It is important to know how to plant Bermuda Grass in Texas. Because Bermuda Grass perennates poorly via seed, even under ideal conditions, it must be planted from sprigs or stolons rather than seeds. Although vegetative planting material (sprigs) can be purchased, it is often manufactured by sod production companies or sod farms.
Sod producers sow a thick Bermuda Grass lawn, which they harvest as big rolls of sod 12 weeks after seeding. When purchasing Bermuda Grass for planting, choose the thickest, greenest lawn available. Bermuda grass will be 2-3 months old and should be a height of 4′′-6′′ when you receive it.
Whenever possible, buy Bermuda Grass in one-foot square sections (known as sprigs) rather than large rolls. This will simplify manual planting and save you money. Planting by sod is more expensive but allows the homeowner to quickly create their Bermuda grass lawn; nevertheless, there are advantages to doing it yourself.
The area should be weed-free. If necessary, apply a flame weeder or a non-selective herbicide such as glyphosate. Remove any grassy weeds and other perennial vegetation with a rotary mower. You can also apply a Natural Weed Control to kill the current plants, but this isn’t necessary as you’ll be growing new Bermuda Grass sprigs regardless.
To ensure proper drainage and pH, test the soil in your yard along a sidewalk or driveway at 1 inch depth. Bermuda Grass loves clay soils, but it may also grow in sandy soils. It does not, however, grow well in acidic or alkaline environments. Soil pH should ideally be between 6.5 and 7.0 for best results, therefore test your soil’s pH level before planting Bermuda grass sprigs to ensure it falls within the right range.
Easy to grow and maintain: This type of grass requires little upkeep and is visually appealing.
Bermuda grass is resilient, withstanding considerable traffic without readily wearing down and a strong recovery rate. It can also endure prolonged drought better than any other grass.
Affordable: As compared to other grass seeds, Bermuda seed is less expensive. It takes little upkeep and is less expensive than other grass types that require additional watering and fertilization.
Can grow in a variety of soil types: Bermuda seed is not only hardy, but also adaptable to a variety of soil types.
Cons Of Bermuda
There are several drawbacks to Bermuda grass that should be addressed. These are some examples:
Bermuda grass does not tolerate cold weather and does not grow well in the shadow. This grass requires a lot of sunlight to thrive and may lose its color and lush appearance after many days of cold weather.
Since it grows swiftly and widely, Bermuda grass is sometimes known as Devil’s grass. If you plan on planting, keep an eye on it because it may creep over flower beds or walkways.
It requires frequent mowing, at least once a week, to avoid it growing too much, too quickly.
Best Time To Plant Bermuda Seed In Texas
When the soil temperature is regularly warmer, Bermuda plant. In Texas, the optimal time to plant Bermuda seed is late spring and early summer, when the soil has warmed and the risk of spring frost has passed.
Bermuda seeds sprout best in soil temperatures ranging from 65°F to 70°F.
Bermuda grass should be planted at least 90 days before the first frost. This works well for overseeding, especially in Texas where temperatures remain high far into the fall season.
Common Types Of Bermuda Seed To Plant In Texas-
There are various types of Bermuda grass, but two are usually seen on Texas lawns.
1. Tifway 419
This is one of the hardest hybrid grasses, with a deep root system and a great recuperative capacity.
It is also resistant, since it will only become dormant after repeated winter frosts and will turn green as soon as the temperature reaches 45 degrees. It establishes roots quickly, grows quickly, and spreads quickly.
2. Common Bermuda
This Bermuda grass kind can be sown and is substantially coarser. It features bigger leaves and a longer stalk between the blades (internode length).
3. Tiftuf
TifTuf is a softer and brighter green variant. People frequently comment that it is the most attractive of the Bermuda’s.
Also, it retains its color longer in the fall and recovers faster in the spring than other grass types. Finally, this Bermuda recovers well from drought and has a high tolerance for shadow.
Using Bermuda Grass Sprigs For Planting
When you begin planting Bermuda grass, arrange the sprinkler system in your yard; each sprinkler should cover about 10 square feet of lawn space. Before you begin, draw out each irrigation zone on paper, making sure there is enough space between each zone for the mowing deck of your lawn tractor.
Secondly, planting your Bermuda Grass via stolons (sprigs) allows you to select parts of high-quality turf that will contribute to the production of a good Bermuda lawn. There is no guarantee that all sprigs from a roll or bale will look the same. You can select the most visually appealing, green plant material from a sod producer and clip out the brown or yellow parts to utilize as fillers in low places.
Second, if you plant by stolons while your grass is first established, you may easily add more berms later in the summer when an area begins to thin down.
Eventually, creating a thick Bermuda lawn by planting sprigs/ stolons takes time, which is a good thing if you’ve ever had Bermuda grass take over your flower beds or yard!
For planting Bermuda Grass, use a utility knife or saw to cut the sod into two-foot square portions (a standard shovel blade width). This allows you to make straight cuts while damaging fewer grass blades during installation.
While planting Bermuda Grass in Texas soil, keep in mind that tiny Bermuda plants are fragile until their roots penetrate deep into the earth. Take your time when planting an area with sprigs or grass clippings because they are large enough to establish themselves with less maintenance than very little seed fragments.
If you plant by sprigs, make careful to keep the soil moist as they grow. Bermuda Grass can survive on rain alone, but if there is no rain for a week or so after planting, it is critical to water weekly until new roots are established deep into the soil. Pre-irrigate for at least half an hour before backfilling sod rolls or Bermuda Grass clippings.
This decreases standing water around newly planted Bermuda grass and discourages weed germination, saving you time later in the summer when weeds grow quickly!
We Recommend Fertilizing Your Lawn With A Low Nitrogen Fertilizer.
We recommend using a fertilizer with a 1-1-1 or 2-1-2 ratio (Nitrogen:Phosphorous: Potassium). Nitrogen fertilizers encourage healthy top growth and fill in thin spots in your grass. Phosphorus increases root development and disease resistance while potassium improves root development and drought resilience.
Bermuda Grass can be mowed at any time, however we recommend cutting off only 1/3 to 1/2 of the leaf blade at a time. This will cause less stress on the grass than cutting it back to the soil surface every week and will allow new leaves to sprout for thicker lawn covering.
If you need quick turf cover to protect exposed soil from erosion, cut Bermuda grass a little higher than usual. By removing half of the leaf blade, you can reduce water loss by shading the soil and weed seed development on your new grass. Mowed Bermuda Grass generates many times the amount of seeds that unmowed sod does. Furthermore, once established, keep your lawn as short as possible to reduce future mowing work!
During dry seasons, warm-season grasses such as Bermuda grass, often known as a “C” type grass, should receive 1-2 irrigations per week from April to June. In July and August, water less regularly yet more frequently to keep the soil surface moist. Depending on how quickly your soil dries, apply 1/2 inch of water once or twice a week. You can use a moisture meter to test your soil until it reaches an optimum moisture level of 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 pounds of accessible moisture per foot of depth to determine when and how much to irrigate the warm season grasses (use a 10-foot long probe).
Tips For Planting Bermuda Seed In Texas
Bermuda seeds require a thin layer of soil to germinate successfully.
Bermuda grass requires little water, though fresh seeds will need to be watered regularly until the establishment is visible.
Plant Bermuda seed in full sun as a warm-season seed.
It is drought-resistant, which means that unintentional overwatering should be avoided.
Certain Bermuda varieties should only be planted from sprigs or sod. Contact us today for more information about sod installation vs seed.
Wrapping Up
Bermuda grass is a popular blend in Texas because to its low water requirements and ability to withstand a lot of sun and traffic.
Finally, one of the best turfgrasses for a lovely lawn is Bermuda grass. It will not wilt in the hot sun or perish when pests arrive and pose a problem.
Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) is a popular choice for lawns in the West’s hotter regions. It enjoys heat, is incredibly resistant to wear and tear, and is quite drought tolerant in terms of turf.
But, its outstanding vigor makes this turf difficult to remove if you wish to replace it with something else. Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) spreads through underground stems (rhizomes) as well as aboveground runners (stolons). It also seeds rather aggressively.
Because it is so resilient and persistent, most experts and homeowners kill it with a herbicide (usually glyphosate).
They spray, eliminate the dying sod, irrigate to stimulate the growth of any surviving rhizomes, and then repeat the process at least once more (one treatment rarely kills a Bermuda lawn).
Bermuda Grass Control
Bermuda grass is indigenous to Africa’s severe climate. It is popular throughout the southwest and south of the United States. The plant’s vitality and tolerance of heat, drought, and heavy foot activity make it an excellent candidate for colonizing difficult-to-manage, low-nutrient regions.
It also makes Bermuda grass control difficult in situations where other species should not be injured or overrun. The plant grows from underground rhizomes and surface stolons, both of which must be removed or killed for complete control.
Bermuda grass, also known as Cynodon dactylon, couch grass, and even devil’s grass, comes in 50 different types. Landscapers and homeowners select Bermuda grass for everything from high-traffic lawns to baseball fields because of its incredibly resilient properties. The grass grows best in warmer hardiness zones of the United States, such as the southeastern states and southern California.
Nevertheless, the very characteristics that we admire in many common types of Bermuda grass are exactly what make them so invasive. Bermuda grass spreads laterally. It spreads in all directions by developing rhizomes, which are essentially underground stems. Above ground, seeding stolons appear about a week after mowing and disperse seeds far and wide.
Bermuda grass becomes a weed when it spreads too far—into gardens, under pavers, and onto your neighbor’s lawn. And if you decide Bermuda grass isn’t for you, getting rid of it will require some effort.
Managing Bermuda Grass Naturally
The greatest approach to keep Bermuda grass out of your lawn is to keep it healthy and thick. Maintain a reasonably high mowing height (3 to 3 ½ inches tall), irrigate to 6 inches twice per week, and fertilize at the right time and rate for your sod species.
Mulching flower and plant beds will assist to keep Bermuda grass at bay. Solarization with black plastic or continual rototilling while withholding water may be effective Bermuda grass control in locations where other plants do not exist. Edging put 6 inches into the soil in beds will keep grass from encroaching into and competing with your shrubs and flowers.
Bermuda grass requires vigilance to eliminate, but plants in well-established gardens do not.
Controlling Bermuda Grass In Flower Beds
Successful grass management in established beds with other plants can frequently be accomplished by simply pulling out the plant. Ensure that you collect all of the rhizomes and stolons before the plant lays seed. If seed is present, all bets are off because it can survive in soil for up to two years.
Culling the grass deeply and manually over time will reduce its presence. If you don’t have the patience for that kind of work, apply a herbicide like glyphosate. This is a non-selective chemical that kills any plant it comes into contact with and should only be used for spot control. Do not use in windy circumstances or in areas where other plants may be affected.
Use a product containing the active substances Sethoxydim or Fluazifop for more specific control in crowded beds. They are suitable for usage around broad-leaved perennials, shrubs, and trees.
How To Kill Bermuda Grass In Lawns
When Bermuda grass threatens to take over your lawn, it’s time to call in the big guns. No one wants to have to use chemical weapons, but this persistent grass is one of the situations when it may be required.
Timing is essential in everything. Between the months of May and September, treat the weed when it is actively growing. Apply early in the spring when growth is less than 6 inches tall, and again before new growth reaches the same height.
Most chemical controls must be applied by a licensed specialist, however Triclopyr is one that is widely available in nurseries. Apply every 4 weeks during the growing season, following the guidelines carefully.
For seed control, use a product containing Siduron, which is safe to use even on newly seeded grass but cannot be used prior to seeding an area. It is a pre-emergent and should be administered before the Bermuda grass seed germinates every two years.
In all situations, adhere to the manufacturer’s application instructions, cautions, and mixing and spraying rates.
Can You Choke Out Bermuda Grass With Fescue?
If you have a fescue lawn, you may easily choke out Bermuda grass by encouraging its development while eliminating the invading bermuda. To accomplish this, apply Fusilade II herbicide to your lawn, then mow it more frequently to encourage fescue grass to grow thick and full, choking off Bermuda grass weeds.
Does Vinegar Kill Bermuda Grass?
Using vinegar to kill bermudagrass weeds is an efficient natural method. To get rid of weeds organically, use a 10% vinegar solution.
Use this procedure with caution because vinegar is a non-selective natural weed killer. It has the potential to harm your lawn grass as well as undesired weeds.
Does Roundup Kill Bermuda Grass?
Roundup is one of the most effective bermuda grass killers. It contains glyphosate, a chemical that is known to kill many grass weeds. Spray it on the leaves to promote maximal herbicide uptake.
Apply roundup from spring through fall, although doing so in January when bermudagrass is dormant may offer poor results.
How To Get Rid Of Bermuda Grass In Zoysia Lawn
The deliberate elimination of a perennial grass variety, such as Bermuda grass, from another perennial lawn grass, such as zoysia grass, can be a time-consuming and exhausting procedure.
Some Bermudagrass control chemicals (such as Bayer’s Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl) tend to eliminate the desired zoysia species. As I mentioned in the post, a herbicide like Fusilade II can be used to kill Bermuda grass in Zoysia lawns, although at a lower pace.
Does Fusilade Ii Kill Bermuda Grass?
This pesticide is excellent for killing Bermuda grass without harming your turf’s zoysia grass. Fusilade II should be used in conjunction with a high-quality non-ionic surfactant and applied at a lower rate once a month.
According to a University of Georgia study, repeating this technique for two years will result in a considerable reduction in Bermuda grass cover (35% to 7%). At the same time frame, your zoysia grass cover will increase by up to 20%.
How To Stop Bermuda Grass From Spreading
Bermuda grass, often known as devil’s grass or couch grass, is popular among homeowners and landscaping experts due to its drought resistance and wear resistance. It’s also excellent as animal feed.
When it becomes a weed on your lawn or yard, it spreads quicker than most healthy turfgrasses, including St. Augustine, fescues, and even bluegrasses.
You can remove unwanted Bermuda grass by hand if you wish to control its spread in your established garden.
First and foremost, you must trim the grass as part of the excavation preparation. It will give you simple access to the grassroots of Bermuda.
Continue by hand removing the grass beneath the root. Take care not to miss any live roots, since they can regrow through the loose soil.
Lastly, sift through the ground below the grass to remove any Bermuda grass that has left.
Furthermore, homeowners should be informed that completely eliminating Bermuda grass from the lawn can be a lengthy process, lasting up to five years.
To ensure that there is no Bermuda grass regeneration, the procedures outlined must be applied repeatedly, as well as monitored and maintained on a regular basis. Otherwise, you will only be able to achieve temporary Bermudagrass suppression rather than ultimate elimination.
Native Americans had a rule: When you hunt, you use every part, so nothing is wasted.
