Learn techniques at the Botanic’s Ikebana Show, June 13-14 in the Regenstein Center. There's a bright new star on the gardening horizon. Solar Flare false indigo (Baptisia 'Solar Flare'), is a just-introduced, hard-working perennial offering multiple seasons of ornamental appeal. It offers purplish stems in spring, an explosion of early-summer flowers, and attractive black seedpods that last through winter.
Hardy to Zone 4, Solar Flare quickly becomes 4 feet tall, slightly wider, and mature plants produce up to 100 upright flowering stalks. Bright-yellow flowers bloom for two to three weeks beginning early to mid-June. The flowers slowly change color, beginning at the bottom, until each stalk casts a dusky-orange glow
Robin Carlson / Chicago Botanic Garden
Courtsey CLG Inc.
Developed by Chicagoland Grows, Solar Flare is the newest member of the Prarieblues line of hybrid Baptisia -- ornamental plants combining the best traits of various native false indigo species. The new hybrids are equally long-lived and share the same ability to shine through heat, drought, and intense summer storms.
Solar Flare needs full sun and well-drained soil, and its drought tolerance makes it a good choice for sandy soil. Cut these vigorous, easy-to-grow plants to the ground in late winter before new growth begins.
••Choose the proper grass seed for your site. Seed mixtures are combinations of two or more species of grass, and seed blends are combinations of two or more cultivars of a species.
Combining different grass species and cultivars together helps create a diverse stand of grass better able to withstand stress and problems. Mixtures and blends of Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and fine fescues are good for Chicago-area lawns. Choose a mix that is appropriate for the amount of sun your lawn receives.
••All lawn mowers are not the same. Try a mulching mower that leaves the grass clippings on the lawn. This means less work for you and it recycles those extra nutrients back to your lawn.
Regardless of which mower you choose, you need to mow more frequently during spring due to rapid grass growth. Mulching mowers, in particular, do not work well in tall, wet grass. Rake out wet clumps to dry evenly on the lawn. Keep the blades on your mower sharpened for a better cut. Sharpen them after each eight hours of use.
••How to mow? Mow grass at 2½ to 3 inches high, and frequently enough so that not more than one-third of the total height is cut each time.
Most lawns are cut too short. Maintaining lawns at a taller height promotes strong roots and helps choke out weeds. In hot weather, short lawns can burn quickly and weeds are more likely to move in.
••What a pain! Gardening can entail a lot of lifting and bending. Try to keep loads close to your body and maintain the natural curve of your back when lifting. Best to bend at the knees, keep your back straight and avoid twisting of the back as you are lifting. Back injuries can occur because of cumulative stress, even a simple task like picking up a flat of annuals by bending at the waist can cause injury.
••Practice integrated pest management in your garden. Begin by choosing the proper plant for your site. When possible, select plants that are resistant to common diseases and give them the appropriate care to minimize problems.
Monitor all plants carefully for insects and diseases. If trouble strikes, identify the problem and use the least toxic control measure when damage crosses an unacceptable threshold. Timing is also important; apply controls when pests and disease are most susceptible.
Never spray just because you see insects, as some of them might be beneficial. An example would be to find ladybugs on the leaves of a shrub that looked off-color, puckered or stunted. Aphids are actually causing the damage, but the beneficial ladybugs are taking care of the problem themselves by feeding on the aphids! If you use a pesticide, you kill the good bugs along with the bad ones.
••Deadheading is a good garden practice. It's a beneficial garden practice to deadhead (manually pinch off spent flowers) rhododendrons and azaleas after they finish flowering. This is also the correct time to prune their branches to reduce size, if necessary. You can increase the flower count for the following year by very carefully pinching off one-half of the new green growth emerging from the spot where the flowers once were.
••Don't touch those leaves! Allow bulb foliage to wither and turn brown before cutting it back. The leaves create food that is stored in the bulb, helping it to grow and flower again next year.
Companion plants that grow up and cover the bulb foliage as it goes dormant can mask unsightly bulb foliage. For example, combine daffodils with ornamental grasses. Remove any rogue bulbs that may have seeded themselves about the garden.
Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe.
