The Palm Survived The Winter

I unwrapped the Sabal minor last week. I had wrapped it with landscape fabric and stuffed this with dry leaves for insulation. I didn't want this to become a compost heap so I thought I better unwrap it. A few of the palm leaves that were pressed against the landscape fabric had frosted but the rest look fine. This plant is on the north west side of my house, and because of a neighbours large evergreen it gets maybe 2-3 hours of sun in late afternoon. This will help it avoid sunburn after being wrapped for four months.
Click picture for a better view.

Plants To Buy This Year

Fortunately for me my work involves finding exciting new plants to entice Ontario gardeners. I, being one of these gardeners, want to bring many of these plants home with me. Of course, for no other reason than to give them an objective trial in our particular climate.

I have selected the following 10 for my personal "want" list from the many new varieties we'll be bringing to our Niagara garden centre this spring. That is, if space and budget permit.

The pictures are courtesy of google (this time).

At first I thought this picture of Laburnocytisus adamii was photoshopped, but it really produces different coloured blooms. It is a hybrid graft between Laburnum and Cytissus that retains characteristics of each. Plant in a sunny location. Hardy to zone 5.

Pterostyrax hispida is known as the epaulette tree because its fragrant white flowers grow in panicles up to 25cm long that resemble epaulettes.

Franklinia is a member of the tea family. It is a bit fussy, requiring well-drained, moist and slightly acidic soil. But it flowers in July and August and has bright red fall foliage. It is hardy to zone 5.

Campylotropsis macrocarpa is a rare shrub from Korea that will grow around 4' tall. It bears unusual flowers from mid to late summer and is hardy to zone5.

Calycanthus Venus is a great new form of spicebush with fragrant white flowers in early summer and sporadically through summer. It grows about 4-5' tall and is hardy in zones 5-8.

Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) is a native fruit tree hardy to zone 5. It bears large edible fruits that have the aroma of banana and pineapple. These are not commercially available because they do not ship well, so the only way you will taste it is to grow them yourself.

Agave parryi is the hardiest member of this desert plant family. It will reportedly winter in zone 6 (possibly 5) as long as the soil is dry. Gardeners I know who have tried it suggest covering with a tarp in winter to keep the moisture out.

I know very little about how Abelias will behave in our climate, but this picture of Abelia Kaleidoscope made me want to find out. These compact bushes feature bright yellow margins in spring, pale yellow in summer and bright reds and oranges in fall. Plus it may be evergreen.

Mahonias are not an uncommon sight in Niagara, but I haven't seen any Mahonia repens here. This is a creeping form that only gets about 10" high. The evergeen foliage is best in a partly shaded location protected from mid-day sun. Zone 5.

If I can only bring one plant home this year it will probably be this one. And while Leucothoe Margie Jenkins may not appear that exciting, I have a thing for broad leaved evergreens. They help make winter look...well, less like winter.

Margie Jenkins has thick dark green foliage, and like many broad leaved evergreens prefers protection from mid-day sun.

February 26 And Still Green

The snow has been gone for several weeks now and it has been cold. Down to about -12 C. I briefly considered changing the name of this Blog from "Niagara Tropicals" to "Plants I Have Killed". In spite of the cold though, here are a few hardy plants that have retained their green foliage. All pictures taken on February 26.




My favourite little Yucca nana.













Amazingly tough Campanula percifolia. And it has amazing blue flowers in spring and again late summer.











You can't see it on the picture, but some of the flowers on the Erica (heather) are opening.












A cute little Dianthus.













Digitalis Spice Island. This is my favourite Foxglove with cool orangy flowers all summer.











If you look closely you can see the flower buds of the Helleborus peeking out of the soil.












Another evergreen fern. This one is called Autumn fern for its bronzy new foliage in spring.












I suppose everyone has seen a Heuchera by now. Still they have their place in the garden.












The Leucothoe did better this winter then in the past, in spite of the lower than usual temperatures.











Euphorbia is not for everyone as the white milky sap can cause dermatitis. But handled carefully it is a great plant.












And lastly a pot of assorted cacti that made it through as well as top left Yucca elata and right Yucca iforgeta

The mid-winter scratch test.

