Category Archives: GOOPS (gardening Oops!)

GOOPS: Protecting an Invasive Plant

Posted on by

5

 This month, in honor of GOOPS or Gardening Oops, I have a major gardening faux-pas to own up to. Yes, we all make mistakes and hopefully can learn from the shared knowledge of what works and what doesn’t in other bloggers gardens – that is the impetus behind GOOPs started by Joene Hendry.  But this month, my GOOPs is a doozy. In my defense,  it all started with the leaves.

 

Weeks ago, I noticed the leaves on this little shrubby-viney plant growing in one of my mixed beds. My first thought was that the leaves were pretty unusual and made an interesting contrast to the other nearby foliage. Then I realized I had no recollection of ever planting it. That should have been my first red flag, but it wasn’t.

 

The mystery plant was near a Hygrangea paniculata I’d planted a few years ago that the deer seemed to love to nibble, so much so that I had never seen the hydrangea flower.  So this spring I decided I would spray the hydrangea every few weeks with deer repellant in an attempt to actually see what the flowers looked like this year.  And, you guess it, I figured I’d also ‘protect’ my mystery plant with the unusual leaves too. So that also got a bi-monthly dose of deer repellant.

 

The deer repellant was successful and both the hydrangea and my mystery plant flowered.  As soon as I saw the purple and yellow flowers of the mystery plant I knew I’d  been protecting some kind of wildflower but I still didn’t know which one.

 

So I went to the Connecticut Botanical Society’s website and searched for plants with purple flowers. That’s when I realized my GOOPs. I’d been protecting Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade).  I knew it was on the state’s Invasive Plant list. OK, bittersweet nightshade is listed as potentially invasive but still it was not a plant I wanted growing in my garden.

 

So now I had to figure out the best way to fix my GOOPs. As far as I can tell, this is the only bittersweet nightshade growing in my garden so controlling this noxious weed should be relatively easy.  I wanted to make sure that when I removed it I didn’t inadvertently create more off-shoots as often happens when simply pulling invasives out. I dug up and pulled out the plant and then marked the area it had been growing in. I’ll remain watchful to make sure  no new growth appears. If it does, I’ll probably use a more toxic measure and cut the plant back and then paint it with some BurnOut.

 

I’ll chock up this GOOPs to experience and will now know those unusual leaves signal trouble. I’ll still let unknown seedlings grow in my garden but I’ll make sure I keep an eye on them — just in case.

 

Have you made any GOOPs in your garden?  If you’d like to read about more gardening Oops head over to joene’sgarden and check out her post this month. Don’t forget to check out the comments when you’re there for links to other posts too.

GOOPs for January 2011

Posted on by

9

Pinus strobus' 'John's Find'

Pinus strobus' 'John's Find' helped me meet one of my garden goals in 2010

It’s the first day of the month which means it’s time to post another Gardening OOPs (GOOPs) that we all make but usually are reluctant to share.  The inspiration for GOOPs comes from Joene Hendry, fellow

garden coach and CT-based garden blogger.  If you haven’t visited Joene’s blog, joenesgarden, yet you’re in for a treat.  It’s filled with interesting posts and breathtaking photos (like today’s photo of a sunrise).

This month, Joene decided to recap her top 5 GOOPs from 2010 which got me thinking about all the GOOPs I’d confessed to over the past year.  At this time last year, I wrote about my GOOPs of omission, things in my garden that were bothering me and that I planned to address in 2010.  So for this month’s GOOPs, I thought it would be interesting (amusing, fun & humbling) to look at my goals again and see how I’d measured up.

♦ Plant more spring-flowering bulbs:  I planted about 100 crocus bulbs in a new bed we created but other than that I didn’t add as many bulbs as I had planned to.  I think my problem with spring-flowering bulbs is that by the time it’s appropriate to plant them here in Stamford, I’m a little sick of gardening.

