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garden planning

What’s THAT Evergreen? Can I grow it?

December 16, 2022

 

Evergreens in the landscape

‘Tis the season that evergreens are on display. Not only as wreaths, swags, and holiday trees, but in our landscapes. As autumn leaves fade and fall, the evergreens that remain gain our attention and appreciation. Although evergreen conifers can be great assets to our gardens, some are more suitable than others.

Evergreen conifers
There are many types of evergreen conifers you’ll see in local landscapes. These include members of the pine family (Pinaceae):

White pine bud or candle in spring_Lal Beral_CC BY-NC 2.0_Flickr
White pine needles with bud or candle
      • cedars (Cedrus),
      • firs/spruce (Abies, Picea),
      • hemlocks (Tsuga),
      • and pines (Pinus)

the cypress family (Cupressaceae):

      • arborvitae (Thuja),
      • Chamaecyparis,
      • Cryptomeria,
      • Cunninghamia,
      • Hesperocyparis,
      • junipers (Juniperus),
      • and hybrids such as Leyland cypress (x Hesperotropsis leylandii)

and the yew family (Taxaceae):

  • Cephalotaxus,
  • Taxus,
  • and Torreya.

Identifying evergreens
If you admire a particular evergreen in the forest, a neighbor’s yard, or even a live holiday tree, the first thing to do is identify it. With evergreen conifers the “leaves” provide important clues:

  • Members of the Pine and Yew families have needles—Yew family needles tend to be broader than pine family needles.
  • Most members of the Cypress family have either awl-shaped leaves or scales.
Arborvitae needle scales
Chamaecyparis needles
Yew needles
White pine needles and cones

Cones and bark offer other important clues to confirm conifer ID. See, below, for helpful sources.

Choosing evergreens for your landscape
Once you’ve identified interesting evergreens, decide where and how they will fit into your existing plantings.
General considerations. Evergreens provide shade and cover all year round, which can be a good thing, but before planting think about:

  • mature size—both height and width
  • impact on views
  • shape—how will the shrub or tree change in shape over its lifetime and how much effort will it take to maintain it?
  • avoiding a monoculture—planting several of the same plants—because if disease or pests attack even one, the planting may fail.
Hemlock Woolly Adelgids

Insects, diseases, and other problems. Not all evergreens that can survive in our area are good choices —including some natives—even if they will fit your homesite.

  • Some popular Cypress family choices— arborvitae, Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), and Leyland cypress—have many known problems (read more at: https://pdic.ces.ncsu.edu/decision-guide-for-cypress-problems/). Leyland cypress is considered so problematic it is not recommended for planting anywhere in North Carolina!
  • In the Pine family, hemlocks need protection from hemlock woolly adelgids, and firs and spruce are subject to other insect and environmental problems, as are some pines (see details, below).
  • Yews, too, have insect, disease, and siting issues to consider (links below).

What about choosing a live holiday tree? Many trees are sold live in containers or wrapped in burlap for planting outdoors after indoor display for the holidays. North Carolina Forestry specialists note that of the most common holiday trees sold live, only a few are adapted to mountain environments:

  • white pine (Pinus strobus),
  • Fraser fir (Abies fraseri),
  • blue/Colorado spruce (Picea pungens),
  • Norway spruce (Picea abies), 
  • and white spruce (Picea glauca).

Note that other live trees sold for the holidays—Arizona cypress (Hesperocyparis arizonica), and Virginia pine (Picea glauca)—are better suited to transplanting in Coastal and Piedmont regions of the state.

Fraser fir and Blue/Colorado spruce

Unfortunately, even the mountain-adapted species have limited success planted in home landscapes. Fraser fir is often afflicted with balsam woolly adelgid. White pine and spruce trees do best in cooler sites, protected from winds. White pine does well in altitudes up to 3,000 feet; spruce species seem to do better at higher elevations; our only native spruce species, red spruce (Picea rubens), naturally occurs only above 4,500 feet!

Which native evergreens are good choices? Some native evergreen trees that do well in the mountains and are valuable to wildlife are:

  • eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), which provides cover for wildlife, fleshy fruit to eat, and is a host for butterfly larvae,
  • shortleaf pine (Pinus echinate), which provides cover, seeds to eat, and is a host for butterfly larvae,
  • white pine, which provides cover and seed,
  • and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), which provides cover and seed, and is a host for butterfly larvae.

