WNC garden (winter, porch, water)

[ania]

Creeping phlox in the spring, especially if you have a rocky wall or slope... and tall phlox in the summer - butterflies love them.
Crape myrtle seems to be pretty picky in my yard, but then again I planted them all before the bad freeze last year and it's taking them a while to recover properly.
I also have a non-native AZ cypress - most beautiful silvery-blue-gray specimen...(drought tolerant once established; evergreen)- Works well with the silvery-blue-gray of the CO blue spruce in my front yard (birds love to hide in it).

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by ania

Creeping phlox in the spring, especially if you have a rocky wall or slope... and tall phlox in the summer - butterflies love them.
Crape myrtle seems to be pretty picky in my yard, but then again I planted them all before the bad freeze last year and it's taking them a while to recover properly.
I also have a non-native AZ cypress - most beautiful silvery-blue-gray specimen...(drought tolerant once established; evergreen)- Works well with the silvery-blue-gray of the CO blue spruce in my front yard (birds love to hide in it).

Oh my. We have a very steep slope behind our house and have been wondering what to do with it besides ivy (which we don't care for). If you're not a garden consultant, you should have been!

[ania]

No, nowhere near a garden consultant - but I've done my homework, attended seminars, taken garden tours (great one on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend each year of private homes in Jonesborough, TN -my new hometown). I love the outdoors, and getting my hands dirty. It's my stress relief from work. I've planted many things, and not all do well (really wish delphinum did well - tried 2, both didn't return - nursery said we just do not have enough cold in the winter/early spring or cool enough mornings in the summer).

Since I've moved to the area (I'm in NE TN, but visit my folks who moved to Hendersonville from FL frequently), I've really made more progress with planting in the soil (if you can call the clay I have that). I had a grand scheme of a blue, purple and white garden - but there are so many neat things, I've expanded. Right now I have a beautiful burgundy hollyhock to plant that I got at the Hendersonville Garden Jubilee a week or 2 ago- to see if it'll survive. Usually, most full sun plants do well for me whereas my family live at the base of a mountain in a wooded area and have better luck with shade tolerant plants (their bleeding heart is enourmous -4 ft wide by 2 ft tall!) and lupine (non-native but beautiful).

[gigimac]

Parkies,
Would love to know where you plan on planting your rhododendron. You'll want more, so next time, you can get less expensive younger ones, since you already have some developed ones. I thought it was funny the existing one is hugging the house, poor thing, very characteristic. Maybe you can put a couple young ones near it to cheer it up, or VERY carefully transplant it where the other ones will be.

If the north-northwest side of your property is a goodly distance from the house, that's where you'll want a windbreak of sturdy trees or even a group of pines do well up here, as long as they've got room to come crashing down. There's nothing like a mini-woods of pines to stroll around in. The winter winds in WNC come from that direction, they are very strong and howling.

UNCA has a botanical gardens, parking right off Weaver Blvd., less formal and smaller than the Arboretum near the Parkway, and they label all the flora, nice shady trail with resting areas to follow around and see what stuff looks like in different seasons. Also, diff times of the year, certain people open up their rather involved back yards for a garden tour, which is publicized, good to see what they're up to.

I was delighted to read your sacred thoughts on your plantings. Soon we're going to put a Weeping Higan Cherry to fill in a very personal and special spot in our yard, too.
GG

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by gigimac

Parkies,
Would love to know where you plan on planting your rhododendron. You'll want more, so next time, you can get less expensive younger ones, since you already have some developed ones. I thought it was funny the existing one is hugging the house, poor thing, very characteristic. Maybe you can put a couple young ones near it to cheer it up, or VERY carefully transplant it where the other ones will be.

If the north-northwest side of your property is a goodly distance from the house, that's where you'll want a windbreak of sturdy trees or even a group of pines do well up here, as long as they've got room to come crashing down. There's nothing like a mini-woods of pines to stroll around in. The winter winds in WNC come from that direction, they are very strong and howling.

UNCA has a botanical gardens, parking right off Weaver Blvd., less formal and smaller than the Arboretum near the Parkway, and they label all the flora, nice shady trail with resting areas to follow around and see what stuff looks like in different seasons. Also, diff times of the year, certain people open up their rather involved back yards for a garden tour, which is publicized, good to see what they're up to.

I was delighted to read your sacred thoughts on your plantings. Soon we're going to put a Weeping Higan Cherry to fill in a very personal and special spot in our yard, too.
GG

Thanks, gigimac. Our two large new rhoadies are surrounded by three Yoshino cherries on the open hillside. So far they are all thriving (though we've had to water a lot lately). Good idea to plant more of them in the fall next to the older entries.

Our house is backed up to the northern edge of the lot, with a house behind it and trees in between the houses. Hopefully the combination will protect us from too much winter wind. We'll see!

The only new plantings not thriving here are a couple of hydrangeas (am I giving them too much or too little water?) and the pink dogwood (are the cicadas killing them?).

