Gardening Toolshed

Growing and Caring for Orchids

The better way to grow orchids is also simple when you know how.

One of the best ways to get great orchid bulbs or just ready to use flowers is to get in touch with a grower in your community. They will likely have better prices and better information on these wonderful flowers than will your local home improvement store or even gardening center, but how do you find an orchid grower in your community? There are a couple of good ways to locate a local orchid grower.

One option just simply goes with the times. The Internet is a great way to find a grower in your community. Log on to your computer, go to your favorite search site, and look for “orchid grower” along with the name of your community. You should be able to find someone, but if not there are certainly other options.

Another option is to check out community boards in your local home stores and garden centers. Often growers will post their information on these boards in hopes of not just getting business, but also in hopes of finding other people who love orchids. Either way, you are still getting in touch with a wealth of information on orchids that can help you.

Finally, if all else fails, you can get in touch with an orchid grower that is not in your community. Bulbs actually ship well and you can get a great deal of information through the phone and email. You will be able to build a relationship and possibly save yourself some money along the way.

If you want to plant orchids or simply learn more about them, an orchid grower is a much more personal and often more affordable way of going about that. They can provide you with bulbs, information, and even a camaraderie that you will likely not find in your local home store or gardening center.

Like all delicate flower orchids should be looked after with extreme care. The best place to place them is in a non-draughty window box or sill where they should get sunlight through the morning and into the afternoon. Note they should not be placed in direct line of the sun.

Orchids should be repotted every two years. The soil should be moist and able to retain this moisture. Water your orchids at least once per week, more in warmer weather and especially if you notice that the plant is drying out. This is common sense, really.

Finding an orchid grower is one of the smarter ways to learn about this great little plant. Why not learn from someone who has been there and done it.

For All Our Orchids Secrets Check Out:
Caring for Orchids

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Black Lace-A Flower That Offers Beauty and Berries

(NAPSI)-Good design not only makes the inside of your home more lovely, it can also take bloom in your garden. And, since plants cost a fraction of the price of new furniture, outdoor decorating can be a lot easier on the wallet. Here are some ideas you may want to cultivate.

Both interior decorators and landscapers consider size, color and texture. A good place to start is by looking at the size of the space. Dwarf plants are very useful in tight spaces, but can get lost in a lush perennial border. Curb appeal and backyard views also demand something bigger. Every garden needs at least one impressive specimen plant to anchor the landscape.

Think about color. Many people focus on flowers and forget about the months that a plant is not in bloom. Plant breeders have responded to this by producing varieties with colorful foliage for season-long appeal.

Texture is another important design element. Large leaves have big impact, while narrow or cutleaf foliage adds delicate interest to gardens. Fine or cutleaf foliage sways with the wind, a lovely effect.

For example, the new Black Lace sambucus has everything the homeowner needs for stylish outdoor spaces. Dark purple leaves provide interesting color all season long, and are a fantastic combination with popular perennials such as black-eyed susans. Like Japanese maple, its finely cut foliage makes it a choice specimen for entryways and other high-impact areas.

Black Lace offers more than color and texture. Its huge pink spring flowers will produce fall berries for jam or wine, or may be left on the plant for wildlife to enjoy. Like all well-designed products, Black Lace offers both form and function.

Best of all, this new plant is adaptable and easy to grow. It’s tolerant of most soils, even soggy ones, and will grow in sun or some shade. Six feet tall at maturity, Black Lace doesn’t require pruning, although homeowners can cut it back after blooming if desired. A full-sized mature Black Lace is an impressive specimen for either formal gardens or casual backyard scenes. It can also be grown in a decorative container for the patio or deck.

Plant breeders work hard to develop useful new varieties like Black Lace. The Proven Winners brand carefully selects the most beautiful and easy-to-grow varieties so successful gardening is easy. After all, why should fashionable landscapes be reserved for expert gardeners? The rest of us deserve good design, too. Cold hardy and adaptable, Black Lace will thrive for years. It’s an easy way to add durable style to your garden.

