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Plant of the Month
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'Lavender and White Plicata'
A reblooming tall bearded iris
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Tall Bearded Iris
The Orchid of the
Perennial World!
Tall Bearded Iris provide a stunning splash of color in the garden and are ideal for cutting and arranging. These breathtakingly beautiful perennials are long-lived and provide a great focal point in the spring. Their attractive, sword-like foliage provides a strong vertical effect in the garden even after flowering is finished.
The beautiful, showy flowers of the bearded iris come in a wide variety of colors including some striking bicolors. The flower consists of three upright petals called "standards" and three lower hanging petals called "falls". The fuzzy "beard" is found on the center of the falls. The blooms of many cultivars have a delightful fragrance that wafts on the spring breezes.
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Reblooming iris 'Late Lilac'
has a wonderful fragrance. |
"Play It Again, Sam!"
One type of tall bearded iris, the Reblooming Tall Bearded Iris, not only bloom in the spring, but grace the garden with their orchid-like flowers again in the late summer and into the fall - some blooming as late as October!
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Reblooming Iris 'Mulberry'
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Reblooming Iris September Replay
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Reblooming Iris Brother Carl
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Some Catchy Foliage
The variegated forms of
Iris pallida are wonderful bearded type iris with striking foliage and extremely fragrant deep purple blooms. These lovely iris make a great eye-catching accent in the sunny perennial border. The cultivar 'Aureo Variegata' has yellow striped foliage that is especially stunning in combination with the red or purple leaved Coral Bells and the bright colored Coneflowers.
Iris pallida can tolerate more shade than traditional tall bearded iris.
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| Iris pallida 'Aureo Variegata' |
Iris Culture
Tall Bearded Iris do best in full sun and moderately fertile, well-drained soil. Never bury the rhizomes completely when you plant - leave the top exposed and do not cover them with mulch.
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This iris clump is overgrown and needs to be divided.
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Over time, clumps of iris become overgrown and they don't bloom well anymore or they stop blooming all together. Old undivided iris are also more prone to disease, insect damage, and root rot. This is one plant that really benefits from being divided on a regular basis - maybe every 3 or 4 years.
Iris should be divided in the late summer after they have stored energy in their rhizomes all summer.
Tips for dividing iris
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More May Tips ...
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Pruning Spring Blooming Shrubs
The time to prune spring blooming shrubs is right after they finish flowering.
Azaleas
After the blooms fade, prune 2 to 3 inches off the branch tips that flowered. If you want to prune the shrub to make it shorter, cut 1/3 of the oldest branches back 12 inches and prune the remaining stems creatively to produce an attractive layered look.
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A spent flower on rhododendron
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Rhododendrons
When they finish flowering, carefully remove the dead blossoms without damaging the small leaf buds that have formed just behind them. If the rhododendrons have gotten too tall, use the same pruning method mentioned above with Azaleas to bring them back down to size.
Prune Forsythia right after the blooms fade to shape them up, thin them, and remove old wood. Take the oldest branches right back to the ground. Do not leave a stump or undesirable new growth will develop.
Watch Mark's video tip on pruning Forsythia.
After they finish flowering, cut up to 20% of the oldest stems and any weak, spindly stems right to the ground. This will keep your lilac nice and full with blooms from top to bottom. This type of pruning also allows good internal air circulation which will help prevent disease problems like powdery mildew.
Read more about pruning lilacs and rejuvenating old, overgrown lilacs.
Watch Mark's video tip on pruning lilacs.
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This Month at Viette's ...
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Saturday, May 14th - 1:30 pm
Wednesday, May 18th - 1:30 pm
Saturday, May 21st - 1:30 pm
Wednesday, May 25th - 1:30 pm
The Garden in May
Learn all about the wonderful perennials, trees, and shrubs that bloom in the spring and early summer. Andre will talk about the beautiful spring blooming plants that welcome this exciting new season. He will focus on plants with easy culture and low maintenance. Learn how to prepare your garden for the spring season through good garden cleanup and maintenance, pruning, and fertilizing.
