Five Easy to Grow Landscape Plants For Modern Yards
00:04 Introduction
Hello and welcome back to the Homegrown Horticulture podcast. On today's show we talk about five great plants very adapted to the Intermountain West. The Homegrown Horticulture podcast is for those living in the Intermountain West. These areas have rapidly-growing populations, but they're often times forgotten about by national gardening companies because of our unique climate and traditionally low populations.
00:37 Survey & Prize-Entry
Before getting started, I want to mention that I'm including a brief Google Docs survey in the show notes. I would greatly appreciate it if you would follow the hyperlink because it will tell me how I'm doing, and how we can improve the show. I attempt to keep this show quite succinct without a lot of banter. My time's valuable. It takes probably four to six hours to put together a 15-minute episode, and so it's just not worth my time to have a lot of extra junk in this podcast. But if you would go ahead and fill out that survey I would so much appreciate it. Thank you again.
01:15 Hummingbird Mint
I have three perennials on my list, and the first one is called Hummingbird Mint. It is also referred to as Anise hyssop or Agastache. Agastache is actually the Latin name. Anise hyssops came onto the market 15 or 20 years ago in force. There are many species native to the United States, especially the western United States. A few of them grow in quite moist areas in partial-shade, but there are a number of them native to the American Southwest that do wonderfully in full sun that are actually quite drought-hardy. Hummingbird mints bloom generally from late June or July until frost, and they have a wonderful licoricey-minty smell to them. Not only that, but they are very beneficial for pollinators and beneficial insects, and so planting them in your yard will draw them in. Another thing with them is that hummingbirds sometimes will visit them hence the name. Most cultivated Hummingbird mints grow to anywhere from 18 inches to two feet high and wide. Many of them have a dusty gray-green appearance to them, though not all of them. Especially if you live in a colder mountain valley you need to check their cold hardiness. Many of the species and cultivars are only hardy to USDA zone six. However, several of them are zone five and actually several of them will be into zone four, you just need to be sure and check. Flower color on the Anise hyssops will usually be yellow, orange, pink, or red, or combinations of these are quite beautiful. The other consideration is they love full-blast sun, so they do really well on the south or west sides of homes or anywhere else that they get at least eight hours of sun a day. Now one drawback, if you can call it a drawback, to Anise hyssop is that they really don't like wet feet. And so as you get them established, you need to let the ground dry out between irrigations. In a sandy soil you can get away with watering them probably three times a week, and in a clay soil or a clay-textured soil maybe once or twice. When they're well established, they will survive just fine if you irrigate them every couple of weeks, maybe even every three to four weeks in a heavier soil. I know that along the Wasatch Front that many of the areas that homes are now being built are on marginal soils that are oftentimes slightly salty. Hummingbird mints are actually somewhat salty-soil tolerant and so these areas are someplace that Hummingbird mint might be an option. There are many cultivars of Hummingbird mint available. They include: Sunset, Coronado, Coronado Red, Sonoran Sunset, Poquito Orange, Crazy Fortune, and Apache Sunset. Crazy Fortune and Apache Sunset or actually hardy to zone four.
04:15 Catmint
The next perennial I want to talk about is called Catmint. A lot of times it's referred to as Nuh-peeta or Neh-pi-ta. There's a few different pronunciations. I don't speak Latin, so take your best shot. Catmints are extremely drought-hardy once they're established, similarly to the Anise hyssop, or the Hummingbird Mints that we spoke of previously. To get them established, you'll also use the same technique of letting the soil dry out between irrigations for at least the first year, and then tapering back to every few weeks. Catmints until recently, were not among my favorite plants to put in my yard because older cultivars got quite big, and quite wide, and they would get really floppy, and oftentimes you'd have to stake them up so that they didn't fall over. Newer cultivars such as Walker's Low actually stay down to about 18 inches to two feet wide, and usually don't need staking, but they still are quite drought-hardy. And in addition to that, they bloom from June until almost frost depending on the particular cultivar. The flower color is purple, but they're quite nice because they're also quite fragrant in a pleasant way. Some more common cultivars of Catmint include: Junior Walker, Kitten Around, Persian Blue, Neptune (which is quite a small one and about one by one foot), Little Trudy, and Walker's Low. The other thing about Catmint is that it's oftentimes referred to as "catnip", and it can be dried down, and it makes about two thirds of cats out there stoned out of their minds when they play with it. It's quite fun to watch and actually doesn't do any harm to them, but they seem to really enjoy it. As mentioned previously, catmints are quite drought-hardy, and they can be killed with over-watering. And all cultivars are cold-hardy down to USDA zones three or four.
