Image courtesy of Hilltop Arboretum.
Hilltop Arboretum's annual PlantFest plant sale, which takes place in the fall. Coming up this spring at Hilltop is the arboretum's Spring Fling Plant Sale, held on April 11–12.
We’ve all been there: a beautiful spring day blooms, and armed with a baseball cap, sunglasses, and tote bag, you head to your nearest plant sale—only to wade into the diverse array of pots overflowing with greenery and find oneself absolutely lost. Is it the most vibrant flowers you want in your garden beds, or some of those sensible-looking herbs? Perhaps a fruit tree, or some type of ornamental bush? Are you brave enough to grow vegetables this summer—perhaps even a variety of the notoriously finicky tomato? Does any of this even fit your yard, your aesthetic? Will you realistically have time to take care of that pollinator garden you’ve been imagining?
Never fear—Country Roads is here. Having found ourselves in this very predicament, we decided to turn to Louisiana’s gardening experts, asking them to address specific horticulture questions we know our green-thumbers are pondering.
Some quotes included below have been edited for length and clarity.
What are the best plants for a predominantly shady yard?
“Going into spring, your most colorful shade plants are going to be impatiens, including the variety, sunpatiens. We use a lot of coleus for foliage color, where blooms aren’t really working. Ferns also do well in the shade—they add texture without adding a lot of color.” —Angela Tomlinson, horticulturist at Clegg’s Nursery
“Shade is a great environment because you’re not going to get many weeds. You can have a collection of plants, like a collection of ferns. Or you can mix in some annuals, and some azaleas, and some native azaleas, and other plants that actually like the shade, and they actually thrive in the shade and require it.” —Edward Bush, a horticulture professor at LSU
“The native oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) prefer the shade. We feature a lot of sedges—those are going to prefer wetter conditions but have a little more flexibility in terms of light and shade. In terms of native perennials, I think we have some flexibility as well where they’re going to be partial sun, partial shade. Bluebells and Solomon’s seal can do well in sun or shade and [are] also wet-loving plant[s]. Indian pinks are great, too. Trillium is a really nice understory plant that does well in the shade.” —Tara Titone, director at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum
What are the best plants for a predominantly sunny yard?
“For full-sun plants, we recommend things like vinca, blue daze. You have more shrub-type plants that can handle a lot more sun as well, like fresh roses and azaleas, things of that nature. We do petunias for the first part of the spring. Usually by summer they fizzle out. The majority of what you see carpeting everything in blooms is going to be vinca, and then there’s tons and tons of perennials that do really well, lots of salvias.” —Angela Tomlinson, Horticulturist at Clegg’s Nursery
“There’s a beautiful native called blanket flower, Gaillardia pulchella. It’s kind of a daisy-like bloom, yellow and red, and it grows on the side of the road. It likes the sun; you can pretty much ignore it after that. It’s pretty reliable. In terms of something that’s going to bloom for you all summer, it will.” —Heather Warner-Finley, Master Gardener and former president of the Acadiana Native Plant Project
“I have about an acre of meadow that gets full sunlight all day long. These are all in there and they all do incredible. Just all our various asters, beebalm, black-eyed Susan, blazing star, mistflower—which is one of my favorites; boneset, clasping coneflower. We have various different species of goldenrod that are native to our region; guara—which is such a fun little dainty flower—ironweed. Lyreleaf sage, different mallows, milkweeds, obedient plants, rattlesnake master, swamp sunflower, and coreopsis.” —Anna Ash, founder and director of the Louisiana Wild Society
What are some forgiving vegetables to grow for novice (but eager!) gardeners?
“I would buy plants that are already germinated. Maybe you can use containers—no reason you can’t use a nice five-gallon container pot. Mustard greens or collard greens grow really fast. You can probably turn those around in three weeks and get your confidence up. I think cherry tomatoes are really easier to grow. You can have a salad and enjoy the fruit of your garden.” —Edward Bush, a horticulture professor at LSU
“I’d say when you start off in the spring, you can get lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes—things like that you’re going to get an immediate return on. The longer you go into the summer, the more chances insects have to get at them.” —Heather Warner-Finley, a Master Gardener and former president of the Acadiana Native Plant Project
“I always recommend for beginners to try anything in the squash, cucumber, and zucchini family. You can plant one or two plants and still have a lot of success and probably feed your whole family with, like, three squash plants. A banana pepper would be a great option. You can have a single banana pepper plant and that thing will produce all summer long until it has a single leaf left and you’ll still be picking peppers off it.” —Jessie Hoover, LSU AgCenter horticulture agent in West Feliciana, East Feliciana, and St. Helena parishes
[Read this: "Try This, Not That: Trading popular landscaping plants for native alternatives"]
What plants should you buy to make the most of no grass, with patio or balcony space?
