Changing your hydrangea color

Changing the color of your hydrangea can seem daunting, but it can actually be pretty easy if you have patience!

Hydrangea color can be changed by adjusting the pH of your soil, but it isn’t an instant change, and not all hydrangeas can be altered. If you have a big-leaf or mountain hydrangea you can change their color with time but only if they are already a shade of blue, purple or pink. If they are white they can not be changed. It may also be difficult to switch colors if the flowers had an extreme hue when you planted them. (For example, if the hydrangea was an ultra deep blue or purple, it may be near impossible to switch it to pink). It is also much easier to switch from pink to blue, but blue to pink is not impossible!

In order to begin the color-change process you will need to test your soil. You may not have to change the soil… if you bought a pink hydrangea last year and decided that your judgment was off, your soil may automatically change your hydrangea over on its own after a few years without you having to lift a finger. But you’ll never know until you test!

Blue hydrangeas love acidic soil with a pH between 5.2 and 5.5.

Pink hydrangeas  thrive in alkaline soil with a pH between 6.5 and 7.0

Like I mentioned before, the first step is to test your soil. You may want to change your pink hydrangea to blue, but your soil might already be doing that for you. You need to find your pH level.

If you want to acidify your soil for a deep blue hydrangea you will need to apply Color Me Blue in 60 day intervals over the course of the growing season.

Same goes for pink! Apply Color Me Pink or Garden Lime in 60 day intervals over the course of the growing season. Also take note if your hydrangea is planted near a sidewalk or walkway. Lime that leaches from concrete will make it more likely that your hydrangea will be or will turn pink.

Your color change will be gradual and may take a few years! Don’t get discouraged, you will start to see your blooms change eventually. Your hydrangea may possibly bloom with three different colors on it at one time! How awesome would that be?

 

Have fun and good luck and feel free to contact us if you have any questions! We are also able to test your soil for you for free! Make sure to bring in a bucket or ziplock bag of soil (at least 1-2 cups) and we can tell you your pH level.

 

Boxwood Blight

On this March day, I’m already thinking about what the spring will bring– new plants, new gardens, and new diseases.  That last one is sometimes my least favorite thing about gardening.  And this year’s new disease is boxwood blight, which is caused by a fungus called Cylindrocladium pseudonaviculatum.

Boxwood blight hasn’t been around for all that long.  It was first identified in the United States in 2011, and in New Jersey late in 2013.  And since boxwoods are such a landscape staple, anything that attacks them is of immediate concern.  The hosts of boxwood blight include all types of boxwood, pachysandra, and Sarcococca.  Dwarf English and American boxwood are particularly susceptible to this disease.

Boxwood blight is a disease with particularly distinctive symptoms.  The leaves develop brown lesions with dark borders, and the infected leaves will turn brown or straw colored.  The stems will develop angular brown or black lesions.  Leaf drop occurs shortly after the lesions appear.  The defoliation will begin near the tips and proceed into the plant, giving it a strange, twiggy appearance.  The disease can spread very rapidly from plant to plant.

Unfortunately, there is no available cure for boxwood blight.  However, there are some preventative measures which can be taken.  When purchasing new boxwood plants, make sure to inspect for any of the symptoms.  In boxwood plantings, be sure plants have enough space for good air flow and rake leaf debris away from the plants, as the fungus can live in the leaves for up to five years.  If your plants begin to exhibit the symptoms of boxwood blight, the whole plant should be removed immediately and placed in a plastic bag.  Infected plants should never be composted.

Some alternatives to boxwood include:

• Japanese holly
• Rhododendrons
• Cherry laurels
• Japanese andromeda
• Japanese plum yew

All of these plants are evergreens which can be used in similar ways to boxwood.

Seed Droppers

Self sowing plants – do you welcome them or not?  I have some faves that I let go wild.   Actually, probably more go wild than are controlled in my garden , if the truth is going to be told here.  Plants that throw themselves around willy-nilly often end up in a spot that they look great in.   Okay – not always,  but those that are an eyesore can easily be removed.    Well,  maybe not all so easily either – some are a damn nuisance and a real challenge to remove.  Moving on…..

