Important Perennials Give Garden Beauty

If you want all season garden beauty, then perennial plants are the go-to category for planning for flowers and interest throughout the year.

Flowers Of May: Bearded Iris

March 29, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

This old fashioned favorite is top of the list for many gardeners. Although the peak bloom for most of this class of iris is May, they can start as early as April and flower into June (or late summer if you count the reblooming types).

bearded iris flower parts — Main flower parts labeled

Called “Bearded” because they have what looks like a bushy tuft of hair growing on it’s fall.

Named Iris from the Greek goddess who rode rainbows, because it seems to come in all the colors of the rainbow.

As you may have guessed, like the tulips and other popular flowers, the iris is classified into categories of bloom and height.

Iris Germanica

Not A Bulb

German iris grow from a flattened underground stem which has food stores and sends out roots from its growing points.

Beaux Art Iris — Beaux Arts is an orchid pink self with an orange beard. It is luminous in the morning garden.

Bearded Iris Types and Classifications

Class Descriptions

Miniature Dwarf Bearded have the earliest bloom time. This short variety reaches about 8 inches in height. It’s height and early bloom make it a good candidate for a dooryard garden, or the very front of a flower bed. Like the smaller bulbs of an earlier spring garden, this iris looks pretty massed in a large group.

Standard Dwarf blooms next. They grow up to 16 inches tall. Growers like Schreiners have this and the first group classed together, and they may be used in the same way in the garden.

Intermediate Bearded– blooms later than the dwarfs, but overlaps their bloom time. Range in size from 16 inches to 27 inches high.

Border Bearded & Tall Bearded-these bloom during late spring/ early summer. They have the largest flower heads, with long stalks bearing numerous buds. Heights are taller than 27 inches.

These produce many types of flowers, including:

Self: Falls and the standards are the same color.

Plicata: Darker margins which are stippled, dotted or look like stitches (pretty picotee) on falls of a lighter color.
Neglecta: An iris of blue or purple bitones with lighter tone standards.
Amoenas: Colored falls and white standards.
Variegata: Yellow or near-yellow standards with darker falls of brown or purple.
Glaciata: Iris without purple anthocyanin pigment.
Luminata: An iris with a white or yellow base washed over with color.
Bitone and Reverse bitone: Standards and falls of the same color, but the standards are a lighter shade (and vice versa for the ‘Reverse bitone’).
Bicolor: Two different colors for standards and falls.

A few more variations are the ‘Emma Cook Pattern’ and ‘broken color’.

How To Grow

At least half a day of sun or they won’t bloom.
Well-drained soil or you risk rot. Fertile, neutral to slightly acidic soil is best.
Soil drainage is very important.
Plant iris in mid- to late summer.
Bearded irises can be grown in borders with other perennials, but they do best in a bed of their own.
Rhizomes (fleshy roots) should be partially exposed, or thinly covered with soil. Plant singly or in groups of three with the fans facing outwards
Dig a trench 4 inches deep. Make a ridge of soil down the middle and place the rhizomes on the ridge, spreading roots. Backfill depressions where roots are with soil and firm gently.
Water thoroughly at planting time.
Top-dress with a low-nitrogen fertilizer, and again in next early spring. When crowded, divide in late summer during dormancy.

Truly for Cold Climate Gardens

Hardy to temperatures of – 40 °F

Complete Instructions On Iris Germanica

Gardening Tips for German Iris

Wet feet, dry knees

Don’t use high nitrogen fertilizers which will results in sappy leaf growth.
Remove dead leaves during winter, to prevent iris borers.
Keep the rhizomes exposed to light and air. A bit of loose, thinly laid mulch is fine, and helpful.
Divide every 2 to 5 years.

How To Deadhead Iris

It is pretty futile to try to recommend specific varieties with any sort of consistency, because like petunias, the breeders just keep making more and more new, increasingly beautiful ones. I have one I can’t find anymore, ‘Beaux Arts’ which is the most gorgeous orchid pink with frilly petals. (used for the flower parts illustration). Looks like a Nevada Showgirl in my humble garden.

However I will say that there are “types” from clear shades of delicious color to speckled or deep jewel toned ones.

Fascinating Facts

Iris germanica describes many hybrids, not a species.

One of the types of iris ( I.pallida is another) harvested for Orris root, the powdered rhyzome. Used in perfume and as a food spice.

The only flower color not available is bright scarlet red.

German Iris Dykes Medal Winners

The Dykes Medal is awarded each year to the finest iris of any class. Tall bearded irises have won more often than any other class of iris.

