Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Dress up for the Fourth! Red, white and blue petunias, verbena or combinations of these with lobelia, geraniums, impatiens and salvia will make a nice display for the Fourth of July.

• Plant fresh herbs from young plants. Basil, rosemary, thymes, mints and sages are just a few ideas.

• It’s time to set out Brussels sprouts for fall harvest. Plant lettuce every two weeks for fresh heads all summer.

• Check young trees and fruit trees for suckers and water sprouts. Rub suckers off as they appear and cut water sprouts off apple and pear trees.

• Roses are in their glory now. Choose a new rose bush or climber to add to your flower garden or brighten up a wire fence.

Plant a star in your garden

One of the most popular landscape plants in California is known as star jasmine. Actually there are two star jasmines. The commonly planted one is Trachelospermum jasminoides, and the other is the Asian star jasmine, T. asiaticum.

Star jasmine has long been prized for its wonderful fragrance. It normally blooms through June and July with scattered flowers on through the summer. The flowers are about an inch across and are borne in clusters at the ends of the branches. The glossy, dark green leaves make an attractive contrast.

Star jasmine is a plant that can be trained to do almost anything you want. It will climb a trellis, spill over walls, climb fences and drape from hanging baskets. It is also a very graceful ground cover forming a thick cover about 18 to 24 inches tall.

Since it is slower growing than most vines, it is far more suitable for the small private garden or backyard. It can be grown in a large container for many years. Let it grow up a trellis to make a screen for the patio.

To cover a fence or wall, set the plants about 3 feet apart and start them in the direction you want them to grow. They climb by twining, but you may have to tie them to a trellis to start them growing up. As the plants mature, they grow faster, and can be trimmed lightly to keep them from becoming woody.

Asian star jasmine sends out long trailers on young plants and can be trained right away. It is more hardy to cold, but the flowers are a little smaller and more cream-colored than its cousin.

If you want to plant star jasmine as a ground cover, set the plants two feet apart. Use a diamond-shaped planting plan to assure good coverage as soon as possible. Any shoots that seem to grow straight up should be removed so that growth can go into the trailing shoots.

It is best to plant star jasmine where it receives afternoon shade. Hot sun can burn the leaves. Keep them well watered and weeded. A program of feeding every spring and late summer will help them grow and cover as soon as possible. It is slow to take off growing so if you want to cover an area quickly, you might want to start with a larger plant.

Both star jasmines are good-looking all year, and make a nice backdrop for other flowering plants. Use star jasmine near an entry or along a walk so you can enjoy the wonderful fragrance of their star-like flowers.

• Mother’s Day is the perfect time to give a living plant as a gift. Rhododendrons, lilacs, hanging fuchsias and ivy geraniums are sure to please her.

• Beautiful African Violets will decorate your indoor spaces with their masses of flowers in all shades of purple, blue and pink.

• Flower seeds can be sown directly in the garden now. Cosmos, nasturtiums, marigolds and zinnias will give you beautiful flowers all summer.

• Plant an herb garden in a container near the kitchen door for convenient fresh spices like basil, oregano, parsley and thyme.

• When you plant your vegetable garden, why not grow a little extra to donate to the food bank this summer.

Clematis: Queen of the Vines

Clematis are the aristocrats of the flowering vines. With over 300 species and many hybrids, this group of mostly woody, climbing vines has a lot to offer the gardener.

Their flowers span the color spectrum. The large-flowered cultivars range in color from rich reds, purples, and blues to pale pink and white. The smaller flowered “montana” varieties cover themselves with masses of pink or white fragrant blooms early in the season. And the evergreen clematis, with its profusion of starry-white blooms, carries a heavy fragrance.

There is a clematis to enhance any garden, no matter how large or small. Some varieties, if left to wander, will easily grow to 30 feet, while others mature at 6 to 8 feet. Many hybrid varieties mature at 8 to 12 feet, and are stunning on a fan trellis.

Clematis do not climb by tendrils, but instead by gently twining their leaf petioles around nearby supports, including plant stems, branches, wires, small poles and themselves. They do not cling to walls and, without support, will ramble until they find something suitable to climb on. In the wild, clematis are often found growing at the woods’ edge, where their tops can reach full sun and their roots remain in the shade.

