Black Diamond Crape Myrtles have vibrant blooms, stunning bark, and deep maroon leaves that bring drama to the garden in a way that few other trees and shrubs can. Black Diamonds can be pruned into a small shrub, large shrub, or small tree. Plant in full sun in soil amended with Michigan Peat and BioTone. Fertilize with 13-6-6 in early spring each year. To encourage a second bloom, remove spent flowers and apply a second dose of fertilizer immediately after the first set of blooms fades.
Amend your soil using Michigan peat and BioTone before planting to improve drainage, moisture retention, and nutrient availability for rapid growth. This step is of utmost importance during the summer months when rainfall is ample and temperatures are high.
Prune Your Crepe Myrtles Like a Pro
Crepe Myrtle flowers appear on the new growth of the season; it is safe to prune them anytime during late winter or early spring before new growth begins to emerge. In general, it is better to prune Crepe Myrtles while the plant is young and the branches are thin. Cutting back large branches and leaving stubs will create an unnatural appearance and increase the plant’s susceptibility to pests and disease-this practice is commonly referred to as Crepe Murder for a reason! Just because you see your neighbor hacking back their Crepes doesn’t mean you should. Take it from the experts, when it comes to pruning Crepe Myrtles, less is more!
Standard Crepe Myrtles
While standard Crepe Myrtles do not come with the iconic deep maroon foliage of the Black Diamond varieties, they are still quite attractive and often a better value for mass plantings. At Esposito Garden Center, we currently have 10 beautiful varieties to choose from. Check our most recent ad at espositogardencenter.com for current specials on Crepe Myrtles and other landscaping staples.
This unique panicle hydrangea revolutionized landscaping across North America with its HUGE, football-shaped flowers that open in an elegant celadon green and stay fresh in summer’s heat. Limelight Hydrangeas grow to a maximum size of 8′ by 8′ and thrive in partial to full sun. The blooms age to an array of pink, red, and burgundy which persists through frost for many months of irresistible flowers. Limelight hydrangeas may be used just about any way you can imagine: as a showy flowering hedge, to screen off air conditioners, as an attention-grabbing specimen, in containers, flowerbeds, or anywhere around your home. A long-time favorite of professional florists, Limelight also makes an excellent cut flower, both fresh and dried.
Need something a little smaller, but love the look of Limelight?
Not to worry, Little Lime was cultivated just for you! Compared to its famous sibling, Little Lime may seem like a pipsqueak. While maintaining its compact stature of 3-5’ tall and wide, it packs a visual punch in the garden. In summer, lime green blooms open on strong stems – no drooping here! As it ages, rich pink coloring emerges to prolong the show through fall. Little Lime hydrangea is small enough to grow in containers and also stands out as a bold mass planting.
Plant your Hydrangeas like a Pro
First things first, you will need to select an appropriate location. Each Hydrangea has different needs when it comes to space and light requirements. Some hydrangeas, such as the Limelight above and the Endless Summer collection below, can tolerate partial to full sun, while most of the old fashioned varieties prefer more shade. To be certain, check the label in the pot before planting. Provide a little space for air to flow around the plant to help prevent fungal issues down the road.
When it comes to soil, you tend to get back what you put in. You can expect quicker growth and more blooms when you use nutrient-rich, properly amended soil as opposed to overly sandy or clay based, nutrient-poor native soil. This step often goes overlooked by novice gardeners, but it is far easier than you might expect! The secret? Michigan peat, or as we lovingly refer to it, gardener’s gold. Peat is made of decayed plant matter that has been partially carbonized and decomposed. Michigan Peat is darker in color, softer to the touch and finer in texture than other varieties, making it superior for use in flowerbeds. It has the capacity to hold up to six times its own weight in water. When you purchase peat, it comes in a compressed bale which is dry and powdery in texture. Open and fluff the bale, till the peat moss into your soil at a rate of 1 to 1, and water thoroughly to allow the product to re-hydrate. Once your planting area has been amended, your soil should be soft, fluffy, and moist to the touch!
