The April 2013 meeting of the Garden Club of PEI welcomed Dave Carmichael from the PEI Department of Forestry. He also runs the provincial tree nursery located on Upton Road in Charlottetown. Dave talked about the many new plants that are suitable for PEI gardens. check the website for the Canadian Landscaping Association for more listings of new releases.
Shrubs and trees
- White flag forsythia - pink flowers
- Paper bark maple - interesting bark
- Hardy kiwi - need a male and female plant to produce fruit. Males have white and pink variegated leaves. It produces smaller fruit than what we see in the supermarket. The vine is twining.
- Bottlebrush buckeye
- Five-leaf Akebia - a twining vine with pink flowers - likes shade and moist soil
- Red buckeye is parent of chestnut - red flowers - likes dappled shade - produces no nuts, is infertile
- Leadplant - purple spikes of flowers, multiple leaflets like a peashrub
- Porcelain vine - climber - puts out tendrils - variegated leaves, blue fruit
- Hardy cactus - Optunia sp - to propigate, allow a piece to calus, then stick into soil - grows well, related to prickly pear
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| Purple pearls beauty berry |
- Beauty berry - purple berries, pink flowers are hidden in the leaves - dies back to ground in winter
- American hornbeam - colourful fall leaves
- Horse chestnut was wiped out by disease. American chestnut is tolerant to blight. The leaves are leathery
- Catalua - grows 8 feet in 4 years - likes shelter and full sun
- Hackberry - blue berries - tolerant to urban locations
- Buttonbush - moist soil, flowers in early summer, white pom-pom like flowers
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| quince |
- Quince is underutilized plant - flowers on older wood - in spring, trim back twigs to flower buds - colour choices include red, and orange
- Yellowwood - produces long racemes of flowers like wisteria
- Summersweet - glossy leaves are as a rule more tolerant to disease, saltspray, shade and sun - pink flowers
- Sweet fern - likes poor soil - pleasant fragrance when crushed - spreads by rizomes - can support river banks
- Kousa dogwood - easy to grow from seed - great fall colour - flowers are actually 4 bracts (specialized leaves) with tiny flowers in centre - produces big red berries
- Cornelian dogwood - early flowering, big red berries - fragrant flowers appear before leaves
- Dove tree: Davidia involucrate - flowers look like dogwood
- Blue bean shrub - grows in the understory - produces long beans - has few pest problems
- Red vein enkianthus - horizontal branching
- Caluna/Erica collection: heaths and heathers are now surviving better on PEI because winters are milder - climate change
- Fothergilla - white, fragrant flowers in mid-summer
- Franklinia - withe flowers and yellow anthers
- Kentucky coffee tree - native to south-east US - produces big pods - tolerates urban conditions - bipinnate leaves (many leaflets make up a complete leaf)
- Carolina silverbell - native to US South East - white flower bells - orange fruit in winter persist a long time
- Witchhazel - native
- Seven sons - white flowers at first frost in fall - red fruit, peeling bark
- Oakleaf hydrangea
- Hypericum (St. John's Wort) Palace Purple produces purple berry, yellow flower, purple fall colour
- common St. John's Wort - yellow flowers, green leaves - a low shrub
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| Mountain laurel |
- Mountain laurel - one of Dave's favourite plants - flowers can be red, white, or pink - grows 2 m
- Castor plant - auralea - spiky twig
- Bush clover deutsia bicolour - arching branches, pink flowers - cut to ground in spring - new growth produces flowers
- Leucothoe - variegated leaves
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| Tulip tree |
- Tulip tree - one in York is the largest in Atlantic Canada
- Magnolia sieboldi - white flowers with red centre - easy to grow - red fruit
- Partridge berry - native to PEI - makes a good evergreen groundcover - white flowers, red berries
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| Lily of the Valley tree |
- Lily of the valley tree - another of Dave's favourites - red fall colour - Oxydendrum arboretum
- Persian parrotina - red/purple flowers
- Paulonia - huge soft leaves - there is one on Upton Road
- Amber Jubilee ninebark
- Oriental photina - fall colour - from the rose family - white flowers - a small tree
- Mountain Pieris floribunda - white flowers, upright shrub
- Pieris japonicum has variegated pink new growth
- London plane tree - no disease or insects - from Europe
