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.
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 
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.
Now is the time to purchase and plant your Bittersweet plants. The native (common) Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) is one of the plants that you need at least two of – a male and a female. You can easily tell at this time of year which plant you have since the female plant sports the berries and the male plant will be just lush green foliage. The common Bittersweet is not the invasive Japanese variety that is talked about. 
Successful planting projects to improve your landscaping can take place throughout the Fall! Nights are growing longer, and days cooler which means reduced stress and moisture demands on new plantings.
We have had customers over the years who drive in with SUV’s, pickups, dump trucks, sedans, even an Austin Healey to pick up plants. Yesterday, a customer came in with his street rod pulling a small trailer and picked up a tree! One time a customer came in on his way home from fishing and we loaded up his boat (which was on the trailer) with shrubs and perennials! 
We will be holding our Fall Seminar on September 12th. Our designers, Kristin Lucas and Amy Voight will present a seminar titled ‘Take the Guess Work out of Fall Clean-up and Winter Prep’. 
One of the greatest August garden moments is when the hydrangeas start to bloom. There are so many different varieties of hydrangea shrubs – and then there are the wonderful hydrangea trees!
Northfield’s Annual Crazy Days will be held this Thursday – July 23rd starting at 7:00 am!! We will be having over 50 varieties of trees, shrubs and perennials on sale at 50% off!! There will be 30% off regular prices on many other plants as well! And, Leif will almost certainly find some things that he’ll reduce even more! Now is the time to add a tree or two to your landscape – make a new shrub and perennial bed – whatever! The prices will be CRAZY here on Thursday. Stop in early to make sure you get the best selection. We can hold your purchases while you shop Northfield and pick them up at the end of the day!
