Dear
Bill,
I just
wanted to thank you for your weekly gardening help column.
I find
your columns helpful, informative and entertaining. I am an avid West Ashley
gardener and I look forward to your local bend on gardening that one just
can not get from a nationally syndicated article from say, New York. I
originally migrated here from Northern California from a similar zone (Zone 8),
and I can confirm that what goes here does not go for gardens elsewhere in
our diverse country.
And
right now, with the Charleston Horticultural Society on "recess" (why
in the heck do they do persist in doing this? Not all of us Charleston
folks retire to summer villas in the mountains in summer!!) I am
especially feeling gardening-info deprived.
Wanted
to add, while I am thinking about it, that I got a kick out of the Alice
Cooper reference in your June 24 column.. What a hoot!
Keep up the good work!
From another reader:
I've had a Monoculture
of 78 Leylands, half in full sun, the other half, half day a.m.-noon sun. Otherwise they were treated the same. I lost
38 of the trees in the second year, all full sun trees, from the root rot
problem and Needle Blight.
I replaced all 38 with
Thuja 'Steeplechase' a sport of Thuja 'Green Giant'. All are doing well,
yet at different heights due to more/less a.m. sun, and varying moisture uptake
even given that the trees have a "drip" irrigation system in place.
I find the 'Steeplechase' while glorious looking are quite sensitive to
too much ground moisture when under say 4 feet.
Perhaps in your next Leyland installment you could talk about
both the 'Green Giant' and the 'Steeplechase'?
The ‘Green Giant’ and the ‘Steeplechase’ are considered good
substitutes for the Leyland Cypress. As of now, there are no known pest and
disease problems (this could change).
The ‘Steeplechase’ is an improvement on the ‘Green Giant’. The ‘Steeplechase’
is smaller, denser and finer foliage; however, does not seem to do as well in
wet soils or when exposed to very cold winds. Both varieties are tolerant to
sand as well as clay soils.
If you have ever listened to the radio show when we (Paul and I)
are talking about screening, you know I am big on a diversified screens with
many foliage types, fragrance, color shows (berries, flowers, leaf color, and
even bark color), and plant forms (weeping, upright, pyramidal, umbrella).
Staggering your plantings gives you more air movement and is usually visually
more appealing, depending on your overall landscape (a formal landscape may
require more straight lines).
Depending on your soil conditions and what you are trying to
screen, here are a few plants to consider:
Hollies – many, many choices with different forms, shapes and
berry colors. Be sure to purchase while showing berries because all males do
not have berries. Do not overlook the upright or weeping Yaupon Holly with
their shiny berries and unique shape.
Magnolias – also many shapes and sizes available – some are big,
some are narrow. Good fragrance.
In an interest of time and column inches, I’m going to list
several other plants. Usually planting in staggered odd number groups of 3 to 9
of the same plant, works really well.
A few (there are many others) more plants to consider for
screening: loquat (big foliage and fruit), bottlebrush (cool flowers that
attract hummingbirds), camellias (fall and winter bloomers), azaleas, viburnum
(foliage color, many sizes), Loropetalum (foliage color, many sizes), wax
myrtle, pyracantha (berries), oleander (summer flowers, unique growth habit), Arizona
cypress, Tea Olive (fragrance), Live Oak, Palms with several different
staggered heads, Japanese Cedar, Eastern Red Cedar, Anise (cool upright foliage that smells like Anise
– Twizzlers), and many more.