One of the top on my list to let go wild is Verbena Bonariensis.  It’s wispy stems can come up anywhere in the midst of other plants and rise above everything that surrounds them.  Very rarely does it clash and need to be removed.    It blooms all summer, is a butterfly and bee magnet, and in the fall the gold finches spend their days picking the seeds out of the flower heads.   What’s not to love about this plant?  My niece, who is a gardener and a garden designer generally abhors it.   On this note we differ.  It plants itself where it doesn’t belong which I love and she doesn’t.

verbena b. and allium grow
in gravel

verbena bonariensis

Verbena coming up in Amsonia – another re-seeder

The Verbena and the Allium will grow along the gravel that’s in my driveway.  The Allium is a re-seeder that’s not quite as easy to control as the Verbena but you take the good with the bad.  If it comes up where you don’t want it a shovel is necessary to get rid of it – you can’t just pluck it out.  It has those nasty deep onion roots.  Pretty when it blooms and when it goes to seed I am willing to put up with it’s nasty habits.  If I didn’t want it to spread all over my yard I could cut it back once the flowers were finished but then I would miss this show.

seed heads of allium

Salvia azurea is another seed dropper that I would never get rid of .  It blooms late in the summer alongside the Allium and Crape Myrtle and the bees go wild for it.  The sky blue color always causes people to stop and ask what’s blooming.  It’s tall and showy and easily moved.   And did I mention that it’s sky blue?

Rose campion and Echinacea and Agastache oh my.  They are all  left to do as they please as well.  Sometimes the Rose Campion can come up in a spot that is truly not wonderful – the color is a loud magenta and does not match everything it plants itself near.  The young plants are easily spotted and moved though.  Since it’s a biennial there is time to notice  it when it’s young and move it long before it sends those garish flowers up.   The cone flowers and Agastache don’t really clash with anything and are both very attractive to all my flying friends.  Bees, birds, and butterflies love both of these plants.

white carpet roses and rose campion mingle nicely

agastache coming up in between rocks in a wall

goldfinch enjoying seeds of spent cone flower

finch picking the seeds out of agastache

Forget Me Nots are easily established and will go wild if you let them.  They mix in a bed with Celandine poppy which was a really pricey  pot when I bought it years ago at Rare Find Nursery.   It has paid for itself many times over.  I have gifted many of them away since they established themselves in my beds.   They come up in all kinds of inhospitable spots where nothing else will grow.  The poppy has even filled in that dead space between the air-conditioning unit and the house, where there is barely any soil.  They also come up right against the foundation where nothing lives. If the poppy gets out of control I just shear it back so that whatever is being shaded out can get some light.  Early in the season when I am most ambitious I move forget-me-nots when there are too many – later when they have gone to seed and hundreds more start coming up I get a little disgusted and throw some in the compost heap.

forget me nots popping up in lysimachia

Primula Japonica . Sigh.  If you have ever seen someones garden where this primrose is established you will want some yourself.  I have been trying to establish some for years and finally I seem to have hit the right spot.  The area isn’t  huge but it will satisfy the craving.  Willowwood Arboretum has a carpet of them that is incredible.  I had a pretty lengthy season of bloom here and saw quite a number of seedlings coming up this fall.  I am hoping to have a returning colony this spring!

Primula japonica mixed varieties

Helleborus Foetidus seeds itself allover the limestone rock hills that surround my mother’s garden.  So annoying!  It’s like a damn weed in her garden and try as I might,  I have yet to have it reseed for me.  Maybe this will be the year.   They all bloomed beautifully and then croaked.  I made sure to spread the seeds around so they didn’t just drop where they fell .   We’ll see…

Columbine is welcome anywhere as well.  It comes up early and blooms long before many plants make an appearance.  Since it doesn’t choke out other plants I let it go where it wants.  Every year is a surprise,  since you never really know which plant dropped seeds where and what color the seedlings will be.