Article written by Debbie Green, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

For more information:

Identification:

Leaves:

https://www.trianglegardener.com/tips-to-identifying-conifers-in-the-landscape/

https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2019/02/arent-they-all-just-pines-how-to-id-conifer-trees/

https://herbarium.ncsu.edu/tnc/vis_gymno.htm

Cones and bark: https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/Basic_conifer_key.pdf

Evergreen conifer problems:

Overview: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/insect-and-related-pests-of-shrubs/pests-of-conifers

Cypress family: https://pdic.ces.ncsu.edu/decision-guide-for-cypress-problems/

Pine family:

Pines: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/pine-pest-management-calendar

Hemlocks: https://savehemlocksnc.org/info-for-landowners/landowner-treatment/

Blue/Colorado spruce: https://henderson.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/07/colorado-blue-spruce-issues/

Yew family:

https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/visual-guides/yew-problems

https://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/treepestguide/taxus.html

Live holiday trees: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/selection-and-care-of-living-christmas-trees

Landscaping with native plants: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/landscaping-for-wildlife-with-native-plants

 

 

 

 

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Categories Trees Tags conifers, evergreen, garden planning, Identify, landscape planning, native plants

Shrubs for Fall Planting: Choose Formal or Informal!

October 25, 2021

Fall is a great time to plant shrubs, and there are so many choices! One way to narrow your selection and save yourself some frustration in future years is to picture where you want to plant your new shrubs and how you want them to look.

Roles for shrubs
Shrubs can play many roles in your landscape. These include:

  • Foundation plantings
  • Screens for privacy—or to block a view
  • Hedges to define areas within your property or to define property boundaries
  • Serve as a woody groundcover
  • Source of fall color, flowers, and/or fruit
Formal foundation planting with conifers
Informal hydrangea hedge
Shrubs serving as a woody groundcover on a slope
Beautyberry with fall color and fruit
Formal planting of evergreens

Considerations
Once you’ve decided where you want to plant shrubs and for what purpose, consider how they’ll look before you choose. As you think about landscapes you admire, you’ll likely notice how formal or informal they look. Shrubs are often a good indicator of formality.

  • In formal landscapes symmetry and geometric shapes are the rule—shrubs are typically pruned to have clean lines, whether rounded or angular.
  • In informal landscapes, shrub forms are left to more natural shapes.
Improper pruning decreases the number of flower buds

This may seem an unusual first step in choosing a shrub, but the desired appearance of your shrub may affect several aspects of your choice:

  • If your shrub is evergreen or deciduous—most shrubs that take to shearing are evergreen rather than deciduous
  • If your shrub flowers or fruits you will typically want a less formal shape because shearing may remove flower buds—and prevent the flowers and/or fruit that follow—one exception is if you espalier fruit trees to shrub-size plantings (see “Specialty pruning” section in General Pruning link below)
  • The distance you plant your shrubs from structures or other plantings—shearing will limit height and perhaps width of your shrub, depending on if your shrub is planted as a specimen or in a hedge.
Many holly species can be pruned to formal shapes


Choices!
For formal shrubs, think typically evergreen and smaller-leaved. Many dwarf and smaller conifers will grow into pleasing shapes and stay small with little pruning. Although boxwoods are the classic selection for shearing, the devastating appearance of boxwood blight makes this a riskier choice. Some of the evergreen hollies (Ilex spp.) are suitable replacements:

  • Inkberry hollies (Ilex glabra) are native to NC, slow-growing, and tend to grow in a rounded shape that requires little pruning. There are dwarf varieties that grow only to 3 feet tall, and the species typically tops out at 5 to 8 feet.
  • Yaupon hollies ( I . vomitoria) are also NC natives, suitable for shearing, but faster growing, larger, and less hardy—only to USDA hardiness Zone 7a, so not suitable for colder parts of Buncombe County.

Note that Japanese hollies (I. crenata), which tolerate extensive pruning and are often used for topiaries, is an invasive plant and has been reported along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Buncombe County.

For informal landscapes, both evergreen and deciduous shrubs can provide a variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and seasons of interest. In addition to many varieties of hydrangeas and viburnums—some of which are evergreen—there are many lesser-known shrubs that are excellent choices for WNC landscapes. A few that are also native include:

  • American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) has arching branches, is 3 to 8 feet tall and 3 to 6 feet wide. Small flowers attract pollinators in late spring/early summer and distinctive purple berries and yellow foliage make this shrub a stand-out in fall. Some varieties have white or pink berries; all beautyberries are attractive to birds.
  • Carolina allspice/Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus) forms rounded shrubs 6 to 12 feet tall and wide with fragrant, showy red flowers in spring are visited by pollinators. Unusual seedpods form in fall.
  • Red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) is typically vase-shaped, 6 to 10 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide. It has four-season interest, with white flowers in spring that attract pollinators, shiny green leaves in summer, attractive red fall foliage and red berries that feed birds and mammals, and exfoliating bark during the winter.
    Sweetshrub flowers in early summer
    Red chokeberry has beautiful fall foliage and berries

Planting
Now is the time to plant! Autumn planting encourages strong root growth—cooler temperatures and fall rains make for lower maintenance, too. Give your shrubs a great start by digging a planting hole that is only as deep as the root ball, but 2 to 3 times as wide. Backfill with existing soil rather than other materials. Mulch lightly, keeping the mulch away from the stems, and keep well-watered throughout the winter months. Enjoy!

