February 6, 2012 – 10:45 am
Red Sprite Winterberry
Winterberry is one of my favorite shrubs for great winter color. During a time of year when color is usually in short supply, a nice mass of winterberry can light up the landscape with beautiful red and orange colored berries.
As summer draws to an end, the 1/4″ inch berries that cluster in large numbers along the stems begin to turn from light green to bright orange or red. Partially hidden bybeautiful green foliage, the beauty of winterberry shrubs really becomes evident when the leaves drop off as they enter dormancy in preparation for winter.
From mid-September to late January each year, my heart feels a little lighter as I walk past the beautiful Red Sprite Winterberries framing the right side of my front entry at home. Perhaps winterberry can add a smile to your face if you include this fix of color to your winter landscape.
The female winterberry shrubs are the ones that have the showy fruit displays. To produce the colorful berries, they must be pollinated in springtime by the pollen from a male winterberry.
The varieties we have seen do well in southern Minnesota are Red Sprite, Afterglow, Berry Heavy and Berry Nice. These are all pollinated by a male variety named Jim Dandy. Winterberries are native in Minnesota. We have been watching a cluster of native Winterberry on a portage in the Boundary Waters now for years. The size of winterberry shrubs can be from 3′ in height to 8′ – depending on the variety. Width 3′ up to 8′ as well.
Check out a complete listing of the shrubs we carry on our Plant page. When doing your plant “wish lists” keep in mind the definite need to winter interest in your landscape.
August 16, 2011 – 8:21 am
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 mid-winter or longer. Use a Jim Dandy male Winterberry somewhere near your cluster of Red Sprite Winterberry to pollinate and assure the formation of the showy berries.
Most winterberries have a welcome tendency to tightly hold their red berries until spring clean up time in early April. This habit of providing an eye-popping display of red color for months on end makes winterberry a plant to seriously consider for inclusion in your landscape.
‘Berry Heavy’ and ‘Berry Nice’ are two larger sized winterberry that also hold abundant colorful berries for long periods. Winterberry can handle full sun to 3/4 shade, and grows well in many soils, and is quite hardy! I have seen wild winterberry growing in the canoe country where winters dip to -50 degrees F, so hardiness is not an issue.
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 they have extended new roots into the surrounding soil. While balled and burlapped trees and shrubs can do well with one or two good waterings per week during their period of establishment – 1 to 2 years – trees, shrubs and perennials that were purchased in plastic nursery pots can dry out and be severely damaged in just one or two days in hot, windy and low humidity conditions.
The reason potted plants dry out so quickly when placed into your landscape is that potting soil is formulated to drain and dry out quickly to avoid root rot while they are in the pots. They also dry out quickly when planted in your yard that is until new roots have grown out into the soil surrounding the planting site. This can take from 6-12 weeks, depending on how compacted the soil is.
If the tree, shrubs or perennial receives aggressive root pruning prior to planting to completely shred any matted roots on the outside of the root ball, AND if there is lots of loose, unpacked soil filled in around the root ball, the rooting out process can happen much much faster. Allow water and gravity to settle the crumbly soil around t he shredded root ball rather than packing the loose soil.
For more details on precision watering you can check out our instructions page on watering. Keep in mind that most trees and shrubs purchased in nursery pots will need a little water everyday the first 4-6 weeks, every other day the next 4-6 weeks, and every third or 4th day until a year has passed (take the winter off from watering). Do not allow the hose to trickle on the plant. You will have no idea how much water you gave it, and you may drown the plant.
Successful planting can be done even in a heat wave if you give them enough water, but not too much water on a daily basis. Keep ‘em happy and keep ‘em hydrated!
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 float on air, and has the delightful habit of gradually turning to a beautiful rich pink over 4 to 6 weeks. There are lots of new heavily hyped hydrangeas on the market these days, and I would have to say that Quickfire have great standability, very early flowering, 2 color phases, and a unique blossom structure, but it also has leaves that turn to a beautiful combination of yellow, orange and red fall colors come autumn.
Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea is the first pink Annabelle Hydrangea available on the market. Last year we were impressed by the way the medium pink blossoms started in mid-summer and kept forming all the way to the first heavy fall frosts. Our third year, Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea are shaping up nicely, with fairly good standability, and we suspect that they will perform nicely in the landscape.
Consider adding hardy hydrageas to your landscape. They have the ability to add abundant flowering to summer and fall landscapes. My wife cuts the flower stems in the fall and uses them in dry flower arrangements all year long – an added bonus to the hydrangea shrubs.