With your soil in tip top shape, dig your hole about twice as wide as and just a little bit deeper than the pot your new Hydrangea was grown in. Toss a little bit of your fluffy, amended soil into the bottom of the hole along with a handful of BioTone starter fertilizer. The amendments work together to provide the nutrients, aeration, and moisture control your Hydrangea roots will need to become well-established in the weeks after transplanting. Speaking of healthy roots, after you remove your Hydrangea from its pot you can use your fingers to loosen any tangled or tight roots before gently setting the plant into the hole. Ensure that the base of the trunk is in line with the top of your hole and add or remove soil beneath the plant as needed. Once you have the plant exactly where you want it, begin to fill the remainder of the hole with more of your loose, fluffy, amended soil, sprinkling a little BioTone here and there as you go. Ensure that the level of the soil in your hole matches that of the surrounding land, and avoid creating a mound of soil around the base of the trunk. Water your newly planted Hydrangea thoroughly and add a little extra soil around the top if needed. After planting, water every day for one week, every other day for two weeks, and weekly thereafter. A little mulch will help prevent your Hydrangeas from drying out in the summer, but using too thick of a layer can lead to problems. If you decide to apply mulch, use a thin layer that is no more than two inches thick.
Endless Summer Hydrangeas
The Endless Summer collection consists of five beautiful re-blooming hydrangeas, each with their own unique color and characteristics. The entire collection features a compact size and dense structure for huge impact with a manageable footprint.
Summer Crush
With a profusion of big raspberry red or neon purple blooms, Summer Crush brings floral quality blooms to your garden or patio container. In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, it is nice and compact proving a neat, tidy look all summer long.
Blushing Bride
This Endless Summer hydrangea has pure white semi-double florets, which mature to blush pink or Carolina blue, depending on soil pH. It may be used in the garden to separate louder, brighter colors, providing harmony and ease.
Bloomstruck
Vivid rose-pink to purple blooms sit atop incredibly beautiful, elongated red-purple stems. Dark green leaves with red petioles and red veins lend great contrast to your other garden shrubs, perennials and annuals. This variety is especially resistant to powdery mildew.
Twist-N-Shout
This beautiful re-blooming lacecap variety boasts picturesque deep pink or periwinkle blue flowers (depending on soil pH) from late spring through fall. Twist-N-Shout features loads of dependable, delicate, cascading blooms in intense colors.
The Original
This is the first hydrangea ever discovered that blooms on both old and new growth. Great for full foundation plantings, striking container gardens or beautiful cut flower arrangements, The Original Endless Summer hydrangea is a hardy, disease-resistant and time-tested sensation.
No Need to Settle on Pink or Blue
One of the coolest things about Hydrangeas is the way their color changes based on soil pH! If you like, you can easily change from blue to pink with each passing year to keep things a little more interesting in the garden. Follow the steps below to make this magic happen in your own backyard!
To turn new hydrangeas blue, use 1¼ cups of Espoma Organic Soil Acidifier; for established hydrangeas use 2½ cups of the same product. Spread the granules evenly around the hydrangea out to its drip line, or the widest reaching branches. Then, water well. Repeat every 60 days until your hydrangea is the perfect shade of blue. An inexpensive pH meter can be used to determine the exact pH of your soil to help you reach one of the desired shades above. Hydrangea color can be affected by lime leaching out of concrete walkways or patios nearby, making blue a real challenge. Keep this in mind when considering where to plant. A word of caution: not all plants like acidic soil. Be careful about what’s growing near your hydrangeas. Prefer pink? Use Espoma Garden Lime at a rate of about 1 cup per year.
Feeding hydrangeas regularly results in healthier plants with more saturated color. Espoma Holly-tone is an excellent choice for blue hydrangeas as it contains sulfur to lower pH. Espoma Plant-tone is ideal for feeding pink hydrangeas because it does not contain the additional sulfur.
Spotty leaves?
We have the solution! Dark spots are fairly common on Hydrangea leaves, but fortunately there is an easy fix. First, make sure you only water the base of the plant and avoid splashing water droplets directly onto the leaves of your Hydrangea. This is the number one reason customers end up with leaf spots. If the problem persists, a common occurrence during the rainy season, treat the leaves with Daconil fungicide weekly, as needed. This product is great for controlling a broad spectrum of vegetable, fruit, and ornamental plant diseases including black spot, botrytis blights, anthracnose, rusts, powdery mildews, and many more.
