Knecht’s

The maple tree with all it’s many varieties continues to be the most popular tree planted.  The question that we are asked the most is “What kind of fall color does this one have”.  We are showing a few of the popular varieties with the 2008 fall color display here.  We have these trees in stock and have several different sizes and price ranges in most varieties. 

Starting today - October 8, 2008 through October 12th we are putting our balled and burlapped (B&B) Autumn Blaze Maple on sale at Buy One Get One Free!  - that’s a heck of a savings!  Buy one at the regular price and the second tree is free!   (If you only want one Autumn Blaze - the trees are currently 30% off regular price - which is still a great savings!)

Autumn Blaze Maple - the most popular tree on the landscape market.   A hybrid - it’s fast growing - sensational fall color - and can grow in most soil conditions.   Print off the copy of this blog post and bring it with you when you pick out your new trees and receive the discount.   This sale ends on October 12, 2008 and applies only to the cost of the tree.  If you would hire our crew to plant them for you - you will need to pay the cost of the planting for the free tree.

There’s no limit on the number of free trees that you can get!  (except while supplies last!).   If you buy 5 Autumn Blaze Maple  B&B  at the regular price - you’ll receive 5 free!

Offer does not apply to any trees in black nursery containers - only to the balled and burlapped trees.  Free tree would be of equal or lesser value.

Now is the time to take advantage of all of our fall sale prices!  Leif is pictured here standing in front of some of our Autumn Blaze Maples.  What fantastic fall color!!!

These trees are now 30% off the regular prices so you can realize exceptional savings on an exceptional tree!  As with any of our plants - you can plant these yourself or hire our crews to do the planting for you!   If we plant the trees for you - all the is left for you to do is the watering!

Now is the time to stop in at the nursery and check out the fall colors.  Even if planting isn’t on your “to do list” this fall - you will still be able to see the fall colors which are so important to so many for our Minnesota landscapes.

Some of the other trees that are showing great color include the Celebration Maple, Sienna Glen Maple, and Firefall to name just a few.   Stop in soon and check these out!

 Leif’s article for the October 4, 2008, Northfield News was on Bittersweet!  Read on….

One of the native plants that can make a striking statement in the fall landscape is the bittersweet vine.  With brilliant orange clusters of fruit hanging on winding vines and curling tendrils, bittersweet brings its vivid display of color to the landscape just as other plants are fading.

 Out in the countryside around Northfield, wild Bittersweet vine can be found here and there growing on fence lines, along railroad rights of way and climbing up trees of many sizes to reach for sunlight.  While Bittersweet is sometimes found in heavier woodlands, it seems to prefer edges, openings, and areas disturbed by some kind of activity, where it can access more sunlight.

 Once the firm orange fruits - 3/8″ to 1`/2″ in diameter open to reveal a very deep orange flesh, they usually persist on the vines throughout the winter, or until they are eaten by birds and other wildlife.  This habit of persisting on the vine and retaining excellent color for many months makes Bittersweet berries one of the most visually stimulating native plants Read the rest of this entry »

We are now selling firewood!  We have prime hardwood firewood which comes from Rice County - oak, hard maple, hickory, ironwood, and black ash.  It has been cut, split, stacked and dried for two years!   We have found that by drying the wood for two years, performance in an open fireplace is far superior and creosote buildup in chimneys is far less.   We will deliver it to your site! 

The picture shows a fireplace cord of wood - 8′ long by 4′ high.  If you need firewood for fires in the fireplace, or simply an outdoor fire or two this fall - you will not be disappointed with this firewood.

Our pricing for a fireplace cord - delivered within the Northfield zipcode is $195.  If you have any questions or need additional information - please give us a call - 507-645-5015.

We are often asked what a good tree would be for a site - usually the customer would like a fast growing tree - beautiful fall color - they don’t have the best of soil conditions, etc.   Almost without hesitation we can recommend the Autumn Blaze Maple.

The Autumn Blaze Maple is the most popular shade tree on the landscape market.  We sell more Autumn Blaze than any other variety.  It is a hybrid maple, Acer x freemanii “Jeffersred” by it’s formal name.  It will grow to be a full sized maple tree - 50′ to 60′ in height and can get as wide as 30′ to 40′!  It will adapt to almost all kinds of soil conditions and since it is a hybrid - has a vigorous growth rate.

As you can see in the picture here - the fall color is truly awesome!  We planted this tree as a small 15 gal container tree - about 6′-7′ tall and in less than ten years - it has grown to be a wonderful shade tree in this customer’s yard.

With the values that you will find during our fall sale - now is definitely the time to come and pick out an Autumn Blaze!  You can pick one up and take it home and plant it - or you can hire our crews to plant it for you.  Just as our sales staff for all the details!

Leif’s article in last week’s Northfield News addressed the many different plants that put on a color show in the fall.  Read on….

“In a difficult real estate market it can be an advantage to be able to show prospective buyers that the house you have for sale has some appealing features that set it apart.  Top quality landscape plants that also show outstanding autumn color can be just the thing to trip the trigger and bring you a purchase offer.

If you have plants that paint the landscape in eye popping colors be sure you take plenty of good digital pictures this fall, and assemble them into an on-line slide show.  Your agent can then see that this selling tool gets included in the sales materials that people looking for a home can look through and any time of the year get a real feel for all the best the house has to offer.

