Blue Suede Blueberry

At a continuing education conference this week at the University of Georgia, I obtained lots of good stuff: new landscape design knowledge, signed copies of Vince Dooley’s books, and a new blueberry bush! Vaccinium x ‘Blue Suede’ is a new highbush variety introduced by UGA which boasts large, early ripening fruit and the ability to self-pollinate.

While ideal for edible gardens, blueberries also do well among other acid loving plants such as Rhododendrons, Camellias, and Hollies. Other native highbush blueberries that do well in our area include: Blue Jay, Jersey, Legacy, Patriot, and Sunshine. A few of these varieties are currently available at local garden centers.

Between the spring flowers, summer fruit, and outstanding red fall color, Blue Suede will provide three seasons of interest in the garden. Researchers anticipate it will perform well in zones 6a-9a. (Most of Tennessee is now squarely in zone 7a, according to the new USDA Hardiness map). Now I just have to find a sunny spot to place the new addition!

Image is from the American Society of HorticulturalScience

frost can be hell

“How can it be that after a frost the entire garden looks as if it had been to a party in hell?” asks garden writer Jamaica Kincaid in the piece “A Fire by Ice." This paradox is present throughout the winter experience, not just in the garden. Alluding to symptoms of frostbite, have you ever heard the expression, ‘cold enough to make your skin burn?’ Tissue damage from cold weather is destructive to plant and skin cells alike.

Every fall and spring, many tender and deciduous plants experience this damage. But even winter annuals can show signs of frost damage throughout the season. Pansies are notorious for this. As the internal temperature in various tissues of the plant become cold enough to break cell walls or spoil cell components, damage, wilting, and death may occur.

Healthy plants will usually survive short periods of extreme low temperatures. The best way to prevent and treat frost-damaged winter annuals is to mulch sufficiently and water regularly. It’s easy to forget to water winter annuals; but for most of the country winter months are the driest.  Remember that even when the plant isn’t actively growing, the roots are still developing. 

containing winter

"Every season hath its pleasures;
Spring may boast her flowery prime,

Yet the vineyard's ruby treasures

Brighten Autumn's soberer time."

--Thomas Moore, Spring and Autumn

(bold mustard leaves make a statement in the above container planting;

with coral bells, pansies, fern, and acorus)

Just last week I picked the final green tomatoes and jalapenos from the garden, just before the first frost. Despite this later than usual frost, there are still petunias blooming with mums and pansies on the front porch. The parsley and cilantro are still growing strong, and the lettuce has re-seeded itself.

Most garden centers are now discounting winter annuals and bulbs and I recently picked up some orange violas and ‘Bright Lights’ Swiss Chard for my blue glazed planter. Accompanied by the changing yellow-orange leaves of the Spirea, it is a striking combination. I’ve also included spring-blooming Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) bulbs in my containers this year.

The conventional “thriller, filler, spiller” ideal in container gardening for year-round enjoyment can be simple to achieve. I suggest the following fool-proof recipe as a perennial backbone to which annuals can be added:

1. Thriller: Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora) and or Sweetflag (Acorus)
2. Filler: Coral bells (Heuchera)
3. Spiller: Sedum and/or Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia)

With appropriate moisture, this combination can work well in the shade, partial shade, and sun. This provides an evergreen and tardily deciduous framework to which you can add coleus, sweet potato vine, petunias, pansies, vincas, or violas depending on the season, size, and exposure. Best effect is achieved with 3-5 different plants.