When looking for interesting, low maintenance trees for small spaces, there are some very unique and attractive tree types that have narrow, upright habits, such as the Parkland Pillar Birch tree. It's dense, heat and drought tolerant, and makes a great privacy screen when planted in multiples.
Here at my farm, planting has started once again in my living maze. Much of the three-acre area is now complete and all the plants are growing excellently. Last week, my crew planted several Parkland Pillar Birch, Betula platyphylla 'Jetpark,' from First Editions Shrubs and Trees.
Enjoy these photos.
The Parkland Pillar Birch has dense dark green foliage that turns a beautiful golden yellow in fall. It’s known for its fast growth, narrow, upright habit, and interesting white colored bark.
Here’s Ryan loading several of the trees onto our trusted Polaris so they can be taken to the maze.
At the maze, Arnold starts by digging the appropriate sized holes.
He uses both a shovel and a spade depending on what he is doing. I always say, use the right tool for the job.
Do you know the difference? A shovel is best for digging and moving loose material, such as soil, mulch, gravel, or debris. Shovels have broader, curved, or bowl-shaped blades to make this easy.
The spade is designed for cutting, edging, and doing precise soil work. Here it is used to shape the hole.
Next, the hole and the surrounding soil are sprinkled with a generous amount of fertilizer.
For this project, I use Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed Flowering Trees and Shrubs plant food. It contains natural ingredients such as kelp, earthworm castings, bone meal, and feather meal, which will feed the plant and maintain its deep, lush green foliage throughout the season.
The tree is carefully removed from its existing pot.
And then placed into the hole to make sure it will sit at the right height. The top of the root ball should be level with the top of the hole.
The tree is removed from the hole and a hori hori knife is used to carefully scratch the root ball and stimulate growth. Essentially, small portions of the root ball are cut to loosen the roots and encourage new development.
When the soil is very dry, I instruct my team to fill the hole with water first before planting. This technique is designed to improve root establishment, reduce transplant shock, and increase survival chances.
The tree is then placed into the water filled hole.
And finally the hole is backfilled.
One holds it straight as the soil is shoveled around the root ball. It is only buried up to the flare, where the tree meets the root system. Burying the tree too deep will kill it.
Arnold looks at the tree from all sides and from various distances to make sure it is in perfect line with the others.
The last of the soil is placed around the tree and tamped down to ensure good contact.
Here they are all done and looking very good. At full maturity, these trees will be 30 to 40 feet tall with a slender spread of six to seven feet.
And with consistent and proper care, these trees will live 30 to 50 years.
The maze is almost done, and all the trees and shrubs and other plants are all thriving. I am so proud of all the work I’ve done to create this fun and interesting network of paths and passages.
Exotic forms of succulents make excellent container specimens.
Succulents are low-maintenance, adaptable both indoors and out, and have a large number of unique forms making them ideal plants for those who love growing them but don’t really have a lot of time to care for them. Succulents, which includes the cactus family, are able to survive prolonged drought because they store moisture in their fleshy stems, roots, and leaves. Cacti also have pad-like buds, called areoles, out of which grow sharp spines, which protect the plant from harm and collect and condense moisture. Not long ago, I bought a few interesting cacti to add to my growing collection.
Enjoy these photos.
Whenever I travel, I often look for interesting plants to bring home and add to my greenhouse. I have amassed quite a collection of unique specimens over the years. These are from Colasanti Farms in Canada, a 4th generation family owned company growing a large variety of cactus, succulents and tropical plants.
When starting a cactus collection, know the basics about watering, sunlight, soil, and pots. And start with smaller, easy-to-care-for varieties.
The Bunny Ear Cactus is a charming, low-maintenance ornamental plant with flat, paired pads covered in tiny barbed spines.
The Old Lady Cactus is a small, clump-forming cactus native to central Mexico and valued for its appearance and ease of care. It is spherical or cylindrical, can grow up to 12 inches tall and four inches wide, and has soft white hairs and bristle-like white spines, giving it a “white-haired lady” look.
Similarly, the Old Man Cactus is a slow growing columnar cactus covered in long, white, hair-like spines that protect it from sun and cold, also giving it an aged appearance.
Several cactus species are known for their furry, white-coated looks – some with more dense woolly hairs or modified spines, but all part of the plant’s natural defense and insulation.
The Spiral Cactus is a striking, naturally twisting variety known for its corkscrew-shaped stems, fast growth, and ease of care when provided with bright light and well-draining soil.
Ryan chooses the appropriate size container for each specimen. He matches the pot to the cactus’s growth habit—tall, narrow for columnar species, shallow and wide for globular or spreading types. I’ve been using Guy Wolff pots for many years – he makes every one of these by hand.
Select pots that are only slightly larger than the current root ball. Cacti have shallow roots and dislike sitting in wet soil.
Each pot has a drainage hole. A clay shard is placed over the hole to help with drainage.
I like these pots because they allow proper aeration and moisture to penetrate through the sides and to the plant.
Ryan fills the pots with the soil mix, adding just enough so it is filled just below the top rim of the pot. When potting several plants, Ryan works in an efficient production line process, filling all the pots first.