Andre will take you on a
personal tour of his beautiful spring gardens after his talk. See his gorgeous hosta collection and all the wonderful spring bloomers!
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Gardening Tip of the Month
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Lady Beetles and
Other Beneficial
Insects
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Adult lady beetle |
These are the good guys!
Present in every garden, landscape, forest, and field, "natural enemies" help regulate populations of destructive insects and other organisms. Learning to recognize some of these beneficial creatures is the first step towards conserving and encouraging their helpful presence.
Lady Beetles- a.k.a. ladybugs
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Lady beetle larva
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Lady beetles are beneficial insects that, in both their larval stage and adult stage, consume large numbers of aphids (their preferred food), scale insects, mealybugs, thrips, and mites. Lady beetle larvae can eat up to 25 aphids in a single day and the adults can gobble up at least 50 in a day! When their populations are high, these ravenous critters have the potential to reduce the numbers of aphids and other soft bodied insect pests to the point where spraying is not necessary. They are great natural predators to have in the garden.
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Lady beetle larva and pupae
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The larval stage of the lady beetle is described as being "alligator-shaped" - fitting for its predatory nature. It goes through four different instars, becoming larger (and more voracious) each time. The last larval stage becomes relatively sedentary before it attaches itself to a substrate to pupate.
Read more about lady beetles on my blog!
Mason Bees - Great pollinators
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Blue orchard bee |
Orchard mason bees or blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria) are one of the most prolific pollinators of early spring flowers. These bees, which are native to the United States, are solitary bees. They don't have a complex social system or live in hives like the European honeybees.
Just a few mason bees can pollinate a lot of fruit trees and they don't mind flying around and visiting flowers during the cool, rainy weather is so common during spring. You won't find many honeybees flying around in those conditions.
Mason bees make use of pre-existing holes and cavities for their nesting sites. They will use holes left behind by wood boring insects, holes drilled by woodpeckers, and sometimes they make their nests in hollow stems.
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Mason bee house with
active nests.
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Like many species of solitary bees, mason bees are very docile and not prone to aggressiveness so they are wonderful bees to have around in the garden.
Since mason bees are such great pollinators, many gardeners and home orchardists will place artificial mason bee houses around their gardens or fruit trees in order to encourage them to nest there. This can help ensure good pollination of spring blooming trees, shrubs, and flowers.
Read more about mason bees and how to create your own mason bee house.
Braconids and Other Parasitic Wasps
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The cocoons of a braconid wasp cover the back of a hornworm.
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Many groups of small, inconspicuous wasps including braconids, aphidiids, ichneumonids, and trichogrammatids parasitize insects or their eggs. The small, white cocoons of one braconid are often seen attached to the body of hornworms in home gardens.
Hosts for other species include various caterpillars, tarnished plant bugs, aphids, whiteflies, leafminers, and beetle and fly larvae or pupae. Paper wasps, yellow jackets, mud-daubers, cicada-killers and other wasps are predators of different caterpillars, cicadas, spiders and other organisms. Ants tending aphids for honeydew sometimes defend them against parasitoid wasps and predators.
Read more about Beneficial Insects and Natural Predators
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Did You Know?
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Mosquitoes can cause more harm to humans than any other group of insects.
There are nearly 200 mosquito species in the United States. They are active both during the day and night.
Mosquitoes not only inflict a painful bite, but they can
transmit organisms which cause human diseases such as malaria, encephalitis, West Nile, and the Zika virus. Zika is a disease caused by the Zika virus and is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika include fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis (red eyes).
Mosquitoes are a midge-like fly with tube-like mouth parts used to pierce the hosts' skin to consume blood. Only female mosquitoes bite. Mosquito saliva often causes an irritating rash. However, the real danger mosquitoes pose is the role they play as carriers of serious disease such as Zika and West Nile.
