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!
Do you need ideas for a Mother’s Day present? We have Mother’s Day gift baskets ready for you to give to Mom. Included is a Eco-Friendly watering can, gardening gloves, a trowel, Osmocote, a nursery gift certicate and a few other little surprises all topped off with a beautiful bow!
The greenhouses are full of colorful hanging baskets, annuals, including Proven Winners, whimsical garden stakes, planters, and much more. If you’re stumped – a Knecht’s Nurseries Gift Certificate is the perfect gift!
The picture here shows the beauty of the Gold Heart Bleeding Heart growing out of a blanket of emerald green Sweet Woodruff. This springtime display is on the edge of our hosta garden in the woods. The lime green of the bleeding heart brightens up this corner of the garden. The flowers are just like the flowers of the Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart and the little flower buds of the Sweet Woodruff are just forming and will be like little white stars amidst the green.
Sweet Woodruff is a vigorous ground cover, easily managed and incredibly gorgeous. The Gold Heart Bleeding Heart will soon become your favorite! Both perennials are available for planting this spring here at the nursery.
This morning before heading into work – I had to go into one of the perennial gardens just to look at the awesome color of the Virginia Bluebells. This color blue has to be the prettiest blue there is. The Lenton Rose is also in bloom right now – one on these plants are at each end of this particular flower bed.
Virginia Bluebells – a native Minnesota wildflower will grow to a height of 10″-24″. Groups of light blue bell-shaped flowers will light up any corner of your early spring flower garden. They prefer moist, shady areas – such as on the edges of deciduous woods or clearings in the natural habitat. Plant yours in a shade garden with other shady perennials. Since it is a native woodland plant, once it has done it thing for spring- it quietly disappears during the rest of the year and waits to delight us again in the spring!
The Lenton Rose – or Helleborus are long-lived, easy to care for perennials. Planted in moist, well drained soil it will tolerate summer shade if it receives sunlight in the spring. These plants take a little longer to get established than some perennials, but they are also considered “ever green” meaning you should not prune them back in the spring or fall – just leave them. If any leaves have died over the winter – prune those leaves off but mine just spring to life in early spring. One is in a more shady area and that is just now flowering – the one in the picture is in almost full springtime sun and has been blooming for several weeks.
Companion plants? Both of these are on the edges of a hosta garden with Cimicifuga and Ligularia also planted there. The sunnier parts of the bed, I also have some shorter upright sedums planted. Great combinations. We have all of these plants in the nursery available for sale.
Under our “Plant” page we have lists of all of the varieties of plants that we are carrying this year. Alot of these are also featured on our Plant Search engine. You can access this directly from our Home Page on the left hand side, or from the Plant page as well. There is much more detailed information on these pages and it is our hope to soon get most of the plants we carry featured under the search engine.
Make yourself a shopping list and bring it in and on the bottom of the shopping list page under the Plant Search – is a coupon for a $5 gift certificate for using our Plant Search. Add plants to this list to remind you of ones that you like, wanted to see up close or have additional questions on, and bring it in on your next visit!
The Magnolias are blossoming at the nursery now! WOW! We have about the prettiest Royal Star Magnolia tree that any of us have ever seen. It is perfect, and it is full of the whitest, fragrant flowers! It is in our Creative Corner right now and we are sure it won’t be here long!
We are carrying four different varieties of Magnolias this year. The Merrill Magnolia, Royal Star Magnolia, Ann Magnolia and the Leonard Messel. The Merrill and Royal Star have white flowers and the Ann and the Leonard Messel have pink flowers. There are shrub form and tree form available with several different price points!
The main difference in these different varieties are the heights – so if you are wanting to plant a Magnolia but are concerned about the mature height of the tree – one of these will definitely fit the bill for you. All four of these plants are hardy in Zone 4. They prefer slightly acidic, moist soil conditions. When planting a magnolia, you should avoid southern exposures which may lead to buds freezing in the early spring with a sudden drop in temperatures.
The following blog article was submitted by Heidi Brosseau – our retail manager….
A new perennial that we haven’t carried before has already pushed itself onto my favorites list.
Silene ‘Rollie’s Favorite’ aka Campion has already started to fill it’s pots and open up it’s brilliant pink flowers. It is going to keep blooming right through spring and summer, attracting oodles of butterflies. It grows in clean compact mounds that reach about 18″ tall in full to part sun.
Sounds great so far doesn’t it? In addition to all these amazing attributes, it has a little Minnesotan in it. Hardy from Zones 3 to 9, it will survive a minus 40 degree winter. It has quickly impressed me in the greenhouse. I’m sure it will become a favorite to many in no time. This perennial would be beautiful with deep blue Salvias, bright blue Forget Me Nots, or vivid yellow Coreopsis and a wonderful addition to container plantings. Stop by the nursery soon to pick yours up – I don’t think they’ll last very long!
