Often overlooked and underused, Winterberry can actually deliver a very long lasting color feast for the eyes in areas of the landscape that lack excitement. Red Sprite Winterberry has shown itself to be a good performer with a modest size of 3-5 feet while displaying large quantities of brilliant red 1/4″ berries from early fall through [...]
It really doesn’t take much to make hum drum spots in your landscape / property just a little nicer. Things like mailboxes, utility boxes, utility hookups and the like can all be softened, hidden or enhanced by the simple addition of the right plant materials. There is no absolute right or wrong except perhaps doing [...]
If you are tired of using skinny poplar trees to provide a narrow windbreak or screen, you may want to try Prairie Sentinel Hackberry. While our native Hackberry is a tough shade tree growing to a very tall and wide size, Prairie Sentinel Hackberry, introduced by J. Frank Schmidt Nursery, has similar versatility for various [...]
If you are looking for a smaller tree that is really different, Kindred Spirit Oak may provide just the characteristics you are looking for. Kindred Spirit is a hybrid Oak very similar to Regal Prince Oak, but presents an even narrower profile. The deep dark green leaves of Kindred Spirit Oak have a handsome shiny [...]
Here’s a great high quality, hardy and showy tree for smaller spaces. Sugar Maples (hard maple) have long been considered the King of Shade Trees due to beautiful form, strong wood and stunning fall colors, reaching mature sizes of 70 feet tall by 50 feet wide! Apollo Dwarf Sugar Maple sports handsome deep green leaf [...]
Landscape plants are much like pets and humans in their need for some tender loving care during major heat waves and long dry spells. When provided with enough, but not too much water and nutrition people, pets and valuable landscape plants will do well even under extreme heat stress. New plantings are especially vulnerable until [...]
As spring flowering shrubs complete their blossoming cycles, I’m always eager to see hydrangeas begin forming and opening their lush and numerous flowers. Right now, we are seeing Quickfire, Invincibelle Spirit, Annabelle and Incrediball Hydrangeas produce the first hydrangea blossoms of the season. Quickfire Hydrangea produces an early and airy white blossom that seems to [...]
A bright spot in the early summer landscape is the very fragrant and showy Japanese Tree Lilac. Large creamy white blossoms open an Japanese Tree Lilacs about a month after most of the lilac shrubs start their bloom period. A nice feature of the Japanese [...]
As the years roll by, I find myself called on to do more and more diagnosis on why certain landscape plants are performing poorly. I am seeing Black Walnut Toxicity on a more frequent basis, enough so that I am training our staff to always keep this factor in mind when advising our customers on [...]
As spring rains have caused rapid growth of lawns and the need for frequent mowings, I have once again seen fresh examples of severe damage to landscape trees. Careless use of string trimmers is the most common cause of severe damage to trees that I see during the many site visits I make to help [...]
Few flowering crabs that are hardy in the upper Midwest can match the floral display of the Prairie Rose Flowering Crab. This tree has several distinctive traits. First, the Prairie Rose blooms a week to ten days after other flowering crabs, thereby extending the bloom season when used with other varieties. Secondly, Prairie Rose blossoms [...]
I have found myself looking forward to the blossoming of the redbuds that have been planted here and there around town. Redbuds consistently provide lovely purple blossoms, and usually lots of them. We recommend the Minnesota Strain Redbud mostly because of their demonstrated hardiness. As the Magnolia and Forsythia flowers of early spring begin to [...]
After a long Minnesota winter, many of us are craving the sight of the spring blossoms. Hardy Magnolias have proven to be one of the best landscape plants to provide early spring blossoms that are large and showy. While crocuses, daffodils, tulips and cilla are other great plants to get a fix of early spring [...]
Patience pays big dividends when doing tillage of the soil to prepare for spring planting. Whether you do your tillage with a 4 tined hand cultivator, a garden fork, a shovel, a roto tiller, or a plow behind a giant 4 wheel tractor, wait until the ground has dried well and crumbles when worked. If [...]
We would like to extend the opportunity for you, your child’s class, your service club, your church group, your softball/bowling team, your carpool, your neighbors…. to join us in sponsoring tree plantings for our city, to be planted in public spaces. Knecht’s will provide trees at half price. As a sponsor of a tree for [...]
