Deer Resistant Plants, Hydrangeas and Baptisia

White and Yellow Light Up the Shade
I’ve always been in favor of using white flowers in shade gardens, where they light up the darkness in summer. A lecture I attended last winter by garden writer Cole Burrell got me thinking about using more yellow in shade gardens. Yellow flowers and foliage suggest sunshine where there isn’t any shining naturally. There aren’t many yellow summer flowers that will grow well in shade, but there are lots of yellow foliaged plants that prefer at least some shade during the day.
New Uses for Nepeta, Panicum?
I’m a big fan of nepeta, or catmint, a reliable perennial with tiny gray-green leaves and multitudes of lavendar flower spikes. It makes a beautiful edging plant, and if sheared back after bloom, it blooms again.
Now I’ve read that nepeta is a great deer deterrent, repelling them with its aromatic foliage. I mix boxwood into flower borders to help repel deer. I’m convinced they dislike the smell and so avoid eating or even hanging out near the plant.
I’m thinking about adding nepeta for the same purpose. Nepeta prefers full sun and well-drained soil. Poor drainage in the winter is a death sentence for the plant. Otherwise, it is pest and disease resistant and likes a dry soil.
Panicum, or switch grass, is another great disease-resistant perennial for West Virginia gardens. It’s an upright, sun-loving grass that doesn’t need to be staked and has airy seeds heads in fall. Some varieties turn bright red as the season progresses.
If you grow enough panicum in your garden, you might be able to power your car with it. It seems that ethanol can be made from panicum. It’s also a plant that can act as a water filter. In Canada, they’re experimenting with panicum pellets as stove fuel to heat houses.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this beautiful ornamental could be a great cash crop for West Virginia farmers someday?
Blushing Bride
I’ve been very impressed with the performance of the blue Hydrangea Endless Summer. It is an excellent repeat bloomer and produces a lot of flowers for a newly planted shrub.
There’s a white flowering cousin to this plant called Endless Summer Blushing Bride. Its pure white blossoms mature to a blush pink or blue, depending on soil acidity. Dr. Michael Dirr was the breeder for this hydrangea as well, and it reportedly reblooms even more prolifically than the original. I’ll be on the lookout for one to try.
Blue Pearls
An article in the New York Times discussed a baptisia that Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina, is selling. I’ve grown Baptisia australis for years. It’s a tall plant with blue-green leaves and blue flowers in spring. It blooms beautifully with peonies and iris and pests and diseases don’t bother it. It has a long tap root and is very drought resistant. Flower arranging friends tell me the foliage is wonderful in a vase.
Plant Delights staff has been collecting seeds of the native Baptisia minor, a similar plant that is more compact. They’ve made a selection called ‘Blue Pearls’ that is extremely floriferous. A mature clump of the plant can produce more than 50 flower spikes in spring. Impressive! I’ll have to order a plant and see if it lives up to its glowing catalogue description. If any of you have tried this plant, e-mail me and let me know.