When should you prune?
It depends on the variety! Old Fashioned varieties only bloom on old wood and should be pruned as soon as the blooms fade in fall. You want to give the Hydrangea a little time to grow before it goes dormant, because this pre-dormancy growth is where your buds will arise in spring. Re-blooming varieties bloom on new spring growth and may be shaped as needed in early spring, before the buds begin to emerge.
David W. Marshall, University of Florida Extension Agent Emeritus and landscape consultant with Esposito Garden Center, is author of the new book, Tallahassee Gardening: A Monthly Garden Guide.
Vinca
Summer is just around the corner now. Many of the flowers you may have planted in early spring, petunias for example, may not make it through the heat and humidity of summer. But there are colorful plants that can be planted now that will give you color through summer and beyond. Melampodium, torenia, vinca, narrow-leaf zinnia, Sunpatiens, coleus, croton, lantana, plumbago, pentas, and caladium are but a few. If you have a little bit more space, consider some of the larger growing perennials like red orchid bush (Bauhinia galpinii), Turk’s cap, Tibouchina, firebush, variegated shell ginger, butterfly ginger, and yellowbells (Tecoma stans).
Drip Irrigation
Continue to plant trees and shrubs that you want to add to your landscape or garden but water them very frequently to keep the root ball moist. Overhead sprinklers are inefficient at this and you’re not likely to have the patience to hand water every day. The big-box stores have low-cost, easy-to-install micro-irrigation supplies you can set up to make the job easier. Essentially this is just black poly hose that you can attach to a water spigot or garden hose and insert low-volume irrigation heads where needed. It’s well worth the small investment, especially when you consider what you pay for plants.
Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas are blooming now and are a good shrub choice for areas of your landscape that receive some afternoon shade. Other shrubs that you may wish to take a look at while at the garden center or on the internet before going shopping are the ‘Sunshine’ ligustrums and the lower-growing loropetalums such as ‘ Purple Diamond’ and ‘Crimson Fire’. Colorful foliage is an easy way to add some color to the garden.
We’re also about to enter the crape myrtle flowering period. Some say crape myrtles are overused. But the newer varieties are such dependable, easy-care plants that give us so much color during our tough summers, it just makes sense to use them. Take time, though, to select the best variety for the site you will be planting. Consider the mature height and spread of the plant and make sure you select one that won’t outgrow the site. You shouldn’t have to prune a crape myrtle to keep it at the desired height. There are even shrub-sized and patio-sized crape myrtles if that’s what you need. The garden center personnel should be able to help you find the appropriate variety if you tell them your needs.
Perennial Peanut
Your lawn should be growing fairly well with the higher temperatures. In June we normally get into our period of frequent thunderstorms, so you won’t likely need to water often. There’s still time to plant plugs or lay sod in areas where your lawn may have problem areas. However, if they are very shaded areas, you probably need to accept the fact that no lawn grass will grow well in that much shade. There are, however, groundcovers such as Mondo grass and liriope that will do just fine in the shade. Now is a good time to plant those groundcovers as well as those such as liriope, Dianella, and ornamental peanut that are good choices for sunny areas. The ornamental or perennial peanut is an especially good choice for steep sunny slopes that are difficult to mow. The cheerful yellow flowers are attractive and within a year or so you can have a nice thick ornamental groundcover in an area that was once a problem area.
Blueberry Bush
Several easy-to-grow fruits ripen during the late spring to early summer period… blueberries, figs, and blackberries. It’s also a good time to plant these. Just be sure to stick to varieties that do well in our area. The easiest way to ensure that the variety will work here is to buy at one of the local, independent garden centers that have knowledgeable sales people. But if you have an interest in doing a little research on your own, be sure to visit the UF-IFAS publications website at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ There you will find information on a wealth of topics, including blueberries, figs, and blackberries.
