What’s Up in Early April?
This is one of my favorite times of the year in my garden. Plants are coming up fresh and clean. The hot sun, hungry deer or my forgetfulness have not yet damaged any part of the plant nor have shifting temperatures frozen off any blooms.
This year I think plants look more full. Leaves seem thicker and blooms more prolific because of the enormous amounts of rain we have had.
I just finished teaching a “Flowering Shrubs and Small Trees” course at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. I thought I would review some of the flowering shrubs that we discussed. Even though the subject matter wasn’t new to most, it was helpful to jiggle memories of plants that we once loved.
Most of us know the yellow Forsythia which has just finished blooming. With today’s hybrids you might have one that stays a dwarf size (Sugar baby) or is a different shade of yellow (Magical Gold).
It is safe to prune this plant heavily every few years at this time right after it has bloomed. This helps keep it from growing too big and unwieldy. If you have pruned these in the past with hedge clippers you may want to cut it back with loppers to get clean cuts. Pruning it back hard allows it to get a loose wispy look which is its natural growth habit.
Another early blooming plant cultivar which is now fading is the Spirea. There are loads of cultivars of this plant. Colors range from white to pink to red with autumn leaves being yellow and red. Old fashioned white ‘Bridal wreath’ is one of my favorites.
New cultivars include Spirea “Little Redhead” or “Neon Flash”. I’ll let you check those out on your own.
Viburnum is just staring to bloom in my yard. This is great for gardens in deer territory because deer don’t eat them! Viburnum can take full sun or dappled shade.
There is an early one in colder weather called Viburnum ‘Ferrari’ that is easy to miss. It is more slender, but has a knock-your-socks-off fragrance in February.
Right now you should see and smell the fragrant Viburnum. Cultivars include ‘Korean spice’, ‘Carlesii’ or ‘Mohawk’. These and are known for mid sized growth and heady fragrance.
A dramatic viburnum with huge flowers is the ‘Japanese Snowball’ viburnum. The Macro variety has blooms as big as grapefruit while the smaller bloomer is the size of an orange. Both are easy to see in the landscape and can get 10′ large or bigger with time.
The common lilac has just opened up, Cultivars like ‘Miss Kim’ will soon follow. The old fashioned variety of the common lilac has a much stronger fragrance, but is not as reliable in blooming as is ‘Miss Kim’ and the ‘Boomerang’, which blooms twice.
Now also you can get lilacs in all shades of pink and purple. The other great thing about most lilacs is that they prefer bad soil, don’t need much water and like to be ignored. That’s my kind of plant!
Aronia is an easily over looked blooming shrub. I have moved one of mine to 3 different houses I owned. It always recovered. Aronia has white flowers and then red to black berries which the birds gobbled up. They have even made a new cultivar called ‘Lowscape mound aronia’ which stays small and blooms blue.
So keep an eye out for early flowering shrubs. May is around the corner believe it or not, with a whole other pallet of vibrance and fragrance with which we’ll have fun!
I’m working on a blog now to review perennials we may see. I hope to get that done this week!
Christie lives in Manakin Sabot , Virginia where she manages a 3 acre garden. Her blogs are written from her 35 years as a personal and professional gardener.
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