Watch whom you invite to your garden party! Some guests are most unwelcome and soon push others to the sidelines. These are the assertive and belligerent plants, soon running wild, quickly filling every space and that of their neighbor. Quite often, gardeners grateful for a different plant will rue the day they plant it in the ground.
For example, most varieties of mint, while great to use in the kitchen, will invade and infiltrate a space before you realize it. My suggestion is to plant mint in a large container, no drainage holes and then sink the pot into the ground. Sweet Autumn Clematis, so beautiful in bloom, heavenly in scent and loved by bees, can be considered invasive. This plant happily scrambles with such energy during the summer one has to admire it. Perhaps you have an odd spot in your garden, a patch of soil with poor growing conditions begging for some attention, even a tangle of weeds. Then this plant is for you.
Common orange day lilies are often inherited in older gardens. They dig in their heels and refuse to budge. And while you may enjoy the faithful blooming each year, there comes a time when they must go; otherwise, you drown in a sea of green leaves. But again, if you have lots of space, a generous spread of these sword-like leaves is an attractive sight during the summer. When the leaves turn yellow in August, I usually cut them to the ground and within three weeks new green growth enlivens the bed, lasting until October.
Gardening is intimately connected to the journey we all make to find a place for ourselves. It displays our “Jekyll and Hyde” attitude, which mediates between the urge to obliterate and our urge to preserve. Should you ruthlessly pull up plants that you once loved or should you close both eyes and give them another season? This difficult decision is yours alone. Just remember – a garden must change; otherwise, it becomes an antiquated affair.
Don’t succumb to the black hole of time and energy by choosing high maintenance plants for your garden: yhose divas who require your continuous attention like spraying, dusting, dead-heading, tying, etc.; those who have to be coddled and are usually expensive. There is a national movement to create interest in our native plants, those that can weather harsh conditions, drought and air pollution; those that are less demanding and still reward you with their vigor and multiseason interest. Therefore, look for native plants in your garden center and nurseries.
You know it is spring when crows mob hawks, cawing loudly; when scores of robins devour the last red holly berries and catbirds scratch for insects among the woodchips.
It is spring when snowdrops spread their white avalanche underneath budding azaleas, the deep rose of helleborus orientalis (Lenten rose) peeks out and ajuga (carpet bugleweed) is spreading in quiet contagion in my garden, its
gentian-blue blossoms enhancing the bright yellow of miniature daffodils. Soon, all too soon, the New Jersey summer will be upon us with its kaleidoscope of colors and scents.
But now it’s time to:
• Prune roses when the buds begin to swell and when the forsythia blooms.
• Set out support for peonies before shoots become too large.
• Significantly cut back Buddleia (butterfly bush) Caryopteris (blue mist shrub) and red twig dogwoods. All bloom on new growth.
• Make sure granular fertilizer does not come in contact with plant foliage, it will burn.
• Repot and fertilize your houseplants.
“If dandelions cost a guinea a root and had to be cosseted through the winter, they’d find a place in every rich man’s greenhouse.” – Wilfrid Blunt
Gotti Kelley, past president of the Navesink Garden Club, is a member of the board of the Garden Club of New Jersey.

