Help Me, Help You

We are well into summer, and things are slowing down at Bates Nursery. We are no longer receiving annuals, so the greenhouse is looking kind of empty. We have LOTS of other plants, though, so customers are still coming in looking for help with their landscaping. With fewer customers, we have a little more time to spend with each person, as opposed to springtime, when a full staff could barely keep up with the questions coming our way! Having survived my first spring in a busy nursery, I've thought of a couple of tips that can help make your time at a garden center more efficient. 

1. Know Your Space- Before you ask us for recommendations for an area of your yard, it helps us out if you can tell us a few things about the space. How big is it? How much sun does it get? Is it morning sun, afternoon sun, or all day sun? What has or hasn't worked for you there before? Are deer or other animals a problem? Knowing these things, helps us narrow down the possibilities.

2. Do Some Research- Read garden magazines, take pictures of yards around town that you love. If you want a plant that you've seen somewhere but can't identify it, search for it on Google. It's easier to find something for you if we know what it is. Few things are more frustrating than a customer that comes in and says, "I'm looking for this plant, and it blooms yellow. Do you have any idea what that could be?" There are DOZENS of things it could be. What shape is the bloom? The leaf? Does it grow in shade or sun? Doing your research and knowing exactly what you're looking for saves us some time. 

3. Bring Pictures- What did we do before cameras on our phones? Customers frequently bring their phones or iPads full of pictures, and I find it's so much easier to recommend plants if I can see the space you're working with. And, if you couldn't figure out that mystery plant on Google, bring us a picture; we may be able to ID it for you. I've also had customers bring in magazine clippings of the newest plant variety or a plant combo that they want to duplicate. 

4. SAVE YOUR TAGS- Saving plant tags is not just for the super organized plant nerds among us, that just like to keep track of all of those varieties of hostas we already have. It is essential when you go to purchase the same annuals that you planted last year. You think you're going to remember, or that you'll remember once you get to the nursery, but last spring was SOOOO long ago. And the nursery is full of plants that kinda look alike. Again, it's pretty frustrating to hear, "I bought this plant here last year with these white blooms on it, but I just can't remember the name of it. Do you know what it could be?" (Especially frustrating for me, who wasn't working at Bates last year, so I don't know what varieties we had when you were here last.) It's not that hard to get organized. I find using a gallon-sized ziplock bag to store tags works well for me. We had one customer come in this year with his tags hole-punched and kept together on a key-ring. Clever! 

If you haven't done any research and don't have a clue what you're looking for, we can still help you put together something beautiful! These are merely suggestions to help you spend less time searching,  get exactly what you want, and spend your time enjoying your yard! 

Thriller Filler Spiller Part 3

Shade/Part Shade- Before I post my favorites in the shade category, let me say that you won't find as many flower options here. Impatiens and begonias are pretty much it. Now, you can find several colors of impatiens, but for the last few years, impatiens have been susceptible to downy mildew. Plant breeders have yet to figure out a way to prevent it in the common bedding plants. We did acquire a new variety at Bates this year that has been heralded as being resistant to the disease; they are called 'Bounce' impatiens. You're still ok to plant the other ones in pots, since you'll likely be changing out your potting soil every year. But if the downy mildew gets into the ground, it will affect all of your other plants, and anything you plant there for the next few years. Buyer beware! When I put together pots for shade, I tend to focus on texture and foliage color as opposed to lots of blooms. Also, I like to throw some perennials into the mix. Remember, these are just MY suggestions and favorites, and there are other plant possibilities. 

Thrillers: Caladiums are quite showy, and you can get them in all shades of reds, pinks, whites, and greens. They grow to about 2 feet tall. Elephant ears will work in the shade pretty well. Dracaena will work in both sun or shade. Perennials I like to use for height are ferns and Solomon's Seal. Japanese Forest Grass is both bold in color and graceful in structure.