If your landscape is a bit drab in the fall and you think you may be selling in a few years, now is a great time to put in some trees, shrubs and perennials that can add some amazing curb appeal.  This is the time of year when you can visit your favorite nursery and see plants in their fall glory.  Don’t wait too long to go and look because the autumn color show doesn’t last forever. Read the rest of this entry »

We have officially started our fall sale.   All plants are at least 30% off and many are at 50% off. 

There are shade trees, ornamental trees, evergreen trees all available and in all sizes and price ranges.  We still have availability on most varieties of shrubs - with a few having sold out for the season.   There are still many varieties of perennials available as well - with about half of the varieties at 50% off and the others at 30%.  This does include the hostas as well!

Fall is a great time for planting.  There are still a few weeks for the roots to begin their journey into the surrounding soil, and then they’ll be “sleeping” for the winter as they enter their dormant period.  The biggest thing to remember with fall planting is that you should be sure to mulch 2-3″ over the entire planting surface including about 2″ beyond where you started to dig.  This will ensure that you new plant is tucked in well for the winter.  With fall plantings - the plants are in the ground and ready to start their new season’s growth as soon as the weather warms up in March/April next spring.  You don’t lose any part of next year’s growing season.

We recently donated 12 trees to the Old Memorial Field Park (swimming pool site) here in Northfield.  Each year we like to donate trees to a park or public place here in Northfield.  This picture shows our landscape crew, Jim Westlund, Richard Middleton and Todd Marnie finishing the planting of one of the trees.

This year, we also donated trees that were planted by the high school track between Bridgewater Elementary and the Northfield Middle School.   In the past, we have also donated trees that were planted at the Soccer Field park.

This is our way of thanking the Northfield community for your continued business.

Our spring bulb assortment just arrived! 

We have tulips, daffodils, narcissi, hyacinth, crocus, allium, muscari and scilla bulbs ready for your fall planting.  These will add a riot of color to your spring garden. 

We have tulips in several colors including a two toned maroon and gold - the Northfield school colors!  We also have blue tulips and gold, for Carleton’s school colors and black tulips and gold ones for the St. Olaf school colors. 

If you have a special event planned for next spring and you would like to have the school colors in your garden - plan now and get them planted this fall!

Bulbs can be planted safely anytime in September and October.  You should plan out where you want your bulbs planted and with the other plants in your garden that will also blossom in the spring so you can have an incredible color display.  You will get the best results with bulbs if you plant them in clusters of several bulbs together.

Yes - we’re open the whole weekend.  Our hours on Saturday are 8 to 5, from 10 to 4 on Sunday and we’ll be here on Labor Day from 8 am till 5pm.

The Elms are back!  There are now many varieties of Elm back on the landscape market that are disease resistant to the Dutch Elm disease.  The Elm is a tree that can handle difficult soil conditions, is a fast grower and a wonderful shade tree.  It just doesn’t show a lot of vibrant colors in the fall just more of a nice yellow color.

Some of the varieties that we are carrying now are Discovery, Danada Charm, Vanguard, Prospector, Frontier, New Horizons, Accolade, Princeton and Triumph Elm.  Some of these are hybrids and others are true American Elms.  This weekend, Mary Schier and her husband Steve, were in and purchased a Triumph Elm to be planted in their front yard.  Mary is the editor of the Northern Gardener magazine and has been a customer of ours for many years.   After doing research for articles and knowing the wonderful attributes of the Elms now with so many being resistant to Dutch Elm, they came in search for a new elm.  With the help of Leif, Mary and Steve picked out the Triumph Elm.  Triumph Elm is a hybrid between the Vanguard and Accolade Elm - features an upright oval to vase-shaped growth habit and has glossy dark green foliage.  In the next week or so - our crews will be installing this new tree in their yard here in Northfield!

We have taken our first shipment of the Minnesota hardy fall Mums!  In several shades of yellow, purple, and bronze get yours now for those fall color displays.  We also have a limited number of straw bales for fall decorating and plenty of the ever popular purple fountain grass to accent with for fall!  Get a head start on your fall decorating! 

This is the time of the season that the hydrangeas are doing their thing with the gorgeous flower balls in colors from white, pink and blue.  The Pinky Winky Hydrangea, pictured here, is a newer introduction onto the hydrangea scene.  It has two-toned flower heads with large 12"-16" flowers that emerge white, then turn pink.  The dark green foliage provides a great contrast for the flowers - which makes a stunning statement in your garden.

We have many other hydrangeas in stock as well.  The reliable Annabelle, Pee Gee, Tardiva, Quik Fire, and the blue Endless Summer.  Hydrangea flowers are also wonderful to cut, dry and use in arrangements indoors.

Now is a great time to start planning your beds for the spring of 2009!  By now you know what did and didn’t work this season and you can also see what other people have done and how it’s doing.  I can take full credit for very few combinations of annuals and perennials - most have been found by trial and error on my part or on the part of a fellow gardener.  So, make those notes now, take those pictures, and let yourself start dreaming about those colors, textures and combinations that are yet to be.

Pictured here is a glorious Morning Glory.  A blue that true will make anyone stop and take notice.  It’s like the sky dropped a little piece of itself and it landed on our trellis.  These Morning Glory vines may be annuals but they are wonderfully vigorous and fast growing climbers that can make quick work of a trellis or an arbor.  This year we planted them on the same trellis as our porcelain vine so that the trellis would fill in more quickly but also to extend the bloom season.

(The above article was submitted by Heidi Gervais - our retail manager)