Fertilize vegetable plants that you may have planted to keep them growing well. You can still plant heat-tolerant vegetables such as okra, eggplant, peppers, Lima beans, southern peas, and sweet potatoes, as well as herbs such as basil, fennel, and rosemary.
David W. Marshall, University of Florida Extension Agent Emeritus and landscape consultant with Esposito Garden Center, is author of the new book, Tallahassee Gardening: A Monthly Garden Guide.
Grass Cut with Sharp Blades
I know that mowing the lawn may not be your favorite activity. But mowing the lawn regularly and correctly is an important step in maintaining a healthy lawn. You’ve probably invested a lot of time and money in your lawn over time. So keep the mower blades sharp and don’t mow too low.
Now is a good time to plug damaged areas of the lawn with plugs that you can buy in trays from the garden centers. Be sure to keep the new plugs well-watered and they will establish quickly.
In my work as a landscape consultant or advisor, one of the common situations I see is people trying to grow lawn grass in too much shade. If you have already tried plugs of our most shade tolerant grass, ‘Seville’ St. Augustine, and they didn’t work, then it’s time to consider changing strategies. Sometimes just mulching the area with pine straw is the easiest solution. Or, you can use shade-tolerant groundcovers such as liriope, Mondo grass, ferns, or ivy.
Dwarf Chenille Plant
In my own yard, I accidentally came across a flowering groundcover some years back that has done fairly well in moderate shade. It’s called dwarf chenille plant (Acalypha reptans or Acalypha pendula). Tolerating mowing about the same height as my centipede and St. Augustine grass, it has mixed with my lawn and now predominates large areas of my lawn. Through the recent hot, dry weather of May and early June, I found it to hold up as well or better than the St. Augustine grass. It does best in full sun but also grows in some fairly shaded areas too. It continues to flower from spring through fall, forming new flowers quickly after being mowed.
Perennial Peanut
Perennial peanut is another good flowering groundcover. I have it mixed in my lawn areas, too. Though it does best in full sun, I have also found that it will grow well in moderate shade. It just won’t flower much in the shade. If you really have a lot of shade, the best groundcover alternatives are Mondo grass and liriope. If you’re fortunate enough to have native partridgeberry in shaded areas, by all means let it grow. It hugs the ground and can easily be walked on. I just don’t think you will find it sold in any of the nurseries as reportedly it doesn’t transplant well.
Don’t fertilize your lawn during the midst of summer. Wait until mid to late August, and then use the same 15-0-15 you used in the spring.
Crepe Myrtle
There are many plants that provide color through the summer. This is the season when crepe myrtles flower. If you wish, you can also plant them now, too. Please, just be sure to select a variety that you won’t have the necessity to top as it reaches its mature height. If you need a crepe myrtle variety that only stays to about twelve feet tall, there should be several available in your local garden center.
Sunpatiens
Many perennials provide color now too. Firebush, red orchid bush (Bauhinia galpinii), lantana, bush allamanda, Tibouchina, yellowbells, Thunbergia battiscombeii, Cuphea spp. (cigar flower), pentas, lantana, powderpuff bush (Calliandra spp.), angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia spp.), and plumbago are all good choices for sunny areas. For shaded areas, the lime green and yellow foliage of variegated shell ginger serves well. Flowers of jacobinia (Justicia carnea) and its relative, the bronze shrimp plant, also work well in shaded spots. Sunpatiens, crotons, and coleus are good annuals for shaded areas while portulaca, purslane, melampodium, vinca, and hybrid zinnias are good sun choices.
Sweet Potato Plant
This is pretty much the in-between period in the vegetable garden. Most of the spring-planted crops will have fizzled out and you won’t plant the fall garden until late August to September, though you may still have heat-tolerant vegetables such as okra, eggplant, peppers, Lima beans, southern peas, and sweet potatoes in the garden now. If your garden spot is completely empty now, rather than just let the remnants remain until the fall planting, remove the debris, till the area, water it, and cover it with clear plastic film, burying the edges of the film with soil. The objective is to build up the temperature to reduce the population of plant parasitic nematodes that can adversely affect your plants.
Esposito Garden Center 