Category: Flowering Shrubs

Animal repellant products / Carbon Garden / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Holiday Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Permaculture / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Evergreen Camellias for Winter Flowers

    The first Camellia shrub usually chooses a stretch of damp, cool October days to burst into bloom.  I am always taken by surprise when its luminous white, spring-like blossoms unfold, because they look rather out of place beside the colorful leaves falling from nearby trees. Bright flowers in shades of white, pink, and red open on our evergreen Camellia shrubs each October and November while the rest of the garden fades, and as we begin preparing for winter’s...

Birds / Carbon Garden / Conservation / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hummingbird Gardening / Summer Color Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Water Wise / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Lantana ‘Stand’

    I never intended to create the Lantana stand.  Never in my wildest gardening dream did I expect it to get this huge.  There were no warning labels to prepare me for what it has become.  And it all began so innocently… In the beginning, there were only a lonely tea rose and  a few New Guinnea impatiens, I. hawkeri, growing in the neat round bed in the center of our new front yard.  We bought the house in...

Birds / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hummingbird Gardening / Summer Color Plants / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

How to Create a Haven for Hummingbirds

  A friend showed me a video she had taken in her backyard of hummingbirds swarming around one of her feeders.  She loves hummingbirds and works hard to attract and care for them.  She plants containers filled with flowers she knows they like, and maintains multiple feeders kept stocked with sugar water.  She told me that she has several tiny feeders on stakes that she places among the flowers in her containers. There were so many tiny birds flying about...

Beneficial Insects / Bulb Gardening / Compost / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Lepidoptera / Native Plants / Soil Conservation / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Late Summer in the Garden: To Do, To Do Less, and What to Avoid

  Autumn is like a second spring in our coastal Virginia climate.  We will enjoy another 90-100 frost-free days from August 1 until the end of our active growing season in early November.  Even then, there is still plenty to enjoy in our gardens and plenty to do during the colder months. We can plant seeds, plugs, and bulbs in August that will continue producing flowers, root crops, herbs, and leafy greens in the months ahead.  With so much time...

Carbon Garden / climate change / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Ferns / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Native Trees / Ornamental Shrubs / Sustainable Gardening / Water Wise / Weather / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Sustainable Gardening in the Shade

  When you’re planning a new garden, do you look for a sunny spot or for a bit of shade?  That used to be an easy decision.  We all know that plants need good light to grow well.  Gardening books used to advise anyone planting a small vegetable garden or flower bed to watch how the sun moves across the sky and how the shadows fall across their yard to select a good sunny spot to break ground.  Traditional gardeners...

mountain laurel in bloom

Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Ornamental Shrubs / Poisonous Plants / Spring / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Mountain Laurel, A Native Shrub to Love

  I love finding mountain laurel growing in large, lovely masses in the wild.  Its creamy pink flowers glow softly in the forest.  Wild mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia, sometimes grows along the undeveloped banks of creeks and rivers in Eastern Virginia.  It grows as an understory shrub in our oak, beach and pine forests. These evergreen shrubs, almost small trees, simply blend into the fabric of the woods through much of the year before bursting into bloom, suddenly elegant and...

Citizen Science / climate change / Flowering Shrubs / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Nature's Notebook / Phenology / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Timing is Everything- Nature’s Notebook

  We saw the first green leaf unfolding on a weeping willow tree today.  It was a tree growing in the loop of the off ramp from Route 199 onto Mooretown Road.  I can only wonder whether the heat from the road and passing vehicles enticed it to unfold so early, or if others all over the area are also opening on this warm, early February afternoon.     It can be hard to remember from year to year exactly...

Carbon Garden / Climate Change / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Soil Conservation / Tree Care / Weather

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Planting Trees and Other Hacks to Manage Wet Soils

  Water may be a blessing or a curse.  Gardeners usually want abundant rain to nurture their plantings and generally have a back-up irrigation plan for dry spells.  Providing the right amount of water for each plant is one of the keys to a gardener’s success. Working With the Water Cycle Just as leaves absorb carbon from the air, so roots absorb water from the soil.  The water, and any chemicals or elements dissolved in it, may be stored in...

Quince blossom

Edible Plants / Flowering Shrubs / Spring

 by Wendy Hamrick, Master Gardener, Class of 2017

Quince, An Early Bloomer

Most gardeners know this as Chaenomeles speciosa, (pronounced kee-NO May lees) commonly known as flowering quince. One of the first quince varieties introduced here in Virginia by English settlers and a native of Southeast Asia, it’s a member of the Rosaceae family replete with its own thorns. An effective barrier when planted in hedgerows, by 1720 Quince cultivation was thriving here in VA. Drought resistant Flowering Quince is a deciduous small flowering tree or large shrub with a long life...

Flowering Shrubs / Garden Maintenance / Heirloom plants / Landscape Love / Ornamental Shrubs / Rose Care / Tales from the Help Desk

 by Patsy McGrady

Tales From the Help Desk: Rose Rosette Disease

Q.  My Zephirine Drouhin climbing rose looks odd. There are “frilly” growths, and the buds are very small.  Should I be worried? A. The Heirloom Roses website description of Rosa ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ states that it “may be the most consistently blooming, large, flowered climbing rose, with the added benefit that it is thorn-less.” The variety is thought to have originated in France in 1868. Your rose appears to be infected with rose rosette virus (RRV). This is a virus spread...