Everything grows here. Cherries too, but I've heard they're short-lived. Iris are great, even in clay (or ON clay as they should be planted). Hardy hibiscus is fine too. It's more a matter of what won't grow well here, because list of what will grow is much, much longer.

You may have seedling and sapling redbud and dogwood in your woodland area already, and this is a great time to transplant your free baby trees. Redbud have no leaves now, but they have brown stems that zigzag slightly, usually in a graceful arch. Dogwood are "opposite" - that is the stems and leaves come out two-at-a-time opposite each other. Most trees here are alternate - stems come out staggered instead of two-at-a-time opposite, so if you find a baby tree with opposite stems, and the stems are not red (red maple), and the branches seem to have a graceful candelabra effect, you have a baby dogwood. Ashes are opposite too, but they have coarse, not-graceful arrangement of stems/branches. Sounds maybe complicated, but if you do 10 minutes of wandering outside, you may be surprised what you find.

We have a swap in April in Garner, and that's a great place to pick up new plants. Seeds are a very inexpensive way to get a rich landscape.

Most people I run into like raised beds, but I like raised, as well as digging out rocks and adding organics, as well as lasagna layering newspaper, leaves and mulch on top of new beds. If you go back a few pages on this forum and on the soil forum, you will get a good overview.

An acre is a lot to take on alone, so don't get discouraged, and take photos so you can look back and see how far you've come.

Hi Neighbor! I live between Clayton and Garner so you're just around the corner. Most things grow well here except for those that like it cool and those that don't like humidity. I'm not a huge fan of pear trees here for many reasons, but primarily because they fall apart during ice storms. After several years of doing designs with alternating plants (perennial flowers) I'm finding that I like the look of a solid band of the same type of plant rather than alternating. I'm not sure if that holds true for trees or not. Maybe someone with more design experience can chime in on that. Weeping trees look great as specimen trees / focal point.

I also enjoy growing medicinal plants. Most do fine here. What ones in particular are you interested in?

For non-budget busting plants check out the winter sowing forum on GW. It's not too late to start. I usually wait until early Feb. before I start winter sowing.

Welcome to the area,
Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing FAQ

not sure about the rocks in the soil question, so i'll leave that for someone else. the only area i have that has many rocks is semi sandy, and i picked some out, but built raised beds on the rest of that spot. they are the same size as what you're talking about, and generally rounded. i keep thinking they'll be good for something sometime, so i've held onto them.

the cheapest place you can get good shrubs and trees is a pair of nurseries that wouldn't be far for you to drive to. they are broadwell's and old stage nursery, and they are just south of the intersection of 210 and old stage rd. i know broadwell's carries the weeping and flowering cherries at 1/2 to 1/3 of the price of regular nurseries(they're probably about $50 for 10 or 15 gallon 6' plants now). thing is, you'll need to go with a truck, knowing what you want. they have little help, and only a couple speak english. you ask when you drive in where what you want is, and they'll tell you roughly how to get to that area. it's up to you to load it into your truck or trailer, then you pay on the way out. both are owned by members of the same family, but broadwell's is a bit cheaper. tradeoff is they don't carry as many trendy things. so i always ck there first, then go across the rd to osn and ck there second.

all cherries need good drainage, so it might be a good idea to do a mound type high planting method with them. hardy hibiscus are very easy to grow. i can give you some altheas(rose of sharon) which are in the same family, if you want. i have white, white with maroon eye, pink and lavendar pink. i also have seeds(and likely seedling come spring) of texas star- hibiscus coccineus. also have malvaviscus drummondi, which is another relative. iris are easy if you plant them high(1/2 of the tuber out of the dirt) on sandy soil. they don't want wet feet, and like baking hot sun. i have lots of old fashioned varieties, mostly blues, purples & whites and would be happy to share if you want some.

