LITTLE ROCK — QCould you please identify this plant for me?
It comes up with beautiful white flowers that are fragrant. It seems to just come up wherever it pleases. It has large leaves and dies back every year. The other plant has thick fleshy leaves and has been in my garden for years. It blooms about this time every year with pink flowers. Thanks for your help.
AThe white flowering plant is an old fashioned flowering tobacco - Nicotiana sylvestris. It is a short lived perennial but it also reseeds itself, which can be the reason it comes up in other areas of the garden. The pink-flowering plant is a Sedum spectabile, often called Autumn Joy after a very popular variety of the plant. It is a long lived perennial succulent that thrives in dry conditions.QI finally found out what my purple berried plant was from reading your article.
I have a beauty berry or French mulberry, but it is growing in a bad location. When is the best time to move it?
A Callicarpa americana, beauty berry, is a tough native. It can be moved any time from November through February. Make sure you water it and mulch, and it should come through fine.
If it has multiple crowns, you could also divide it when you move it, to increase the number of plants you have.
QWhen we moved to our new house, we brought our hardy hibiscus with red flowers. I planted it near a pecan tree. It bloomed this summer, but now the bloom stalks are dying. Could the pecan tree be the cause of this? Do I need to move it or is it too late to save?
AHardy hibiscus plants are deciduous and die back to the soil line every year in the fall.
This year, as dry as it was, many started the process a little early. If your plant bloomed, it is obviously getting enough sunlight, but do keep in mind the two factors for success with a perennial hibiscus are sunlight and water. The pecan tree also uses a lot of water, so they may be in competition. I think it willcome back just fine next season.
QWe have three Bradford pear trees, and one is now in bloom. Is this unusual for this time of year? I have watered all three during our dry summer, but this particular one had lost most of its leaves. We are enjoying the blooms but are wondering what it will do in the spring.
AThis errant blooming occurs many years when it has been dry and plants started into an early dormancy. Before they shut down, they set flower buds for the next season. Then we get some rain and cooler weather, then it warms up, and they are fooled into thinking spring has arrived. We see this on some fruit trees, commonly on tulip magnolias and occasionally on forsythia, flowering quince and azaleas. Enjoy the flowers while you have them - there isn’t anything you can do to prevent it. Normally it is only a small percentage of the blooms, and you should have more in the spring.
QI live in Cabot and my house gets full sun the entire day. I went to a tree giveaway and got a little fir tree, a red oak and a dogwood. Would any of those be good for backyard plants? Will the dogwood do well in full sun? All of them are very young trees. I am thinking of putting a red maple in the backyard with loropetalum and azaleas to hide the cable box. I have never lived in Arkansas and don’t know your trees.
AWelcome to Arkansas.
Dogwoods would not do well in full sun all day - they would sunburn every summer. They are best in full morning sun or filtered sun. The oak tree is a wonderful shade tree, and by fir, I am assuming you have a bald cypress maybe?
It, too, will make a large shade tree. Red maples are great midsized trees. If you want one with guaranteed fall color, choose one now with color or go with a named cultivar.
Janet Carson is a horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Write to her at 2301 S. University Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72204 or e-mail her at
HomeStyle, Pages 39 on 10/29/2011