Today, we tend to waste so much that it could easily be used, and massive landfills could take centuries to degrade. Even worse, when you buy many products at the store, you end up with a large portion of those products being discarded.
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But this doesn’t have to be the case, and we’re going to show you how to use one of the most important pieces of kitchen scrap out there: egg shells.
Eggshells are a powerhouse of benefits for your garden when used right.
Let’s look at how you can turn those egg shells into garden gold.
How To Prepare And Use Eggshells In The Garden
Eggshells are an amazing addition to your garden routine, although they need some preparation before you can use them.
Why Use Eggshells?
It’s one thing to say that eggshells are good for the garden bed, but another to actually know why.
Here are just some of the wonderful qualities of eggshells.
Nutrition
Eggshells are organic materials that are chock full of calcium carbonate, the most easily processed form of calcium. This makes them a great addition to your outdoor compost pile, where they will be broken down and enhance the necessary elements, like the calcium content available.
In fact, approximately 94% percent of the shell is pure calcium carbonate. This makes egg shells a great calcium supplement for your plants and garden soil, as they help the plant roots absorb the essential nutrients easily.
Additionally, there’s approximately 3% percent each of phosphorus and magnesium, two other valuable nutrients.
Beyond these are traces of copper, iron, manganese, potassium, sodium, and zinc.
Protection
Crushed eggshells may or may not help in repelling snails and slugs.
This is a popular use for eggshells, but there is no conclusive evidence that the shells do or do not work, so your own mileage may vary.
The calcium in egg shells can also help protect against several diseases, most notably blossom end rot, which more commonly attacks plants suffering from calcium deficiency.
Substitution
Agriculture lime (or aglime) is an important tool for reducing soil acidity and adding a source of calcium to your soil.
But aglime can be expensive, and the process of mining it can be very destructive.
Now, what if we told you that egg shells do exactly the same thing as aglime but won’t cost you anything (if you already buy eggs, that is)?
Whether you’re working on a tight budget or concerned about the effects of quarrying, using eggshells in place of agriculture lime to keep acidity levels low makes sense. You can definitely use eggshells as an excellent alternative to amending your lawn with lime.
The Trouble with Eggshells
Before we go further, it’s important to point out that you can’t simply toss your eggshells into the garden and expect great things.
If you’re growing blueberries or other acid-loving plants, the eggshells can be counterproductive, as they’ll raise the pH level of your soil slightly more towards neutral.
Additionally, the pieces can take a long time to break down if not properly prepared, meaning you won’t see those benefits for some time.
Thankfully, it’s easy to prepare eggshells for garden use, and several ways exist.
Ways To Prepare Eggshells for Garden Use
Before preparing your eggshells, you must determine how you wish to use them.
For a soil amendment, you’ll need pulverized eggshells. But for egg shell tea, you can use intact eggshells.
Let’s loot ways to do each.
Sterilizing Your Eggshells
Most people prefer to simply rinse the leftover eggshells out with hot, soapy water and place them on a paper towel to dry. Make sure to remove any raw egg to avoid unpleasant smells and avoid attracting flies.
Once rinsed, the dry eggshells won’t stink or attract pests and are generally ready to go.
However, if you’re worried about salmonella bacteria, you can pop them in the oven or microwave for a few minutes to dry and kill them. This process of exposing the eggshells to temperatures is called the oven-drying method.
Eggshell Tea Prep
Since we’re talking about tea, let’s begin with this method.
Eggshell tea is a liquid amendment used when watering or fertilizing your plants. The egg shells can be discarded or reused later for other methods in this method.
Bring a gallon of water to a boil and add the shells of 10 to 20 eggs.
The more you add, the stronger the tea will be.
Allow it to boil for 20 minutes or so, then take off the heat and allow it to steep for 24 hours.
Once done, strain out the solids and put your eggshell tea in a jar or other sealable container until you’re ready to use it.
Eggshell Compost and Slug Control Prep
You can technically use intact eggshells for composting, but it’s better to break them down a bit, especially if you compost using vermiculture.
To do this, simply use a mortar and pestle, coffee grinder, or kitchen blender to crush the eggshell into small pieces.
If for some reason, you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can use a food processor or place the shells in a Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Eggshell Fertilizer Prep
For the shells to properly bond with the soil and be the most useful, they must be completely pulverized into dust using a coffee grinder or blender.
This will take the most work, so you may wish to use a food processor. However, a mortar, pestle, or kitchen blender will also work if you’re patient. Don’t forget to put the finely ground eggshells in a jar for storage.
You can also mix the ground eggshells with garden soil as organic fertilizer while neutralizing acidity.
Using Eggshells in the Garden
Once the eggshells are properly prepared, you can put them to use.
We’ve included the previously mentioned uses here and a couple of additional ones to consider.
Bird Nutrition
Scientists spent a decade studying how birds can recover from brain damage and discovered it was actually the eggshells.
You can add crushed eggshells to bird feeders to give visiting birds an extra boost.
They also work well in chicken feed as a dietary supplement.
Composting
Add your eggshells directly into the compost heap or crushed shells to your worm box.
Worms actually need the grit to help them process foods, and the eggshell is a popular choice for hungry worms.
This also helps further break down the shells so microorganisms can easily finish the job.
Fertilizer
While low in NPK, pulverized eggshell is recognized as a type of organic fertilizer.
To use, blend it in with your soil before planting or sprinkle a bit on top.
Before using, however, it;’s a good idea to test the soil to see if there’s a need for the extra calcium as well as to ensure you don’t raise the pH beyond the levels your plants will require.
Mulch
It can take a while to collect enough eggshells, but if you’re patient (or know a restaurant willing to give you theirs), crushed eggshells can make a decent mulch.
The tiny pieces add color to the garden, especially if you have some brown eggs in the mix.
On top of that, they help keep the soil from drying out and will slowly degrade the soil. It can also help retain soil moisture and suppress weeds if you cover an entire garden with eggshells.
Remember, this is a controversial remedy, so it may or may not work for you.
Also, while there’s evidence that the smell of eggshells can help deter deer (to a small degree), they can attract mice and rats.
If you intend to use it for this purpose, we suggest first adding diatomaceous earth around the plants, then sprinkling a sparse layer of eggshell powder on top.
Diatomaceous earth is highly effective, and the shells will (at worst) help keep the DE from blowing away during a strong wind.
On their own, the crushed shells may also help attract worms as this material is an excellent source of grit or what worms need to digest their food. Once the worms are attracted, they will aerate the soil, but your mileage will vary.
In addition, adding eggshells together with Epsom salt which tomatoes love along with other organic matter into the planting holes also helps reduce the risk of blossom end rot by balancing the soil calcium levels.
Tea
Eggshell tea is an excellent, readily-absorbed calcium source for your seedlings and indoor plants.
Simply use it instead of plain water once every 2 to 4 waterings to give your plants a quick calcium boost.
A Final Note On Eggshell Starters
It’s been a popular trick to use eggshells as seed starters, and while this is possible, it’s not always the best idea.
While you can certainly use them for this purpose, we don’t recommend them.
Remember that eggshell break down slowly, so you can’t just plop the shell into the ground and expect the seedling to break out easily.
There’s a good chance the plant will become slightly rootbound before gaining enough strength to break through the shell.
Thus, if you intend to use eggshells as starters, giving the sides a tap to crack them before putting them into the ground is a good idea.
For most plants, however, eggshells will look pretty but require you to transplant the seedling to a peat pot or larger container before it’s ready to plant. However, you can also use your saved egg carton to hold your seeds until they’re ready for planting.
It’s beautiful to see a rabbit hop through a garden, nibbling on crop unless that garden is your garden and that carrot is one you planted. Unfortunately for gardeners, rabbits enjoy many of the same vegetables that we do, as well as some of our non-edible plants.
Why Would You Keep Rabbits Away?
Anybody who works in the garden sees the rabbit as more than a cute threat to the carrot crop. This long-eared animal has an insatiable appetite for various types of fresh vegetation, including woody plants, perennials, annuals, vegetables, and berries. In fact, the list of rabbit favorites is so lengthy that it’s easier to list the few plants they don’t like.
Rabbits have an incredibly high reproductive potential, which is why keeping them around could soon lead to a complete garden infestation. In the north, they can have up to three litters of six babies every year, and in the south, they can have up to six litters of three babies per year. The first litter appears in the north in March, and elsewhere all year. The pregnancy lasts 29 days. That’s only approximately eight days longer than a chicken egg takes to hatch!
The primary goal of your backyard bunny is to eat without being eaten, which is a difficult undertaking given that rabbits are eaten by over two dozen different species of predators. Nibbling your petunias is thus not a carefree picnic, but a perilous endeavor. If your local bunny can squeeze through a hole in your garden fence, it will find a way to nibble in peace.
You can follow our rabbit-proofing tips, but try to think of rabbits as part of a serene, pastoral scene, like Beatrix Potter did. Then, protect the plants that you and the rabbits adore, and ignore the rest.
How To Identify Rabbits in Your Garden?
The eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) is the most common and vexing of North America’s nine cottontail rabbit species. This bunny-about-town can be found from Boston to Boulder and south into Mexico, preferring brushy fence rows, field edges, brush piles, and, you got it, landscaped backyards. Its taste for flowers, vegetables, bark, and bulbs frequently leads to pruned peppers and cut cosmos.
Even though its nicknames (bunny, bunny rabbit, and cottontail) are adorable, and you’ll undoubtedly want to adopt it once you see its gorgeous ears, the eastern cottontail may be a terrible pest. It has a short tail and large ears and is gray or brownish in color. It can weigh 2 to 4 pounds, have a length of 15 to 19 inches, and survive for 12 to 15 months. Its vocal call is almost silent, but when threatened, it will scream. It is distinguished by a small white tail like a cotton ball and long, tapering ears.
A pile of brush, leaves, or an abandoned burrow is security for an eastern cottontail. These rabbits, unlike their European cousins, do not dig sophisticated tunnels or warrens and must make do with what they find. Rabbits rarely exit their burrows during the day, preferring to do so in the early morning or late evening. They, like other animals, are affected by the shift in day duration as spring approaches. Longer days indicate the start of two things for rabbits: breeding season and spring meals.
Identifying Rabbit Presence In Your Garden
If you’ve spotted damage to your garden or plants, rabbits are most likely to be responsible. Rabbit presence is indicated by nibbled leaves, bare bark, and droppings. It is critical to identify the presence of rabbits before taking any effort to keep them out of your garden.
Understanding Rabbit Behavior
It is critical to understand rabbit behavior in order to properly keep them out of your garden. Rabbits are social creatures that prefer to live in groups. They are most active at dawn and dusk and can travel up to two miles each day to find food.
Rabbit Diet
Rabbit Diet
Rabbits are herbivores, meaning they eat grass, weeds, flowers, and vegetables. They enjoy fragile and fresh plants, therefore your garden is an excellent source of nourishment. Plant rabbit-resistant plants or cover your plants with barriers to keep rabbits out of your garden.
Rabbit Damage
Rabbits are voracious feeders who do extensive harm. Examine your plants’ leaves and stems for cleanly cut damage; insects and other pests sometimes leave jagged edges on damaged plants. When rabbits devour the tasty green shoots of tulips and other plants, this clean-cut damage occurs frequently at ground level.
These low mowers graze near to the earth, sniffing for the first fragile new shoots and cutting them off. They enjoy eating flowers, clover, peas, lettuce, beans, and other plants. Many of these plants are also favorites of woodchucks and groundhogs, so look for burrows before concluding that rabbit damage has occurred. Plants are usually immune against rabbit damage once they have past the seedling stage.
Although bunny nibbling occurs throughout the year, it is especially unpleasant in the early spring when rabbits viciously gnaw on tender green plant shoots. “My tulips were barely poking through the snow when suddenly it looked like they’d been weed-whacked,” a Connecticut gardener recalls. Entirely removed! I blame the bunnies—their paw prints were all over the place.”
10 Ways Keep Rabbits Out Of The Garden Without Harming Them
1. Add Physical Garden Barriers
If you’ve ever read Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, you know that a picket fence isn’t going to keep bunnies out. To make a fence around your garden or garden beds, use chicken wire with a 1-inch mesh or smaller. Keep in mind that rabbits are diggers, so dig down a little so that the chicken wire is at least 6 inches below the ground level.
2. Protect Individual Plants
If you have a few smaller plants that need to be protected, you can use chicken wire or plant cages to protect them separately. In the winter, rabbits can cause the most harm to larger woody plants and trees. They frequently gnaw on the bark of plants and trees, completely encircling the trunk and cutting off the passage of water and nutrients. Trunk guards that expand can help keep your trunks secure, but keep in mind that they may need to be adjusted for snow levels. Rabbits can reach higher and higher up the trunk and into the branches as snow accumulates. Repellents, which are available in granular and spray versions, can also be used.
3. Include Plants Rabbits Don’t Like
If you don’t have a fence, it’s important to understand what to grow to keep rabbits away from flowers and other plants. Although rabbit-proof plants do not exist, several plants are disliked by rabbits due to their strong odors, such as basil, garlic, rhubarb, hot peppers, spicy basil, and mint. Some gardeners claim that marigolds keep rabbits away from their gardens, while others claim that bunnies enjoy the marigolds they planted.
4. Remove Potential Nesting Spots
If you don’t want rabbits in your yard, the last thing you want to do is unwittingly create the perfect nesting place for a female rabbit. They nest in overgrown and grassy places, so keep those areas clear in your garden. That being said, if you do come upon a rabbit’s nest, do not attempt to remove it. Contact your local animal control to find out what you need do to avoid harming any rabbits.
5. Add Visual Deterrents
While some gardeners claim that putting things in your garden to drive rabbits away is ineffective, others swear by their success. Here are several examples: Metal pinwheels (their movement, brilliance, and even sound startle certain rabbits); rubber snakes; and owl sculptures. Another alternative is to tie strips of aluminum foil to string and run it between two stakes. If you use these deterrents, we recommend changing them around your garden on a regular basis to keep the rabbits from becoming accustomed to seeing them in the same location.
6. Elicit The Help Of Predators
Rabbits and other garden pests are easily repelled by dogs and cats. Thus, if you’ve been trying to persuade your housemates that you need one, “garden protector” is yet more compelling reason to add to the list! If it isn’t possible, simply fool the neighborhood rabbits into thinking you have a dog or cat. Request dog and cat hair from your local groomer, then pack it into a burlap bag or pantyhose and scatter it over your yard to fool rabbits into believing there’s a predator nearby. The hair will need to be replaced on a regular basis, especially if it rains.
