for a continual harvest.

• Fuerte – The second most popular US variety has very rich, creamy flesh, an easy-to-peel leathery skin, and produces oblong fruits that usually ripen late fall through spring.

• Wurtz – The only true dwarf avocado tree that stops at around 15’ tall. It produces small to medium fruit earlier than other varieties, and is a great choice for containers and small backyards.

• Pinkerton – The oblong fruit has green skin, nutty, creamy flesh, and very small pits. These avocado trees remain smaller than most and are known to be heavy producers.

• Sir Prize – This creamy large variety is ready for harvest winter-spring and is loved for its high flesh-to-pit ratio that doesn’t brown when cut.

Hardiness

Avocado tree hardiness depends on the variety, but they’re typically not tolerant of cold temperatures. Most grow year round only in zones 8-11 and will not survive 32°F (0°C) or lower.

In cooler climates that experience only mild frosts, you can protect the roots with mulch and cover the leaves with blankets. Otherwise you must grow them in a container that can be moved inside.

How Do Avocados Grow?

Avocados grow from flowers that are pollinated by insects like bees, but it can be tricky with only one tree.

The flowers have both male and female anatomy and can technically self-pollinate. But the blossoms open as either male or female, and never at the same time.

The pattern of the flowers determines if the tree is Type A or Type B. Type A opens as females during the morning, then closes and reopens as males the following day. Type B is the opposite, opening first as males then as females second.

Having one of each allows for much easier pollination and increases fruit production significantly.

Hass, Wurtz, and Pinkerton are popular Type A avocado trees, while Fuerte and Sir Prize are Type B.

How To Grow An Avocado Tree

Before we talk about proper care, first we should chat about where and when to plant your avocado tree. The right location and timing are the first steps for a happy, healthy tree.

Where To Grow An Avocado Tree

Avocado trees can be grown indoors, outdoors, and even in large containers that have proper drainage. To reach their maximum size and fruit potential, planting them in the ground is best.

They need full sun, loose fertile soil, protection from the wind, and plenty of space without obstructions. Don’t place them too near the house, power lines, or other trees.

Make sure the soil is loose, not compacted, and rich with nutrients. Then dig a hole that’s at least 2-3 times the size of the rootball.

Young trees have delicate roots that need to be handled carefully during planting.

When To Plant An Avocado Tree

The best time to plant an avocado tree is in the late winter or early spring when the weather is cool.

That allows young trees to acclimate to the soil and environment before the summer heat, which can cause damage and dehydration of very young new transplants.

Avocado Tree Care & Growing Instructions

Now that you know where and when to plant, it’s time to get into how to care for an avocado tree as it grows. They’re low-maintenance and hassle free once you understand what they need.

Sunlight

Avocado trees need full sun for at least 6 hours a day. Too much shade will slow their growth and prevent or lessen flowering and fruiting.

Choose a spot that will allow the canopy to spread without being shaded by obstructions like other trees or structures.

Water

Persea americana is sensitive to overwatering and root rot, but is not drought tolerant. They do best with deep, thorough watering after the soil has dried out slightly.

Don’t overwater to the point of making the soil wet or soggy. Usually 2 inches once a week is adequate, or up to twice a week in hot weather.

Mulches, like wood chips, are a great way to retain the soil moisture, but always leave a few inches of space between the trunk and mulch to avoid issues of rot.

Temperature

The ideal temperature range for an avocado tree is between 60-85°F (15.5-29.4°C). They are not cold hardy or tolerant of very high heat.

When it drops to below 40°F (4.4°C) they can begin to suffer leaf drop and damage. Extended cold weather or temps below 32°F will eventually kill them.

Highs of 100°F (37.7°C) or more will lead to a less productive plant, dehydration, and sun damage, especially in arid climates.

Fertilizer

Avocado trees are not heavy feeders, but the occasional addition of fertilizer can help boost growth and fruiting.

Avoid all fertilizer for the first year after planting. The roots are sensitive during that time, and the salts and minerals in fertilizer can easily burn them.

During the second year you can begin applying a citrus tree slow release granule, or an organic fertilizer with zinc and high N and P values.

Work it gently into the soil annually during the spring. Once the tree is mature enough to fruit, switch to an option with high N and K values.

Soil

Avocado trees aren’t very picky about soil type or pH, but they’ll do best in a well-drained loamy or sandy mix that’s rich in organic matter.

They will not grow well in heavy clay based soils however. Amend those with sand or plenty of compost to improve drainage and prevent issues of root rot.

Pruning

It’s not necessary to prune your avocado tree frequently as part of their regular care. But the occasional trim will control the size and spread so you can reach the fruit easier.

It’s best to trim them before fruiting begins, often in later winter or early spring. Remove dead wood with a sharp, sterile pair of hand pruners for small branches, or loppers for larger ones.

To reduce the height, find the tallest branch and cut it back to below the first set of leaves. That will encourage bushier, outward growth instead.

Pest Control Tips

Avocado trees are susceptible to pests like thrips, whiteflies, scale, caterpillars, and borers.

You can treat small insects with neem oil or an insecticidal soap. I make my own by combining 1 teaspoon of gentle liquid soap with 1 liter of water.

Hand-pick larger insects and drop them in a bucket of soapy water. Borers can be very difficult to control, so look for holes in the branches and prune away any affected limbs.

Disease Control Tips

Persea americana is susceptible to fungal diseases like root and fruit rot, and some viruses like sunblotch. These usually cause damaged foliage, misshapen fruit, and reduced yields.

Using an organic fungicide in the early stages can help to slow or even stop the spread.

The best way to prevent these issues is to avoid overwatering, buy disease free and resistant trees, and keep your yard clean of debris.

Tips For Harvesting Avocados

Avocados can be tricky to harvest for beginners because they do not ripen on the tree, and often do not change color.

