Planting your rain garden

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Planting your rain garden
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Choices, choices!
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Low to high density
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Groomed to natural
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Theme gardens

• Butterfly garden
• Evergreen garden
• Native plants
• Cool colors
• Warm colors
• Limited only by your imagination!

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Your rain garden will be
Very wet sometimes
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Your rain garden will be
Very dry sometimes
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Native Species!!

• Accustomed to the climate
• Low maintenance!
• Beautiful selections

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Choosing Plants

• Tolerant of moisture and drought
• Adapted to site conditions
• Moisture levels within rain garden vary depending
  on location

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River BirchBetula nigra

• 50 x 50
• Excellent Specimen
• Single or multi-stemmed
• Papery bark
• Heritage, Duraheat
• Grows fast, tolerate very wet to average
  conditions

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Redbud

• Cercis canadensis
• Blooms early spring, deciduous
• Lives 20 yrs.
• Sun, well drained soil
• Fuller in sun

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Redbud
Forest Pansy
Royal White
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Fringetree

• Chionanthus virginicus
• To 20 x 20
• Sun lt. shade
• Moist soil
• Late season leaf spot
• Blue fruit on female trees

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Shrubs and small trees
Red maple
Elderberry
Strawberry bush
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Southern Wax MyrtleMyrica cerifera

• 10-15 x 10-15
• Berries are valuable to birds (female plants)
• Large screen, pruned hedge,
• Dwarf forms exist
• Often multi-stemmed tree
• Exceptionally tough

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Sweet PepperbushClethra alnifolia

• Native, deciduous shrub
• Sun part shade
• Well drained or moist soil
• Cultivars
• Hummingbird, 16 Candles
• dwarf white, 3 x 6
• Ruby Spice
• upright pink, 8 x 5
• Blooms in June-July, exceptional fragrance
• Yellow fall color

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Sweet Pepperbush
Ruby Spice
Sixteen Candles
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Virginia SweetspireItea virginica

• Deciduous shrub
• Sun to part shade
• Wet to dry soil
• Cultivars
• Henrys Garnet
• 4-6 x 4-6
• Little Henry, Merlot
• dwarf - 3 x 3
• Flowers in June
• Burgundy autumn color holds till Dec.
• Very moisture tolerant

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Virginia Sweetspire
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BeautyberryCallicarpa americana

• 6 x 6
• Cut back to 1 every year in Feb/March
• Bright purple berries in autumn - loved by birds
• Very Fast Grower

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BeautyberryCallicarpa americana
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Asclepias species

• Butterflyweed
• Asclepias tuberosa
• 2 3 tall and wide
• Blooms in spring/early summer, orange
• Sun to light shade
• Drought tolerant, good drainage
• Swamp milkweed
• Asclepias incarnata
• 3 tall and wide
• Spring/early summer flowers, pink or white
• Sun to part shade
• Moisture tolerant

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Monarchs
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Orange ConeflowerRudbeckia fulgida

• Tough spreading perennial
• Yellow flowers all summer, 3 tall
• Sun, moist to average soil
• Low mat of semi-evergreen foliage in winter
• Leave seed heads in winter for birds

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Panic Grass

• Panicum virgatum
• Shenandoah
• 3 x 2, burgundy
• Northwind
• 4 x 2, upright
• Moist or dry soils
• Sun to light shade

Shenandoah
Northwind
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Joe Pye Weed

• Eupatorium fistulosum, E. dubium
• Large spreading perennial
• Moist soil, sun
• Rose-mauve flowers in late summer
• 6-8 in flower
• Excellent nectar source

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Goldenrod

• Many species
• Solidago rugosa
• Fireworks
• Late summer fall flowers
• Moist to average, sun

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Rose Mallow

• Hibiscus moscheutos
• Extremely sturdy, clumping perennial
• 4-6 tall and wide
• Wet to moist soil, sun
• Pink or white flowers in summer
• Dies back completely in winter

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Cardinal Flower

• Lobelia cardinalis
• Sun pt. shade
• Wet to avg. soil
• Flowers lt. summer, fall, 3-4 tall in flower
• Short lived soil, self seeds
• Do not mulch over crown in winter
• Hummingbirds, butterflies

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Diversity

• Great habitat
• Reduces pest impact
• Long flowering season

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Right plants in the right place
Oval Rain Garden
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Wetness zones
Dry Average Wet
Redbud Muhly Grass Butterflyweed
Orange Coneflower
Fringetree
Orange
Coneflower Blue Star
False Indigo
Washington Hawthorn Possumhaw River
Birch Swamp Milkweed Turtlehead R
iver Oats
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Laying out your garden
Formal grid
or freestyle
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Good planting technique

• Water plants while in the container
• Keep shaded until planting

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Good planting technique

• Dig a hole at least twice as wide as root ball or
  container
  
• Rough up the sides of the hole

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Good planting technique

• Be kind to roots
• Gently remove plant
• from container

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Good planting technique

• Place root collar level with soil
• Backfill loose soil with no air pockets
• Tamp down firmly

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Mulching

• Removes pollution
• Retains moisture
• Prevents erosion

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Mulching

• Mulch 2-4 inches
• Use dense mulch
• Replace periodically

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Do I need to water?

• After planting, yes!
• First season, yes!
• In droughts, yes!
• In rain, no!

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Show off your rain garden!