Knecht's » Annuals

Fall Planter Ideas

Deb Knecht — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:25:36 +0000

Heidi Brosseau - our retail manager submits the following blog.

Now is the time to refresh your baskets, beds and planters!

Are your containers looking a little tired? Did your baskets fizzle in the summer heat? Maybe you have lots of green plants and not a lot of color in that perennial border this time of year. Dress them up & refresh them! Add some seasonal color & fall beauty to your planters, beds & borders with plants perfect for late season displays. Here are some of our favorites!

Minnesota Hardy Mums: They are finally here everyone. Come and get ‘em. Bright eye catching colors on dense compact plants. Perfect for filling those empty spots and containers.

Asters: A late season surprise. The first Asters are just beginning to open their daisy style flowers. These hardy perennials will be blooming until hard frosts come. Providing a reliable wave of color in the fall garden. Excellent mixed with Mums and Kale.

Grasses: Whether you go with an annual or a perennial variety it doesn’t matter, you’re going to add graceful, elegant movement and color to your plantings. Many varieties have both showy plumes that appear late summer to fall as well as brilliant fall color.

Sedums: Beloved by butterflies and gardeners alike! These are the “tough guys” in the Minnesota garden. Reliable and vigorous these succulent plants add wonderful texture with their thick leaves as well as a multitude of foliage colors and variegation. They like to build up a little suspense, making us watch their forming buds all season long before finally showing us what they can do.

Ornamental Kale: Color and texture are packed into these interesting members of the cabbage family. Perfect along edges, in containers or baskets.

Heuchera, Tiarella and Heucherella: More commonly known as Coral Bells, Foam Flower, and Foamy Bells, these wonderful plants are compact and dense with foliage that ranges from chartreuse to green, rusty peach to maroon and purple. Some are even variegated or veined. Awesome in containers or the landscape. These are very versatile plants!

Ajuga: This popular ground cover is terrific in
containers as well as the ground! Shiny
even metallic looking leaves are amazing next to some of the softer textured
plants.

Weigela: These compact shrubs have variegated or maroon purple foliage and they bloom in the spring. Mature sizes will vary by variety. Hummingbirds love them too!

Tiger Eye Sumac: Deeply cut leaves are golden chartreuse and turn orange with red in the fall. Amazing paired with some of the darker leaves shrubs and perennials.

Hydrangeas: What wonderful additions to the landscape! Hydrangeas bloom from summer until frost and go through many, butterfly attracting, stages of beauty along the way. The Hydrangea paniculata prefer full to part sun and send out white or lime green buds that open to a beautiful clean ivory that matures to a lovely mauve pink. As our nights get cooler and the flowers dry they become a parchment color that carries us into winter.

Many of the plants I have listed above are Minnesota hardy. If you use them in a container planting or basket remember, you can plant them in your landscape before winter and enjoy them for years to come.

I should mention that in Minnesota our winters are too cold for most plants to overwinter in an above ground container. Proper planting and mulching before the ground freezes will help your perennial plants come through the winter!

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Vegetable Garden

Deb Knecht — Sat, 28 May 2011 01:00:12 +0000

Vegetable Garden

Leif and I finished planting our vegetable garden last weekend. Since we spend 7 days a week here at the nursery, we have the garden here where we can tend to it. A number of years ago we decided to cover our vegetable garden with weed barrier fabirc and grow our vegetables in the small slits and holes that we cut in the cloth. We weren’t sure if this would work out but it has been a wonderful way to grow a vegetable garden since we have far fewer weeds to deal with and less blight problems. We hand dig wherever we have the opening sin the fabric – work in some fertilizer and plant our seeds and vegetable liners, etc.

One of the best “perks” of our work here at the nursery is what we learn from our customers. A few years ago, a college friend of Leif’s stopped in and in chit chatting – we learned that he placed a banana peel under the tomato plants before he planted them. The potassium from the banana peel gives a boost to the tomato plant. That summer we planted our tomato plants (except for two) with banana peels. The banana peel tomatoes surpassed in growth by leaps and bounds compared to the two with no peel, and the size of the fruit was amazing! Needless to say, we save our banana peels starting in early May and put them to good use!

