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Beautiful Lonicera

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L. Baggensen’s Gold

Lonicera, or more commonly called honeysuckle, is considered by many to be a noxious weed but there are many varieties of honeysuckle that are not invasive but worthy additions to the garden. The bad guy here is Japanese Honeysuckle(Lonicera japonica) Now for the good guys:

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L. Major Wheeler

Lonicera Baggesen’s Gold – This is personal favorite of mine and I have grown it as a shrub, in a container and as a substitute for boxwood. It forms a mounding shrub with arching branches which are evergreen except in severe winters. The leaves are small and golden color.It lends itself to shearing, can be used as a tall groundcover, makes a great specimen plant and like all lonicera is deer resistant. it looks good with purple foliaged plants like purple smokebush or stands out next to deep green shrubs like rhododendrons.

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L. pileata

Lonicera Major Wheeler is more like Grandma’s honeysuckle. An 8 foot tall twining vine, it is a magnet for hummingbirds from late Spring through Summer. The trumpet shaped flowers are coral red. If you like yellow you might try Lonicera John Clayton. These vining Lonicera need full sun.

For shady, deer dominated areas Lonicera pileata is small ground covering shrub with beautiful glossy green leaves. This plant is one of The Pennsylvania Horticultrural Societies award winners.It can be grown in full sun or shade.An added bonus is amethyst fruits on mature plants. A somewhat lower version of this plant is Lonicera pileata moss green which has tiny paired leaves which provide year round interest. Both of these honeysuckles are evergreen.

Community Garden Conference

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2018 Community Garden Conference Presentations

Despite the snow and cold, we had another great conference this past Saturday. Hope you enjoyed it too.

As in the past, we will load the presentation slides here as the presenters make them available to us. Here is what we have so far:

Click on a title to open the presentation as a pdf. We will add other presentations as we receive them.

Kokedama

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Hanging Kokedama Plant

by Lesley Parness lparness@morrisparks.net

Around this time of year, my fingers are itching to touch soil and roots. So learning about kokedama offered the perfect winter time planting technique. I first saw these charming plantings at last year’s Philadelphia Flower Show in the booth of City Planters, a Philly florist. I was enchanted, bought one and have been learning about them since then. At each of the following websites, you will need to search “kokedama.” Start at www.designsponge.com for a quick intro. Pretty cool, yes?

Continue reading “Kokedama”

Japanese Maples – Acer palmatum

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Acer palmatum in Spring

While the delicate beauty and splendid colors of Japanese Maples have delighted Western gardeners for almost two centuries, they have been revered in the East for over thirteen centuries. Native to Japan, China and Korea these trees do best in light shade and do not like to be dried out. Plant them in soil that has a fairly high content of organic matter and is moist, but well drained. Older, established plants can take some drought. Full sun and winds may burn the leaves, especially the variegated varieties. Most Japanese maples are hardy to Zone 5.

