Magic Carpet Spirea continues to rank as one of my favorite shrubs because of its multiple color phases throughout the growing season, ease of maintenance and modest size.
With a rated size of 18″-24″, Magic Carpet Spirea is very useful in smaller spaces in the landscape. In very good quality soils, Magic Carpet may grow a bit larger, but it is very easy to cut back aggressively in the spring to keep it as manageable size.
Each spring Magic Carpet Spirea starts out as a bright reddish burgundy shrub that lights up its part of the landscape. Over a period of weeks, the burgundy new leaves change to gold, and soon violet / pink flowers cover the whole plant. Once the blossoms fade in mid-summer, you can re-create the burgundy to gold color phases by lightly pruning enough to remove the spent blossoms. New burgundy growth will push out and a light second set of blossoms often follow. The third color phase takes place in fall when the leaves that have aged to a gold/chartreuse once again become a vivid burgundy.
Magic Carpet Spirea will grow in a wide variety of soil types and has its best color when planted in a location with 1/2 day to full sun. An “old standby” shrub – it’s economical and will perform well. (Photo courtesy of Bailey Nurseries)
Cardinal Redtwig Dogwood has long been my favorite variety of red twig dogwood because of it’s vigorous growth, ability to grow in a wide variety of soil types, and its electric orange/red winter twig color. While most red twig dogwood varieties have a nice burgundy with a tinge of red winter stem color, Cardinal Red Twig Dogwood bark changes from a green summer color to an intensely bright, almost flourescent red. This creates an amazing color treat on sunny winter days when a massed planting of Cardinal Red Twig Dogwood produces a stunning contrast with a fresh snowfall.
Cardinal Red Twig Dogwood grows to 8′-10′ tall and is a selection made by the plant research program of the University of Minnesota. Hardy to frigid zone 3, Cardinal’s green leaves turn to a pleasing purple-red in fall. When the leaves drop they reveal the twigs which have turned from summer green to flaming scarlet. Cardinal Red Twig dogwood is also very versatile with a demonstrated ability to grow in soils from poorly draineed to well drained upland soils.
Plant some Cardinal Red Twig Dogwood now, enjoy it now and wait for the magic to start this fall!
Our 4th Annual Kid’s Planting Day was a huge success this year with over 50 planters being potted up. Heidi’s little girl – Belinda – was very excited today as she picked up her planters for her Mom and Grandmas.
Here’s wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms, Grandmas, and the other special women in the lives of all of us! Have a wonderful day!
A big thank you to little Belinda for such a beautiful pot of flowers she gave me!
Every year I get excited about one of our new hosta varieties that we bring in. This year – it’s ‘Wheee!’. The extremely ruffled leaves make this plant a unique specimen. They have a heavier substance leaf which will make them more resistant to slugs.
A medium sized hosta – it will sport light lavendar flowers atop purples scapes in mid-summer. It was selected in 2011 to belong to the Proven Winners line of plants.
Hosta continue to be a leader in perennials and with thousands of varieties available on the market, it’s hard not to find some that strike your fancy. If you’ve been thinking of starting a collection – or simply adding one – think about hosta ‘Wheee!’.
We have a limited supply of ‘Wheee!’ – these won’t last long!
Every once in a while, you need to step outside the box when considering landscape plants. At the end of February, we toured several of our nursery suppliers on the west coast and were awe struck at the Iseli Nursery in Boring, Oregon. We just received our shipment of creative evergreens this week and they are definitely amazing.
Whether you are thinking tall and skinny evergreens, contorted shapes, shorter, slower growing, whatever – we now have the evergreens needed for that special spot. Definite conversation starters for sure!
To the top left, you’ll see the ‘Uncle Fogy’ Contorted Jack Pine! Wildly, undulating, pendulous branches give unique character to every plant of this distinctive form of Jack Pine. The plants bend and swoop to create a curvy, living sculpture. This is definitely a collector’s plant!