Some of the most beautiful and versatile shrubs for your landscape are the Weigelas. They have just started blooming and are an incredible display of color! They prefer full sun, but can do fine in 4-5 hours of sun as well.
Pictured here is the Carnaval Weigela which puts on a remarkable floral display of pink, white and nearly red flowers. They blossom for an extra long period providing a colorful addition to any garden space. It’s mature to a size of 4′-5′ tall and 3′-5′ wide.
The Red Prince Weigela sports non-fading rich red flowers on fresh green foliage. It’s upright arching branches will re-bloom during the summer. Slightly taller – this plant matures to a size of 5′-6′ tall and wide.
We also have Fine Wine, Ghost, Midnight Wine, Minuet, My Monet, Rainbow Sensation, Rumba and Wine and Roses Weigela varieties.
The time has finally come! The May 2nd arrival of the Bella Anna Hydrangea has us pink with excitement! Bella Anna is a pink re-blooming version of the ever popular Annabelle Hydrangea. It shows the same hardiness and vigor of its parent plant with the incredible ability to produce beautiful magenta pink blooms on new wood. The amazing flowers last from summer all the way through fall on strong stems that keep them up and showy! It has an “easy-to-grow” low maintenance habit with a mature height and width of only 3′ x 3′. We are proud to make this Bailey Nurseries introduction available just in time for Mother’s Day! What a wonderful gift idea for Mothers and Grandmothers this spring! And while you’re here be sure to pick one up for yourself. They going to go quickly!
Photo courtesy of Bailey Nurseries.
April 22, 2011 – 10:55 am
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.
We have updated our plant lists for 2011. Included in these lists are the new plants coming in this spring! Take a look at the lists and make some notes on what you want to add to wish list. In just a few days, we begin potting up perennials and some trees. The weather looks like it will take a turn toward spring – with even some 50′s in the forecast. The updates to our Plant Search pages will be completed in just a couple of weeks as well.
August 29, 2010 – 11:27 am
Little Lime Hydrangea™ is awesome! We have just taken these out of our production area as they are now ready for sales and they are “flying off the shelves” so to speak! New this year, they are from the Proven Winners line of plants and it is definitely a winner.
The dwarf version of Limelight Hydrangea, also in the Proven Winner lineup, it is one third the size which enables it to fit more easily into urban landscapes. Hardy to Zone 3 – you’ll be seeing many more of them in Minnesota in the years to come. The height and width of this plant is only 3′-4′ which will make it very versatile. The standability of these young shrubs is just amazing.
We just had a customer in this morning – coming all the way from the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities metro area because we were the only ones that had these plants. She had called all of the major garden centers in the metro area and came up empty on all counts. This is one of the areas that we are striving for is to have the plants that people are looking for. We stock the standard plants that are needed, but we try to reach out and get the new varieties and try some that have been around for a while, but not found commonly on the marketplace.
August 29, 2010 – 8:22 am
Today I went out to do a “little” pruning in the hydrangea shrub section. With a mission in mind!
Each year, I take a few cuttings of flowers from the hydrangeas for drying and then I keep them in vases for displays inside the house. The ones that I currently have at home have been dried for two years now. They are getting a little brittle so I decided it was time for another round of “fresh” hydrangeas for the living room!
My bouquet here features five different varieties – Limelight, Little Lime™ and Invincebelle Spirit® – each of which is a Proven Winner variety and then Endless Summer and Twist ‘n Shout, both of which are part of the Endless Summer series of Hydrangeas. I will take these home, place in a cool location that is dark, hang them upside down for 2 to 3 weeks and that is it! The color will fade some but will still be quite colorful!
I have had several calls the last couple of days with concerns like “my hydrangea is drooping” or the leaves aren’t looking very good and are turning brown”. These are concerns on newly planted hydrangeas. These plants are heavy water users. Here in the nursery, we are watering our container ones at least twice a day, and sometimes on the hot days – they’re getting watered three times a day. Give your hydrangeas plenty of water – perhaps even twice a day. They definitely show you that they are thirsty – they will wilt before your eyes!
Be careful not to leave a hose trickle water your plants. You have no way of knowing if they are getting one gallon of water or twenty gallons. Water in a way that you know how much water you are giving any plant. With newly planted plants – all of the moisture that plant has is in the root ball. Whether it was a small one gallon perennial, or a 15 gallon tree – once the moisture has been used up in that root ball, it is lacking moisture and is definitely under stress. You need to be sure you get enough water on the plant to soak down into the entire root system. A quarter inch of rain will only go down perhaps an inch or so into the soil surface. If your plant has mulch on it, it is likely that none of the rain water from that 1/4 inch rain will even get to any of the roots, let alone all the way to the bottom of the root ball.
