Aucuba
Last month I did a post called Division, so I thought I would do a followup to that. There are a few ways to get new perennials or shrubs for your garden that don’t cost anything. You can take cuttings, save seed from the plant, and division. A few of my plants have been started from cuttings quite successfully like my Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’ which was given to me as a new wood cutting about 3-4″ long. My grandmother’s neighbor gave me a piece of it wrapped in a damp papertowel after I had made a comment on how much I liked the interesting speckled foliage. I rooted this cutting in a glass of water on my windowsill and when I had several roots it was planted directly in the Pecan Bed. Now years later that cutting has become a 4 foot shrub. Starting new perennials from seed is quite easy as well. I’ve done this by scattering some of the seed collected into the area I would like it either early in the fall or in the spring. Blackeyed Susans and Purple Coneflowers are a couple of perennials that are easy to propogate this way. My favorite method of creating new plants is division. This year I created several new baby plants from existing perennials in my garden.
Arctotis
The Arctotis or African Daisy above was a piece of an existing plant that has been coming up in my grandmother’s garden for a couple of years. It is a bi-color purple & white daisy. According to my Botanica’s Gardening Encyclopedia this would actually be a tender perennial hardy in zones 9-11. So hopefully it returns to my garden next year like it has returned to my grandmother’s flowerbed.
Centranthus
Centranthus ruber or Jupiter’s Beard is a short lived perennial in the garden. I divided my existing plant into two smaller plants this fall. It produces clusters of small star-shaped reddish pink flowers starting in late spring. This is suppose to be one of the easiest plants to grow in the perennial garden.
Phlox
Phlox paniculata ‘Robert Poore’ is one of my longest blooming summer perennials at the moment. It has been blooming non-stop since June. To create new divisions from this plant I pull out the babies that form near the base of the plant and put a small bunch of them together to form a new plant. So as you can see creating new plants for the garden is not only cost effective (free), but quite easy as well. Plus if you have a plant that is a real workhorse in the garden like my Robert Poore Phlox that you spread it around for a longer season of interest in your other garden beds. What kinds of new plants did you create this year?
