The Perennial Buzz by Shelley Pederson

 

“March is a month of considerable frustration — it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away.” —  Thalassa Cruso

It’s the month of spring. Anyone else want to run outside, spin around and take in the mild weather? The end of winter is in sight. I only have a couple of honorable mentions to finish up the bee perennials.

Baptisia  or false indigo is a very large, rugged perennial. Babtisa will attract bees to the garden with their lupine-like three foot spires of blooms. Baptisia is a huge plant, so give it room. Traditionally blue blooms cover the large bush in the spring. There are varieties of white, yellow and even pink. The plant is virtually pest and disease free with rich blue-green foliage. In mid-summer the flowers set large attractive, charcoal black seed pods, that were once used as baby rattles. Give this big beauty 4 feet of spacing in full sun.

False indigo, as the name indicates, was used as a blue dye by early settlers and used to treat infections. Baptisia is a host plant for several butterfly larvae.

The last bee plant is buddleia, or butterfly bush. Be aware that Buddleia is a zone five, and some varieties a zone 6, perennial. Some pixie fairy people with magic dust keep several varieties alive in their zone 4 gardens. The most hardy is black knight. Why is the perennial worth trying? The fragrance — and I do mean drifting, wafting sugar sweet, baby powder, heaven-in-a-bush scent. Bold 7-inch spikes of dark blue flower spikes attract bees and butterflies all summer long. Because it is a zone 5 flower, it breaks the ground very late, sometimes the second week of June. The perennial does not like to be moved, so plant it accordingly and give it at least 4 feet of room.

I have tried them several times in my garden, unsuccessfully, as they have gotten too large for the spot and then I tried to move them. I have grown them in containers as an annual and the fragrance is so well worth it. I planted another this past fall in a spot I will vow not to disturb. That’s it, though — it’s last chance to make it or break it. Deadhead spent blooms to keep the plant fresh and mulch with 2 to 3 inches of mulch over the winter.

Both baptisia and buddleia are herbaceous woody perennials and do die back to the ground each winter. The plants can be lightly pruned during the growing period to keep them shapely. Once the plant goes dormant they can be cut back to the ground. Both plants are deer resistant, drought and heat tolerant.

March is the time to prune fruit trees. Remove broken, diseased, rubbing and crowded branches. Open up branches for good sun exposure and even spacing. Most other deciduous trees can also be pruned in March. I’d wait a bit for pruning grapes, as they like to break dormancy and if we have a hard April freeze, you may lose them. Overgrown lilacs, dogwoods and other large shrubs can be pruned back nearly to the ground to restore the vigor.

It is also a good time to plant your annual bulbs indoors, such as dahlia, canna and caladium for them to have some size when warm temperatures arrive. Begin to fertilize flowering houseplants, weakly, weekly. Turn your compost pile on a warm day to get it cooking. Take a nice walk and enjoy the warmer days, listen to the mourning doves and look for that first crocus to break the ground.

Shelley Pederson is a perennially busy master gardener, lover of nature and student of life.