Interesting site to explore some old varieties, Pickle Barrel House

Hope you enjoyed this overview of a fine old perennial, one that is considered a stalwart of the garden. They do take a bit of work, but when blooming they are real showstoppers.

Do you grow them? Do you like the older varieties, or have you tried a new one that is becoming a favorite? During the years I had to let the garden go in favor of attending family needs, many of my old irises were lost (plowed under). I made sure I had three remain, and will try to get more going in the garden: Bubbling Over, Beaux Arts, Scotch Lass.

Tip for Blooming Peonies

March 27, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

Planting Depth For Peonies

“Plant peonies for a lifetime of spring flowers, but remember not more than three inches below the surface”

From Kim, Hypertufagardener

If the growing points are too far below the soil surface, it hinders or even prevents the plant from blooming. A general rule is to place the plant about two inches below the surface.

More about Peonies, here.

How To Grow Lavender For Its Heavenly Scent

January 1, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

Growing Lavender Plants in your Garden

First thing to remember is that Lavender requires full sun to grow well. Choose a sunny spot, which means it has 6 hours or more of sun exposure.
Good drainage is the next most important condition.If your garden does not have good drainage, plant your lavender in a raised bed, or get the planting area built up so that the roots will not sit in waterlogged soil.
Prune your new plantings. Always good to strengthen the roots of new perennials by pruning top growth; but cutting back is especially helpful in establishing new lavender plants.
Keep moist, just not water logged. Even drought tolerant plants need moisture when newly planted, until the roots get established and grow deeper into the soil.
Lavender plants like a more alkaline soil, which means the soil pH is closer to a reading of 7. Don’t know what this means? Some people call these soils “sweet” soil. An inexpensive kit can test your garden soil to see where it is on the pH scale. This soil information is good to know when planting many types of plants.
Is the pH lower than ideal? It is easy to correct with a little horticultural lime, available in many garden stores. If you have some wood ashes, those will do the job, too.

Water Properly

Don’t overwater lavender plants, but do give them plenty of moisture (drench) once their soil dries out

Growing and Maintaining Your Lavender Plants

Around the Mediterranean Sea the lands are the perfect place for growing this shrubby, grey leaved plant. Hillsides of Provence in southern France are filled with fields of fragrant lavender.

While the English and Californians can grow gorgeous gardens full of it, it originates in those lands around the sea which separates Africa and Europe. Because it is so ancient, pinpointing the exact area of origin is difficult. Both Romans and Carthaginians used it in bathing.

It grows in southwest Asia and southeast India, and is considered a little too well settled (invasive and noxious) in Australia and in parts of Spain.

Pruning Lavender

Pruning lavender is an important part of its cultivation. Cut back new growth to give vigor to the plant.

Pruning lavender is one of the most helpful growing tips I learned from the internet. With a few important planting tips it is easy to grow healthy stands of lavender to beautify your yard and give fragrance to your home.

Care Guide Video:

More about taking care of your lavender plantsHow To Prune Lavender

White Lavender

You might be surprised that Lavender is not only purple, there are pink and white varieties, as well.

Lavender Plants Are Easily Grown

Lavender is popular for a reason, as both a perennial plant in a flower garden and as a denizen of the herb garden. Harvested flowers and stems make fragrant crafts, potpourri, perfumes, and even an unusual -but delightful- food flavoring. It is easy to grow and its Mediterranean roots means it is adaptable to drier conditions than many common garden plants.

Once you know more about it, and how to propagate it, you may find Lavender becoming one of your favorite perennials.

Come explore the world of lavender. How to grow it, propagate it, and use it, to add enjoyment to your home and garden.

Propagating How-to

Lavender Seed Starting Tips

Most people know about using a soilless mix as a starting medium, and that grow light fixtures bring growing success when you are short on windowsill space (or even if you are not). Fewer know the secret tip about how using heat underneath can speed up germination and help stimulate root growth.

Heat Helps Germinate

Using heat underneath your seed starting trays helps germination and root growth.

How To Start Lavender From Seed

Starts From Cuttings

Make new lavender plants from cuttings – my favorite way to multiply plants.

Grow Lights For Your Seedling Starts

Many gardeners like to grow their own plants from starts, either cuttings or from seed. Either method will be an economical way to have a large number of plants. Using grow lights in your basement or utility room is the ideal way to grow lots of healthy plants for filling your garden beds and not break the bank.

You can increase your plants by taking softwood cuttings and rooting them either in the garden or in pots. Lavender branches can also be simple layered by scraping the underside of a branch and holding it to the ground with a rock or a pinning wire until it roots into a new plant.