Fillers: Like I said earlier, impatiens and green leaf begonias are great as fillers. New Guinea impatiens have bigger blooms and leaves than the common bedding plants do. You can get fancy begonias like dragon wing or baby wing, or double blooming tuberous ones. There are some stunning Rex begonias out there with lots of color in the foliage. One of the most common fillers for shade are coleus. These come in a variety of colors. And though you don't really want to encourage blooming, since that makes the plants tall and spindly, they will send up a bloom spike, mostly purple-blue blooms. Perennials that I love to use as fillers are hostas and heucheras. Both will put up spikes of blooms, but the heuchera blooms are pretty insignificant. Astilbes also make good fillers. I know I mentioned ferns in the thriller category, but some of the lower-growing ones can also be used as fillers.

Spillers: The same spillers I mentioned for the full sun pots will also work in shade, with the exception of the sweet potato vine, petunias, scaveola, or calibrachoa. And it will work ok, it just may not grow as abundantly as it will with more sun. If you want something that will bloom, bacopa or lobelia love some shade. Bacopa blooms in white, pink, or pale blue. Lobelia blooms white or a beautiful sapphire blue.

Here are some examples of pots I've put together in my own yard:

My thriller is 'Venus' Huechera. My fillers are

red and white impatiens and 'Pineapple' coleus. 

My spiller is Wandering Jew. 

My thrillers are 'Gingerland' caladium and Solomon's Seal.

My fillers are 'Apple Court' Japanese Painted Fern and 

'Golden Tiara' hosta. My spiller is variegated vinca vine. 

My thrillers are 'Venus' Heuchera and 'Fannie Munson' caladium.

My fillers are red and white impatiens, 'Pineapple' coleus,

and asparagus fern. My spiller is golden creeping Jenny. 

The asparagus fern will pull double duty, as it also tends to be drapey. 

 My thrillers are dracaena spike and Japanese Forest Grass.

My fillers are 'Apple Court' Japanese Painted Fern, Rex begonia,

and red and white impatiens. My spiller is golden creeping Jenny.

My Thrillers are dracaena spike and 'Carolyn Warton' caladium.

My fillers are red and white impatiens, asparagus fern,

and 'Pineapple' coleus. My spillers are Rex begonia vine

and 'Sea Urchin' sedum.

My thriller is 'Marvelous Marbles' Heuchera. My fillers are 'Dragon Eyes' hosta,

'Apple Court' Japanese Painted Fern, 'Escargot' Rex begonia, and 'Mainstreet Wall Street' coleus. My spillers are golden creeping Jenny and Wandering Jew.

Thriller Filler Spiller Part 2

In my previous post, I explained the thriller filler spiller concept. What good is a gardening blog without some visual examples of these concepts? In the next 2 posts, I'll give you some of my favorite plants in each category, and some that I've discovered while working at Bates as being trustworthy. I'll throw in a couple pictures of pots that I've constructed here at home, as well as examples I've seen at garden shows. This post will be all about pots for full or mostly full sun.

Full Sun

Thrillers: My go-to are grasses. There's several varieties of annual grasses, or you could even go with a perennial variety. I love the airiness and the structure of grass. Another option is elephant ears, black or green. If you're working with a rather large pot and have plenty of room, a canna would be some stunning architecture. Those will get a few feet high, though, so it'd better be a pretty big pot. this year, upon the recommendation of employees at work, I'm using 'Silver Shield' Plectranthus as a thriller, and it looks wonderful so far! In the fall, I like using millet as my thriller, especially the purple variety. 

Fillers: Petunias are old-fashioned, but still a great option. You will need to dead-head them (pinching off the spent blooms) periodically to keep the flowers coming. I really like African Daisy (Osteospermum). When I plant them in a rich potting soil, they bloom profusely for me. A lot of people love Gerber daisies. I love the blooms, but honestly, I just usually don't get enough of them to satisfy me. Lantana and verbena are both great for attracting butterflies. There is a variety of impatiens called Sunpatiens, and as the name suggests, they can handle the full sun. There are sun coleus as well. Vinca fill in nicely, as well as bronze leaf begonias, though personally, I find the begonias a tad boring. But that's just me. A filler that gives interesting texture and color but doesn't bloom is dusty miller. In the fall, pansies, violas, ornamental kale or cabbage, ornamental peppers, and mums are all great as fillers.