I use Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting Mix for Cactus and Succulents. It’s a fast-draining formula that’s great for all kinds of succulents, cacti, and citrus plants.
I also use Osmocote Plus, a type of controlled-release fertilizer designed to support plant growth. Always remember to feed your plants.
For spiny cacti, it’s important to use gloves or tongs to avoid injury. Ryan gently places the cactus in the center, ensuring the base sits just below the rim.
He fills in all the gaps around the plant, firming it lightly without compacting the soil.
Here is another cactus ready for potting. Before placing any plant in a pot, be sure to tease or loosen the root ball just a bit to stimulate root growth.
Many of these plants will last a couple years in these pots before they need transplanting. This is a Bilberry Cactus with thick, upright, blue-green stems with deep ribs, giving it a geometric shape, and small dark spines.
This is a barrel cactus, which is a round or cylindrical desert cactus known for its ribbed body, sharp spines, and vibrant flowers. Its spines, which can be yellow, red, or brown, provide protection, shade, and help reduce water loss.
Once all the plants are potted up, they are watered and placed in the greenhouse where they will get bright, direct light.
Ryan adds pea gravel to the top of the pots. Pea gravel, so named because the pieces are pea-sized, is available at garden centers and comes in different colors.
Gravel breaks up the force from watering, keeping the topsoil intact. It also creates air pockets in the soil, improving aeration and preventing compaction.
These plants will remain here in the greenhouse where they can be properly maintained. Occasionally, they will also be rotated into my Winter House for display. Try adding some of these plants to your collection – you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.
Every day, there's something new to admire in the garden. My flower garden continues to produce so many colorful and beautiful blooms.
This perennial cutting garden has developed well over the seasons. I enjoy comparing its progress from year to year, and seeing where I need to add more plants to improve its display. Right now, gorgeous poppies are blooming everywhere - those colorful tissue paper-like flowers that look stunning both in the garden and in the vase. And there are also lots of Canterbury Bells, biennial bell-shaped blooms that come in shades of blue, pink, purple, or white. Plus, the larkspur, the alliums, the hardy Lady's Mantle, and of course, my climbing roses.
Enjoy these photos.
With so many different flowers in one large garden, I am able to spot new blooms coming up every day.
Some of them have longer bloom times and look great for weeks. Lady’s mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris, grows along both sides of the path of my cutting garden. It is a clumping perennial which typically forms a mound of long-stalked, circular, scallop-edge light green leaves, with tiny, star-shaped, chartreuse flowers.
The columbine flowers still look charming. Aquilegia is an easy-to-grow perennial that blooms in a variety of colors during spring.
And some of the peonies are also still showing off.
I start my foxglove from seed right in my greenhouse. Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, add vertical interest to any garden. The flowers are on tall spikes and are tubular and bell-shaped, typically pink-purple with spotted interiors.
I grow so many alliums here at the farm and they continue to bloom so beautifully interspersed with other blooms. These easy-to-grow bulbs come in a broad palette of colors, heights, bloom times, and flower forms. They make excellent cut flowers for fresh or dried bouquets. What’s more, alliums are relatively resistant to deer, voles, chipmunks, and rabbits.
But this week it’s all about the poppies. Poppies produce open flowers that come in many colors from crimson red to purple, lavender, and pale pink. Poppies require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil.
This one is crisp yet delicate white with a reddish center.
Papaver grows mainly in the northern hemisphere, including within the Arctic Circle, with one species found in southern Africa.
Poppies are attractive, easy-to-grow herbaceous annual, biennial or short-lived perennial plants.
The plants typically grow to about two feet in height forming colorful flowers during spring and into summer with one bloom per stem.
Flowers have four to six petals, many stamens forming a conspicuous whorl in the center of the flower and an ovary of two to many fused carpels.
One tip – only water once per week during weeks that receive less than two inches of natural rainfall. And don’t splash any water on the foliage; moist leaves are more susceptible to pests and diseases.
Also looking so pretty – my Canterbury bells, Campanula. These are biennial flowering plants that grow to approximately two feet in height.
The plants produce large, bell-shaped blooms that are sweetly scented and attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
Canterbury Bells bloom from late spring to early summer.
These flowers come in white, dark purple, lavender, blue, and pink.
The soft, light lavender is one of its traditional shades.
Larkspur, also known as delphinium, is a tall, colorful flowering plant prized for its spire-like blooms and variety of colors. Larkspur flowers come in shades of blue, mauve, pink, white, red, and yellow, and can be single or double-flowered.
The roses are looking spectacular this year. I have a vast collection – many of which are heirlooms that I moved from Lily Pond, my former home in East Hampton, to Bedford, and they’re still thriving.
Roses come in many different colors, such as pink, peach, white, red, magenta, yellow, copper, vermilion, purple, and apricot. They also come in many forms. I’ll share more photos of my beautiful roses soon.
June is such an exciting time in my garden. This time of year, the days are long, the sun is warm, and the soil is in perfect condition – all creating an ideal environment for flowers to burst and bloom wonderfully.
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