There can be a gap in blooming time between the blooms of Tulips and Daffodils, and your common summer perennials, so these are seventeen of my favorite mid-spring bloomers that help bridge the blossom gap in the garden and keep color moving through your yard. If you need a pop of color to tide you over before it gets warm, try your hand at growing one of these!
‘April Kiss’ Camellia; An Easy Evergreen Choice For Replacing Foundational Hedges
‘April Kiss’ Camellia
This evergreen bush is a knock-out in early spring, a good selection to purchase if you want to swap out your plain green foundational plantings for something with more interest!
Should I Edge Around My Evergreens?
Photo Courtesy of: dailyinvention
Question: I like a deep edge around my garden beds and trees. I think the mulch looks better, and the garden neater when I do this every spring. A neighbor told me I shouldn’t be edging around my evergreen trees because I’ll damage them. Should I stop?
Edging deep trenches around garden beds and trees is particularly popular in the landscaping business because it makes a home or business park look well cared for and a little more formal. Trench edging is a great way to reduce the likelihood that lawn space will creep into the garden, and it does provide instant “pop” around most plant groupings, but it should be skipped around evergreen trees and shrubs.
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Sky Pencil Holly Front Entry DIY Makeover
For a quick, no-fuss evergreen entrance way makeover skip the overly familiar Yew bushes, and find Sky Pencil Hollies at your nearby nursery or big box store.
Sky Pencil Hollies are terrific small trees that grow to a maximum height of 10 feet, and spread only 2-3 feet in a tidy upright form that never needs pruning. These Japanese natives have soft leaves, and when planted in groups form a year-round background for your flowers and shrubs. These make a perfect addition to gardens, or architecture, providing a softening effect on the appearance of sharp angles.
The Holly pictured to the right is already four feet tall, and was used with two other Sky Pencils to soften and fill in some room up against the front wall of a modern craftsman home. I chose to use this plant in a garden area that already featured a 20 foot mature American Holly tree, and rows of variegated Hosta, and Photinia. After Planting the Pencils, and trimming up the Large Holly and bushes a bit, the garden is ready for it’s close up. For added easy care color, I recommend planting large amounts of yellow Tulip and Daffodil bulbs, to give the entrance way seemingly endless blooms for the first few weeks of spring. Summer annuals can be planted for seasonal color, or the bed can remain a cool green oasis by the front door for the summer months.
Before After
Hint: It’s important when planting larger shrubs and trees to leave room for the plants to mature without crowding each other. Make sure you know just how large and wide your plants will grow when planting, and space your shrubs out accordingly from the get-go to eliminate the need to shuffle your plants around in future years.