The time of year is also dependent on the type you grow. Check your specific varieties’ typical harvest season. Then pay attention to the fruit size.

When the fruits reach the ideal mature size, pick one and leave it on the counter. If it softens and ripens in 1-2 weeks, you can continue to harvest. If they shrivel and shrink, they’re not ready.

Use a sharp pair of pruners to cut the fruits off where the stem attaches to the branch. Don’t pull them or you may cause damage instead.

You can leave the fruits on the tree for a while, and they will continue to get richer in flavor. But don’t leave them for too long, they will eventually become rancid and fall off.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

In a good environment avocado trees are simple to care for, but no plant is problem free. If you experience one of these more common issues, my tips will help you get yours back into healthy shape.

Brown Leaves

Brown leaves on an avocado tree can be caused by underwatering, low humidity, frost, fungal diseases, or fertilizer burns.

The soil should dry between drinks, but never be bone dry for extended periods of time.

Treat diseases with an organic fungicide, and reduce the spread by keeping the area around the trunk clean of debris.

Too much synthetic fertilizer can easily burn the roots from the salt, especially on young trees. Instead, use an organic brand and apply it annually beginning the second year.

No Fruits

The most common causes for no fruits on an avocado tree are age, lack of pollination, and temperature extremes.

It takes grafted trees at least 3 years to be mature enough to produce fruit. Avocado trees grown from seed can take 10 or more.

Once mature, the flowers must be fertilized to fruit, and that can be tricky with a single tree because the male and female flowers do not open at the same time.

Increase your odds by having two trees, one type A and one type B, and growing them in temperatures that don’t exceed 85°F (29.4°C) or fall below 60°F (15.5°C).

Yellow Leaves

Yellowing leaves are caused by overwatering, pests, and lack of sunlight. Let the soil dry between deep, thorough waterings and avoid puddling the soil.

Keep them in full sun for 6 hours a day and watch for signs of pests, like leaf and branch damage. Treat any bugs you find immediately.

If just the occasional few leaves are yellowing and the tree is putting on new growth, it’s normal and nothing to be concerned about. Once the leaves are completely yellow, you can just remove them.

Leaves Dropping

Dropping leaves are caused by frost, wind, root rot, and inconsistent watering. Avocado trees need protection from wind and temperatures below 40°F (4.4°C).

They’re highly susceptible to root rot, so avoid overwatering. Give them deep, slow drinks once a week, or twice in warm weather, and avoid letting them go from one extreme of very wet to very dry.

FAQs

Here I’ve answered some of the most commonly asked questions about avocado tree care. If yours isn’t listed, please add it to the comments section below.

How long does it take for an avocado tree to bear fruit?

It can take anywhere from 3-5 years for an avocado tree to bear fruit. If you’re attempting to grow it from a pit, expect to wait closer to 10+ years.

Are avocado trees hard to maintain?

No, avocado trees aren’t hard to maintain. They require minimal pruning and fertilizer, and are happy to grow in most soils with adequate water, sun, and the proper temperature range.

Do you need 2 avocado trees to produce fruit?

You do not technically need 2 avocado trees to produce fruit since they all contain both male and female flowers. However having one type A and one type B will increase the likelihood of pollination and improve the fruit production of both trees.

Where do avocado trees grow best?

Avocado trees grow best in mild climates that don’t experience cool or hot temperature extremes, like zones 8-11. They like loamy, fertile soil, warm weather, consistent water, and plentiful sun.

Do avocado plants like sun or shade?

Avocado plants like sun and need at least 6 hours of full exposure every day to grow and produce at their best.

If you’d like to learn how to make the most of your space and get as much homegrown food as possible, then my Vertical Vegetables book is perfect! It will teach you all you need to know, has tons of gorgeous photos, and includes 23 DIY projects you can build for your own garden. Order your copy today!

Learn more about my Vertical Vegetables book here.

More About Vegetable Gardening

Share your avocado tree care tips in the comments section below.

With their unique, climbing habit, vines are the perfect plants for adding vertical interest with bright summer colors to the garden.

Most are fast growing, and their clinging or twining tendrils and handsome, lush foliage quickly covers and softens upright structures such as arbors, fences, porches, and patio privacy screens.

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They also add a beautiful variety of flowers, with bright, bold color, fascinating shapes, and often a sweet fragrance as well – perfect for attracting important and interesting pollinators like bats, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

And many are herbivore resistant as well, unappealing to the likes of deer, rabbits, and squirrels.

Some have good cold hardiness and can withstand freezing temperatures, while many are frost tender.

But they’re as easily cultivated in containers as in the ground.

Potted lianas also climb robustly and can be pruned back to a manageable size to overwinter indoors, so they can be enjoyed in any climate.

Lush, fast-growing, and with perfumed, colorful flowers… Is your patio, pergola, or porch in need of some exciting vining interest this year? Then let’s climb into our roundup of 19 vines for vibrant summer color!

Here’s a quick preview of all of our picks that made the list:

19 Best Summer-Flowering Vines

1. Bittersweet

A favorite for crafts and dried flower arrangements, American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) is a high-climbing perennial that gives a long season of interest.

The flowers are mostly insignificant, but the berries are bright and beautiful.

In June, small greenish-white flowers arrive that become drooping clusters of gold to green, pea-sized berries in summer.

By fall, the colorful berries have ripened to bright orange and the fruit capsules split open to reveal scarlet arils. These serve as a winter food for pheasants, ruffed grouse, and songbirds.

These climbers reach a height of up to 30 feet in full sun and the foliage turns bright yellow in fall. But you need both male and female plants to produce fruit.

Native to eastern regions of Central and North America, bittersweet is hardy in USDA Zones 3 to 8.

