Winter color

Even though so many days are mostly drab and gray right now, there are still colorful spots to be found in the woods and yard. There are bright red dogwood berries, blue hedge berries, mosses, wild grass in the secret garden, nandina berries and the bright new growth of redtip photina. Click photos to view larger. I am enjoying my new camera. :)

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Colorful clump of grass in the secret garden

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Redtip photinia shrub

My redtip photinia shrub is bright and pretty right now. This shrub always begins vigorously growing every year in early spring. These broadleaf evergreen shrubs are fast growing and can get up to 20 feet tall and can spread to 10 feet wide if left unpruned. Mine is about 10 feet tall and I trim it often. These shrubs are very tough and easily withstand severe pruning. After pruning, the shrubs will quickly produce new sprouts and it is only this new growth that produces the bright red color. The deep red color of the leaves lasts a month or longer and then gradually matures to a dark, glossy green.

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Bright red new growth

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My redtip is covered in bright red new growth right now, and this will last about a month. I’ll prune it again in early summer, and it will again produce the bright red leaves. I usually prune mine two or three times throughout the summer. It grows very fast and would become leggy quickly if I didn’t keep it pruned.

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Redtips are very easy to grow and will do fine in full sun to partial shade. I have found though that the more sun the shrub gets, the brighter red the new growth will be. I know that these shrubs are very susceptible to leaf mold so they need to be planted where they have excellent air ciruclation around them. I also try never to wet the leaves when I’m watering, and I haven’t had problems with fungus or leaf mold.

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Closeup of newest leaves on redtip

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I’ve had good success in propagating these shrubs by cuttings. In fact, the very first one I had (the one that is the largest now) came from a cutting I took from a neighbor’s shrub several years ago. Last summer, I took cuttings of about 8-10 inches from the softer, younger tips of this shrub and placed them in a large container I have in dappled shade in the woods. In this old tub, I have a mix of potting soil, loam, peat moss, and sand. Most of my cuttings rooted quickly and I left them in the container through the fall and winter and now have several small red-tip shrubs to transplant. I love the look of these shrubs, and they really are striking with all the new red growth. Click on any of the photos in this post to view a larger version. Also, be sure and read the comments below this post for a lot more information on Redtip Photinia shrubs.

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Redtip Photinia related posts:
Misc. Garden photos
Flowers & Plants this week
Plants this week, April 20
Winter color

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Miscellaneous garden photos

Click thumbnails for larger versions of the photos.

This is just a small bed of the many hosta plants I have all around my yard and the woods surrounding. These have been in full bloom for a couple of weeks now, and are almost finished. It seems every single seed germinates and makes a new plant, they spread so fast, and every year I have more and more of them.. I give them away by the dozens and still they keep spreading.. I’ve lined a path in the woods with them and have now started planting them in clumps in the woods surrounding the yard. The photo is of a small cluster of hostas at the end of my yard, on a slope near an outdoor fireplace.

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The rose of sharon bushes (trees) are in full bloom right now. I have pink ones and white ones and several shades of purple. Some of these bushes are more than 10 feet tall. Pretty, but messy with all their falling flowers every day. :) I pull up seedlings by the dozens all over the yard, every summer.

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My ivy arbor

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This is my ivy arbor. The old cast iron pot belonged to my great grandmother. It used to hang by chains in this arbor, and I always worried that it would fall, so hubby took away the chains and now it sits on the ground below the ivy. Right now, it’s filled with coleus and a couple of vincas. The ivy is very rampant, and I have to prune it several times a year to keep it confined to the arbor. My purple leaved flowering plum tree can be seen in the background.

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Looking out my living room window: pink impatiens in a window box planter on my front porch rail. The plants are huge now, and filled with flowers.

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Red Tip Photinia
This is my red tip photinia shrub (tree). I prune it frequently, and all the new growth is red. This is a nice evergreen shrub with glossy leaves, and it’s about 7′ tall right now. It grows very fast and will become leggy and grow to about 15′ tall if not pruned. This shrub makes a good screen or hedge, and the red leaves are very striking against the dark green of the older growth.

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(left to right) 1. The butterfly bushes are in full bloom right now. This is an easy to grow shrub, and is almost evergreen here. I cut it to the ground every other year, and it grows to about 7 or 8 feet tall every summer. 2. A hanging pot of coleus, on a privacy fence at the far end of the yard. 3. Tomatoes.. dozens of tomatoes. :)

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The edge of the front yard; plants include miscellaneous evergreen shrubs and my lamp post with a container of annuals at the base of it. My red tip bush can be seen in the background. I love growing mixed annuals in containers; it’s easy to experiment with different color combinations.

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A long narrow bed along the edge of the driveway, filled with mixed color dianthus (pinks), and purple verbena. Although the dianthus are sold as annuals here, they come back year after year, and are one of my favorite flowers.

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Huge leaves of a young princess tree, also known as royal paulownia or empress tree. I wouldn’t recommend this tree, as they can become very invasive in the south. We cut this one down every fall, and it sprouts again in the late spring. The young leaves are absolutely huge, and the tree grows up to 20′ tall in one season. If the trees are allowed to grow, they become very tall very quickly, and as the wood is hollow, the limbs are very brittle and easily broken, and the mature trees are unstable and dangerous. These trees flower at about 8 yrs old, with long, wisteria-like clusters of fragrant purple flowers, followed by brown seed pods.

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(left to right) 1. Penta flowers after a light rain shower. 2. Hosta lilies lining a pathway into the woods. 3. Red salvia in bloom.

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Related posts: My Secret Garden
Front Flower Beds
New rock wall flower bed

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