For more specifics on watering, please check out our instructions page and see our watering instructions.
Early summer is an excellent time to plant trees, shrubs and perennials to make your landscape beautiful. Approximately 130 days remain in the growing season and this provides a long period of time for establishment of new root systems that will power vigorous growth for years to come.
The keys to success are: Good quality plant materials, proper site preparation that eliminates soil compaction in the areas where new roots will be growing, aggressive root pruning of any matted roots that have developed inside the container, avoiding planting too deep, and consistent watering that is just enough, but not too much. (most plant death we see is from over-watering)
At Knecht’s Nurseries we have developed our own new one page planting guide that gives the simple, easy to follow steps that you can follow to achieve summer planting success. Our experienced sales staff can help you select the right plants for your special site conditions. It’s available under our instructions page – just click and print!
The time period from mid-March to mid-April is especially good for pruning trees. With no leaves on the trees, it is much easier to evaluate the structure of the tree, choosing weakly attached branches for removal and leaving strongly attached branches to become the permanent framework. The next month is also a good time for pruning Oaks and Elms, since there is a far lower chance of infection of the pruning cuts to cause Oak Wilt and Dutch Elm disease, than during the warm season from may through mid-October.
Last April in my Blog Post, I discussed tree pruning — rather than re-writing another post – I am bringing it back this year. It is so relevant and after a long winter, everyone is anxious to get outside and get something done and pruning your trees might be on your list. The following is my blog post from April 15th of last year.
During late winter and early spring yards and gardens can often look their worst. The grass is brown and sometimes damaged by winter stress, pets, de-icing products leaking off sidewalks, driveways and streets, snow plows, squirrels, and even foot traffic. The tops of perennials that may have provided some winter interest are now tired and faded. Interesting shrubs, vines and ornamental trees such as Winterberry, Bittersweet, High bush Cranberry, Mtn. Ash and certain flowering crabs that displayed beautiful red fruits all winter long now have finally faded. Certain evergreen trees and shrubs show ugly browning foliage due to winter burn. Read More »
October 21, 2009 – 8:11 am
Quite often when we have a stretch of poor weather in mid-fall people wonder if they can still plant trees and shrubs. The answer is YES! And we have a an additional bit of good news from the National Weather Service that the conditions in November are expected to be warmer than normal and with average preciptiation. This means that dormant trees and shrubs can be planted under comfortable conditions and will be ready and waiting next spring to start establishing new roots as soon as the weather warms.
Stop in and talk with our knowledgeable staff about picking the right varieties for your particular situation and have a look at the amazing selection that we still have available for your fall planting! As we speak, many of the varieties are showing their lovely fall colors and this will be changing daily. It looks like there’ll be another few days of cool moist weather, but we are looking forward to a good run of weather toward the end of the month and into November.
The trees pictured here are from one of our growing ranges that Deb took last week. It’s the Autumn Blaze Maple. What fabulous fall color! We have Autumn Blaze Maple in many sizes – to accomodate all prices points. Stop in and take advantage of our incredible fall sale prices! All of our plant materials are from 30% to 50% off!
October 2, 2009 – 6:35 am
Winterberry. A shrub with glossy green leaves during the growing season. Produces berries. But wait — in late summer, these berries slowly start to turn color and by early fall – they’re red. When the leaves come down, you will see masses of bright red berries that light up the fall landscape. Best of all – they stay red into mid to late winter so when the snows come in December – (at holiday time, right?) – you will have this red bouncing off the white snow. Gorgeous.
A member of the Holly family (Ilex) – there are several varieties that are Zone 4 hardy and will compliment any landscape. We have a grouping of six at home, underneath one of our flowering crab trees. The Red Sprite Winterberry (pictured here) will grow to be 4′-6′ in height with a width of approximately 3′. The leaves do turn a yellow in the fall – but the berries are the show that this plant puts on. The important fact that one must remember when planting Winterberry, is that you need at least two shrubs – a male and a female. The male pollinator for the Red Sprite would be Jim Dandy. This plant gets to be the same height, but just a little bit wider. It produces no fruit so when planting – if you planted three – 2 Red Sprite, and 1 Jim Dandy – put the Jim Dandy in the middle or the back of the border depending on how you design your shrub bed.
These plants are very easy to care for. They prefer moist, acidic soil – and can be planted in sun to part shade. Pruning should happen in the spring before the growth starts so when the flowers and berries do set – you won’t be pruning them off. Remember – you can’t plant things in the winter time – but with some careful planning you can enjoy your landscape 12 months a year!
