Poundridge Nurseries, Inc. - Blog

Plant for the future today!

I’ve been working in the landscaping field for over fifteen years and in that time I have received a lot of useful advice from experienced plantsmen. As I worked my way up the ranks from a waterer and weeder, installation laborer, to a landscape designer, the most memorable advice I ever heard was when Brent, of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, told me that “You don’t really know a plant until you have killed it at least three times.” While that might be true for a private gardener or a bulb afficionado like Brent, as someone intending to plant large, expensive trees for a living, that sort of thinking would be career-ending.

The best lesson I learned along the way was that spring is for planting. Once spring finally arrives the natural tendency is for people to look to the green and growing things around them, but planting in spring is also the most sound horticultural advice you will ever receive. The cooler temperatures and typically abundant rainfall during a nice New England spring create the perfect environment to get a new plant, whether it is a twenty foot tall copper beech, a two foot juniper, or some lowly asters, off to a healthy start. After the long, cold months of winter the reawakening soil is waiting to welcome the spreading roots of a newly planted tree, shrub, or perennial. 

Although everyone agrees that April and May are a perfect time to plant, June is too. I usually choose June to complete my personal landscape projects because I am too busy in the earlier months making gardens and planting trees on other people’s properties. Come June, however, I can sometimes find a little time to plant something in my own garden. And I ask you, is there any better way to prepare for the dog days of summer than to plant a nice new shade tree in your yard? Think about it.

Hmmmmm. I think I’ll go take another look at that beech tree for sale out in the nursery.

Daryl Beyers, Landscape Designer