7. Try Other Home Remedies
Gardeners are a resourceful group who have attempted a variety of methods to keep rabbits out of their gardens, and here are a few of them: Wrap a bar of Ivory or Irish Spring soap in cheese cloth, attach it to a stake, and place it throughout the garden. Sprinkle black pepper, crushed red pepper, or garlic powder lightly in your garden beds, and reapply every few weeks or after it rains.
8. Create Disturbances
Rabbits are creatures of habit, so any novelty is a threat. Create harmless disturbances with any unfamiliar sound or sight that will keep them away. To scare rabbits away from your yard, use low-maintenance solar-powered LED lights that flash or blink on a timer, or a motion-activated sprayer. Garden ornaments that make noise, wind chimes, spinning pinwheels, and a mobile made of pie tins or aluminum cans can deter rabbits if the wind is blowing.
9. Grow Food That Rabbits Don’t Eat
Rabbits are opportunistic feeders, preferring the sensitive shoots of seedlings such as young trees and bushes. The goal is to cultivate what they don’t consume. When rabbits locate a good source of food, they will return until the food supply is depleted.
Eliminating any temptations early in the spring might help prevent bad habits from developing. Rabbits enjoy beans, carrots, lettuce, parsley, peas, and spinach, but avoid plants with fuzzy leaves, milky sap, thorns, and strong odors, as well as any member of the nightshade family, due to toxins. When rabbits are hungry enough, they will eat almost anything.
10. Remove Potential Hiding Places
Rabbits dislike being in open areas where they are vulnerable to predators. Clear brush heaps, weed patches, rock piles, and other debris to eliminate potential nesting and hiding locations. An open area around your garden will provide some protection for your plants.
Rabbit-Resistant Plants
Because rabbits can consume almost anything and will adapt to what is available, it is difficult to describe any plant as genuinely rabbit proof. There are, however, some plants that they simply do not like. Keep in mind that finding what works in your garden may require some trial and error, since a plant that works well for your neighbor may be considered a delicacy in your garden. Here are some plants to try that have been identified as their least favorite:
Strong scents: Plants with strong fragrances, such as Sweet Alyssum, Geranium, and Salvia, are unpleasant to rabbits. Some scents may be overpowering or plain unappealing to rabbits, and they can help keep them away from the plants.
Bitter taste: Certain plants, such as Marigold, have a naturally bitter taste that rabbits dislike. Its bitterness could be caused by the presence of particular compounds found in the plant, or it could simply be a feature of the plant’s natural flavor.
Tough texture: Plants with a rough or waxy texture, such as Wax Begonia and Vinca, are less enticing to rabbits. Some plants may be more difficult to chew or digest for rabbits, making them less appealing as a food source.
Certain plants, such as Milkweed and Butterfly Bush, possess natural compounds that repel rabbits and other pests. These substances may be harmful to rabbits or simply unpleasant to them, and they can help keep them away from other plants in the area.
Overall, including rabbit-resistant plants in a garden or landscape design can help preserve more attractive plants from being devoured by rabbits. While no plant is completely rabbit-proof, choosing plants with these features will help prevent rabbits while also making your outdoor space more appealing and functional.
Conclusion
Keeping rabbits out of your garden is a never-ending battle. Even if you follow these guidelines, you must remain attentive to avoid them from entering your garden and causing damage to your crops. They adapt quickly, and you must always be one step ahead of them to discourage them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Humanely Trap A Rabbit?
Due of the potential of harming or scaring the rabbit, trapping should only be used as a last option. It is also less efficient than other methods of keeping rabbits out of the garden because trapping just removes individual rabbits rather than the source of the problem.
Which Smells Keep Rabbits Away?
Rabbits will be deterred by strong scents. Garlic, peppers, and pungent herbs such as ginger and mint are effective at keeping rabbits away from your yard. A mild solution of water and strong-smelling liquid soap should also suffice.
What Repels Rabbits From Eating Plants?
There are numerous methods for keeping rabbits away, ranging from planting foods that rabbits do not like to creating a sustainable fence around your garden.
If this is your first time spraying liquid fertilizer, you may be wondering how long it will take to work. Unlike granular fertilizers, liquid fertilizers are absorbed into the plant’s nutrition stream in minutes. But, in order for your crops to absorb the plants, you should always plan for any possibilities such as rainstorms. To begin, you must understand how liquid fertilizers function.
It takes around 24 hours for liquid fertilizer to operate. The liquid quickly seeps into the soil and leaves, releasing nutrients to the plant. It could take up to four days for the fertilizer to become effective, depending on the environment and humidity.
How Long Does Liquid Fertilizer Take To Work?
Liquid fertilizer products work quickly. They’re also known as “quick-release” fertilizers. These products make important nutrients available to plants nearly quickly.
Most liquid fertilizers require at least 24 hours to begin helping your plants. It could take longer depending on the environment and humidity. At most, it will take five days for the required chemical reactions to occur.
How Liquid Fertilizer Works
There are several types of liquid-based products. They are available as water-soluble powders or as a liquid concentrate. In any case, both forms must be combined with water for adequate dilution.
You can apply the fertilizer around your garden once it has reached the proper liquid state. The liquid seeps uniformly into the soil. This guarantees that all plants have access to the nutrients that are available.
Not only that, but the plants may swiftly absorb the fertilizer. There is a longer wait period with granular fertilizers or organic compost. This is because the fertilizer must degrade.
It can take up to six weeks for compost and granules to break down and become available to plants.
The majority of liquid formulae contain a combination of urea and ammonium nitrate. Urea is a low-cost kind of nitrogen fertilizer. When sprayed to the soil, urea swiftly degrades, providing the plants with a boost of useful energy.
How Long Does Fertilizer Stay In The Soil?
Fertilizers can remain anywhere from seven days to many months in the soil. The exact amount of time fertilizer lasts in soil depends on the type of fertilizer and the composition of the fertilizer.
Some fertilizers are also designed to target specific plants. Because plants grow at different rates, some fertilizers are designed to span the full growing season (such as grass fertilizer, for example).
When applied every couple of weeks, other fertilizers are more beneficial to plants. Typically, this is the case with fertilizers aimed towards flowers. Finally, the duration of a fertilizer is determined by how quickly it degrades or is absorbed by a specific plant.
How Often Should I Apply Liquid Fertilizer To Plants?
When you need to give your plants a quick boost, liquid fertilizers are ideal. Yet, its quick reaction time can be a disadvantage.
Liquid fertilizers, you see, don’t last very long. The fertilizer will usually only replenish the soil for one to two weeks. Slow-release fertilizers, on the other hand, have a shelf life of six to eight weeks.
This fertilizer will drain into the soil considerably faster due to its liquid form. Before you realize it, the fertilizer has seeped into the subsoil and rock strata.
As a result, you’ll need to apply fertilizer continuously during the growing season. This is one of the most serious drawbacks of utilizing liquid fertilizers. Some slow-release products are typically used only once or twice a year. Liquid fertilizers must be reapplied every two to three weeks.
Fast-acting fertilizers don’t do much to increase soil quality. In fact, some chemical-based fertilizers might be harmful to your garden in the long run.
You must maintain a regular fertilization program to ensure that your plants receive the nutrients they require to grow.
How Long Does It Take For Wet Fertilizer To Break Down?
The plant does not necessarily break down because it absorbs wet fertilizer to receive nutrients. Wet fertilizers, whether applied to the soil or the leaves, have nutrients that are immediately available for the plant to absorb, thus they don’t stay as long as dry fertilizers.
The precise recipe for liquid fertilizers varies depending on the brand and type of plant that the fertilizer is intended to target. However, regardless of which liquid fertilizer you use, you will need to apply it more frequently during the active growing season of the plant.
Most liquid fertilizers only last one to two weeks in the soil before needing to be reapplied. The exact duration will depend on the sort of fertilizer you have, but you should use them every seven to fourteen days. When to reapply fertilizer to the soil and plants should be specified on the container.
How Long Does It Take For Dry Fertilizer To Break Down?
Dry fertilizers are often solids with a crystalline structure. When they are first planted, they are sprinkled over the soil and mixed in with it, where they break down as the plant grows. The rate at which the solid crystals breakdown is determined by the size of the granules and the overall health of the soil.
Dry fertilizers, on the other hand, are absorbed by plants far more slowly than moist fertilizers. They are meant to endure several months rather than a couple of weeks since they degrade more slowly. Some dry fertilizers may even survive several seasons, requiring only two applications per year.
How Much Liquid Fertilizer To Apply
It’s not always straightforward to figure exactly how much liquid fertilizer to use. To find out how to modify the soil, farmers and large-scale agricultural applications employ sophisticated formulations.
You certainly don’t need to calculate fertilizer rates for many acres. Most fertilizer packages include directions for mixing or diluting the product. Simply follow those steps to make your foliar spray or soil treatment.
The exact measurements can vary, but one gallon of water is normally used for a single application. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate amount of dry powder or liquid concentrate. 1 spoonful of concentrate to 1 gallon of water is typical.
Don’t ignore the instructions. Applying too much concentrate may result in fertilizer burn. Your plant’s growth will be hampered as a result of this. It has the potential to harm the plant in extreme instances.
What Kind Of Liquid Fertilizer Should I Use?
Fertilizers are available in a variety of strengths and compositions. There could be numerous numbers on the box. These are the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
These are the “Big 3” nutrients that plants require in order to thrive. Nitrogen encourages plant development. Phosphorus aids the plant in converting other nutrients into useful energy, allowing it to flourish. Finally, potassium can help crops resist disease and enhance output.
These nutrients are used in various ratios in commercial fertilizers. The various ratios will stimulate various forms of growth.
For example, if your plant is still young, you could use a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Early in the growing season, use a nitrogen-rich fertilizer to guarantee the plant’s structure is strong. Some fertilizers may have higher levels of phosphorus and potassium. They are excellent at the end of the growing season. This is because they contribute more to the plant’s ability to generate blooms and fruits.
Select a fertilizer grade that is appropriate for your soil and plant. You can use a soil testing kit as a guide. You can also get an all-purpose formula. All-purpose liquid fertilizers deliver consistent levels of the essential elements that plants require to thrive. These are suitable for most plants.
How To Tell If Liquid Fertilizer Is Working?
Nitrogen is the most significant component in the production of chlorophyll in plants. As a result, you should be able to tell if the fertilizer is working if the plants start to seem greener. Whether you used the proper amount of fertilizer. Plant growth and flowering should also be visible.
If, on the other hand, your crops begin to turn brown, grow black brown or rotten roots, or drop leaves, the fertilizer is working and you over-fertilized. You can also salvage an over-fertilized plant by thoroughly watering it to allow the excess fertilizer to seep out of the plant. Remove any wilted or scorched leaves as well.
Throughout the first 48 hours, up to 50% of the fertilizer is lost. As a result, ensure that the soil is well saturated. Additionally, keep in mind that rain does not always imply nutrient loss. The elements in the fertilizer bind to colloidal surfaces in the soil and are gradually released by the plant roots.
How Long Does Nitrogen Stay In Soil?
Regular soil testing will provide you with a better understanding of what your soil requires. Nitrogen is a nutrient that is extremely beneficial to plants. If your soil is lacking in nitrogen, you’ll need a fertilizer designed specifically to restore it. Naturally, you’ll want to know how long those fertilizers will last.
Again, it just depends on whether you use wet or dry fertilizer. Nitrogen replenishing liquid fertilizers can last anywhere from two to six weeks. Granular fertilizers are slow-release and can last for two to five months. The container should state how long the nitrogen fertilizer will last and when you should reapply it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Do You Need To Consider When Choosing A Fertilizer?
Back to our original scenario, your garden requires immediate nutritional assistance. What are you going to do? Of course, fertilizer! But, there are a few additional factors to consider while selecting the best fertilizer.
How Much Area Do You Need To Cover?
Granular fertilizers, as previously said, are excellent for covering a broad area of garden. If your plants are already in the ground, this might be time-consuming because I recommend mixing it into the top few inches of topsoil to prevent crusting.
If you need to fertilize a big area of your garden rapidly, I prefer liquid or powder fertilizer. Fill a watering can with the desired amount and begin to work!
What Stage Is Your Garden In?
Are you hoping for one more blossom burst before the end of the season, or are you prepping your garden for transplanting in May?
The answer to this question will help you decide which type of fertilizer is best for you. Granular fertilizer is fantastic for pre-plant fertilizing, so if you want to fertilize young plants rapidly, it may be the best option for you.
How Long Will A Single Application Of Granular Fertilizer Help Your Plants?
Granular fertilizer can stay anywhere from a few weeks to many months in the soil, depending on the formula. Slow-release fertilizers have a longer shelf life than standard uncoated fertilizers.
How Often Should You Water In Granulated Fertilizer?
You should water it within 24 hours of applying the fertilizer. Wait 2-3 days after the first hose down before adding extra water.
Remember not to overwater your plants, as this may cause your nutrients to leak into the soil, depriving your plants of important nutrients.
When first-time homeowners and gardeners see deer in their yards, they may get overjoyed. Yet, when the deer have made their way through their yard, those homeowners may discover their fruit trees chewed to nubs and their garden destroyed.
Deer can quickly destroy beautiful trees, bushes, and fruit trees. These animals also destroy food gardens. Ticks that spread Lyme disease, a debilitating condition that affects both humans and pets, can be carried by deer. Try these 22 deer-repelling tips to keep deer out of your garden.
1. Don’t Over-Stock Your Garden With Tasty Plants
Deer are at one of their most hungry states in the spring: Does are feeding their fawns, and all deer are looking for high-protein, moisture-rich vegetation to help them regain weight lost during the winter’s cold. Consider growing a lot of English ivy, lettuces, beans, peas, hostas, impatients, and pansies. Fruit trees are also popular targets.
2. Keep Deer-Favorite Plants Close To The House
That way, you can keep track on the plant’s progress at all times and avoid it becoming a meal. Deer, in general, like smooth, soft, and tasty foods, such as chrysanthemum, clematis, roses, azalea bushes, and various berries. Grow aromatic plants to help deer avoid your yard.
3. Plant Pungent Perennials as a Natural Barrier
With wildlife biologists estimating 18 to 24 deer per square mile and full-grown adults eating 6 to 10 pounds of vegetation every day, the greatest line of defense is to make your property less appealing than your neighbors’. Deer rely significantly on their sense of smell to feed, so planting patches of highly scented herbs, such as garlic and chives, mint, and lavender (left), might conceal the enticing aroma of neighboring annuals.
4. Plant Thorny, Hairy, or Prickly Foliage
When a deer is considering what to eat for dinner, the sense of scent takes precedence over touch. But it doesn’t mean deer aren’t troubled by particular textures in the middle of their meal. Include fuzzy lamb’s ear, barberries, and cleome near the plants you wish to protect, as well as where deer might find their way into your garden in the first place. For a more extensive list, see Plants Deer Avoid.