One that is absolutely beautiful (and a little more traditional) is the ‘Cupressina’ Norway Spruce. This is an upright narrow form that makes it a must have for urban lots where size is a definite consideration. (see previous blog)
Perhaps one of the most impressive plants that we saw in the massive display beds at Iseli was the Weeping Norway Spruce – pictured here on the right. We saw a mature plant that reached nearly 30 feet in height and was perfect in every way. Incredible. The dark green, Weeping Norway Spruce is trained into an outstanding upright specimen or can even be trained to become a undulating groundcover.
These are just a few examples of what we have for “Creative Evergreens”. Quantities are limited in these varieties so if this is something that gets your imagination going – don’t delay in stopping in and “stepping outside the box”.
Long range forecasts look pretty good, so in all likelihood, annual flowers and veggies planted now will escape frosts. Enjoy your time in the garden as you paint the landscape with the nonstop color of annual flowers.
This year at Knecht’s Nurseries, we are featuring a brand new line of extra large cell annuals that are locally grown. We’ve already seeing really nice extra growth response from these large cell annuals in the baskets potted up on Kid’s Planting Day!
Stop in today to check out these great performing locally grown annuals!
Many landscape plants broke dormancy extraordinarily early this year, and had new growth or swelled buds that were damaged by a hard freeze several weeks ago. Many plants had new growth shrivel and turn brown or black.
Now we are seeing that many of these plants are putting out a second push of new growth where frost “fried” the first flush. We are also seeing some plants just barely starting this process, but it looks like for certain varieties the appearance of new growth after frost damage might take longer. Don’t give up on plants that seem dead, at least until June. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Sign up through Northfield Community Ed to “think outside” with me, Heidi Brosseau, for one of my Creative Container Gardening Classes. One will be held on Thursday evening, May 10th, and the second one is on Thursday night, May 17th. These classes are sponsored through Northfield Community Education and will be held here at Knecht’s Nurseries starting at 6;30 pm. As far as container gardening goes, your imagination will be your only limitation. Pots, bowls, boots, hats, shoes, wash tubs, dishes – you name it – you can garden in it. You bring whatever container(s) you like, and I’ll help you creatively fill them. You may bring your own supplies or purchase them here at the nursery. (Please bring your own container)
We had a lawn mower that had it’s motor bite the dust and I saw a container gardening opportunity. Once the motor was removed – an inverted black container, and what else – ornamental grass – and vines will make for a container that will definitely be a conversation piece.
Come and let your imagination run wild!
(This blog was submitted by our retail manager – Heidi Brosseau)
- Prairie Rose Flowering Crab
The Prairie Rose Flowering Crab has to have the most stunning flowers of any crabapple tree! These rose like flowers bloom just a little after the other flowering crabs put on their color show.
This tree is one of the few flowering crabapple trees that are fruitless. For those who do not want any berries on their trees – this is the tree for you! These deep pink double blossoms are very fragrant and grows to a height of 20 feet tall by 20 feet wide with a more rounded mature shape.
We have a limited number of these trees – in a larger balled and burlapped package available – and they are now on sale at 50% off! We sold 2 yesterday to a couple who are lining the one side of their yard with flowering trees. These two Prairie Rose will be joined by 2 Royal Raindrops Flowering Crab, 2 Spring Snow Flowering Crab and a Minnesota Strain of Redbud. This combination will give these folks a pink, deep pink/red, white and a rose/purple spring color palette.
The Prairie Rose Crabs are in full blossom right now. Stop in and check them out so you can see the beauty of the Prairie Rose Crab!
It’s safe to plant elm trees! Now that many excellent varieties have been developed that are extremely resistant to Dutch Elm Disease. You can plant Elms with confidence. Triumph Elm is a complex hybrid elm that has been extensively tested and proved itself to rank very high in its resistance to Dutch Elm Disease.
Not only is Triumph Elm a great choice for it’s disease resistance, but it is also a beautiful, fast growing, hardy, and versatile shade tree. While triumph Elm is not a true American Elm, it certainly has an appearance very similar to American Elm, with noticeably larger leaves than Asian elms and a graceful, upward spreading vase shape that becomes a large tree casting plenty of cooling shade.
