Into the Garden Week 17

Plant of the Week

Native to the southern states, the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), is known for its long pinecones. The largest pine cones found on east coast evergreens, they grow up to 10 inches and make wonderful Christmas decorations. Ranging from 80 to 100 feet tall with a lifespan of approximately 250 years, the longleaf pine is a regal presence along the southeastern coast. 

Guest

This week, I chatted with Chris Jones, assistant grounds superintendent at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. A landscaping veteran with 17 years on the job, Chris manages gardens on a large scale—over a 100 acres! Each year he oversees a beautiful selection of charming annual beds and pots, hosting stunning combinations including salvia, coleus, azaleas and sedum angelinas. Thankfully, the abundance of pine straw saves Chris some time by providing great understory and natural landscaping. Even if you don’t golf, Pinehurst Resort is worth a visit thanks to the hard work of landscapers like Chris! 

Playlist 

  • Harvest your hydrangeas.

  • Cut your annabelles early and often to enjoy another bloom 6 weeks later. 

  • Are your daylilies looking brown and tatty? Prune away to encourage fresh, spring-like growth. 

  • Check your iris tubers and peonies—make sure they haven’t been covered with mulch. 

  • Pinch your annuals once a month for new growth and flowers.

Listen

Fine Gardening Podcast: Let’s Argue About Plants.

Into the Garden Week 14

Plant(s) of the Week 

Tender annuals are power house flowers. Defined as a plant that lives and dies within one season, annuals are generally enjoyed during the summer, when their blooms are on full display. A temporary treat, they provide a welcome change and freshness to your garden. I love using annuals to play with color. Are your pink roses and orange ditch lilies clashing? Tie them together with peach zinnia! 

Guest

My sister Sue Ann joins me to talk about container planting. She recently updated her garden with a whole host of thrillers, spillers, and fillers! Think elephant ear, canna lily, persian shield, petunias, verbena and coral bells—I’m jealous. If you’re looking to add height, consider the succulent spiller of many names: Formerly known as aptenia, this sun-loving variegated sun rose is highly adaptable. Currently, I’m enjoying cuphea, a poofy plant bursting with tiny purple flowers. If you are struggling to find a container plant that thrives in both sun and shade, I would recommend sunpatiens, persian shields, and sweet potato vines. Most importantly, have fun with it! Container planting is all about playful exploration. 

Playlist

  • Keep deadheading. This practice encourages plants to redirect energy back into themselves rather than their seeds, resulting in bigger and better future blooms. 

  • Privet and ligustrum are alien invasives. Shear them immediately after they’re done flowering to prevent them from seeding. 

  • Keep watering your new additions and potted plants. 

Listen

“The Ugly Bug Ball” by Burl Ives

Into the Garden Week 12

Plant of the Week

The pinxterbloom azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides) is a lovely woodland native found along eastern North America from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Deciduous, dense and bushy, this suckering shrub reaches around 6 feet tall at maturity. Its white and pink flowers are an early harbinger of spring, blooming before foliage emerges. This native is sure to attract all the bugs and birds to your garden. 

Interview

Today, the interviewer becomes the interviewee. Susan Terwilliger, my friend and colleague at WINA radio, asks me all about my garden. A garden is a never ending work in progress. We discuss how I’ve managed to turn problem areas into useful and aesthetically pleasing design solutions. A patch of overly compacted soil became the perfect spot for my bistro table, a drainage problem led to the addition of my beloved fire pit, and those unsightly piles of soft compost keep my garden beds well-fed. No matter the problem, there’s always a creative and garden-friendly solution. 

Playlist 

  • First and foremost, science says to play in your garden. Research shows that gardening leads to a significant reduction in stress and an increase in overall well-being. 

  • Bulb foliage: Is it brown? Cut it down!

  • Join me in my peony pruning experiment.

  • Don’t forgo leggy annuals at the nursery. Instead, pinch off the tallest stems to promote bushier growth. 

Listen

Into the Garden Week 11

Plant of the Week

The fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus), native to the Eastern United States, is both beautiful and easy on your horti-conscience. A great alternative to non-natives like the crape myrtle, this ornamental tree reaches 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide at maturity. Rescuing us from our post-dogwood blues, it blooms in May. Fringe tree flowers are a bright white with wispy, ethereal petals. Come autumn, the leaves turn a brilliant gold. What’s not to love?

Guest

My little sister Sue Ann Kane, one of my three lovely siblings, sat down to talk with me about starting a garden from scratch. Clean-slate gardening can be daunting. There’s a whole lot of space to fill and no understory or pre-existing features to work with. Balance is key: prioritize immediate needs like privacy shrubs, while exercising patience and getting to know the space intimately before embarking on bigger projects like hardscaping. It takes a couple years for a garden to establish itself and for all the new additions to reach maturity. Don’t worry, there are ways to spruce up your space in the meantime. Sue Ann cut mulched garden beds and added window boxes, cast-iron urns, privacy plants, and annuals for some fast flair. Her dreams for the future include introducing more native plants, starting with our beloved fringe tree—music to my ears! 

Playlist 

  • Forget-me-nots are going to seed. Quick, grab some flowers and shake-and-shimmy them all over your yard!

  • Pre-prune your perennials.

  • Grass is back! Keep your mower blade as high as possible to encourage new growth and prevent grass burnout. 

Listen

“The Surrey with the Fringe (tree!) on Top” from Oklahoma 

Into the Garden Week 10

Plant of the Week

Unfortunately, many of our spring favorites hail from overseas—tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, etcetera. Camassia, flowering in late April, is native to the Pacific Northwest! Winter hardy in zones 4 through 8, it blooms in both shade and sun, grows in wet soil, and is fairly deer-resistant. Purple star-shaped flowers bloom from top to bottom along the stalk, which reaches 1 ½ feet tall. 