Also, you’ll want to ensure you’re choosing American bittersweet, C. scandens.

Its close relative Oriental bittersweet, C.orbiculatus, looks similar, but the Asian species is an aggressive, invasive weed in some areas.

2. Bleeding Heart Vine

A bushy, tropical species from west Africa, bleeding heart vine (Clerodendrum thomsoniae) has glossy evergreen leaves and produces fantastic terminal clusters of flowers with bell-shaped, white calyxes adorned with a small red flower poking from the bottom.

The lightly fragrant flowers bloom throughout summer, attracting bees and butterflies, and the calyxes change from white to pink to mauve as the flowers age.

This is an ideal choice for partial or dappled shade in consistently moist and well-draining soil.

Twining and non-invasive, the stems grow up to 15 feet but are hardy only in Zones 9 and above.

In colder regions, grow bleeding heart vine as an annual or in containers that can be moved indoors for winter protection.

3. Bougainvillea

A flamboyant ornamental from eastern South America, twining bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spp.) makes a bold statement grappling over banks or architectural features in Mediterranean gardens, patios, and poolside oases.

They thrive in baking sun, full-on heat, and lean soil, and can scramble close to 40 feet.

The foliage practically disappears as the colorful bracts flower all summer long, covering the long, thorny canes in shades of cherry, fuchsia, pink, mauve, orange, salmon, white, or yellow.

‘Elizabeth Angus’

Bees, butterflies, and moths are attracted to the small flowers within the bracts. Hardy in Zones 9 and above, plant frost-tender bougainvillea in containers in cooler regions and move it indoors for winter.

‘Elizabeth Angus,’ with gorgeous, neon mauve flowers, is available in containers at Nature Hills Nursery.

Our guide on how to grow and care for bougainvillea has all the cultivation details you’ll need.

4. Cathedral Bells

A fast-growing, tender perennial that makes a gorgeous, flowering screen, cathedral bells, or cup and saucer vine (Cobaea scandens), features sweetly fragrant, bell-shaped flowers with an ornate sepal ruff from midsummer to fall.

Climbing and clinging with tendrils and hooks, these Mexican natives spread up to 20 feet and produce purple or white flowers in a full sun location with moist, well-draining soil.

Cathedral Bells

The large, tubular flowers are pollinated by nectar bats, bees, and butterflies. Hardy in Zones 9 to 11, plants in colder regions can be grown as annuals or in a container moved inside for winter.

Cathedral bells seeds are available from Burpee.

5. Clematis

Summer-flowering clematis (Clematis spp.) are those plants that flower in Group C (or 3).

They typically flower in June and July with a repeat bloom in September, or they flower continuously from June until frost, depending on the cultivar.

Flower colors, shape, and size can vary greatly in this group ranging from the highly popular, royal purple ‘Jackmanii’ to the masses of sunshine yellow blooms of ‘Golden Tiara.’

Most varieties grow in the range of six to 15 feet, although ‘Sweet Autumn’ can reach as far as 30 feet.

‘Jackmanii’ Clematis

Bees and butterflies visit the flowers, and the soft down from spent seedheads provides cozy nesting materials for winter-mating birds like the Anna’s hummingbird.

To get a better feel for Group C options, check out our guide to 19 of the best summer-flowering clematis varieties.

‘Jackmanii’ is a classic and much-loved summer clematis. Container plants are available at Burpee.

And have a read of our guide to growing clematis for full cultivation details.

6. False Hydrangea

With delicate flowers similar to lacecap hydrangeas, false hydrangea vine (Schizophragma hydrangeoides) is a deciduous, woody-stemmed climber with beautiful, large clusters of white or pink flowers (actually bracts) that bloom in June and July.

Native to Japan and Korea, the long lianas climb to a height of 40 feet using stem rootlets to attach to surfaces.

False hydrangea vine makes an excellent choice for partial to full shade locations in moist, well-draining soil.

The airy flowers attract bees and butterflies and the handsome, heart-shaped leaves give a good show of yellow foliage in autumn. Hardy in Zones 5 to 9.

‘Flirty Girl’ container plants are available at Home Depot.

7. Honeysuckle

A favorite source of nectar for hummingbirds, twining honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) stems are covered in sweetly scented, tubular or trumpet-shaped flowers.

Flowering from mid-spring to midsummer in shades of coral, cream, orange, peach, pink, salmon, scarlet, and yellow, the self-clinging stems reach a height of 10 to 30 feet and are hardy in Zones 5 to 9.

A fragrant and pretty choice for climbing and scrambling, some of the introduced species have escaped cultivation and become invasive in some areas.

However, some native North American species offer handsome, non-invasive options for home growth.

‘Major Wheeler’

Like ‘Major Wheeler’ (L. sempervivens), which is noted for its fabulous clusters of firecracker-red flowers and has the longest bloom time of all species, flowering from late spring to late summer.

Container plants of ‘Major Wheeler’ can be found at Nature Hills Nursery.

Our guide on how to grow climbing honeysuckle has all the cultivation details you need for healthy plants.

8. Jasmine

Vigorous deciduous or evergreen vines that twine to climb, jasmine (Jasminum spp.) produces spectacular clouds of fragrant white or pink flowers on arbors, arches, fences, patio screens, and trellises.

A couple of popular summer-blooming varieties that grow up to 20 feet include the white or pink-flowered common or poet’s jasmine, J. officinale, which is hardy in Zones 8 to 11 or the pink-flowered Stephan jasmine (J. x stephanense), hardy in Zones 7 to 10.

In colder regions, grow plants in containers and bring them indoors for winter.

This guide has the lowdown on how to grow jasmine.

9. Kiwi

For high-reaching splashes of cream and pink, the variegated kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta) is a vigorous, twining climber grown primarily for its flamboyant foliage.