5. Make Deer-Resistant Substitutions
Switching tulips for daffodils, which are often at the top of deer-resistant plant lists. Choose roses that are very thorny, such as Scotch or rugosa roses.
6. Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Grow large, sprawling deer repellant species around the perimeter of your garden, such as dense hedges of boxwoods or short needle spruces. Deer are less likely to venture into your property if they can’t see what’s inside.
7. Cleanliness Counts
Cut tall grasses to keep deer from bedding. Fruits should be picked when they are ripe, and crops should be discarded immediately after harvesting.
8. Create Levels
Deer are not avid climbers, building terraces or sunken beds can deter them from entering the yard. If your property is exceptionally wooded and vast, consider placing pallets around it to make deer frightened to walk or jump on them.
9. Don’t Underestimate The Power Of Scare Tactics
Deer, like neophobes, are afraid of new and strange objects. Though not usually appealing, scarecrows, sundials, and other garden ornaments, particularly ones with moveable elements, make deer nervous. To discourage deer out of your yard, combine them with wind chimes or flashing lights.
10. Fence It In
A fence is the most efficient form of exclusion. Whitetail deer, which cause havoc on most suburban gardens, are good jumpers. Fences should be at least 8 feet tall with no more than 6-inch by 6-inch gaps. Electric fences are another alternative that can be installed during the peak feeding seasons of early spring and late fall.
11. Wrap New Plantings
Using netting to protect fruit, bulbs, and plants. To physically prevent deer from feeding on your firs, use Vexar garden netting, Tubex tree protectors, or plastic tree wrap.
12. Use A Lot of Homespun Repellents To Keep Deer Guessing
Some gardeners say that hanging fabric softener strips and/or wrapped bars of soap from trees can confuse a deer’s sense of scent. Others suggest spraying hot peppers, garlic and rotten eggs, ammonia-soaked rags, and bags of hair and/or blood meal about the garden for the same reason. The trick, as with commercial repellents, is to alter things around and learn by trial and error for maximum efficiency. To keep deer guessing, use a variety of homemade repellents.
13. Design Flower Beds With Plant Blocking
Plant blocking combines the previous two points to keep deer away from your plants: Plant deer-friendly flowers or vegetables in large quantities, then surround them with deer-resistant vegetation.
To discourage deer from eating your Hostas, for example, cover them with ferns (which most deer dislike). Make sure the border plants are close enough together to form a hedge and large enough that deer cannot reach over them.
Unless they are extremely hungry, deer will frequently move on to pursue more easily accessible edibles.
14. Avoid Products That May Be Poisonous To People And Pets
You don’t want to accidently harm your family or other wildlife by using commercial repellents or homemade formulas. Always use compassionate recipes rather than poisons.
15. String Fishing Line Around Prized Plants
String a line of monofilament around your beds within the deer feeding zone—ideally two to three feet above ground—as an alternative to erecting a fence. Deer can’t understand the concept of glass, and this transparent, taut barrier confuses them, prompting them to flee.
16. Let Fido Out as Much as Possible
A dog as a pet is very effective in deer management. Their fragrance and bark, regardless of size, are natural deer repellents, so bring the dog along when you’re gardening or playing in the yard.
17. Strategically Place Motion-Activated Sprinklers
Sensor-activated sprinklers will spray mist on passing deer. Deer flee towards the woods as a result of the abrupt sound and dampness.
18. Shine A Light On It
Deer dislike bright lights, they will frequently wait until dusk to eat. A set of motion-sensitive floodlights will physically stop a deer in its tracks, albeit they will eventually discover that the beam is harmless.
19. Make A Lot Of Noise
Deer dislike loud bangs and booms. You could light off firecrackers or make a wind chime out of tin cans, but tuning a radio to the static in between channels might be your best bet.
20. Use Mass Planting
Another method is to mass plant the plants that deer enjoy eating. This will not prevent deer from browsing them, but it will allow you to have some blooms remaining once they are through.
Instead of growing only one Hydrangea (which would be devoured), cultivate several of the same Hydrangea in one location. The deer will eat the plants on the edges of the group but will rarely go out of their way to consume the ones in the center.
21. Plant Trees and Shrubs Inside The Fence
Plant tall and wide bushes and shrubs along the inside of a shorter fence to dissuade deer from jumping over it. The deer will not attempt the jump if they cannot perceive a clear landing location.
It also increases the width over which they must jump, so it’s similar to having a double barrier without having to build a second fence. The bushes do not have to be planted in a straight line or of the same type.
Because they give all-year coverage, evergreens and other plants that keep their shape in the winter are very excellent for a deer resistant garden.
22. Create a Rock Garden Perimeter
Create a rock garden around the perimeter of your yard to deter deer from your flower beds. (You’ll see this tactic used to keep animals in their enclosures at many modern zoos.)
Deer prefer rocky places, so encircling your garden with a large rock garden can help keep them away. Vary the size of the rocks to make this work best. That way, the deer won’t be able to wander across too much flat ground.
You might also combine a rock garden with a barrier to prevent deer from landing in an outdoor area.
Deer are similar to people. What deters one individual may not always repel another, but doubling—or tripling—up on these methods can only help. Using a handful of these tips before deer become a problem is the best approach to protect your vegetation. Nonetheless, consider each of your options before moving, as some are more expensive than others.
Mertensia virginica (mer-TEN-see-uh vir-JIN-ih-kuh) is a wildflower that grows freely in the flood plains and rich woodlands of eastern North America. It’s a native plant found growing in areas ranging from Alabama, Kansas, Virginia, Missouri, Minnesota, and New York state, and into Quebec and Ontario, Canada.
This herbaceous perennial plant is a member of the Boraginaceae (borage) family of plants.
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The plant’s botanical name honors Bremen professor of botany Franz Carl Mertens, who lived and practiced around the turn of the nineteenth century and referred to the plant’s origins in Virginia.
Common names for this plant include:
Virginia Bluebells
Eastern Bluebells
Virginia Cowslip
Oyster Leaf
Lungwort
Virginia Bluebells Care
Size and Growth
This perennial wildflower has an erect growth habit. Individual plants grow to be one or two feet tall with a spread of about 1 ½’ feet.
They die back all the way to the ground in autumn but return enthusiastically in the spring.
Flowering and Fragrance
Virginia Bluebells produce large, pendulous terminals of purplish-pink clusters of flowers early in spring atop arched stems. When the flower buds open, the trumpet-shaped flowers start out slightly pink but then transition into a deep shade of sky blue.
The bloom time of these ephemeral blue flowers lasts a couple of months (typically March through April). The sweetly fragrant blooms attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other long-tongued pollinators.
The plants typically finish blooming before deciduous trees leaf out. The spent blooms become seed capsules, and the leaves die back rapidly.
Before summer arrives, the entire plant will have disappeared, but fear not! It will return with vigor next spring.
Foliage
When Oyster Leaf’s leaves emerge early in the spring, they are bluish or grayish-green. The deeply veined alternate leaves are oval and smooth and may grow to a length of about 4”to 8” inches.
The plant’s upper leaves appear sessile and directly attached to the stem. In contrast, the lower leaves have a petiole ad extends down the stem.
The plant’s hollow stems are nearly succulent and quite fragile. They break very easily when disturbed, so it’s a good idea to protect these purplish-green growths as soon as you spot them in the springtime.
Light and Temperature
Virginia Cowslip does well planted under deciduous trees. The plants will enjoy the early spring sun before the trees grow leaves. They will die back and rest in the shade of summer.
These plants prefer morning sun to afternoon sun and need partial to full shade through the summertime.
Lungwort is winter hardy in USDA hardiness zones 3 through 8.
Watering and Feeding
Eastern Bluebells thrive naturally in moist woodlands and floodplains, so it is important to provide plenty of water to maintain evenly moist soil throughout the early spring months when the plant is growing and blooming.
Do not allow your Virginia Bluebells to dry out during the summertime when they are dormant. You can reduce watering, but understand that these plants are not drought-tolerant.
These wildflowers don’t need much in the way of fertilizer. Keeping your soil well-amended with the organic matter should be enough to keep them happy.
If your soil is very poor, you may wish to work on some organic fertilizer when you start your plants. Top-dress with an organic fertilizer in the springtime when you begin to see new growth.
Soil Types and Transplanting
Moist, light soil that is rich in organic matter is best. However, it also grows well in moist, rich soil. If you’re current soil is poor, you can amend it with compost.
You can transplant Virginia Cowslip (seedlings or rhizomes) in springtime or in the autumn. Be sure to provide moist soil or rich, well-draining soil, and choose a location that offers partial or full shade.
Moreover, always check the soil moisture and provide leaf mulch to retain it in the following year.
If planting in autumn, do so well before the first frost. In springtime, wait until all danger of frost has passed.
Seedlings should be placed about a foot apart. Moreover, dormant rhizomes should be buried about one inch deep and paced about a foot apart.
Once established, these hardy wildflowers develop a very long taproot. Disturbing them during the growing season can be damaging, so wait until plants have completed their bloom time and gone completely dormant in the early fall to move and divide mature plants.
Grooming and Maintenance
Lungwort reseeds itself enthusiastically and will spread with wild abandon. If you want to control this, deadhead the flowers to prevent them from going to seed.
Otherwise, you don’t need to do much. The plants don’t need staking, and their foliage will completely disappear into the ground when the brief growing season ends.
If you want to speed up the disappearance of the plants, you can cut or mow them when the foliage has become completely yellow or brown.
Once the foliage is out of the way, you should put up some sort of marker to remember where the plants were in the coming growing season. This will help you avoid accidentally trampling them or mowing over them early in the springtime.
How To Propagate Virginia Bluebells
In addition to the division, It is also possible to propagate these plants by sowing seed directly into prepared garden soil in the autumn or 6-8 weeks before the last predicted frost in the springtime. These seeds require stratification by cool, damp weather to grow.
You can gather them (perhaps from a woodland area) in the springtime and sow them in your desired location immediately. When you do this, they will naturally be exposed to the cold, damp weather they need to spur germination.
Alternatively, you can gather seed in spring, place it in an airtight container and store it in your refrigerator until you are ready to either start the seed indoors or sow it outdoors.
Remember that the seeds need one or two months of cold, damp stratification before sowing outside. You can winter sow as early as January.
Whether sowing the seed indoors or outdoors, they should be scattered lightly over the surface of the soil and then just dusted with a fine layer of soil to hold them in place.
Seeds will germinate when the temperature reaches 70° degrees Fahrenheit.
Starting Virginia BlueBells, Mertensia virginica, from Seed
Because these plants grow so easily from seed and self-sow quite readily, growing them by division or from seedlings really doesn’t seem to be worth the effort.
If your plants do become overcrowded, you may wish to thin and divide them in the autumn. Dig them up and separate the rhizomes using a sharp, sterilized cutting implement to do.
Be sure that each division includes a rhizome with a node for viability.
Leave the divided rhizomes in a sheltered, airy location for a few days to dry out. Plant them before the first frost.
As mentioned, you can start seedlings indoors early in the springtime and then plant them out, but this is the least satisfactory method of growing Virginia Bluebells. If you do this, it will be several years before you see any flowers.
The bottom line is these wildflowers grow and propagate best and most successfully when left to their own devices. Provide them with a habitat replicating their wild settings, and they will do the rest.
Virginia Bluebells Main Pest Or Diseases
Eastern Bluebells are fairly impervious to pests and diseases as long as they have a conducive setting. They also resist rabbits and deer, and they can be grown at the feet of black walnut trees.
However, these native wildflowers can be susceptible to root rot, especially in very wet conditions.
Moreover, they cannot be grown under or around invasive shrubs and trees like Amur Honeysuckle and Bradford Pear. These plants leaf out very early and prevent Virginia Bluebells from getting enough light to bloom and produce seeds.
Is the plant considered toxic or poisonous to people, kids, and pets?
Native Americans used Virginia Bluebells as a food source and for medicinal purposes; however, one must know exactly how to prepare the plant.
Mertensia virginica contains Pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These are toxic when consumed and will cause lethargy, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Severe poisoning is not common. Even so, keeping curious kids, pets, and livestock out of your Virginia bluebell patch is best.
Is the plant considered invasive?
Within its native range, Virginia Cowslip is actually considered threatened due to the destruction of its habitat.
Outside of its native range, given ideal growing conditions, it can be considered aggressive because of its enthusiastic growth and reseeding habits. The plant is not officially considered invasive.
Suggested Virginia Bluebells Uses
Place Virginia Bluebells in shady woodlands, a nature scape, or a wildflower garden. Simply leave it alone if you want to be rewarded with a beautiful sight.
This spring ephemeral flower will grow and spread happily, providing a splash of colorful blooms in your garden.
They also are stunning when grown around shrubs and trees or in mass plantings.
Individual plants can also be used in rock gardens, native plant gardens, or borders. However, it is especially important to mark their location in these settings so as not to forget them in the springtime .
Moreover, these native wildflowers make a pretty addition to a spring bulb garden or a perennial garden, but the flowers are not good candidates as cut flowers.
Grown under lilacs, with a drift of daffodils and low scillas orMuscari comosum monstrosum in front, bluebells plants are breathtaking. Among ferns, north of a house, providing the soil is right, they are also lovely, but the most charming combination of all is with the pure white flowers ofTrillium grandiflorum species.
Bluebells mix well with perennial woodland plants such as Hostas, Celandine Poppy, Bleeding Heart, Trillium, Astilbe, Solomon’s Seal, and ferns. They look very pretty and do well in clumps in a woodland garden.
This upright tree stays fairly compact, topping out at about 12 feet, though it takes years to reach that point. But its size isn’t its most exceptional aspect.
The foliage is the real knockout feature.
In the spring, it’s yellow and orange before shifting to salmony-red during the summer. In the fall, it changes to vibrant orange and red.
And rather than having the familiar deeply lobed leaves that you’ll see on many Japanese maples, the leaves on this tree look like large palms with seven or nine stubby “fingers.”
It grows best in Zones 5 to 8, and needs full sun to really show its color.
A. palmatum ‘Beni Kawa’ isn’t just beautiful when it’s dressed up in its full summer foliage. It has bright coral-colored bark that makes a striking statement in the winter garden as well.
‘Beni Kawa.’ Photo via Alamy.
The leaves start out with a bright green color in the spring, gradually transitioning to golden yellow in the fall.
At under 10 feet tall and wide, it won’t crowd out the rest of the plants in your landscape. It also has a lovely arching growth habit.
