My azaleas are putting on quite a show at my Bedford, New York farm.
Of all the shrubs that flower in spring, azaleas and tree peonies provide some of the most brilliant displays. I have them planted together in a garden just outside my Summer House, and when they bloom this time of year, they make one corner of my property erupt with spectacular color. This season, I added more than 150 azaleas along the carriage road to my stable - all different varieties and colors from pure white to pink to crimson to orange. Azaleas can thrive in a wide variety of growing conditions, which makes them so useful in many different landscapes. They are popularly referred to as the “royalty of the garden” - long adorned for their brightly colored flowers and evergreen foliage.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
My azalea collection is in a lightly wooded area, where they get filtered sunlight through the day.
Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the Ericaceae family, which includes blueberries and mountain laurel. They are also all rhododendrons and members of the genus Rhododendron.
Azaleas are generally healthy, easy to grow plants. Some azaleas bloom as early as March, but most bloom in April and May with blossoms lasting several weeks.
Azaleas are native to several continents including Asia, Europe and North America. These plants can live for many years, and they continue to grow their entire lives.
Plant height ranges from about three to six feet for most varieties, but rare plants can range from under one foot to well over 15-feet tall.
When selecting a location for planting, be sure you know the mature size of the plants so they can be grouped accordingly in the landscape – tall plants in the background and short plants in the foreground.
The tube-shaped base of the flower contains a stamen that protrudes from the center. The leaves are often evergreen with wooly undersides.
Azalea flowers can be single, hose-in-hose, double or double hose-in-hose, depending on the number of petals.
Azalea petal shapes vary greatly. They range from narrow to triangular to overlapping rounded petals. They can also be flat, wavy or ruffled. Many azaleas have two to three inch flowers and range in a variety of colors from pink to white to purple, red, orange and yellow.
The best time to shop for azaleas is when they are in bloom so you can see their flower colors and forms. Azalea ‘Violetta’ blooms are the most astonishing pink flowers. ‘Violetta’ is great for beds and borders, containers and areas that need color. I planted several of these under my cream colored magnolias.
Last month, we planted dozens of azaleas – continuing down the road from the original collection all the way to my stable.
‘Delaware Valley White’ is an evergreen azalea. It typically grows three to four feet tall over the first 10 years. It has tubular, funnel-shaped, usually single, white flowers that bloom in clusters.
Azaleas thrive in moist, well-drained soils high in organic matter. Morning sun and afternoon shade is ideal. This is Azalea ‘Tradition.’ It is covered in stunning clusters of pink trumpet-shaped flowers in mid spring. The glossy oval leaves remain dark green throughout the winter.
Azaleas have short root systems, so they can easily be transplanted in early spring or early fall. Be careful not to plant too deep and water thoroughly after transplanting. Azalea ‘Hino Crimson’ features a profusion of single, crimson blooms that appear early and continue through spring. ‘Hino Crimson’ is one of the hardiest of the semi-dwarf, evergreen azaleas.
Azalea ‘Stewartstonian’ is a beautiful, showy shrub with its lovely, orange-red flowers in the spring, and its evergreen foliage during the cold months of the year.
Azalea ‘Blaauws Pink’ grows up to four feet tall and as wide. It features double, hose-in-hose, salmon-pink flowers in a dense, shrub.
Look at this bright yellow Azalea Narcissiflora – covered in stunning clusters of fragrant buttery yellow trumpet-shaped flowers with yellow throats at the ends of the branches in mid spring.
Azalea ‘Cannon’s Double’ is a fabulous deciduous azalea that flowers in late April and with multi-layered petals of peach-pink-red-cream-and a hint of yellow.
Remember, never eat azaleas. Like its cousin the rhododendron, the azalea is a toxic plant, and all parts of the plant are poisonous, including the honey from the flowers. Azalea Exbury orange is an upright growing deciduous azalea that explodes with giant trusses of vibrant orange flowers in early to mid-May.