♦ Add more vines:  I completely failed at meeting this goal.  I did have the best intentions though.   I ’planted’  a weathered and rusted 6′ metal pipe with copper piping encircling it in one of my beds with the intent to plant a few annuals vines to grow up the piping.  But I never got around to planting the vines.  Maybe this year!

 

♦ Plant shrubs with berries:   I did plant three Viburnum dentatum ‘Blue Muffin’ shrubs in my newly created garden bed.  And I added one more highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) to keep my other one company and aid in pollination and berry production.  But I’d still like to add the chokeberry shrubs I was considering last year. 

♦ Shrink the size of my lawn:  This goal I definitely met.  Unfortunately it all started because we had to take down an ironwood tree that was dying.  But we created a new bed for native shrubs and perennials and reduced the size of our lawn by about 750 ft².  In addition to the blue muffin viburnums, we planted several Clethra alnifolia, Acorus and Tiarella.  In the spring, we’ll add several Prunus laurocerasus ‘Schipkaensis’ for screening. 

♦ Plant more conifers:  I actively worked on achieving this goal but I have to admit I was surprised by how many conifers I bought/acquired in 2010.   Most are dwarf but a few will grow into substantial evergreens.  I brought home two 4′ Chamaecyparis from different jobs this year that were headed for the trash.  One is an unknown C. lawsonia cultivar and the other an unknown C. pisifera cultivar.

And I bought the following conifers this year (some are still waiting for me to find a permanent home for them):  Chamaecyparis pisifera filifera ‘Aurea Nana’, Juniperus chinensis ‘Saybrook Gold’, Juniperus communis ‘Gold Cone’, Pinus strobus ‘John’s Find’, Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’, and Thujopsisa dolobrata ‘Nana’.  Yes, I think I do have a conifer-fetish.

How’d you do with meeting your garden goals in 2010?

Happy 2011!

September 2010 GOOPs

Posted on by

2

A look at my crape myrtle after its first zone 6 winter

This month, in celebration of those gardening mistakes, or GOOPs!, we all seem to make, I’ve decided to share a victory of sorts over a big GOOPs I thought I’d made back in 2008. 

To make a long story short, I bought a crape myrtle, Lagerstromia indica ‘Tuscarora’, that was border-line cold hardy for my southwestern Connecticut garden (zone 6)  and it appeared to have died after its first winter.  (To read all the details, click here for the full blog post.)  I was heartbroken since I’d wanted a crape myrtle for my garden for years.  But I wasn’t ready to give up on it even though it looked like a lost cause.

 
Crape myrtle 'Tascarora'
A minor victory  – a few flowers on my crape myrtle

Well, I am happy to report that my crape myrtle ‘Tuscarora’ is flowering !!!  OK, there is only one branch on the entire shrub that has flowers but I consider that a victory of sorts.  It’s more than I got last year and hopefully it will be less than I get next year.  The shrub/tree still looks very straggly and weedy but I can see the promise of a unique and stunning specimen in the making (fingers crossed!).

So the lesson I’d like to share for GOOPs is not to give up on plants too soon.  Gardeners are an optimistic bunch.  We’re always looking to the future and imagining what can be.  And most of us like to test the hardiness zones in our gardens at least a little bit.  Keep in mind that means there will be those inevitable failures and hopefully some surprising successes.  Sometimes those successes can take a few years to reveal themselves!

Now that you’ve read about my GOOPs, why not head over to joenesgarden where GOOPs first started and read Joene Hendry’s post about her GOOPs – misidentification. 

July GOOPs: Invasive Plants

Posted on by

4

It’s the 1st of the month and that means it’s time to share a Gardening OOPs, or GOOPs.  In case you’re not familiar with GOOPs, the inspiration for GOOPs comes from Joene Hendry, of joenesgarden fame. Joene is a fellow CT-based garden blogger, garden coach and garden designer.

This month, rather than share one of my own GOOPs, I thought I’d focus on a common GOOPs that can have disastrous unintended consequences – disposing of invasive plants incorrectly.   The Hartford Courant ran a story a few days ago entitled Invasive Plants:  More Than A Nuisance.  Click here to read about this massive GOOPs that unfortunately is repeated far too often by well-meaning but uniformed gardeners.

