This is Why I Grow Zinnias

Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) on a Zinnia elegans

The zinnias are dead now having succumbed to the twin hazards of powdery mildew and cold weather.

But when I look at the blackened stalks standing in the garden, I think back to the warm days of July when the zinnia patch was alive with ethereal butterflies skipping from one blossom to another.

Still, I'll be taking a break from Zinnias next year and trying to weed out the volunteers. My plan is to sow seeds again in 2015 -- but using Z. marylandica (specifically the Pinwheel variety) which are supposed to be more resistant to drought and mildew than the typical Z. elegans.

Feeling Guilty about Coral Honeysuckle

Alas, Poor Honeysuckle, it's only crime was to grow too well and too bushy...

I had a dream in days gone by of native coral honeysuckles twining their way up the metal railings on either side of my porch stems, blooming with their orange-and-yellow trumpets all summer long, attracting hummingbirds and softening the hard lines of the metal and brick.

Amazingly, my dream came to fruition.

And yet, once I saw the coral honeysuckle in place, I realized I had made a mistake.

The honeysuckle was so happy and so exuberant that it practically hid the railing entirely and sent up bushy tendrils in every which direction from the top railing.

It was out of control.

And I was worried. Worried that I had created a potential hazard for anyone using the front porch. After all, the railings are there for a reason - to help people go up and down without tripping or slipping.

But if they can't find or grasp the railing, then the railing is pretty well useless.

I didn't want anyone to get hurt and I didn't want to worry about the liability issues either.

So one day in August, I went out with scissors and started trying to snip the honeysuckle vine off the railings.

The vine broke my scissors! (The tendrils get woody and tough after a while.)

So I went to get my loppers. Overkill? Sure, but it did the trick.

I toyed with the idea of ripping out the whole plant, but I felt guilty curtailing the growth of a couple of vines that were only being all-too-successful at fulfilling the goals I had set for them.

So I left the stubs with a couple of flowers and some maturing berries.

Here you can see the pruned remnants of the formerly mighty vine - now transformed into a truncated bush - encamped at the foot of the stairs.

Provided the vines survive, I'm still undecided as to whether I should leave them to ramble through the front foundation beds or take them out entirely. I'm not at all sure that they'd be willing to play nice with other perennials, at least not without a lot of watchful pruning and shaping.

But I do like the fact that the vine frequently attracted a visiting hummingbird -- who seems to have become accustomed to our property and now drinks from other flowers like the zinnias and even has sampled the Russian Sage.

What would you do with these Coral Honeysuckle vines?

And have you ever had to remove or relocate any overperformers in your garden?

Groundcover Lessons, Groundcover Hopes

Tiarella cordifolia, Foamflower bites the dust

Throughout this summer and early autumn, I've written about groundcovers I've trialed. Some I've really liked (Sweet Woodruff, Creeping Raspberry), some were a bit too successful (Blue Star Creeper) and the jury's still out on some others (Betony, Ajuga).

But in the Full Disclosure spirit of this blog, I feel like I should also admit to some of my unqualified groundcover failures. So without further ado...


Groundcovers that have not worked at all:

1. Lamium maculatum, Spotted Deadnettle - Killed this in a hot minute in 2012.

2. Tiarella cordifolia, Foamflower - Planted three in the spring, killed two of them (including the one pictured above) while the one survivor has limped along looking less than stellar. I'm guessing they'd prefer a cooler climate or at least more shade. I did not notice any pollinators when the ethereal flower spikes were in bloom.

3. Epimedium x perralchicum "Frohnleiten" - Purchased in the spring, installed with morning shade but afternoon sun, the plant has sulked and the leaves have crisped. I'll probably transplant it this winter to a shadier spot to see if it can recover and thrive. Clemson says it can tolerate drought but needs lots of shade. My failure so far with Epimedium is probably mostly a matter of me putting the plant in the wrong place. Mea culpa.



