Featured Plants

• Forsythia
  Forsythia
  
  
  
  is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae (olive family). There are about 11 species, mostly native to eastern Asia, but one native to southeastern Europe.
  
  Fast growing Forsythia are easy to grow. Established plants require little, or no care. Grow Forsythia plants in full sun to partial shade. They will grow well in most soils. Soil should be well drained. Water plants during extended dry periods as needed. Fertilize plants once a year in early spring. Use a high phosphorous fertilizer to promote bright blooms.
• Gardenia 'Radicans'
  Gardenia 'Radicans'
  
  
  
  Same great fragrance as larger gardenias, but having a dwarf, rounded form enhanced with petite white flowers. Excellent in low borders or as a groundcover. Great container plant. Evergreen.
  
  With its fine texture and traveling habit, this Gardenia is a wonderful scented groundcover. Use it to cover unsightly bare ground in shaded gardens and between larger flowering shrubs and trees. Good on mounds and at home in a naturalized woodland setting.
• Variegated Liriope
  Variegated Liriope
  
  
  
  The Variegated Liriope is known by many names, the most well known being Monkey Grass or Lily Turf.
  
  This showy perennial sports dark green, grass like leaves with creamy yellow margins about 1 in wide. Deep purple flowers on tall stems bloom in late summer and are intensified by the variegated leaves, this plant will bring light to any area like you flipped on a switch!
  
  The clump-forming ground cover is easy to grow and tolerant of dry soil. It's happy in shade or sun and can help in stopping erosion. So striking, carefree, and dependable, what more could you ask for in an ornamental grass? Works splendidly under trees in heavily shaded areas or as edging around shrubs or other perennials.
  
  The Variegated Liriope looks fantastic set before foliage of a darker color and practically glows in the dark!
• Lantana
  Lantana
  
  
  
  Known for their hemispherical clusters of small, bright-colored flowers, lantana can reach 6' high (with a spread of 8').
  
  The flowers may be yellow, orange, white, red and purple, and often colors are mixed within the same cluster. The leaves smell like citrus.
  
  Lantana are salt-tolerant, and they're drought-tolerant once established.
• Nandina 'Firepower'
  Nandina 'Firepower'
  
  
  
  One of the best coloring Nandinas! Brilliant red foliage fall through winter. Neat mounds are terrific for borders, massing and containers. Requires no pruning. Developed in New Zealand. Evergreen.
  
  Smaller than its predecessors and impossibly bright, this is the consummate accent for Asian-inspired gardens or for shaded landscapes in need of color. Plant as a single specimen in smaller gardens and courtyards, where its color provides a focal point or accent. Use in clusters for a powerful presence in more spacious landscapes.
  
  Perfect as a lacy overhang that won't block sunlight to water gardens, pools and fountains. Ideal plant for spas in small urban backyard gardens. May also be planted in pots.
• Hydrangea 'Let's Dance Moonlight'
  Hydrangea 'Let's Dance Moonlight'
  
  
  
  The Let's Dance Hydrangea series represents the next generation of reblooming hydrangeas. Don't settle for dull drab Hydrangea flowers - this series kicks up the quality with vivid flower coloration and attractive, glossy foliage.
  
  The Let's Dance series bloom on both new wood and old delivering seasons of flowers and lots of wow.
  
  Moonlight is a strong growing reblooming mophead hydrangea with exceptional flower color.

Garden Planning

• First things first...
  Consider the end result...
  
  
  
  A well-designed home landscape is aesthetically pleasing and functional. It offers pleasure to the family, enhances the neighborhood, and adds to the property's resale value. With a little forethought and planning, you can organize your home site for maximum use and pleasure, and create a visual relationship between the house, its site, and the neighborhood.
  
  The planning process, possibly the most important aspect of residential landscaping, is often neglected. We frequently see the evidence: a few scattered shade trees, overgrown foundation shrubs, a narrow concrete walk, and a fenced-in backyard. The resulting landscape rarely looks good, can be fairly expensive, and may not serve family needs. Good planning can save you time, effort, and money and can lead to a much more satisfying environment.
  
