IN THE GARDEN BY BETTY MORRELL

IN THE GARDEN BY BETTY MORRELL

shrubs for screening

When adding screening to your landscape, don’t forget reliable and beautiful old favorites like Viburnum and Podocarpus, which have striking new varieties available.

In another month, we’ll be at the beginning of the gardening season. Now is the time to start thinking of old and new ways to improve your gardens.

Many old-time shrubs like Viburnum, Podocarpus, and the Pittisporum ( with its orange blossom scent) are reliable and beautiful and serve a purpose in the landscape. Varieties are available in large, compact, and dwarf sizes. Improvements have been made to some of these shrubs. The Coppertop Sweet Viburnum is a recent addition. This low-maintenance upright evergreen shrub features dark maroon to copper new growth that comes with each pruning.

Coppertop has clusters of white fragrant flowers nestled atop dark green glossy foliage in May and June. This beauty has year-round appeal and grows 8 to 10 feet tall and up to 6 feet wide, making it a wonderful screening shrub. The Coppertop color continues after pruning in any season, and it is fast growing with a compact habit. This easy care shrub attracts birds and butterflies. Plant it in full sun to part-shade. (The more sun, the more copper color.)

Mood Ring Podocarpus (a Japanese yew) is another Southern Living evergreen. It is a narrow screening plant with dense foliage. This easy-care beauty shows off its stunning bronzy pinkish-red new growth in spring and fall, then turns green as it matures. Mood Ring is a low maintenance shrub that tolerates full sun. An upright plant, it’s perfect as a hedge or accent. It grows 10 to 15 feet in height and 3 to 4 feet in width. In early spring, fertilize after shaping, before first flush. Plant in full sun to part-shade.

Garden Clouds “Copper Glow” Lonicera is a lovely evergreen alternative to the Boxwood. It is disease-resistant with a rounded shape. It thrives in sun or shade (more sun, more copper). This plant should be available this spring.

Copper Glow has small glossy green leaves that can be pruned to any shape, but no pruning is required. This shrub grows 2 to 3 feet high and wide.

Now it’s time to get out of the shrubs and into the flower garden. I love Daylilies, and as their name implies, they are rather short-lived. However, I came across a bunch of re-blooming beauties that just might fill the bill in your garden. Advanced Party is a fragrant early season producer of an abundance of large, lavender-pink flowers that are 6 inches in width with lime green throats. It produces up to four branches and a 30 bud count. One of the first Daylilies to bloom, it blooms from early to mid-summer.

An elegant Spider Lily is called Free Wheelin’. It produces gigantic creamy yellow flowers up to 9 inches wide, with red-wine eyes circling emerald green throats. It reaches 34 inches tall, with up to six branches and 48 buds. It blooms from early summer through fall. I will have more Day Lilies next issue.

If you have any questions, email me at bamorrell33@gmail.com. In the meantime, Happy Gardening!

TIP OF THE MONTH

Now is the time to start deciding what bulbs, rhizomes, and other additions you would like to make to your spring garden. They need to be planted by October to get a head start on spring.