Native to Asia, clusters of fragrant, white, apple-like blossoms flower in early summer but are mostly hidden by the dense canopy of heart-shaped leaves of deep green, cream, and rosy pink.

The flowers attract pollinators like birds and butterflies but both male and female plants are needed to produce fruit.

‘Arctic Beauty’ Variegated Kiwi

Variegated kiwi grows up to 20 feet in a sunny to lightly shaded location.

It needs fertile, well-draining soil and sturdy supports to climb on, such as an arbor, fence, or trellis. Hardy in Zones 4 to 8.

Container plants of the variegated ‘Arctic Beauty’ are available at Nature Hills Nursery. This is a male cultivar, known for having better leaf variegation.

10. Mandevilla

Ideal for adding steamy splashes of fragrance and color to arbors, patio screens, and trellises, mandevilla (Mandevilla spp.) is a fast-growing, twining plant loaded with trumpet-shaped flowers in bright shades of orange, salmon, pink, red, white, and yellow.

Awash in showy flowers all summer, the pretty blooms are visited by bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

The stems grow up to 20 feet and love heat and humidity, hailing from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.

Red Mandevilla

Hardy in Zones 9 to 11, these frost-tender plants can be grown as annuals or planted up in containers and moved indoors for winter.

Container plants of pink, red, or white mandevilla are available at Planting Tree.

11. Morning Glory

Native to the tropics of the Americas, morning glory (Ipomoea tricolor) is a fast growing, twining plant with large flowers in vibrant shades of blue, magenta, pink, purple, and white.

The trumpet-shaped flowers attract bees, hummingbirds, and moths and look striking when whorling around an obelisk or pergola.

Stems can grow up 15 feet in a sunny location and plants give a long flowering season from early summer to the first hard frost.

Hardy only in Zones 10 and 11, these frost-tender perennials are most often grown as annuals.

‘Heavenly Blue’ Morning Glory

I. tricolor is a pretty and less-invasive option compared to common or tall morning glory, I. purpurea.

‘Heavenly Blue’ is a popular cultivar of divine sky blue. Seeds are available at Botanical Interests.

See our guide to growing morning glories for tips.

12. Passionflower

Native to the southeastern US, passionflower (Passiflora spp.) is an easy-care and fast-growing perennial with delightful filament flowers of magenta and purple.

The fragrant flowers bloom from midsummer to early fall on plants that grow up to eight feet in a full sun location, using axillary tendrils for climbing.

The unique flowers are pollinated by bats, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

Passionflower

A beautiful choice for arbors, fences, trellises, and walls, these vines may also be grown in containers. Plants are hardy in Zones 6 to 11.

Seed packets of blue passionflower (P. caerulea) are available at Eden Brothers.

Our guide on how to grow and care for passionflower has all the cultivation details.

13. Potato Vine

The potato vine (Solanum laxum, syn. S. jasminoides) is a showy evergreen perennial that produces abundant clusters of pretty, star-shaped flowers in pale lavender, baby blue, or white, flowering from summer to autumn, or year-round in mild climates.

Shrubby plants with highly fragrant flowers that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, these South American natives climb with twirling tendrils and look fantastic clambering on arbors, fences, pergolas, and porches.

Plants can reach a height of up to 30 feet in a sunny location with fertile, well-draining soil. Prune in spring to manage growth and size.

Potato Vine

Hardy in Zones 9 to 11, S. laxum grows well in containers and can be brought indoors for winter protection in colder Zones.

Container plants are available at Nature Hills Nursery.

14. Purple Bell Vine

A tender perennial most often grown as an annual, purple bell vine (Rhodochiton atrosanguineus) has a long blooming season from early summer into fall, producing clusters of pendant, bell-like flowers.

Loved by bees and hummingbirds, the flowers have a tubular corolla of dark eggplant purple that hangs like a clapper and is surrounded by the bell-like calyx of rosy pink sepals.

This twining Mexican native does best in full to part sun and climbs up to 10 feet on arbors, pergolas, and trellises. Hardy in Zones 8 to 10.

15. Silver Fleeceflower

A vigorous scrambler, silver fleeceflower (Fallopia aubertii, syn. Polygonum aubertii) is an Asian native and features fragrant clouds of soft, lacy flowers in drooping panicles from July to September.

A deciduous to semi-evergreen plant with exceptionally fast growth – up to 12 feet in a single year – it makes a lovely screen.

And the twisting stems are fantastic for clambering up and through arbors, chain-link fences, pergolas, porches, and trellises.

The small, downy flowers attract bees and butterflies, and plants grow up to 30 feet in moist soil with bright but indirect light. Hardy in Zones 4 to 8.

However, it should be noted this plant can quickly become invasive and is considered a weed of concern in some areas.

Keep plants contained to freestanding beds and cut back hard in spring to resize and manage growth.

16. Scarlet Runner Bean

Visually stunning as well as delicious and nutritious, scarlet runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) are noted for their prolific growth – up to 20 feet in one season – and the bright, beautiful scarlet flowers that are followed by a crop of tasty beans.

A frost-tender and short-lived perennial, scarlet runner beans are native to Central America and Mexico and are most often grown as an annual ornamental or vegetable.

With their lush foliage and pretty flowers, they make an ideal choice for a living screen or running up a trellis in a sunny spot with fertile soil.

Scarlet Runner Beans

Flowering starts about two months after sowing and can be prolonged by regularly picking the green beans, which can be eaten fresh or as a shelled bean.

Seeds in packets, ounces, and one-pound sizes are available at True Leaf Market.

Learn more about how to grow pole beans in our guide.

17. Star Jasmine

A beautiful evergreen, star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) produces masses of fragrant flowers in late spring to early summer, attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

The small star-shaped flowers of white or pink cover twining stems that grow up to 20 feet in full sun to partial shade.

