September Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Jerusalem Artichoke

The tallest perennial in our garden is the Jerusalem Artichoke. Helianthus tuberosus is a perennial sunflower native to the Eastern United States. This is a great plant for the Fall garden at the back of the border.

Also known as Sunchokes, the Jerusalem Artichoke is a perennial plant that grows from a tuber. The tuber is edible and can be used like a water chestnut in salads or stirfry.

The flower is a lovely sunflower type bloom. The golden yellow blooms attract all kinds of pollinators. The blooms are fragrant and smell like chocolate!

Our patch of Sunchokes is over 10 feet tall this year, thanks to all the rain we received early in the Summer.

Native Americans ate the tubers and traded them to other tribes. Once European settlers moved in an found out about this native tuber that could be used like a root vegetable, they began shipping the tubers back home to Europe. The tubers were truly appreciated by the French who like adding it to soups.

Contrary to what you might think, Jerusalem Artichokes have nothing to do with Jerusalem and they are not artichokes. The tubers might taste something like an artichoke. These tubers became so popular in the early 1600's that they were cultivated as a crop and shipped to other areas. They have sense naturalized and it is now impossible to know the original native range. They can be found growing from Canada and the state of Maine, as far West as North Dakota and Texas and down South into Flo

rida.

If you'd like to have a patch of Sunchokes, keep in mind that they multiply more than rabbits! Each little piece of tuber will make another plant. So once you have Sunchokes, you'll always have them. This is truly a perennial you can plant and forget.

Jerusalem Artichoke tubers are best dug in Fall or Winter, depending on your climate. Clean dry tubers will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. They are good eaten raw in salads or sliced into stirfries or steamed and eaten like a potato. Sunchokes are a nutritious tuber high in protein and iron and surprisingly low in starch. Unfortunately, the tubers cause severe flatulence in some people, so you might not want to eat them before going out.

And of course, leave it to the Germans to figure out a way to make a liquor out of Jerusalem Artichokes! In Germany, the tubers are made into a type of Brandy and other types of alcoholic beverages.

Due to its wide growing range, Jerusalem Artichokes can obviously be grown all over the United States. Plant them in full sun in soil well amended with compost. Once the plants emerge, mulch them well to retain moisture and keep down weeds. Water well during periods of drought to encourage larger tubers for eating.

June Blooms in my Georgia Garden: American Elderberry

Large flat white flower clusters adorn each stem of the American Elderberry Bush at the edge of our garden today. Sambucus canadensis, known as the American Elderberry is a shrubby plant native to the Southeastern United States. This time of year you can spot the large bloom clusters on plants in ditches and moist spots along the roadside all over Alabama and Georgia. Perhaps you've noticed these large flowers on your commute to work or school and wondered what they are. 

The flower clusters provide nectar for all types of pollinators. When you examine the flowers up close, you find that they emit a nice honey scent into the air. Can pollinators smell that? If they cannot, I wonder how they find flowers that have the sweet nectar they want. 

The flower clusters are followed by small purple-black berries in late summer. The berries are adored by birds and make great wine. They do not taste good to me, but once my little boy ate so many that he vomited. The berries should be cooked before ingested. Little boys will eat anything and must be watched constantly, especially in the garden. I am fortunate that vomiting is the only thing he suffered that day. He is now 14 and since then has eaten very many things that horrify me, but that's a story for another day.

Elderberry loves water but is easy to grow in any garden. Sambucus spreads by suckers and reaches a height of 8-10 feet by the end of summer even if cut to the ground in early spring. Plant it at the back of the border or along the edge of your property, so the size will not be a problem. Looks particularly beautiful on the bank of a pond or stream, if you have one.

Sambucus canadensis can be grown just about anywhere in the United States, since it is hardy in USDA Zones 3-9.

Elderberry is not picky about its site, as it will grow great in either part shade or full soil, as long as soil is rich and water is plentiful. Well that's what it prefers, but I've found it will grow in regular soil where water is not plentiful, but just won't get as large, and will be quite leggy.

Whether you use the flowers and berries yourself or not, consider planting Elderberry in your garden. It is a great plant for wildlife.

Callicarpa Americana: American Beautyberry

If you like berries, American Beautyberry belongs in your garden. Callicarpa Americana, the American Beautyberry, is a deciduous shrub native to the Southeastern United States.