  • Acer palmatum var. atropurpureum (aka Atropurpureum) – Reddish purple 5-7 lobed leaves, especially in spring, which fades in the summer heat but shows excellent spring and fall color. Seedlings produced from a good selection will show all varieties of coloration. May grow 30-40 in height.
  • Acer palmatum Butterfly – One of the older, but still popular, garden tested variegated forms with emerging leaves green with pink margins, maturing to gray green with cream-colored variegation. Fall color is rose-red to purple-red. Habit is upright, vase shaped 12-15 high by 6-8 wide, relatively slow growing.
  • Acer palmatum Fireglow – This plant keeps a good red color all season long. The fall color is particularly showy. It has a very upright growth habit and has bronzy red stems.
  • Acer palmatum Glowing Embers – This is a Michael Dirr selection, exceedingly vigorous with small dark green leaves that turn orange-red-purple in fall. Its a fast growing, heat tolerant plant, often growing to 30.
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Acer palmatum in Fall
  • Acer palmatum Karasugawa – The most outstanding feature of this cultivar is its bright pink new growth. Some leaves are almost entirely white with pink edges while others are mostly pink with tiny flecks of white or bright green. As the season matures, the leaves get greener but still retain some pinks and whites. This is not a vigorous grower and it is somewhat tender. The plant rarely grows higher than 6-9.
  • Acer palmatum Katsura – This is a dwarf form with leaves that emerge a soft yellow orange with deeper orange margins. As the season progresses the leaves turn a rich green and then bright yellow or orange in fall. It grows to about 5 feet tall at maturity. This variety makes a good bonsai.
  • Acer palmatum Okushimo – An upright vase shaped tree that may grow to 24 or more at maturity. Its leaves are an unusual shape, deeply lobed and almost tube shaped. The fall color is an intense gold.
  • Acer palmatum Oregon Sunset – This plant exhibits a good rounded habit and has leaves that emerge very red in spring. As the season progresses, the leaves fade to a bronzy red then turn a fiery red in fall.
  • Acer palmatum Oshi Beni – The new growth emerges a vibrant orange-red to red, but loses this color in late spring, becoming bronze to greenish red. Fall color is rich scarlet. The plant will grow 15-20 and develops a spreading habit.
  • Acer palmatum Red Pygmy – This is one of the cultivars of linearilobum group, with red or bright maroon leaves that are 7 lobed with long strap-like divisions. This tree grows about to 6 by 6. This is an excellent cultivar for a very small garden. The new growth is not always typical, so do not prune out unusual growth as it reverts to normal during its second season.
  • Acer palmatum Sango Kaku – A common cultivar praised for the brilliant coral fall and winter color of the young stems. The color is very striking, but is lost as the bark matures. New leaves are tinged reddish but turn a light green for the summer. Fall color is gold with some reddish tints. The tree will grow 20-25 high by 18-22 feet wide. It is not as heat tolerant as some other cultivars.
  • Acer palmatum Trompenburg – The leaves are deeply cut creating a lacy look. The foliage is deep purple and persists into summer then it changes to a reddish green. Fall color is red to crimson. The plant grows 13-16 high by 10-13 wide.
  • Acer palmatum Versicolor – This is one of the most popular cultivars that will grow up to 25 on 25 to 40 years. Leaves are deep green in color with a varied pattern of markings of colors of white and occasionally pink.
  • Acer palmatum var. dissectum – Cut-leaf Maple. The most refined of all maples with leaves of 7, 9 or 11 lobes cut to the point of attachment of each lobe and each lobe is finely toothed. Seedlings exhibit a variety of variation. Plant may only grow 10-12 tall by 20 wide. Old specimens have a remarkable branching structure that cascades.
  • Acer palmatum var. dissectum Red Feather – A dwarf plant with extremely lacy, small, fine leaves. The leaves emerge in spring with a reddish color that fades during the summer. Fall color is a beautiful crimson red.
  • Acer palmatum var. dissectum atropurpureum “Inaba Shidare – (leaves of rice plant) On outstanding dissectum form with lobes up to 10 cm long. The leaves emerge a deep purple red and retain this color all season. Fall color is a brilliant purple red or crimson red.
  • Acer palmatum var. dissectum Seiryu – The only upright form of the dissectum group. The foliage is bright green, which turns strong gold in the fall with reddish tints. Plants may grow up to 20 feet in height.
  • Acer palmatum var. dissectum Viridis – This is a catch all term for all green leaf dissected types. Fall color is yellow gold to red. The plant may grow as large and wide as the straight species.
  • Acer palmatum var. dissectum Waterfall – This beautiful selection with extremely cascading branches is considered the best of the green leaf dissected forms. The foliage is a rich green all summer long and turns gold with reddish undertones in fall. This cultivar was discovered as a chance seedling at Willowwood Arboretum. The original plant is by the pond near the house.

Perennials For Fall

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Tibouchina

Fall is a spendid time in the garden where many varieties display shapes and colors that rival the better-known maple varieties. When planning your garden, think about a number of these plants showing which show blossoms and foliar color from August through November.

The plants in the following table may all be seen at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum.

