For most macrophyllas, mopheads, and oakleaf hydrangeas, blooms form on at least one year-old stems. If you prune too severely you will not have any blooms. Other than cleaning out the dead and ugly parts, it's best to leave these alone unless your plant has become too large.

If you are pruning for cut-flowers, your goal is not to make the plant
look pretty, but to get the best blooms on long straight stems. First,
remove all of the dead or dying material that you would normally
remove. Second, you will cut the plant back to about a third of its
current size. Cutting the plant really low, will force it to grow long
stems, which is exactly what your want.

 

You’ve invested a lot of time, money, and energy in your garden, and the result is a gorgeous landscape you’re extremely proud of! Yet, you and your neighbors aren’t the only ones admiring your hard work – nighttime marauders are treating your prized perennials and favorite flowers like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Sound familiar?

Well, there is a solution: Wayside’s deer-resistant plants and all-natural deterrents discourage grazing, with unpleasant tastes, smells, or textures, leaving your garden intact and thriving, despite after-hour visits from unwanted guests. The key is to keep changing your approach so the deer don’t get used to whatever technique you’re using at the time. Keep reading for a few tips.

 Deer Control Advice From Our Customers:

We recently held a contest to see who could come up with the best deer deterrents. Many people sent in really great submissions but one stood out and I’d like to share some winning tips with you:

Top Tips For Creating A Deer Free Garden.

Here are those tips we promiced you:

• The best approach is to simply choose plants that deer don’t like to eat. Some are perennials, clovers, shrubs, etc.
• Spread mothballs around the garden. Deer hate the smell of the mothballs
• Buy a dog. Any scent of an animal near by will stop any deer from coming near a graden.

We’ve all seen it–one quick frost and all of your beautiful flowers and plants turn to green mush. Of course, the obvious answer is to bring them inside, but where do you put them? How much light do they need? How much water do they need? These things will all change when you move your plants to a different environment, and the shock of the change may be as damaging as the cold.

Here are a few ideas to help tender plants and gardeners survive the cold together:

1. First, make sure your plants are in loose, sandy soil or a potting mix, and your pot has holes in the bottom. If the moisture can’t drain off  your plant the roots will surely rot.
2. Next, Find a nice sunny spot in your home, preferably a south-facing window. Artificial light will work, but use florescent bulbs. The heat from incandescent bulbs will dry your plant out very quickly.
3. Make sure the temperature stays above 55 degrees Fahrenheit, anything lower than that and you might as well have left them to the elements. Also, don’t sit your container plants too close to cold windows.
4. Avoid drafty places near vents or frequently opened doors–your plants will dry out quickly. For most tender plants, the soil should be moist but not wet. Check your soil’s moisture daily.
5. If you have potted tuberous plants that grow from bulbs or rhizomes like caladiums, tulips or dahlias, you can store those pots inside in a dark cool place, like a closet or cabinet.

Happy Gardening!

 It will be October in less than a week, and many of you may have given up on your gardens for the winter. When most gardeners think of October, they think of raking leaves and cleaning out for the spring.

But, if you have a garden project you are just itching to finish, don’t wait. The horticulturists around here stress that fall is the best time to plant. This may not be safe for some of the colder parts of the USA, but for most of us, the weather is mild and the soil is willing. Actually, it’s even a little warm here in South Carolina today.

This is a great time to get those shrubs and trees in the ground. For most plants. as long as they are listed as hardy to your USDA hardiness zone, then you can plant them most any time of the year, unless the ground is frozen. Planting in the fall will allow more time for good strong roots to develop before spring. Your trees will perform better than if you wait until it warms up next year to plant them.

You can have a huge range of interesting fall foliage in your own garden. Japanese maples, apples, ginkgos, and all of the other deciduous trees will light up with reds, purples, and yellows until winter bring all of that foliage down into crispy rake-able piles.

There are a couple of real autumn beauties from Wayside Gardens this year. Ginkgo Autumn Gold is certainly an eye-catcher with its bright golden foliage that will make your whole yard glow. Another fall favorite is the Acer Palmatum ‘Tiger Rose’ with its multi-colored leaves of salmon, pink, orange, and green.

As gardeners we have an opportunity to be a little more in tune to the changes and happenings as the seasons change. Migrating birds, the coming and going of pesky insects, clouds of pollen, budding, blooming, and eventually, seeding are all things that pass under the nose of the ever-observant gardener. Watching nature can teach you so much about your own garden. One of the biggest questions we get is, “when do I plant this?” The answer for most shrubs, trees, bulbs, and perennials will almost always be: “in the fall.”

Wildflowers, trees, and shrubs all seed in the fall in nature- the summer is filled with fruit and blooms, but the seeds don’t hit the ground until fall. They spend the winter dormant and sprout up right on time in the spring. This works just as well with bulbs and bare-root plants shipped in the fall. They spend their dormant period searching the ground with their roots, slowly becoming established, and they will have a huge leap on any plants planted in the spring.

It is not necessary to plant in the fall, most plants will do just fine as long as the ground isn’t frozen, but the fall planting season is ideal for most varieties. You will have earlier blooms and more productive plants in the following spring and summer.