Have your own GOOPs you’d like to share?  All you need to do is head over to joenesgarden and add a link to your post in her comments section.

GOOPs: Buyer Beware

Posted on by

11

I know many gardener’s feel that if you’re not killing a few plants each season, you’re doing something wrong.  Honestly, I don’t subscribe to that mantra.  I’m not saying I’m a perfect gardener, but I really don’t kill too many plants.  I can probably count on both hands the number of plants I’ve killed over the past few decades. And the death rate has slowed significantly as I’ve learned more about gardening in general and my own garden conditions specifically.  

A happy, healthy 'Karley Rose'

So, you can imagine how distraught I was to see I had apparently killed a seemingly healthy Pennisetum orientale  ’Karley Rose’ some time between last spring and just a few days ago.   I had been lusting over ‘Karley Rose’  for a few years and got it into my head last spring that I needed to buy one so I could trial it in my garden before using it on any of my landscape design projects.   I looked at all of my usual wholesale suppliers but no one had any ‘Karley Rose’ grass so I decided to head to my ‘go-to’ ornamental grass nursery, Poundridge Nurseries.   

For those of you not familiar with Poundridge Nurseries, here’s a bit of background history.  Poundridge is an independent nursery about 10 miles from my house, located in Poundridge, NY.  It has been in business for years and years and years.  It has the reputation of being very expensive but also having very good quality plants.  I used to consider it the best place to get hard-to-find ornamental grasses.  Whenever I teach a garden design class or am asked by a garden coaching client about the best place to buy ornamental grasses, I always tell them to head straight for Poundridge Nurseries.  I never hesitated because I had bought plants from them periodically over the years and never had any issues.  Until I bought my ‘Karely Rose’ last spring. 

Not only are ornamental grasses almost impossible to kill, I grow about a dozen different varieties of ornamental grasses in my garden and none of them have ever died.  ‘Karley Rose’ is hardy to zone 6 (I garden in zone 6) and she was planted in a somewhat sheltered spot so I wasn’t pushing the zone with her like I knowingly do with some other plants.  Add the fact that last year, I added/bought/transplanted/divided over 150 different plants in my garden and none of them died – except ‘Karley Rose’.  In case you’re wondering, yes, that number of plants in transition in my garden in one year is very high and it happened for many reasons but I mention it because I didn’t ‘kill’ anything else.  

Did I kill 'Karley Rose'?

 When I finally had to accept that ‘KarleyRose’ did not make it through the winter, I decided to dig out my receipt and take her back to Poundridge Nurseries for a refund.  I hate to admit it, but I definitely overpaid for this grass.  Like I said, I was determined to own a ‘Karley Rose’ grass last spring so I forked over $32 for a 2-gallon container.  In my defense, I thought I was getting a one year guarantee.  What reputable nursery doesn’t offer one of those?  Even Home Depot refunds your money if you bring back your dead plant and a receipt.  

Ok, I admit it, I assumed there was a plant guarantee.  I’m not saying Poundridge Nurseries lied to me or concealed any facts – more than likely the big sign over the cash register with all that little writing says something about perennials not being guaranteed (apparently they do guarantee woody plants) but I never even thought twice about it.  I was buying a plant from a local, independent nursery who I assumed was my gardening partner and valued my business.  Guess again!  

So the moral of this GOOPs is buyer beware.  Sometimes you get a ‘lemon’ plant.  It happens.  But you shouldn’t have to eat the cost of the lemon.  I wonder if anyone else had any issues with their ‘Karley Rose’ that was purchased from Poundridge Nurseries last spring?  Could I be the only one whose ‘Karley Rose’ died?  Could my green thumb have turned black for just that one plant last season? 