some other blues/purples that do well here are butterfly bushes. they can get a bit seedy if you don't dehead. they fill up an area fast- a nice thing if you have lots of blank space. chaste tree is another(vitex). there are purple and white crape myrtles if you're looking for some small trees. there are some purple roses, too- bushes and climbers- and some old fashioned ones that are little to no care. the easiest only bloom 1x, but it's nice to not fuss with pesticides & fungicides, and all those nasty 'cides'.

as far as easy purple or white perennials- hmmm. how about beebalm, verbena, stoksia, heliotrope, catmint, phlox, columbines, balloon flower(platycodon), ironweed, agastaches, veronicas, baptisia, gaura, spanish lavendar, clematis, sages, and perennial ageratums(eupatorium, actually). daturas/brugmansias(angel's trumpets) come in some luscious purples and can be perennials here. there are purple elephant ears, sun coleus, purple heart, and stroblianthus that would put on quite a foliage show. annuals in purple or white abound. zinnias, gomphrenas, petunias, button flower, morning glories, annual ageratum, salvias, bachelor's buttons(cool weather annual) and angelonias are some easy options.

plan to come to the spring swap and load up on goodies. those of us who have established gardens are always looking for new victims, er, i mean lovely people, to foist our extras off on! lol. you don't have to have things to swap to go home with a groaning carful. just bring some boxes or flats, some food as bribery for the potluck, strong muscles and yourselves. everyone is happy to get a newbie well on their way. we were all there once. tam

I know some people consider Russian Sage to be a little over-used, but they get big fast and bloom all summer long so they are a lot of bang for your buck. Easy to grow too. You will have no problem with the irises. You probably can't get the rocks out too easily. You can til (or shovel in) pine bark fines/ soil conditioner for a quick fix or you can really spend time amending the soil or creating raised beds. I think if you just want to toss some stuff in the ground and stick to the easier basics then you won't need to amend much, but once you get serious and want more and more challenging plants you will find yourself working more and more to improve the soil. Some other easy to grow plants are daylilies, but good whites and purples are hard to find. Verbena bonariensis is easy and blooms forever, but can re-seed everywhere. Of course purple coneflowers are simple, but tend to be more pink than purple. -Ais.

Iris will do wonderfully as long as they get good drainage. That's really the only thing they need. Some modern kinds will rot out with the clay and high humidity, many others are fine. Jesse's Song, a purple and white plicata, has been stellar for me even when planted in less than optimal conditions. Increases like crazy.

I'm a little dubious about alternating trees too, especially using Bradford Pears. They are SO overplanted where I live, and people often end up with lines of different sized trees. Plus, once they get to be able 15 years old, or even less, they fall apart in ice storms and the occasional hurricane. Not all of them, but enough to be annoying. It's because of the dense branch structure. Redbuds and dogwoods can be grown in full sun but they would have to be watered for a couple of years. They really prefer a little shade. If you planted some larger trees to give them afternoon shade redbuds and dogwoods along a drive would be beautiful. If you're interested in any white oak seedlings I have some. There's a couple of gorgeous white oaks in Smithfield that I got some acorns from. I may have some redbud and dogwood seedlings this spring too. You might also consider sorrel tree if you mix up the planting some. They can take sun or some shade. They're supposed to be easy to grow from seed.

There are several cherries that do well here, the weeping, Autumnalis, Yoshino, Kwanzan, but they are not long-lived, most of the time you're lucky to get 20 years, so they may be best used as specimen trees.

I like these plants for a real splash of purple in the fall: aromatic aster, purple muhly grass, Mexican bush sage, and American beautyberry.