  When you begin planning the landscape of your home grounds, think about the entire space and the overall effect you want to achieve. Don't limit your ideas to trees, shrubs, and grass. Consider a patio, deck, mailbox, screening wall, outdoor lighting, a new walk, or a parking area as possible landscape features.
• Plan the space
  Plan for success!
  
  
  
  Whether you are planting the grounds of a new home or improving the garden of an established home, start with a plan. Your garden can express you the same as oils on a canvas express the artist.
  
  There are no rigid rules in garden planning but you'll get more satisfaction from your effort if you keep these points in mind when planning:
  
  1. Don't cut up the lawn with flower beds. Flowers serve gardens better in a separate flower garden or in attractive beds bordering, the lawn.
  
  2. Plant tall growing flowers to the back, middle size flowers in the center, low growing flowers in the front. Then you and your friends can enjoy them all.
  
  3. Mass your colors in clumps for maximum color contrast.
  
  4. Keep mature height and breadth of trees and shrubs in mind when you plant them so they will not interfere with buildings and walks later.
  
  5. Grade away from your building to take care of excess moisture run-off. Usually 1/8 to 1/4-inch drop to the foot is ample.
• Prepare the soil
  SOIL PREPARATION
  Crucial to Long-Term Success
  
  
  
  Given the time, effort and money required for most landscape projects, it's important to get off to the best start possible. That begins with proper soil preparation.
  
  This certainly isn't the most exciting or glamorous aspect of a landscape project - but it may be the most crucial for ensuring long-term success.
  
  Proper soil preparation begins with an assessment of the current physical and chemical characteristics of the soil(s) you'll be working with. More often than not - gardeners usually think about the chemical aspects fi rst. Things like fertilizers, root stimulators, soil additives and alike. Sure, these are important - but it's the physical properties of a soil that can make or break a landscape planting.
  
  For optimum growth, plant roots need a good balance of air and water. These characteristics are determined by the soils drainage and water holding properties.
  
  Why is this important?
  
  Landscape soils that hold too much water typically have problems with root diseases. A significant lack of oxygen in the soil can also result in damage to the root system and ultimately plant death.
  
  Landscape soils that do not hold adequate amounts of water require frequent irrigation, are subject to drought stress and are more likely to suffer from salt damage. Again - something we have experienced first-hand in the wake of a hurricane.
  
  Here are some additional thoughts and reminders regarding landscape soil preparation.
  
  Be sure to use organic matter that is thoroughly decomposed. Raw materials require nitrogen (N) to break down and often out-complete plants for available N in the soil. This can result in weak, stunted growth. The best organic matter for use in landscape soils has a good distribution of coarse and fi ne particles. The fi ner the organic matter, the greater the water holding characteristics.
  
  When constructing raised beds, do not incorporate the bed mix (landscape soil) in to the native soil. Build the bed directly on top of the existing soil. Incorporation tends to create a "bathtub" effect and does not provide optimum drainage. Be sure the bed mix has a good distribution of coarse and fi ne particles - providing desired aeration, drainage and water holding characteristics.
  
  Soil preparation can be the most time consuming and costly part of a landscape project. When you're done, few people will appreciate the effort spent on this part of the project. HOWEVER - the results are typically worth the investment in terms of overall landscape performance, water conservation and long-term success.
• Select your plant material
  Select your plants...
  Let Atlantic Garden Center help!
  
  
  
  The difficulty in choosing plants for your garden is cutting down the list of plants you love to the list of plants you will use. This is even harder with a small garden. Try to avoid this challenge by creating a framework for plant selection, before you begin your list.
  
  What will influence your decision?
  
  Budget Constraints: I put this first because it is something to consider in any garden design. A small space garden should cost considerably less than its larger cousins, but there is still an expense. Don't forget to budget for any soil you must bring in or amend. If you have your heart set on expensive specimen plants, you may want to create your garden in stages, over a series of years.
  
