Perennials and Bushes

First off lets get into Perennials and I for one am a firm believer in buying as many plants as I can that will come back again, other wise known as Perennials!

2 year old Perennials

The most important rule in any gardening is “Read the tag” and believe what it tells you! Seriously!! If a plant likes full sun– it won’t be happy in the shade. If a plant like shade– it’ll die in the full sun! AND if the tag say it’ll grow 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide… it will!! It’s hard to look at such a little plant and imagine it becoming a giant version of it’s self BUT, it does! Promise 🙂

Perfect example is this beautiful blooming Wine and Roses Wiegela bush…

Wine and Roses Wiegela

I LOVE this bush… it’ll grow to be 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide AND I put her under a corner of the house?? Well the little thing was about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide when I planted it and like the tag said it would… it’s grown!! One other problem in this spot is the corkscrew grass that wasn’t supposed to survive the winter, did and now they’re squished together. Oh well, I still like them both!

So, when I tell ya to believe the tags… it’s cuz I’ve learned the hard way 🙂

I put in the curbing and brought in loads of compost, tilled it in, and then plant all the perennials, trees, and bushes! AND to top it off… loads of bark to cover the bare ground! It was a ton of work but with our awesome kids and a couple of sweet friends help we got it all done in a weekend! I have seriously never done that many squats and been that sore as I was that weekend!!

2 year old curbing

2 year old curbing in front of the deck

Here are some pictures of my favorite Perennials… one thing to remember with perennials is that they bloom for the time their tag says and then they’re done so it’s good to get a variety of bloom times and also mix in some annuals that will bloom all summer/fall and then die with the cold but annuals help keep some pretty colors in the beds all summer and fall!

Coreopsis ‘Nana’

Tiny Puppet Asiatic Lily

Columbine

Thrift

Lupine gallery mix

Lily’s and Salvia

Gazania

I love my Hosta’s but they like lotsa of shade… these Hosta’s went straight into clay soil that we could barely dig a big enough hole to plant them in and they don’t care, look at how lovely they’ve filled in the edges of the deck 🙂

2 year old Hosta’s filling in under the deck

1 year old hosta’s filling in under the side of the deck

So… this poor little brand new Hosta was forgotten in the sun for a day or two and look at what happened to him 🙁

Burnt Hosta

The moral of the story… don’t forget plants that don’t like sun IN the sun for days! We’ll have to see if he can rejuvenate or if got too damaged??

SO, on to bushes! It’s ideal to trim bushes back in the early spring or late fall… the only problem with that is sometimes I can’t get to them then and they end up getting a trim whenever I can get to it! I’ve even trimmed some in the late summer when they’ve grown out of control again, it’s just super hot for me but the bushes don’t seem to mind! Trimming a bush is kinda like giving a great big hair cut!! (and I cut hair too so, I know!)

Here are my out of control and in desperate need of a trim bushes…

Out of control bushes of mine…

AND just so you can get a real good sense of the their massive-ness here’s a side shot too…

Side shot of their massive-ness

It’s pretty easy to trim them down.. just decide the height and width you’d like them to be and start trimming….

Ruthie Trimming back the bushes

It’s a good idea to pull out all the little dead twigs and keep the base of some bushes trimmed to just the main branches and also get rid of any news shoots trying to grow! Unless, you want a ton of bushes then just let em’ grow 🙂

Clean out the dead twigs and keep the base clear of new shoots

Here’s a picture of the little green one that I like to keep trimmed in a oval shape…