They make an excellent climber on arbors, fences, privacy screens, trellises, and walls, and a beautiful ground cover as well.

Star Jasmine

Hardy in Zones 8 to 10, star jasmine can be grown in a container and overwintered indoors in cooler climates.

Container plants are available at Planting Tree.

18. Trumpet Vine

A vigorous grower, trumpet vine (Campsis spp.) produces a steady parade of beautiful and long-lasting, trumpet-shaped flowers in orange, red, or yellow that hummingbirds flock to in droves.

This native of the eastern US blooms from summer into fall in a full sun to partial shade location and can grow as much as 40 feet with a sturdy support.

‘Atomic Red’ Trumpet Vine

C. grandiflora is a little less aggressive in its spread than C. radicans, and all species can be kept in check with a hard pruning in spring to manage size and spread. Hardy in Zones 4 to 9.

Container plants of ‘Atomic Red’ can be found at Nature Hills Nursery.

19. Yellow Butterfly Vine

Flowering from late spring to midsummer, the yellow butterfly vine (Mascagnia macroptera) is a fast-growing, evergreen perennial native to Central and South America.

Attractive to bees and butterflies, clusters of lemon yellow flowers pop against the dark green foliage. These are followed by winged, chartreuse seed pods that resemble small butterflies.

Growing up to 12 feet with a twisting and twining habit, yellow butterfly vine is impervious to heat and makes an excellent option for full sun locations like west-facing fences, porches, or walls, but also grows in partial shade. Hardy in Zones 8 to 11.

Vibrant Summer Color

Fast-growing and easily cultivated, climbing vines are perfect for adding lush foliage and colorful flowers to upright structures or to create a living privacy screen.

Cold-hardy varieties suitable for your region can be planted in the ground. And try frost-tender ones in containers – then prune them back and move pots indoors for winter protection.

However you grow them, you’re sure to be impressed with their fantastic spread and vibrant summer colors!

And if you’re thinking of adding any vines to the garden for brilliant fall colors, be sure to read these guides next:

Today we’re visiting with Kevin Kelly.

Good morning, and welcome to my garden in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (Zone 6b). I have posted on GPOD many times over the years (e.g., Review of 2022 in Kevin’s Garden and Late Summer in Kevin’s Garden). These photos are from my garden in April 2023. We had a dry and nearly snowless winter, followed by a warm spell, then back to cold and now wet. The plants have gotten over their confusion and are now waking up and pushing out new growth. I love to see the vibrance of the new foliage. My garden is 25 years old and is on a 1/3-acre suburban lot. I hope you enjoy the photos.

We curved the walkway to the front door when we built the house to enhance the garden view as you walked up. I love to keep this area colorful for visitors. I have let forget-me-nots (Myositis scorpioides, Zones 5–9) self-seed in this area for spring color. The dried perennial seed heads remain standing and are still attractive.

I love the emerging leaves of Hosta (Zones 3–9) before they open.

This is a small crevice garden I built last spring in the front yard. Most of the plants overwintered and include woolly thyme (Thymus serpyllum, Zones 4–8), Phlox subulata (Zones 3–9), Aubrietia (Zones 4–8), Lewisia (Zones 5–8), Saxifraga, and Sempervivum (Zones 3–8).

This is my backyard. I created a small “woodland garden” with a grouping of 5 Leyland cypress (Cupressus × leylandii, Zones 6–10). My patio is to the left. and I only had 15 feet of garden width to work with. I have used a variety of textures to create interest in this very shady area. The container provides a great focal point.

Grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum, Zones 3–9) intermingles with emerging leaves of Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’ (Zones 3–8).

Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ (Zones 3–8) makes a wonderful ground cover for shady gardens. I let it spread by seeding, which means that some of the new plants lose the silver foliage color, but it still looks nice.

This is my east porch border. The area gets morning sun and can grow just about anything. I have a number of conifers to screen our front porch (which is to the left). The large shrub is coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus, Zones 2–7). You can see from my photos that I try to have all the ground covered, which eliminates the need to bring in mulch.

Tulips planted in the “hellstrip.” Rabbits and deer leave them alone because the area is exposed and gets a lot of foot traffic. I plant a new display every year, so once these tulips have finished blooming, I will remove them (and the bulb) and put them in the compost.

This border runs along the front sidewalk on the northeast corner of the property. I keep a Thuja (Zones 2–7) in the blue container, which adds height. Grape hyacinth makes a great partner for daffodils. This bed is filled with summer-blooming plants.

Epimediums are great for dry shade. This one is Epimedium ‘Pink Champagne’ (Zones 5–8). They spread slowly, and the dense rhizomes choke out weeds.

 

Have a garden you’d like to share?

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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.

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You’ve probably seen those large rolls of black fabric at your local garden center or home improvement store and thought to yourself, what is that stuff? Well, it isn’t a new type of flat paving or a punk/goth lawn alternative. It’s landscape fabric, and it is mainly employed to prevent weeds. But as with most things, there are pros and cons to using it.

Just mention the words “landscape fabric” to gardeners, designers, and contractors, and you’ll get a mixed bag of opinions—from unequivocal thumbs up to furious frowns and thumbs down. Personally, while I know this material can be helpful, I’m finding myself leaning harder toward the anti-landscape fabric side.

Please keep reading to learn the good and bad of landscape fabric:

What is landscape fabric and why do people use it?

Landscape fabric is a type of material made from a variety of synthetic or recycled materials. The main purpose of adding this to garden beds is to prevent weeds. Some believe that the biggest bonus of using landscape fabric is that they can reduce the use of toxic weed killers. Most applications include laying it down on garden paths, under gravel/stone patios, and in garden beds. Once down, it has to be secured with metal landscape pins. Then, because all of the fabric options are unattractive and unnatural looking, most people cover it all up with mulch or stones. In general, a good quality product will do its job and prevent weeds, to a degree, but there are downsides.