I could list many more but I am going to end with a few annuals that come up every year that are always a happy surprise.  Nicotiana – all kinds,  Salvia , Portulaca, Four O’Clocks ( even the Lime colored ones!) and sunflowers that the birds drop everywhere and I usually can’t bear to rip out.  Two years ago I put a pot of portulaca on the teak table you see below.  The following summer portulaca came up between the rocks all around the table.  This year there were more.  They come up in bare spots where the creepers we planted have not filled in.  How do they know?

My portulaca pot that started the explosion on my patio.

salvia and nicotiana that volunteered from previous years plantings

And these fabulous Four O’Clock’s that have been returning for three or four years now.

all volunteers around the birdbath

     My garden is a Garden Designer’s nightmare.  I don’t follow the rules – if it doesn’t work out – then I move it.  It’s my garden so I can do what I want.  Bring on the Self Sowers !

April madness and tomatoes!

We’re ashamed….

It has been exactly a month since we’ve posted anything here on our blog, and for that we are extremely sorry. The only thing that we can hope is that you are all spending as much time outside as we are – prepping and getting your gardens ready for the season!

We are still here, just working out butts off getting the greenhouses full and beautiful for the rush of May. Our yard is packed to the brim – so much that we don’t really know where to put everything, other than in your yards instead of ours. Hopefully you have all been in and noticed the changes, and if not, we hope to see you soon. This is what our parking lot looks like in the mornings before we open the gate for the day:

Just waiting to be unloaded.

Anyway, for now, we are excited to share our first guest post! Rachel is a Pennsylvania resident and worked with us for a summer a few years  back. She has since moved on, but still loves to garden. She grows veggies every year from seed and holds a huge veggie seedling sale every Spring.

Today she wants to share a little bit of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to growing tomatoes.

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Its that time of year where the average ‘Joe’ decides to turn into an expert green thumb and begin thinking about a vegetable garden.  With visions of green healthy plants yielding bounds of fresh ripe vegetables, your family can be fed well for the entire summer! Think of the barbeques and picnics with all of your fresh produce… everyone knows a fresh, ripe home-grown tomato from your backyard garden is so much better than anything ever found in a store.  

If you’ve ever tried gardening before, you know it’s a lot of work.  You may find that some years yield a jubilant healthy crop, while other years you get next to nothing.  Anyone who has ever tried growing tomatoes knows it can be one of the most satisfying yet frustrating things about your vegetable garden.  

Here are a few tips to keep your garden and tomatoes healthy and happy during the growing and harvest season.

Do you plant your garden the same way every year?  To avoid soil borne diseases: rotate your garden every couple years.  Growing the same thing in the same spot each year doesn’t give your soil time to rid itself and break the disease cycle.   Early blight could be one of those funguses sticking around from the prior year!  Are there brown spots on the tomato plant leaves?  This could be a sign of blight.  Be sure to clean up prior debris and rotate you crops accordingly.  Any plants affected by blight should not be used in your compost.   The last thing you want is for the disease to hang around longer.

Consider having your soil tested locally to determine what fertilizer may be best.  The content of your soil directly affects the growth of your plants.  If your tomato plant’s leaves begin to yellow at the base of the plant, it could be a result of a nitrogen deficiency.  Consider applying a nitrogen rich fertilizer, manure, or compost.

Tomatoes can be very temperamental if their climate or soil conditions change during the course of their plant life.  Ever wonder why your tomatoes split and crack?  This could be a result of rapid growth or over ripeness.  When the soil experiences extreme moisture after being dry for some time, the tomatoes could split and crack. To keep your tomatoes from splitting, keep the soil moisture content as consistent as possible.  If a rain storm is coming, consider picking tomatoes before the rain even if they aren’t at their peak ripeness.

One of the most frustrating instances is when you see a nice, plump, juicy tomato hanging on the vine and you turn it over to reveal the worst… blossom end rot.  Once the tomato shows sign of blossom end rot, there’s no real chance in saving the tomatoes.  Pick off the affected tomatoes and consider the source: what’s coming from the soil.  Is your moisture content consistent?  If your plant isn’t getting enough water it will have trouble carrying essential nutrients to its fruit.  Plants with blossom end rot could be deficient in calcium, however, consider maintaining proper moisture levels in your soil before you go fertilizer crazy.  Over fertilizing will just give you more problems than you started with.  Test the nitrogen and pH level in your soil.  Once these deficiencies are corrected, consider mulching under your plant to retain moisture and be sure your plants are getting the water they need. 