A. palmatum ‘Butterfly’ stands out because it has medium-green leaves with distinct silvery white margins.
And some leaves may be entirely green while others are entirely silvery white, giving the entire tree a lovely variegated appearance.
‘Butterfly’
That’s not all, though. In the spring, new growth is pink on the margins, while in the fall, the margins of the deeply lobed leaves turn bright magenta. It’s an impressive sight.
‘Butterfly’ needs partial sun and only grows in Zones 6 to 8. When mature, it reaches up to 12 feet tall and eight feet wide with an upright growth habit.
A. palmatum ‘Coonara Pygmy’ stays petite, only growing to about ten feet tall – about half the size of some larger Japanese maples – with an upright habit. It’s hardy in Zones 6 to 9.
‘Coonara Pygmy.’ Photo via Alamy.
The deeply lobed leaves are pink as they first emerge in the spring before turning bright green in the summer. In the fall, the foliage becomes bright red with small patches of yellow.
A. palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’ is another Japanese maple with bright coral bark. Its name means “coral tower.” The color becomes more intense as the seasons become cooler.
‘Sango Kaku’
Hardy in Zones 5 to 8, the leaves on this tree are bright green with red margins in the summer, turning brilliant yellow in the fall.
Once mature, this striking tree stands with an upright habit at 20 to 25 feet tall.
An incredibly popular tree, ‘Crimson Queen’ is a dwarf A. palmatum cultivar.
It’s wider than it is tall, eventually growing to about eight feet tall and 12 feet wide, with elegantly weeping branches. Its shape can add some interesting dimension to your garden.
‘Crimson Queen’
The foliage can appear to have a different hue depending on the amount of light it receives. In partial sun, the lacy leaves are maroon.
In spots that receive more light, the color is a brighter red. In the fall, the foliage becomes a dazzling crimson.
‘Crimson Queen’ is hardy in Zones 5 to 9. To nab one for your yard, head to Nature Hills Nursery, where you can purchase a three-year-old plant.
7. Emperor One
This cultivar looks similar to the exceptionally popular ‘Bloodgood,’ but differs in that it only grows to about 15 feet tall with an upright growth habit. It’s hardy in Zones 5 to 8.
‘Emperor One’
This A. palmatum cultivar is one the hardiest maples out there, rarely suffering from pests and diseases.
The foliage is stunning, transitioning from deep maroon to bright red in the fall.
A. japonicum ‘Green Cascade’ is an upright full moon maple that grows in Zones 5 to 7, and reaches about 20 feet tall and 25 feet wide.
‘Green Cascade.’ Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
With rounded and palmate foliage, somewhat resembling a fern, the deeply lobed and heavily serrated emerald green leaves turn bright red and yellow in the fall.
In the garden, the effect is extremely impressive. It’s almost like having a massive, shade-providing fern in your garden.
‘Green Cascade’ is available in one-, three-, seven-, 15-, and 25-gallon containers at Maple Ridge Nursery.
9. Higasayama
While Japanese maples tend to really shine in the fall when their foliage turns to a different hue, ‘Higasayama’ also puts on an elegant display in the spring.
The leaves bud out with a green base enveloped in a bright pink exterior.
As the leaves open, they reveal a creamy pink display before turning deep green with creamy margins. This A. palmatum is happiest in Zones 5 to 8, with an upright, open growth habit that tops out at about 18 feet tall.
Gardeners in Zones 5 to 9 can grow this elegant A. palmatum, also known as the “Golden Jewel of Fall.”
While ‘Hogyokou’ is beautiful all summer with its green, yellow, orange, and slightly red-tinged leaves, it’s the bright pumpkin orange color it displays in the fall that really stands out.
This upright tree is medium-sized when mature, at about 15 feet tall and 10 feet wide. This is a cultivar that does better in full sun than many others.
Hardy in Zones 6 to 9, you can grow it in Zone 5 if it’s in a protected spot.
You can find ‘Koto Ito Komachi’ in starter pots and three-gallon containers at Maple Ridge Nursery.
12. Lion’s Mane
A. palmatum ‘Shishigashira,’ also known as ‘Lion’s Mane,’ doesn’t look like your average maple. The leaves grow packed close together and they’re a deep, glossy green with wrinkled margins.
‘Lion’s Mane’
At summer’s end and into fall, it gradually turns yellow and orange.
‘Lion’s Mane’ stays under six feet tall with an upright habit, and is hardy in Zones 6 to 9. The leaves may burn at the tips if grown in direct sun in hot climates.
You can pick up plants in one-, three-, seven-, 15-, and 25-gallon containers at Maple Ridge Nursery.
13. Osakazuki
For fall color, it’s hard to beat ‘Osakazuki.’ This A. palmatum tree has intensely bright orange-scarlet leaves in the autumn that stay on the tree for several weeks.
‘Osakazuki’
In spring and summer, the leaves are bright green. Each leaf has seven lobes and serrated edges.
‘Osakazuki’ won the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit in 1993.
Hardy in Zones 5 to 8, the popular ‘Red Dragon’ is compact with a tidy, weeping growth habit. This A. palmatum cultivar stays extremely small, just six to eight feet wide and tall when mature.
But what really makes ‘Red Dragon’ stand out is its stunning foliage color in the fall.
The summer hue is an extremely dark burgundy, changing to a luminescent red in autumn that practically glows from within.
Add some color to your yard by purchasing a plant from Maple Ridge Nursery. Choose from one-, three-, seven-, 15-, and 25-gallon containers.
15. Scolopendrifolium
If you want something a little different, get your hands on ‘Scolopendrifolium,’ also known as ‘Shinobuga Oka.’
The leaves on this A. palmatum tree have incredibly long, narrow lobes that are divided down to the base.
‘Scolopendrifolium’
In the summer, the leaves are bright green, while the stems, seed pods, and blossoms are all red. The overall effect is impressive.
This upright, spreading, 15-foot tree appears to be covered in delicate green straps with the red adding a striking contrast, and it grows well in Zones 5 to 9.
16. Seiryu
Every single other green lace-leaf maple that we know of has a weeping or cascading growing habit. ‘Seiryu’ is credited as being the only strong upright grower with green lacy leaves.
‘Seiryu.’ Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
It doesn’t grow terribly tall, staying under 15 feet, but it usually maxes out closer to 10 feet.
‘Seiryu’ is suited to Zones 5 to 9, and does best in part shade, since full sun can singe the leaves. The foliage is bright green in the spring and summer, turning golden yellow with red tips in the fall.
In a world of hyper-specialization, a generalist like arborvitae is a breath of fresh air.
Many plants are only fit for one thing, such as growing in water or producing heads of leafy edible greens for artisan salads. But arborvitae? It’s a plant polymath.
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In my landscape design classes at Mizzou, arborvitae was one of my go-to trees when I ran out of ideas.
Whenever I had a blank space in my design that needed filling, there was always a Thuja species or cultivar that would fit perfectly. And most of the time, it was just what the doctor ordered.
Besides its beauty and versatility, arborvitae tolerates air pollution and a variety of different soil conditions.
Add a fascinating history on top of all that, and you have a tree that’s adaptable, enjoyable to look at, and fun to discuss with fellow onlookers.
Of course, before you can enjoy all those benefits, you’ll need to know how to grow and care for these plants properly. Hence, this guide.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Are Arborvitaes?
Hailing from the Cupressaceae – or the cypress family – arborvitaes are a small group of evergreen conifers that belong to the Thuja genus of plants.
Collectively, these are hardy to USDA Zones 3 to 8, and are either native to North America or eastern Asia, hailing from China, Japan, or Korea.
During their infancy, arborvitae seedlings produce juvenile foliage that protrudes from the stem in alternating pairs of thin needles.
After a year or so of growth, the plants produce flattened, scaly, dense, and fan-like sprays of adult leaves.
Most of the time, the leaf color is green, but sometimes it’s more of a yellow-green, or green on the upper surface with white or glaucous hues underneath.
For a multisensory experience, pluck the textured foliage from the plant and crush it between your fingers.
Take a quick whiff, and you’ll experience a woodland, citrusy aroma that Bath & Body Works should definitely sell in scented candle form.
As coniferous plants, arborvitaes produce small, copper-brownish cones rather than fruits.
Insignificant pollen cones grow from the tips of twigs, and rely on the wind to carry their pollen to the larger seed cones of other trees which grow further down the branches.
After pollination, the cones bear seeds, which are also dispersed by the wind.
Arborvitae bark ranges in color from dark brown to reddish-brown, and it has a furrowed, fibrous texture, peeling away a bit in stringy flakes with age.
Whether broad or fan-like, species of Thuja tend to be pyramidal in habit, although many cultivars exist that sport different forms.
Of course, all that glitters isn’t gold, and all plants referred to commonly as “arborvitae” aren’t necessarily Thuja species.
For example, the Hiba and Russian arborvitae actually belong to the Thujopsis and Microbiota genera, respectively.
Cultivation and History
Based on the known fossil record, the Thuja genus probably originated in high-altitude regions of North America, going as far back as at least 56 million years ago in the Paleocene Epoch.
From there, it’s theorized that Thuja expanded into eastern Asia via the Bering Land Bridge, the landmass connecting Alaska and Russia that existed prior to the end of the last ice age.
“Arborvitae” is a union of the Latin words arbor and vitae, which combine to mean “tree of life” – and the way this name was earned is actually quite epic.
In 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier and his crew were sailing up Canada’s St. Lawrence River on their second voyage to the New World.
Come winter, the men started to exhibit symptoms of scurvy due to vitamin C deficiency, which ended up killing several crew members.
Upon consulting the native Iroquois, Cartier was shown how to extract a scurvy cure from T. occidentalis foliage, which we know today contains vitamin C.
The cure was enough to restore the health and vigor of the crew, earning the plant its “tree of life” moniker. Cartier brought samples of the plant home, making it the first North American tree introduced to Europe.
Centuries later, it was assigned the genus name Thuja by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.
The name Thuja doesn’t have one agreed-upon origin, but some sources suggest it comes from the Greek name for a Greek juniper: thyia, meaning “incense.” This is a nod to the delightful scent of the foliage when it’s crushed.
Along with combating scurvy, humans have found many uses for arborvitae trees throughout history.
Native Americans in what is now Maine used T. occidentalis to make cordage, shingles, and mattresses, while Ojibwe peoples made soup from tree’s juvenile twigs.
Natives from the Pacific Northwest used T. plicata in constructing canoes, totem poles, homes, bowls, tools, baskets, fishing nets, and articles of clothing.
In the 19th century, herbalists used arborvitae to treat warts, ringworm, and yeast infections.
Nowadays, the wood is utilized in guitar soundboards and man-made beehives, while essential oils extracted from arborvitae trees are used in pesticides, room sprays, soaps, cleansers, disinfectants, and pain-relieving lotions.
And of course, let’s not forget arborvitae’s utility in the landscape… It’s probably why you’re here, after all!
Propagation
Here are your arborvitae propagation options, listed in descending order of difficulty and time investment.
From Seed
Arborvitae seed propagation is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get.
Since sexual reproduction results in genetic variation, you could end up with an exciting new variety!
To gather arborvitae seeds, you’ll first need to gather the cones in which they are housed.
The juvenile, greenish-yellow cones will mature to brown in early fall, at which point they’ll be ready for harvest.
Take one healthy-looking cone for every two plants that you plan to propagate from seed, since germination rates tend to be low.
Place the cones in a container and leave them out in the sun. This will dry out the cones and loosen their grip on the seeds.
After a few days, shake the cones over a paper towel – the seeds should drop out.
Soak the seeds in water for 12 to 24 hours, drain, then layer the seeds in a container filled with a 50:50 mix of peat moss and perlite. Cover the container and leave it in the fridge for 60 days, making sure to keep the media moist.
Following this artificial stratification period, fill a seed-starting tray with the same 50:50 mix of peat moss and perlite.
Space the seeds an inch or two apart, and sow them just below the soil surface.
Keep the tray indoors in a place with bright, indirect sun exposure, and temperatures between 60 and 75°F.
If necessary, these seedling heat mats from Gardener’s Supply can be used to add 10 to 20 degrees of heat, to keep the propagation medium warm. They are available in multiple sizes.
Maintain soil moisture. Expect seedlings to emerge from seeds that germinate within two to three weeks.
When the seedlings start to crowd each other out in the tray, it’s time to repot them into their own containers. Keep providing the necessary light and soil moisture as they grow.
Come spring, harden them off by leaving them outside in partial to full sun for 30 to 60 minutes before bringing them back inside. Add 30 minutes to a full hour of outdoor exposure each subsequent day until the plants can handle a full day outside.
Now it’s transplanting time! We’ll cover this in more detail below.
From Cuttings
Rooting cuttings isn’t as tough as seed propagation, but it still requires a bit of work. It’s a nice way to acquire an exact copy or clone of the mother plant.
In summer, use a sterilized blade to take four- to five-inch lengths of semi-hardwood cuttings from the ends of healthy-looking branches.
Defoliate the bottom half of each cutting, then coat the bare ends in a rooting hormone such as this IBA powder from Bonide, available from Arbico Organics.
The hormone-coated end of each cutting should be stuck into its own four-inch pot filled with a 50:50 mix of peat moss and sand.
Moisten the media and place the containers in a location that receives bright, indirect light indoors with temperatures between 60 and 75°F.
Your cuttings should form roots in six to eight weeks. At this point, repot the cuttings into larger containers filled with an even mix of peat moss and perlite.
Continue to keep the media moist all the while as they continue to grow, and give the pots a quarter-turn each day so their growth isn’t all slanted.
Come spring, after the threat of frost has passed, harden off the cuttings with the above protocol used for seeds. At this point, they’ll be ready for transplanting!
Via Transplanting
Whether you have a propagule that you’ve nursed from infancy, or a potted specimen that you’ve acquired from a nursery, transplanting these guys is pretty simple.
In fertile and well-draining patches of soil that are situated in full sun or partial shade, prepare holes that are as deep and slightly wider than the transplants’ root systems.
Lower each plant into a hole, spread out its roots, and backfill with soil just a bit at a time, gently tamping down the roots between additions to snuff out any air pockets.
Afterwards, water in the transplants, and keep the soil moist.
How to Grow
Arborvitaes need no coddling, but optimal performance demands optimal conditions. These recommendations, while not species-specific, should generally serve an arborvitae well.
In general, an arborvitae needs to grow in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 8, but specific requirements from one variety to the next will vary a bit within this range.
Full sun is preferred, but partial shade is also acceptable. Full shade, while not fatal, will cause an arborvitae to lose its tightly-packed foliar density.