Can't wait to visit the botanical gardens and Arboretum!

Jan

[gigimac]

Parkies,
About all I know about the pink dogwood is you have to baby them when new. We had a full-grown gorgeous one in the yard at our other house, it stood in the open, and it grew for decades, altho I wouldn't have put it out in the hot sun myself. Finally it had one limb left, so we planted another one exactly like it a few feet away, to keep the tradition going. I figured the old tree would shade the new one until it got its footing. I can't tell you how I worried over that little tree the first year. It seemed so fragile, just a few leaves. I spent an inordinant amount of time preparing the ground, watering, putting good soil, protecting it, just whatever. Second year, it bloomed, added a few more leaves, and third year it grew up twice its size, what a relief. But it's sad to me now, because we had to leave that home and move to a smaller place across town.

The baby dogwood should have at least a few green leaves right now... it's normal for it to lose a few when planting, as I'm sure you know, but I don't think all of them. But could be you can still spy some tiny green sprouts working their way out. If the cicadas are eating the leaves, well, you could drape some very light netting around the top wherever the leaves are coming out, of course leaving room for the limbs to grow a little, and fasten the net tightly to the trunk with gardener's tape to keep the bugs out for the summer. In fall, when the remaining leaves begin to turn red and drop, you can remove the netting and it should be fine for winter. However, I did panic that first year when the temps went into the minus range, and I ran out and gently put a little plastic and raked some leftover leaves at the base, for a few days. In spring, I watched and watched it, and when I saw those pink blooms, boy, was I relieved. The white dogwoods do much better around here, particularly in partial shade, but it depends on what kind... I was more attentive to that pink one because it was in full sun.

Don't know about the hydrangeas, altho we have a big one next to our front porch. It's in a place where it gets a lot of water (at a gutter spout), partial shade, but still it has at is base kinda dry, stalky limbs by nature. I've seen them grow out in the open everywhere, though, so maybe their owners water the heck out of them, I have no idea. I do know that the alkalinity and acidity of soil will affect the color of their blooms, to where they're either blue or pink, depending on the pH of the soil.

I think with both plants, the basic stuff you probably already know is their original pot or ball level, where the dirt comes up to, is exactly where it should be in the ground, not too high or low. I spent forever with my dogwood, trying to get the level exactly right afer I pulled it out of the pot and put it in the ground. A big bag of topsoil dirt (cheap) helps my plants. With my dogwood infant, I made a slight mound about a foot away from the trunk, so when I watered it, some H20 went straight down to the central root, but I also watered outside the mound, of course. I watered it every day for weeks, and after that anytime we had a dry spell. In addition, when I planted the baby, I really tore up the ground all around where it went, there's a lot of tight clay up here in WNC, and I yanked out all the weeds, altho the grass was okay being sort of left.

Gosh, I'm afraid I've once again passed along "too much information," I don't mean to preach, certainly not to someone who would attempt the plantings you have, but I'm just opening my head and pouring it out there. Take what you want and leave the rest. But as you probably already know, some plants make it and some don't... if you bought your pink dogwood at Jesse Israel's, they will stand by their plants, probably the same with some of the other nurseries, that's just the one I know about.
GG

[the Parkies]

Dear gigimac,
If I believed in reincarnation, I'd want to come back as one of your plants!!!!
Thanks again. I've printed out the whole thread to re-read this autumn.
God bless you and your plants!!
Jan

[gigimac]

Jan,
That's what a friend said about a couple house rabbits I kept years ago. Smile.
GG

[lovesroses]

Did you plant a Kousa dogwood variety? I've heard they are resistant to anthracnose and better than the floridia(sp?) version.

Currently living in Houston, TX. Not meaning to highjack your thread, but I also love to garden but the heat here can get in the way. We are contemplating a move to the Asheville area and I was wondering what annuals you have had success with. Also, I love hybrid teas and floribundas and earthkind roses. Have you had success with those?

Thanks in advance.

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by lovesroses

Did you plant a Kousa dogwood variety? I've heard they are resistant to anthracnose and better than the floridia(sp?) version.

Currently living in Houston, TX. Not meaning to highjack your thread, but I also love to garden but the heat here can get in the way. We are contemplating a move to the Asheville area and I was wondering what annuals you have had success with. Also, I love hybrid teas and floribundas and earthkind roses. Have you had success with those?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome, lovesroses! I don't believe I saw "Kousa" on the dogwood tag, but others who have been here longer will know a lot more more than I do about plants. Native plants (like rhododendron) of course will fare best, but we're having good luck with everything we planted so far, as long as we keep it all moist (the big challenge right now). I know that bulbs do beautifully here--daffodils, tulips, etc. And we just planted 18 hybrid teas within the past two weeks and they are bursting with color. I deadhead them (selectively) every day or two and blooms just keep coming. They will have to be sprayed regularly, though, for insects and mold. Everything has a price, doesn't it.