The painting was made from a tulip variety growing in the Imperial Garden of Vienna. Carolus Clusius was the head of that Garden, a good friend of Busbecq, and a passionate gardener. When he accepted an appointment at Leiden University in Holland, he brought tulips with him.

It is believed that the first tulips flowered in Holland in 1594, in the garden Clusius had planted the year before. An avid tulip breeder, Clusius cultivated an enormous tulip garden and offered his new varieties for sale at outrageous prices. Many local gardeners responded by slipping into Clusius’s gardens and digging up their favorites. By the early 1600s, tulip growing was changing from a gardening passion into a business.

Tulip Mania began in earnest in 1634, fueled by a virus that caused tulip petals to become wildly streaked with bold colors. (Today’s Rembrandt Mix is the closest contemporary tulip to these Dutch classics.) No two flowers looked exactly alike, and everyone wanted them. Florists even developed a special ceramic vase called a tulipiere to hold each stem separately, so that the blooms could be enjoyed individually rather than massed together.

Fortunes were made and lost overnight in tulip speculation. Single bulbs were auctioned for outrageous prices, and ships that sank or cargo that rotted ruined potential investors. Finally the entire enterprise crashed in 1637. Interestingly, this exact phenomenon was repeated in the Turkish market in the early 1700s.

Tulips remain one of the most popular bulbs in the world, with new varieties developed every year.  Treat your garden to the plant that rocked Europe and created a sensation in the economic fortunes of thousands! Until Monday, September 10th, all of these gorgeous flowers are up to 40% off. Choose your favorites, and enjoy your own Tulip Mania!

Bearded Iris is very easy to dig up, because the rhizome sits at soil level. Carefully dig it up, keeping as many roots as possible, and wash it off. Then check the rhizome carefully for soft areas and small holes. Remove all of these undesirable areas with a sharp knife, then divide the remaining rhizome at its natural joints (shown at right with a red arrow). Trim the foliage back to about 6 inches, and re-plant the new rhizomes.

Like everything else about Daylilies, division is very simple! Just dig up the plant, taking care to keep as many of the roots intact as possible. Then plunge two garden forks back-to-back through the center of the plant and gently pull them apart, dividing the plant in two. Repeat until you have smaller clumps. Trim the foliage back to about 12 inches and re-plant the new clumps, hilling up the soil and fanning at the roots.

Now that you have many more new Bearded Iris and Daylily plants, you might consider creating an accent planting of just these two perennials. They both appreciate sunshine and good drainage, and bloom successively, with the Daylilies often encoring to keep the Irises company! This way you can dig up and divide the entire planting every 3 years, and keep your garden growing in beauty.

We have put together a few tips to help you get the most out of your cutflower Hydrangeas, including how to keep them fresh as long as possible as well as how to dry them for use long after the season has passed.

For Fresh Cutflowers:

• Cut them just as the blooms fully develop.
• Cut your flowers in the early morning, before the sun comes up to evaporate some of their moisture.
• Cutting diagonally will allow the stem to take in the most amount of water. Some people will even cut slits or fray the ends of the stems a little.
• Place your freshly cut flowers in a bucket of cool water and bring them inside.
• Heat water on the stove until it’s close to boiling.
• Let the water cool for a minute or two, then place the bottom inch of the stem into the hot water for about 30 seconds.
• Remove them from the hot water and place back in the cool.
• Use a commercial floral preservative to get the best results. This will feed your flowers, maintain a constant pH, and will serve as an anti-microbial to prevent premature decay. You should be able to find this at a local nursery.
• Keep in mind that many gardeners and florists complain that Hydrangeas wilt faster than other cut flowers and may require a little extra planning.
• Keep them out of drafty areas and direct sunlight to prevent the flowers from drying.

For Everlastings (Dried Flowers):

• If you want to have everlastings, most Hydrangeas will be ready to be cut for this use in late summer. It does depend on your location, however, so if you live in southern parts of the country, where the growing season is longer, they can be ready for drying in August.
• Don’t be in a hurry to cut them to dry, or the petals will shrivel up. Make sure the flowers feel rubbery before cutting.
• Cut the stems about a foot long or a little less, and strip off the lower leaves.
• Separate them into bunches of three or four, and hold them together with a rubber band.
• Hang the bunches upside down in a dry, dark place. Avoid sunny spots, as this can cause discoloration.
• You will have the most success if the room is warm with low humidity (high humidity can cause them to lose their color). If drying them in a basement, you may even want to use a fan.
• Under good drying conditions, they can be dried out in a week or two.

Once you have figured out whether you want your cutflower Hydrangeas fresh or dried, how you display them is completely up to you! Everlastings are wonderful in wreaths, allowing you to enjoy a bit of summer charm as the weather turns cold.

However you choose to use them, we’re sure you’ll love displaying your Hydrangea blooms throughout your home!

Pink hydrangeas can be turned blue by applying aluminum sulfate to lower the pH and add aluminum to the soil. Applying lime to raise the pH level will help blue hydrangeas turn pink. If your soil naturally produces very blue or very pink hydrangea flowers, you may need to grow your hydrangeas in containers or raised beds to achieve the desired color. If you do attempt to change the color of your blooms by adding these minerals, dilute them well, and add sparingly. It is very easy to scorch your plants by adding too much. White hydrangeas are not affected by efforts to change bloom color.