- Fragrant Epaulet - white flowers
- Pyrus calleryana - ornamental flowering pear - good fall colour, non-edible fruit
- Shingle oak
- Rhododendron Carolina -new growth has red twigs
- April rose rhododendron - semi-evergreen - flowers bloom before leaves appear
- Azalea are ideal for PEI
- Winter current: Ribes sanguinium
- Clover currant - fragrant flowers in spring
- Santolilna - gray foliage, good for carpet beds, low shrub
- Sassafras - native to US northeast - red flowers
- Japanese pagoda tree
- Japanese stewardia - speckled bark
- American snowball
- coral berry - turquoise berries
- Wingnut - Triplerygium regelii
- Crowberry grows on the north shore in exposed conditions - sandy soil, red berries - at Basinhead
- Bearberry - groundcover
- native roses: Rosa carolina
- Prague viburnum
- Wild raisin
- High bush cranberry - viburnum
- Korean spice bush - viburnum - fragrant - all viburnums are susceptible to viburnum beetles
- Summer snowflake viburnum
- Yellowhorn xanthocer
- Yucca - an underutilized plant - some are variegated
Perennials
- Hosta rainbow's end and Goddess green
- Echanacea Powpow, Aloha, Quills & Thrills, Secret Pride, Double Scoop
- fall flowering aster: Blue Autumn
- False Indigo: likes fertile soil - Decandence, capella blue Rivulet, Summertime moves
- Delosperma: Firespinner (ice plant)
- Red Sun Gallardia
- Mesa bicolour Gallardia
- Tickseed: Sweet Marmelade
- Heliopsis: Yellow flag
- Helebore: Peppermint Ice, rose Quartz
- Heuchera: Stainless Steel - grown for foliage, not flowers
- Heuchera: Berry Smoothie
- Heuchera Solar Eclipse
- Heuchera Creole nights: purple
- Heuchera Spellbound
- Hibiscus: TieDye - big flowers
- Iris: Anaconda
- Ligularia: Bottle Rocket
- Variegated Solomon's Seal - likes shade
- Salvia: Sweet 16
- Sedum: Razzleberry - low growing, likes dry conditions
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| Echenacea PowPow |
Annuals
- Coleus: Shadow King, Sultana
- Osteospermum 3-D
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| Sweet Caroline sweet potato vine |
- Sweet Potato Vine: Sweet Caroline
- Verbena: Seabrook Lavender
Tips
When you notice a complete change in a plant from one year to the next, e.g. a new colour or texture to a rose, probably it was a grafted rose. The top died, and the root system produced shoots of a different variety from the top.
A stressed Mountain Ash grows slowly, but produces a lot of berries. They don't like poorly drained, compacted soil.
Climate change will see an increase in temperature of 3-4 degrees. It affect insects - more will survive the winter.
Viburnum leaf beetle attacks - check to see if you have it by looking at last year's growth: the stems feel rougher, there are pits and mounds in the bark - eggs have been laid in the bark - there are no products available to fight these pests - cut out the egg masses and destroy them - try applying Safer's Soap
Earwigs there is no solution to completely eradicate them - for every 100 you kill, there are 1,000 more out there - they were introduced from Europe - we will see more in the next few years - there is no natural control here in north America, no natural disease or predators
Dutch Elm disease - a few clones of elms are tolerant to this disease
Forest Tent Caterpillar - wasps lay eggs in their bodies, they hatch and eat the caterpillars from the inside
Japanese Beetles are in Charlottetown and Cornwall now - larvae look like June bugs
Gypsy moth is here now too
Invasive plants were introduced by landscaping - check the Invasive Species Council at www.invasive.org
Whitefly usually occurs in greenhouses. You can introduce small predacious wasps, praying mantis, ladybugs, but there is no guarantee they will stick around your yard if they are released outside.
Neem oil may be effective against emerald ash borer if injected into the tree
Take soil samples to be analyzed to make sure that you are applying the right amendments to your soil - dig down 6-8 inches, take several samples, mix together in a bucket, take to Biocommons to be analyzed. Taking a soil sample will tell you what you need, as opposed to taking a shot in the dark. It's a good value.
Garden sulphur may control black knot - cut out the infection - need to repeat often
Tar spot in maples - usually affects Norway maples, not other kinds - native maples like sugar maples are not as susceptible - this disease does not cause long-term issues - it is cyclical - last year was not as serious as previous years.
Leatherjackets look like big mosquitoes - a specific type of nematode could be applied to feed on these pests.
