New Plant: Pink Lemonade Blueberry

Yup, it's true, its a unique pink blueberry - and it will be available this year at Art's Nursery!

Vaccinium 'Pink Lemonade'

Vaccinium 'Pink Lemonade' is a relatively new plant that will find its way to Canada this year in reasonable quantities. This amazing plant, grows vigorously to a height of 4.5 x 5ft in 10 years. Its fruit is translucent white in colour and matures to a bright  pink. Taste is wonderfully sweet with a firm clear texture. 
Hardy to zone 5.

Like other blueberries it also offers colourful stems and vibrant fall foliage colours. It is excellent in mixed borders, mass plantings and for fruit production. Pink Lemonade can also be grown in pots.

We'll have limited quantities of 'Pink Lemonade' Blueberry this spring. We are accepting pre-orders for those who definitely want this beauty in their garden.

Call Art's Nursery today at 604.882.1201 and we'll put you on the waiting list!

This Post Was Written By:

Art's Nursery Ltd.

New Plant: Sarcococca humulis 'Fragrant Valley'

Sarcococca humulis 'Fragrant Valley'

Fragrant Valley’ Sarcococca is a vigorous, yet compact, broadleaf evergreen with year round interest.

Glossy green, narrow leaves form the foundation from which small, but extremely fragrant, pink-tipped white flowers appear in late winter. Small non-edible black berries offer further interest thereafter.

This versatile plant is relatively maintenance free and also offers a greater resistance to disease than other Sweetbox varieties. It can be used in mass plantings, low borders, small hedges and even in containers.

Excellent when used near entranceways where it’s delicious winter scent can be experienced. Best grown in well drained soils in shade to part shade locations.

Grows 1-2 feet in height and 2-3 feet in width. Bred by Sidhu & Sons Nursery and is available at Art’s Nursery and other fine independent garden centres.

This Post Was Written By:

Art's Nursery Ltd.

Northwest Flower and Garden Show

If you want a mini-vacation, and love gardening, considering travelling down to Seattle for the yearly Northwest Flower and Garden Show. This fabulous show features many incredible show gardens, great seminars, hundreds of garden vendors and even a marketplace where you can treat yourself to a treasure.

It's sad to say, but I wish Vancouver has a show of this magnitude. Our own home and gardens show is ok, but it's certainly more home and less garden oriented. With that said, come see us at this years B.C. Home and Garden Show, March 2-6 at the new Convention Centre in Vancouver. We'll be setting up a fabulous show garden and be offering all kinds of treats for your garden or landscape.

Tickets for the Seattle show can be purchased online and are about $20 per adult, Bus packages and travel arrangements are also available

We love to go just to see what our friends to the south are up to in terms of style, color and garden design. And their show gardens are worth the trip by themselves. Overall it's well worth the trip, plus you can go to Pike place, the Space Needle and more. We'll see you there!

Northwest Flower and Garden Show
Feb 23-27, 2011
Washington State Convention Centre, Seattle

This Post Was Written By:

Art's Nursery Staff

February In your Garden

Time to stretch out those gardening muscles or at the very least daydream about it. No, actually we do have a lot of things that we can do at this time of year…just pick a day when you’re not going to freeze your fingers off or wash away in a monsoon.

Here’s the list:

Prune. Now is an excellent time to prune trees and shrubs. I know I sound like a broken record, but after a drive through my neighborhood and have witnessed some outstandingly bad pruning jobs I have to say…prune according to International Society of Arboriculture guidelines. If you are not sure and want to do it yourself, come and give us a visit and we can give you some pointers or check out your local continuing education or parks and recreation guide. You can also call your local arborist. Hedging can be done any time it’s not frozen or too hot out.


Planting and weeding can be done if the garden is not frozen or saturated with water - my Mother says this will happen sometime in August. Ha ha, very funny Mom, let’s see how chipper you sound when your temp hits the mid 30’s and your humidity climbs close to 100 percent in southern Ontario.

If you’re lucky enough to have a greenhouse, you can start choosing your tomato varieties and other seeds to start inside for April greenhouse planting.

Lawns. Towards the end of the month, if the ground is not frozen, wilted or waterlogged, you can apply lime. If it is, there is plenty of opportunity next month.

If you haven’t gotten around to planting bulbs, you still can. You’ll have a late bloom and the plants will adjust their clocks the following season.

Check your Dahlia and Cannas and other tubers removing any that are moldy or mushy.