Find out all about methods of plant propagation.

Sometimes lavender plants will self-seed, although I have not found that to be reliable. If you have ideal conditions, it might be the case for your garden.

‘Munstead’ is best for tolerating summer heat.
‘Hidcote’ is best in a cooler climate, may not do well in the South.
‘Sarah’ is more diminutive in size than other L. angustifolia lavenders, yet with a good show of bloom. That should make it your choice for container growing.
The ‘Lavandins’ are better choices for warmer climate conditions.

Eight Lovely Varieties:

Choose which cultivar is best for your garden.

Fragrant lavender beds in a formal garden. Use all of one variety for uniformity.

Lavandula angustifolia -common lavenderAKA Lavandula officinalis, English lavender, and the one which sports many named varieties such as ‘Munstead’ and ‘Hidcote’. Although the varieties vary in hardiness, this type is the most hardy of the lavender species.
Lavandula stoechas -Spanish lavender is hardy in zones 8-10
Lavandula Vera is synonymous with L. angustifolia
Lavandula dentata – French lavender, hardy in US zones 8-10
Lavandula viridis, “Yellow Lavender”. blooms at the same time as French lavender, and is tender north of zone 8.
Lavandula lanata ‘boiss’ is also known as “woolly lavender”. Another tender type not hardy north of zone 8; it is worthy of note for its felted white foliage. Grown as a tender perennial in pots, it would be a beautiful foliage contrast to purple leaf sage.
Lavandula x intermedia are called the ‘Lavandins’. A cross between L. angustifolia and L. latifolia. They start to bloom just as the the English Lavenders are finishing, and continuing to mid summer.
Lavandula x intermedia ‘Grosso lavender’ is cultivated for oil. It is one of the best cultivars for lavender crafts.

Outstanding Cultivar: Lavandula x intermedia Grosso

Lavender Plants “Grosso”- 8 Live Plants – 2″ Size Plants

Outstanding fragrance, but more difficult to grow. Drought tolerant, they are best for thriving in the arid West, tender in my Zone 5 garden, and best treated as annuals in the humid South.

Live Lavender Plant in 4″ Clay Washpot

Lavandula ‘Provence’ is best grown as a protected plant in Northern zones. Beautiful plant in an attractive pot for a summer porch.

Special Varieties of English Lavender

L. angustifolia ‘Blue Mountain White’ for pure white flowers
L. angustifolia ‘Hidcote Pink’ for pink flowers
L. × intermedia Walburton’s Silver Edge=’Walvera’ for variegated foliage
L. angustifolia Miss Muffet=’Scholmis’ for a very compact, dwarf habit
L. angustifolia ‘Lodden Blue’ excellent for hedging

Propagate by Cuttings

Easiest way to increase Lavender plants is by taking softwood cuttings.

Buy Lavender Plants – From a local nursery or right here

English Munstead Lavender

Grosso Lavender

L.xi. ‘Hidcote Giant’ Live Lavender Plant

Deep purple flower spikes are its claim to fame, with the usual silvery foliage. A shorter variety which grows to 18 to 20 inches tall.

Lavender’s Sweetest Companion: Purple Petunia

My Fragrance Memo

I love a fragrant garden and there is nothing so memorable as the delightful scent companions of lavender bushes and deep purple petunias. Please, do try this perfume combination of plants that scent the garden.

Cultivar: English Munstead

These plants are selections that you may not easily find in your local nursery. By following the care guidance in this lens they should do well for you. Remember to check whether the type of lavender you buy is hardy in your area; if not, pot it and keep it indoors during the cold winter months.

For me, plants were the easiest way to introduce Lavendula into my garden. I took cuttings for extra plants sometimes, but small pots quickly grew into good sized plantings for me. I did have to replace plants that were damaged by cold winters at times. Overall this was the best alternative, since seeds only occasionally produced good sized plants for my hedge ( which is what I wanted along my front walk).

Plant growing supplies: From seeds to plants

container of lavender with name stakes — Lavender Stakes… .

‘Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb”, covers the spectrum of how to grow, landscape ideas, and crafting with lavender.

In its second edition, it is one of the better books for the beginner, and included an all round introduction to this wonderful and fragrant plant. Look for it to add to your library

Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb, 2nd Edition (Herbs (Stackpole Books))

Helpful to a long line of gardeners, now in its 2nd editions. Instructions, tips, and more from the pros.