Do you need a hostess gift for Easter or another spring event? We have these cute little spring planters with Hyacinth bulbs in that are just the way to say “thank you”. They’re only $6.99 – perhaps get one just for yourself – while supplies last. They’ll be up and blooming in no time!
We have our plant material uncovered from it’s winter storage and will be working over the next two weeks on getting it into position in our sales blocks and production blocks. Our designers are also busy working on plans and consultations for customers.
We are here now from 8 am to 4:30 Monday through Friday and will be here from 8 am to 4 pm on Saturday March 27th and Saturday April 3rd while we’re getting organized and ready to go. We are selling trees and shrubs – actually last week we sold several of our large B&B trees that are currently on sale! Beginning on Monday, April 4th, we will once again be open 7 days a week – from 8 am to 6pm M-F, 8 am to 5 pm on Saturday and our Sunday hours will be 10 am to 4 pm.
We look forward to seeing you all this spring!
March 17, 2010 – 11:29 am
What’s so exciting about this picture? This is what the crabapples (berries) on our Red Jewel Flowering Crab are looking like today! March 17th! They are still a very bright red – with a few a little bleaker looking. What a fantastic tree! The Red Jewel is an ornamental tree that fits in smaller spaces. We have it planted right next to our front door, so going in and out all year we see it. In the spring, we are delighted with the white flowers while it is blooming, in the summer it sports the glossiest green leaves and mid fall, the apples start to turn a brilliant red which lasts all the way to spring. The name ‘Red Jewel’ promotes the color of the fruit and not the blossom.
It reaches a height of only 15′ and a width of 12′ – meaning 6′ in any direction. This enables you to plant it closer to either the house, deck, patio area – whatever you have which makes it the perfect tree for smaller places. The fruit is smaller – 1/2″ in diameter and is persistant. It hangs on all the way to spring (pictured) and will simply dry up and fall off when the tree starts it’s new growing cycle. Our tree is closer than 6′ to our house, and we know we will need to prune the back branches more frequently, but for the effect we wanted, we chose to plant it closer.
Spring is almost here and the crabapples will be blossoming before we know it! When you’re looking to plant a new ornamental tree – keep this little “jewel” in mind! We will be having a great selection of the Red Jewel available.
Spring has arrived in the greenhouses! We have been planting perennial plugs for the last several days and the houses are filling up quickly. We’ll have the usual go-to perennials, but we have many of the newest releases coming this spring as well. I asked Heidi – our retail manager – what she was excited about so far in the ones that they have potted up, and she said the Jade Phlox and the Geums looked awesome, but the one she sounded most excited about was the Red Knee High Echinacea. A deep, deep pink color with a mature height of 24″ makes this an echinacea for use in front of the taller perennials or shrubs where a more compact plant is needed.
Our plant lists have all been updated with the plants available now in 2010, and our Plant Search has many of these plants on it and will be soon updated with many more.
Did you know that there are many new varieties of Elm trees now available that have very high resistance to Dutch Elm Diease? At long last, we will once again begin to see stately Elms offering the benefits of their rapid growth and cooling shade. Elms are fast growing trees that offer plenty of shade.
We have many varieties of the disease resistant Elms available including Danada Charm, Frontier, New Horizon, Princeton, Prospector, Triumph, Valley Forge and Vanguard. The two stand-outs on this list are the Princeton American Elm and New Horizon.
Princeton American Elm – a true American Elm with a classic elm vase-shape and large leathery foliage. The National Arboretum ranks the ‘Princeton’ Elm as one of the top American Elms that shows excellent disease resistance. When you purchase a ‘Princeton’ Elm ask for your “Owner Certificate” for planting an American Elm! 120 Princeton Elms were planted along Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House – why not think of planting one at your house??
New Horizon Elm – This is an Elm hybrid with a compact growth habit and an upright form. It’s adaptable to a wide range of soils and is very tolerant of urban conditions.
February 19, 2010 – 7:59 am
Baptisia australis
The following article is being submitted by Heidi Brosseau – our retail manager.
I am so excited about the 2010 Perennial Plant Associations pick for Plant of the Year! Baptisia australis, aka False or Wild Indigo. This is one of my all time favorite perennials. It is a hardy native prairie perennial that has never let me down. It reappears each year as a strong, healthy shrub-like clump. Beautiful small blue-green leaves on sturdy stems end in tapered spikes of indigo-blue flowers in early summer. The showy flowers turn into green pods that kind of blend in until late summer and fall when they start to dry and turn black. That’s when this plant becomes interesting to children (big and small) because the dry pods rattle when you shake them. If you put this plant in a location where a stiff wind might stir it in late summer and early fall, then the False Indigo will rustle and rattle for you all on its own! Read More »
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!
