Spring is so far away, but we can still dream of it!
One of my favorite spring flowering shrubs are lilacs. They smell like childhood. Lilacs were everywhere when I was growing up, lining all the alleyways as you road your bike through. Some lilac groves were big enough to create secret forts inside. The older neighborhoods mostly had only common lilacs, all blooming at the same time. But now, there are lots to choose from!
If you are looking to extend your lilac season, consider Syringa villosa. It is later than all the lilacs I have seen, flowering two weeks after the common lilac. When the rest are done blooming, villosa is just starting to think about it.
Huge double panicles of pinky white, it’s stunning when in bloom. The leaves are fuzzy and coarse, not shiny and smooth like most lilacs. Also, it doesn’t have sucker growth like many lilacs, but uniquely shaped branches. The mature size is 6-10 feet tall and width of 4-10 feet. If you research this shrub, it doesn’t get the highest marks as the bloom period is short, and has no other seasonal interest in its portfolio. Regardless, its place is safe on my property line as part of a mixed border.
Another lilac that is loved in my landscape is the Japanese Tree Lilac, Syringa reticulata. This tall, shrubby tree-like plant with cream-colored plumes can grow to about 30 feet. You can prune a tree lilac to be a single trunk or a multi stemmed tree, which I prefer. Bloom time is several weeks after the common lilacs and they are very fragrant. However, once they get too tall like mine are, you can’t reach them to cut for a bouquet, so open a window instead and hope for a breeze.
Another flowering spring shrub or small tree that has a lot of varieties to choose from is Amelanchier, aka Service Berry.
This is also an edible shrub and performs more than double duty in the landscape. This shrub provides spring flowering, fall colored leaves and fruits, a win-win shrub. This shrub has tiny fruits on some varieties and larger fruits on Saskatoon varieties. Saskatoon berries are blueberry size and appearance with a blueberry/cherry/vanilla flavor.
Amelanchier are native plants to many parts of North America, thriving on sandy soils. There are many other types of Amelanchier that are popular plants in our region, Juneberry, Downy Service Berry to name a few. The fruits on these types are smaller and usually picked off by birds. Saskatoon varieties are more difficult to find for purchasing so order early if you want to try them.
Service berry plants are one of the very first blooming in the spring, signifying that the soil was thawed. Back in the olden days – this is when graves were then dug for persons who passed over winter. The common name of Service berry than was appropriately chosen for this plant as they were often then used for funeral services.
Blueberries
It’s been a few years since I gave my humble opinion on attempting to grow blueberries, so here is a reminder and why!
Blueberries are a very challenging shrub fruit to grow in our region with any success. Blueberries need acid soil between 4.5 – 5.5ph and despite what the garden catalog may say, a simple bag of sulfur will not do the trick. The soil ph. around here is about 6.5, nearly neutral soil. I have made two valiant attempts to grow blueberry plants over the years. I hesitated before my second attempt — but ordered 24 commercial grade plants and tried it again anyway. Yes, this time would be better. They were planted by the book, using the correct elements, peat moss worked into the planting hole, soil acidifiers, full sun, zone 4 varieties, irrigation lines etc.
The plants survived, but never thrived. After 4 years of little to no growth, few if any edible berries, I had enough! I personally pulled each plant up with my bare hands and tossed them onto a pile and burned them, and have felt sweet revenge ever since. A little garden rage after those plants wasted my time and space again! I used to own and operate a two-acre strawberry farm and I also had ½ acre in raspberries, so I did have previous berry growing experience. To blueberries I say – never again, and this time I mean it. If you have had success with blueberries (success defined as healthy, growing, thriving plants and picking loads of berries in this region) than you are an exceptional gardener!
My advice, turn the page in the shiny catalog promising bucket loads of sweet blueberries. Trust me on this one, it won’t happen in our region.