Thanks, you all have really helped answer my questions. Where is the spring swap held? Can someone tell me what it's like going to a swap? I know I would be nervous since I am new to this and I don't think I would have much, if anything, to swap.

as i said above, there's nothing to be nervous about. there's always a few newbies that come, for which we are all grateful. you see, we all have a bit much of one thing or another that we bring- sometimes lots of the same types of things. usually those just happen to be common, very easy to grow, happy plants. someone just starting isn't fussy, and happily scoops up extras. that way we don't have to take our own stuff back home! everyone's happy.

you really don't have to worry about not bringing much of anything but something for the potluck. food is at least as important as the plants, so you'll be right in if you bring goodies of some sort. closer to the swap time there'll be a list posted of special swaps(arranged ahead of time)in the exchanges, and another list of what people are bringing for food in the conversations area. when you just start out noone expects you to have extra plants. that'll come soon enough. :)

the swap is normally the end of april or early may. it's held in garner, or at least the last several have been. since triangle john does the arrangements and it's close, i'd imagine that's where it'll be again. it's a fairly central location for the folks that come- if you look on the 'where are you at in nc' thread, and ck out the linked map, you'll get an idea of where everyone is from, and where the swap is(look for my marker- it's real close to me, too). it's easy to get to and close to plant delights. lots of folks do a run down there afterwards- for expensive plants or sheer inspiration.

the best part is finally getting to meet all these people you've been 'talking to' these long months. it's a fun bunch! see you there- tammy

Sonya - first of all - welcome to Clayton - my husband and I live half-way between Clayton and Smithfield near Johnston County Airport so I guess we are sort of neighbors since our mailing address is Clayton. You have gotten some good advice about plants and trees so I won't say too much about that except that you just can't go wrong with Crape Mrytles - they do get attacked by japanese beetles in July but bounce back beautifully and bloom right up till first hard freeze and then they do have beautiful fall color. You can get a long season of early bloom from larkspur and it self seeds readily.

As for the ground - well all our gardens are lined with the rock that came from the yard and garden so I ca n sympathise with you. We generally don't worry about anything smaller than 2" - it will drive you nuts. The first couple of years I would shift all the dirt just to get rid of the rock - ppppffftttt - tooooooo much work - gave up on that. Now we go mainly with raised beds or do the lasagne method right on top of the existing soil starting with a thick layer of newspaper. We also use ALOT of soil conditioner (pine bark fines) and we have a rather large compost bin and use that every year. You really do have to work the soil but the rewards are great.

As for the plant swap - last fall was our first one and while little hesitant at first - we came away with a very good feeling and LOTS of plants. In the spring we will actually have a bunch to swap back with. EVERYONE was friendly and so helpful so don't be afraid to go even if you don't have much this year.

Hope some of this helps you and again - WELCOME to Clayton and the Carolina Gardening Forum

Lynne

Sonya, I have lots of rocks too, but they are fist-sized and larger, except where the buider dropped a truck-full of crushed rock, presumably for big trucks to drive on during construction. They covered it with a thin layer of terrible clay when the house was completed. It may be that you were working an area like this - maybe you won't find the same concentration of small rocks when you dig elsewhere. Anyway, I hope so.

This is all great information! So basically I have decided against doing pear trees and to use cherries as speciman trees rather than lining the driveway with them. Now I am thinking about Crape Myrtles...will they do well in full sun? Can someone tell me how long I can expect them to live?

I also have another question about trees. I am thinking about planting Autumn Blaze or October Glory Maples along my back property line to hopefully create a screen from the property behind ours. Does anyone have any opinions about using these trees for screening purposes? I'm also open to suggestions of other fast growing deciduous trees that would do well as a screen.

Thank you for welcoming me to the forum, it really is so helpful to have access to other people's gardening wisdom, God knows I don't have any yet... :)

Sonya

Crape myrtles - yeah!!! They will love sun. You'll have beautiful cinnamon-colored peeling bark in a few years too. I'm not a maple fan, so someone else will respond I'm sure. For me, they suck up too much moisture with surface root masses where I want to plant shrubs and perennials. So many great native trees here - tulip poplar, sourwood, sweet gum, redbud, sassafras.

Crape myrtles live a respectable amount of time, less than 50 years but that's still a pretty long time. This is just a personal preference but I don't like the modern white ones -- they tend to be a dirty white. When I think crape myrtle I think COLOR!

