Free plants for coachees

It’s a glorious mid-spring day here in Maryland, perfect for the Open Garden and Plant Giveway I’m throwing for my coaching clients.  This is the first of its kind, though,  I’m not sure why because my garden yields lots of passalongs every year and who better to give them to?  Also this year I’ve started sending clients seasonal to-do lists with links to full instructions.  Rather than write up names and instructions, I’m sending everyone to this page to find out what they have and how to keep it alive. 

Your new plants

• New England asters are native to this area and love the sun.  
• Celandine poppies are native to this area.  They only bloom once – now – but the foliage looks fabulous all season.  They’re shade-lovers that’ll seed vigorously for you.
• Solomon’s seal  do bloom but are primarily grown for their green and white foliage – though they’ll disappear completely after the first hard frost.  Their tuber-like roots spread and make this plant quite drought-tolerant, but those tall stalks may flop after you’ve planted them.  If so, you could cut back the stems by half or even stake the stems til the roots are settled enough to hold them up.
• Astilbes like shade or part-shade (preferably not hot afternoon sun).
• Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae (Robb’s Spurge) is what I have the most of.  I’ve trimmed off the chartreuse flowers on the giveaways because otherwise, they’d flop (not liking being moved in flower).  These evergreen beauties can’t tolerate any hot sun directly on them.   They spread by those long tendril-type roots.
• The assorted hostas have to go because I now have deer.   Except for a couple of short green and white ones, they’re all large cultivars, blue or chartreuse.
• Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ are 15" tall, love sun and attract swarms of pollinators.  Their cauliflower-like flowers start creamy in late summer, then turn pink, red and rust in succession.  You can leave the dried flowers up all winter for "winter interest," but cut off the dead ones in early spring. 

How to keep them alive
Get them in the ground as soon as possible, with good soil-root contact (pat them down) and give ‘em a good soaking.  Then keep the soil around them wet for a week – longer if they’re in the hot sun (and you might even construct some temporary shade for them.)  Then keep an eye on them for the first month in their new home.  Especially when the temperatures are near or approaching 90, like now, transplants are in danger of not surviving the move.  Water, water, water.