So are you ready to bring good design into your garden? It’s worth the effort. After all, your yard is the biggest room in your house.

Black Lace is just one of over 50 colorful, easy-to-grow Proven Winners ColorChoice varieties. They’re easy to find at your garden center-look for the plants in the white pots. To learn more, visit www.colorchoiceplants.com.

Black Lace has huge pink flowers that will produce fall berries for jam or wine. Six feet tall at maturity, it is an impressive addition for either formal gardens or casual backyard scenes.

High Country Gardens Introduces New Plants For 2006

(HIT)-For Spring 2006, High Country Gardens continues its tradition of introducing unique new plants to American gardeners. The new offerings in the 2006 High Country Gardens mailorder catalog include Gladiolus oppositiflorius v. salmoneus (a gladiola from South Africa that’s cold hardy to USDA zone 5), the most cold-hardy Agapanthus ever released, and the delightfully diminutive Agave toumeyana v. bella. Also of note is a new preplanned garden called the Xeric Aroma Garden.

High Country Gardens is an award-winning source for native and adapted plants. The nationally recognized catalog specializes in easy-to-grow varieties that thrive in many areas of the country but grow particularly well in the climates of the western United States. High Country Gardens offers a wide range of perennials, ornamental grasses and shrubs, including many water-wise (’xeric’) plants that need little or no extra water once established.

To receive a free Spring 2006 catalog, call High Country Gardens at 1-800-925-9387, or order a catalog and/or view the entire catalog online at www.highcountrygardens.com.

	Agapanthus sp. ‘Cold Hardy White’ #11700

Agapanthus sp. ‘Cold Hardy White’ (White Flowered African Lily)

Before ‘Cold Hardy White,’ only gardeners in tropical and subtropical climates could enjoy Agapanthus as permanent specimens in their outdoor gardens. This delightful plant is the latest example of High Country Garden’s ongoing quest for cold hardy South African perennials. A vigorous, graceful plant, White Flowered African Lily forms nice clumps of deciduous, strap-like foliage that surrounds numerous heads of pure white flowers in mid-summer. ‘Cold Hardy White’ is easily grown in full sun or morning sun with afternoon shade in average garden soils. It prefers regular irrigation and will reach 15 inches tall and 12 inches wide. Mulching heavily the first winter will help the plant establish itself and increase its future cold hardiness. Thrives in USDA zones 5-10. $7.99 each in premium 5-inch pots.

	Agastache x rupestris ‘Orange Flare’ (Licorice Mint Hyssop) #11827

Agastache x rupestris ‘Orange Flare’ (Licorice Mint Hyssop)

A newly developed hybrid from the High Country Gardens xeric demonstration flower beds, ‘Orange Flare’ is a backcross between A. rupestris and Agastache x ‘Desert Sunrise.’ The resulting plant has the same highly fragrant, finely textured gray foliage of rupestris but with much larger, fuller spikes of deeply colored orange flowers. Taking after its other parent, ‘Desert Sunrise,’ the flowers have exceptionally abundant nectar to attract hummingbirds. Easily grown in well-drained garden soils with plenty of sun, Agastache x rupestris ‘Orange Flare’ will reach 36 inches tall and 18 inches wide. As an added bonus, this lovely perennial is resistant to browsing deer and rabbits. ‘Orange Flare’ is cold hardy in zones 5-9. $6.99 each, 3 to 6 plants $6.79 each, 7 or more plants $6.59 each.

	Agave toumeyana v. bella (Miniature Century Plant) #12713

Agave toumeyana v. bella (Miniature Century Plant)

Many years of growing this miniature gem in the test gardens at High Country Gardens in Santa Fe has proved that Agave toumeyana v. bella is a unique gem in a rock garden. However, it was only recently that enough seed was collected of this rare, very cold hardy plant to make it available to the gardening public. The Miniature Century Plant’s thin, stiff leaves are edged with white stripes and adorned with curling white threads, which give the small rosettes an appealing tidy appearance. This tiny Agave will reach just four inches tall and five inches wide in full sun and lean, well-drained soils. It is a wonderful companion plant for xeric plants such as Echinocereus and Escobaria cacti species. USDA zones 5-10. $5.99 each, 3 to 6 plants $5.79 each, 7 or more plants $5.59 each.

