'Cupressina' Norway Spruce by Oregon Pride Nurseries
Tall, lean and handsome aptly describes a beautiful variety of Norway Spruce I saw recently. Dense and upright, ‘Cupressina’ Norway Spruce sports the beautiful deep green disease resistant foliage of Norway Spruce while offering a great choice for smaller spaces.
Useful as an attractive specimen or focal point evergreen, ‘Cupressina’ Norway Spruce could also be used as a screening plant where a wide spreading plant would be too large. ‘Cupressina’ looks interesting and attractive even when it is fairly small, so you won’t have to wait forever to enjoy this conifer.
Winter color is excellent, holding a true green throughout the long dormant season. ‘Cupressina’ might be a ncie choice for somwehere in your landscape that calls for a beautiful evergreen that is hardy and won’t overhwhelm modest sized spaces.
This beautiful tree is a fairly fast grower, reaching 20′-30′ tall with only a 6′-10′ spread. Hardy to Zone 3 makes it a top choice for Minnesota homeowners. We’ll have a limited amount of these trees this spring. Reserve one for your yard!
February 20, 2012 – 2:13 pm
As this mild Minnesota winter begins to slowly slip away – it is the perfect time to start thinking about your landscape. Do you need a major landscape project done this year? Are you thinking of re-doing your front yard for more curb appeal? Have you lived in your home for many years and haven’t tackled any landscaping because you weren’t exactly sure what to do?
A landscape consultation and/or a landscape plan – partial or full – is the best place to start. Getting professional advice is money well spent. A plan or consultation by a professional designer will ensure that you get the best results possible and eliminate wasted money on plants that aren’t appropriate for your particular site conditions. Our lead designer, Amy Voight, is working with customers right now designing full yards, partial yards and planting beds. Amy has over 15 years of experience in landscape design and is a Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional through the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Assn. You will find complete details our our design process under our Landscape section. Working with Amy now in February and March will guarantee that you will have all the necessary ideas and plans in your hands when spring officially does arrive! Give us a call and we’ll make all of your landscape dreams come true!
January 25, 2012 – 4:18 pm
Despite these changes, caution is advised if you don’t want to run the risk of losing plant materials that may be marginally zone hardy. On the other hand, it can be an awful lot of fun to experiment with marginal plants that can sometimes be a nice surprise on hardiness and a visual delight. We’re happy to visit with you about this subject concerning plants you might consider that are “on the edge”.
September 25, 2011 – 7:08 am
Fall planting of trees, shrubs and perennials has long been a tradition for many families. Landscape plants are going dormant, temperatures are cooler, water demands are reduced, and success rates remain high.
When spring comes, the new plants are ready and waiting to quickly establish and flourish. Well planned fall planting projects can also save substantial amounts of money, since great bargains are available at most nurseries.
An added plus for fall planting is the pleasant fall weather that makes time spent on a project outdoors enjoyable and easier. October and November have quite a few fabulous fall days, so there’s still plenty of time to do that project you’ve been putting off. Seize the opportunity. It’s a wonderful time. (to plant).
September 7, 2011 – 9:45 am
The cool mornings we have enjoyed the last few days are a sure sign that the changing of the seasons will soon be well underway. Trees that are stressed out start to loose leaves in mid to late August, and by mid September, the first hints of fall color start to show up in some healthy red maples, sumac and a few birch.
As I notice these first colored leaves, it always fires my imagination with dreams of creating landscapes that show off great fall color for almost two months, rather than the usual one or two weeks. By carefully selecting a well balanced mix of trees, shrubs and perennials that show early, midseason, and late season Fall color, it is possible to paint the landscape with a feast for the eyes from mid-September all the way to mid-November.
Since there are many factors to consider when making variety selections, and placement decisions, it may be helpful to stop in the nursery and we will be happy to discuss trees and other plants to enable you in painting your landscape with eye-popping fall colors that don’t quit.
August 28, 2011 – 10:31 am
Even as the dog days of summer are nearing an end, Hydrangea Trees are adding a delightful splash of lush blossoms to the late summer landscape. These small ornamental trees run from 5 to 10 feet tall, depending on how they are pruned, grow in a wide variety of soils and do well in light levels from full sun to partial shade, and produce lots of blossoms that last for 6-12 weeks.
Limelight Hydrangea trees are currently the most popular variety, displaying cone to oval shaped dense white blossoms on vigorous new shoots that present in upright fashion initially and gradually arching as the blossoms increase in size and weight. The picture here is of one of our landscape beds at home. We have a Limelight Hydrangea tree to the left and a Pinky Winky Hydrangea shrub to the right. Boulders, evergreen shrubs and shade perennials complete the bed which is so beautiful this time of year.