In early summer, tiny lilac flowers appear in clusters close to the stem. By autumn the flowers turn into bright magenta-violet purple berries. The beautyberries are ¼ inch drupes and packed tightly together in clusters that encircle the stem. Leaves usually turn a pale yellow shade in September and begin falling off the shrub soon after. Once the leaves are gone, the shrub is left with vividly purple berries encircling the bare naked stems until birds eat the berries sometime during the winter.

Callicarpa American Beautyberry
Shady Gardens Nursery

Callicarpa Americana is sometimes referred to as French Mulberry, although I cannot figure out why. I think the name American Beautyberry says it all. 

The Beautyberry is very easy to grow, thriving in any well-drained soil and even adapting to very poor soil. Plant in dappled shade beneath large oaks and pines. The edge of the woodland is ideal. 

Beautyberry is very drought tolerant once established, but water once or twice weekly the first year or two. After that, supplemental water is unnecessary, except perhaps in extreme drought. If the plant gets full sun, it will need more water.

Beautyberry can be grown in most areas of the United States, since it is hardy in USDA Zones 6-10.

Beautyberry is eye-catching either when massed or when planted as a single specimen in a woodland garden or shade garden. Callicarpa is great for a low maintenance natural garden where it contributes year round beauty and food for wildlife. Spring flowers and beautiful fall fruit make this an attractive landscape plant. Use it in semi-shade under tall pines or in full sun where foliage will take on a not unattractive yellow-green color that combines interestingly with the brilliant violet fruits.

Prune back severely in late winter for best berry production. I just cut back branches so all are about the same size and let my bushes grow large. However, Beautyberry can be kept small with an annual pruning in late winter or early spring. This shrub can be cut back as short as 4-6 inches tall every winter with no harm to the plant and without sacrifice of the berries.

To be sure your shrubs are loaded with berries, plant more than one of these beautiful plants.

And if purple is not your color, you might want to try one of the more rare forms.

Callicarpa Lactea has white berries instead of purple. I have encountered many a gardener requesting this shrub for their night garden. Plants with white berries or white blossoms really stand out at night while most other colors are barely visible. Additionally, white reflects the light from the moon. Can you imagine how lovely White Beautyberry would be in the floral arrangements for a Fall wedding? 

If you are partial to pink, you are in luck, because a rare pink-berried form has been discovered. Known as Callicarpa Sautee, it is named for the area in Florida where it was found. The Pink Beautyberry is perhaps the most rare form of all beautyberries. 

Once you see Callicarpa Americana loaded with berries, you will want one for your own garden.

American Euonymus: Strawberry Bush, Hearts a Bustin

Eunonymus Americanus Strawberry Bush
Shady Gardens Nursery

It would be hard to find a more unusual and interesting shrub than the American Strawberry Bush. A native plant of the Eastern US, Euonymus Americanus is a thin little shrub with narrow, opposite leaves, green stems and tiny, inconspicuous flowers that give way to peculiar crimson red fruits that look like strawberries. As the fruits mature, they burst to reveal bright orange seeds, which is the reason for the common name Hearts a Bustin.

The Strawberry Bush usually reaches about 6 feet tall, and has a loose, sprawling habit with thin, wiry, spreading branches and an open, airy form. There are usually several main upright stems arising in a stoloniferous clump. The twigs are distinctive green stems that stay green in the winter too.   The springtime flowers are very inconspicuous, with five greenish yellow petals.

The fruit is a warty red capsule about 1 inch across that resembles a strawberry. When ripe, the capsule splits open to reveal four or five bright orange seeds that really stand out against the deep red capsule. Strawberry Bush is an important food source for white-tailed deer, turkeys, many songbirds, and other wildlife.

Strawberry bush prefers a rich, well-drained soil that is slightly acidic. This shrub does well in shady situations, even tolerating deep shade. Drought tolerant once established.

Euonymus Americanus can be grown in most of the United States, since it is hardy in USDA Zones 5-9.

American strawberry bush is best used in naturalistic settings, in the shade of larger shrubs and trees. But be sure it's close to the path where the interesting (and beautiful) fruits can be appreciated! 

A specimen covered with hundreds of bursting red hearts is a remarkable sight. In autumn, the leaves turn shades of orange and red before falling. In the winter, the leafless green twigs and stems are structurally interesting. Strawberry bush will naturalize under ideal conditions, forming loose, open clumps of sprawling green stems, but it would never be considered invasive or even moderately aggressive.