What are the cons of landscape fabric?

1. Most are not recycled or biodegradable and can contain harmful chemicals, such as petroleum. This can be detrimental to your soil and plants, not to mention somewhat alarming if you are planting an edible garden and use this material around the plants. Pro tip: Try to source a chemical-free fabric if you must use it.
2. Soil under the fabric can turn dry, hardened, and ultimately unhealthy. Soil needs air circulation and a direct relationship with sun, water, earthworms and air flow, all of which this material both blocks and hinders. In addition, essential nutrients have a difficult time reaching the soil. I am a big supporter of side-dressing some plants with compost in the spring, and landscape fabric makes this virtually impossible.
3. Changing your mind about your plantings becomes difficult. I have to be honest: I move plants a lot, so if you’re like me and have a tendency to “rearrange” your garden, then think twice before installing this fabric because it will be a total nightmare. Not only does the fabric cover the irrigation so you can’t see where the main lines are, but you’ll have to cut your way into the tough fabric to make a new hole.
4. Reseeding is hindered when you use landscape fabric. Sure this may sound good if you have grass seed or an unwanted dandelion problem, but if you love it when California poppies spread around or your favorite love-in-the-mist or calendula pops up their cheery heads in random places, then you will be out of luck.
5. Landscape fabric is not cheap—both the material and the labor to roll it out, cut out holes with a sharp knife or scissors, and staple it down.
6. Eventually it wears down, frays, pops through the soil/mulch, and becomes unsightly.
7. Weeds can still sneakily establish themselves on top of the fabric and infiltrate an area. So while landscape fabric will certainly suppress weeds the first few years, it’s in no way a lay-it-down-and-forget-about-it permanent solution.

Are there any alternatives to landscape fabric?

So glad you asked! If you really want to be eco-friendly but still prevent weeds, consider using good old-fashioned flattened cardboard. Cardboard is great to lay in paths and patios before you apply a thick layer of mulch or gravel. Of course this paper material will break down over time, but look at in a soil-benefiting way. (You can also use newspaper but this breaks down quicker than cardboard.) Last, there is nothing wrong with hard manual labor: Hand weeding and applying a thick layer of mulch or gravel as the preventive measure is a nice, earth-friendly way to go.

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While you eagerly wait for your stalks, or petioles, to grow large enough for picking, let’s learn all about when and how to harvest rhubarb.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

When to Harvest Rhubarb

There are many ways to plant: from seed, crown, bare root, or division. And you if you don’t have space in your garden, you can always grow rhubarb in containers.

We cover this in more detail in our guide to rhubarb varieties. But each planting method has different harvest specifications, so let’s find out what that’s all about.

From Divisions: The Quickest Way to Home-Grown Stalks

Divisions are taken from rhubarb plants that are either about to go dormant for the winter, or about to leave the days of dormancy behind.

If you’re lucky enough to score a division from a friend, you’ll get to enjoy your own tart stalks come springtime.

This is because divisions are already mature plants that will produce stalks easily. The yield depends on how large the root section is.

(Hint: the larger it is, the more pie plant stalks you’ll get to harvest!)

So don’t be shy. Ask your rhubarb-laden gardening friends if you can take a nice chunk home to your own garden.

You’ll know stalks are mature when they’re at least 12 inches long. Don’t worry about the color: a green stalk does not mean the plant isn’t ready.

It simply means you chose a green-stalked variety, like ‘Victoria’ often is, or ‘Riverside Giant.’

Bare Root: The Second-Fastest Way

A bare root is basically a dormant division purchased from a nursery and it’s usually a lot smaller than a division you’d get from a friend.

For this reason, it’s best to leave bare roots alone during their first season after you plant them. They’ll produce stalks, but the plants are small and often a lot younger than the massive spread in your friend’s garden.

From a Crown: Also the Second-Fastest Way

A crown is a small plant that’s at least a year old. You’ll often find these in your local nursery, chilling out in the planters where they were born, ready for transplant into your garden.

While you can technically tug one or two slim, short stalks from your plant the day you bring it home, it’s best to leave it alone for a full year after planting.

This gives it the time to get established.

Sowing Seeds: The Slowest Way

It may be two to three years before you get to pick rhubarb planted from seed, but don’t knock this method completely because it is fun.

Here in Alaska, I’m used to seeing huge clumps of rhubarb all over the place come summertime.

But when I start pie plant from seed, I get to watch the transformation from papery seed, like this:

Isn’t it miraculous that this tiny plant grows up to four feet tall and wide, depending on the variety? That the humble stalks become the dazzling star of so many sweet dishes?

Call me strange, but I feel a bond with these little plants. I’ve known them for so long, and once they’re planted against my red barn, I’ll smile and remember when I held them in my palm in seed form.

Think of planting from seed like planting from a crown but with an extra year or so tacked on. You’ll need to wait until the seedlings become crowns, and then another year until the crowns produce big enough stems for very light picking (1/4 or less of the plant).

What Time of Year to Harvest

No matter which planting method you choose, the actual months of harvest season remain the same.

It all depends on your USDA Hardiness Zone.

In the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and the Midwest –ƒ Zones 2-6 – you can typically pick rhubarb all the way from April to early July.

Take the first harvest when stalks mature in April, leaving 1/2 to 3/4 of the petioles intact.

Picking time is even earlier if you’re growing rhubarb as an annual in Zones 9 or above.

You’ll have sown seeds indoors in August and planted them (or potted crowns) outside by October. In this case, you can pick them from about February to April.

Take just 1/4 of the stalks earlier in the season, leaving the rest behind to get stronger and bigger. But in April, go ahead and harvest every single stalk.

