Knecht’s

How many times have you immediately jumped to the conclusion that when you think of trees for fall color you think of the maples? The Oak family is one that provides a variety of values for the landscape. The Pin Oak and the Red Oak have some of the nicest fall color..they sometimes will even rival the Maples! The leaves on the Pin Oak will turn brown and hang on well into the winter–makes for some great winter visual interest! The Bur Oak is one of the most stately trees you’ll find. A native of the prairie, the Bur Oak is an absolutely fabulous tree. Think outside the box and consider the Oaks for your landscape!

Leif planted this Autumn Blaze Maple about 8 or 9 years ago - as a small potted tree. It is now almost 40 feet tall. The Autumn Blaze is by far the most popular tree on the landscape market. The characteristics of this tree is that it is a fast grower, can tolerate a variety of different soils and what more can be said about the fall color?

If you are contemplating planting a tree that you want to achieve fall color with, but don’t feel that you can plant one this fall - still go out and shop NOW for the tree. Stop in and look at our trees and the fall color that they have - write it down so that next year when you would like to plant - you can ask for the tree that will give you the fall color that you want!

Our fall sale is still going strong and now is a great time to stop in and purchase your Autumn Blaze or other trees, shrubs and perennials.

As the fall pageantry of colors continues, the Autumn Spire Maple is splendid with its vibrant red color. This is an Autumn Spire Red Maple that we have planted next to our garage at home. The red color is brillant. This tree is great for spaces where you want a more narrow profile tree. The Autumn Spire will only be about 20 feet wide at maturity, and about 40 feet high.

Buckthorn is on the list of invasive species with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The Northfield Garden Club is sponsoring a Buckthorn Eradication Day this Saturday at the Hauberg Woods in Northfield. They’ll be having a session in the morning and one in the afternoon. They will be demonstrating various techniques on removal and recognition of this plant. Buckthorn is an aggressive plant, choking out the other vegetation nearby. It is a plant that is very easily recognized now in the fall as it stays green well past when other plants have gone dormant. It has a bluish/black berry as well. The birds will feast on these berries in the fall and winter and this then helps to spread buckthorn all over. We all need to do our best at helping get rid of Buckthorn.

Heidi Gervais and Shar Jacobsen are shown here just having finished decorating our entry for the Northfield Chamber of Commerce’s Scarecrow Decorating Contest. This was a fun idea and they had a great time coming up with their theme and getting it all put together. The judging is to take place the end of next week. Good luck Heidi & Shar!

We have our pumpkins in, gourds, corn stalks, straw bales and this weekend will be bringing in other grasses and stems to decorate for fall. We’ll be having a limited amount of bittersweet but we are waiting for it to pop open. Give us a call and we can reserve bittersweet for you! We also have Boundary Waters Pine Cones for fall and winter decorating and wreath making.

The Maple family of trees is by far the most popular tree family out there! We sell more maples than any other variety. The picture here shows the native Sugar Maple in it’s fall color show. We have a very nice selection of native Rice County seed source Sugar Maples as well as other sugar maple cultivars, including Green Mountain, Fall Fiesta, Commemoration,and Legacy. A few of the other maples that we carry are several in the Red Maple family - Northwoods and Autumn Spire, and hybrids such as Sienna, Autumn Fantasy and Autumn Blaze. These trees will have your red fall color. We have many trees in the Norway Maple family as well including Royal Red, Varigated Maple, and Emerald Lustre. Check out our plant lists for a more comprehensive list!

The third in my series of these two fall perennials. The Autumn Joy Sedum has reached it’s deep rusty-rose color. The aster behind the sedum is the Purple Dome Aster. This fantastic purple is hard to beat for a wonderful fall perennial. The Miscanthus Flame Grass has opened up to produce fluffy cotton-like plumes. The foliage is starting to turn an orange color (the reason for its name - “Flame Grass). This winter I’ll try to post a picture of the way this grass looks with the snow and frost, etc.

Perennials can still be planted safely this fall. As with any plants that you plant in the fall, you need to do just an extra step. You need to provide a thick layer (3″ or so) of a shredded mulch over the area where you plant and especially around the crown of the plant. Don’t use leaves only as if there is not enough snow, the winds will blow the leaves away and your plants will be exposed to the harsh winter winds. The best time to mulch is after the ground has received a couple of inches of frost. (Late November)

We just completed a fall planting at our meadow at home where we installed about 200 plants. The guys mulched these plants and we’ll report back in the spring on the results of our fall planting project!

A wonderful shrub for winter interest is the Winterberry. Pictured here is the Red Sprite Winterberry. A shrub that reaches only 2-3 feet in height and width. The red berries hang on through the winter after the leaves have fallen and provide a wonderful contrast against the white winter snow! The winterberry - a member of the holly family - needs to have a male and female plant. At our house, we have several winterberry and they are doing great in only morning sun. There are several varieties available ranging from the smaller Red Sprite to the larger Sparkleberry which will reach 6 to 8 feet! Check out the winterberry for your yard.

Now is the time to think about planting flowering crabs. Plant these wonderful ornamental trees now and you’ll have a plant that will give you winter interest with the colorful fruit this winter as well as a display of flowers in the spring! Our prices now through the end of the season are 30% off on all container plants!

These apples are from the David Flowering Crabapple. Fruit from the Prairiefire Flowering Crab is more of a maroon-red, and from the Professor Sprenger - you’ll find an orange fruit and Harvest Gold is a wonderful yellow. We carry about 18 varieties of flowering crab so you’ll find one that fits your width and height requirements, as well as your desires for a pink, red or white flower in the Spring!