GARDEN FITNESS

landscapes.

Mulching against tree bark promotes rotting, which allows insects and diseases to take up residence in the trunk.

Spread mulch around trees in a doughnut shape with a void or hole around the tree trunk and a low wide circle of mulch around the hole.

Because tilling and turning the soil often bring dormant weed seeds to the surface where they can grow, Iberg uses a product like Preen that inhibits seed germination. But don’t use it if you plan to sow the seeds of desirable plants directly on the soil because they won’t germinate either.

If you are totally new to gardening or to gardening in the Mid-South, memorize this fact: We’re in Zone 7 for plant hardiness.

Meucci points out that every 10 to 30 years we get a major frost that will kill or set back plants that normally are perfectly happy here, such as crape myrtles and camellias.

She recommends choosing plants labeled as hardy from Zone 6 to Zone 8 for extra winter hardiness, or better still, from those that will live from frosty Zone 5 to sizzling Zone 9.

Read and keep the labels that come with your plants for future reference.

But be aware that the estimated size of a perennial or shrub on a tag is usually smaller than what it reaches here.

“If it says a plant will get 3 feet wide, plan on it reaching at least 4 feet in width,” Iberg said. Space them accordingly unless you like pruning and/or moving big plants around.

During her talk, Meucci made some hydrangea recommendations:

Native forms of hydrangeas such as the white Annabelle and oakleaf can be counted on to have flowers every year.

“I like the big, bosomy, pendulous oakleaf Snowflake which goes from white to pink,” she said. “And the voluptuous, also bosomy white Annabelle.”

She admits there is nothing better than blue and pink hydrangeas when they bloom. “But they bring a lot of heartache when they don’t.”

If you have to have them — and many of us do — choose reblooming varieties that will produce some flowers even when late frosts kill the buds on the tip of the stems.

The fastest-growing, most-likely-to-live climbing “hydrangea” is Moonlight, whose botanical name is Schizophragma hydrangeoides.

It’s not really fast-growing, but it does climb higher sooner than the other vining type, Hydrangea anomala.