Abnormally rainy spring weather has caused quite a few fvolks to delay planting gardens and flower beds this year. We do have good supplies of most varieties of vegetable 4-paks and single paks as well as all kinds of annual flowers. Warmer weather that is coming next week will really activate any vegetable or flower liners planted this week so despite the delays you should be ablve to have great eating and nice flowers this season.

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Annuals and Garden Veggies

Deb Knecht — Sat, 14 May 2011 21:58:05 +0000

Cart of Vegetables

Annuals, hanging baskets and Proven Winners

Our greenhouses are full with a great assortment of annuals, Proven Winners, veggies, herbs & hanging baskets. Our annual and veggie 4 paks are just $1.59. The weather forecast is now looking awesome for this next week – there are even temps forecast in the 70′s. Stop in and fill up your cart while the selection is good.

We have petunias, marigolds, impatiens, coleus, allysum, dianthus, vinca, moss roses, salvia, dusty miller, pansys, snap dragons, and more in 4-paks. In the specialty annuals, you will find trailing petunias, wave petunias, many different vines and fillers for your continers, sun coleus, euphorbia, diacia, fuschia, caladium, thumbergia vines, cleome, phlox, gerbia daisy, geraniums in many colors – including a limited number of the Martha Washington varieties of geraniums (gorgeous) , non-stop begonias, double impatiens, New Guinea Impatiens, calibrachoa, dahlias and many more.

In the vegetable department you’ll find brocolli, cabbage, eggplant, squash, pole beans, bush beans, cucumber, pumpkin, tomatoes, including heirloom varieties, pepper plants, corn, Indian corn, gourd plants, at least a dozen different herbs, and more! We still have a few bags of seed potatoes, and onion sets, garlic and asparagus roots. There are six different varieties of strawberry plants available this year. We have 2 ever-bearing varieties and 4 June bearing strawberries.

Browse our previous blog posts to find our coupon for May which is good for 15% off of one flat of annual 4-paks.

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Proven Winner Supertunia is Here

Deb Knecht — Wed, 11 May 2011 19:24:59 +0000

The Proven Winners Supertunia^R Pretty Much Picasso^R came in today! They are beautiful! These unique flowers sport violet purple flowers edged in lime green. This vigorous plant is great for mixing in combination with other plants. They’ll atrract butterflies and hummingbirds, you don’t need to deadhead, they tolerate drought and heat very well, are pet friendly and low maintenance. How much easier could it be?

Pretty Much Picasso

They are a shorter plant – reaching a height of 8″-12″ and have a trailing habit. When you make up your combination baskets – they are the spiller for your basket. Your taller plant is the thriller and you can use other short, upright plants as fillers. These plants want full sun and should be watered regularly. When you initially do your containers, you should apply a slow release fertilizer as a top dress. When watering, twice a month you should feed with a water soluble fertilizer. Follow the package directions on the fertilizer you select. This should keep your annuals looking wonderful from the time you bring them home, until the first hard frost hits.

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Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Deb Knecht — Fri, 06 May 2011 01:20:52 +0000

We have all kinds of hanging baskets – single flower baskets – mixed flower baskets – sun – shade – ferns – and some beautiful Begonia baskets! Colorful watering cans – gardening gloves & tools, whimsical pot stakes – herb gardens – pansy baskets, geranium planters…. the list goes on. If you are still stumped – how about a Knecht’s Gift Certificate.. then Mom can come and pick out her own special gift. The weather now seems like spring so stop in and pick up that perfect Mother’s Day Gift.

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More Annuals Have Arrived

Deb Knecht — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:49:17 +0000

Gerber Daisy

The long range forecast is looking more optimistic and we just received two more shipments of annuals today. We have an amazing selection of hanging baskets, the Proven Winners came in and geraniums, vines, dahlias, gerber daisys and more are here! There is going to be a frenzy now when the sun is coming out to get out and buy annuals – and we are all set!

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Open Easter Sunday

Deb Knecht — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:55:04 +0000

Open Easter Sunday!! Our late spring has delayed alot of the fun in the garden, but it’s going to be a beautiful day and we’ll be here from 10 am to 4 pm. We have a full selection of trees, shrubs and perennials along with a nice assortment of annual 4-paks, veggies and even some herb planters.