Spillers: Sweet potato vine is one of my favorites. There are a few varieties, but I've found the lime green one to be the best performer. Another favorite is creeping Jenny. I'm partial to the golden variety. Dichondra 'Silver Falls' was recommended by employees, so I used it this year. I really like it! It's leaves are similar in shape to the creeping Jenny, but it looks like it's been dusted with silver powder. It's hard to go wrong with ivy or vinca vine, but again, those two are not quite interesting enough for my taste. If you want something that blooms, Wave petunias have a trailing habit, and you don't have to deadhead that variety. Scaveola blooms in white, pink, and light blue. Calibrachoa (more commonly known as Million Bells) has blooms that look like miniature petunias. They come in many colors and cascade nicely over the edge of a pot.

This is one of the pots by my front door.

My thrillers are purple fountain grass and Silver Shield;

earlier this spring, I had some purple hyacinth in there,

but it's on it's way out. My fillers are blue-veined petunias and

'Moonshine Yellow' African daisies. My spillers are 'Silver Falls'

dichondra and lime sweet potato vine. Not sure why my 

sweet potato vine isn't drapey yet, but it will be.

If you look closely, you'll see a purple ring around the

center of the African daisy that pulls in the blue-purple

of the petunias behind it. 

As you can see, I love the red/purple/yellow color combo.

Once again, I used purple fountain grass as a thriller, along with

elephant ears. My fillers here are 'Tiger Eye' rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans, but

this is an annual variety) and purple heart (Setcreasea). My spiller

is creeping Jenny.

I LOVE my red pots! Here's something I put together

for fall. My thriller is 'Purple Majesty' millet. I used lots of fillers here:

ornamental cabbage, ornamental peppers, 'Ruby Red' swiss chard,

and yellow pansies. My spiller is creeping Jenny. BTW, the photographer

in me is REALLY distracted by the dirt on the rim of the pot that I didn't wipe off. 

Here are two examples I've seen on garden tours:

I love this! Looks like the thriller is a red canna lily. The fillers are Black and Blue

salvia and lantana (that little bit of orangey pink in the center). The spillers

are 2 varieties of creeping Jenny (lysimachia): Aurea is the gold one and 

Midnight Sun is the purple one.

 These are a little harder to identify, but I'll give it a shot. It looks

like their thrillers are purple fountain grass, Icicles helichrysum (silver/gray color)

 and maybe Red Ruby amaranth (?? I can't be sure about that one. That's the purple 

leaf in the back.). The fillers are Diamond Frost euphorbia (tiny white airy blooms), and I think that bright green in the center is a geranium. The spillers are verbena and ivy.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Part 3 will be all about pots for the shade.

Thriller Filler Spiller Part 1

The questions that we get at Bates more than just about anything pertain to container gardening. I can't count the times every day I hear sentences that begin, "So I have this pot..." Some people come in knowing exactly what they're looking for, probably because they plant it every year and know it works for them. Some people come in with their magazine clippings from Southern Living or Better Homes and Gardens and want to replicate the gorgeous pots featured that month; sometimes, those magazines feature the newest plants on the market, and we haven't even been able to get them yet. But there's several people everyday that walk into our greenhouse and see all of the choices before them, and their eyes glaze over with that deer-caught-in-headlights look. They haven't a clue where to begin. That's when the fun begins for me. I love to show people what's possible and play with plant combos. There is a common, no-fail container design that some people know, but for those of you that don't, I'll share it with you, as we do with all of our customers: Thriller, filler, spiller. Three simple words are all you need to remember when constructing your plantings. 

Thriller: This is a plant with a tall, upright growth habit. If you think of your planting in layers, this would be the top layer. This plant is sometimes dramatic or thrilling and always eye-catching.

Filler: This is a plant with a mounding growth habit. This will be your middle layer. Lower growing than your thriller, it fills in around the base of your tallest plant.

Spiller: This is a plant with a trailing growth habit. This is your bottom layer, and it will spill and drape over the edge of your pot. 