More: Delivered to your door, ready for planting

‘Provence’ French Lavender – Potted – Very Fragrant – 3″ Pot -Indoors/Out

Tell Us What You Think Of Lavender

How expert are you?

Lavender stoechas — What type of lavender flower is this?

Everything Lavender

Everything-Lavender – LEARN ABOUT THE HERB LAVENDER
Lavender -The best, most exhaustive information all about Lavender gardening. Information for everything from Lavender Essential Oil, Lavender farms, to growing your own plants, along with recipes and products.

Trivia Tidbit

Lavender was found within Tutankhamen’s tomb

Herbal Crafts: Crafting With Lavender

Make some gifts and home accessories

There are some lovely gifts that are quite easy to make with your harvested lavender. Sachets and pillows, wreaths and dried flower arrangements, all sort of things from tea to potpourri.

Lavender Crafts – Lavender fragranced soaps, pillows, and more

Fill little satin pillows with dried lavender buds for an aromatic sachet
Create essences by distilling the oil
Make your own scented soap

Crafting with Lavandula

Wreaths and Arrangements

One of the ways I loved using lavender was in a simple dried wreath.

Whether heart shaped or circle, or even square for the avant garde, nothing is easier or more satisfying to create with your lavender.

Any type of lavender is fine for crafts, though some have longer stems.

Simply cut branches to arrange on a form and allow to dry. Or dry in bunches first, and then attach to a wreath form. Dried flower bouquets also benefit from the addition of lavender which retains its light purple flower color and adds fragrance to the arrangement.

Herb Harvesting

Harvest Lavender
…on a dry day, in the morning

Soaps and Scents

^Lavende

SOAP AND LAVENDER

Just about everyone is familiar with the use of lavender to scent soaps. In fact, the name of lavender derives from the ancient Roman custom of using lavender when washing. Lavender’s “late Latin name was lavandarius, from lavanda (things to be washed), from the verb lavare (to wash)” -Wikipedia knowledge.

Source: Natural Handcrafted Soap LLC

Lavender Wands

Lavender Wands or “bottles” were beloved by Victorian ladies who carefully wove the stems together with ribbons and then used them to scent linens and repel insects from clothing.

When is Lavender Not Lavender?

Don’t be fooled by these name-alikes

“Lavender’s blue dilly-dilly,

Lavender’s green.

When I am king, dilly, dilly,

You shall be queen.”

Lavender might seem a riddle if one goes by common names.

Cotton Lavender, is an old herb plant whose proper name is “Santolina chamaecyparissus”. It has yellow flowers, foliage reminiscent of French lavender in appearance. It was used in knot gardens, and has an aromatic fragrance.

Sea Lavender is well known to those who love dried flowers. It’s true name is “Limonium latifolium”. It has lavender hued flowers that dry well.

Daylilies Grow On You

July 8, 2015 by Ilona Erwin

I just wrote a page about Daylilies, and then saw Kathy Purdy’s post on Facebook with a delightful portrait of a variety called “Going Bananas”. It got me thinking about what colors of Hemerocallis I like best.

Time For Daylilies, on Ilona’s Garden

variety of daylily — Advertised as “peach”, it certainly is, with a ruby red marking. ‘Paper Butterfly’ has performed well for me.

From earliest memory when visiting old fashioned gardens that often had a circle of daylilies somewhere in the yard, it was the “Lemon lily” that I always liked best. That might explain my preponderance of choices that lean toward a clear yellow cultivar.

I can recall that the old fashioned ones always had a sweet fragrance, and I’m sure that weighed in in favor of them. I didn’t realize and maybe you didn’t, just how old Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus is! Noted in 1570, and called the “Yellow Tuberose” in 1733. That makes it perfect for restoration gardens.

One cultivar that I can highly recommend is the old faithful, ‘Hyperion’.

Hyperion is close to the color of the old lemon lily, but reaches about 36″ tall with very elegantly shaped trumpets; it also has some fragrance.

Another cultivar I love, though it does not grow as strongly, is ‘Swansdown’. It has creamy yellow, full flowers. I don’t see it available in recent years, but it has been around since 1951, so I imagine it is offered for sale somewhere.

One of the first cultivars, recommended highly in one of the garden books I had read (can’t remember which one now, so many years later) was ‘Catherine Woodbery’. It was well advised and has remained one of my favorites of all time. It survived the planting in an unpromising spot, and does much better where I moved it, even though it has to compete with maple roots.

Catherine Woodbery in all her perfection.

At least it doesn’t get mown over! I am always moaning over the over zealous mowers around here. they will remain unnamed, but have been various family members through the years.

