May Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Climbing Hydrangea

Climbing Hydrangea
 at Shady Gardens Nursery

There's nothing more beautiful right now than the lacy blooms of our Climbing Wild Hydrangea. Decumaria barbara is known by several different common names. You might know it as Wood Vamp, but it is our native Climbing Hydrangea.

Decumaria is a deciduous vine native to the Southeastern United States. Climbing Hydrangea is truly in the Hydrangea family. (Don't confuse this plant with another sharing the same common name. Hydrangea anomala petiolaris is not native to the United States but originates in Asia and blooms a little later in the season.) Decumaria barbara clings to its support with aerial roots, and it will attach itself to a tree or wall without any additional support.

Lacy  clusters of fragrant white hydrangea-like blooms smell just like fresh honey. Blooms appear in late Spring or early Summer on climbing vines. Decumaria makes a fast-growing groundcover too, but it will not bloom unless allowed to climb. Blooms are solely fertile and smell wonderful.

This easy to grow native vine is not invasive and can be allowed to climb a tree with no danger of it smothering the tree as wisteria does. The delicate aerial rootlets won't harm your tree or wall. 

Plant Native Climbing Hydrangea in shade. Decumaria barbara appreciates protection from hot sun and will bloom in full shade. It enjoys moist soil and naturally occurs in the wild on the banks of streams and rivers. It will grow very quickly in rich soil if watered regularly.

Climbing Hydrangea is a good addition for wildlife in woodland gardens. The thick vines provide good cover and nesting sites for birds and small mammals. The fragrant flowers attract butterflies and other pollinators. 

Decumaria barbara is native to Georgia woodlands but can be grown anywhere in USDA Zones 7-11.

April Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Weigela

The Weigela behind our greenhouse is absolutely covered with blooms today. This red-blooming bush has rosy red flowers all along every stem. Weigela florida is an old-fashioned shrub that covers itself in Spring with tubular blooms that attract hummingbirds and other pollinators. 

Weigela is not native to the United States, but is considered to be an Antique or Heirloom Plant that was introduced here in about 1860. Weigela can be found in old gardens all over the Southeast and is very popular in Georgia.
 

Give your weigela plenty of room because it will grow quickly to a large size. Don't fret if you have a small garden with not enough room for such a voluptuous shrub--dwarf cultivars are available.

Weigela can be grown just about anywhere in the United States, since it is hardy in USDA Zones 4 - 8.

Although culture requirements listed in books and online recommend full sun, weigela needs part shade here in Georgia. If you are in the Southern states, Weigela will enjoy morning sun only. Hot afternoon sun will scorch the leaves. I usually recommend planting Weigela along with your azaleas, camellias, and hydrangeas, as they like similar garden conditions.

The plentiful blooms appear in April and May and can be white, pink, or Red. One of our shrubs, Weigela florida 'Variegata' has both pink and white blooms on the same shrub amid variegated foliage.

If pruning is needed to maintain a rounded form, do so immediately after flowering.

Weigela is excellent in the shrub border mixed with other shrubs, but also makes an excellent specimen plant and mixes well with native shrubs in natural areas.

April Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Wild Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens

Lonicera sempervirens
Red Trumpet Honeysuckle

A spectacular vine blooming in our garden in April is the native American Honeysuckle Vine, Lonicera sempervirens. I'm not talking about the very invasive Japanese Honeysuckle that permeates the air with it's strong fragrance and chokes out everything in its path. We don't love that one. Lonicera sempervirens is a well-behaved native vine not often seen growing in the wild. 

The most popular is called Red Trumpet Honeysuckle, so named for its Red tubular flowers that attract hummingbirds. This is a coral red, which is why it is also known as Coral Honeysuckle.

Lonicera sempervirens, unlike Lonicera japonica, is NOT invasive, and should be planted instead of the very invasive Japanese Honeysuckle. Although Red Honeysuckle is not fragrant, hummingbirds will flock around it all summer long. 

Lonicera sempervirens 'John Clayton'

Lonicera sempervirens 'John Clayton' is a yellow-flowering form named after John 

Clayton, the colonial botanist who discovered it

 growing on the grounds of a 17th Century church in Glouchester, Virginia. 

Lonicera sempervirens is a vigorous yet non-invasive flowering native vine that hummingbirds love. Evergreen in most of the Southern states, Lonicera sempervirens blooms almost year round. I've seen blooms on ours in December here at Shady Gardens in west central Georgia. 

Red Trumpet Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, is one of the best hummingbird magnets I know of, with its large red tubular flowers that come almost year round in my garden. (We've had a few blooms on our plant in January here in West Central Georgia!) 

Our native honeysuckle flowers during the summer on last year’s growth. A few bright red berries will appear, but this plant doesn't sow itself all over the garden and nearby woods like Japanese Honeysuckle does. 

Grows 10-20' in length and prefers sun. Usually grows naturally in the woods, but flowers much more heavily when grown in full sun. 

Indigenous to the South, this vine can be found growing in woodlands across much of the region, but it is not invasive. It won't gobble up your whole garden like the white flowering Japanese honeysuckle does. 