I just love how the rich bold colors of azaleas look in the gardens. All the new azaleas are great additions to this area of the farm. The beautiful displays will get even more stunning year after year.
As you know, I absolutely love trees and have planted hundreds of them, of all types and sizes, here at my Bedford, New York farm. Among my favorites are the Japanese maples. And this time of year, mine are showing-off some beautiful spring color.
Many of my Japanese maples are varieties of Acer palmatum - trees that have been cultivated in Japanese gardens for centuries. Over the last several years, I’ve planted many of these trees in one section of a shade garden I call the Japanese Maple Woodland - not far from my chicken coops and stable barn. I just love them and always look forward to their gorgeous displays in spring and fall. These specimens provide countless variations in size, leaf shape, and color, creating a landscape of beauty and texture.
Enjoy these photos.
Over the years, I’ve planted hundreds of Japanese maples in this area. My first Japanese maples, 117 of them to be exact, were planted 2009. In 2014, we planted 150 more. And since then, I’ve continued to add rare and unusual varieties. I named this woodland ‘The Laura Plimpton Japanese Maple Grove,” in memory of my dear sister who loved these beautiful trees.
Japanese maples prefer dappled sun or part shade. I purposely planted them beneath these larger trees. The varying heights add a nice texture to the grove.
A Japanese maple is a small tree or large shrub in the Maple family that is native to the Asian countries of China, Korea and Japan. It is highly prized as a garden tree for its great ornamental beauty.
With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars including hybrids, the iconic Japanese maple tree is among the most versatile small trees for use in the landscape. In fact, it is the highlight of every Japanese garden.
Japanese maples grow well in moist, organically rich, well-drained soil. Their forms can be weeping, rounded, dwarf, mounding, upright, or cascading.
Japanese maples are relatively small trees and when many are planted together, they make an extraordinary grove. Japanese maples typically grow about one-foot per year for the first 50-years, but they can live to be more than a hundred.
They grow 10 to 15 feet high, with a spread of 10 to 15 feet.
Red leafed cultivars are the most popular, followed by green shrubs with deeply dissected leaves. The leaves in the Palmatum Group are most typical of the wild species. The leaf lobes are more divided, nearly to the leaf base.
I also have more rare varieties. These leaves are deeply divided, but each lobe is also dissected, giving them a lacy effect.
‘Emerald Lace’ is a green maple variety. ‘Emerald Lace’ is a fast-growing, deciduous small tree with deep emerald green, lacy foliage in spring.
This variety has feather-soft green foliage that cascades to the ground.
Here is a Japanese maple leaf showing how it looks like the palm of a hand with its fingers open.
And here is a green leafed version, ‘Osaka Suki.’ Japanese maple trees are particularly suitable for borders and ornamental paths because their root systems are compact and not invasive. Through this woodland grove, they line both sides of the carriage road.
Here is an interesting maple. ‘Golden Full Moon’ maple is a bushy, medium-sized deciduous shrub or small tree noted for its spectacular foliage. It shows intensely bright yellow-green leaves in spring. They are also rounded with seven to nine sharply pointed lobes that gradually turn pale chartreuse as the season progresses.
The foliage on this maple is deeply lobed with a beautiful red color throughout the summer. The color turns bright red in the fall. The palmate leaves have lobes cut to the base of the leaf.
Japanese maples are hardy in zones 5 through 8. A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined to encompass a certain range of climatic conditions relevant to plant growth and survival. My farm is in zone 6.
Young trees should be kept moist to prevent their shallow root structures from drying out and weakening, particularly during the hot summer months.
Any heavy pruning should be done in late winter before leaf buds begin to open. Cut out scraggly interior twigs and branches, but leave the structural branches alone. Small, corrective cuts can be made any time of year.
I’ve also planted some beautiful rhododendrons in this garden. This is ‘Yaku Princess’ with unique, bushy, compactly branched low growth. In mid spring spheres of pinkish-white blooms with deeper pink and green spotting on the florets appear, and trusses of apple-blossom pink buds open to white.