After April, your plants will probably perish in the summer heat. And you’ll start the process all over again in August.

All you have to do is slice the stalks into one-inch pieces, set them on parchment paper, and place them in the freezer until they’re firm.

Then move them to date-marked freezer bags, where they’ll keep in your freezer for up to a year.

If you let your plant go to flower, the edible stems will taste the same and your plant will still live for many more years.

But since all the energy is poured into creating seeds, you won’t get to pick nearly as many stalks.

Now Go Make Some Rhubarbalicious Treats!

Now that you know how to pick pie plant, it’s time to plan those pies. And wines. And crumbles, cakes, jams, and ice creams.

And if you need further inspiration, our sister site, Foodal, has plenty of ideas for what to do with your fresh harvest.

We’d love to know: what’s your favorite rhubarb treat? Mine, of course, is pie. But when my seedlings turn into big strong plants and I get to harvest homegrown stalks, you bet I’ll be trying every recipe I can find.

Here’s what’s to come in this article:

Let’s get growing these tasty, nutritious Umbellifers!

Getting Started

Any container shape will work; the main concern is making sure it is deep enough to accommodate your chosen cultivar. Ideally, you’ll choose a variety that develops a short, more rounded root rather than a long thin one.

Be sure to read the specific information for the varieties you want to grow. Some require significantly more or less depth than others.

Your container should be at least 12-inches deep, to accommodate the developing roots. Select one with adequate drainage, or make several holes in the bottom of the vessel of your choice.

Use traditional pots of any shape, or create your own from repurposed containers. If you are repurposing, you will need to make sure that there are drainage holes. Drilling a few holes in the bottom should be enough to take care of this.

This year I am growing some carrots in a styrofoam cooler that I am dedicating to root crops, because not every pot has to look beautiful.

I like to choose planters that are at least a foot square, and keep in mind that bigger is better if you want a bumper crop.

Place the vessel in a location that receives the amount of sunlight that’s best for the specific variety you are growing. Most carrots do best in full sun, but double check the seed packet for yours before deciding on the perfect spot.

It is best to place the pot in your selected location before filling it, because a large planter becomes heavy once it’s full of soil and water and difficult to move around.

Container Care

Fill the container with organically rich potting soil. A purchased product specifically for vegetables will have a good combination of ingredients such as peat moss, sand, and vermiculite.

You want to be sure that the potting medium is smooth, light, and airy, for adequate drainage and optimal root growth.

Carrots do best in soil with a high potassium content which encourages root growth. Be cautious about the nitrogen level in your soil, as this will promote foliage growth, which is not our goal.

You can use soil from your garden, but it’s recommended that you conduct a soil test and amend as necessary.

Potted carrots require regular watering. Be sure to water at the soil level, and not over the leafy tops, to avoid problems with rot.

Keep the soil  moist, but not soggy – and never allow it to completely dry out.

How to Grow

Carrots seedlings do not transplant well, so you’ll need to start with a packet of seeds or seeds that have been harvested from a previous crop.

You can sow seeds in your containers outdoors as early as 2 to 3 weeks before the last expected frost date for your area.

To jump-start the process, you can start seeds indoors in biodegradable pots a few weeks ahead of time.

Water the pot or pots of soil thoroughly and let all the water drain through. Gently sprinkle carrot seeds over the moist soil. Cover them with a 1/4  inch of additional soil, and tamp down gently.

Germination takes up to three weeks, so be patient while nature works its magic.

As seedlings grow, they generally begin to crowd one other. When they have their first set of true leaves, trim away the weaker ones with a pair of scissors or pull them gently up by their roots.

Be careful not to disturb the surrounding plants.

In another couple of weeks, thin again, maintaining a space of about three to four inches between plants.

At this time, you may want to feed your developing crops. You can use a general purpose vegetable fertilizer that is low in nitrogen. Excess nitrogen can promote too much foliage, and too few carrots.

Or, you may want to try a healthy dose of compost tea, another nutrient-rich supplement. Vital nutrients go a long way toward producing sweet and crunchy root vegetables.

Remember to keep the soil moist as the vegetables mature. Containers dry out much faster than ground soil, so check them daily.

Weeds and pests should not be an issue with closely tended containers, but keep an eye out for any problems.

If the tops of the carrots start to grow above the soil line and are exposed to sunlight for extended periods, they will turn green and become bitter.

In addition, exceptionally hot temperatures may take a toll on root development. Drying out soil and inhibiting nutrient uptake which will impair flavor and texture.

If you have an unusually hot spell, move your plants to a shaded location during the mid-afternoon hours.

That’s part of the beauty of container-grown plants – you can move them when you need to! A rolling plant caddy is ideal for this purpose.

Managing Pests and Disease

Provided you have used fresh soil and thinned your plants adequately, you shouldn’t have any major problems with pests or disease.

Sometimes aphids, leafhoppers, and flea beetles can munch on the leaves. These can usually be dealt with efficiently by spraying a strong jet of water from your garden hose. In the case of a major infestation you might want to use an insecticidal soap, or neem oil.

Find more tips on combating these creatures in our in depth guide, “How to Identify and Control Carrot Pests.”

It’s crucial that you thin your seedlings. If you don’t, the proximity can create a humid environment that can encourage fungal growth.

The common diseases that plague garden-grown carrots are not as much of a problem when you grow them in containers. Fungal and bacterial diseases such as Alternaria leaf blight, bacterial leaf blight, and carrot black rot are ones to look out for.

Read more about managing disease in our guide to growing carrots in the garden.

Harvesting

It is best to keep your seed packets around through harvest. But don’t just rely on the days to maturity noted, which is an average.

You’ll know your carrots are ready for harvest when the tops of the root are just visible above the soil line.

