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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Photo courtesy of Bailey Nurseries.

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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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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.

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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!

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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.

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