Gladiolus oppositiflorus v. salmoneus (Wildflower Salmon Gladiolus)

It’s no secret that David Salman, chief horticulturist for High Country Gardens, loves cold hardy ornamental perennials from the high altitude areas of South Africa. Gladiolus oppositiflorus v. salmoneus should prove to be among the best of these South African wildflowers with its richly colored blooms, graceful three-foot-tall flowering spikes, statuesque foliage and excellent cold hardiness. Different from the very popular cold-tender domesticated Gladiolus, this unique wildflower species retains the spirit and beauty of its high-mountain home.

Plant in full sun and mulch heavily for winter in zones 5 and 6 the first couple of years to protect the bulbs from extreme cold. Mark their planting spot as the bulbs will be late to wake up after a cold spring growing season. Zones 5-9. Three-year-old blooming plants are available in 5-inch premium pots for $7.99 each, 3 to 6 plants $7.79 each, 7 or more plants $7.59 each.

Rhus trilobata ‘Autumn Amber’ (’Autumn Amber’ Prostrate Sumac)

‘Autumn Amber’ is a superb prostrate growing form of three leaf sumac originally discovered years ago in the foothills of east-central New Mexico. Blooming in mid-spring with an amazing abundance of chartreuse-colored flowers, the plants have attractive glossy green foliage that turns an amber-yellow in the fall. ‘Autumn Amber’ grows just 18 inches tall and spreads six to eight feet wide, making it a welcome groundcover alternative to creeping juniper.

This waterwise plant was developed in New Mexico at the Los Lunas USDA-NRCS Plant Materials Center and is available exclusively from High Country Gardens. ‘Autumn Amber’ grows best in full sun throughout zones 4-8. $8.29 each, 3 to 6 plants $7.99 each, 7 or more plants $7.79 each.

The Xeric Aroma Garden

This perennial garden designed by Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden exclusively for High Country Gardens brings together the pleasures of scent and color into a single space. By using a combination of fragrant flowers and aromatic plants (that release their pleasing scents when touched or brushed), the Xeric Aroma Garden will grow to create a living potpourri.

The plants of this garden are also wonderfully colorful with flowers in shades of raspberry-red, orange, yellow, blue and pink. Butterflies and hummingbirds love this nectar-rich garden, but the strongly scented foliage and flowers are bitter and unpalatable to deer and rabbits.

Included in the garden are: five plants each of Thymus sp.; four plants each of Teucrium aroanium; three plants each of Lavandula angustifolia ‘Sharon Roberts’; two plants each Origanum libanoticum, Zizophora clinopodioides, and Salvia off. ‘Minima’; and one plant each of Agastache rupestris, Iris ‘Variegata,’ Santolina ‘Morning Mist’ and Salvia x ‘Raspberry Delight.’ When fully mature, the 22 plants in this preplanned garden fill a rectangular area five feet wide by nine feet long (approx. 45 square feet.).

Plant this garden in a sunny spot with well-drained garden soil of low to average fertility in USDA zones 5-9. The entire garden and planting instructions sells for $118.78.

Stachys inflata (Shrubby Lamb’s Ear)

The beauty and unflinching performance in harsh conditions will make Stachys inflata a favorite in your xeriscape. A native of the high mountains of Iran, this small shrublet (just 12 inches tall and 10 inches wide) has bright white stems, pewter gray leaves and numerous spikes of cotton candy pink flowers in early summer.

Planted in full sun in well-drained infertile soil, Stachys inflata makes a wonderful companion plant for English lavender—creating a beautiful flowering duo of pink and blue. Zones 5-9. Exclusively available from High Country Gardens. $5.99 each, 3 to 6 plants $5.79 each, 7 or more plants $5.59 each.