Depending on the cultivar, you can harvest when the diameter of the exposed crown is at least 1/2 inch across.

To harvest, carefully loosen the soil around the root, and pull gently to prevent them from breaking.

Change the soil completely every five crops or so, as it may become compacted and the nutrients depleted. At that point, start with fresh, organically-rich soil and plant another batch of seeds to begin the cycle again.

Depending upon where you live, you may be able to grow outdoors year-round, or perhaps inside a warm sunporch.

If you have a garden, you could mix the spent potting medium into the ground in one of your plots or beds and let the soil’s beneficial microbes refresh it.

A Smaller Scale with Big Results

Growing in pots opens a whole new world of vegetable gardening to those with small outdoor spaces. And it can be fun for the whole family because it’s easy to let the kids take part.

Unlike a big garden plot with major digging and weeding, the tools and scale of operations for container gardening are the perfect fit for smaller hands. Why not let them take responsibility for a single pot or type of vegetable?

Whether you are in an urban setting with a balcony, or a suburban locale with a front porch, you can enjoy healthy produce and the satisfaction of having nurtured it yourself.

The lightly fragrant flowers have an attractive bright yellow center that resembles a pincushion. They attract bees and butterflies, and the seeds make a tasty snack for birds in the winter.

“Blackfoot” refers to the bract that surrounds each seed that is shaped like a foot, and turns black as it matures.

Hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 5-11, blackfoot daisy grows six to 12 inches tall, with a spread of 12 to 24 inches.

Its numerous aliases include rock daisy, desert daisy, ash gray blackfoot, plains blackfoot, and arnica.

Let’s learn more!

This low-maintenance wildflower is ideal for growing in gardens with dry, rocky soil or xeriscapes. It grows prolifically in open grassland and desert scrublands.

Sometimes confused with the native desert zinnia, Zinnia acerosa, the flowers of the blackfoot daisy have 8-10 white petals, while desert zinnias have 4-6, and they are broader.

From Seed

Direct sow seeds outdoors in the fall. Plant seeds 1/8 inch deep, space 12 inches apart, and water in well.

Alternatively, you can start seeds indoors six weeks before winter’s last frost. If sowing indoors, cold stratify the seeds before planting them.

To do this, place them in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about four weeks prior to sowing.

Blackfoot daisy will liberally reseed itself and become naturalized in the landscape, though not to the point of becoming invasive.

From Cuttings

From an existing plant, take a 4 to 6-inch cutting. Remove any buds or flowers, and the lower leaves.

Dip the cut end into a powdered rooting hormone and place in well-draining soil, or a soilless growing medium.

Maintain even moisture, but do not allow the planting medium to become waterlogged.

From Seedlings or Transplanting

Transplant seedlings – those you’ve grown or purchased from a garden center – after all danger of frost has passed.

Wait to transplant until they are about six inches tall but before they have started budding, to minimize transplant shock.

Plant at the same depth as the container from which you are transplanting in well-draining soil, and leave 12 inches of spaace between plants.

Water in well, and keep the transplants moist but not waterlogged until they become established.

How to Grow

Blackfoot daisy prefers full sun, but it will tolerate a bit of shade. And if you live in an area where the sun blazes for 14 hours a day, you most definitely want to provide some afternoon shade.

This plant requires well-drained soil, and its roots will rot if they’re wet for too long. It prefers dry, rocky, gravelly, sandy soils and will tolerate calcareous, limestone, and caliche soils.

Once established, M. leucanthum is extremely drought tolerant. It will thrive when watered deeply only two or three times during the summer months, and once a month in winter.

You don’t have to fertilize blackfoot daisy, as it prefers poor soil conditions.

To grow it in containers, add some sand or perlite to your potting mix to ensure it drains well.

You may need to provide additional irrigation as the soil in containers tends to dry out more quickly than in the garden.

You can deadhead you like, but it’s not necessary – the flowers will bloom regardless.

If you wish to harvest the seeds, allow the seed heads to dry on the plants, then remove them.

Shake the seed heads into a paper bag and store in a cool, dry place, or sow immediately in another area of the garden.

If you pull up your plant and see mushy roots, root rot is likely the culprit. If the whole root system is affected, you’ll have to discard the plant.

If some healthy roots remain, clip away the mushy roots, and either fix the drainage problem or relocate the plant to a more suitable location, with soil that does not become waterlogged.

Quick Reference Growing Guide

Plant Type:	Herbaceous perennial flowering plant	Flower / Foliage Color:	White; green
Native to:	Mexico, southwest US	Maintenance:	Low
Hardiness (USDA Zone):	5-11	Tolerance:	Drought, heat, poor soil
Bloom Time / Season:	Spring through fall	Soil Type:	Poor, rocky
Exposure:	Full sun or full sun with afternoon shade	Soil pH:	6.6-7.5
Spacing:	12 inches	Soil Drainage:	Well-draining
Planting Depth:	Seeds: 1/8 inch. Transplants: same depth as container from which you are transplanting.	Attracts:	Bees, birds, and butterflies
Height:	6-12 inches	Companion Planting:	Agave, red yucca, prickly pear, angelita daisy, verbena, firecracker penstemon, verbena, yaupon holly
Spread:	12-18 inches	Uses:	Ground cover, containers, rock gardens, xeriscaping
Growth Rate:	Medium	Family:	Asteraceae
Water Needs:	Minimal	Genus:	Melampodium
Pests & Diseases::	Fungal root rot	Species:	leucanthum

A Whole List of Awesomeness

Drought-tolerant? Check. Heat- and sun-tolerant? Check. Low maintenance? Check. Long blooming season? Check!

What are you waiting for? If you’re looking for a durable, pretty plant that’s happy to hang out in your less-than-organically-rich soil, blackfoot daisy is calling your name.