Good Planning Bring Spring Results In December Gardens
Christmas will soon be here and you will be wanting to make up Christmas arrangements and Christmas decorations. It’s so much more fun for most of us if we can go out into our own gardens and gather these materials. There is no reason why every one of us can’t grow them.
To be sure, some of the more tender broadleafed evergreens such as cherry laurel and Chinese holly can be grown only in the milder parts of this area.
We can all grow (even though you may think you can’t) hardy strains of boxwood, firethorn, wintercreeper (Ettonymus) , Japanese holly, American holly and if you will acidify the soil-rhododendron. And even in the most severe regions it is surprising how many protected spots can be found where allegedly tender plants will prove hardy. It is amazing what a little winter sun protection and wind protection will do to carry through these doubtful plants. Plan to plant them next spring.
This is the time of the year, up until snow comes, when we particularly en joy touches of evergreens around our yard. The evergreen ground covers really pay for themselves for the enjoyment they give us. Japanese spurge (Pachysandra), periwinkle ( Vinca), wintercreeper (Euonymus) and English ivy are all delightful in winter. Although it is too late to risk planting them now you can look out of all the windows of your home and decide where you would like to see them growing next year at this time. Personally I prefer Japanese spurge and English ivy, although in the warmer areas both of these may sun scald if not planted in the shade.
This is a good time to look around your neighborhood at the patches of English ivy growing both as ground covers and on the sides of houses. And then next spring along in April look at them again. Those that still look wonderful are the ones you should try to get starts of. I still feel that we haven’t scratched the surface of possibilities in selecting strains of English ivy that will grow under almost any sort of condition. That patch of Romanian ivy that is taking the hot boiling sun in St. Louis, Missouri is just one example of what tough strains are available.
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