Article by Debbie Green, Buncombe County Extension Master GardenerSMVolunteer

 

For more information:

Planting and caring for shrubs: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/11-woody-ornamentals

Pruning trees and shrubs: https://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/2015/02/pruning-trees-and-shrubs-2/

General pruning: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/general-pruning-techniques

Landscape design: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/19-landscape-design

 

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Categories General Gardening, Shrubs Tags fall garden chores, garden planning, landscape planning, shrubs

Garden Questions? Find Internet Answers!

March 13, 2021

We know you have lots of gardening questions. You know you can call (828-255-5522) or email (buncombemg@gmail.com) Extension Master Gardener Volunteers to get answers! But what if you need an answer NOW, or you are interested in a general gardening topic or a complex garden project? Where can you find reliable information? Here are some tips!

Learn about North Carolina State University Extension Service resources
There are lot of resources tailored to our state that should be your first stop.

  • For Buncombe County information you can use the Resources link and the search box on this blog page and check out the Buncombe County Extension lawn and garden page: https://buncombe.ces.ncsu.edu/categories/lawn-garden/
  • For choosing or learning about the needs of specific plants, the NSCU Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox is a perfect first stop: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu

  • For help in how to use it, start here: https://extensiongardener.ces.ncsu.edu/how-to-select-a-plant-using-extension-gardener-plant-toolbox/ Of course, for WNC, you’ll want to select the Mountain region!
  • If you are concerned about plant diseases or pests, look at the “Be on the Lookout”—BOLO lists for each month:  https://pdic.ces.ncsu.edu/bolos/
  • If weeds are a special concern, check out these sites:
    https://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/weeds-in-turf/
    https://projects.ncsu.edu/goingnative//howto/mapping/invexse/index.html
  • If you have general topics you’d like to explore, such as vegetable gardening, houseplants, or native plants, the North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook is available online: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook

Using Search Engines
When you search on the internet it is all about how you frame your search question and where you search!

How to search
Think about the key words you need to include to find the answer to your question.

Focus on the specific issue and type of gardening or plant. For example: “vegetable gardening” or “carrot pests.” For NC Extension information, include “NCSU” after your topic.

  • Avoid extra words! Don’t bother to say: “How do I learn about my backyard vegetable garden? NCSU” or “What are those destructive pests on my carrot? NCSU”
  • Try different search words if your results are too broad or too narrow
    • Focusing on specific locations and seasons is often necessary for garden info! So “spring vegetable gardening WNC NCSU” brings up the most specific information for our area.
    • Using the correct terms or more specific details may improve your results. “carrot critters NCSU” does not get you to specific information about insects; “carrot pests NCSU” does!
  • If your key word search is coming up empty, try an image search! Click on “images” rather than “all” in your search engine.
    • If you don’t know if it a pest or disease affecting your plant, you could use “carrot problems NCSU” to look at images to try to find something that looks like what you’re seeing! Look at the information with the image; you will often find better words to use in your search.
    • Image searches can also help with plant ID if you’re not sure what the plant is! Here a description is useful: “shrub with large pink flowers NCSU” or “spring-blooming white flower with five petals NCSU” or “tree with yellow fall leaves NCSU” might lead you to further clues to its identity.
Looking at images may help to identify more information for your word searches.

Where to search
You likely have a favorite search engine, such as Bing or Google, but have you tried One Search for Extension? This is a specialized Google link that will bring up Extension sources across the United States: https://extension.org/search/

  • To find information for North Carolina, enter your topic and include “NCSU” for North Carolina State University or try just “WNC” to focus on the mountains.
  • If the information from NC sources is limited, search the topic without a location—information from other Extension sources may be helpful.
    • For indoor gardening most Extension information will be applicable to our area, but for outdoor gardening be sure to consider that growing conditions or pests and diseases may be different!
    • Information from Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia Extension sources is often the most useful.
There is little information on growing citrus in North Carolina, even indoors.
Information from other states about growing citrus indoors can be helpful.

Happy searching!

 Article by Buncombe County Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers

 

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Categories General Gardening Tags garden planning, gardening help, internet, search engines, vegetable gardens, websites

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