PERENNIAL FOUR PACKS (BE STILL MY HEART)

Tomorrow I will take advantage of this lovely bit of weather and plant this sweet little box of foxglove.

This time of year always sends me into a bit of a tizzy. We offer so many lovely perennials in four packs and I always have to have them all.


This is a four pack.



You get four for the price of one and since perennials are better planted in groups you get a nice bang for your buck. The seedlings are sown in the greenhouses starting early winter. Some will take a couple of years to get to their true size. These though, will bloom and grow to full size in one season.

We have a varied selection of perennials in four packs including campanula, alcea, digitalis, aquilegia, various grasses and herbs. I could go on and on but maybe you should come and see for yourselves. The digitalis, aquilegia and some others are hardy to zone 4 and being so are fine planted this time of year in the south.

These are pictures of one of my gardens photographed in May, that was planted early February with the same amount of digitalis that I will be planting today.

Plant of the Moment-Prostanthera Rotundifolia (Australian Mint Bush)

I first noticed Australian Mint Bush in our greenhouses two springs ago. If I remember correctly it was very early spring, maybe late March or April. I was walking through the herb greenhouses to get to a greenhouse on the back of the property and noticed a lilac haze that stopped me in my tracks.

Native to Australia and Tasmania, prostranthera rotundifolia has tiny, ovate, very fragrant, evergreen leaves. In our greenhouses they tend to take on a standardized look very quickly from stem cuttings and lend themselves very well to that look. I have also seen them closely sheared much like a boxwood to great advantage also. With its lovely fragrance what a sweet chore shearing them would be. The Australian aborigines used the leaves in an infusion for relief of headaches and colds. The small mint flavored leaves are also used for culinary purposes in place of thyme and for potpourris.

A small plant transplanted that spring into a large pot on my back deck soon grew to about five feet. Since we show it being hardy to zone 9 I brought the huge pot inside an unheated back room to winter over. It survived just fine though it did get a bit leggy that winter. I was disappointed the following spring when it failed to bloom.

While bringing tender plants in this fall I decided it really wasn't worth the room in the small area I use to overwinter plants so I placed the pot up against the side of my house in a southeastern exposure thinking I would pull the dead plant out and plant something else in the large pot this spring. While working outside this past weekend I was very pleased to discover that it has survived some very cold nights into the teens and still remains green. If it survives the rest of the winter and blooms this spring I may very well rethink its worthiness and plant a couple more. For this reason prostanthera rotundifolia is my plant of the moment.

Christmas Open House

Even this time of year is a busy time for us here at Big Bloomers. After the quick Halloween, fall and Thanksgiving seasons there is a big flurry of decorating to get ready for our Christmas Open House. I managed to sneak a few videos and pictures in before friends and customers showed up Sunday morning. Thank you Jo for all your hard work, wonderful refreshments and lovely company.



Don't forget to check out our Christmas store 'Beyond the Garden Gate' located in the Riverbirch Shopping Center. There we offer a variety of holiday decor as well as select holiday plants, candles, gifts and stocking stuffers.

Plant of the Moment-Barleria cristata (Phillipine violet)

Barleria cristata (Phillipine violet) is not a violet at all. Belonging to the acanthus family Barleria cristata is not even native to the Phillipines but rather to India and Myanmar. This shrub-like perennial grows strongly upright to 2-3 feet. It is a lovely, undemanding and drought tolerant plant with handsome foliage. It will grow in full to part sun. In our southern climate it seems to be happier in morning sun.

I planted one in a 4" pot from our semi-sun section in early spring. I potted it up in a large pot where it bloomed all spring. With the heat of the summer months it stopped blooming but was still a very nice specimen plant. In late September it started blooming again. I planted it in the ground a little while later and was pleasantly surprised a couple of days ago when I noticed it had put on its fall coat of many colors. I have read they are very easily propagated by planting a sprig in moist soil. In my mind's eye I am seeing a lovely hedge row of them in all their fall glory somewhere on my property. For this reason it is my "plant of the moment".

Plant of the Moment... A Tale of Two Tagetes

The plants of the moment have to be the two tagetes blooming in our herb gardens now. They will both bloom into December and for that quality alone they both deserve to be plant of the moment.

