You may not have heard of this plant before, but once you hear about it and see it at your local Nursery, you will want

one for your garden. The plant, called the Red-vein Enkianthus, has many desirable traits, making it a wonderful plant to enjoy as it changes during the season. I got to know this plant when I first started working in the nursery industry over 40 years ago. I was in college and during my first summer home, I worked at a nursery in Scituate, Massachusetts called Kennedy's Country Gardens. The owner of the nursery. Bob Kennedy. loved this plant, and every home he helped to design managed to have one. Enkianthus grows in the sun or the shade; it grows upright and narrow making it a perfect plant for small areas and flowers during June. In the sun, the bees love the flowers.

Enkianthus will grow 4 to 6 inches each year, sometimes more. The way it grows is interesting: 4 to 6 inches of smooth red stem and the foliage on the tip of the stem. The leaves are oval--nothing special--but arranged in a group like an umbrella on the tip of that stem. In late May, the flower buds develop under the leaves and open during June, lasting all month in your garden. The flowers are beautiful and resemble large lilies of the valley with creamy yellow, bell-shaped blooms with red veins running in stripes down the bell. Where the bell opens at the bottom of the flower, it is all red and the top of the bell is green. When in bloom, the plant has the appearance of small umbrellas sheltering clusters of colorful bells under them. It is not as showy as a rhododendron in full bloom but when it's in bloom you'll know it, and love the show it makes in your garden. You can also use the plant as an accent plant in a long perennial border or rock garden. Finding flowering shrubs for the shade can be difficult and a real challenge, but this one is a real find for your shady gardens.

Enkianthus will grow 6 to 10 feet tall, but can be pruned easily to control size and kept at any height you want. The plant will spread 3 to 4 feet wide when mature, but I have seen them wider, so prune to keep narrow. When you plant, be sure to condition the soil with compost or peat moss in the hole. Plants will do best if the soil is acidic, rich in organic matter, moist and well drained. When the Landscaping Crew at Kennedy's planted shrubs, all the plants had a handful or two of Milorganite fertilizer added to the hole and worked into the compost. This gave the roots a little push for better root development. Water weekly, for the first year right up until the fall season. Enkianthus will do better if you cover the soil around the plant with 2 to 3 inches of bark mulch. This helps to keep the soil cooler during periods of high heat during

the summer and once the ground freezes in the winter it stays frozen, preventing root damage.

In the fall, you will see changes happening to this plant and you will like it as the foliage changes from its blue-green

 color to yellow, then orange and finally to bright red. If the plant has more sun, it has more color, but in the shade it is less vibrant but still beautiful. Plant where azaleas, rhododendrons, mountain laurel and hollies are planted in your

 garden beds as they will require the same type of growing conditions. Fertilize with Holly-Tone or Acid Adoring fertilizer

 in the spring of the year.

When the plant begins to bloom, cut some of the long flower stems, place them in a vase of water and enjoy the flower

 in your home. As a cut flower, it will last for 2 to 3 weeks on the kitchen table when mixed with other flowers or all by itself. Enjoy!

Time to plant the cucumbers

When the heat of summer arrives, the vegetable that activates my taste buds is the cucumber. Cucumbers are great all year long, but during the summer months, their flavor is unmatchable. A fresh picked cucumber from the vegetable garden or container has a unique flavor that the winter market cannot match. I like picking the cucumbers from the garden and feeling the tiny burs on the skin, a protective device to protect them from animals when young. In addition, the lack of paraffin wax covering the cucumber that helps to keep it fresh, as cucumbers are mostly water. The season may be short for this long green vegetable but when they are producing, I cannot get enough of them.

Here are a few things to remember about growing cucumbers. The roots of the plant are very shallow growing and if your soil is not prepared with compost, peat moss or animal manure, the plants will not produce as many cucumbers. The growing season for the plant will be shorter when the real heat arrives during mid to late August if you are not faithful with your watering. Lack of "regular" watering will give you odd shaped and bitter tasting cucumbers. To help keep the cucumbers productive be sure to add Soil Moist, a wonderful, water-holding crystal, to the ground when planting. If you have not done so, it is not too late to help the plant. At about 18 inches from the plants, punch several holes in the ground 6 to 8 inches deep, and put in a pinch in each hole and cover with soil. Remember Soil Moist expands 200 times, holding water for the roots when the plant needs it, so do not overuse this product.

Fertilize every couple of weeks if you are using a liquid feed like Neptune's Harvest, fish and sea fertilizer or Fertilome blooming and rooting fertilizer and apply it on the foliage as well as the ground. Kelp or seaweed applied to the ground when planting or as a liquid soil and foliar feed will help keep the plant flowering and produce more fruit. If you are using a granular food, apply as a band around the base of the plant 18 to 24 inches from the stems and do this monthly. I have always found that vine plants need more fertilizer than a bush plant because the plant has to work harder to get the food to the growing tips. Because the tips keep growing longer, the food has to travel further each day. Liquid foliar fertilizer really helps the plant because the food is where it is needed. The new mycorrhizae fertilizer "Protilizer" from Natural-Alternative is a liquid plant stimulator developed to double the root system of the plant. Just remember the cucumber roots are shalllow and when water gets scarce the cucumber gets bitter, so feed the plant a product Like Protilizer that develops a bigger root system.

If your plant is making a lot of flowers but few fruit, a couple of things could be causing this. Cucumbers produce many male flowers early as they grow to encourage bees to come to pollinate the plant. Female flowers will come when the plant is well rooted and able to get what it needs from the soil to make the fruit. This is why well fed cucumber plants produce earlier. Cloudy, cold, and wet weather prevents the bees from doing their job in the garden--and that is pollination. Flowers last just a few days on the plant and then fall if not pollinated. If you see that the weather pattern is calling for a rainy spell, here is what you can do to increase the cucumbers on the plants. Female flowers have a tiny cucumber behind the flower and the male flower does not. Before the weather changes, pick a couple of male flowers from the plant and rub them on the female flowers front to front. This will move the pollen from the male to the female flower just like the bees do and the plant will make cucumbers even when the weather is bad. Plant yellow marigolds near all vine vegetables to encourage bees to visit the garden.

Sometimes, cucumbers make fruit faster than you can eat it. Pick them and place them in your refrigerator or give them to the neighbors. If you allow them to turn yellow or orange, they begin to make mature seeds and the plant will stop producing. The goal of the cucumber is to make seeds and if you allow this to happen, the plant has done its job; it will rest and make leaves, so pick often. The best time to pick cucumbers is first thing in the morning as they are full of moisture and firm. Once the plants get hot, they lose moisture to the heat, soften, loose some flavor and do not keep as long in the refrigerator.

Grow cucumbers on the ground like most vine crops or on a trellis to save room in the garden. Trellis cucumbers will grow straighter as they dangle from the plant and flowers are more visible to insects in the area. Cucumbers have few insect problems and Eight garden dust will control them. Finally, avoid watering the garden late in the day, as wet foliage will encourage powdery mildew, a white powdery dust that if not controlled will kill the plant. If it starts to form on the foliage, use "Bayer" Natria organic fungicide control to keep plants clean and productive. All you need now is salt and pepper! Enjoy!