06:10 Stella D'Oro Daylily
The next perennial on my list is Stella D'oro Daylily. In the trade it's just commonly called Stella Daylily. Now I could be accused of putting in a perennial that's as common as mud, and I will readily admit that it is, but the reason I list it is because the Stella daylily stays in place where it gets about 18 inches high and wide. It's deer-resistant, and especially if we're having a cooler summer, it can bloom for several weeks. Stella Daylily has yellow flowers, and will get about 18 inches high and wide. As bloom-time is from late spring into mid summer, and it's extremely cold-hardy down to USDA zone two. It is not particularly drought-hardy to where it will need to be irrigated probably at least weekly once it's established down to about 12 inches, but it is tolerant of somewhat salty soil and it is not deer-resistant. Deer actually quite like it. So if you have problems with them, this is one that you might need to keep sectioned off or not plant. The next plant I want to talk about is Rose of Sharon. This is another one that's been around for a long time, and in warmer areas of the Intermountain West, it's also really common. And so I can be accused of promoting another common plant, but that commonality also shows its durability. Rose of Sharon is actually native to Korea and China. Many people assume it's native to the Middle East. It's a member of the hibiscus family and it blooms from mid-July until frost in warmer areas of the Wasatch Front. If it's planted in places like Las Vegas, it will oftentimes start blooming in late May or early June. Standard Rose of Sharon bushes can get 10 to 12 feet high and wide. That's quite big for a modern landscape. But there are newer dwarf cultivars. The main one that you'll find is called the Lil Kim Series, like the rapper "Lil Kim". Left unpruned, they grow to about four or five feet high and wide, and with some pruning, you can keep them down to about three or four feet. To prune them, you would use a technique called "renewal pruning", where you're taking about 20% of the branches out from the middle of the shrub every year. Flowers are produced on new growth, and so "renewal pruning" keeps the plants down-to-size and keeps the flowers coming in profusion. Rose of Sharon are not susceptible to many pests and diseases in the Intermountain West. They're quite tolerant of alkaline soils and somewhat salt-tolerant. I think their biggest drawback is for people that live in colder mountain valleys because the Rose of Sharon is only hardy down to about zone five. The last thing I want to mention about Rose of Sharon is the main way that I see them killed is by over-watering to where they really do not like wet feet. They do grow fine in clay soil as long as they're not over-watered.
09:04 Bosnian Pine
The last plant I've selected for this podcast is Bosnian Pine. It's native to Central and Eastern Europe, and in the landscape only reaches about 30 to 35 feet tall and about 15 to 20 feet wide, which is a great option for today's smaller yards. I've also noticed that it's quite disease and pest resistant. The only time I really see it infested with too much is when it's being over-watered or it's extremely drought-stressed. And so once it's established, if it gets watered to a depth of about 18 inches to two feet every couple of weeks, it seems to be quite happy. Although they are not super common, there are two pests of concern that are closely related, and they are White and Black Pine Needle Scale. I'll include a fact sheet about Pine Needle Scale to tell more about its control. But in pine trees that have it, if you're trying to keep things more organic, you can resort to horticultural soaps such as Safer Soap or many others, and those will suppress Pine Needle Scale, especially if you can catch the scale in its crawler stage when the little babies are crawling out to infest new branches. Otherwise, you may need to use a systemic, containing an active ingredient called dinotefuran. It can be a little bit expensive, but Ortho makes a homeowner version of their systemic. It's, I believe, a season-long tree and shrub insect-control containing dinotefuran, and generally an application of this product in the spring will keep the Pine Needle Scale under control, and you should not have to reapply very often. Bosnian pines can be effective if you're trying to create kind of a woodsy look in your yard. They can be used as a screen, or en masse planted with other trees. Even though it's not super showy in and of itself, as far as conifers go, it's super low-maintenance and quiet pretty, at least in my opinion.
11:08 Outro
That is what I have for this week. Before signing off, I do encourage you again to go to the show notes and take that survey to the Google Docs link. It should take you about five to 10 minutes. It will help me greatly improve the show. The Homegrown Horticulture podcast is a production of Utah State University Extension. Intro and outro music was composed by Savannah Peterson, a Utah State University horticulture assistant, and actually quite a talented musician. Thank you again for listening.
Survey and Prize-Entry Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5l_s3HHSZDlTOmGSqU5EchyfgiPU4E7WO-Bsdd76uBDln6Q/viewform
Pine Needle Scale
https://extension.usu.edu/pests/ipm/ornamental-pest-guide/arthopods/scales/pine-needle-scale
Stella Daylily
https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=d160
Bosnian Pine
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=285051
Lil Kim Rose of Sharon
https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hibiscus/lil-kim-rose-sharon-hibiscus-syriacus
Humming Bird Mint
https://www.highcountrygardens.com/perennial-plants/agastache#:~:text=Agastache%2C%20also%20called%20Hummingbird%20Mint,fragrant%2C%20long%2Dblooming%20perennials.&text=5%22%20Deep%20Pot-,Agastache%20rupestris%20(Licorice%20Mint%20Hyssop)%20is%20one%20of%20the%20best,scented%20like%20licorice%20and%20mint.
Cat Mint
https://www.highcountrygardens.com/perennial-plants/nepeta
Music composed by Savannah Petersen and used by permission.