So make sure you only buy from reputable nurseries who offer a one year guarantee on all their plants (except annuals).  And make sure you ask about that guarantee before you open your wallet.  Take the time to read the fine print on the sign hanging over the cash register.  Don’t be like me and look around to see what other interesting things you might be able to buy.  Focus on the transaction.  And finally, while I still highly advocate buying plants from your local, independent nursery, even if you pay a few more dollars – if that nursery does not offer a guarantee, run away.   Believe me, the next place down the street values your business and wants you to keep coming back so they will happily offer a one year guarantee.    

Will I ever shop at Poundridge Nurseries again?  I hate to say it, but probably.  They are still the ‘go-to’ ornamental grass nursery in the area but I will not unconditionally recommend them like I used to.  I will probably only visit at the end of the season when the ‘un-guaranteed’ perennials are on sale and I know what I’m getting myself, and my wallet, in to.  

Thanks to Joene Hendry of joenesgarden for hosting GOOPs (gardening oops – a celebration of the mistakes we all make in our gardens) again this month and giving me the perfect forum to rant about my dead ‘Karley Rose’ and my frustrations at wasting my money.  Don’t forget to head over to Joene’s blog and see what her GOOPs is all about for June.

GOOPs for May 2010

Posted on by

5

It’s the start of another month and that means it’s time for garden bloggers to fess up about the mistakes we make in our own gardens.  You know what they say…if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not doing it right!  The inspiration for Gardening Oops (GOOPs) comes from Joene Hendry, fellow Connecticut-based garden blogger, garden coach and garden designer. 

My GOOPs started back in October when I bought three little azaleas on sale at a local nursery.  They were 3-gallon plants on sale for less than $10 so I snapped up three.  They even had little tags stuck in the pots indicating they were white-flowering azaleas.  Perfect, I thought, they will blend effortlessly into my existing azalea bed which is composed of a mish-mash of azaleas that were planted in other areas of the garden when we bought our house.  I moved them all into one central location because most of them were misshapen or overgrown.  Rather than throw them away, I created a plant rehab area but somehow all the azaleas never moved along , they still remain in rehab. 

GOOPs...my white azaleas are pink!

 

This photo shows my azalea bed now and you can clearly see my little ‘white’ azaleas are pink…and worse yet…two of them are one shade of pink and the other is slightly darker.  Now’s as good a time as any to confess I have a ‘thing’ about different shades of pink azaleas blooming near each other.  I don’t know why exactly, but I do.  Different purple azaleas near each other doesn’t bother me but pinks do.  I won’t even mention how I feel about pink and red azaleas together! 

So, my GOOPs isn’t  earth-shattering and is easy to fix.  I’ll just transplant the little pink azaleas to other spots in the rehab bed so I can’t see them all right next to each other.  I’ll also go out now, when the azaleas are in bloom, and buy a few white ones and interplant them with the pinks.  My GOOPs illustrates the pros and cons of buying plants at the end of the season.  You can certainly get some good deals, but even though they may have tags stuck in the pots, you never really know what you’re getting until they bloom the next season.  That’s why I always tell my classes to buy plants with tags stuck ON the containers.  All in all I feel lucky…at least my white azaleas aren’t red! 

Don’t forget to visit joenesgarden to read about Joene’s GOOPs this month.

GOOPs…What’s Your Name?

Posted on by

6

It’s the first day of the month so that means it’s time to post another Gardening OOPs (GOOPs) that we all make but seldom like to share.  The inspiration for GOOPs comes from Joene Hendry, fellow garden coach and CT-based garden blogger.  If you haven’t yet visited Joene’s blog, joenesgarden, you’re in for a treat.  It’s filled with captivating writing and breathtaking photos and is a goldmine of information for newbies and green-thumbs alike.

OK, so on to my GOOPs for February.  When  I started gardening many eons ago, I would buy plants, plant them and then forget what they were.  Sure, I knew this was an astilbe or that was a rudbeckia, but I never knew what cultivar they were because I threw out the plant tags.  So if I really liked a plant, I had no way to figure out what it was so I could buy it again.  Or, if I planted it in the back of the border because I thought it was supposed to grow  about 3 feet tall and instead it was only 1 foot tall, I had no idea what went wrong.  Was it me?  Was it the plant?  I had no idea, but between you and me, I always assumed the plant was at fault.

