slideshow: 10 great groundcovers to rely upon

Check out this slide show from Margaret Roach's A Way to Garden

Gaillardia comparison perennial trial results

Based on the PP&L comparison perennial trial results, gaillardia is a great genus with wide appeal.
Here are some of the best performing gaillardias in the PP&L trial.

Best overall series: The Gallo (Orange, Peach and Red) vegetative series from Florensis proved to be the most uniform series with a compact habit. The plants were low maintenance and required little to no pinching or growth regulators. Bred by Kieft, the Gallos are expected to be the benchmark series in the market.

Grower favorites: The Commotion vegetative series contain ‘Tizzy’ and ‘Frenzy’ from Skagit Gardens. Although these two varieties were not the most compact, they had the greatest number of flowers of any other variety. ‘Tizzy’ and ‘Frenzy’ flowered early and continued to look good over the entire month of the trial. Although not the most compact plants, the Commotions should have great appeal for both growers and home-garden consumers.

Mesa Yellow is the first F1 seed-produced gaillardia from PanAmerican Seed. It is one of the few seed varieties that can hold its own against vegetative varieties. Although not as compact as ‘Arizona Sun’, Mesa Yellow produces huge flowers on well branched plants. Hopefully PanAmerican can add more colors to this line.

PlantHaven’s ‘Oranges and Lemons’ is a vegetative variety bred in the United Kingdom. It was the tallest variety in the group. It is great for large containers and is a proven garden performer.

‘Arizona Sun’ and ‘Fanfare’, two of the oldest varieties in the trial, proved to be good performers. Comparing ‘Arizona Sun’ to some of the newer seed varieties, it was still one of the most uniform in flowering and overall habit. ‘Fanfare’ was more compact and better branched than most of the newer tubular varieties it was trialed with.

Liriope, garden friend or foe?

Tough and easy to grow, there are two basic types of liriope - Liriope muscari and Liriope spicata. Both are grass-like, semi-evergreen perennials that are commonly referred to as Lilyturf, monkey grass, border grass, and blue lilyturf. Pale lavender to white flowers appear among the leaves in late summer on erect flower spikes.

Liriope grows effortlessly in average, medium, well-drained soil in sun or shade. Tolerant of heat, humidity, drought, salt, a wide range of light and soil conditions, Liriope will perform best in moist, fertile soil with part shade. Maintenance is as easy as mowing (on a high mower setting) in early spring before new shoots appear. Liriope transplants easily at any time of year. The blue-black berries easily germinate, but divisions are easier and quicker.

Liriope spicata, creeping liriope, spreads quickly by underground rhizomes to form colonies, and can be aggressive. Useful as a dense ground cover to stabilize banks or slopes; and can be planted under shallow-rooted trees, along streams or ponds.

Liriope muscari forms a clump and is widely used as a border plant or as a shade ground cover. Clumps slowly expand by short stolons, but do not spread as aggressively as Liriope spicata.

Green thumbs up: Designing a garden with pleasing plant combinations - Abington, MA - Abington Mariner

Green thumbs up: Designing a garden with pleasing plant combinations - Abington, MA - Abington Mariner

New Red Imported Fire Ant Enemies in Place for Fight

Red imported fire ants first arrived in the United States in the early 1930s and have been expanding along the southern portion of the country ever since. These ants inhabit more than 350 million acres in 12 southern states and Puerto Rico, and they have recently become established in isolated sites in California and New Mexico. For more than a decade, ARS scientists have gone on the offensive against red imported fire ants by using natural enemies against them.

Entomologist Sanford Porter has worked to collect, breed, and release phorid flies that are now used to control fire ant populations in the southern regions of the United States. Porter is at the Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology’s (CMAVE) Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research Unit, in Gainesville, Florida. more info

Missouri Botanical Garden and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Announce Completion of The Plant List

As the 2010 United Nations International Year of Biodiversity comes to a close, the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) announce the completion of The Plant List. This landmark international resource is a working list of all land plant species1, fundamental to understanding and documenting plant diversity and effective conservation of plants.

The completion of The Plant List accomplishes Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for a widely accessible working list of known plant species as a step towards a complete world flora. The Plant List can be accessed by visiting www.theplantlist.org.

Mesa Yellow Gaillardia

Blanket flower has a reputation as a stubborn prairie plant with beautiful sunset colors. Mesa Yellow, a new cultivar in 2010, keeps the power of its ancestors while showing off a brilliant all-yellow flower. It’s a long-blooming champion, like its relatives—flowers appear from spring to fall, which is one reason it was an All-America Selections winner for 2010. (It also won a 2010 Fleuroselect Gold Medal.) Mesa Yellow has a tidy, mounded habit that’s good for containers, and it makes a great cut flower. Bees and butterflies like it, too.

Common name: Mesa Yellow gaillardia, Mesa Yellow blanket flower
Botanical name: Gaillardia x grandiflora ‘Mesa’ Mesa Yellow
Plant type: Perennial
Zones: 5 to 9
Height: 16 to 22 inches
Family: Asteraceae

Growing conditions
• Sun: Full sun
• Soil: Average, well-drained
• Moisture: Average to dry

Care
• Mulch: Mulch to preserve moisture in the soil.
• Pruning: None needed.
• Fertilizer: None needed.

Propagation
• By seed and division.

Pests and diseases
• Vulnerable to downy mildew, powdery mildew, leaf spot, and rust.
• Snails and slugs may be a problem.

Garden notes
• Take advantage of Mesa Yellow’s drought tolerance, and plant it at the furthest corners of your yard, where the hose barely stretches. Combine it with other never-say-die perennials like yarrow, mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, and prairie coreopsis.
• Mesa Yellow is super tough, but not tall. If you use it with gangly prairie plants like Joe Pye weed, cup plant, and native grasses, be sure to place it near the edges of the border.
• Butterflies like gaillardia flowers, and birds feast on the seeds if you leave some to ripen.
• Gaillardias have a tendency to form colonies, so give this flower some room.
• Mesa Yellow flowers about four months after sowing.

All in the family
• About 30 species of Gaillardia are found in the Americas. G. aristata (Zones 3 to 8) is found from Canada to Arizona. G. pulchella, an annual, is found in the southern U.S. and Mexico. Both species are called blanket flower. Together, these species produced G. x grandiflora, from which many cultivars, including Mesa Yellow, have been developed.