Now of course I could continue to cover ground using the plants that have worked best so far. And in fact I plan to do just that. But there are also some other groundcovers I would like to try:

Mitchella repens, Partridge Berry, photo by Joshua Mayer

Mitchella repens, Twinberry, Partridge Berry, Running Box

and

Saxifraga "London Pride" photo by Janet 59

Saxifraga stolonifera x. urbium "London Pride"

Groundcover Review: Alchemilla mollis, Lady's Mantle

Alchemilla mollis, Lady's Mantle in early July. (The blue flowers are from an adjacent bush-type clematis. Lady's Mantle does have flowers with a long bloom season, but its flowers are the tiny yellow specks that you can see in the middle and upper sections of this photo.

Alchemilla mollis, Lady's Mantle


Pros: 

1. Beautiful and unusual foliage

2. The plant's unique ability to catch and collect raindrops and dew. The water caught on the plant's leaves was once thought to possess magical properties.

3. Wind tolerant

4. Hardy to zone 4 and may be semi-evergreen in zone 6/7

5. According to some sources, young leaves may be edible raw; root may be edible cooked. Have not tried this so I cannot provide any first-hand opinion on this.

6. Supposedly attracts various flies as pollinators, but I don't think I've seen any around the plant yet...


Cons:

1. Not native to the U.S. (from Southern Europe)

2. Does not cover much ground on its own. The plant only gets about 2-feet wide. But supposedly it self sows vigorously and all the baby plants act as a groundcover. Hopefully those babies don't grow out of control...


Conclusion:

So far, I'm really fond of this plant. I'm kind of hoping it will invade a little (but not too much).

Groundcover Review: Stachys byzantina "Helene Von Stein", Big Ears, Lamb's Ear

Stachys byzantina "Helene von Stein" .... it's so fuzzy!

Stachys byzantina "Helene Von Stein", Big Ears, Lamb's Ear


Pros:

- Reportedly very tough. Tolerates full Southern sun or afternoon shade.

- Reportedly drought tolerant

- Definitely can handle wet weather as it made it through our very wet spring without any issues while sitting in amended clay soil.

- Soft and fuzzy foliage! Among the most touchable foliage of any plant I've seen. Before mass production of consumer goods, people used plants for a variety of everyday purposes. As I understand it, Lamb's Ear leaves make a good bandage and can also be used as a natural 'toilet paper'.

- The silvery color of the leaves is unusual and attractive in the garden.

- Covers the ground thickly, shading out weeds, but seems to grow at a manageable, steady pace so that I feel I could control its spread if necessary.

- Reportedly easy to propagate by division if I'd like to help it cover ground a little faster.


Cons:

- Not native to the Southeastern U.S.  Stachys byzantina comes from the part of Southwest Asia now known as Turkey and Iran.

- Stachys byzantina is hardy to zone 4 and probably grows in a sort of dry and mountainous climate. As such, many varieties of S. byzantina reportedly struggle in Southern heat and humidity. Helene von Stein is supposed to be the humidity-defying exception to that rule. We'll see how it fares during the upcoming summer.

- Many varieties of S. byzantina apparently send up flower spikes and then self-seed abundantly. But Helene von Stein rarely flowers, so this is less of an issue.

- Helene von Stein is supposed to be herbaceous, but the leaves don't disappear over the winter, they reportedly turn into 'mush'. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it doesn't sound all that attractive. On the other hand, the mushy leaves reportedly act as a natural mulch during the winter months and can then be easily raked away in the spring. (Or perhaps the plant will naturally send up new leaves to obscure the decaying ones, as happens with Sweet Woodruff and Pachysandra procumbens?) I'll have to see how this works out come the wintertime.


Conclusion:

- It's early days with this plant, but I'm optimistic. It would be great to have a bulletproof but not rampant groundcover for sunny spots and this plant looks like it might fit the bill.

Groundcover Review: Creeping Raspberry, Rubus hayata-koidzumii, Rubus calycinoides

Creeping Raspberry, Rubus hayata-koidzumii in a partially-to-mostly shady spot beneath a large crape myrtle tree. In shady areas, Creeping Raspberry seems to spread faster with less mounding.

Creeping Raspberry (a.k.a. Rubus hayata-koidzumii or formerly Rubus calycinoides)

Pros:

- Evergreen foliage. Always a plus in a groundcover. Plus I'm head-over-heals for this particular foliage, which is charmingly scalloped and crinkly and fuzzy.

