Knecht’s

Today I was working on my perennial orders for 2007 and am excited about the new varieties of Hosta that I’ll be bringing in next season. This reminded me of one that we have been watching the last couple of years and I continue to be impressed with this variety. “Diana Remembered” is a gorgeous medium sized hosta. It has large leaves and such a pure white flower. The flowers on this plant are exceptionally fragrant. We have this one in our hosta garden at home and I have found it to be a vigorous grower as well. Named after Diana, Princess of Wales, it will definitely become a favorite of hosta fanciers.

In early July - we did a landscape bed at the new home of Laurie & Jesse Streitz - rural Faribault, owners of Streitz Heating and Cooling. Gabby is keeping the crew working and making sure it is done right! Our landscaping ranges from a large bed with stone outcroppings like the one the Streitz’ put in, to patios, stone steps, and just plain old tree plantings. Our designers can do a plan for you for a perennial bed to a large acreage design. Fall is just around the corner and the weather will be cooler for planting and hopefully - we’ll have rain by then. Give us a call or stop by the nursery and check out the many varieties of trees, shrubs and perennials that are available for your landscaping needs.

The Firefall Maple - ‘Firefall’ (TM) Freeman maple, the newest tree release from the University of Minnesota, is the result of a cross between ‘Beebe,’ a cut-leaf silver maple, and an earlier U of M red maple introduction, ‘Autumn Spire.’ Field trials began in 1992, with young trees evaluated for form, cold tolerance, and quality and timing of autumn leaf coloration. The initial selections were clonally propagated by softwood cuttings in 1994 and distributed to cooperators in Iowa, Oregon, Manitoba, and outstate Minnesota

We are excited about bringing this tree into our inventory. Last year we obtained the license from the University of Minnesota to propogate this tree. In addition to working on our own tissue cultures, we received a shipment today of 240 tissue culture Firefall Maples from one of our suppliers in Oregon. Leif potted these up himself and is hoping by fall to have these little trees up to 2 feet in height. We are anxious to sell this new tree - perhaps even in 2007!

Leif has been writing the articles for the Northfield News for over five years now and as I type them and read through them - once in a while - there is one that really touches me. This is one of those articles.

This is the article that appeared in the Saturday, July 8th, issue of the Northfield News.

Among the best experiences in life, the joy and wonder of discovery rank near the top of the list. In the fast paced modern world, our preoccupation with jobs and overly busy schedules crammed with activities and commitments makes it difficult to discover some of life’s simple joys.

It’s no accident that the increasing popularity of gardening and landscaping coincides with two career families becoming the norm. A well kept landscape and garden is a wonderful and reliable retreat from the frenetic activity within which we have immersed ourselves. When we care for the plants we’ve chosen for our homes, we have an opportunity for discovery each time we enter the outdoor spaces we have created.

Key to the process of discovery is keeping your eyes open, ears alert, nose in gear and hands ready to caress, tend and shape the basic elements of the landscape. For sixteen years I have driven the same mile and a half of gravel country road leading from the rural Northfield home I share with my wife Debora. Yesterday on a calm and slightly misty summer morning I discovered worlds I hadn’t seen before. For some reason my eyes were open to the wonders that unfolded before me as I slowly wound my way down that familiar country lane.

The sun had just risen, backlighting hundreds of round spider webs suspended on tall grasses and other vegetation. Luminous, delicate and intricately engineered, each web held a thousand tiny dew drops that revealed a small universe all its own. Each glowing web spoke of life and death and every living organism’s constant struggle to survive and prosper.

So striking was the sight of the multitude of glistening webs that I slowed my truck to a crawl. Coming around a bend and over the rise just east of my land, a freshly mowed field of hay unfolded before me. Windrows heightened the sense of a wonderfully fertile gently rolling landscape yielding its bounty for our benefit. Three crows glided across the rolling field, following a shallow draw through a low lying finger of fog glowing in the rising sun.

All was as it should be - peaceful, beautiful, full of life, and productive. I saw the familiar landscape in a way I hadn’t experienced previously. I discovered new worlds and new realities. Heightened was the contrasting beauty of the productivity of the land, and the struggle of life and death embodied in silvery dew drops hanging on hundreds of webs – each its own universe of both hope and death.

The scene was not my garden, but it is my landscape. Perhaps your landscape of the moment is a corner planter on the patio, or a thousand acre farm. Whatever landscape you travel through or live within, take a moment to discover the wonders that are right there in plain sight.

Slow down, breath deep, listen carefully. Life’s great joys are right outside the door, down the street, or wherever you allow yourself to find them. Some of the best things in life ARE free, if we only give ourselves the permission and the moment it takes to embrace some of the best things life has to offer.

Labels: Yard and Garden Notes by Leif

Leif’s article in the July 15th Northfield News is a must for everyone to read. The severe drought that we are in is very hard on our plants - both newly planted ones or established plants.

Now is the time. Water those landscape plants you’ve invested in with your hard earned dollars. A good deep watering during droughts, heat waves and windy low humidity weather will preserve your significant investment.

Current conditions certainly qualify as both a drought and a heat wave. During these stressful events plants need exactly the same thing they need in spring and fall: adequate but not excessive moisture, soil with proper drainage and balanced nutrients, and the amount of sunlight that best fits each plant variety.

For plants that have been established in the landscape a year or longer, one good watering a week should be enough to prevent stress. Once a month I like to add just a bit of water soluble fertilizer while watering.

All over town I’m seeing trees that are showing signs of stress, with dropping leaves, scorched leaf margins, or wilting. Quite often the first trees to show stress are ones that have problems with the structure and/or health of their root systems, or that are growing in very sandy gravely soils that dry out easily.