Get your tools ready, sharpened and oiled. At some point this month get your lawnmower blade sharpened.

Get your pots ready, check for cracks, stock up on soil mix. Freshen up any winter planters. The Christmas greens may be looking a bit tired, add some new or tuck in some primulas or pansies or some lovely bulbs.

Organize your calendar…March, April and May are an explosion of garden events, Seedy Saturdays and garden seminars. Check out your parks and recreation guide, local newspaper, VanDusen Gardens or UBC Botanical garden websites for event information.

This season, be sensible-ish. Tackle the gardening a little bit at a time. Instead of having weekend long gardening jobs, try doing 15 min a day and on the weekend…admire your work and relax. I’ll give my own advice a go and let you know how it worked!

Cheers,

Laurelle

 

This Post Was Written By:

Laurelle O.
Guest Blogger & Landscape Designer

Helleborus - Heralds of Spring

With our gardens wrapped in winters cold embrace it is amazing that anything could survive let alone inspire us with a breathtaking display of blooms! Yet hellebores do just that, with their woodland charm and simple eye-catching flowers they bring new life to the dismal winter months.

HGC Winter's Bliss Helleborus

Hellebores are native to Europe and China and belong to the buttercup (Ranunculaceae) family, along with Paeonia, Clematis, Anemone and Aquilegia. They make excellent additions to the woodland scene combining well with plants such as: Acer, Azalea, Camellia, Daphne, Epimedium, ferns, Mahonia, Rhododendron and many other shade loving plants. They offer year round beauty and substance- as a friend once said; “They are unto themselves”.

These aristocrats of the garden are very rewarding, requiring little maintenance once established and with few

 exceptions are relatively easy to grow. For optimal health, vigor and blooming, a deep well-drained loamy soil with plenty of organic matter is essential. Hellebores prefer a more acidic soil (pH of 5.5 to 7 is ideal) which should retain adequate moisture but never be standing with water as their roots will rot, sharp drainage is critical! Plants are happiest in semi-shade under deciduous trees and shrubs protected from the hot afternoon sun.

Hellebores are heavy feeders that benefit with an annual mulching of well rotted manure or compost (make sure to avoid crowns) which should be applied in late fall. With age, plants become fairly drought tolerant and can handle competition with water-hungry trees. To further help plants along a 2-3” mulch of shredded bark will retain moisture and can also protect plants where winters are severe or snow cover is sparse.

Hellebores resent being moved once planted and being long lived they can remain in the same location for many years.

Very few problems arise when growing hellebores, aphids and white fly can at times be minor pests but these are easily taken care of with insecticidal soap sprayed on the underside of the leaves. In areas where air circulation is poor and excessive moisture and humidity are present, botrytis and black spot (fungal diseases) can develop and may damage young shoots, leaves and flower stalks. A spray regime of fungicide can help deal with the problem but moving to a more suitable location is the ultimate solution.

Slugs and cutworms can be nasty adversaries, severely damaging flower buds before they open so diligence is required to keep these pests under control.

Oddly enough deer tend to dislike the taste so that is one pest you can take heart in not having to deal with.




Double Form Hybrid Hellebore


Of the many species of hellebores available today, probably the best know is the Lenten rose (H. x hybridus), with seemingly limitless flower colour, form and combinations thereof, they can become addictive to say the least.

Plants vary somewhat in habit but all form clumps with tough, leathery foliage. Leaves are dark green, palmate and can range from semi-evergreen to evergreen depending upon parentage. In Winter months when weather is cold foliage tends to lay flat on the ground but will stand-up again with the return of milder weather.
Flowers from 1-3” across begin to appear in December and can last into May. Colour ranges from green, white, yellow, pink, purple, black and red with every imaginable shade in-between. Picotee, spotted and veined forms are also appearing in greater numbers and most recently breeding has been done to produce more unusual colours and combinations as well as doubles, semi-doubles and anemone forms. All make excellent cut flowers for rose bowls and vases.
Breeding work in Germany has also produced some new and exciting additions to the hellebore world. The Helleborus Gold Collection® (HGC) breathes new life into the spring line-up by offering outstanding H. niger selections as well as some new hybrids.

Jacob Christmas Rose - Helleborus niger 'Jacob'

The Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) has been problematic in Pacific Northwest gardens due to its

susceptibility to fungal diseases but now thanks to selection and breeding the HGC offers superior, disease resistant plants that flower their first year, are long blooming and floriferous and produce large, upward facing flowers in shades of white, pink and green. These low clumping evergreens with leathery dark green leaves are also deer resistant and make a choice shade perennial or container specimen.

