Gardening Basics - Monthly Tips

Monthly Tips

September - Plant of the Month

Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva'

From the time I was a kid in Georgia until not that many years ago, hydrangeas meant only one thing to me - gigantic balls of flowers in a shade of blue that frankly didn't seem natural. How wrong I was.

Hydrangeas are primarily deciduous shrubs that bloom in summer or early fall and like part shade. They come in a variety of sizes, including a climber or two. Flowers are held in clusters and range from shades of blue and purple to pink and white. The clusters may be the big balls of my childhood (mopheads), flat umbels (lacecaps) or cones (panicles). I seldom see a hydrangea I don't like, but this month I'm going to stick to one cultivar, H. paniculata 'Tardiva'.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva'

Why this particular hydrangea? In my yard, the flowers of this shrub have remained totally unaffected by the unseasonal late August rain and chill. The flowers come in white panicles that glow with ethereal purity. That's about as poetic as I can manage, but if I were capable of poetry I would write an ode or a haiku extolling the luscious satiny purity of the florets. As that is beyond me, take a look at the photo.

What about the shrub without the flowers? It's fine, but doesn't have the fabulous leaves of some hydrangeas like Hydrangea sargentiana or cool stems like Hydrangea quercifolia. It's an unobtrusive, deciduous green shrub until it comes into bloom with those fabulous white panicles that change to pink or purplish and continue to look good well into the autumn.

Grow the plant in part shade to full sun with some supplemental water - more in full sun. Mulch well. Be warned, 'Tardiva' is a big shrub; it is supposed to reach 8-10'x8-10'. Mine is young, but I won't be surprised if it gets even larger than that. If you need to prune your 'Tardiva', avoid summer as it sets buds on new growth, and you don't want to cut them off.

It's planting time in Seattle, if you've got the space, consider a 'Tardiva', a tough shrub with poetic flowers.

Fall is the best time to plant around here. Look around your yard, are there holes that need filling? Maybe you need some groundcovers to help keep the weeds at bay. Maybe a small tree or a few shrubs would liven things up. Maybe the whole darn yard needs renovating. For almost every kind of plant, now is a great time to get it in the ground.

Planting in the fall lets your new acquisitions soak up the winter rains.* They'll manage to put on some root growth and come spring they'll be ready to leap into action ahead of their spring-planted brethren. Go ahead, plant now and reap the rewards later.

* If you have heavy, poorly drained soils do some soil improvements first since more plants succumb to root rots due to heavy wet soils around here than to winter cold.