Eventually, I started saving the plant tags but still something was lacking.  So a few years ago I started a spreadsheet for my garden plants.  When I buy anything new, or get plants from the plant swap, I record the information in my spreadsheet.  It’s nothing elaborate, anyone can make one  – it includes the species and cultivar name, date planted, place planted and any relevant maintenance tips.  You know… important info that you sometimes forget…fertilize in the spring, cut back to ground level in late winter, divide in the fall…

But this simple spreadsheet has simplified my gardening life tremendously.  If I like a particular plant, I know exactly what to look for in the nursery when I want to add some more to my garden.  I take my spreadsheet out in the garden with me, stuffed in my pocket, and refer to it for spring and fall cleanup.  If it gets dirty or ripped, no problem.  I toss it in the recycling and print out another when I need it.  Now, if I could only remember where I put my favorite pruners!

GOOPS for January 2010

Posted on by

6

Saying Goodbye to 2009, Looking Forward to 2010

Not only is it the first day of the month, it’s also the first day of the new year and the first day of a new decade.  Traditionally, on the first day of each month, I participate in GOOPs, (gardening OOPs) where gardeners share the mistakes they have made in their gardens over the years.  The inspiration for GOOPs comes from Joene Hendry, a fellow CT garden coach and author of Joene’s Garden blog.

 
In honor of the uniqueness of this GOOPs day, I have decided to share some mistakes of omission I have been noticing in my garden that I plan to fix in 2010 so my garden is more interesting in the coming years.
 
  • I need to plant more spring flowering bulbs.  While I did plant a few hundred daffodil bulbs this fall, I know I need more bulbs – quantity and variety – so my garden greets spring the way I envision it should.

 

  • I need more vines in my garden.  Planting vines is an easy way to add another layer of interest in any garden.  While I have a big, beautiful climbing hydrangea and a few clematis, I know that adding more vines will bring my garden to a new level.  I will be researching deer-resistant vines this winter so I’m ready for planting in the spring.  My current plan is to plant vines to grow on the trunks of several of my mature trees so I guess I should also look for a vine that can grow near oak trees.  (If you’re having luck growing vines on your oak trees please let me know which ones you are growing.)

 

  • My garden needs more shrubs with fall and winter berries.  I had a definite case of berry-envy this fall as I saw all the beautiful red berries of winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata) lighting  up the branches of shrubs in my local nursery.  Since winterberry would be deer candy in my garden, I need to plant an alternative with colorful berries that is also deer-resistant.  I have the perfect spot in my garden to plant a big clump – at least 5 shrubs - but the site is in fairly deep shade.  Right now, I am leaning towards red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia ‘Brilliantissima’) but I’m also still open to suggestions.

 

  • I plan to continue shrinking the size of my lawn.   While I’ve been slowly doing this for years, creating new beds and widening existing borders, I have a lot more shrinking to do.  I have a narrow strip of lawn on the north side of my house that constantly struggles so I am thinking about planting a bunch of landscape plugs.  When you’re planting a large area and have more time than money, landscape plugs are the way to go.

 

  •  I should plant more conifers to add more structure and winter interest to my garden.  I think as we grow as gardeners we begin to appreciate the subtle beauty of conifers and the way they add can add needed texture and color to a garden.  Over the past few years I have added some low growing conifers to my mixed beds but I think it’s time to invest in a few larger conifers that will become focal points of my garden. 

Now that you’ve read about my GOOPs, head over to joene’s garden and read about Joene’s GOOPs.  And don’t forget to add a link to your GOOPs in the comments section of Joene’s post.

 

Happy 2010!

