Reminder: Cut Back Spirea For 2nd Blooming

Now is the time to prune back spirea shrubs to promote a 2nd blooming- 'magic carpet' pictured above, is a dwarf spirea and one of Victoria's favorites. We use hedge shears and give the spirea shrub a "hair-cutt" - just trimming off an inch or so, or more to creat a compact shape. (The exception to this is the 'Bridal wreath' spirea, which blooms in early spring and should be cut back in the same way forsythias are cut back.)

You can also do nothing to the spirea - they may not bloom as fully again, but they will flower just fine next year. This is one plant that thrives on neglect.

"Spirea" Bushes: Meaning Behind the Name:
In English, we have dropped the first "a" in the Latin genus name, Spiraea, to arrive at "spirea." But the Latin name, too, has some history behind it. The name derives from the Greek, speiraira, which had been a plant that the Greeks used to make garlands. That name, in turn, is based on the Greek, speira (coil, twist, wreath), from which we derive the word "spiral" (one twists or "spirals" plant material around itself in order to make a garland). So if you've ever wondered if spireas have anything to do with spirals, the answer is yes (in terms of etymology) and no (in terms of how we use spirea bushes today).

The Green Wall: Victoria gardens vertically

Driving by the store lately, you may have spotted Victoria high up on scaffolding in the front of the building. What is she doing up there?
Well, she has been planting Victoria Gardens’ very own greenwall around the door of the front porch. Wayne Wadell engineered the soil-filled panels that surround the entrance and the automatic drip-watering system hidden within. Once the panels were installed, cold-hardy sedums and sempervivums (Hens and Chicks) were planted into every other square on the grid. The tiny plants are already growing and quickly filling up the empty spaces.







This type of panel could also be free standing, like a fence panel and could be planted on both sides. This application would be particularly useful when hiding an air-conditioner unit, where airflow needs to be maintained. The planted panel will literally “breath.” We learned so much installing our own greenwall, and the possibilities of this application are endless. Once you’ve gardened every square inch of your yard, you could always garden vertically!
Stop by and see the wall for yourself!



We will be hosting an official unveiling party for the new green wall on Sunday, August 29th from 2pm to 5 pm.

We will have information available on our process and the varieties of plants we used. Cheryl Alloway, garden professional and Master Gardener, will be our guest speaker on the various aspects of vertical gardening from around the world.

We will serve refreshments and be available to answer all your questions.

And we will be giving out special party favors to the first 50 guests - walk away with a “piece” of the wall!

Deer-resistant Late Summer Bloomers

At Victoria Gardens we know what a challenge deer can be in the Mid-Hudson Valley. We have a deer-resistant section in our rock-top nursery to make choosing plants you love, but the deer won’t – ornamental grasses, Crocosmia, Monarda, ‘Rozanne’ Geraniums, Balloon Flowers, coreopsis and so much more.

'Quickfire' Hydrangea

Hardiness: USDA Zone 3-8

Bloom Color: White flowers transform to rich, deep pink.

Bloom Time: Mid-summer; about a month before other paniculata varieties, not affected by pH.

Foliage: Green

Fall Color: Green with a tinge of yellow. Sometimes a reddish-purple color.

Size: 6-8 feet tall at maturity, 3-5 feet wide

Exposure: Full sun to partial shade

Soil: Prefers good, loamy soil. Most adaptable of all hydrangeas to different soil types. Most urban tolerant and very difficult to kill.

Pruning: Prune to maintain a desired size or to remove any wild branches. Best if done in late fall or early spring. Blooms on new wood. Make sure to prune off spent flowers when they turn brown. Very tolerant of hard pruning, in fact cutting the plant back from 1/2 to 1/3 will result in larger flowers.

Watering: Medium moisture. Not as water dependent as Hyd. Macrophylla. Will tolerant drought.

Wildlife: None

Type: Deciduous

Fertilizing: Fertilize in early spring by applying a slow release fertilizer specialized for trees & shrubs. Follow the label for recommended rate of application.

Uses: Groupings or masses, perennial or shrub borders, specimen, screens or hedges, mixed container, cut flowers.

Join us July 24th and 25th at the Rosendale Street Festival!

The Victoria Gardens Display will be set up on the corner of Main Street and Snyder. Stop by and say hello.

Clethra ‘Pink Spire’: As sweet as roses, but better.

Clethra ‘Pink Spire’

Blooms July through August, soft pink, fragrant cone-shaped flowers. Oh, and what a fragrance! As sweet as roses, but more potent, and certainly less trouble. You will love this plant. Very low maintenance, deciduous shrub can take full sun to part shade, and can tolerate moist soils, even wetlands or pondside. Grows 6’ by 6’ in maturity. Attracts bees and butterflies.

Vitex: Chaste tree for a reason

Common names are often poetic or reflective of a plant's practical use. I never thought about it before, but here is the reason that Victoria's favorite, deer resistant, late blooming shrub is also called the Chaste Tree:

"...the shrub's been highly touted for its effectiveness in regulating menstrual cycles and relieving symptoms of PMS (I recently stumbled across a book titled Vitex: The Women's Herb). It also has a positively ancient reputation as a sexual suppressant, one that Athenian women used to keep themselves chaste while in frenzied worship of the Greek goddess of harvests. According to the Roman naturalist Pliny, the celebrants "made their pallets and beds with the leaves thereof to cool the heat of lust."

And it wasn't just the ladies. Southern European monks are said to have brewed libido-busting tea from the shrub's fruit - hence its other common name, monk's pepper (talk about your condiments).

But it's the most innocent of pleasures that have led me to the chaste tree - its performance in the late-summer garden. This woody verbena relative can play a role easily as dynamic as those of Buddleia davidii (butterfly bush), Hibiscus syriacus (rose of Sharon), Campsis radicans (trumpet vine), and Caryopteris x clandonensis (bluemist shrub).

Anything but chaste in appearance, vitex has all the angles, with a multiple-stemmed symmetry enhanced by tapered, five-fingered leaves and jaunty eight-inch flower spikes of the softest lilac blue. It's a shrub that seems always in motion, what with the aerial high jinx of dive-bombing hummingbirds and silver-backed foliage that flickers in the wind. Though vitex is capable of at least ten feet if left unpruned (or better yet, limbed up like a tree), it can also be treated as a perennial and cut back to the ground each spring (like Buddleia, it flowers on new wood).

Chaste tree is a Mediterranean native and, as such, prefers life sunny and well-drained. Though it's drought tolerant once established, it will grow faster with supplemental summer water. Still, given the modesty of these cultural requirements, it's surprising the plant isn't more of a staple in the low-maintenance garden (and that its cultivars are so difficult to find). My best guess is that the chaste tree is a hard sell in spring, when it's more stick than shrub with no sign of green. Even an experienced gardener might mistake it for dead up until June, since it's predictably late to leaf out. Alas, by the time it's really cruising, most gardeners are finished buying shrubs."

For the full article by Ketel Levine :http://www.npr.org/programs/talkingplants/profiles/vitex.html