Now that I’ve scared you with some of the most common tomato problems, I’m sure you’re rushing out to the store to buy your plants, cages, and gardening gloves.  But in all sincerity, growing your own vegetables can be one of the most rewarding experiences of summer.  I hope, now that you are aware of some of these common challenges, you will be more apt to try a few new things in helping your little plants to grow strong and healthy.

Dear March, come in!

March is here at last.  As winter draws to a close, it feels as though I have been waiting for spring forever. I am so glad to be seeing signs of spring around the farm.  We’ve been busily getting ready for the coming season, and for weeks I have been hovering over the bulbs we potted up to force.  We pulled them out of the cooler and they’ve been growing like mad.

The irises are even blooming!  This one is one of my favorite varieties and I have several clumps in my own garden.  They’re just starting to peek through the dirt there, nowhere close to flowering.

Things are starting to bloom outside now too, just when winter was starting to feel unbearable.  The witch hazels have been blooming for a couple weeks now, bright spots of yellows and oranges against all the gray.

Not only are the witch hazels blooming, but I took some time to go poke around in the frames last week and things are starting to come alive in there.  The Pieris are heavy with flower buds, and the deciduous azaleas as well.  Some of the Mertensia are beginning to come back up.  It won’t be long now till they’re blooming.  And even better still, the Mahonia are blooming.

And it’s not just the Mahonia either.  I spent some time the other day cleaning the dead leaves off the hellebores outside, and look what I found!

Things are really starting to come alive at the farm, and that means all sorts of new projects.  Saturday was spent dividing and repotting canna lilies and Colocasia.  The cannas had had an excellent winter and were bursting out of their pots.  It was one of those projects that says to me, “Spring is coming, spring is coming!  Are you ready?”

Spring is coming.  And I, for one, am ready.

Impatiens – Downy Mildew Update

Back in October we wrote a little blurb about Downy Mildew. Back then, we knew it was going to be a problem but didn’t really think too much of it. Now that spring is quickly approaching, we are realizing more and more the magnitude of this Impatien-killing disease.

We have been receiving letters from all of our growers warning us to stay away from Impatiens and to plant alternatives. Basically, the collective thought on Impatiens is:

“If you plant them, they will die.”

People are already planting Impatiens in the South and the crops are already failing.

There will be some Impatiens available this year, but we highly suggest finding a new alternative to this shade loving annual. And just in case you were wondering…
New Guinea Impatiens and “Sunpatiens” are not infected!!

We will have flyers and information available at every register throughout the spring season to help keep everyone informed, which includes a list of shade/part shade annuals that we suggest you plant instead of the “problem child.”

Please feel free to email or call us for more information about this disease and how we plan on approaching the situation.

Here is a preview of our flyer, for more info:

In our greenhouses right now…

Here’s a little looksie at what our greenhouses are starting to fill up with! Easter is sneaking up on us quickly, which means warm weather is right around the corner. We’re getting antsy and wanted to share some cheery photos with you today:

Primrose

Mini Roses

Reiger Begonias

Ranunculus

Tulips

Oxalis

Greenhouse hydrangeas

Daffodils

Grape Hyacinths

Irises

Campanula

Hellebores

Purple Oxalis

Cyclamen

Winter therapy

Yes, it’s that time of the year. I can’t stand to sit inside another day, no matter how good the book, cookies or tea. Even my cats are ready to venture outside. So today I took a trip to the indoor conservancy at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, and this is what I found:

Birds mingle with the visitors.

Incredibly funky Dendrobium!

Tree fern by the koy fish; and a small waterfall feature creating backdrop sound for the birdsongs.

Coral Fuchsia and a Chinchilla plant present themselves surrounded by a cloak of heavy mock orange fragrance. Stay warm. Only 43 more days until Easter, which basically means, Spring is just that close to our doorstep!