Location, location, location. Know what kind of sunlight you're dealing with before purchasing your plants. Impatiens are not going to fare well in a pot that's getting the scorching mid-day sun, no matter how much you water them. Also, pay attention to plant labels and how the garden center places them. At Bates, we get most of our products from vendors in Michigan, and that is where the plants are tagged. This has caused some confusion with guests when they see a label that says "full sun", but we've put it on the shade side of the greenhouse. What's full sun in Michigan, is not necessarily full sun down here in the south. I venture to say the box stores may have the same issues with plant vendors; hopefully, plants are being placed in the correct areas in their greenhouses.

Keep it simple. The bigger variety of plants you add to the equation, the more distracted the eye will be. Don't be afraid to mix colors, but don't get crazy. Personally, I like keeping my color combo to no more than 3-4. Don't forget that you can get plenty of color from foliage, not just blooms. Mixing textures is great as well, but again, not too many different ones. If you took a picture of your completed pot in black and white, it should look just as interesting as a color photo would. Depending on your pot size, you may need just one plant from each category. With a bigger pot, I'd still stick with no more than two thrillers, two to three fillers, and maybe two spillers. Make sure your pot has plenty of drainage and a good, quality potting soil. Using a moisture control formula would be best, or you can even buy containers of water absorbing polymers to add to the soil yourself. During the summer, you should expect to water your pots daily, especially those in full sun. And if you're using hanging baskets, they may need water in the mornings and evenings. 

In part two, I'll share a couple of pictures and give you a list of all of my personal favorites and plants that are sure to work for you! 

Finding My Green Thumb

Due to popular demand, I bring you the introduction of my gardening blog! Since I stared back at Bates, I've had friends tagging me on Facebook in pictures of their yard and stopping me wherever I go to ask my advice about their landscaping dilemmas. I really am flattered, but equally terrified that you have so much confidence in my gardening abilities. So, I want to make this disclaimer before I begin: I AM AN AMATEUR. I hold no degrees, I've not taken any college courses in horticulture. What I do have is a love of gardening and little bit of a green thumb. I figured I'd use this first post as an introduction and tell you all how I got into this hobby.

I was not fully immersed in gardening as a kid. I do remember some irises that were planted on one side of our house. I loved it when they bloomed, and I couldn't walk by them without breathing in deeply their heavenly scent. We lived on a couple of acres, so my parents tried things here and there like fruit trees, strawberries, and muscadines. My mother attempted a vegetable garden but because of her Lupus, she was extremely sensitive to the sun and constantly fatigued, so the garden was too difficult to maintain. I'm told I got my green thumb from my maternal grandmother. She was a farm girl and could grow anything. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her growing up, because she lived a few hundred miles away from us. My earliest memories of her were when she lived in an apartment/condo. She couldn't have much of a garden, but that didn't stop her from container gardening. When we visited in fall or winter, her windowsills were full of plant cuttings like coleus or impatiens she was saving to plant in her next garden. A couple of years before she died, she went to live with my uncle. She had plenty of room for a garden then, and I remember a few summer visits, being in awe of the beauty she was capable of creating. Gladiolas were her favorite flower, and they were stunning! Unfortunately, my grandmother Osburn passed away when I was only 13, long before I would discover my botanical passion. I never got the chance to glean all of that wisdom from her.

The summer after my freshman year of college, I got a job as a cashier at Lowe's. I worked both the indoor registers and the ones in the outdoor garden center. I LOVED being out in the garden center! Even though it was hot and miserable, I just loved walking around checking out the plants when business was slow. I enjoyed hearing the guy that was over the garden center talk plants. I picked out a couple of indoor plants for my new college apartment, one of which was a ficus. At home, they looked great. Then, I moved back to Clemson for my sophomore year. Within a couple of weeks, the ficus had dropped all of its leaves. The experienced would know that it was just in shock, because ficus plants don't like to be moved, but I didn't know that at the time. I was crushed and, thinking it was dead, I threw it out. I figured I must've done something wrong and I didn't have the knack for this gardening thing. About a year later, I was married and living in a different apartment. We had a little patio out back that got a good bit of sun, so I decided to experiment with plants again. I bought a few cheap window-box-sized planter boxes and planted some annuals. I had great success with those, so I regained some confidence.