I Inspired Myself

Yes, after writing my page on Daylilies and looking through my old photos, what could I do? I was inspired to add new daylily cultivars to a couple areas of my garden.

I already had ‘Paper Butterfly’ with my ‘Diablo’ ninebark in the driveway beds, so when I came across ‘Salieri’ on sale, with its dark maroon red flowers and gleaming limegreen eye, it seemed as though it would add a dramatic note to the array of purple foliage.

The other varieties also discounted were ‘Endless Orange’ and ‘Pardon Me’ (another red, smaller and of a rosey shade), and they were added to the cart.

‘Endless Orange’ has small flowers like ‘Happy Returns’. It is a repeat bloomer.

Normally I don’t like red shades of Hemerocallis. But I made exceptions, and think that the pairing with other colors and plants will make all the difference in my opinion.

And you, readers, do you you snap up sale plants? Then, go looking for a place to put them?

Already growing these midsummer bloomers, or thinking about it?

Do You Like Lavender?

March 1, 2012 by Ilona Erwin

I love it. It is a plant that I have been growing during most of my gardening career, starting with the first herb plants I tucked into my city lot garden. It was in that garden on Glen Echo Drive that I discovered how perfectly paired English lavender (Lavender vera) and dark purple petunias (Purple Sails, at that time) could be in a summer garden.

Dark purple petunias, not only for their velvety lush color, but because they have much more of the petunia fragrance that mixes intoxicatingly with lavender’s fresh scent. Petunias are part of the Solanaceae family of plants, which include Nicotiana, another very fragrant planting that can make a trio of scent for summer days.

But it is the Lavender that is the perennial anchor, giving freely of its flowers through a long , and sometimes repeating bloom. I liked it so well I made a hedge of it lining my front walkway. During our winters, it has sometimes suffered damage and need replacing, but learning to make new plants of cuttings offset that liability.

Make new lavender plants from cuttings.

In the newer sensibility of growing edible landscapes, our view of many herb garden plants could be transformed into seeing them for their landscape beauty and use more of them as such.

All About Lavender, A Page I moved here…

Here on the Garden Journal, and in my garden website, I write on cultivating lavender and describing how to choose growing companions, plants,crafts and ideas… and art featuring lavender. It is just one more way to have fun learning about plants.

And don’t get me started about Pinterest! I’ve only skimmed the surface on that site, but it is so much fun to make pinboards. Oh dear, I’ve veered off topic….
If you are not yet acquainted with the Lavender, this might be the year for your introduction.

Check out the Lavender topics:

Grow Fragrant Lavender
Pruning Lavender Videos
Lavender Plant Profile

Buy This at Allposters.com

And a botanical painting by a favorite Botanical artist, Elizabeth Blackwell:

Lavender Spike,…
Elizabeth …
Buy This at Allposters.com

You’ll Rue The Day…

June 24, 2010 by Ilona Erwin

Rue with no view of the flagstone path

Ever heard that saying? It might become all too meaningful if you are working on a hot summer day, especially while trimming back the “Herb of Grace” Ruta graveolens, AKA “Rue”. The sap from cut or bruised plants can be very irritating. Some people actually blister from it.

I was doing just such a task today, and noticed my skin feeling prickly and irritated. The plant is amenable to hedging , and was used in old knot gardens.

The smell, sometime after the first acrid whiff when the plant is injured in some way, is pleasant… and it would be my guess that this contributes to its nickname ‘Herb of Grace’.

The historically given reason for the nickname is that the Roman Catholic Church used sprigs to administer Holy Water long ago.

Indigenous to Europe, it grows very well here in Central Ohio. In fact, it seeds itself very readily and while somewhat dying back in winter, a good trimming rejuvenates the small shrubby plants for the coming season. Chemical analysis has unlocked the dominant properties of Ruta graveolens. It has alkaloids which are poisons, and a goodly amount of Coumarin, that sweet smell of cut hay- like the sweeter herb, Sweet Woodruff.

As an ancient herb, quite a few myths and rumored uses have attached themselves to its reputed qualities. I would be skeptical of many of them. Remember that lead was once used as a physic and cosmetic. Not all lore is reliable.

I’ve had rue in my garden since I started my first herb garden long ago. That garden is gone now, and rue shares the lavender walk with plantings of lavender, iberis sempervirens, white Geranium sanguineum ‘Alba’. and Lambs Ear. I like its umbrellas of chartreuse flowers and blue-bloomed foliage.

…but I do have to be a bit careful in handling it.