“Good things come for those who wait….”

My admiration for Baptisia took a couple of years to develop.  It certainly wasn’t love at first sight since  first year plants were spindly and I thought it was never going to amount to much. The second year  this sun perennial started to take off and I began to see its merits both as a drought proof flowering perennial and its shrub-like habit.

Garden Design with Baptisia

Baptisia is worth a place in any garden.  Here’s why:

1)  Baptisia helps anchor the back of the border.  It is an excellent choice as a small shrub alternative due to its size, shape and some pretty spectacular foliage that stay attractive all season.
2) No serious insect or disease problems.
3) Seldom bothered by deer.
4) Drought proof once established.
5) Maintenance –  Easy – Just cut back in fall or spring

Stunning lupine-like violet-blue flowers in spring are loved by butterflies

More on Baptisia

• Baptisia grows 3-4 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide
• Hardy perennial – Zone 4-9
• Thrives in full sun to part shade
• Stunning, violet-blue lupine-like flowers in late spring
• Plump seeds pods turn charcoal black when ripe and can be used in dried arrangements
• Prefers a moist, humus soil
• Needs good drainage
• Develops deep taproots – not for the serial plant mover – best to leave alone.
  

  The dried seed pods of Baptisia lend themselves to craft projects & dried flower arrangements

I like the fact it won the prestigious 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year award.  There’s a lot of new flower colors that are rocking the garden world. I personally love an old fashioned variety called  B. australis because there is so little true blue perennial flower color.  This is a true beauty of a garden plant in or out of flower  providing interest, color, and structure  from spring-fall in the perennial garden.

Find out more about Baptisia

“The roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches fruitful.” Rabindranath Tagore

Fall planting establishes the necessary root growth required to anchor the plant in its new environment and build up nutrient reserves for healthy & sustainable growth next spring.

Interesting Info on Fall Planting

• Over 75% of a plants root growth occur in  fall
• Soil is warmer in fall than in spring
• Roots continue to grow as long as the soil is not frozen
• Plants will grow better in the spring with a well established root system
• Plants are better equipped to handle drought & extreme conditions the following season
• Plants use less water in the fall as they become established

Plants Have to Work Harder in Spring

If you plant in the spring, plants have to do double duty.  They must adjust to its new environment AND put on leaves, flowers and be ready to embrace summer heat & humidity.  Fall planting is beneficial as roots continue to grow and become established.  In spring, plants are happy in their new environment and ready to put on strong top growth & flowers.

Start NOW

Yes, you can get that head start on spring by planting now!  If you need to limit yourself to a few  fall planting tasks, then consider planting spring-flowering perennials & shrubs such as:

Lily of the Valley

Dicentra

Hellebore

Lilacs – Syringa

Fothergilla

Related Articles:  Benefits of Fall Planting, 12 Fall Maintenance Garden Tips, Hot Tips for Cool Fall Weather

Galium or Sweet Woodruff is a low growing shade groundcover with supersonic coverage. I personally love this groundcover because it does all the work for me (great for the lazy gardener in me).  Galium keeps the weeds down, looks pretty all season and sometimes give me more than what I bargain for.

This hardy, herbaceous shade loving perennial grows 8-12” tall and produces a thick green mat of handsome foliage from spring-fall.  Hundreds of small, dainty white flower clusters infuse light in dark areas of the shade garden in early summer.

Easy Control

You might want to consider providing a sturdy barrier such as lawn edging to keep this shade loving traveler from getting out of control.

If Sweet Woodruff starts to get to a destination I don’t want, I simply reach for my shovel and start spading out chunks  or I just start to grab handfuls (the roots are very shallow)  and start ripping away .  Sound ruthless?  You bet, since the remaining plants are never the worse for wear and it takes barely no time at all.

Tough shade groundcover for tough areas

Sweet Woodruff will be much more restrained in poorer soil and

difficult to grow areas such as beneath Oak or black walnut trees.  They are also deer & drought proof.

Pleasing Fragrance

Sweet Woodruff is an herb and makes a very quick, inexpensive vanilla-scented car freshener.  Just put a couple of sprigs in the dashboard and enjoy!

Look for fast coverage in a shade garden?  Maybe Galium is just the right groundcover for you!

This breeding breakthrough is one of the most exciting new Flowering Shrubs of the past decade! It’s a PINK flowering form of America’s favorite Annabelle Hydrangea.  Rare, pink-flowering Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea boasts giant 8-10″ flowers of bright pink that will color your garden for over 4 months!

For decades, the giant white flowered globes of Annabelle Hydrangea were the only Hydrangea that would reliably bloom in the coldest regions of the country. However, Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea has changed the landscape with her bright pink flowers that thrive in the coldest Zone 3 gardens!

It took nearly 10 years for hybridizer Dr. Tom Ranney to successfully produce this pink-flowered form of Annabelle and we consider this one of the most exciting breeding breakthroughs in Hydrangeas of the past decade!

Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea lends itself to a multitude of uses in today’s home garden including magnificent large pot specimens on the patio as shown in the above photo. She also makes a wonderful long-blooming Hedge Plant as shown in the picture below. What other hedges will grow quickly and give you over 4 months of flowers…which make long-lasting cut-flower bouqets!

Each stem produces a large flower measuring 8-10″ across and a dark pink in color. Cooler temperatures seem to intensify & darken the pink coloration. As the main flower emerges, other flowers begin appearing up & down the stem, thus prolonging the flower show for up to 4 months!

And we saved the best part for last! Dr. Ranney has teamed up with Proven Winners to launch this plant with a special goal of raising $1 MILLION dollars to be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to help in the fight against this dreaded disease! One dollar for every plant sold will be donated!

Our hats (and garden gloves) off to our good friend Tom Ranney and we wish him much success with this new Great Garden Plant!!

One of the most frequently asked questions we get from fellow gardeners is what are the best, fastest growing, and most colorful groundcovers for sunny locations.

Well, here’s 4 of my favorites that fit the bill!

Delosperma cooperi – Ultra hardy, extremely fast growing and a dazzling display of brilliant 1″ pink flowers all summer long!

Sedum Angelina – Vivid yellow foliage thrives without water for weeks on end! Rapidly forms a colorful matt up to 2′ across. Perfect along hot asphalt driveways where it shines!

Sedum Voodoo – Another vibrantly colored and highly drought-proof Sedum. Voodoo has wonderfully dark red foliage that remains showy from spring thru frost. Dark pink-red flowers top the plant in early fall.

Aster Wood’s Light Blue – This is a great groundcover that puts on a burst of much-needed blue flowers in the fall. Each plant is covered with 100’s of azure-blue flowers that are visible from 300 feet away!

So, there’s my top picks for ultra-hardy, fast-growing, & colorful groundcovers!