August 10, 2011 – 2:23 pm
Patio – Day 3. The patio will feature a sitting wall along the outside edge which will be approximately 20 inches high. With each level of wall block, Jim and Todd add the gravel backfill behind the wall.
The wall is almost complete except for the caps which will be installed once the patio is finished. A layer of sand is added to the top of the crushed rock and keeping this layer level is extremely important. Todd is using two pieces of conduit to make sure the sand is the same level throughout and it enables the skreeting process to be performed. The actual laying of the patio block is probably the quickest portion to the patio installation. The customer has chosen the Versa-Lok “Harvest” blend patio block which accentuates the color of their home. This outdoor retreat is gradually coming together!
August 10, 2011 – 12:08 pm
August 10, 2011 – 10:57 am
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 nothing. So take it as an opportunity to experiment a bit just as is done at this mailbox. This rural mailbox has coneflowers and ornamental grass. These plants can handle the tough site conditions along a gravel road and with snow loads – there’s no problem since perennials start from the ground up every spring – unlike some shrubs which may be damaged by a heavy snow load.
August 9, 2011 – 11:43 am
This week we started work on a new patio for Jane and Dennis. They wanted a patio along the side of their home – right off of their family room which will give them additional living space outside and a great place for entertaining.
Day 1. This site provided a few challenges as there was a huge old stump that we needed to bring in a small backhoe and have the stump dug out. Then there was a slight slope to the surrounding area which necessitated in quite a bit of excavation.
The pictures show the area with some of the excavation done. Jim Westlund our landscape division manager and Todd Marnie answer some of the questions the homeowner, Jane, has.
August 1, 2011 – 11:41 am
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 color, and a compact upright form maturing to 30 ft. tall by only 10-12 feet wide. This makes Apollo a good choice for smaller spaces in the landscape while still offering a nice mix of yellow, orange and red fall color. For best results, plant the Apollo Sugar Maple in moderately drained, uncompacted soils, taking care to avoid waterlogged areas. Apollo will do well in full sun to partial shade, and can be used as a specimen or focal point, or even for shorter to mid-level screening when several are planted together.
The Apollo Sugar Maple was introduced by the J. Frank Schmidt Nursery in Oregon. We have carried this tree for the last several years and find it to be a wonderful tree for fall color and smaller spaces.
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 you dig when the soil is too wet, you are likely to battle a garden full of lumpy soil all the way through the growing season. Waiting a few more days or weeks until the soil has dried usually results in tilled soil that is nice and crumbly. Just prior to doing the tillage, spread fertilizer, compost, manure, and peat or sand, so these amendments become evenly mixed into the tilled soil.
Coarse sand is a great thing to add if you have high clay content in your soil. Once you work sand into the clay soil, the soil will be much easier to work up into a nice crumbly condition in subsequent years. In the photo – you will notice smaller pieces of rock/sand. This makes this soil drain nicely and is quite fertile. Too much sand, on the other hand, can cause plants to dry out too quickly.
It is wonderful and amazing to see how much more quickly roots of new plants are able to grow into a large root system when the soil has been made porous by good tillage and a few well-chosen soil amendments. Your patience will be rewarded by bigger flower blossoms, vegetables that are bigger and more plentiful, and trees and shrubs that become handsome specimens in a shorter time!
This is the time of year when wild creatures are at the absolute end of their energy res
erves. Even though the weatherman is predicting warmer weather and receding snowbanks, new growth and new food sources are 3-6 weeks from being available for wild animals. By planting trees and shrubs that produce various kinds of berries, nuts and fruits, you can provide late winter food for the critters. Some Minnesota hardy varieties to consider are highbush cranberry, nannyberry, chokecherry, oaks, hackberry, amur maple, flowering crabapple, red twig dogwood, echinacea & rudbekia.
By planting the right trees, shrubs and perennials, you can both beautify the landscape and help the wildlife. You may want to check out the publication titled ‘Landscaping for Wildlife’ put out by the Minnesota DNR. 
I am sharing this blog with the Northfield News.
Snowbanks are receding, the sun is growing stronger day by day, sap is flowing in the Sugar Maple trees, the male wild turkeys are fanning their tail feathers to show off for the hens. The natural world is waking up from a very long winter of dormancy, a sure sign that it’s time for Landscape Design.
If you have been thinking about creating a more pleasant and inviting area in your yard, it’s a great time to consult a landscape designer, and begin the planning process even as the snowdrifts melt away. Using a trained and experienced designer to create just the right atmosphere in a part of your landscape can pay big dividends – both in terms of your enjoyment of your property, and when it comes time to sell.
Our landscape designer, Mike Mesch, would be happy to schedule an initial visit to your site to answer your questions, and evaluate how your landscape dreams can be realized. Call or contact us below and we will get you started.
