Gardeners for the Bay Chesapeake Bay Foundation You love your garden, and you love the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams are in trouble. Pollution from many sources is degrading our water and threatening the habitat of fish, blue crabs, and other wildlife.
With your support, we can Save the Bay. Lend a hand by joining the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Gardeners for the Bay program. Membership is FREE!
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WHY AND HOW TO TEST YOUR SOIL
Plants can produce their own energy, but require a fertile soil or growth media to supply needed nutrients.
Healthy, well-fed plants are better able to withstand diseases and insects and to compete with weeds. For a few dollars a chemical soil analysis can check your soil's fertility and determine if any corrective action is needed.
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In Your Backyard: Bay-friendly Landscaping
Every single person who lives in your neighborhood has a profound impact on the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Help improve water quality in your backyard by making smart decisions in your home and by using Bay-friendly landscaping techniques. Smart landscaping choices can help reduce the Bay's biggest pollutants (sediments and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus) and restore natural filters
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Virginia Native Plant Society The Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) was founded in 1982 as The Virginia Wildflower Preservation Society. It is a statewide organization with approximately 2,000 members supported primarily by dues and contributions.
Membership is open to anyone, amateur or professional. Its purpose is to further appreciation and conservation of Virginia's native plants and habitats. Incorporated in Virginia as a not-for-profit, publicly supported organization, it is tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. The Society's work and activities are carried out by volunteers.
The Society's programs emphasize public education, protection of endangered species, habitat preservation, and encouragement of appropriate landscape use of native plants.
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Daylilies in Virginia
Daylilies are good plants for the beginning gardener because they are relatively maintenance free. Daylilies are not true lilies (genus Lilium). They belong to the genus Hemerocallis, from
the Greek words meaning "day" and "beauty" or "beautiful for a day." This is appropriate because each blossom typically lasts no more than a day. Each plant produces an abundance of buds, however, so the total blooming time of a well-established clump may be 30 to 40 days.
Perennials: Culture, Maintenance and Propagation
Perennials are plants that live year after year. Trees and shrubs are perennial. Most garden flowers are herbaceous perennials. This means the tops of the plants (the leaves, stems, and flowers) die back to the ground each fall with the first frost or freeze. The roots persist through the winter, and every spring new plant tops arise. Any plant that lives through the winter is said to be hardy.
There are advantages to perennials, the most obvious being that they do not have to be set out every year like annuals. Some perennials, such as delphiniums, have to be replaced every few years.
Planning the Flower Border .Much of the excitement of creating an herbaceous border lies in its great flexibility of design. In form, placement, and selection of plants, the contemporary border follows few rigid rules and allows fullest expression of the gardener's taste.
The first step in planning the material for an all-season, mixed perennial border is to select key plants for line, mass, color, and dependability. Line is the silhouette or outline of a plant, mass is its shape or denseness, and dependability refers to its ability to remain attractive with a minimum of problems. Garden books and catalogues can be very useful for reference. ...
You love your garden, and you love the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams are in trouble. Pollution from many sources is degrading our water and threatening the habitat of fish, blue crabs, and other wildlife.
With your support, we can Save the Bay. Lend a hand by joining the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Gardeners for the Bay program. Membership is FREE!
Healthy, well-fed plants are better able to withstand diseases and insects and to compete with weeds. For a few dollars a chemical soil analysis can check your soil's fertility and determine if any corrective action is needed.
Every single person who lives in your neighborhood has a profound impact on the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Help improve water quality in your backyard by making smart decisions in your home and by using Bay-friendly landscaping techniques. Smart landscaping choices can help reduce the Bay's biggest pollutants (sediments and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus) and restore natural filters
typically lasts no more than a day. Each plant produces an abundance of buds, however, so the total blooming time of a well-established clump may be 30 to 40 days. 