There is nothing else more beautiful than May in Lithuania, when warm and wet weather finally arrives and all the plants sprout just in one night. Mother nature press a magic button, and all the greenery starts to change it`s garment into the eyes. It`s the time when I always keep something in my hands [...]
Hibiscus, or rosemallow, is a large genus which includes more than 200 species of deciduous and evergreen shrubs and trees, as well as annual and perennial herbaceous plants. Almost all of them are native to tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world (including the popular houseplant – the Chinese hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)); hence only very [...]
Thuja and yew hedges. The rejuvenation method, as described above, is not suitable for conifers, since they have very few dormant buds. Thujas and yews are an exception, since they respond well to sever cutting back. Old plants should be reduced by half, and lateral branches should be shortened by half or a third, so as to shape the hedge into a sloping form. Dead branches should be removed. The best time to rejuvenate conifers is summer, from the beginning of June to midsummer. You could also prune in the second half of summer to early winter, however, this period is less favorable. The rejuvenated plants should be looked after, fertilized, and watered in a prolonged dry spell.
The flower borders require constant attendance from early spring to late autumn. There are bulbs to be planted and replanted, or herbaceous perennials that require dividing every 2 to 5 years. Then there is fertilizing, mulching, watering, thinning, pruning, deadheading. Besides, many herbaceous flowering plants look good only for a certain period of time, while they are in bloom. After the flowers fade, they only sit there providing with greenery or go dormant until the next season.
For a long time, these fossil conifers were considered to be extinct. Dawn redwood was first described in 1941 by the fossil records of its leaves and cones. In the same year, the Chinese scientist T.Kan discovered a stand of unfamiliar trees with reddish bark, growing in one of the provinces of China. The botanist [...]
The name of catalpa tree derives from the Indian language, meaning “elephant`s ears”. These are attractive, mostly deciduous (sometime evergreen) trees with broadly rounded crown. The leaves are heart-shaped and large with long petioles. The showy bell-shaped flowers up to 7 cm long, held in large terminal sprays, are white or cream, with lower lips splashed with purple blotches and spots.
The best time to plant rhododendrons is either in spring, from early April to mid-May, as soon as soil warms up, or in autumn, from early September to early October, so that plants would still have time to root the ground freezes over. Rhododendrons can be planted any other time, if need be, except when in flower or when new shoots are growing fast, which is usually after, and sometimes during, the flowering period.
Rhododendrons, especially the evergreen kind, prefer crumbly, peaty, humus-rich and sharply drained soil. They are “surface rooters” with compact and dense roots, so the fertile layer of soil does not have to be very deep. As for mineral soils, rhododendrons prefer sandy and well-drained soils, since they are acid. Sandy and other mineral humus-poor soils can be improved by addition of organic matter – peat moss, tree leaves (oak), pine or larch needles, bark, well-rotted grass clippings.
A lot of Lithuanian gardeners are very fond of rhododendrons, which have become rather common, but they really are irreplaceable when one needs a colourful and evergreen plant to decorate a shady spot. Most rhododendrons are native to East and Southeast Asia, where summers are damp and rainy, and winters are snowy. In their natural habitat, rhododendrons grow on humus-rich and porous soils. Wild groves of rhododendrons can also be found in North America and Europe.
Healthy pines, growing in a sunny location, have a shape which is characteristic of the genus. Their crowns are sparse, which is natural. Pines do not become any denser when pruned, since they have no dormant buds; they also do not respond to rejuvenating in the way that deciduous trees would. Only dry or damaged branches can be pruned out.