This new series gives gardeners a wider selection of form and colour and by being genetically identical offer consistent flower colour and plant habit for uniformity and repetition in the landscape. Gardeners can also delight in many months of consecutive bloom, November into April depending on cultivar selection.

So take some time to check-out what is new in the Hellebore world and who knows you just may become hooked!

Art's Nursery carries many different Hellebore varieties throughout the year. Call or visit us today to see our selection. Best variety is available before Christmas and from Late February through March.

 

This Post Was Written By:

Lyle C.
Guest blogger, a good friend and grower of unique plants

Winter Ericas (Heathers) in the Garden

I most appreciate my winter Ericas when the colorful tips peak through blanket of a late winter snowfall. It is then that the bright fuchsia pink of Kramers Red reminds me that spring really isn’t too distant, and that I will, indeed, make it through another winter. I am a small heather grower and, like avid gardeners, do not relish the winter hiatus that is forced upon us.

I must confess, I am not the greatest gardener. While I grow really nice stock for Art's Nursery, I tend to make all the same mistakes as other part-time gardeners in the beds surrounding my house. There are so many more variables!

Like, always prepare the bed with care. Ericas prefer an acidic soil, much like Rhodos and Azaleas, so if you have success with those, you should have success with winter Ericas. If you have alkaline soil you will need to add peat when planting to correct this. Dig the hole three times larger than the root ball you are going to plant.

With Ericas, unlike many other shrubs (yes, they ARE shrubs, NOT perennials), they do not have a central leader root, so you can gently splay (spread) the roots apart at the bottom of the root ball. Plant FIRMLY into the soil, taking care not to leave exposed roots on the top (because of the fine root system, good soil contact is essential to prevent drying out).

Kramer's Red Winter Heather

Like almost any other plant that I haven’t had success with, Ericas HATE heavy clay soils, so take the time to amend or replace clay before planting. Though Ericas are touted as being “drought tolerant” that does not mean that they can go indefinitely without water.

Pay close attention to where you are planting. Is there an overhang of the house or a tree that is going to limit their water supply? And during the hottest times of the year, particularly in summer winds, for best results they must have regular watering, even after being established.

Ah, and though I am also guilty of that planting-in-the-heat-of-the- summer-because-I got-too-busy-in-the-spring thing. Take heed!


Commercial landscapers plant Ericas year-round, but they also take care to make sure that they are watered regularly to ensure success. Being shrubs, I usually plant additions to my yard either very early in the spring or in the fall.

Ericas are probably the easiest to maintain of any garden plant. Each year, just before the last blossoms turn brown, give them a quick trim to just below the bloom line. Gathering fistfuls in your hand, clip following the bloom line. This is the quickest method, and generally you end up with a nice symmetrical shape.

If you do have an old Erica in your garden that you’ve been thinking of replacing (BECAUSE IT HASN’T BEEN LOOKED AFTER), or because the dog has been using it as a back scratcher , I would first take the chance of cutting it way back in early spring.

Sometimes they can surprise even me with how resilient they are. You will know in a matter of weeks if it will spring back, or if it will need to be replaced.

Kramers Red Winter Heather



And if you don’t know which one to plant……

 The #1 most popular winter Erica is Erica darleyensis Kramers Red. It is upright, with dark foliage and that beautiful deep fuchsia-pink bloom. It suits being planted as a specimen or amass.

As a counterpart to Kramers, a white such as my favorite white, Silberschmelze, makes for a dramatic contrast, and the silvery-white blooms still stand-out in color to the pure white of snow.

Silberschmelze Winter Heather

I also like the old standby, Erica Carnea Springwood white. It spills beautifully to the edge of beds, and makes an attractive ground cover.

Springwood White Winter Heather

Another Carnea that is very reliable and bright is Vivellii, with is new growth being bronze-tipped, and its growth habit being neatly mounded.

Ground Hog day has come and gone! And it does mean something! Spring is around the corner, but the winter Ericas are already in bloom!!!

These and many other winter heathers are available at Art's Nursery year round. Selection is greatest from February through late spring where more summer heathers become more readily available. If you have any questions about winter heather, please stop by and visit us or call 604.882.1201. We look forward to serving you!

This Post Was Written By:

Dawne M.
Heather Grower & Guest Blogger