So far I have looked mostly at plants that photograph well in winter. But many great summer plants have no winter interest at all, they are just bare sticks at the moment. A little test that I like do do periodically is the scratch test. Make a small scratch in the bark with your thumbnail to see if the underlying tissue is green, indicating that it is alive. I checked all of my new plants this morning and here are the results.

Clerodendrum trichotomum: green right to the top
Albizia: green right to the top
Albizia Summer Chocolate: green almost to the top
Lagerstroemia (I can't recall which one): smaller branches are dead but the larger ones are green underneath.
Quercus virginiana: green nearly to the top
Vitex: green to the top
Loropetalum chinensis: green about 2/3 to the top
Ficus carica: green to the top
Leptodermis oblonga: (this is hardy but I liked it because it flowers all summer) green
Magnolia ashei: green to the top


While the winter is by no means over, this little test reasures gardeners like myself that there is a chance some of their out of zone plants will make it.
I also checked the banana today, it is a variegated Musa that I don't think is hardy. The stems are all mushy but I will be interested to see if new shoots emerge in spring.
The snow is all gone now so I found two more surprises in the garden and got the camera to photograph them.

Epimediums are perfectly hardy, but this is the first year I've had one and I didn't realize what a dependable little evergreen it was. These belong in every garden.









The other little surprise was the original Sabal minor which has now seen four winters in Niagara. I mentioned in an earlier post that it grew a new leaf every year despite my complete neglect. And while it is not a stunning specimen, here it is pictured on February 13 in Canada. Remember that I give it no protection. Imagine what this tough little guy could do if I looked after it.

February 10 Damage Report

Now that most of the snow has (temporarily) melted away it's possible to see how the plants have fared so far. Most still look ok, some are doing better than I expected and a few others don't look as nice as previous winters. All picture taken on February 10, 2009.

The Aucuba serratifolia (left in picture) and Prunus laurocerasus have no browning at all so far.

Aucuba Gold Dust, which looked dead a few weeks ago has bounced back nicely. This is the first year for this one.

Magnolia D.D. Blanchard looks amazing for the cold we have had. This is the most sheltered of the Magnolias, but still! I spray all the Magnolias with Wilt-Pruf (an anti-dessicant) in the fall before a hard frost.

Magnolia Victoria has seen four winters in the garden and although it has done very well in the past, this year it looks awful. There is a lot of browning and while I'm sure it will live I'm not sure how much foliage it will lose come spring.

Quercus virginiana (Live? Oak) is another broadleaf evergreen that sometimes survives here. It's not looking good but it did the same thing last year and then grew new leaves in spring so maybe.

I am really surprised at the Gardenia Kleims Hardy. I haven't seen it for about a month (buried under snow) and I fully expected it to be dead. And while it isn't a vision of lushness it is green and very much alive. Snow cover is not dependable in Niagara but this winter it's been fairly constant.

The melting snow also revealed some alive parts on the Loropetalum chinensis. I don't hold out much hope for this one, but it might make it.

Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae looks very good for the time of year. They typically brown by mid-winter so I think the constant snow cover helped keep these green as well. Let's see what happens to them now.

I'm not happy with how the Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana) looks. Just a few weeks ago it was green and now it is not looking too thrilled to be suffering through a Niagara winter.

This variegated Liriope, which I had forgotten I planted last fall, seems unfazed by the winter. I'll have to plant more of it.

Fargesia robusta (the clumping bamboo) is shedding a few leaves but that is typical this time of year. I expect it to produce 7-8 foot tall shoots this spring. And it might grow 9-10 foot tall by spring 2010 (I hope).

The Phyllostachys (running bamboo) is about 50% wilt. I fully expect it to live, I just wonder how it will look in May.

Yucca elata is one of four Yuccas in the garden (I'm not sure what some of the other are as they were given to me). All the Yuccas are looking great.

All the cacti are looking fine but the Mazari palm (Nannhorhops ritchiana) is having a bad winter. The Sabal minor (the only plant that is wrapped in my garden and consequently not pictured) looks amazing under a mulch of leaves)

A little pencil Cholla cactus (right in picture) and Ephedera.

Hebe sutherlandii (left in picture) is much browner than two weeks ago. The little Euonymous on the right is doing better.