American Beauties

Native plant experts and wildlife experts have teamed up to create four gardens guaranteed to bring life to your landscape by providing food and habitat for a variety of desirable critters.

Time to Plant Virginia Native Bulbs

Planting in this area starts in mid to late October for most bulbs. Planting after the first hard frost (late October or early November) is best for tulips. Bulbs are not shipped after early December, so plan accordingly.  There are some exceptions to fall planting – Colchicum is best planted by early fall before it blooms. Planting Depth and Width – Use the general three times rule when planting most dormant bulbs Plant about 3 times the height of the bulb (measured from the soil surface down to the tip of the bulb).  Space bulbs at least three times their width apart.  Actual planting depth can vary from about2 times to 4 times the height of the bulb – bulbs…

Getting to Know Paw Paw

Pawpaw season will arrive soon in the Eastern US.  So just what is a pawpaw, other than something many of us sang about as children? And what the heck does one taste like? It’s actually an interesting story… The Common Pawpaw is the northernmost New World representative of a chiefly tropical family, which includes the popular tropical fruits Annona, Custard-apple, Sugar-apple, and Soursop.  It produces the largest edible fruit indigenous to North America. The plant has large oblong leaves and many observers think it looks like a tropical plant, although it is native to over 25 states in the eastern U.S.  It’s generally found in patches in well-drained, deep, fertile bottom-land and hilly upland habitat. The wild…

Beard Tongue

Penstemon albidus Nutt. White penstemon.
A stout, erect, 8-12 in. perennial with broad, rough leaves and a densely flowered spike of large, tubular blossoms. Flowers are white, sometimes with a pale pinkish or bluish tube.

Eastern Red Columbine

Aquilegia canadensis This is an erect, branching perennial, up to 2 ft. tall, well-known for its showy flowers.

Lavender Hyssop

Blue Giant Hyssop – A 2-4 ft. perennial with dense, terminal spikes of small, tubular, bright blue flowers.

Blue Star

Blue Star – Amsonia hubrichtii This tough but delicate looking plant is not well known despite being a three season beauty. Steely blue starry flowers from May to July and light green feathery foliage form add texture all season. In the fall, the leaves turn a glorious golden yellow. Blue Star is deer resistant.

Ninebark

Ninebark – Physocarpus opulifolius (L.) Maxim.
A 3-10 ft., mound-shaped, deciduous shrub is fast-growing, insect and disease resistant, and drought-tolerant.

Heavy Metal Switch Grass

Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal' Panicum virgatum is a clumping, warm-season grass found widespread in North America. It was an important component of the huge expanse of tallgrass prairie that once occurred in the interior part of this country. As a landscape plant, it offers an upright form, fine-textured flowers and seed heads, attractive fall color and pleasing winter interest. It is certainly among the most delicate of the large grasses. Plant height ranges from four to eight feet in native populations but in the cultivated landscape, most forms of Switch Grass range from four to six feet in height.      Summer foliage color ranges from deep green to gray-green to bluish. Fall foliage color may be…

Value, Benefits, and Costs of Trees

TREES – The aesthetic value of landscape trees can be measured by determining how property values increase for yards that have trees in them. Property values can increase as much as 20 percent when trees are present on the land.