Guests

Rod and Maggie Walker, founders of the Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species (PRISM, for short), join me on the show. PRISM is a volunteer-driven non-profit dedicated to reducing the negative impact of nonnative invasive plants in the Blue Ridge area. This organization works with the state and individual landowners, providing education and funding to protect the ecological health of our region. Rod and Maggie identify their two main targets as vines—canopy killers that cause long-term damage, and new invaders—those who have yet to become established and can still be eradicated. Invasive plants are notoriously strong and resilient, but the Walkers are here to reassure us: this is not a hopeless battle. 

Playlist

  • It’s time to sow those seeds. Remember to keep an eye out for cooler temperatures. 

  • Prune your early flowering shrubs, like azaleas and quince. 

  • Check on your peony stakes. 

  • ‘Tis the season for poison ivy. If you spot any babies growing in your garden, pull them out. Use a pair of gloves or a doggy doo-doo bag to protect yourself from the oils. As long as you wash your hands immediately after handling, you can even dispose of them using your bare hands. 

Listen

  • “You’re gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion”—“Poison Ivy” by The Coasters.

Into the Garden Week 9

Plant of the Week

Don’t let the name American boxwood fool you. Unfortunately, our beloved boxwoods are not native. First introduced to the U.S. from Europe in the mid-1600s, this classic evergreen has remained a favorite for centuries. It is deer resistant and thrives in the shade and sun. It does hate getting its feet wet, so no soggy soil, please! Growing anywhere from 10 inches to 20 feet tall, this sculptural shrub comes in a variety of shapes including round, skinny, squat, and columnar.

Guest

Michael Abbott of Bartlett Trees joins me to discuss boxwood blight. A highly contagious fungal disease that causes defoliation, it first made its presence known in Charlottesville and central Virginia in 2012. But wait! There’s good news: Boxwood blight is very treatable. Chemical fungicides are highly effective in saving your plant and preventing further spread. Still, prevention is our priority. Always buy your boxwoods from a responsible nursery and make sure you ask your landscapers to sanitize their tools. If you’re thinking of buying a boxwood, look out for a blight-resistant variety or cultivar. 

Playlist 

  • When pruning your boxwood, aim to promote air circulation and encourage new growth by lifting the skirt and pruning both internally and externally. 

  • Start staking your peonies. I recommend using bamboo stakes and green twine for a more natural look. 

  • It’s time to sow your warm-weather vegetable seeds like peppers, eggplants, cantaloupes, and tomatoes. 

To Listen

Into the Garden Week 8

Plant of the Week

Rising from the ground like columns, Tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) are impressive to behold. While the average backyard tulip poplar is 50 to 70 feet tall, they can reach up to 200 feet in nature. This week’s guest, Jason Larose, estimates that my tulip poplar is over 130 feet! In spring, they produce beautiful orange flowers with yellow and lime green detailing. Popular with eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillars, their high branches also make excellent spots for bat houses! Hello butterflies, goodbye mosquitos. 

Guest

Are you a homeowner with a tree? You need an arborist. This week, I talk trees with Jason LaRose, certified arborist and founder of local tree service company Queen City Silviculture. It goes without saying that Jason is a great lover of trees. His deep respect for these highly complex and evolved organisms informs his everyday practice as an arborist. While it’s tempting to take out your own chainsaw and save money, the risks outweigh the benefits. Certified arborists like Jason do the dangerous work for you and ensure the preservation of your trees for years to come.  

Playlist

Let’s go shopping!

  • Make sure you know what you’re getting into by checking the root system of a nursery plant before purchasing. Is its root system undersized or congested? These plants will need extra TLC to thrive. 

  • Beware the nursery’s tender annuals. The days might be getting warmer, but these babies won’t survive a 30°F night.  

To Listen

  • Vivaldi’s violin concerto “Spring” from The Four Seasons. 

Into the Garden Week 7

Plant of the Week

Named after gifted gardener Thomas Jefferson, Jeffersonia diphylla is a delightful woodland perennial grown in horticultural zones 5 through 7. Each leaf is split down the middle into two nearly separate parts, hence its colloquial name, twinleaf. It is happiest under a deciduous tree as it enjoys soaking up the early spring sunlight before the canopy fills out. Blooming from April to May, twinleaf sports the sweetest little white flowers. 

Guest

Peggy Cornett, Monticello’s Curator of Plants, has been with the Monticello gardens and grounds department since 1983. Under her leadership as “straw boss,” Monticello completed a ten-year restoration of Jefferson’s formidable vegetable garden. Thanks to Jefferson’s compulsive record-keeping, Monticello is one of the best-documented gardens in America. More discoveries are always forthcoming as Peggy and her colleagues work to interpret and adapt to T.J.’s vision. I encourage you to check out www.monticello.org for upcoming events like Gregory Britt’s online flower arranging workshop on April 10th! 

Playlist

I’m back with more pruning advice. What else is new?

  • If your forsythia is getting too crowded or has finished blooming, go forth and prune!

  • Hold off on pruning spring-flowering shrubs until after they flower. 

  • I’m not much of a vegetable gardener—isn’t that what farmer’s markets are for? I kid… sort of... Now is the time to direct-sow your cool winter veggies like arugula, radishes, turnips, beets, lettuce, and greens. 

  • Start your tomato seeds inside. My expert advice? Read the directions! 

To Listen 

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