Mike's Must Have Plants for Your Garden

Hello again,

As the 2012 gardening season progresses in Skillin's Country, I will often cite a favorite plant as "this is a Mike's Must Have plant for your garden!"

The following list is not intended to be a complete list of all plants you  have in your garden but IS intended to provide links to the Mike's Must Have Plants I have cited in print!

Check back often as I bring more Mike's Must Have Plants to the Skillin's Garden Log:

*It is late August and we have some awesome perennials that are in great color. And we think they should be planted in your garden! These are all favorites of mine and I highly recommend them:

**Cimicifuga or Bug Bane is a great shade plant. The foliage colors range from green to a deep purple; the colors always look awesome late in the season. Cimicifuga grows to be a big plant and makes for a great anchor or highlight plant for any shade garden! Oh yes, a Mike's Must Have for sure!

Cimicifuga Brunette

 

**Looking for height, hardiness, standout long lasting yellow flowers and a rich green foliage? Then you are looking for the gorgeous Helianthus Lemon Queen. Many gardeners have spent hours gazing at the beauty and stature of Lemon Queen--the Time is Now for you to join in! This is a clear Mike's Must Have!

Helianthus Lemon Queen--a True Beauty

**This is the classic time of year for the perennial Hibuscus. This plant is always a late starter but a very strong finisher. Gorgeous and large saucer shaped flowers with the most intriguing of colors await you!
Seeing may be believing but the bright colors will take a while to believe. A Mike's Must Have? Oh yes!

Perennial Hibuscus--Covered in Color--a great late summer and fall choice!

**Another great choice for the garden is the Ligularia. This is an absolute Mike's Must Have and here is why. This plant grows large in both shade and partial sun. The foliage ranges from a burgundy shade to a real dark earthy green. The flowers come out in late August and are a nice deep yellow. The plant is very hardy and reliable and makes for a great anchor plant. I give this plant my highest recommendation!

Ligularia--the Rocket!

And of course, some great plant choices featured earlier in the season:

*Peony

*Baptisia, False Indigo

 

*Chives

*Amsonia, the Blue Star Perennial

*Forsythia, long flowering yellow Shrub


Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses

Garden Talks June 29--Messenger, Weed Pulling, Corn Gluten and My Perennial Hibuscus

Hello again,

I have some things I want to write about but internet connectivity issues have kept me away from the Garden Log for yesterday and most of today. After a visit by Chris of Time Warner Cable we seem to be more up to speed again.

Saturday saw my second spraying of Messenger for my rose bushes, tomatoes, upright Phlox, monarda (bee balm), an old azalea that has struggled with leaf spots of various types for a couple of years, and my newly sprouted perennial hibuscus. Also, an old crabapple tree is getting regular sprayings along with some of my lilacs.

I cannot say enough about Messenger and how effective it has been for my plants. I recommend applying Messenger every three to four weeks throughout the gardening season. Click Garden Talks May 15--Messenger, Azalea, Woodchucks in the Garden for a good recent discussion about Messengerand how it can naturally strengthen your plants. Messenger is EZ to apply and is sold right here at Skillin's.

I did get a few hours in the garden on Saturday (literally my first consecutive hours of the Spring) and it seemed like miles of weeds awaited me. Thanks to the moist soil the weeds pulled easily. Do not let the weeds get ahead of you. Many of my veteran perennial plants were being dwarfed and kept from valuable light and air by the pesky intruders. Pull patiently and deliberately and then do not be afraid to take a garden hoe to scrape and turn the top inch or two from your soil.

Also as I pulled many weeds flowers opened and we know what that means! Seeds scattering across the ground. So last night after work in between rain deluges I applied some natural corn gluten (sold right here at Skillin's!) to the now open and clean ground. Corn gluten adds some nice nitrogen to the soil AND discourages weed seed from germinating. How does corn gluten discourage weeds from growing? The folks at http://www.natureworks.com/ explain it well: "Corn gluten contains peptides (protein elements) that inhibit the formation of roots in newly-germinated seeds. Products such as Concern Weed Prevention Plus do NOT kill established weeds. As a seedling without roots won't last too long, this is an excellent means of preventing new weeds from growing. For this same reason, however, corn gluten should not be used in reseeded lawns or in areas where seed germination is desired (vegetable and cottage gardens, for example). Corn gluten breaks down completely within about six months, slowly releasing nitrogen as it does, thus acting as fertilizer as well as weed control!"

Grassy weeds that leave roots in the ground even with some careful pulling also grow back pretty quickly this time of year. This is why you should keep the garden hoe handy and be ready to "scuff" (or scrape) those weeds out of the soil very quickly.

Back near the beginning of this post I mentioned that my perennial hibuscus just received a shot of Messenger from me. Well, I had about given up my perennial hibuscus for dead! The perennial hibuscus is like my teenage son; it (he) likes to sleep late; very late! For the last several years my hibuscus has flourished in a hot southeast spot. It is a real beauty with it's big "hot red" flowers and coppery colored foliage. BUT it is a later starter and despite being blanketed under several feet of snow where I drag snow off my roof the plant did not even send a shoot out of the ground until about June 10 or so. The moral of this story is DO NOT dig your late shooting plants (hibiscus, butterfly bush, spice bush, etc.) too soon! If I had not been here at Skillin's all the time I bet I would have dug that hibuscus up well before Memorial Day.

Many people are still planting vegetables...we have some good sized plants here that WILL produce in time for plenty of harvest!

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
June 29, 2009