Species and Varieties

Whether you want to be a Master Gardener or simply landscape your home grounds, understanding the different cultivars and varieties is crucial. Use Penn State Extension’s resources to select the best varieties of plants for home gardening, including vegetables, berries, fruits, hydrangeas, cactus and succulents, bleeding heart, azalea chrysanthemums, hostas, boxwoods, and flowering houseplants.

What Flowers to Plant in Your Home Garden

There is such a wide variety of flowers to choose from for your home garden. For the beginner, it can be challenging to know where to start. Your choice of flowers depends on the location of your garden and what you’re hoping to achieve. Do you want year-round color? Pick the right varieties, and this is easily achievable.

Great plants for fall color include goldenrod, aster, and chrysanthemum. However, these are just the tip of the iceberg. Long-blooming perennials such as yarrow, daylilies, and daisies can also contribute to your garden appeal for several months of the year. You can also plant native herbaceous perennial plants for year-round interest. However, one thing to be aware of is that individual plants can be prone to diseases.

Annuals are always a popular choice, particularly if you want your flowers to look good and not require too much work.

Another popular reason for growing flowers in your garden is to attract pollinators. As we all know, their numbers are decreasing, so it’s essential we do what we can to attract and support them.

If you want to use your garden as a resource for cut flowers for your home, use flowers that have been specifically bred for cutting. Varieties that are best suited for Pennsylvania growers include black-eyed Susan, Calendula, sunflowers, and zinnia.

Your choice of plant is going to be determined to some degree by the location of your garden. Pennsylvania has some very long, hot summers, so it’s crucial the plants you choose can tolerate the heat and preferably thrive. Some plants prefer to be in the shade. Others prefer dry to moist soil or wet to moist soil.

If you’ve got pets and they have access to your home garden, there are individual plants you shouldn’t consider because they’re poisonous to animals.

If you want to know more about the different cultivars and varieties available, spend a day at the Penn State Flower Trials, one of the world’s oldest and largest flower trials.

Choosing Trees, Shrubs, and Evergreens

Choose to plant shrubs in your garden, and you get year-round interest to your landscape. However, you still have to consider the location and condition of the soil, for example. Understanding how to identify some of the common trees found in Pennsylvania should help you find the right ones for your garden.

If you want to retain live foliage from one season to the next, evergreens are the answer. Native evergreens in Pennsylvania include Christmas Fern, Seersucker Sedge, Mountain Laurel, Ink Berry, and American Holly. Boxwood is another popular evergreen, although it was originally native to Europe, the Mediterranean, the West Indies, Asia, and Central America.

For a splash of color in the fall, choose deciduous trees and shrubs. Native deciduous trees include Yellow or Sweet Buckeye, Yellow Birch, River Birch, and Bitternut Hickory.

It’s very tempting to pick popular varieties; however, there are almost always suitable alternatives if you want something a little different in your garden. Hesse cotoneaster is a possible alternative to the typical groundcovers. Siberian cypress or Russian arborvitae are exciting alternatives to junipers.

When you plant trees and shrubs in your garden, you should make yourself aware of invasive species and varieties. Shrubs such as the butterfly bush, privet, Japanese barberry, and burning bush might look harmless. They can, however, be detrimental to local ecosystems.

Choosing Home Garden Fruit Cultivars and Rootstocks

It’s possible to grow your own fruit on a small scale in a home garden. When you buy fruit trees for your garden, you must choose your nursery stock carefully. Success in growing fruits in home plantings tends to depend on the type or cultivar selected. Here are some examples of cultivars and rootstocks suitable for Pennsylvania.

• Apple cultivars: Scab-resistant varieties include Crimson Crisp, Crimson Gold, and Crimson Topaz. Non-scab resistant apple varieties include Ginger Gold, Blondee, and Gala. Other scab-resistant varieties include Pristine, Redfree, and Pixie Crunch. Newer scab-resistant selections include Luna, WineCrisp, and Sirius.
• Pear rootstocks: Pears don’t root easily, so it is more common to find pear trees that have been propagated by budding or grafting onto a rootstock. Common pear varieties include Sunrise, Potomac, Shenandoah, and Olympic. A highly recommended rootstock for homeowners is OHxF 87.
• Strawberries: Popular strawberry varieties include Annapolis, Earliglow, and Flavorfest.
• Red Raspberry: Varieties that grow well in Pennsylvania include Killarney, Latham, Canby, and Dinkum. Varieties that are recommended for Pennsylvania include Boyne, Lauren, Orelde, and Autumn Bliss.
• Grapes: Table and juice grape varieties include Canadice, Glenora, and Reliance. Wine grape varieties for Pennsylvania include Chardonel, Delaware, Niagara, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Stone fruit varieties: Peach and nectarines are the second most important tree fruit crop grown in Pennsylvania. Promising new peach cultivars include Spring Prince Manon and Harrow Dawn Scarlet Pearl.

What Vegetables to Plant in a Home Garden

A popular way to classify vegetables is according to the temperatures which produce optimum growth. The broadest of the categories are cool-season and warm-season crops.

The most obvious warm-season crop has to be tomatoes. Many factors determine which tomatoes you should plant. If space is at a premium, dwarf tomatoes require limited space. Tomatoes can also be grown very successfully in containers. You can also grow peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash in containers.

Edible greens such as kale and chard should be planted in early spring. Microgreens, on the other hand, can be grown on a kitchen windowsill all year-round.