If the source of stress is just a soil that is sandy and dries out quickly, the simple end to stress is a good watering. Don’t expect leaves that are already scorched, or have turned color to look better this season. A watering should make wilting go away, but can’t turn brown leaf tissue back to green. If your plant is revived by a through watering, any new growth that occurs the last half of the season should stay nice looking if adequate soil moisture is maintained.

A fairly effective way to make a plant with some scorched leaves look better is to rub the leaves gently on a low humidity day Leaf cells that have dried and turned brown will crumble to a powder when rubbed lightly between your fingers. Sometimes I use my fingers like a rake and am able to knock off dead leaves quite easily. Another trick is to lightly roll foliage between the palms of your two hands. The live parts of the leaves are pliable and accept this treatment, while the dry brittle tissue shatters and fall away. It’s amazing how much better a plant can look after this type of clean-up.

Helping plants through a drought is fairly easy. You don’t need to water every day or even two or three times a week. If plants are well rooted in, once a week is just fine.

New plantings that have not yet established a nice new root system may require several waterings per week. Take care not to over water.

Plant Spotlight: Blue Beech. Carpinus Caroliana. This small to medium sized native tree is one of my favorites, also known by the common name of muscle wood. Crisp clean and deeply furrowed leaves are striking in their texture, and remain free of blemishes throughout the growing season. Growing slowly to 20′ to 30′, Blue Beech develops a smooth grey bark with a hint of blue tinge in certain light and moisture conditions. A notable characteristic is the waviness in the wood which combined with the very smooth bark gives the appearance of the rippling muscles of a well conditioned athlete, hence the common name of muscle wood. This tree is well suited to modest sized spaces and the seed structures provide an outstanding ornamental feature that persists on the tree through most of the winter, being somewhat reminiscent of hops on the vine, only more flared and showy.

Leif’s article in the Northfield News for July 22nd, discusses the benefits and energy saving value of planting trees.

In an era of dramatically higher energy prices, most of us are looking for good ways to lower our monthly bills for running air conditioners in the summer and home heating in the winter. Well placed, high quality trees can be very effective in reducing heating and cooling costs as well as adding beauty and value to the landscape.

Shade trees positioned to the east, south and west of a building will provided cooling shade throughout the day, preventing strong sunlight from entering windows and heating the interior of the structure. Roofs, siding, brick, stone and asphalt also stay much cooler, reducing the load on the air conditioner. An added benefit is greatly extended life of exterior building surfaces when protected from the intense ultraviolet rays of the sun. Paint, stain, wood and synthetic siding all last much longer when protected from sunlight.

People are sometimes afraid that trees close to their building will make the property “too dark”. This is not the case if the shade trees are gradually pruned over a period of years, so that eventually the first branches are 10-20 feet above the ground. A tree with a high canopy looks very beautiful and lets in enough light from the sides to keep grass, perennials and shrubs growing quite happily.

Shade trees with high canopies allow low angle winter sunlight to enter windows during a time when heating of the interior of the structure will save money. As soon as the leaves fall during October, sunlight streams into rooms, and provides nice added warmth. During summer the same trees keep you cool and comfortable.

Evergreen trees such as spruce, pine and arborvitae can do a good job of reducing winter heating costs when positioned to block winds from the northwest, north and northeast. These tough and lovely conifers add year around beauty and greatly reduce the chilling effects of winter winds, saving dollars on your heat bill, as well as adding privacy to your property.

A knowledgeable nursery professional can assist you with selecting the right varieties for your soils, slopes, drainage and style of architecture. Excellent shade trees include Maple, Oak, disease resistant Elms, Hackberry, Honeylocust, Birch and Kentucky Coffeetree. Good evergreens for Minnesota include Norway Spruce, Black Hills Spruce, White Pine, Red Pine, Austrian Pine, American Arborvitae and Techny Arborvitae.

If the cost of trees could be a problem for your budget, I strongly encourage you to simply plant smaller, lower cost trees. If you get them started now, its amazing how in a few years time, a tall and stately tree will beautify your yard and save you significant dollars on energy.

Keep in mind that good quality trees that are properly positioned will add greatly to the value of a property when the day comes that you decide to sell and move to a different house. You will receive many times more than your original investment since time and the growth of the tree work to build value for you.

Plant Spotlight: Hybrid disease resistant Elms. Many people are still wary of planting Elm trees due to the disaster of Dutch Elm Disease. The good news is that many excellent complex Elm hybrids are now available that show very good resistance to Dutch Elm Disease. An excellent feature of these new wonder Elms is that they can be grown successfully almost any place, in almost any soil. This desirable versatility is the very reason that American Elms were so widely planted. Good disease resistant varieties to look for are Triumph, Accolade, Discovery, Danada Charm, Vanguard and New Horizon. Check with a trusted nursery professional for more details.

Labels: Yard and Garden Notes by Leif

Last year in our meadow we planted an area to wildflowers and ornamental grass. This was done in the Summer of 2005, and this summer - it is already spectacular! In the middle of this bed we have the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass, surrounded by Purple Coneflowers and the Goldsturm Rudebekia makes it’s appearance in the outer circle.

This bed has received no care this summer. We have to truck water out to the meadow and with the drought - we’ve had to keep our nursery plants alive. Needless to say - these are tough perennials to have grown as they have and just the little rain we did get to sustain them!

A bed like this can be done on a smaller scale for a corner of a backyard - or a place you just don’t want to have to mow any longer… think about it. You need alot of sun but the result is so beautiful. The winter interest provided by this group of plants is one of the reasons we did it as well. Ornamental grass - some of its best features is the winter interest!

We have plenty of these plants in stock so plant now for a beautiful summer of 2007! (Click on the picture to see a larger shot!)