The next few years were full of moves, our biggest from South Carolina to Nashville, TN, then to a couple of different locations around town. In 1997, we bought our first home, but soon after, I became pregnant with our first child, so I was a bit preoccupied. In 1998, just 3 months after our son was born (I don't know what we were thinking), we bought a fixer-upper on 4 acres. The property was gorgeous, and the previous home owner had spent years terracing the little mountain our house sat on and building old-fashioned rock walls as far as the eye could see. I didn't know much, but I could tell the yard had great bones. Lots of beautiful mature trees and hundreds of daffodils and irises. We spent a year gutting and remodeling before moving in in 1999. We had a landscaper friend help us design and plant a rather large planting area in our front yard. Beyond that, I didn't do much in the yard for the first seven years we owned it; I was too busy being a stay-home-mom.

In 2005, once my first child was in school and our youngest was in a Mothers-Day-Out program 2 days a week, I decided to try my hand at some gardening. I had huge success with dividing and transplanting the tons of daffodils, irises, and daylilies around the property. I also tried several pots around our front door, and adding to the bed that had been landscaped when we first moved in. The more I tried, and the more success I had in my experimenting, the harder the gardening bug took hold. Eventually, I was reading all the books I could get my hands on; that is, when I had moments where I wasn't busy parenting or working in the yard. I Tivo'd every gardening show that came on HGTV, attended the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show every year, went on any garden tour around town that I heard about, and, the epitome of garden geekdom, joined an online plant swap. I even wore a floppy straw hat and bright yellow gardening clogs. I considered entering a Master Gardener program to learn more (I'd still like to do that some day). I divided irises until I had more than one human should, so I began to give them away to my friends, even to random strangers on Craigslist. I earned a reputation among my friends as a "plant expert", bless their little hearts.

As much potential as this 4-acre property had, the prospect of maintaining it was rather daunting. I'd come up with all kinds of ideas, but was easily overwhelmed. Projects were started, but keeping them all looking great was just too much for one person. So when the opportunity arose to move to a house in Brentwood where the schools were better and we were closer to our church, but the yard was more than half the size of our current yard, I wasn't completely heartbroken. If we'd lived in Madison long enough, MAYBE I'd have been able to make it into the showplace I envisioned. But, it was far more likely I could succeed with a more manageable property size. An acre and a half sounded just right for me. Luckily, we were able to rent out our home in Madison, so we still owned all of the plants there. I dug up what I could and transplanted them to our new place. It's taken a couple of years to whip this yard into shape. My father-in-law and his wife were the previous owners, but they rented it out for a couple of years while they lived in Hilton Head before we bought it, and, though my husband's step-mom is quite the gardener as well, leaving me lots of great stuff to work with, the yard got a little out of control while it was being rented. I'm finally getting familiar with the sunlight and soil I have to work with here and I'm on my way to restoring the yard to it's former glory.

Last fall, I happened to see on Facebook that my favorite garden center, Bates Nursery, was hiring seasonal help. I jumped at the chance to work at a place that brought me such joy. I was there over the fall and have been brought back for the spring. I'm working in the annual greenhouse and with the perennials. I water, unload plant deliveries, organize the tables to make room for ALL OF THOSE PLANTS, and answer customers' questions. I knew a little coming in, but I'm learning SO much more every day. I eavesdrop as much as possible when our greenhouse expert (Debbie Scales) is dropping some knowledge on the customers. What a wealth of information that lady has!!

My gardening knowledge came about with LOTS of trial and error. If you see my yard and think I have all this brilliant landscaping ability, really what you're seeing is the results of a lazy gardener. I'm VERY low-maintenance, and tend to plant stuff that's tough to kill and pretty much guaranteed to be successful for me. Gardening isn't as hard as you may think; if you know what conditions you live with (sun or shade, dry or boggy, good soil or not so good), you can find a hardy plant that thrives in your environment. It's all about putting the right plants in the right locations. I appreciate that so many of you trust me to answer your gardening questions, daunting though it may be. I hope to share some pictures and explanations of some of the successes I've had over the years, as well as share the information I learn while working at Bates.