GOOPs!…I was too lazy to divide my Miscanthus

Posted on by

4

It’s the first day of the month again so that means it’s time to share another of my gardening faux-pas’ with you.  The first of each month has been christening Gardening Oops (GOOPs) Day by Joene Hendry, fellow garden coach, garden blogger and soon to be fellow Professional Landscape Designer. 

For my final GOOPs of 2009, I thought I would share a gardening mistake I made back in the spring which has been staring me in the face ever since…and I can’t rectify it until Spring 2010.  Last fall, I planted a new perennial bed in an attempt to slowly shrink the size of my lawn.  The area I choose for the new perennial garden was flanked by two mature Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’.  Since fall is not the best time to divide grasses, I decided to wait until this spring to divide them both.

GOOPs...I really should have divided both clumps of grass

Well, I got lazy this spring and never got around to dividing the Morning Light on the left in this photo.  But, you can see the one of the right looks healthy, in proportion to the bed and generally much happier.  I got lazy partly because it’s tough work digging up a miscanthus root ball and then literally sawing through it to divide it into more manageable clumps.  I got six smaller clumps from the original clump on the right.  And partly, I didn’t divide the one on the left because I had no idea what to do with 5 more clumps of Morning Light.  I’d already planted some in my garden and brought others to the Fairfield County Plant Swap. 

So my lazy GOOPs meant the Miscanthus on the left took over that part of the garden all season long.  And because it was so big and in desperate need of dividing, it started separating in the middle and falling over onto its neighbors.  Some of the perennials planted close by never got a chance to shine this season. 

Can you guess what I’ll be doing early next spring?  Yup, dividing my miscanthus.  Don’t forget to head on over to joene’sgarden to read about her GOOPs.

October GOOPs

Posted on by

1

GOOPs...I almost killed my dappled willow

GOOPs...I almost killed my dappled willow

It’s the first of the month again and that means it’s time to share another one of my Gardening Oops (GOOPs).  The inspiration for GOOPs comes from fellow Connecticut garden coach Joene Hendry.  Joene blogs about all things gardening at joene’s garden.  It was Joene’s idea for gardeners to stop taking themselves so seriously and admit publicly, at least for one day each month, that we all make mistakes in our gardens.   If we share our mistakes, maybe others can learn from them.

See my poor, sad, almost dead dappled willow in this photo?  It didn’t always look like this.  In fact, before I had the brilliant idea last fall to move it to another spot in my garden where it ‘could grow better’, it was actually quite breathtaking, like this one. 

Several years earlier, I had originally planted the willow in the front of a shrub border but it quickly grew too big and wild for that location.  While it was sited in a place where I could appreciate the pink new growth, it was a hassle to continually prune it to keep it at a manageable size.  Plus, I prefer the look of dappled willows when they are allowed to just grow and do their own thing.  In its original location, my dappled willow needed to be tamed on a regular basis.

While I know that dappled willows (Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nashiki’) prefer full sun, I also know they are supposed to be able to tolerate part shade too.  So I decided to move my dappled willow to another spot in the border that was in partial shade but had adequate room to accomodate its mature size of 15 feet tall and wide.

Well, I think the new spot was too shady because, as you can see, the shrub is not doing well at all.  It did leaf out in the spring but the new growth was just the slightest shade of pink, not the bright pink it had been while growing in full sun.  And the leaves were sparse.  The prior year, while growing in full sun, the dappled willow was definitely a focal point.  In its new location, it was a wallflower.  The poor plant deserved to shine and have its day in the sun again.

So I decided to transplant it, again.  My husband widened an existing shrub border and raised the canopy of a nearby tree and now the dappled willow has a full sun spot to grow as big and tall as it wants.  It’s planted near a purple-flowered butterfly bush so I am anticipating a beautiful show next summer.  I’ll prune the dappled willow back hard in the early spring to encourage new growth and keep my fingers crossed that two transplantings in one year have not stressed it out too much.

Remember, a good gardener learns from her mistakes.  But she also experiments yet again because not every move is a GOOPs!  Have a GOOPs you’d like to share?  Head over to joene’s garden and find out more.