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Blue Wild Flowers for Your Garden
Planting wild flowers in your garden, or simply scattering wild flower seeds around an area of your yard are both ways to take advantage of Mother Nature's treasured gifts. Wild flowers are carefree, colorful, and tend to attract bees, butterflys...
Enhance Your Home
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expensive interior designer. Choosing a style is hard enough,
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Acid Loving Plants
Growing Acid Loving Plants
Growing azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, holly, pieris,
heather, and other plants that love acidic and organisc soils.
One of my fond memories of being 12 was catching my first shad.
Each spring the shad migrate up the Delaware River to end their
life long journey to spawn. Their migration is like clockwork,
arriving exactly on time, like the swallows of Capistrano each
year. In many ways so are the flowers and buds on plants. I
remember my shad and the picture of this trophy. I was standing
next to a large azalea in full bloom. Each year I would see the
blooms on that azalea and know that as they swelled so the shad
were approaching. Thus I came to associate the blooms of azaleas
with it's time to go fishing. How smart and lucky I was. For
there are so many varieties and blooming times for azaleas plus
some varieties have small second flushes, that I can now say
with absolute certainty that, "It's always time to go fishing".
There are so many varieties of azaleas and rhododendrons that
experts only estimate their approximate number. There are early
bloommers and late season bloomers. Some with large flowers and
some with small flowers. Some are scented. There is a spectrum
full of colors and sizes. Some are evergreen and some decidious.
Thus azaleas and rhododendrons are shrubs for all seasons. In
winter, these plants stand out with large evergreen leaves and
bring showy flowers in the spring. Throughout the summer and
fall the leaves add pleasing green color to the landscape. The
intense flowers of azaleas and rhododenrons make them a popular
selection.
If you have difficulty telling an azalea from a rhododendron,
stop worrying. Call them all rhododendrons and you will be
correct. If you know how to grow a rhododendron, then you can
use the same cultural principles in growing blueberries, holly,
pieris, heather, and other plants that love acidic and organisc
soils. Rhododendrons love mild humid climates. Site selection is
important. Many people come to us and report that they have had
little luck in planting rhododenrons and want to try again. Our
suggestion is to first look at your enviremental conditions and
determine if you should replant. Rhododendrons are found in
nature predominatly on north to east slopes. Here there is less
rapid temperature changes and the drying west and south winds
are shielded by natural features. Always protect azaleas and
rhododendrons from wind. Plant with barriers in mind. Barriers
can be evergreen screens, or buildings or slopes. Evergreen
screens can help highlight the blooms. Be mindfull that a corner
of a building may not offer protection but actually funnel winds
by the plants. Rhododendrons actually like filtered light better
than shade. If your site is full shade consider a pruning of the
overhead trees to allow better light penitration.
The soil that you plant Rhododendrens in should have good
drainage. You can run a simple test by digging a six inch hole
and filling it with water. If it is not drained in 4-5 hours you
need to increase the drainage of the site. Rhododendrons have
very small
delicate roots. If the soil drains poorly there is
probably to much clay. The roots can't penitrate heavy clays. I
would suggest a raised bed or a drain tile to carry away the
excess water.
It is difficult to improve poor soils to grow rhododendrons
without creating other problems. Sometimes trees with surface
roots rapidly take over soils that are improved and compete for
nutrients. They, afterall have a head start on your new plants.
It may make sense to raise up a bed a whole foot. This gives
improved drainage and allows the new plants more competition
free time in getting established. Make sure you have an acidic
soil of 5 to 5.5. If you have a large pine tree rake up its
needles and use them as both a weed barrier and a ph adjuster.
There is no good substitute for quality organic materials being
incorporated into your soil. Clay soils are especially enhanced
by organics. Lots of ground pine bark, oak and pine leaf mulches
and topsoil mixed well, works much better than peat. Peat will
hold water preventing oxygen from filtering to the root zone.
Peat can also hold moisture for long periods in the spring and
winter. The area that you prepare should be prepared weeks
before you plant. This allows the ph to change.
Most of the rhododendrons and azaleas that we sell are potted.
These plants sould never be planted so that their stems are
below what it was in the pot. Plantings should always be about
2" above the surrounding soil. Water the plant well after
planting. Native rhododendrons have very shallow surface roots
and have natural mulch and organic debris covering the surfacve
roots. This conserves moisture and minimizes winter injury. You
want to mirror the natural conditions so using decomposed pine
needles and oak leaves is the best mulch. A layer of two to four
inches is ideal. Keep the layer of mulch away from the stem. The
mulch should not be removed. It should be with the plant for all
seasons. It is the plants winter blanket. It helps keep the
plant from winter leaf scorch. If you want your beds to have
designer colors such as red mulch black much, plastic fiber
cloth, river pebbles ect., then plant some other plant, because
these plants are delicate and conditions must be correct or you
will have poor results. I don't recommend any fertilizing of the
plants for beginners. If you must add fertilizers make sure it
is for acid loving plants.In nature these plants do well with
low nutrient levels. Their small surface roots can be easily be
hurt by over application of fertilizers. I would use no more
than 2 pounds of a 6-10-4 per 100 square feet, but organic
matter that is covering the plant should be perfect. Do not
fertilize after July 1. Fertilizing after this time may force
growth durring the winter when the plants should be dormant. The
mulch can also act a a natural weed barrier. As it decomposes
add more. Fall is the optimum time to make sure you have enough
mulch.
Following these recommendations will help you have success in
raising these plants. See Bill's web site at
http://www.seedlingsrus.com
About the author:
Long time farmer tells secrets to growing Rhodies.
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