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Plant Guide # 18930 Acid Loving Plants For Pa Landscapes
By | August 11, 2008
Plant Guide #18930…. Growing Acid-Loving Plants
Growing azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, holly, pieris, heather, and other plants that love acidic and organics soils.
One of my fond memories of being 12 was catching my first shad. Each spring the shad migrate up the Delaware River to end their life long journey to spawn. Their migration is like clockwork, arriving exactly on time, like the swallows of Capistrano each year. In many ways so are the flowers and buds on plants. I remember my shad and the picture of this trophy. I was standing next to a large azalea in full bloom. Each year I would see the blooms on that azalea and know that as they swelled so the shad were approaching. Thus I came to associate the blooms of azaleas with it’s time to go fishing. How smart and lucky I was. For there are so many varieties and blooming times for azaleas plus some varieties have small second flushes, that I can now say with absolute certainty that, “It’s always time to go fishing”.
There are so many varieties of azaleas and rhododendrons that experts only estimate their approximate number. There are early bloomers and late season bloomers. Some with large flowers and some with small flowers. Some are scented. There is a spectrum full of colors and sizes. Some are evergreen and some deciduous. Thus azaleas and rhododendrons are shrubs for all seasons. In winter, these plants stand out with large evergreen leaves and bring showy flowers in the spring. Throughout the summer and fall the leaves add pleasing green color to the landscape. The intense flowers of azaleas and rhododendrons make them a popular selection.
If you have difficulty telling an azalea from a rhododendron, stop worrying. Call them all rhododendrons and you will be correct. If you know how to grow a rhododendron, then you can use the same cultural principles in growing blueberries, holly, pieris, heather, and other plants that love acidic and organics soils. Rhododendrons love mild humid climates. Site selection is important. Many people come to us and report that they have had little luck in planting rhododendrons and want to try again. Our suggestion is to first look at your environmental conditions and determine if you should replant. Rhododendrons are found in nature predominately on north to east slopes. Here there is less rapid temperature changes and the drying west and south winds are shielded by natural features. Always protect azaleas and rhododendrons from wind. Plant with barriers in mind. Barriers can be evergreen screens, or buildings or slopes. Evergreen screens can help highlight the blooms. Be mindful that a corner of a building may not offer protection but actually funnel winds by the plants. Rhododendrons actually like filtered light better than shade. If your site is full shade consider a pruning of the overhead trees to allow better light penetration.
The soil that you plant Rhododendrons in should have good drainage. You can run a simple test by digging a six inch hole and filling it with water. If it is not drained in 4-5 hours you need to increase the drainage of the site. Rhododendrons have very small delicate roots. If the soil drains poorly there is probably to much clay. The roots can’t penetrate heavy clays. I would suggest a raised bed or a drain tile to carry away the excess water.
It is difficult to improve poor soils to grow rhododendrons without creating other problems. Sometimes trees with surface roots rapidly take over soils that are improved and compete for nutrients. They, after all have a head start on your new plants. It may make sense to raise up a bed a whole foot. This gives improved drainage and allows the new plants more competition free time in getting established. Make sure you have an acidic soil of 5 to 5.5. If you have a large pine tree rake up its needles and use them as both a weed barrier and a pH adjuster. There is no good substitute for quality organic materials being incorporated into your soil. Clay soils are especially enhanced by organics. Lots of ground pine bark, oak and pine leaf mulches and topsoil mixed well, works much better than peat. Peat will hold water preventing oxygen from filtering to the root zone. Peat can also hold moisture for long periods in the spring and winter. The area that you prepare should be prepared weeks before you plant. This allows the pH to change.
Most of the rhododendrons and azaleas that we sell are potted. These plants should never be planted so that their stems are below what it was in the pot. Plantings should always be about 2″ above the surrounding soil. Water the plant well after planting. Native rhododendrons have very shallow surface roots and have natural mulch and organic debris covering the surface roots. This conserves moisture and minimizes winter injury. You want to mirror the natural conditions so using decomposed pine needles and oak leaves is the best mulch. A layer of two to four inches is ideal. Keep the layer of mulch away from the stem. The mulch should not be removed. It should be with the plant for all seasons. It is the plants winter blanket. It helps keep the plant from winter leaf scorch. If you want your beds to have designer colors such as red mulch black much, plastic fiber cloth, river pebbles etc., then plant some other plant, because these plants are delicate and conditions must be correct or you will have poor results. I don’t recommend any fertilizing of the plants for beginners. If you must add fertilizers make sure it is for acid loving plants.In nature these plants do well with low nutrient levels. Their small surface roots can be easily be hurt by over application of fertilizers. I would use no more than 2 pounds of a 6-10-4 per 100 square feet, but organic matter that is covering the plant should be perfect. Do not fertilize after July 1. Fertilizing after this time may force growth during the winter when the plants should be dormant. The mulch can also act a a natural weed barrier. As it decomposes add more. Fall is the optimum time to make sure you have enough mulch.
Following these recommendations will help you have success in raising these plants.
See Bill’s web site at HTTP://www.seedlingsrus.com
About the Author
Bill Has been raising and selling trees for 45 years near Doylestown Pa. and has two web sites http://www.seedlingsrus.com and http://www.zone5trees.com -
LANDSCAPE GARDENING.
Landscape gardening has often been associated with the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has told you that a good picture should have a point of interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make the piece more beautiful. So in landscape gardening there must be a picture in the gardener’s mind of what he desires the whole to be.
From this study we will be able to work out a little theory of landscape gardening.
Let?s start with the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is good to keep open lawn space. If someone to cover his lawn with a lot of trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One’s yard has lost all individuality. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not center the tree or trees. Let them drop into the background. Make a pleasing side feature with them. In choosing trees you must keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I think you’ll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picture. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech are beauty points to consider.
Placement makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the yard is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don’t group trees together which look awkward. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. You must keep proportion and suitability in mind.
I would never advise planting a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy. Houses surrounded are over capped and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthy. The requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.
As trees are chosen because of certain good points, shrubs should be also. In a clump I would plant some that bloom early, some that bloom late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the color of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes for a bit of color all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter.
Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is prettier usually than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte’s spirea are other shrubs that make great hedges.
I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality where you live. Unusual and foreign plants do worse and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.
Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.
The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere. Its job is to direct one to a definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.
Garden paths may be gravel, dirt, or grass. You may see grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve you nearly as well in your small garden. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the center of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.
A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the yard in such a way that it forms a pleasant whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all satisfactory.
Close your eyes and picture a house of natural color, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it?
Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until better things and better times come. The annual is ‘the chap’ for this work.
Flowers go well along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother, and start the spring right. Some make bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be planted, too.
The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who would want to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.
You should have in mind some notion of the blending of color. Nature does not consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. We should not blind people’s eyes with clashes of colors which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colors you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.
Finally, let?s sum up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings. Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do not clutter up the front yard, groups of shrubbery these are points to be remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, and be either straight or well curved. If you start with a formal garden, you should not mix the informal with it before the work is done.
About the Author:
Melissa Albright is the webmaster for the website Know More Get More http://www.knowmoregetmore.com/landscape Giving you the information you need.