You might want to plant more than one, since deer will graze not only on the fruits and leaves but also the green stems.

A Native Garden in Winter

Gelsemium sempervirens - Carolina Jasmine

Since a Georgia winter has frequent warm days, we enjoy spending a lot of time outdoors even in January and February. Finding native plants that are showy in winter can be challenging.

We do have many non-native evergreens in our garden, but we find it important to plant native plants whenever possible. After much searching, I have come up with a few suggestions of American native plants you should add to your winter garden:

• American Holly, of course for the berries!
• Carolina Jasmine, Gelsemium sempervirens, also known as Carolina Jessamine, begins blooming often as early as December. Profuse bloom in winter hides the leaves, which are evergreen in most of the South. This easy to grow vine will climb anything or can be grown as a spreading groundcover, but it is never considered invasive.
• Pachysandra Procumbens, often referred to as Allegheny Spurge, is a non-invasive groundcover that develops an attractive silvery mottling to its leaves in fall and winter.
• Evergreens are an important addition to any garden. One I like in particular that looks just as good in winter as any other time of year is Arizona Cypress.
• Yucca provides spikey interest year round and provides contrast in the garden. I like 'Golden Sword' for its bright yellow stripes appearing like sunshine in the garden.

In addition to being beautiful year round, these plants offer the added benefit of being drought tolerant, which is an important asset to consider after the drought we've endured for the last few years.

Source for these plants: Shady Gardens Nursery.

Plant in Winter? Yes, You Can!

January is a great time for planting here in Georgia! Shrubs and trees planted before the arrival of hot weather have a much better chance of surviving the drought. I’m afraid it’s time we all adjust our gardens for the return of the drought each year.

Several years ago, our garden was certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. We are very proud of that, because preserving our environment for wildlife and our children is very important to my family and me.

Not only is preserving wildlife and native plant species important from an environmental standpoint, but native plants are easier to grow, since they are able to thrive in our climate!

In addition to being easy to grow, many of our Native American Species offer other advantages over the imported counterpart.

Consider American Euonymus with the unusual red fruits instead of the more common Euonymus that is invasive. The fruit resembles a hard strawberry until the capsule bursts open to reveal bright orange seeds—food for the birds! (See the photo above.)

American Native Azaleas perfume the garden with a lovely fragrance, while Asian Azaleas have no fragrance at all! And what could be more beautiful than a native azalea in full bloom?

Nothing smells sweeter than the banana-pineapple scented blooms of the native Sweetshrub, Calycanthus floridus.

The bright red blooms of our American native honeysuckle vine, Lonicera sempervirens, will attract whole families of hummingbirds, yet won’t take over and pop up all over the community as does the very aggressive Japanese honeysuckle.

So as you add new plants to your garden during this great planting time, seek out some of these rare native specimens, and don't be afraid to plant them now, to give them a headstart before summer! And check back soon for suggestions on how you can improve your garden to help protect your local wildlife.

For more information on these and other plants for your garden, please visit Shady Gardens Nursery.

Winter Garden in Georgia with Native Plants

Since a Georgia winter has frequent warm days, we enjoy spending a lot of time outdoors even in January and February. Finding native plants that are showy in winter can be challenging.

We do have many non-native evergreens in our garden, but we find it important to choose native plants whenever possible. After much searching, I have come up with a few suggestions of American native plants you should add to your winter garden:

• American Holly, of course for the berries!

• Pachysandra Procumbens, often referred to as Allegheny Spurge, is a non-invasive groundcover that develops a silvery mottling to its leaves in fall and winter.
  

• Lonicera fragrantissima begins blooming in January with sweetly fragrant and delicately beautiful blooms. This large growing shrub is commonly referred to as Winter Honeysuckle.

• Evergreens are an important addition to any garden. One I like in particular that looks just as good in winter as any other time of year is Arizona Cypress.

• Yucca provides spikey interest year round and provides contrast in the garden. I like 'Golden Sword' for its bright yellow stripes appearing like sunshine in the garden. The top photo shows Golden Sword Yucca in its January splendor.
  

In addition to being beautiful year round, these plants offer the added benefit of being drought tolerant and perfect for xeriscape gardens, which is an important asset to consider during today's uncertain water conditions!