Table of Fall Perennials

Botanical Name Common Name Bloom Time Color Height
Aconitum x arendsii Monkshood Oct-Nov Purple-blue 6′
Allium senescen Allium Sept Lavender 12″
Allium thunbergii ‘Ozawa’ Flowering Onion Oct-Nov Pink, White 6-12″
Anemone x ‘Bressingham Glow’ Japanese Anemone Sept-Oct Pink 2-4′
Anemone tomentosa ‘Robustissima Japanese Anemone Aug –Sept Pink 2-4′
Aster x frikartii Aster July-Sept Lavender 2-3′
Aster novae-angliae New England Aster Sept-Oct Mixed 3-6′
Aster tartaricus Tartar Aster Oct-Nov Lavender 4-6′
Begonia grandis Hardy Begonia Sept Pink, White 2-3′
Calluna vulgaris Heather Aug-Nov Pink, Red, White 2′
Chelone lyonii Turtlehead Aug-Sept Pink, White 3-4′
Chrysanthemum x morifolium Garden Mum Aug-Nov Various 2-4′
Chrysanthemum articu Artic Daisy Oct White 2-3′
Cimicifuga ramosa ‘Atropurpurea’ Bugban Sept White 5-8′
Echinacea purpurea Purple Cone Flower July-Oct Purple-pink, White 2-3′
Eupatorium coelestinum Hardy Ageratum Sept-Oct Blue 2′
Gentiana asclepiadea Gentian Sept Blue 1-2′
Gentiana septemfida Gentian Sept Blue 1-2′
Kirengeshoma palmate Kirengeshoma Aug-Sept Yellow 2-3′
Physostegia virginiana Obedience Plant Aug-Oct Pink, White 2-3′
Sedum spectabil Stonecrop September Pink 2-3′
Sedum x ‘Autumn Joy’ Stonecrop Aug-Oct Pink to Red 2-3′
Sedum x ‘Ruby Glow’ Stonecrop Aug-Oct Pink to Red 1′
Tricyrtis hirta ‘Alba’ Toad Lily Sept-Oct White, Lavender 2-3′
Vernonia noveboracensis New York Ironweed Sept Purple 5-7′

Scent

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by Lesley Parness – lparness@morrisparks.net

This year, fragrance is the Plant Sale’s theme. Likewise, it is the topic of programming for Garden State Gardens (www.gardenstategardens.org) and for a new cell phone tour here at The Frelinghuysen Arboretum. To get you up to speed, follow your nose to these sites.

Start at coty.com to learn about our funder’s history.

From the sublime writings of Diane Ackerman in “A Natural History of the Senses,” at http://www.american-buddha.com/lit.naturalhistsenses.smell.htm to the ridiculous at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision.

Understand the role of smell in human evolution at http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/05/19/Sense-of-smell-drove-brain-evolution/UPI-44821305848041/.

Enjoy some pleasant narration on the nose at http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/distillations/088-sense-of-scent.aspx.

And finally, listen to smell snob Chandler Burr, the New York Time’s first ever fragrance critic, at http://poptech.org/popcasts/chandler_burr__poptech_2008.

Our Pollinating Pals

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by Lesley Parness – lparness@morrisparks.net

In reflecting back on this summer in the garden, I can definitely say that something was missing: Bees! What is more pleasant than dozing off on a mid-summer afternoon to the quiet drone of someone else (human or otherwise) working hard to improve your garden? Statistics confirm what our senses already know – pollinator populations are diminishing. Animal and insect pollinators include bees, moths, flies, bats, birds, ants, butterflies, wasps and beetles. It has been estimated that pollinators are needed for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Domestic honey bees pollinate approximately $10 billion worth of crops in the U.S. each year. What can we do? Plenty. This summer, we’ll be hosting several programs on pollinators so here’s some homework to get ready:

Begin at www.pollinator.org – a great site for an introduction to the topic. FYI – NJ is an “Eastern Broadleaf Forest Oceanic Province.”

At the Applewood seed company’s website, http://www.applewoodseed.com/ we learn that “Animal and insect pollinators are essential to pollination in over 75% of the world’s flowering plants, which includes roughly 35 percent of the world’s crops.” See their “Pollinator Conservation” section for good plant selections.

At www.xerces.org tackle the heavy science. The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. For forty years, the Society has been at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs.

Finally, at www.nwf.org you will gain confidence to create a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Whether you have an apartment balcony or a 20-acre farm, you can create a garden that attracts beautiful wildlife and helps restore habitat in commercial and residential areas. Look for a class all about pollinators in our next issue.

Gingerbread Wonderland

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Gingerbread Wonderland

Winter dealt many of us a pretty severe blow last weekend. If that made you miss the entry deadline, don’t worry! We have extended the entry deadline until November 21st. Read all about it on our Events page and show your castle, house, winter scene, space launch, family, etc. (to name a few of the past entries). It’s great fun for young and old and will take you mind off the last week’s mess.