Ground Breaking Banter - Rick
“Right plant, right place” is an oft-repeated gardening adage. Put another way, you can grow just about any plant if you can meet its needs. Some plants have very specific needs which may be difficult to meet under normal conditions in a given area, and some can adapt to whatever Mother Nature throws at them. It’s this latter category we’re concerning ourselves with today, and within that, the subset of plants that can withstand the biggest extremes of flood and drought, hot and cold, wind, snow, and so on.
Join us at the YouTube link above or on your favorite podcast platform to hear our whole conversation on plants you can’t kill.
Full disclosure: Low Scape Mound aronia has been a plant on trial before, but wayyyy back in November of 2023. I would normally do a repeat like this, but when the topic is “Plants that are hard to kill,” it would be silly to cover any plant except one that is truly hard to kill, and that would be aronia. For me, the mark of a plant that’s hard to kill is its ability to withstand any challenge nature throws at it: drought, flooding, wind, too much sun, too little sun, extreme cold, extreme heat, snow cover…I could go on. But ultimately it’s more about its ability to withstand the unexpected than simply whatever challenging condition exists in your yard. For example, there are plenty of drought tolerant plants that you could use in a hot and dry spot in your yard. However, if something happens and the soil is wet for a prolonged period, will that plant survive? It’s that versatility and adaptability that separates durable plants from those that you can’t kill.
Which brings us to Low Scape Mound aronia, also known as chokeberry, known botanically as Aronia melanocarpa. This is a North American native species, found across the entire eastern half of the US and Canada and as far west as roughly Missouri and Arkansas. Where it grows wild, it can be found in bogs as well as dunes, a testament to its adaptability. Low Scape Mound aronia brings all of this toughness but wraps it in a tidy, mounded form that reaches just 1.5-3’ tall and wide compared to the 6’+ of wild aronia. That makes it much more landscape-friendly and easy to use in home gardens. But why would you want to? Well, fortunately, for all its toughness, aronia is also a great looking plant. It greets spring with clusters of white flowers and distinctive pink pollen. By late summer, those become purple-black berries that add more color. They are edible, but as you might have guessed by the common name “chokeberry,” they’re not exactly delicious – they’re extremely astringent and suck all the moisture out of your mouth, but they are highly nutritious and are often used in juices and supplements (with plenty of sweetener, of course!).
Come fall, the foliage blazes in tones of red, orange, and yellow. And all season, its neat mounded form looks great as an edging, low maintenance ground cover, low hedge, or planted in your native plant or pollinator garden. I will say that it does sucker, which no doubt contributes to its hard to kill nature, but these are easily managed with a sharp spade if you’d like, or let them grow so the plant can colonize the area and make it even lower maintenance – weeds will barely stand a chance.
I can personally attest that Low Scape Mound aronia is hard to kill, because I have put it through the paces. See, one of the perks of working in the industry is getting free plants and like most gardeners and plant lovers, when we have a plant giveaway day, it’s the proverbial “my eyes are bigger than my stomach” – but for plants. So one year I took three Low Scape Mound aronias in one gallon pots, intending to plant them in my native plant garden. But stuff happened, they didn’t get planted, and I overwintered them in their nursery containers. They came back in spring, bloomed, didn’t miss a beat. The season goes on, they don’t get planted. They don’t get watered much more than rainfall. Still, they get fruit, get fall color. Over winter in containers again. Three years of this and they STILL weren’t dead when I went to throw them away. I’m certainly not suggesting you do this, especially if you pay for them, but just to show they are indeed hard to kill.
A few more points – they are extremely hardy, down to USDA zone 3, and heat tolerant through zone 8. They could certainly grow in milder areas of USDA zone 9, but probably not in very hot climates like Houston or Miami. And they aren’t exactly deer resistant: in my experience growing them, the deer and rabbits ate the flowers, which of course eliminates the potential for the berries to form, but they didn’t seriously damage the plant. So if you have a very difficult area where you just need something to survive and the flowers and fruit aren’t so crucial, Low Scape Mound aronia would still be an excellent choice.
If you’d like to add Low Scape Mound aronia or any of the 320+ Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs – to your garden or landscape, you’ll find a list of local retailers here.
Gardening Mail Bag - Stacey
We got a welcome report from Florida from listener Collin:
I wanted to share some winter cheer with you. Here in central FL this year we have a rare phenomenon. Two of the most distinct flowering trees – pink and yellow tabebuias (or ‘trumpet trees’) are in full bloom. Usually the pink ones bloom a month before the yellow ones but this year their bloom times completely coincided. They are Bignoniaceae plant family members and are outstanding trees for Florida. I hope these beautiful trees brighten up your winter gardening feed! I’ve also included a picture of my garden as well.
The weeping Alaskan cedar was struggling and lost some lower branches. It is doing better after some fertilization in recent years. Do you think the naked bottom will fill in? Or should I plant something in front of the cedar? Or rip it out and start over? Any and all suggestions are welcome, please - Don
Here’s the photo Don sent of the cedar:
(The plant in question is the evergreen between the two windows at right)
The key to resolving these issues is determining what caused them in the first place, and when I looked at this photo, I can see that the Alaskan cedar there is still staked. I would inspect all of the contact points associated with the staking and make sure they aren’t growing into the tree, as damage like that can definitely cut off the bottom and lead to a decline in health. If this is the case – or even if it isn’t – I’d remove all staking materials as the plant should be well established now.
I would say that it’s unlikely the plant will regrow too much at the base, simply because as the plant gets more mature, it begins to shade out its lower branches naturally, which is why pines, for example, typically develop a canopy instead of staying branched to the ground as they are when they are young. But I don’t think that’s cause for removing this beautiful plant, which I think is perfectly sited to use that space between those windows. One, the plant is already nicely established, two, it’s really the perfect pick for that spot, and three, it can still be gorgeous even if it’s a bit bare at the bottom. If you’d like to plant something to soften that effect a bit, you certainly can.
Do you have a question for us? We’re happy to help! E-mail us or use the contact tab above. Due to high volume, we may not get to your question, so if you need an answer quickly, please reach out via the Proven Winners website.
Branching News - Rick
In our final segment, we’re joined by herbalist and forager, Lisa Rose to talk about how she grows and uses lavender in culinary and wellness preparations. Join us at the YouTube link above, and learn more about Lisa on her website.