A fertile, well-draining, loamy soil is absolutely delectable for these trees. But if you can’t provide the latter two qualities, don’t sweat it – wet, clayey soils and non-loamy soil textures aren’t a dealbreaker for arborvitae trees.
A general pH prescription of 5.0 to 8.0 works well, although you may have to adjust this a bit, depending on the species.
Arborvitae prefers a soil that’s moist and fertile. That means deeply irrigating whenever the soil starts to dry out if a naturally moist location isn’t available, as well as applying a balanced, slow-release fertilizer each year in spring.
Try this organic, 4-3-4 NPK fertilizer from Espoma that’s available on Amazon.
Growing Tips
Provide full sun or partial shade exposure.
Planting in fertile, well-draining loam is ideal.
Keep the soil moist and apply fertilizer annually in spring.
Pruning and Maintenance
An arborvitae doesn’t need pruning, per se, but hedges and foundation plantings benefit from a well-maintained manicured look.
Dedicated sessions of shaping should be done in early spring before new growth emerges, but don’t remove more than a third of each plant’s aboveground mass at once.
Damaged, diseased, or dead branches can be pruned whenever you see them.
Maintaining a couple inches of mulch over the root zone of your trees will help to conserve soil moisture and snuff out any weeds. Plus, what could look better than a fresh mulch ring?
Species to Select
There are only five species of arborvitae out there – the only members of the Thuja genus are T. occidentalis, T. plicata, T. standishii, T. sutchuenensis, and T. koraiensis.
Since the latter three aren’t common landscape plantings, I’ll just focus on the first two… along with a very special hybrid cultivar!
American Arborvitae
Hardy in USDA Zones 3 to 7, T. occidentalis is the plant that probably comes to mind when you picture an arborvitae.
Reaching 40 to 60 feet in height with a width of 10 to 15 feet, American arborvitae has a broad pyramidal form with dense foliage that obscures its trunk from view.
As a geometrically pleasing green mass, it can pretty much go anywhere in the landscape. Specimen or accent, foundation planting or border – this plant wears many different hats well.
Critics of T. occidentalis say that it’s overused in landscaping, but I personally view it in the same vein as peanut butter – as a beloved staple that never ceases to satisfy, even when it’s featured in disproportionately large amounts.
Unless you’re allergic, that is. Only a small fraction of the population has a cypress allergy, but it never hurts to consult an allergist before planting if this may be a concern.
With over 100 T. occidentalis cultivars today, you have plenty of options.
My personal favorite is the Emerald Green arborvitae, aka ‘Smaragd’ – it’s 10 to 15 tall and three to four feet wide at maturity, with a narrow pyramidal form and bright green, lustrous foliage that tends to maintain its color quite well in winter.
Reaching 50- to 70-foot heights with a 15- to 25-foot width in cultivation, T. plicata is hardy in USDA Zones 4 to 9, and it is absolutely stunning.
The leaves are a darker, more lustrous green than those of T. occidentalis, with white-striped undersides.
Additionally, the leaves spread more narrowly than those of American arborvitae, which makes western red cedar foliage look less densely-packed.
To me, this seems to give the tree more of a natural-looking forest vibe.
An expansive, buttressed root system and multiple leaders further differentiate this plant from T. occidentalis. All in all, it’s a fine selection that many gardeners and landscapers favor.
Green Giant
Hardy in USDA Zones 5 to 8, ‘Green Giant’ stands tall and proud, just like the packaged vegetable mascot… but this tree doesn’t come bearing frozen brussels sprouts.
A hybrid of western red cedar and Japanese arborvitae (T. standishii), ‘Green Giant’ is similar in height to T. occidentalis but with a greater width, which makes its broad pyramidal form even more pronounced.
‘Green Giant’ grows very quickly: up to four feet per year! This blows your average arborvitae’s one to two feet of annual growth clear out of the water.
For a stout and vigorous addition to the garden, ‘Green Giant’ is absolutely perfect.
Generally, arborvitaes don’t suffer from serious infestations and infections.
But pests and pathogens can still leave an arborvitae looking worse for wear, so here are a few to be aware of that may cause issues:
Herbivores
Some of our furry friends find arborvitae foliage rather tasty. As cute as they are, we must remain strong in our control efforts.
Deer
Come fall and winter, food becomes scarce… and for a hungry deer, an arborvitae is the perfect cold-weather snack.
The American arborvitae is, at least. Western red cedar and ‘Green Giant’ are both moderately deer-resistant.
Your first line of defense is going to be a deer fence that’s at least eight feet tall. Applications of deer repellent work well as a secondary measure.
Our DIY deer fencing guide is sure to come in handy, as well as these six-pound tubs of granular deer repellent sold by Enviro Pro on Amazon.
Rabbits
Buster Baxter, Bugs Bunny, Peter Cottontail… regardless of their high-ranking protagonist status in works of fiction, any real rabbit will turn into an arborvitae-munching fiend when it’s hungry enough.
These guys can’t reach as high up as deer, but they can completely strip away what’s within reach.
If a perimeter fence doesn’t keep them out, you may have to erect a small barrier of hardware cloth around each individual plant.
A height of 18 to 24 inches – with several inches buried belowground – should do the trick.
Also known as Cinara tujafilina, arborvitae aphids are an eighth of an inch long, with a brownish color and a waxy white splotch on their backs.
They appear in the fall, feed on the shoots, produce young that overwinter belowground, reach peak population size in spring, and go underground to feed on the roots by midsummer.
Photo by Carlos Delgado, Wikimedia Commons, via CC BY-SA.
These pests can turn foliage brown and kill off entire branches. They also excrete honeydew, which can attract other insects, lead to sooty mold, and just drip all over the place.
Sprays of insecticidal soap or horticultural oil throughout the growing season will control the aphids.
Bagworms
Emerging from their eggs in early June, baby Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis caterpillars carry and construct their trademark bags as they feed, which look like brown cocoons assembled from assorted plant bits.
As they continue to feed and cause defoliation, the bagworms grow and mature.
In early fall, the mature bagworms hang up their bags and transform into adult moths. Fertilized by the winged male, the wingless female can lay over a thousand eggs in her bag, which overwinter until the following June.
Removing bagworms by hand and drowning them in soapy water can work with small populations, but larger infestations require insecticide applications immediately after hatching.
The small, green larvae of Argyresthia thuiella eat their way through and overwinter in arborvitae leaflets, which browns the injured foliage.
Light gray adult moths emerge in late spring to lay eggs, which then hatch and repeat the cycle.
Spraying the foliage with acephate in mid-May should stop the larvae from mining, while an imidacloprid soil drench in early spring will provide systemic control throughout the growing season.
Disease
Using pathogen-free soil, clean plant stock, and sanitized tools will go a long way in preventing disease.
Blight
The dense canopies of arborvitae sure are beautiful… to both people andthe pathogens that cause blight.
Tip blights caused by Pestalotiopsis fungi tend to strike when the tree isn’t cared for properly.
Yellowing manifests at the leaf tips and works its way downward, eventually progressing to a dark brown-black necrosis.
Twigs can also turn brown and exhibit small black dots of fungal fruiting structures.
Leaf blights are caused by Phyllosticta fungi, and these infections are restricted to the foliage. Infected leaves exhibit pale green to yellow colors, and often appear desiccated.
Symptomatic needles rupture, ejecting spores in wet weather with mild temperatures, which leads to further spread.
Prune leaves infected with blight as soon as you notice them, but not during periods of wet weather.
To prevent pathogen spread, avoid overhead watering and space your plants properly. Fungicides can also be used as a preventative measure, applied in spring and/or fall.
Seiridium Cankers
Caused by species of Seiridium fungi that overwinter in infected bark, Seiridium cankers cause browning in individual branches, also referred to as flagging.
Resinous, oozing cankers are often observed on the trunk near the origin of infected branches.
Over time, the disease can spread to additional branches, especially in humid conditions with mild temps.
Seiridium cankers can kill a plant in several years, or in under a year with younger, smaller trees or exposure to a stronger strain of Seiridium.
There are no known chemical controls for this disease.
Prune and pitch infected branches, maintaining plant health as best you can. Severely infected trees should be removed from the landscape to prevent further spread.
Winter Damage
Physiological in nature rather than pathogenic, winter damage is caused by harsh sun and wind exposure during the dormant months.
The leaves desiccate more quickly than the tree is able to take up water, which can leave foliage with a winterburned, reddish-brown hue.
Watering properly and mulching thoroughly in advance of dormancy will give your plants a fighting chance.
Additionally, putting up a burlap screen will help block out damaging winds. And be mindful of your deicing efforts through the winter – salt accumulation around these trees can lead to salt burn and further desiccation.
Not just cloning potatoes via planting roots, but actually harvesting seed from the fruits and planting them!
It’s a real treasure hunt to pull seed-grown potatoes, as the diversity is amazing. When you plant tubers, you get exactly the same thing you planted. With seeds, you are playing the lottery (but with much better success)!
The topic has been of interest to me for some years, but I haven’t been able to do anything with it. Potatoes refused to grow on our old homestead in the tropics.
In North Florida we had some potatoes set seed for us, but most years they don’t produce any fruit. We didn’t save them, either, as we were working on other projects.
As Lofthouse explains in his video, failure to set seed is a problem with varieties that have been propagated for many generations via cloning rather than sexual reproduction.
I’ll watch for fruits this year in the potato patch. We are growing five varieties – perhaps one of them will be vigorous enough to fruit.
Some vegetables just aren’t worth it! After you add up all the expenses from buying the seeds or plants, the water bill, and other supplies, you may have spent more money on the vegetables than if you just bought them from the store. These are some of the most expensive vegetables you might want to skip growing in your garden.
If you were to tour my garden, you might be surprised by how few vegetables I grow. In an urban garden, I’m very careful with what I choose to grow in my space.
The honest reason why? Many veggies just aren’t worth it.
These expensive vegetables, in my experience, are not worth the time, constant watering, seed starting, finessing, and space in your garden. Instead, I would buy them from the grocery store or farmer’s market!
But before I tell you what I’m passing on, let me say that everyone is different. These may be hard to grow where I live but easy where you are.
Alternatively, there’s pride and joy in growing your own produce. You may even get better flavours and heirloom varieties when you grow them yourself. Plus, you know exactly where it’s coming from and what went into growing it.
Jump ahead to…
7 Most Expensive Vegetables to Grow
When I say most “expensive,” I mean that based on pure mathematics, these vegetables are not worth spending your time and gardening supplies on. You’d save more money by buying them from a farmer’s market or store!
Alternatively, make sure you check out this post about the cheapest vegetables to grow so you can plan your garden for harvest!
1. Broccoli and Cauliflower
Broccoli and cauliflower belong to the same family and have a similar growth pattern. Nine times out of ten, your homegrown broccoli and cauliflower won’t look anything like you see at the grocery store.
The vegetables may button, forming small heads instead of one big one. Cauliflower may also not appear pure white, but rather yellow and browning from conditions like not getting the right nutrients.
Both require a long growing season and are quite picky regarding temperature. Insects also like to eat broccoli and cauliflower, so you may have competition at harvest time.
2. Cabbage and Head Lettuce
Cabbage and head lettuce are not worth the headache. They have long growing seasons, take up lots of space, and often get eaten up by cabbage worms and aphids before you can have a bite yourself.
As far as cabbage goes, it’s also pretty inexpensive to buy at the grocery store. Head lettuce, however, is pricey these days.
It’s much easier to grow lettuce in containers where the bugs are less likely to eat them. Succession plant loose leaf and small leaf lettuce so you can harvest as you need rather than waiting for a head.
3. Corn
Corn takes up a whole lot of room for the amount of corn you’ll get. One plant only produces 2-4 ears of corn if you do well. Mice and squirrels also like to eat corn ears.
In my experience, corn is also difficult to grow. It takes a long time to get big enough and often won’t reach the soaring heights you see in corn mazes.
When it comes time to harvest corn, it’s very cheap to buy in stores. I’m talking $1 a corn cheap.
Fresh corn is very sweet, so I can only see it worth growing if you don’t live near a fresh supply of corn.
4. Melons
If you’re able to grow a melon, whether that’s watermelon or cantaloupe, good on you! For most of us with a cooler climate, you’re likely not going to have a long enough growing season to grow these fruits (I know, not technically a vegetable!).
However, if you do manage to grow one from seed starting or your climate allows it, the size of the plant and the amount of fruit you end up with usually aren’t worth the effort.
Unless fresh juicy watermelon is your favourite and you have room for it, pass on this one.
5. Winter Squash
Winter squash, such as pumpkins, butternut, acorn, and spaghetti, face similar space issues to melon. They sprawl quite a bit and don’t have a high yield. You can use a trellis and grow vertically for some varieties…but then you need a trellis!
Another huge issue with growing winter squash is dealing with squash vine borers.
On the plus side, growing squash can be fun due to its sheer variety of shapes, colours, and types.
6. Asparagus
I go back and forth with asparagus. One on hand, it’s one of the most expensive vegetables to buy at the grocery store, so growing it yourself would seem like a good move for the wallet.
On the other hand, it takes quite a while to get a good yield. As a perennial, it takes a minimum of one year to get any asparagus and can take up to five to get a good-sized yield.
But if you don’t mind the long game, you could have a giving asparagus plant for 15 years or more.
7. Onions
Have you ever grown a plant that grows below ground, only to pull it up and be… disappointed (to say the least). Onions are rarely as big as when you buy them at the store or market, and they aren’t too pricey to buy, either.
Instead, I would recommend growing scallion seeds instead. This includes green onions, salad onions, and spring onions. These are cold hardy, and you can harvest them as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions About Expensive Vegetables
Why are vegetables so expensive right now?
Grocery bills have risen considerably, and the produce department is no exception. Climate change is a big factor, according to scientists. Arizona is the main provider for many of North America’s leafy greens, and the droughts have resulted in lowered levels in the Colorado River which feeds many of the farms.
California is the USA’s top agricultural producer, and they have been seeing huge droughts the past few years (hello, wildfires). Now, they’re experiencing abnormal rain, which has affected the broccoli and cauliflower crops.
Some crops like predictability, making it increasingly difficult to keep specific crops happy.
What is the most expensive vegetable?
Yartsa Gunbu is considered the most expensive vegetable in the world, a mushroom native only to Tibet. It can only grow on ghost moth caterpillars due to a parasitic fungus.
When shopping at the grocery store, some vegetables are almost always more expensive. This includes asparagus, rhubarb, red peppers, salad mixes, herbs, snap peas, artichokes, and anything out of season or that takes a long time to grow.
What vegetables do you pass on? Let me know in the comments below! Plus, make sure you check out this post about the cheapest vegetables to grow, and give your garden more bang for its buck.