  Pre-existing Plants: With the exception of trees, it is usually easier to remove pre-existing plants than to design around them. You can save the plants to incorporate into your design, move them to another area or give them to a grateful gardening friend. However there will be times when you primary interest is in complementing an existing planting, whether a favorite tree, a hedge or a row of peonies. If that is the case, you are going to have to be very strict with yourself.
  
  * What types of plants will survive under the trees shade and over its roots?
  * Will you need to remove part of the hedge to make room for the garden space?
  Proportion: Small space gardens still need to have balance. The rule of thumb for garden borders is that the width be no less than 1/3 the length. But small borders tend to look better with at least a 1 to 2 ratio. A 6 foot border that is only 2 feet wide doesn't give you much space to play with depth. 3 or even 4 feet makes the border look less like an edge. Better still, use irregular shapes with curving lines. The space itself become interesting and the size diminishes in importance.
  
  The Basics: USDA Zone and Sun Exposure: You've gone through all the effort of a site analysis for a reason. To know what plants will thrive in your garden. So now it's time to pull out that list of site conditions and see what plants suit your site. You'll have to be tough with yourself now or you'll be making work and regrets for yourself later. You can change your mind about color or style, but a plant that isn't hardy in your Zone 4 garden is going to be an annual. And plants that are suffering from too little or too much sun are going to attract all kinds of problems.
  
  Your Gardening Style: Style here can mean a preference for pastels over hot colors or a theme, such as fragrance or an actual style, like cottage or woodland gardens. You'll have more leway here than other areas, but since your space is limited, every plant counts. You may love red poppies, but they are going to become the focal point in your pastel garden. When choosing plants for style, it helps to group your plants. This way you can see the sore thumbs. Ferns, pulmonaria and Solomen's Seal will look lovely together. Primrose may suit the site conditions but the loud colors may be too jarring for the look of a woodland garden. Or not.
  
  Maintenance Requirements: Since this is a small space garden, maintenance will be less intensive. But be honest with yourself about what you are willing to do. Your garden may look good initially, but many perennials need to be divided every few years or they will start to die out or perhaps squeeze out their neighbors.
• How to plant successfully
  Do it right from the start!
  
  
  
  A properly planted tree or shrub will be more tolerant of adverse conditions and require much less management than one planted incorrectly. Planting technique impacts water quality as it minimizes water, fertilizer and pesticide use. When making decisions on planting techniques, one should consider how the plant was grown in the nursery, the plant's drainage requirements, the soil type and drainage characteristics, and the availability of irrigation water. The plant should be specifically appropriate to the site, or the site should be amended to specifically fit the plant.
  
  Bare-Root Plants: Advantages of planting bare-root plants are mostly economical. Plants are less expensive to produce because of the ease of harvesting, storing and shipping. Many species respond well to bare-root harvesting. A greater portion and longer roots are retained after harvesting and roots are easily inspected at planting time. Damaged roots can be trimmed and girdling roots can be removed before planting. Bare-root plants should be planted while they are completely dormant.
  
  Balled and Burlapped Plants: Larger landscape plants are traditionally harvested as "balled and burlapped" (B&B). A major advantage of B&B plants is that soil types can be matched, thereby reducing any interface problems that might inhibit water movement between the rootball and surrounding soil of the landscape site.
  
  Container-Grown Plants: The advantage of using plants grown in containers is that 100% of the roots are in the container. Thus, the plant goes through limited transplant shock if given adequate follow-up care. Container-grown plants can be planted into the landscape year-round. Plants produced in containers, in a soilless medium (usually bark and sand), are much lighter than B&B material. This is very helpful to home gardeners who may not have large equipment to handle the heavy plants.
  
  The main disadvantage of container-grown plants is the possibility of deformed roots. "Rootbound" plants have roots circling inside the container. The entangled roots are a physical barrier to future root growth and development. If this condition is not corrected at planting time, the plant may experience slow growth and establishment because of the girdled roots. Some form of root mass disturbance is recommended before planting.
  