Just for Easter Sunday only - we’ll have an Easter basket filled with plastic eggs containing a surprise discount for the day. Come in and pick an egg for a extra-special eggciting discount! Hop on in – we’ll be here. Discounts will be from 10% to 15% and are applicable to any plant material! (even plants that are on sale!) Discount applies only to plant material – no hardgoods, mulches or bagged product.

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Annuals are Here!!!

Deb Knecht — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:38:27 +0000

Herb Gardens

: Pansys & Violas

Our first shipment of annuals are in! They arrived late yesterday afternoon and look fabulous! We have the cool season annuals – Alyssum, Pansy, Petunia, Dusty Miller, Diathus, Snapdragons and Violas. We also brought in a handful of other varieties for use in our Mother’s Day planters for our Kid’s Planting Day and for those who want to get a little head start on some planters. We have Asters, Marigolds, Cosmos and Ageratum. After Easter, we will be bringing in a huge shipment of annuals and the specialty annuals including Proven Winners and a full array of hanging baskets available. The fern hanging baskets that we have carried the last few years are here. They make great hanging baskets, or I take the hanger off of mine and set it on a stand on the deck They look wonderful and will go quickly!

The cool season veggies available now include brocolli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and collards. There are even some tomato and pepper plants for those wanting to get a headstart inside for these tender plants. For herbs you’ll find basil, chives, cilantro, dill, mint, parsley and sage. This weekend, there’ll be herb gardens ready to purchase. The seed potatoes, (red, white & yellow along with fingerling potatoes), onion sets, garlic, and asparagus roots are all ready to go!

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Open for the Season

Deb Knecht — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:44:47 +0000

This past week we have been busily uncovering plant material, moving things around, cleaning up after the long, snowy winter and getting geared up for the new gardening season! We will be open once again starting on Wednesday, April 6th. Our hours during the week are 8 am to 6 pm, on Saturday we’re here from 8 am to 5 pm and 10 am to 4 pm on Sundays. Each day for the next several weeks, we will be moving additional plants into our sales area, and will be receiving shipments in from our various vendors. The long range weather forecast this morning indicates that we’ll be back to normal – instead of below normal which is certainly encouraging.

The greenhouses are full with perennials, little trees and this afternoon, we potted up 500 strawberry plants.

We expect to receive our cool season annuals the week of April 11th, and should have pansies, allysum, snapdragons, dianthus, and more. I’ll post it on our blog as soon as they get in.

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Care for your Annuals

Deb Knecht — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:52:43 +0000

One of the most frequently asked questions we have is “How do I keep my annuals looking good all summer?” Here are a few tips to help ensure good success with your annuals!

Water: Once they are established, heavier, infrequent waterings will help your plants develop deeper root systems. Lighter, more frequent waterings result in shallow rooted plants that will stress much more in the heat of the summer. Keep in mind that this advice is for once they are established. Newly planted annuals need to be kept watered so they don’t dry out while trying to establish.

Fertilize: Annuals need to be fertilized regularly which results in profuse flowering! Think of annuals as heavy feeders. Liquid or powdered fertilizers added to watering water or the time release granules are the easiest ways to feed your annuals. Organic fertilizers can also be used. Since organic fertilizers have lower amounts of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus you should be aware of the amounts to use, etc. Multiple organic products may be needed to get the overall results. Hanging baskets should be fertilized once a week to keep them flowering throughout the season.

Weeding: Keep your annual bed free from weeds. This is probably the most disliked task for any gardener. Weeds compete for the water and nutrients that your plant also wants. You can pull them, use mulch, lay down newspaper or use a granular herbicide to help accomplish a weed free garden.

Deadheading: (removal of spent flowers). Many annuals (and perennials) need to be deadheaded or pinched back to allow the plant to continue to produce new flower buds and keep blooming. On some annuals you simply just pick off the flowers that are no longer looking good, and on some you need to pinch them off – simply use your finger nail to “cut” it off and for some plants that have a heavier stalk you may need to use a garden pruner to accomplish this task.

By following the above – you will be rewarded in a a colorful, blooming garden for the summer season. Enjoy!

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