A great outdoor living space goes well beyond a porch with a couple of chairs or a back deck with a grill and seating area. To really get the most out of an outdoor space, consider it another room in your house. For example, create a living room outdoors with everything you need to enjoy the space, from furniture to potted plants and even rugs.
Creating Living Space Outdoors
A perfect, functional outdoor living room isn’t hard to achieve. Here are 5 ways you can create an outdoor living space:
Create boundaries for the space. Rooms are bounded by walls indoors, and while you probably don’t want to wall off part of your garden, at least I wouldn’t, there are ways to divide space to create an obvious room. Doing so will make your outdoor living space cozier. A fence is one option, or even a low stone wall, but you don’t have to go that far. You can also use hedges, containers, planters, trellises and pergolas, climbing vines, and even outdoor furniture to outline a “room.”
Create a focal point. As you’re planning the boundaries of your room, consider a focal point. This could be something already in your garden, like a tree, or something you add, such as a fireplace or oven. Having this one point of reference will make the remainder of the design space easier. Everything else should complement it.
Choose the right furniture. A living space outdoors must have adequate seating and tables. For an outdoor living room, choose comfortable seating that is designed to withstand the elements. A couch and a couple of chairs, an outdoor ottoman, a couple of small tables, and some fun seating like a swing or a hammock, will make your outdoor living space great for relaxing and entertaining.
Ensure flow in the space. Design your outdoor space with functionality in mind. Make sure the arrangement of furniture, plants, and other elements doesn’t impede movement between the house, outdoor room and garden. It should be easy to get from one area to the other. Also, design the living space to take advantage of views. Set it up so that you can enjoy the rest of your garden wherever you’re sitting.
Add the finishing touches. Don’t forget the little details that will make your outdoor space feel more like a room. Add some art, sculptures, potted plants, and other decorative items that match your style and the feel you’re going for in your outside space. To save money, try scouring flea markets for items like old planters, benches, or architectural remnants.
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I love plant seeds! Probably a little too much. Vegetable seeds. Flower seeds. Herb seeds. Any seeds. I love them all! And I have many. So many, in fact (and I keep acquiring more), that finding a good place to store them can be tricky.
Seeds the Day
I don’t have a lot of space. Everything is normally crammed into whatever empty niche I can find or make use of. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not trashy looking or anything, and I’m not surrounded by piles of stuff floor to ceiling, but it’s cramped. My house isn’t that big. And when I do find a place to store items, there’s the issue of having to move around a bunch of things to find what I want, when I want. Never mind the fact that I’ve reached a point in my life where finding anything can be overwhelming, as I tend to forget the “safe places” I’ve put them. If you’ve ever watched a dog or cat chase its tail, then this is a pretty good description of me looking for something. I’ve literally spent hours (even days) walking around in circles trying to remember where I’ve put this or that. It’s not pretty! Add in jars or bags or envelopes filled with seeds for the garden and this soon becomes scary.
Seed Storage Made Simple
Enter the Seedy Side of Town… my creative answer to seed storage which works for me. It’s nothing more than a large 3-ring binder filled with archival sleeves that safely houses all my seed packets (or envelopes of seeds I harvested myself). I even have it neatly organized into specific categories like Fruit and Veggies, Flowers, and Herbs. Each seed category is also in alphabetical order, so I can find exactly what I want, when I want. And as each seed packet gets used, I’m able to keep track of what needs to be replaced. I also keep extra archival sleeves on hand for new additions. Best of all, my binder fits easily on a shelf in a darkened corner of my office where it can be found anytime. No more walking or running around in circles.
So why the “seedy side of town” moniker? It’s simply a quirky play on words coupled with the fact that it’s not the kind of place you’d expect to find plant seeds. I’m a writer after all, and an unusual one at that. I’m also a gardener that loves planting seeds (and obviously collecting them too). At the time of this writing, seed catalogs are filling my mailbox, enticing me to add more interesting plants to my ever-growing seed assortment. And I have to say I’m up for a good challenge, though there may need to be another seed-packed binder in my future – perhaps titled The Need for Seed.
Choosing a thoughtful Mother’s Day gift is a lovely way to thank your mum for all that they do for you. And if you get creative and personalise the gift, they will treasure it all the more. Choosing such a gift can sometimes be a daunting experience, but this doesn’t have to be the case.
In this article, we’ll cover a few ideas for personalised Mother’s Day gifts to make mum’s day extra special.
1. Create a personalised photo collage
One of the best Mother’s Day gifts you can get to make mum feel extra cherished is a personalised photo collage. Gather together precious photos of the two of you together, include memorable occasions and funny faces, and maybe put other family members in there too. You can get creative and use text, frames, and colours to create something unique for her special day.
Because this gift can be displayed on a wall or bookshelf it will make Mother’s Day memorable for years to come.
2. Surprise her with Mother’s Day flowers
There’s no better way to express your love and appreciation to someone than using flowers. That’s why when looking for the perfect gift for mom on this special day you can never go wrong with a beautiful arrangement of Mother’s Day flowers.
Chrysanthemums, tulips, hydrangeas, roses, orchids, or even carnations are all brilliant options. To make it personalised, you could choose her favorite colour or birth month flowers, and add a special hand-written note to accompany the blooms.
3. Cook something special for her
Make Mother’s Day meaningful and memorable by cooking something special for your mum. Show her you care with a homemade meal – think comforting dishes like mac and cheese, shepherd’s pie, or lasagne accompanied by her favourite salad. Or maybe try some international cuisine or impressive baking – whatever she likes best.
Serve it with love and plenty of affection to make the day one she will never forget.
4. Pamper her in luxury
When was the last time you gave your mum some pampering? This Mother’s Day you could treat her to a beauty session, or surprise her with spa vouchers. An hour of massage therapy and relaxation is guaranteed to go down well.
Alternatively, you can prepare a luxurious bath with some scented oils and candles. It’s a great way to give mum some time out to indulge, unwind, recharge, and feel loved.
5. Decorate her house with something that speaks volumes
Make it personal this Mother’s Day by decorating her home. Give a thoughtful nod to some of her favourite things, like adding charm and personality through wall décor with art, pictures, or prints featuring quotes she loves. You could even create a floral display in one of her favourite colours, pick up an elegant vase that suits the aesthetic of her home, or spruce up her balcony with spring flowers in pots.
If you like the idea of a less traditional gift, why not pick out a special pillow for the couch, comfy rugs, or some scented candles? These timeless gifts can bring pleasure and comfort each time she enters a room.
6. Give her something she’s been dreaming of
Finally, you could also gift her by making her dream(s) come true. For example, buy her a ticket to watch the show she’s always wanted to see, or get that pair of designer shoes she has been saving up for. Even a piece of jewellery such as a ring symbolising years of togetherness can be highly appreciated as an act of genuine love on this special day.
For something a bit more practical, how about getting her a new home appliance or a new tech device? Whatever it is that you choose, let it demonstrate your feelings and show you understand what makes her happy.
These gifting ideas will inspire you to get the ideal personalised gift that shows creativity and communicates love this coming Mother’s Day.
You’ve decided you want to start a garden this year. Aside from access to a patch of dirt, what do you really need to start growing?
Depending on who you ask, you will get a wide variety of answers—but not before being asked many, many questions in return, such as: What kind of garden? Will it be a flower or vegetable or a mix of both? How much sun do you have? What kind of soil? You get the drift.
Maybe you only have a vague idea or just want tasty tomatoes, and that’s okay! Before we start, we’re going to make some assumptions. First is that you have a location picked out, that it has adequate sun, and access to water. Second, you know your growing zone. This may be the single most important piece of information needed for gardening. Your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone tells you how cold your area gets and the first and last average frost dates. With this knowledge, you can pick plants that can thrive in your garden. Most seed packets and plant tags will have this information so you can pick the right plants. Last, you have a basic knowledge of plants and a curiosity to learn more—which you obviously do, since you’re reading this!
Now, on to arming yourself with the right tools. Below are five things you’ll need as a first-time gardener for spring.
N.B.: Featured photograph of purple flowering chives via Swedish-German real estate site Fantastic Frank.
Shovels, spades and trowels—shovels for moving large amounts of soil and clearing a space; spades for digging holes for planting large plants; and trowels for smaller transplants. Not as crucial but highly useful is a Japanese hori hori knife. They are probably one of the most versatile garden tools because they can weed, cut, divide, and dig. They are very sharp and demand respect, and are best acquired when you have some experience under your belt.
I love all flowers and plants, and I love to try new introductions with my existing plantings.
I prefer to have lots of pollinators. I also prefer a more natural and wild look. I live in Ohio, Zone 6a. This year I will be planting dahlias. I have planted small border ones in the past. This year I’m going for a BIG impact. I have also ordered several new irises. I just love everything about gardening!!
Nothing delivers big impact like poppies! (Papaverorientale, Zones 3–8).
Countless ornamental onions (Allium, Zones 4–8) fill the spring garden with purple.
So much color from foliage! A red-leaved Japanese maple (Acerpalmatum, Zones 5–9) complements the golden color of the heuchera (Heuchera hybrid, Zones 4–9) under it.
A double-flowered azalea (Rhododendron hybrid, Zones 5–9) covers itself with blooms in the spring.
The hanging pot of red geraniums (Pelargonium hybrid, Zones 8–10 or as an annual) absolutely glows against the white wall behind it.
Lupines (Lupinus hybrids, Zones 2–8) are hard to beat with their tall, dense spires of purple flowers.
Stopping by the pond to feed the fish
This planting is all about pink, from pink phlox (Phloxpaniculata, Zones 4–8), echinacea (Echinaceapurpurea, Zones 3–8), and a lily (Lilium hybrid, Zones 5–9).
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of our work is sharing our landscaping and design expertise with our clients. Sometimes we meet a client who has never worked with a landscape professional and our team gets to be the example for them of quality service, but even more frequently we are sought out by a client for our reputation of knowledge and great service.
Many however, argue that it is unnecessary to hire an industry professional… let’s debunk some common mistaken beliefs.
Myth #1 – Hiring a certified landscaper is too expensive.
Truth – A certified landscaper saves you money. Your landscape is part of your home, and for most people, your home is your single greatest investment. As with most things, doing it right from the start saves you money and time in the long run. That’s where a quality landscape professional can help!
A certified landscaper can make sure that you’re getting the most from your property. An otherwise unusable steep slope can become a beautiful, terraced garden, or the addition of properly situated shade trees can cut down energy costs as well as add beauty and value to your home. Our professionals can create a space that works for you!
“We have several certified landscape technicians on staff, which provide our team members with training and knowledge needed within the industry to maintain our clients’ properties to the highest of standards. With Farmside you will have access to a vast knowledge base of all aspects of the industry to assist in your landscaping needs and maintain a beautiful landscape.”
Myth #2 – Only people with large properties need to hire certified professionals.
Truth – Preserving and enhancing your property with the help of a certified landscaper is a smart move no matter what size your property is.
Even smaller properties have natural assets that should be cared for properly as well as challenges that can benefit from a certified professional’s assessment and advice. During the winter months- ice, snow, sleet, and snow and equipment wreak havoc on lawns, plantings and hardscapes. A certified landscaper can help you protect and repair these valuable elements of your home’s exterior.
Why hire a certified professional for small jobs like pruning and trimming?
A knowledgeable green industry professional can help you make decisions to further your property’s health while beautifying it for the eye. In some cases a plant may be growing roots that are projecting to be harmful to a hardscape on your property. The right resource can guide you to make calls for your landscape that can save you money, but also grow your space!
Myth #3 – The only difference between a landscaper that’s certified and one that isn’t is the cost.
Truth –The time, effort and dedication that goes into acquiring certification brings with it a level of expertise and professionalism that cannot be otherwise compared.
One of the most important benefits you’ll get with a certified landscape professional is peace of mind. You can be assured that the in-depth training and education our staff receives ensures the highest level of professionalism. We offer creative solutions while adhering to best practices that follow strict safety standards and environmentally sound approaches to everything we do. The result is a landscape that not only looks stunning, but that you can also feel good about.
What are some of your landscape concerns?
Share them with us here and we’ll address them in upcoming blog posts.
Back when I was in high school, there were a fair number of jocks, i.e. sport-playing athletic people. And while the single-sport kids made it pretty far, it was the multi-sport folks who were the greatest athletes.
The ones who played a different sport every season had the most adaptability, cross-conditioning, and all-around physical awesomeness.
Similarly to these athletes, plants that perform well in every season are the most exemplary.
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One such plant is the coral bark Japanese maple, which – in addition to stunning spring, summer, and fall foliage – also looks amazing in winter.
Even when defoliated during dormancy, the coral pink young growth provides all the splendor you could ask for in the off-season.
In this guide, we’ll provide all the information required to grow this wonderful type of Japanese maple yourself.
Here’s a preview of everything I’ll cover:
What Are Coral Bark Japanese Maples?
“Coral bark Japanese maple” is the common name for various cultivars of A. palmatum with this feature.
What makes coral barks so special? I’m glad you asked! But here’s a prerequisite primer:
As autumn draws near, the leaves of deciduous trees such as Japanese maples lose chlorophyll in a process known as senescence, which reveals carotenoid, anthocyanin, and xanthophyll pigments within the leaves.
The drawback of this senescence is right there in the name: the gradual deterioration that comes with age. This culminates in the leaves starting to drop, eventually leaving a tree completely defoliated by the time winter rolls around.
And unless the tree has an aesthetic growth habit or bark to look at, then it’ll sort of just… exist in the landscape without contributing much to the scenery.
Thankfully, coral barks have the color and a typically upright branching growth habit to draw the eye, even during the dormant season.
The growing habit of ‘Sango Kaku’ is upright and vase-shaped, for example, while other cultivars with this feature may have a broad or rounded habit.
These forms display the coral colors of the young branches prominently for all to see – it’s the ultimate ornamental alley-oop!
During their first and second years of growth, the branches are a rich coral pink color, which stands out starkly in the dreary winter landscape. The color of the trunk and older branches varies, depending on the cultivar and particular specimen.
Sometimes color fades in a gradient, eventually resulting in a brown to gray hue, while in other specimens the color remains just as prominent as trees age.
Add to that the stunning foliage – light green in spring, changing to a darker shade of green in summer with shades of red, orange, and/or yellow appearing in fall – and you’ve got a plant with year-round visual interest.
This is uncommon for a deciduous tree, which makes a coral bark a fantastic ornamental addition to the garden in all seasons.
Cultivation and History
Like most forms of A. palmatum, coral barks are best grown in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8, and their heritage traces back to a region encompassing China, Japan, and Korea. As a whole, Japanese maples have been cultivated in Japan for centuries.