- Spreads at a good pace, by which I mean that I can actually see appreciable growth on a week-by-week basis, but growth is not so fast that I'd worry about keeping it in bounds later on. Plus it spreads by above-ground stolons, not below-ground rhizomes, which means it should be much easier to pull it up or chop it off if parts of the plant start spreading into unwanted areas.

- Tough! Grows in full sun or partial shade (haven't tried full shade). It is supposed to be very drought-tolerant. Handled the winter cold (hardy to zone 6), spring wet and summer heat without batting a (metaphorical) eyelid. I will say that the plant sort of hunkers down for the winter. I don't think it grew at all then (although it was just settling in) and the foliage acquires a ruddy reddish glow, which makes it even more appealing in my book.

In full sun, Creeping Raspberry still spreads laterally, but it also seems to mound up a bit more in the center, perhaps trying to shade its central core from the sun? I ended up transplanting this plant from a spot with afternoon shade to one with all-day sun. Despite being dug up and put at one of the windiest and hottest corners on the property, Creeping Raspberry has performed like a champ. It even produced a flower, but I pinched it off so that the plant would put all its energy into roots and foliage at this point.

- Benefits wildlife and people. Creeping Raspberry produces white flowers (I've seen one, but pinched it off so that the plant could concentrate on vegetative growth) that reportedly attract bees. Pollinated flowers turn into orange berries that are reportedly attractive to birds and also edible (and tasty) for people. The berries are small and sparse enough that most folks say you shouldn't expect to get bowls and bowls of fruit from a Creeping Raspberry patch, but I think I'd be thrilled to get any edible benefit from a groundcover. (In the Pacific Northwest, on the other hand, berry production may be abundant.) I've also read that it may be possible to use the leaves to make a mild tea.

- Reportedly very easy to propagate by detaching rooted stems / stolons.


Cons:

- Not native to the Southeastern U.S. In fact, it's native to Taiwan. This may actually be the only plant I've come across in my gardening research that's specifically native to Taiwan and it makes me wonder what other gems they might be hiding there.

- Honestly, I can't think of anything else. It does not shine my shoes or make me breakfast.


Conclusion:

- Why doesn't everybody plant this? I know that I'm planning to buy more and hopefully propagate / divide the ones I have once they get bigger. 5-stars!

Groundcover Review: Chrysogonum virginianum, Green and Gold

Chrsysogonum virginianum, Green and Gold in early July. Three months after being planted, Chrysogonum had grown from being teeny tiny to just tiny. Not covering a lot of ground yet, but for some reason I love the shape, color and fuzziness of the foliage.

Chrysogonum virginianum (a.k.a. Green and Gold)

Pros:

- Native to Tennessee and most of the Eastern U.S.

- Charming yellow flowers supposedly from mid-spring to early-fall in cool climates (stops flowering during the summer in hot climates like Tennessee but resumes in the fall). This is my first year with Green and Gold. The plant I bought was tiny, but it still flowered sporadically throughout April and May. These flowers reportedly attract native bees. I can't say I've noticed any yet, but there are typically just 1-2 flowers open at any given time so far. Maybe you need a carpet of Green and Gold to really attract the attention of the bees?

- Hardy to zone 5. Reportedly evergreen to semi-evergreen in zones 6-7. The foliage has a nice mix of colors in it - greens, but also yellows and reds.

- Supposedly easy to propagate by divisions or cuttings in early spring.

- Tolerates drought with partial to full shade in the South. So I've got it planted with an Eastern exposure and afternoon shade. Also reportedly tolerates wet soils. (We had a lot of rain this past spring and Green and Gold seems perfectly happy.)

- Diminutive but still gives good coverage. I don't think Green and Gold would overwhelm any other plants. It seems like more of a rambler than a mat-former. But I do think it's just tall and thick enough to prevent most weeds from getting through. Does not seem too aggressive. I think it should be easy to control.

Cons:

- Hard to find in the nursery trade. And when you do find it, you're likely to find a tiny plant. Since the plant grows slowly (at least at first), it would be very expensive to produce an instant groundcover effect.

