A flower that takes your garden from yellow to scarlet
Marjorie Harris
Saturday's Globe and Mail, Sept 17, 2011
Plant of the week
Coreopsis ‘Red Shift’ (Tickseed)
Why you should plant it
This outré, heavily floriferous plant has daisy-like flowers that start out – as most tickseeds do – sporting a soft but bright yellow in July. As the days grow shorter and the evenings cooler, the crimson centre enlarges about the same time as all the other floral intensity hits in September, standing up to the wild brilliance in scarlet abundance.
Where to plant it
This plant needs full sun to do the job of transitioning from yellow to crimson and can only take a small amount of shade. It will bloom from July to the end of September into October. It has bigger flowers than most tickseeds and certainly makes a statement, growing 60 centimetres high by 45 centimetres wide in a nicely formed mound. ‘Red Shift’ needs ordinary soil and is, I’m told, deer-resistant.
What it offers
This plant is ideal for perking up the autumn garden. The ferny foliage looks lovely even out of bloom. Although it must be regularly deadheaded, it attracts bees and butterflies. The blooms are a great boost to the colours of the autumn border, providing nice motion to set off grasses and evergreens. It has done extremely well in containers and seems hardy to Zone 5 and possibly Zone 4 with lots of protection.
Source and cost
Get it for $8 at nurseries including John’s Garden Centre in Uxbridge, Ont. (905-862-6175).
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How do I prep my cedar hedge for the coming cold?
Marjorie Harris
The question
We just put in a new cedar hedge. When do we prune it?
The answer
Do other maintenance work before you think of pruning: Make sure each tree gets three buckets of water twice a week (or about an hour and a half with a sprinkler) and goes into winter well-watered through this method. Do this until frost is threatened.
You can leave the pruning for this year, but a year from now start it in late winter or early spring. Shape the hedge so the top is slightly narrower than the bottom so snow doesn’t collect on it and break branches. This is true for all evergreen hedges. With flowering hedges, prune after they’ve bloomed in spring or summer.
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A must-have composter to help make next year’s spring bountiful
Rosemary Little Jeffares
The Lee Valley Rolling Composter ($185 through www.leevalley.com)
“I love this composter. It turns and aerates the compost easily, and when the blend is ready, I can just roll it over to the place in the garden where it’s needed. At fall’s end, I’ll create a little hill in my garden made up of any unfinished compost and cover it in leaves. It’s the first place I’ll plant something wonderful in spring.”
