Posts made in February, 2009

This week's Wayside
Gardens Plant of the Week is Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls'!

'Amethyst Falls' is a noninvasive, native cultivar that offers many benefits over other Wisteria. This award-winning plant is disease resistant, drought tolerant, deer resistant, and it attracts butterflies and other pollinators into your garden!

This Wisteria is sure to put on a beautiful show from spring to fall with some of the most beautifully fragant blooms of any Wisteria on the market. Being a native cultivar also has the benefit of being a more subtle addition to your landscape. Where other Wisteria tend to spill over into the rest of your garden, 'Amethyst Falls' likes to keep to itself.

It is also very easy to care for:

• Plant in full sun to part shade.
• Plant in moist, well-drained soil.
• Prune in the late winter before the plant starts to bud.

Passiflora 'Sherry' is the first in the Darkhorse series of heavy-blooming Passionflowers to
be introduced to the U.S. This beautiful deep, red passionflower is grown especially for containers.The vines of this compact variety will never reach more than 4-6 feet, making it a perfect, interesting addition to your container garden.

This tropical perennial is hardy in zones 8-11.  Move it indoors to a sunny
window before your first frost if you live north of zone 8, then set it back
outside after the last spring frost to enjoy it for another season. You will have an abundance of exotic, showy blooms all summer long. Visitors will be drawn to the deep red petals, and so will butterflies. This is one of our most popular plants right now, and with good reason. Passiflora 'Sherry' will make an impressive addition to any garden. If you are not familiar with passionflowers, Sherry is a great introduction to the genus – besides having one of the most beautiful blooms on the market, it is compact and easy to maintain!

Black Bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra, is very popular in China and Japan and has become a huge favorite in western gardens.

This elegant plant is a customer favorite year after year – it is proving to be a mainstay of the Wayside Gardens selection. The bamboo shoots darken to a deep, glossy black as they mature, creating a classy contrasting accent against the deep green foliage. This is a perfect plant for creative gardeners.

You can combine Black Bamboo with a few arborvitae and a few of our most popular Japanese Maples to create a serene Japanese-themed garden. Acer palmatum 'Oridono Nashiki' is currently the most popular Japanese Maple, and Acer 'Shaina' has been a customer favorite for years.

What would Valentine's Day be without roses? Wayside has plenty of the most popular roses in the country, including the beautiful Mr. Lincoln (Above). Everybody knows that certain rose mean different things, and you don't want to send the wrong message. I will try to sum it up really quickly:

Red – Red roses mean simply "I love you!"
Pink – Pink Roses connote Happiness and Admiration.
Yellow – Yellow roses mean "You're a Great Friend!"
Orange – Orange roses connote desire *wink*.
White -  White rose symbolize purity, and are often used for weddings.
Black – Black roses symbolize death and mourning – Only appropriate for funerals and your weirder friends.

That should give you at least some idea which roses go to which loved ones. Check out our Roses By Color if you'd like to grow them yourself in time for next year, or maybe give a live rose gift!

If you get our Wayside Newsletter, you've seen the new highlighted Plant of the Week Sorbaria 'Sem' – these POWs are chosen based on popularity and uniqueness, and this week's plant is both. I really love plants that have interesting foliage – they really add a new level of depth and beauty to simple flower gardens. Sorbaria 'Sem' offers beautiful bright foliage from spring until frost.

Sorbaria 'Sem' is a more compact variety of this popular genus. It is loved for its uniquely dense, pinkish-red spring foliage and great branching.  'Sem' is easy-to-grow, and it will add wonderful foliage texture and color variety to your garden garden.

Caring for your Sorbaria:
This cute little shrub is durable and fast-growing – it is also fairly low-maintenance.

Sunlight – 'Sem' thrives in full sun or part shade.

Soil – Provide moist, well-drained soil.

Pruning – Prune to the ground in late winter or early spring. Remove older, dying stalks as needed.