Selecting the right place for clematis is important for its success. Clematis thrive where the vines receive sun for at least six hours a day with cool, moist soil for the roots. Morning sun is preferable. Plant vines in the shade of a small shrub or plant a groundcover or perennial over the root area to shade the soil.

Clematis can be planted deep and actually benefit from having the crown buried up to four inches below the surface of the soil. This helps the plant recover from dormant buds below the soil, if the top of the plant is damaged.

Begin feeding clematis in early spring, as soon as the new shoots start to grow. A generous mulch of garden compost mixed with well-rotted manure and a handful of bone meal is a good recipe. You can substitute a general purpose fertilizer for the manure if you prefer.

Keep the mulch away from the stems. During the summer months, fertilize with a liquid fertilizer twice a month until mid-August. After that, the plants need time to slow down and harden off for the winter.

Pruning clematis vines is somewhat complicated. Keep track of the names of the varieties you plant so that you can ask for help at your local nursery. Proper pruning will create masses of flowers that cover the plants at bloom time. Improper pruning will delay flowering, and no pruning will leave you with a tangled mass of stems but plenty of flowers.

The first spring after planting, all clematis should be cut back just as you see leaf buds developing. Cut above two sets of buds on each stem. This will thicken the stems and encourage proper root development.

Clematis will reward you with an abundance of beautiful blossoms for many years. To see a clematis in full bloom is to understand why it is often called “the queen of the flowering vines”.

• Gladiolus make wonderful cut flowers throughout the summer. Plant some every two weeks for continuous blooms.

• It’s time to put out oriole feeders. You can also attract them with fresh orange halves.

• Flower seeds can be sown directly in the garden now. Cosmos, marigolds and zinnias will give you beautiful flowers all summer.

• Plant the vegetable garden this month, but remember that late frosts can still nip tender young plants.

• Petunias can’t be beat for large, colorful blooms all summer long.

Sensational Wisteria

One of our most long-lived and reliable vines is the wisteria. Trained over an arbor or trellis with its long clusters of fragrant flowers almost covering the plant, it is truly a glorious sight.

Wisteria are hardy, vigorous, twining vines that have many landscape uses. They live for many years and can climb to great heights by means of twining stems. Older, established plants may have a twisted, woody trunk several inches in diameter.

Wisteria can be trained on a variety of supports. The important thing is that they are strong. As a wisteria grows, its trunk and branches become thick and heavy, sometimes outliving and replacing its support. They can be supported on trellises, hung from eaves (though they will try to creep into the house), espaliered on a fence or allowed to climb a tree. Make sure that the twining wisteria stems don’t girdle young trees.

Wisteria can also be trained to a standard, or tree shape, when young. They need to be pruned heavily in winter and have the long shoots removed throughout the summer to keep them from becoming vines.

There are two types of wisteria: Chinese and Japanese. The Chinese is the more common with 12-inch flower clusters that open all at once. The Japanese wisteria has very long clusters, 18-36 inches, and the flowers open in succession giving a longer, but less spectacular bloom. The most common flowers of both kinds are violet-blue, but white and pink forms are also available. Chinese wisteria will bloom in considerable shade while Japanese wisteria needs full sun.

Under normal conditions wisteria should bloom every spring. Sometimes a hard, late frost will kill the flower buds and lessen the bloom. Grafted plants should bloom within two years of planting. Plants which are grown from seed often do not bloom for 10 to 15 years or longer. A plant will also fail to bloom: if it does not receive enough sunlight; if it has been stimulated by excess nitrogen fertilizer; or if it has been pruned too heavily or improperly pruned.

If your wisteria is over 5 years old and hasn’t bloomed, try this: in late spring, dig a ditch around the vine 2 to 3 feet from its base and 18 inches deep. Mix 2 lbs. of superphosphate in with the soil and refill the trench. This combined root pruning and high-bloom fertilizer should help it bloom by next year. Do not allow suckers to sprout from the base of any wisteria, since the best varieties are grafted and suckers come from the rootstock.

Wisteria is grown primarily for the beauty of its showy, deliciously fragrant flowers. Its rapid growth rate makes it a good choice when fast coverage is desired.