Trumpet honeysuckle has a long blooming season that starts in late spring and continues sporadically through the summer. It will grow in shade but bloom will be more profuse and foliage will be more lush if grown in full sun. 

Give honeysuckle a fence, trellis, or arbor to climb. The supple vines need to wrap around something so they can pull themselves up off the ground. Honeysuckle grows in any well-drained soil, has few pests, and is fairly drought tolerant. It thrives in containers or in the garden. 

Hummingbirds and butterflies love the nectar-filled trumpets, and songbirds eat the juicy fruits left by the spent flowers. If you need a flowering vine that is easy to grow, try this one. It will make you happy, and the wildlife will love you for it. 

Even if you don't live in the South, you can grow Lonicera sempervirens in your garden, since it is hardy in USDA Zones 4-11.

Find a spot in your garden for Red Trumpet Honeysuckle and the hummingbirds will visit you all summer long.

March Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Loropetalum

It is now March, and our many Loropetalum shrubs are still in full bloom. This has been by far the most spectacular year we've had for Loropetalum. These shrubs have been blooming nonstop since January.

Yes, this has been a weird winter. We had only sporadic cold spells with lots of warm spells in between. Some plants like the Oakleaf Hydrangea and Elderberry that are normally deciduous retained all their leaves throughout the winter. The elderberries even had the odd flower cluster now and then. Plants that normally die to the ground in winter and regrow from the base such as Confederate Rose and Lantana are leafing out from the stems which we never got cut back this year. This is highly unusual. And weird. I never got around to wearing all my sweaters, and my winter coat got out only once.

For more on the lovely Loropetalum, read our other post: January Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Loropetalum.

February Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Star Magnolia

Magnolia stellata is one of my favorite winter blooming shrubs. Often flowers of the Star Magnolia are burned from the frosts of Winter, turning the beautiful white blossoms brown before they can be enjoyed. But not this year! Winter frosts were so few that I enjoyed many blooms on our little shrub this time. 

I wish we could claim this magnolia as a Georgia native, because it grows so well here and is a favorite of Southern gardeners, but Star Magnolia is native to Japan. 

Blooms are large and showy flowers that open in late Winter here in Georgia, before the shrub leafs out. Blossoms come in pink or white. The flowers are sweetly fragrant and more noticeable when the shrub is in full bloom.

Magnolias grow in sun or shade and prefer well-drained soil with regular water. Magnolia stellata needs regular water, especially during hot summer when grown in full sun.

Even if you live no where near Georgia, you can still grow this beautiful shrub, since Magnolia stellata is hardy in USDA Zones 4-9.

Star Magnolia is a slow grower, but in good conditions it will grow up to 15 feet tall and about 10 feet wide. It can be allowed to grow in its own bushy form, or you can limb it up into a small tree.

February Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Fujino Pink Spirea

One of the earliest shrubs to bloom in our Georgia garden is the lovely Spiraea thunbergii 'Fujino Pink.'

Fujino Pink Spiraea in February

Fujino Pink Spiraea is a beautiful, fine branched spirea that sports masses of pink buds along the stems which open to light pink flowers in late winter to early spring before the leaves emerge. This shrub is a soft, airy plant that looks great massed or as a hedge.

Some spiraeas (also often spelled 'spirea') grow very large, but this is one of the small ones maturing to about 4 feet high and wide, making it perfect for a small garden.

Spiraea thunbergii can be grown all over the United States, as it is hardy in USDA Zones 4 - 9.

For best flowering, grow spiraea in full sun, but we have quite a few that receive only part sun and bloom just beautifully anyway. That's typical for our garden, since summer sun can be too intense for delicate foliage.

Spiraes prefer well-drained soil with regular water, but Fujino Pink Spiraea is drought tolerant once established. As I've said before, no shrub is considered established until it has been planted at least a couple of years.

February Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Hellebores

Since Georgia has many days of nice warm weather in Winter, I'm adding as many winter blooming plants as I can find to our garden. Hellebores are evergreen perennial plants that bloom after Christmas in a rainbow of colors in shades of magenta, rose, mauve, and cream. Some blooms are even speckled. 

Often called Lenten Rose or Christmas Rose, Hellebores aren’t really roses at all, but are in the buttercup family. Hellebore is a very low-maintenance plant that thrives in dry shade—that’s right, dry shade! 

When not blooming, Hellebores have interesting, shiny, dark green foliage with leaves often serrated or even palmate.

It is a long-lived perennial offering years of beauty in the shade garden.

Hardy in USDA Zones 4-8, hellebores require no special care. 

They spread with time, self-sowing to form clumps up to 2 feet across in just a few years. Amend the soil well with organic matter when planting, and you’ll be rewarded with many years of beauty. 

Hellebores are a great substitute for Hosta, but are even better. Hellebores are evergreen and deer proof - the deer will not eat them! 

No matter what you decide to plant in your garden, get out there and enjoy it. And remember to thank God for the rain we’ve received!