  What Size Plant Should You Choose? Smaller plants live better and establish faster than large plants and are more economical. Many consumers, on the other hand, want the "instant" landscape look. Demand for large, landscape-size trees has certainly increased over the last decade. With large mechanical digging equipment, 6- to 8-inch diameter trees can be moved. Large diameter trees are often trans-planted for instantaneous effect, but post-transplant stress and costs increase with the size of the tree.
  
  The Planting Hole: A current trend in landscape design is to plant trees and shrubs in large beds. When this design concept is followed, preparation of the entire plant bed area and not just individual holes is recommended. In many urban areas, gardeners will find that the soils are compacted and sometimes poorly drained. In these situations one should create a good rootzone by amending the beds with a sandy-loam topsoil and aerifying the soil as deep as possible. The addition of organic matter provides little or no advantage to the planting hole in good soils. Backfill should, in most cases, be the soil removed from the planting hole: "what comes out...goes back in". This is especially important for B&B material and bare-root planting stock. An exception to this would be where entire beds can be amended to create an homogeneous root-zone. The organic matter, e.g. compost or composted pine bark, is uniformly mixed with the soil. This makes room for future growth and increases aeration to the backfill.
  
  If the soil is sandy and moisture is difficult to hold, a heavier topsoil can be added. Organic matter in this situation will be valuable as it improves the water-holding capacity of the sandy soil. After planting, add a 3- to 4-inch layer of organic mulch on the soil surface around the plant. This will conserve moisture, discourage weeds and moderate soil temperatures. Also be sure to consider the aesthetics of the mulch. (See Figure 1).
  
  The most important consideration in planting trees and shrubs is the planting depth. Don't plant too deep. It is better to plant in a raised manner so the roots will not drown or suffocate. Dig planting holes 2 to 3 times wider than the rootball and the same depth. Locate the rootball on solid soil and not loose backfill. Wire baskets do not need to be completely removed from large field grown trees. Cut and fold down the top half of the basket, fold back the burlap, and remove nylon strings. Be sure to remove plastic liners or synthetic burlap type materials.
  
  
• Seasonal Maintenance
  Spring Landscape Maintenance
  
  
  
  Spring is almost here!
  
  It's time to start thinking about your landscape investment with a good, professional spring clean-up. It may seem that a clean-up is merely raking leaves, throwing some mulch down, and sitting back and enjoying the afternoon. A complete spring clean-up should be much more than that, however. A few a these measures are described below:
  
  1) Don't Install To Much Mulch
  
  Mulching is one of the best things you can do for the landscape. Mulch aids in moisture retention, replenishes soil nutrients, supresses weeds, and regulates soil temperatures. However, too much can be detrimental to the plant. Avoid piling mulch near the base of any plant as this will allow moisture build-up at the site, which is an invitation for insects and other diseases to enter the plant at its most vulnerable spot. In addition, too much mulch does not allow for water to penetrate deep within the root zone.
  
  2) Water Less Often, For Longer Periods Of Time
  
  This may be counter-intuitive, however the fact is watering less frequently, with a slow drip irrigation system is far better than everyday watering for a short period of time. Watering for short periods frequently will also lead to the plant developing a shallow root system, weakening the plant structure, increasing the risk of winter damage.
  
  3) Use Caution When Applying Chemicals
  
  Fertilizers, pre-emergent and post-emergent herbicides can be beneficial, but be careful. When applying fertilizers to lawn or gardens, it is best to collect a soil sample first and get it analyzed. This will tell you what type of fertilizer to use. For example if the soil has a high nitrogen content, applying a fertilizer with high nitrogen levels will burn grass. This is true for shrubs and trees as well. Chemicals such as Round-Up should be used carefully, following instructions listed on the label.

What's New

Visit Atlantic Garden Center often and discover our ever-changing, diverse selection of indoor and outdoor plants to beautify your surroundings.

There's always something new at Atlantic Garden Center!