Mosquitoes require water to breed. Adults will lay eggs in stagnant or slow-moving water, or on moist soil or leaf litter in wet areas. Mosquitoes hatch from eggs and they start out as swimming larvae. In warm weather, they can transform from egg to adult in as little as four days.
Successful control includes killing larvae as well as adult mosquitoes and eliminating them from outdoor living spaces.
The best way to keep safe is to eliminate mosquito breeding areas.
- Drain unnecessary containers or any standing water on your property
- Keep gutters clean and unclogged
- Use a larvicide such as Bonide Mosquito Beater WSPs to kill larvae where it is not possible to drain water, or to treat ornamental ponds or bird baths. This product contains a bacterial larvicide (Bti) which controls mosquito larvae when they ingest it. It will not harm fish, amphibians, or other beneficial aquatic organisms.
Control adult mosquitoes by treating lawns, shrubs, or wooded areas using Bonide Mosquito Beater liquid sprays or fogger.
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From the Viette's Views Blog ...
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Andre's New Book
is Hot Off the Press!
"Mid-Atlantic Getting Started Garden Guide"
A useful plant selection guide for gardeners in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The mid-Atlantic region is huge and overflowing with great plants that you can grow - but perhaps you don't know which ones to select or how to grow them. Andre and Mark Viette, together with Jacqui Heriteau share their many years of gardening experience to help you choose the best plants for your garden and teach you how to keep them healthy. Whether you are a beginning gardener, a newcomer to the area, or an old hand who's looking for some new ideas, this is the book for you.
Featuring ...
- Recommendations for easy-to-grow, low maintenance plants for the mid-Atlantic region
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Includes all plant types from annuals to perennials; trees and shrubs; herbs, bulbs, and vines ...
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Loads of design tips
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The authors' favorite cultivars and species
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Advice on planting, growing, and care, including pest and disease control.
Before you buy another plant and cross your fingers hoping it will work in your garden,
get a copy of this informative book!
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| Gardening Questions? |
Listen to Andre
on the radio every Saturday morning from 8:00-11:00 on
"In the Garden
with Andre Viette"
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Viette Discussion Board
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Having trouble
getting through on
the radio?
Visit our
Discussion Board for answers to your gardening questions. Use the convenient
search key to see if we have already addressed your problem!
Don't see the answer?
Post your question!
It's EASY, just register
as a member.
Please provide your city and state so we are better able answer your question.
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Travel with Andre and Claire Viette in 2016!
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| Budapest on the banks of the Danube |
The Imperial Gardens
and Treasures Tour
September 18 - October 1, 2016
Featuring the Imperial worlds of the
German and Austro-Hungarian Empires
Visit Hungary, Austria,
the Czech Republic, and Germany
Tour highlights include:
Budapest - Enjoy a guided tour of this beautiful city on the Danube; visit a botanical garden; spend a day in the Puszta - land of the Hungarian cowboys and be treated to an equestrian show and gypsy music
Vienna - From Budapest, we will travel up the Danube by hydrofoil boat to Vienna where you will see the famous Lipizzaner Stallions, the
Schönbrunn Gardens, and enjoy a concert of Strauss and Mozart at the
Schönbrunn Palace.
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Cruising on Berlin's River Spree
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Prague - We then travel north to Prague by way of the scenic Wachau Valley. Tour Prague, its famous castle, the Charles Bridge, and magnificent gardens. End the day with a three-hour cruise on the Vltava River!
Berlin - On the way to Berlin, we will stop at the city of Dresden. In Berlin, relax on a cruise on the River Spree, enjoy a candlelight dinner and concert at the Charlottenburg palace, and take a walking tour of Berlin. You can even opt to join Andre and Claire on a visit to the largest private botanical garden in Europe.
Andre will give a series of gardening presentations throughout the trip.
Space is limited to 42 persons so this trip will fill up fast!
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