nurseryman in the Virginia Tidewater region are blessed with a gentle climate and wealth of tradition . Located between the York and James rivers , Williamsburg has fertile , sandy loam that is utter for challenging landscapes and native plants . Its growing time of year stretches from early April to November , average out more than 200 grow days each year . The nearby Chesapeake Bay provides some protection from " Nor’easter " storm , and mean downhearted temperatures fall only into the XX during the moth-eaten months of January and February .
The Colonial Garden
New World gardeners had a riches of space that their Old World relatives lacked . They also planted hard-nosed gardens that provided fruits , vegetable and herbs for the larder . The wealthiness of blank space and requirements of practicality ensue in Old - World - style " four - square " gardens , often determine by brick walls or boxwood , with herb , develop and ornamentals mixed together .
For herbs , plant angelica , Pimpinella anisum , basil , Nepeta cataria , Chamaemelum nobilis , chicory , Allium schoenoprasum ( onion and garlic ) and salad burnet ; all colonial favorites . Brighten the herb garden with artemesia , feverfew , monarda , stachys , calendula and clary sage , all herbs that blossom freely .
Ornamentals included corn whiskey ( Shirley ) poppy , Rose of Sharon , vulgar rose , tuberose , bloodroot , Cynthia tulip , lovemaking - in - a mist and yellow lupin . Also deal some of Thomas Jefferson ’s dearie , such as prickly poppy and scarlet pentapedes , Cherry , pear and crabapple trees provide spring colour as well as and fruit . Southern front-runner such as azaleas and camellias still grow in today ’s garden at Williamsburg .
Vegetables were considered luxuriousness in compound days . Amid ornamental and herbs , colonial gardeners develop lettuce , cabbage , broad edible bean , Tragopogon porrifolius , Cynara cardunculus , pumpkins , patty pan and yellowish crook neck squash . A moneyed garden might have cauliflower , artichoke and celery .
settler felled quondam growth coastal forests of pine and oak and embed such trees as beech , ash , cucumber tree ( a type of magnolia ) , redbud and catalpa .
Ornamentals
Today ’s nurseryman , who enjoy the convenience of the mod grocery , may want cosmetic rather than all - purpose garden . Boxwood and brickwork border are still popular , but many garden designs are more capable . Magnolias and Bradford pears are signature flowering trees in the Tidewater but tend to be messy and poor choice for street Tree . Beautyberry , dogwood tree and mock orange provide colorful shrubbery and make handsome hedges . Because Williamsburg is in USDA zone 7 , just about any type of rosebush will flourish here . winter are insensate enough to properly cool tulip , daffodils , jacinth and crocus . Hybrid daylilies , most of which are audacious between zones 5 and 8 , are easy to grow .
Native Plants
Native plants can stand the heating system and humidity of Tidewater summers and pay heed on through wintertime ’s casual snows . Native trees let in pin , Chinkapin and coastal unrecorded oaks ; American plum tree ; and scottish maple . Some aboriginal plants that require less water and less fertilizer than non - native species include red columbine , Eastern blue star , easterly over-embellished coneflower , Joe Pye weed , Virginia bluebells , waste and red bergamot , sweet William , and New England aster . Use great blue lobelia and cardinal flower for wetland . Native shrubs include wild hydrangea , alternate - leaf dogwood tree and Southern bayberry .
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