No More Forsythia!

Is it true? Can spring really be here? If nothing else, we will all remember the winter of 2014, and not fondly either.

My intention this week was to contact all the nurseries and garden centers in the area and report on when they would be ready for the deluge of gardeners who just can’t wait to get started digging in the dirt this year. My first phone call got me so excited about new plants that I just let Chris Rogers over at B & M Greenhouse in Farmville keep me on the phone entirely too long. I don’t mean for this to be an advertisement for that business, but I will mention a couple of the things he also seemed enthused about.

New varieties this year of tropicals and annuals, he said. I think we can all do with something different in our flower pots and beds this summer. Camellias are blooming right now so it’s a good time to select a couple new ones while you can see the colors and what the blooms actually look like. Chris also has all types of veggies and herbs for the planting and is even holding a seminar this Saturday on herbs and organic gardening.

Available also are the usual violas and pansies. I was particularly interested in Wave pansies…I need to get out more; I didn’t even know there was such a thing. Familiar, of course, with Wave petunias (and you gotta love those!), I am excited to think of flowing and hanging pansies in a basket suspended from the eaves over the patio in the backyard. I’ve loved pansies since I was a little girl and a cousin used to call Grandma’s flowers “Japansies.” Now, in the spring, Wave pansies can be combined with spiky grasses or dianthus or alyssum for a full pot of color. When the summer weather approaches, it’s easy enough to exchange your pansies for Wave petunias and continue the color scheme.

The most exciting thing Chris told me about, however, is a small shrub called paper bush. Its real name is Edgeworthia, so called from Michael Edgeworth, who collected plants back in the 1800s. In bloom now, the plant has fragrant white flowers, which bloom on bare cinnamon-colored branches. It grows in a rounded, open form 5 to 6 feet tall and wide and needs little pruning to keep its shape. To me, that’s a big plus. The leaves are dark blue-green on top and silver on the underside, turning yellow in the fall. The flowers grow in clusters of small, tubular blooms at the tips of the branches. They are white with yellow centers and hang downwards.

Paper bush is hardy to zero degrees Fahrenheit. Its native habitat is as an understory plant in woodlands and near streams so consider this when planting a paper bush in your yard. Find a protected, sun-dappled spot and amend the soil with lots of rich forest humus and water it regularly.

There are some curious facts about the paper bush, too. It is called so because its bark can be used to make paper. It’s also called knot bush because its branches are so supple they can be tied in knots. One observer wrote, “Each one-inch bud resembles an intricately designed tassel on the corner of an elegant Victorian pillow. The silky hairs glow in the light, and the plant looks like it is covered with hundreds of silver flowers – simply breathtaking.”

Edgeworthia or paper bush really is a collector’s plant, and I would like one just because it’s so different. Plus, it would be nice to have something blooming in the yard in the spring that is not forsythia.