Conclusion:

So far, the pros far outweigh the cons for me on this groundcover. I wish it was a little faster-spreading (OK, a lot faster-spreading), but otherwise I'm thrilled to have Green and Gold in our garden. There's supposedly a more stoloniferous and faster-spreading variety called Eco-Lacquered Spider carried by Plant Delights, but I'm loathe to spend $12 (plus shipping) on a quart-size plant just to see if it lives up to the hype.

Groundcover Review: Cranesbill Geraniums

Geranium Rozanne in early July

Cranesbill Geraniums


Pros:

- Very floriferous. Lotsa flowers (even in partial shade) + Long bloom season = Quite an impression

- Beautiful foliage

- Does not seem to be bothered by any pests or diseases

- Don't recall seeing hardy geraniums on many lists of drought-tolerant or heat-tolerant plants, but Rozanne survived the brutal heat and drought of 2012 (with supplemental water in full sun) and I have to think they'll be fairly tolerant of both drought and heat in a spot with afternoon shade.

Cons:

- Not a con necessarily, but just be aware that foliage may scorch in hot climates in full sun. At least that is what happened with Rozanne in 2011 and 2012. She's much happier now in partial shade as you can see from the blooms.

- Rozanne is herbaceous. That means the whole plant dies back in winter, which can leave quite a hole in the garden seeing as Rozanne is a sprawler. Not sure yet if my two other hardy geraniums - G. cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' and G. sanguineum 'New Hampshire' - will perform the same or if they'll be evergreen or semi-evergreen. I can say that so far both are much tighter in their growth habit.

- Can't see much in the way of pollinator action from bees, wasps or hoverflies. There are some little insects that buzz around the flowers, but they don't seem to land much. I think they may just be in the vicinity while visiting the Sweet Alyssum. Or maybe they visit at night when I'm not looking?

- Not native to the U.S.

Geranium sanguineum "New Hampshire" in early July

Conclusion:

- Rozanne was my first hardy geranium love and probably still the one I like best. I'd like them all a lot better if the bees seemed more interested. The herbaceous nature of Rozanne is a real drag and can be a challenge in figuring out garden design. I'll have to reserve final judgment on cantabrigiense and sanguineum until seeing how they perform this winter. I think all of these make nice low-growing perennials, but I'm not sure they really qualify as groundcovers. (Although other varieties I don't have in my garden yet, such as G. macrorrhizum are actually supposed to have more of a groundcover habit.)

Groundcover Review: Stachys officinalis, Hummelo, Betony

Stachys officinalis, Hummelo, Betony in early July

Stachys officinalis, Hummelo, Betony

Pros:

- Hardy to zone 4 and supposedly at least semi-evergreen in zone 6/7. This is my first year with S. officinalis, so I can't say yet how it will perform in winter

- Reported to have moderate drought tolerance. With limited supplemental water, S. officinalis seemed to handle TN heat and typical summer drought with aplomb.

- Long bloom season. Started sending up flower spikes in late June and was still blooming into September. Flowers are reported to provide nectar to bees and butterflies, but unfortunately I didn't see much activity on the Hummelo flowers.

- Foliage is dense enough to suppress weeds.

- Dried leaves can reportedly be used to make tea. (I have not tried this myself so I cannot personally vouch for its safety or taste, just passing on information found via Internet research.)


Cons:

- Reportedly needs some afternoon shade in hot and humid summer climates, so no dice if you're looking for a full sun groundcover.

- Supposed to spread by creeping stolons to form a groundcover, but so far in its first year has acted more like a clumper. But you know what they say sometimes about groundcovers and vines - first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap! So we'll see what happens in years to come. On the bright side, at this point it seems like it would be easy to keep under control.

- Not native to the U.S. Originates in Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.


Conclusion:

I can't say anything bad about Betony, but I don't think it really stands out in the garden yet. Perhaps as it gets more established in the garden, it will have a stronger presence and make more of an impression. If it starts spreading a little further and attracting pollinators, I'll definitely become more enthusiastic.

Groundcover Review: Ajuga, Bugleweed

The variegated ajuga in the front border mixes nicely with some Sweet Alyssum while blocking out most weeds. 