“In a small apartment with just a little balcony with full sun, a good option would be a kumquat tree—a little citrus tree. Grow it on your patio. They stay pretty small, and they’re also very cold-tolerant.” —Jessie Hoover, LSU AgCenter horticulture agent in West Feliciana, East Feliciana, and St. Helena parishes
“As far as potted gardens go, the big key is planting in groups—having a group of planters and not being afraid of planting more than one thing in a pot. The general rule of thumb for container design is a thriller, a filler, and a spiller. You want something to vine down, something to fill up the space inside, and something to be taller—that way you have depth to your planters.” —Angela Tomlinson, horticulturist at Clegg’s Nursery
“If you’re thinking of something you’d like in a patio that is kind of showy, native hibiscuses could be great. They have big fat, goofy looking flowers that hummingbirds come in for. You get a little bit of wildlife action, which is, for me, part of a reason to have a garden.” —Heather Warner-Finley, a Master Gardener and former president of the Acadiana Native Plant Project
“Consider that whatever plants you’re combining in the pot have the same moisture needs. I think rattlesnake master is pretty in pots. Indian woodoats is pretty. It does take more moisture, and they do spread. We’ve got some of the black-eyed Susans with the asters, which look really nice because you’ve got the purple and gold.” —Tara Titone, director at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum
What are some of the best choices to ward off pests, critters, or deer?
“One of my favorites is cleome—some people call it spider flower. That is a deer resistant plant, too. I can plant these and feel confident the deer are going to leave them alone, and they will provide me with a lot of color, from early spring all the way to late summer. They will bloom until frost. Just a really hardy, fantastic plant, and fairly drought tolerant.” —Jessie Hoover, LSU AgCenter horticulture agent in West Feliciana, East Feliciana, and St. Helena parishes
“I don’t think deer like mint. Things that have a strong taste or strong odor, they don’t care for.” —Heather Warner-Finley, a Master Gardener and former president of the Acadiana Native Plant Project
“I think if you are planting for our wildlife and our environment here, learning to let go and embracing a little bit of the wildness, letting things look a little bit weedy—that’s how you’re going to be more productive serving our insect and wildlife populations here. Like when you see something eating a plant? Thank God, you know. That is your garden network.”—Anna Ash, founder and director of the Louisiana Wild Society
“When you create an ecosystem, you live with it. I grew up in a horticultural family. My pawpaw used to grow a garden every year, and he always planted more than he needed, because you feed the world around you. The birds come and take, the squirrels come and take, the bugs come and take. We have to give back to the earth and not just take from it.” —Angela Tomlinson, Horticulturist at Clegg’s Nursery
Other Considerations
Right Plant, Right Place
“A lot of the native plant community talks about 'right plant, right place.' You don’t want to go into a plant sale and fall in love with one particular flower, but it needs full sun and no water, it thrives in drought conditions—and then you go in and try to plant it in your wet, shady yard.” —Erin Staub, community director of Louisiana Wild Society
Check the Tags
“Each plant, when you buy a plant at the garden center, will have a little tag saying part-sun, full-sun, full-shade, etc. In order to kind of figure out the requirements of the plants in your landscape, you have to kind of monitor your landscape and start timing how much sun you have.” —Jessie Hoover, LSU AgCenter horticulture agent in West Feliciana, East Feliciana, and St. Helena parishes
Be Honest
“When you look at your yard, you also have to be honest. You have to decide how often you are going to go into the yard to take care of it and visit it. If you do garden a lot, you know how much time you’re going to spend there. I like to be realistic. Some people don't really like to garden that much. They just want it to look nice enough.” —Edward Bush, a horticulture professor at LSU
For more information on how to begin your spring garden, check out the LSU AgCenter’s list of Louisiana Super Plants, The Acadiana Native Plant Project, Louisiana Wild Society, LSU Hilltop Arboretum, Clegg’s Nursery, and the Louisiana Master Gardener program.