Northern Ireland’s Daisy Hill Nurseries introduced the popular ‘Sankaki’ cultivar for commercial sale in the UK in the 1920s. Some time after, it was renamed ‘Sango-Kaku.’
It was under this moniker that it received the Award of Garden Merit in 1993 from the UK’s Royal Horticultural Society – a prestigious award from a distinguished organization.
In the United States, this cultivar has become a beloved variety. But there are other cultivars to choose from as well, which we’ll cover below in the Cultivars to Select section.
Propagation
It’s best to propagate this variety by rooting cuttings or via transplanting, which we’ll cover here.
I’m hesitant to recommend growing from seed because of any potential genetic variance that could leave you with a less-than-glorious tree that does not share the same qualities as the parent.
These methods will also give you results much more quickly than starting plants from seed.
This method is as simple as taking softwood cuttings with a sterilized blade, applying a rooting hormone to the ends of their defoliated lower halves, and rooting them in an appropriate growing medium.
From there, you’ll harden them off outdoors in spring until they’re conditioned to survive outside. At that point they’re ready for transplanting into their permanent location.
This is definitely the simpler of the two options. It’s a matter of purchasing a transplant, digging a hole that’s slightly larger than the size of the root system, lowering the plant in, backfilling with the dug-out soil, and then deeply watering it in.
If you select a large transplant to begin with, you may want to recruit some help with planting or consider hiring a professional.
Staking young transplants during the first year or two after planting can help to protect them against harsh winds.
You’ll also want to keep the soil evenly moist for a few years after installation until the transplant becomes established, at which point you can reduce supplemental irrigation.
How to Grow
It would be a shame for the potential of this beautiful tree to go to waste due to improper cultivation. With these pointers, you’ll be able to get it right the first time.
Climate and Exposure Needs
As stated earlier, these trees need to be cultivated in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8 for optimal growth.
Choose a location protected from strong winds, and be sure to provide a full sun to partial shade exposure.
Soil Needs
Ideal soil for this variety must drain really well. But one of the strengths of the coral bark Japanese maple is its ability to grow in extreme textures such as heavy clay, so don’t be stressed if your soil doesn’t drain like a colander.
These trees can also tolerate sandy soils, leaving you with plenty of options for planting.
Soil with a pH between 5.5 and 6.5 is best for optimal growth, although this variety isn’t too picky and can tolerate values outside this range.
Irrigation and Fertilizer Needs
Once it’s established, a coral bark Japanese maple prefers moderate levels of irrigation, so water deeply whenever the top few inches of the soil dry out.
This type is also pretty drought tolerant, so don’t fret if you forget about watering on occasion once trees are established.
Japanese maples aren’t heavy feeders, so hold off on supplemental fertilization during the first year of growth. After that first year, fertilize in early spring just prior to leaf emergence.
A splendid product for the job is this all-purpose, controlled-release granular fertilizer from Osmocote, which is available in eight-pound packages at The Home Depot.
It will help to raise soil nutrient levels and feed your tree for up to six months!
Once established, irrigate whenever the top one to two inches of soil feel dry.
Pruning and Maintenance
Wounded maple trees bleed sap rather excessively, so it’s best to prune an Acer in late fall or winter to keep sap loss to a minimum. Sick, dead, or dying branches are an exception, and these should be pruned right away.
Suckers may pop out of the soil near the trunk periodically, and seedlings may sprout in places where you don’t want them to. The former should be cut down as low to the ground as you can, while the latter should be pulled whenever you happen to see them.
A couple inches of mulch spread near the trunk will help with weed suppression, moisture retention, and regulating the temperature of the soil.
Not too near the trunk, though – this can suffocate and waterlog the roots. To avoid this, leave a few inches of clearance between the trunk and any adjacent mulch.
Frost damage can show up in coral bark maple trees as browned, blackened, or shriveled foliage, which isn’t an aesthetic look at all. Thankfully, the foliage usually regrows after damaged leaves fall.
To prevent frost damage in the first place, plant coverings can be draped over small, young trees, which tend to be the most vulnerable. Set yours up like a teepee with a flared base to capture rising heat.
Leaf scorch can also be an issue, especially in younger trees that are stressed by an overly warm environment or a lack of water.
This shows up as browned leaf tips, along with chlorosis or further browning between leaf veins.
Besides paying extra close attention to a coral bark’s water needs during hot and dry periods, mulching as described can help to prevent leaf scorch by conserving soil moisture.
Cultivars to Select
If A. palmatum trees were your generic fruit-flavored candy and coral barks were Skittles, then the following cultivars would be the special Wild Berry, Tropical, and Sour Skittles among them: hyper-specific kinds of an already quite particular type of sweetness.
Convoluted metaphor aside, here are some gorgeous coral bark maple cultivars to consider:
Aka Kawa Hime
Growing seven to nine feet tall and five to six feet wide at maturity, ‘Aka Kawa Hime’ is a small coral bark that packs ornamental beauty in a compact package.
Hardy down to Zone 9, this cultivar’s spring yellow-green leaves turn full-on green in summer, then take a golden-yellow shade tinged with red in fall.
A form akin to an upright vase shape ensures that despite its diminutive size, ‘Aka Kawa Hime’ still stands proudly. Trees in one- and three-gallon containers are available from Maple Ridge Nursery.
Beni-Kawa
Right out of the gate, you’ll notice that ‘Beni-Kawa’ has salmon-red bark, which is a pleasant deviation from the typical coral pink.
Upright and vase-shaped, with a height and spread of five to 15 feet at maturity, this cultivar has foliage that emerges a red-tinged light green in spring, matures to a darker green in summer, and transforms to reveal a bright golden-yellow come autumn.
It’s pretty tough to burn out on coral pink bark… but if you do, ‘Beni-Kawa’ will provide some variety that’s a few shades darker.
Maple Ridge Nursery offers ‘Beni-Kawa’ specimens in starter pots and three-gallon containers.
Eddisbury
If you want even more distance from coral pink hues, the scarlet bark of ‘Eddisbury’ is just what you’re looking for.
Bronzed-green spring leaves, bright green summer leaves, and crimson-edged golden-yellow fall foliage come standard on the ‘Eddisbury,’ along with a 10- to 15-foot height and six- to 10-foot spread when fully grown.
Photo via Alamy.
With an upright form that broadens out with maturity, this cultivar offers a red-barked alternative to the pinkness you may need a break from.
Sango-Kaku
The award-winning ‘Sango-Kaku’ reaches heights of 20 to 25 feet and spreads of 15 to 20 feet. Its spring foliage emerges in a pinkish-yellow color, matures to light green in summer, and changes to a light yellow autumnal shade before the leaves drop.
‘Sango- Kaku’ means “coral tower” in Japanese, which describes said bark and this tree’s branching habit perfectly.
This upright vase-shaped habit and iconic coral pink bark color – along with the foliage – further cement this cultivar as the undisputed poster child among coral bark maples.
To acquire one for yourself, FastGrowingTrees.com sells specimens in two- to four-foot sizes.
Winter Flame
At a height of eight to 10 feet with a spread of six to eight feet, ‘Winter Flame’ is just a bit bigger than ‘Aka Kawa Hime.’
As the only entry on this list to have a broad and rounded growing habit instead of an upright one, ‘Winter Flame’ is perfect for when you want a coral bark maple with a bit more girth in proportion to its height.
Spring, summer, and fall foliage stand out in successive color changes from lime-green to standard green, and finally in shades of yellow to orange to red before the arrival of winter.
It’s important to use sterilized tools, disease-free soil, and otherwise sanitary gardening practices to prevent infection and infestations from occurring.
Plus, caring for your plants properly ensures that they’ll be healthy enough to fight off any pests or diseases that happen to strike.
There are no notable herbivores to worry about, thankfully! In fact, coral barks are especially resistant to rabbit damage.
Aphids, invasive shothole borers, leafrollers, leafhoppers, and mapleworms are all creepy-crawlies that warrant keeping an eye out for. Our guide to Japanese maple pests covers these and more.
When it comes to sickness, stay on high alert for anthracnose and bacterial blight, as well as frost damage and leaf scorch.
You can learn more about Japanese maple diseases in our guide. (coming soon!)
Best Uses
A coral bark Japanese maple is too good-looking to serve as anything less than an alluring specimen, so place it in a spot where it will be a main focal point in the landscape.
These trees provide year-round visual interest, so choose a location where yours can be viewed and enjoyed throughout each season of the year.
Quick Reference Growing Guide
Plant Type:
Deciduous tree
Flower/Foliage Color:
Red, purple/green, yellow, orange, red (coral to red bark on new growth)
Whether it was the result of breeding or someone happened upon them in a stroke of genetic luck, coral bark Japanese maples broke new ground in the gardening world, offering year-round appeal.
Not to undersell the foliage, of course – the vast range of leaf colors on a ‘Sango Kaku’ or one of the other gorgeous varieties that are available is hard to beat.
I’ve spent a fair share of time studying Acer palmatum, and this is the coolest type of Japanese maple that I’ve come across, hands down.
I say this without hyperbole: adding a coral bark to your landscape might be one of the best gardening decisions you’ll ever make.
Any questions about, insights on, or experiences with growing this plant should go in the comments section below!
If this guide has whet your appetite for more Japanese maple know-how, satiate it with these guides next:
Canning green beans is a great way to enjoy them all year round. In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to do it with simple step by step instructions.
If you have an overabundance of green beans from your garden (and who doesn’t), canning them is one of the best ways to use them up before they go bad.
It’s also a great way to enjoy them all year round, and they make a quick and heat-and-serve side dish for any meal.
Below I’m going to show you all you need to know about how to can green beans, including tons of tips so that you will have the best success.
Best Types Of Green Beans For Canning
The best green beans to use for canning are ones that are tender, crisp, and as fresh as possible. They should snap easily when you bend them.
Large or overly mature green beans tend to get tough and stringy. So, if you’re picking them from your garden, choose the small to medium sized ones for canning.
Some good varieties include Kentucky wonder, Refugee, Provider, Blue Lake, Contender, Goldmine, Strike, Stringless Green pod, and Tendergreen.
One of the things that makes canning green beans so easy is that you don’t need to blanch or cook them first.
In fact you should NOT try hot packing or blanching them, because after they’re exposed to high heat in the pressure canner, they’ll likely end up mushy.
Raw packing is the best method to use, and the quickest. You simply fill the jars tightly with the uncooked green beans, cover them with boiling water, and you’re ready to process them.
Eating my home canned green beans
Pressure Canning Green Beans
The only safe way to can green beans at home is by using a pressure canner.
Because they are low in acidity, green beans need to be processed at a very high heat to kill all of the harmful bacteria, which cannot be achieved in a boiling water bath.
Tools & Equipment Needed
Below is a list of the items you’ll need to can green beans. Be sure to gather everything before you start to simplify the process. You can see my full list of tools and supplies here.
Preparing to can fresh green beans
How To Store Canned Green Beans
It’s important to store your canned green beans in a cool, dry, and dark place, such as in a pantry or cupboard.
But first you should check each lid to make sure it has a tight seal. If any of them didn’t seal, then put those into the fridge and eat them up within a week.
How Long Do Canned Green Beans Last?
Canned green beans will last for up to 2 years when stored properly. Make sure you label them so you know when they’ll expire.
Before eating them, always be sure to check that the lid still has a tight seal, and discard any that have popped while in storage.
Canned green beans cooling after processing
FAQs
Below I’ve answered some of the most common questions I get about canning green beans. If you still have questions, ask them in the comments section.
What is the best method for canning green beans?
The best method for canning green beans, and the only safe way to do it without increasing the acidity, is to use a pressure canner. They are a low-acid food, and a water bath cannot get them hot enough to kill all of the harmful bacteria.
Can you can green beans without a pressure canner?
No, you cannot safely can green beans without a pressure canner unless you add acidity, like pickling them, for example.
What is the pressure canning time for green beans?
The standard time for canning green beans is to process them for 25 minutes at 11 pounds of pressure. Be sure to adjust this time for altitude, if necessary.
Do green beans need to be blanched before canning?
No, green beans do not need to be blanched before canning, and you shouldn’t even try to do it that way, because they likely will end up mushy. You can simply add them into your jars raw, which results in the best flavor and texture.
Canning green beans is easy and quick, and perfect for beginners to start with. It’s a great way to preserve your garden’s bounty, and enjoy them all winter long.
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Share your tips for canning green beans in the comments section below.
Recipe & Instructions
Yield: 4 pints
How To Can Green Beans
Canning green beans is a great way to enjoy them all year round. Learn everything you need to know with these easy to follow steps.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Additional Time 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour20 minutes
Instructions
Prepare the pressure canner – Position the rack in the bottom of your pressure canner, then fill it with 2-3” of boiling water, or per your canners user manual. Different models may vary.
Prepare the green beans – Rinse your green beans then use a knife to remove the ends and stems, and cut the beans into 2 inch pieces.
Pack the jars – Add your green beans into each canning jar, taking care to pack them tightly, and leaving a 1 ½” headspace on top.
Add boiling water – Use your funnel and ladle to pour boiling water over the green beans to fill each jar, keeping 1” of headspace on top. Optionally, you can add a ½ teaspoon of salt per pint for flavor if you’d like.
Remove air bubbles – Use a bubble popping tool or wooden skewer to remove any large air bubbles from the jar. Don’t use a metal tool for this, as it can damage the glass.
Place the lids and rings on – Wipe the rim of each jar with a damp paper towel. Then place a new lid on top followed by a band, and twist just enough to secure them, while not over tightening.
Put the jars into the canner – Use your lifting tool to carefully place each jar into the canner right after you fill it so they don’t have a chance to cool down.
Lock the lid – Once all of the jars are inside, place the lid on your pressure canner, lock it into place, and bring it to a boil on high heat.
Process the jars – Let the canner vent for 10 minutes before closing it. Continue heating to reach 11 PSI for a dial gauge, and 10 PSI for a weighted gauge. Then process the jars for 25 minutes.
Remove the jars – Turn off the heat and allow the canner to cool completely before opening it and removing the jars. This can take 20-30 minutes.
Cool and label – Let the jars sit out on the counter until they reach room temperature, then remove the bands and label them. You can either write on the tops with a permanent marker, or use dissolvable labels. Store them in a cool, dark place.
Notes
Because green beans are a low-acid food, you must pressure can them. This is the only way to ensure all bacteria is destroyed, and that they are safe to eat.
It’s important to keep the jars hot at all times. So plan ahead and boil the processing water before filling them, then place them in there as soon as they are packed.
Also, be sure to work fairly quickly to pack your jars so they do not cool down before processing them.
Don’t be alarmed if you hear the random pinging sounds as the jars cool, it just means the lids are sealing.