Triumph can grow in almost any soil, but will grow most quickly in soils with good moisture retention qualities, and plenty of sunshine. At maturity Triumph Elm will reach 60′ – 70′ tall by 40+ feet wide. Hardy in zones 4-7.
Another variety that has shown itself to be quite resistant to Dutch Elm Disease, and it offers a modest sized alternative to most of the other new Elm varieties that grow to a larger size. Discovery Elm grows quickly, forming a dense, rounded, compact shape, and has limited seed production, which reduces litter. The appearance is tidy and shapely, so much so that when I met a tree spade operator in one of our fields recently, he remarked how nice they were, and wanted to know which variety it was!
Like other elms, Discovery can be grown in a very wide variety of soil types and is super winter hardy with a rating into the very cold zone 3!
White barked birch trees have long been among the most graceful and eye catching landscape trees, and Renaissance Oasis Paper Birch ranks among the best choices for use in the upper Midwest. Oasis Paper Birch grows quickly, tolerating a fairly wide range of soil types, and as stems increase to a diameter of 2″ to 3″ and more, a very pure white bark develops with nice accents of reddish brown that add a lively appearance and a subtle color counter point.
Renaissance Oasis Paper Birch is a result of a 40 year breeding program at Evergreen Nurseries in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin that set a goal to develop paper birches with increased resistance to bronze birch borer. Oasis took it’s name from its demonstrated ability in test plots to survive in drought, excessively drained soils, but Oasis Paper Birch really grows its very best in soils with good, but not excessive moisture levels. Avoid water logged soils. Happily, Oasis can tolerate soils with moderate alkalinity that can cause the more widely planted River Birches to gradually turn yellow and die. If you have alkaline soils, you may want to give Oasis Paper Birch a try.
Renaissance Oasis Paper Birch is most often seen in the landscape as a clump form, but you may want to consider using 5 or 7 single stem trees in a staggered layout that imitates the thickets of birch commonly found in the wild.
In the right place in the landscape, a small thicket of single stem Oasis Paper Birch can provide a striking frame or backdrop for other landscape elements. Oasis grows to a mature size of 60′ tall by 30′ wide, and like it’s close cousin Reflection Paper Birch, is able to produce a fairly straight tree, even in pretty windy locations.
Renaissance Reflection Paper Birch offers homeowners, landscape designers, and landscapers a white barked birch variety with very nice characteristics. Part of the Renaissance series of birch hybrids, Reflection Paper Birch is most recognizable for its’ very straight stems and nice white bark that develops as stems increase to 2″ to 3″ in diameter. Reflection will go to 50′ tall and also 20′-30′ wide.
Bloomerang Dwarf Lilac is creating a stir in the gardening world. Like it’s close cousins the dwarf lilac category, Bloomerang Lilac displays nice fine textured foliage, fragrant lilac blossoms, and most notable of all, blooms more than once during the growing season!
With a compact and mounded shape, Bloomerang Lilac fits well as a foundation plant, small hedge or an accent to larger shrubs/small trees/perennials. A vigorous spring bloom is followed by a “rest” period in the heart of summer, and more blossoming in late summer and through fall right to the first heavy frost.
Bloomerang Lilac prefers 1/2 day to full day sun, properly drained soils, and can even prosper in alkaline soils. As with all other lilacs, avoid water logged soils and heavy shade. With its wonderful re-blooming characteristics, Bloomerang Dwarf Lilac will please for years to come. Mature size is rated at 4′-5′ tall by 5′-6′ wide compared to 10′-15′ tall and wide for standard lilacs.
Photo courtesy of Bailey Nurseries.
April 28, 2012 – 11:16 am
Not even 38 degrees with a cold rain could stop these little folks from coming and planting a special container of flowers for Mom or Grandma for Mother’s Day!
This is our 4th year of offering this opportunity for parents to introduce gardening for their children. Some were tentative, others dug right in. We keep these pots in our production house for a couple of weeks and then right before Mother’s Day, we dress them up with a bow and a Mother’s Day pick.
Smiles all around!
See the large slideshow of the dozen photos or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
