How's Your Garden?

BY LOIS TRIGG CHAPLIN

What are those big hydrangeas that bloom in March? They’re not. They aren’t hydrangeas at all. They are viburnums! It could be any of these three: Chinese snowball (Viburnum macrocephalum), Eastern snowball (Viburnum opulus), or fragrant snowball (Viburnum x carlecephalum). Each has large, round clusters of small flowers that look like a hydrangea, but they are rounder and they bloom earlier. The blooms begin as smaller, lime-green clusters that gradually change to a creamy white as the snowball enlarges. In the landscape, these can grow 8 to 15 feet tall and almost as wide in a multitrunk, tree-like form. The big bloom clusters on long woody stems reward flower arrangers tasked with big arrangements such as a wedding or church altar. Spring is a good time to shop for these plants as even the ones in nursery may sport a few blooms.

Sowing vegetable seed directly in the ground can be a challenge because soil-dwelling pests such as roly-polies, slugs, or caterpillars can chew the tender seedlings to a nub. Thankfully, Bonnie Plants starter plants make it easy to start a spring garden. However, like all die-hard gardeners, I always have packets of seed catalog temptations that I must start myself if I am to grow them at all. I have found that soaking seeds, or keeping them between wet paper towels until they sprout, helps me get the plants up more quickly. Setting the soaking bowls or plates with seeds atop a heated seed-starting mat speeds germination. I change the water or check the paper towel daily and remove them at the first sign of sprouting. From there they go to the garden or to a cell-pack to grow to transplant size. Round seeds and large seeds are easiest, as it is awkward to soak and handle flat seeds such as lettuce that stick together when wet. Sometimes the sprouting roots get tangled with one another, too. In this case, a pair of fine-tipped tweezers and the tip of a nail file can help one maneuver the sprouting seeds.

Anyone driving Alabama highways in early spring may spot patches of purple near the ground big enough to show up at 65 mph. This is likely rose verbena (Glandularia canadensis), a low-growing, creeping, perennial wildflower that starts blooming in spring and continues into summer, especially if ALDOT doesn’t mow it too much. The Homestead Purple pictured here is a form or possibly a natural hybrid of the native rose verbena that was first found in Georgia, and tested at the UGA trial gardens in Athens. In 1994 it earned the Georgia Gold Medal Award for its outstanding garden performance, and has remained popular ever since. Gardeners looking for a good low-maintenance, full-sun perennial should consider adding Homestead Purple to their garden. It makes a nice flowering ground cover, a border in a flower garden, or a spot of color in a rock garden. It grows in sand or clay, but plants need good drainage to make it through winter.

While video platforms like Zoom and Facetime enable us to connect with each other from a distance, webcams let us literally be a “fly-on-the-wall” where birds are nesting or feeding. These cameras show life 24/7 wherever they are pointed, so you can watch baby eagles and many other birds hatch, grow and fledge from their nest, or face predators and other bird life dynamics as they happen. One of my favorites is the pair of eagles that have been nesting on the campus of Berry College in Rome, Georgia, for several years (https://www.berry.edu/eaglecam/). The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers a smorgasbord of live birdcams from around the world at https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/. These include cams of feeders that capture various bird species as they come and go. Seems like this is a nice way for a loved one who has become housebound to continue their birdwatching.

Late winter is the time to start lettuce from seeds or transplants for a couple of months of delicious salads before the weather gets too warm, usually April or May. Starting with transplants will yield sooner than starting from seed. However, it you want a large mix of leaf colors and shapes for beautiful salads, you will need to start from seeds to take advantage of the dozens of varieties with leaves that range from chartreuse to dark green to burgundy to speckled. At first, plants will do best in a cold frame with an automatic opener or under a frost cloth that is removed when the temperature is 60 or above. I use a maximum/minimum thermometer under the frost cloth to track temperature extremes and keep the lettuce from bolting too soon.