And the mayapples are growing so wonderfully. Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, is a native perennial found in either moist or dry woods in Virginia and most of eastern North America. The leaves — which look like tiny umbrellas — unfold from a single stem. I grow many of these in my shade gardens.
This maple grove grows more beautifully every season. Few trees are as stunning as the Japanese maple. What is your favorite Japanese maple tree? Share your comments with me below.
Are your lilacs blooming? My allee of lilac at my Bedford, New York farm is exploding with big, gorgeous, and fragrant flower clusters.
I love lilacs, and have enjoyed growing them for many years. In fact, the common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, has been part of the American landscape for centuries - lilacs planted in 1650 on Michigan’s Mackinac Island are some of the country's oldest known specimens. If you don't already have lilacs in your garden, I strongly encourage you to grow one, or two, or even three shrubs - they will give you years of beautiful blooms.
Enjoy these photos.
I planted this allee of lilac about 15-years ago and it has thrived ever since. It is located behind my chicken coops not far from my tennis court. Lilacs are low maintenance, easy to grow, and can reach from five to 20-feet tall or more depending on their variety.
The lilac, Syringa vulgaris, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae. Syringa is a genus of up to 25-cultivated species with more than one-thousand varieties.
Lilacs come in seven colors: violet, blue, lilac, pink, red, purple and white. The purple lilacs have the strongest scent compared to other colors.
The bold lilac colors look so pretty against the vibrant green foliage. Lilac leaves are simple, opposite, ovate, about two to four inches long, and usually shaped like elongated hearts.
Lilacs have pyramidal clusters of blossoms with both single and double varieties – all with the same glossy green leaves.
‘Sensation’, first known in 1938, is unique for its bicolor deep-purple petals edged in white on eight to 12-foot-tall shrubs.
‘Wedgwood Blue,’ as its name implies, has fragrant flowers in hues resembling blue Wedgwood on spreading shrubs that reach six-feet tall.
And ‘Adelaide Dunbar’ is a disease-resistant common lilac, with spikes of sweet-scented, double, purple flowers.
Lilacs were introduced into Europe at the end of the 16th century from Ottoman gardens and arrived in American colonies a century later. To this day, it remains a popular ornamental plant in gardens, parks and homes because of its attractive, sweet-smelling blooms.
And, lilacs were grown in America’s first botanical gardens – both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew them.
Although lilacs display flowers among the most delicate of the ornamentals, some newer hybrid varieties can survive winter temperatures of 60-degrees-below-zero Fahrenheit.
Lilacs grow best in full sun and moist, well-drained, humus-rich soil.
They benefit from regular watering at planting, during bloom, and heavy growth periods. Once established, however, they are fairly drought-tolerant. This is a lovely pure white lilac.
Most lilacs thrive in hardiness zones 3 through 7, in cooler climates with chilling periods. Lilacs are typically clump forming, producing new shoots from the base of the trunk, which can be used for propagating.
Last week, so many of the shrubs were full of giant blooms – the fragrance was intoxicating.
When selecting a location for lilacs, choose one that has good air circulation to reduce the likelihood of fungal diseases, such as powdery mildew. In addition, choose a spot that is large enough to accommodate the mature size of the plant.
Both sides of this allee are edged all the way around with straight, clean lines.
Lilacs appear from mid-spring to early summer just before many of the other summer flowers blossom. Young lilacs can take up to three-years to reach maturity and bear flowers – be patient.
By planting an assortment, bloom time will be staggered and can last for up to two-months. Lilacs should be pruned each year shortly after blooming has completed. At that time, remove spent flowers, damaged branches and old stems, but never prune after July 4th because at that point, the tree has already begun to set next year’s flower buds.
If enjoying them as cut flowers, cut the lilacs right at their peak, when color and scent are strongest, and place them in a vase as soon as possible. Here is an arrangement on the soapstone counter of my newly redone studio kitchen.
And here’s another arrangement in my Winter House servery. Lilacs – filled with color and fragrance – make a wonderful addition to any garden and any home.
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