Photo by V. Lee Hawkins
After five years living in Richmond, I’ve grown to love our Zone 7 climate and unique plant palette. This spring, I’m relocating to Massachusetts and will learn to garden in a chilly Zone 5. For my final column, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite plants from my Richmond garden and share some gardening tips that I have learned to live by.
Lacebark Pine (Photo by Grace Chapman Elton)
Garden year-round and look for four-season interest.
Spring, summer and fall aren’t the only times when your garden can delight you. Richmond winters are mild, so although it seems like our gardens are going to sleep, we can actually stay active in our landscapes year-round. Fall is the best time of year to plant perennials and woody plants because the ground never freezes past the first inch or two of soil and roots will continue to grow all winter long. This will result in a robust plant ready to push out new growth in the spring.
Among my favorite plants that provide multi-season interest are trees with eye-catching bark. Both the coniferous lacebark pine (Pinus bungeana) and deciduous Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia) are trees whose bark flakes off in scales, creating a camouflaged effect. Japanese stewartia also has pretty white flowers in the spring and vibrant red fall color.
Another bark favorite is a common plant in Richmond — the common crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica). Two of my favorite cultivars with beautiful peeling bark are ‘Natchez’ and ‘Townhouse.’ These trees should be pruned while dormant in the winter, and it is important to have the work done by a certified arborist. All too often, these trees are topped, which means that each trunk is pruned with a blunt cut, a practice we playfully call “crape murder.” This is detrimental to the tree’s health and is unsightly. Instead, only remove limbs that rub or cross, and prune dead wood to allow this tree to achieve its lovely natural form. It will bloom just as heavily, if not more than the topped trees, and will live much longer.
Illicium parviflorum‘Florida Sunshine’ (Photo by Grace Chapman Elton)
Push the envelope on hardiness zones.
In many Richmond neighborhoods, we can get away with plants that are marginally hardy, especially when these plants are located close to a building and protected from wind. I have enjoyed a chartreuse-colored anise (Illicium parviflorum ‘Florida Sunshine’) in my backyard for two years. This plant has licorice-scented leaves when crushed, and it brightens the landscape with vibrant foliage. I have planted it at the side of my house next to my back porch for protection. Another marginally hardy plant that offers a fragrant experience is variegated winter daphne (Daphne odora ‘Aureo-marginata’). Its small, pink, winter-blooming flowers are sweetly scented, and the evergreen foliage is variegated white and green, providing year-round interest.
Daphne odora ‘Aureo-marginata’ (Photo by Grace Chapman Elton)
Add edibles to your landscape.
One of my favorite edible shrubs is the blueberry, native to the eastern United States. These shrubs have many varieties and can take the form of highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum), reaching 6 to 12 feet tall, or lowbush (Vaccinium angustifolium), remaining at 1 to 2 feet tall. The variety ensures that you can choose the form and size that will work for your landscape needs. Blueberries like a slightly acidic pH of 5, so perform a soil test before locating your shrubs. They will fruit better when cross pollinated, so choose at least two varieties for best results. Blueberries will enhance your garden for multiple seasons as they produce small bell-shaped flowers that attract pollinators in the spring, edible fruit in the summer and gorgeous fall color.
Grace Chapman Elton is the former director of horticulture at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. She recently left Richmond to serve as CEO of Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts.