Tagetes lemmonii is a wonderful, sprawling shrub-like plant with airy, delicate foliage. Late in the season and especially while blooming it can be a thug, falling over whatever is growing near it. Its such a delicate plant though that it doesn't seem to smother things like the late asters and chrysanthemums can sometimes do. People refer to it as "fragrant". Most people I know think it stinks. It is on the stinky side. Brush against it anytime of the year and you will certainly smell it.

Tagetes lucida on the other hand is more of an upright, orderly and sweetly fragrant plant. This one requires more of a "brushing against" to enjoy the fragrance, but crush a leaf or a stem and you will certainly be rewarded.

I love them both. They bloom this time every year oblivious to freezing temperatures when most other perennials have said goodbye to summer. I have planted them in most of my gardens... one because of its scent and one in spite of it.

Plant of the Moment-Orthosiphon labiatus

Very popular as a garden plant in South Africa, this long blooming member of the mint family forms a 3’ x 3’ shrub topped by showy, 1”, pink, tubular flowers held in whorls on many upright stems. Easy & fast growing in rich, composty garden soil. It’s also extremely drought tolerant once established but looks much prettier with regular water. Excellent used in mass planting in large beds or parks. In a small garden use singly or in small groups. Cut back to 1/3 height every couple of years to keep it fresh looking. Attracts butterflies

Last week I was in the greenhouses helping a customer ID a sprig that she brought in from a small tree growing in her yard. It looked like a hardy, bitter orange that we had talked briefly about on the gardenweb a couple of days before hand. I've actually have the same bitter orange growing in a pot outside for a couple of years now. I just couldn't remember the botantical name that day or where it was located in the greenhouses. All I could remember is that it was referred to as Flying Dragon. The customer and I went into the greenhouses but I could not locate the plant so she mentioned the computer and I could have kicked myself for not thinking of it first so I googled and found the name of the plant she was trying to identify, Poncirus trifoliata, Flying Dragon. But poncirus trifoliata is not what we are talking about today.

While in the greenhouses with the customer I got a tad bit distracted when I glimpsed a haze of pink blooms in a row ahead. Of course I was intrigued and I googled. I was disappointed to see that Orthosiphon labiatus is only hardy to zone 9. Hum, I thought.... I've pushed a zone or two before and this is certainly a worthy plant to try it with so today I will plant three Orthosiphon labiatus. I will try them in a west facing bed up against the side of my house. In this bed I've had good luck with another zone 9 plant which remains evergreen all though winter.

Plant of the Moment-Spiranthes odorata

This will be an ongoing blog. It is plant of the moment and not plant of the week or plant of the month for a reason. I am a very fickle girl and here at Big Bloomers we have a huge selection. I am always seeing something new out in the greenhouses or in the back field or my favorite way of finding a new plant, one that a customer has brought up to purchase.

Anyway I noticed the spiranthes odorata walking through the greenhouses about three weeks ago. A small nondescript plant that you would probably walk past a hundred times without noticing had suddenly produced strongly held flower stalks about 8 inches high. I was intrigued. I googled. I found I needed to have this plant called Spiranthes odorata: Best grown in moist, boggy, acidic soils in part shade. Plants spread slowly by rhizomes to form colonies in optimum growing conditions.

Lady's tresses (sometimes also called fragrant lady's tresses) is an orchid that is native to marshes, bogs, swamps and other wet areas in the eastern United States from New Jersey and Tennessee south to Florida and Texas. It features small, very fragrant, hooded, white flowers densely arranged in vertical, slightly spiral-like rows on spikes typically growing 9-18" (less frequently to 24") tall. Blooms in late summer to fall, often to first frost. Lance-shaped, linear leaves in basal rosettes, with some leaves extending up the flower spikes.

I had the perfect spot for it in a small northern exposed bed right off my covered front porch. This is the only spot in my three acres that I can plant moisture lovers since the ease of keeping this one small bed moist is no problem because of its close proximity to the house. Typically we are rescued from the heat of summer in late September. Things cool down. Its nicer to be outside and garden. I've been looking for plants that last into the fall and especially start blooming in the fall. Spiranthes is not your typical looking fall bloomer, reminded me more of spring blooming lily of the valley much like chrysanthemum nippon. daisy 'Fall Glory' reminds me of spring blooming daisies. Which just might be my next plant of the moment.....