What Landscape Professionals Plant If Plants Are Up to Them

American Nursery magazine recently polled nearly 200 landscape industry professionals to determine their favorite plants in a number of categories.

Here are the results:

Bedding plants: impatiens, marigolds, begonias.

Coniferous shrubs: mountain pine (Pinus mugo), Norway spruce (Picea sabies “Nidiformus”), Alberta spruce (Picea glauca var. albertiana).

Coniferous trees: white pine (Pinus strobus), blue spruce (Picea pungens “Glauca”), hemlocks (Tsuga species).

Deciduous flowering shrubs: arrowwoods (Viburnum species), forsythias (Forsythia species), spirea (Spiraea species).

Deciduous shade trees, large: sugar maple (Acer saccharums), red oak (Quercus rubra), red maple (Acer rubrum).

Deciduous shade trees, small: amur maple (Acer ginnala), Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana “Bradford”), Japanese maple (Acer palmatum).

Evergreen shrubs: rhododendrons (Rhododendron species), yews (Taxus species), boxwoods (Buxus species).

Ground covers: spurges (Pachysandra species), periwinkles (Vinca species), bugleweeds (Ajuga species).

Ornamental trees: Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), maples (Acer species), dogwoods (Cornus species).

Variegated plants: dogwoods (Cornus species), spindle trees (Euonymus species), plantain lilies (Hosta species).

Vines: virgin’s-bowers (Clematis species), wisteria (Wisteria species), evening trumpet flower (Gelsemium sempervirens).

Woody plants, in general: pin oak (Quercus palustris), white pine (Pinus strobus), red oak (Quercus rubra).

Garlic Caused a Strike: The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Plant and Garden News reports that garlic, which has proven to be an excellent companion planting to apple trees and other members of the rose family for warding off borers, may have caused the first strike in history.

Garlic was a food staple of Egyptian slaves building the pyramids. Denied garlic, they refused to work. The reason for the garlic shortage isn’t clear, but “perhaps it was due to its use on mummies.” On March 30, 1989, the New York Times reported that a recently unearthed mummy sported a ring of garlic about the neck--the assumption being that, as with apple trees, the garlic helped to ward off insects and so aided preservation.

Distributed by AP Newsfeatures.