I don't think red maples are any more greedy than sweet gums or pine trees except that perhaps the roots may spread out further -- and all three seed in prodigiously. I like all of them anyway. When the maples grow up you'll still be able to see up 10', so they're good for screening upstairs windows. My main gripe about the red maple cultivars is that even Autumn Blaze and October Glory don't have as good a fall color as many of the wild ones. A mixed planting may be best for the fullest screening -- in addition to what Brenda listed there are many beautiful oaks, Magnolia grandiflora, American holly, Eastern red cedar, blackgum, Henry anise tree (not native), and wax myrtle. Camellias could be planted as an understory shrub too, and eventually get 8-10' high. Some people have even been able to grow sugar maples around here -- sugar maples line the downtown streets in Benson, and there are some growing in and around Smithfield.

Does anyone know a good nursery in the Johnston County or Wake County area who sells a good variety Crape Myrtles? I found a place in Louisiana that I could mail order from that had good reviews on gardenwatchdog.com but I would rather buy locally if I can.

Call Dewayne's in Smithfield to see what they have. Maybe someone else has been to Broadwell's lately and can tell you what they have- their prices are the best but you can never get anyone on the phone to ask about anything. Dewayne's can be expensive for some things but the shrubs and trees were reasonable last time I checked. If you go you will need blinders to get through the gift shop to the plants out back. A nice place to browse even if you don't find any trees.

Swift Creek Nursery on 1010 (Cleveland Road) may be worth calling, they're close to you. Broadwell's will have crape myrtles, but I don't know about variety of cultivars. They have an entire nursery field of crape myrtles on their property but most looked to be the same. You'd have to physically go out there and look to see if they have what you want. Homewood in Raleigh has very nice plants.

Does Swift Creek sell to the public? I thought they were a wholesale nursery. Someone had a link posted here once to a NC nursery listing and they were listed as wholesale there.

You have mail! :)

coy broadwell used to answer the phone in the eves from 7-8 or 8-9, i can't recall which. his # is 639-2952. they didn't used to have the varieties by name, but tagged by color. you can definitely get a lot more bang for the buck if you aren't picky about exactly which variety you get(just the color). we bought a 10'+ one with a 400# rootball(4' in diameter) a number of yrs ago that was 'watermelon red', and it was about $35. probably around 50 now, but you won't find full size trees for that anywhere else. the big ones are balled & burlapped. i think they carry smaller sizes in big pots, too. rob, the guy across the rd who's coy's nephew at old stage nursery will also have them, and they may be named varieties over there. his # is 772-6214 in eve, 631-5729 cell(but that could be old). good luck! tammy

thanks! I did have 2 varieties of crape myrtles picked out but I'm not committed to having exactly those. My plan right now is to plant lavender (muskogee) and white (natchez) alternating down the driveway. I was also considering the catawba variety to alternate with the natchez but I think that one is a little smaller so I'm still not sure. I'm pretty flexible so if I can get the hubby to check out some nurseries today hopefully I'll find something.

Nice choices. 'Natchez' is superb - the peeling bark, lots of clear white flowers, graceful umbrella shape tree. I think it is simply the best all-around crape myrtle. I read that small number of multiple trunks look best, with odd-number of trunks.

both old stage & broadwell's are closed on sundays. broadwell's is normally only open til 12 or 1 on sats. weekdays til like 5 or 6. old stage may have slightly longer hrs. both are open an hr or 2 longer in the spring & summer. i don't think either of them do credit cards, both will do cash or cks.

Check your local area for an arboretum and other public gardens. You can always get a good feel for both native and exotic plantings there, as well as ideas for borders, groupings, etc.

Avoid Bradford pears, most definitely.

Avoid Chestnut trees. The burrs are horrendously prickly and hazardous, and when the trees are in bloom they smell like a frat house...or a cat house (phweee).

If you are ever in the Asheville area come on by, I can usually divide irises, herbs, perennials, etc, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: my flowers 2005

Good news!

Johnston County (Clayton, included) has dropped their outdoor watering restrictions as of yesterday.

*sigh*

wrong post.