Ajuga, Bugleweed

Pros:

- Evergreen (or ever-purple or ever-variegated, depending on the variety)

- Pretty and long-lasting (at least several weeks) spikes of flowers in the springtime. UGA lists Ajuga as a good bee-forage plant, but I did not see any bees on the flowers during our (cold, wet) spring. Other sources say Ajuga can attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I didn't see any of those on the flowers either. Sigh.

- Prefers moist soil, but tolerates drought

This patch of Ajuga reptans (Bronze Beauty?) gets afternoon sun and you can see that parts of it are looking a little crispy. Ajuga genevensis seems better able to tolerate afternoon sun. So in my own experience, sun tolerance varies across different Ajuga species

- Grows in sun or shade. I have one patch growing in sun, but the patches growing in afternoon shade seem much happier.

- Does not really need any maintenance. Some sources recommend cutting back the flower stalks after the bloom is done. As far as I can tell, that's only really 'necessary' for aesthetic reasons. If you don't mind the spent bloom stalks sticking up until they fall over (and I don't) then the plant is basically zero-maintenance.

Ajuga genevensis, Carpet Bugle. Annie's Annuals says it is not stoloniferous and therefore less likely than Ajuga reptans to spread out of control. (Of course, Annie's also says the plant will flower all summer, which ours does not do, so perhaps the summer blooms are a California thing or maybe it's just that YMMV...)

- Spreads pretty quickly. I could see Ajuga perhaps working in combination with Sweet Woodruff to cover large patches of shady ground that would not need much / any mowing or other maintenance.


Cons: 

- Not native to Southeastern U.S. Like Sweet Woodruff, Ajuga reptans is native to Europe.

- Some sources list Ajuga as being mildly invasive. For instance, the North Carolina Native Plant Society has it listed as a "lesser threat".

Here's a patch of Ajuga that I really like in morning sun / afternoon shade. It's been expanding steadily and blocking all weeds from its patch of turf between a Japanese Aucuba and an Inkberry Holly. The foliage looks good all year round and the blue flower spikes were very pretty in the spring. I'm not sure which variety of Ajuga I have here. The tag says "Burgundy Glow" but the foliage doesn't look anything like the picture of Burgundy Glow on Monrovia's website. Perhaps it is Mahogany or Black Scallop? I think Black Scallop, although it doesn't behave like the other plant that was labeled Black Scallop. Either there is a lot of behavioral and visual diversity within Ajuga cultivars or there's a fair amount of mislabeling going on...

- As with Sweet Woodruff, I could see Ajuga becoming a problem for annuals or other small perennials. Reportedly at least some species of Ajuga spread both through rhizomes and stolons, so that could make it doubly hard to control. Supposedly also may spread by seeds and can reportedly show up far away in garden beds and lawns. (Although I haven't found any seedlings yet.)

- Also like Sweet Woodruff, Ajuga may technically be evergreen, but that doesn't mean it looks beautiful all year round. In fact, I found the Ajuga looked much more tattered than the Woodruff over the winter. I think slugs like to eat the Ajuga in the cool months, because there were lots of holes in the Ajuga leaves. The slugs didn't cause any mortal wounds and Ajuga has rebounded to look lush and thick in the springtime, but it's not necessarily all that attractive in the winter months.

- Ironically, even though Ajuga can be aggressive, it can also have the opposite problem of thinning out in the center. Some sources say that it needs to be divided every 2-3 years to prevent crown rot. I haven't noticed anything that catastrophic, but some of my Ajuga species do seem to be thinning out in the middle. I've read reviews online where gardeners talk about their ajuga dying out in one place and popping up somewhere else. I think my mother had this problem with her Ajuga, where it eventually died out where she wanted it to cover ground and then showed up far away in the lawn or in some other garden bed where she didn't really want it to grow. It may be unpredictable that way.

Conclusion:

I'm actually pretty conflicted on Ajuga. I can see its merits, but I worry that it is a little too thuggish. If it were a native plant, I probably would not be too concerned, but since it's an exotic, I worry about what natives it might suppress or displace if it were to spread beyond the garden. The fact that Ajuga is not on many invasive species lists does make me feel a bit more comfortable. That said, all four patches in my garden right now are behaving themselves and performing well. So I'm going to offer a qualified endorsement, but I'll keeping a close eye on the Ajugas in my garden and suggest you do the same in yours if you decide to plant some.