Maintaining the Piet Oudolf Garden

Hello again,
It's been a while, and I apologize for the lengthy time in between posts. I hope everyone is getting geared up for a terrific spring. Here at Midwest Groundcovers we are getting ready for what we hope will be a great year! In the process, the garden is getting prepared for growth. We are attempting a new game plan for cutting down this garden. It has been quite the journey in making this garden a quicker maintenance project. In the first years, the project would take a full two days to hand cut the entire garden. We did that for a several years. It just wasn't efficient enough. Three years ago, we decided to try a new avenue. We started using a weed whip to cut the plants down. This took a two day project and cut it down to half a day. In the process, we'd take the native plants we cut down and move them to the prairie in the front of our facility to help with the burn. We didn't take all the plants, because we didn't want to spread the seeds of non-native plants in our prairie. Native plants were welcome.

We started phase three of our history in this garden last week. Roy Diblik has started to use this technique on his jobs, and has also implemented it at the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park in Chicago. The theory behind mowing this garden is that herbaceous plants naturally grow amongst their own debris.

Therefore using a mulching mower to chop up the plants and leave them on top creates a natural mulch for them. We first removed some of the species I had concerns with reseeding about. This was mostly Eryngium yuccifolium, or Rattlesnake Master and Aster 'October Skies'. These plants were removed before mowing to keep them from moving around. This process took a half day project down to one hour. Now that is efficiency! As long as the ground is frozen or dry, this looks to be a great new maintenance program for this garden. Until next time, I hope you have a great day!

Iowa Shade Tree Short Course and INLA Tradeshow

Happy New Year to all,
It has been a while since I've written a post, but have been asked to let you all know about a great educational opportunity. In Ames, Iowa, the Iowa Shade Tree Short Course and INLA Trade show will be taking place on February 22-23, 2012. Several great plants people will be on hand sharing their knowledge like Mike Yanny from Johnson's Nursery in Menomenee Falls, WI and Ed Lyons from Allen Centennial Garden in Madison, WI. Keynote speakers are Marty Grunder from Ohio and Jason Grobosky from Rutgers University. Rex Bastian from The Care of Trees and Carrie Tauscher of The Morton Arboretum from Illinois will be speaking as well as ANLA Political Guru Craig Regelbrugge. These folks as well as others will be there in a great event. Last year was my first time at this event, and I got a lot out of it. This year, I will also have the pleasure of speaking to the masses in presentations titled, "Success with Ornamental Grasses," and "Are You Ready to Talk to Your Customers About Natives?". Here is a link to the program if you are interested in attending. http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/_repository/2012/shadetree/pdf/workshops.pdf

I hope to see some of you there. Until next time, have a great day!

Fleeting Fall Colors

Hello again,
Colors are starting to disappear from the landscape and change to various browns, grays, and yesterday, whites. After a brief snowfall though, some colors have persisted and are quite beautiful yet. Here are some of the highlights from our landscape.
Cotinus 'Golden Spirit'
This can be seen from quite a distance. The summertime golden leaves turn a fiery red on this smokebush. I personally love how the veins turn last giving it a multi-colored effect. Golden Spirit continues to surprise me every year. In addition to the fiery red fall color, it actually produced smoke this year as well. It was the first year since planting that I've seen flowering on it. I just assumed it wasn't going to happen. My previous experiences with Cotinus in general is that you can cut the plant back to the ground each year for bigger, more beautiful foliage but then you lose the flowers. I hadn't been doing that intentionally, but there has been some dieback. This year, we got the best of both worlds.
Physocarpus Coppertina™
Coppertina™ is quite a beautiful plant all year 'round. Dark purple foliage with copper highlights in the summer and brilliant red in fall. During the winter time, this plant has interesting exfoliating bark which adds to its four season appeal. For Midwest Groundcovers, Coppertina™ has replaced the more well known 'Diabolo' based on it's better resistance to powdery mildew. It grows 6-8' tall and wide. In our garden, it contrasts well with the Forsythia Show Off™.

Fothergilla 'Beaver Creek'
Beaver Creek Fothergilla has always been one of my favorite fall coloring shrubs. Growing 3-4' tall with creamy bottle brush-like flowers in spring, this is a great plant for the shady border. Here in fall, its orange-red fall color is nothing to scoff at. Another multi-dimensional shrub, I have this growing close to where deer are always browsing, and they have yet to attack it. Today the white frost on the orange-red foliage contrasted very nicely.

Cotoneaster 'Hessei'
Looking like red raindrops cascading to the ground, this plant really caught my attention today. The gray stems contrasting with the red leaves really does add interest to this already interesting plant. Summer and fall red fruit are typically what I love this plant for, but these days in late fall, show off a delicate beauty. A Chicagoland Grows introduction from many years ago, this plant really merits use in the area. Great job Morton Arboretum for promoting this plant in the program!

Callicarpa hybrid
More kudos to The Morton Arboretum for this gem. While yet to be named, the fruit on this particular beautyberry are quite their namesake. We received two varieties a few years back and this one has remained a favorite of mine. The fruit are sometimes so heavy that the branches look like they are weeping. Here's hoping that Chicagoland Grows picks it up and starts marketing them. I think there are great applications for the landscape for these.

Thanks again for reading the blog. I hope you enjoyed. I'll be keeping my eyes out for the more subtle beauty of winter for the next couple months, so keep checking the blog. Until next time, have a great day!

Grasses in Fall

Hello again,
This week I wanted to make note of some of the dwarf grasses in our gardens. Fall is the best time of year for most grasses, so it makes my job very easy in showing off how beautiful they can be.

Sporobolus heterolepis 'Tara' 'Tara' has been in the garden for some time now. I've had it on the blog several times, but this year, it showed me something distinguishingly different. The stems are a rustic red color! In this particular picture, a straight species Sporobolus reseeded itself amongst the 'Tara', and that is why it looks so large. The species having the bright yellow stems above, contrasts quite nicely with the smaller 'Tara'.
Calamagrostis brachytricha
This is not necessarily a dwarf, being a species itself. Just a smaller grass that is not well enough known. C. brachytricha is a 3-4 tall grass that has amazingly showy plumes in late summer. Unlike it's cousin 'Karl Foerster', this blooms late in the year rather than in spring. It can also handle a small amount of shade. Preferably afternoon shade, as the morning sun is as important to plants as your first morning coffee.
Deschampsia cespitosa 'Goldtau'
Gold Dew Tufted Hair Grass is quickly becoming one of my favorite grasses in the landscape. Glowing seedheads float above pale green foliage, and light up with just a touch of sun. This planting gets half day sun and does quite well. This variety does prefer some moisture, but can handle periods of drought. Only growing 24" tall with flowers in our garden, the grass itself is about 12" tall and 24" wide.

Schizachyrium 'Carousel' In my estimation, this is one of the best plants to come out of Chicagoland Grows. It offers a native cultivar that grows more uniform so those that are afraid of the wild look can be satisfied. Consistently growing to 24" tall and wide, the fall colors on this are astounding, and only when in nutrient rich soils, does it flop over.
Schizachyrium 'Blue Heaven' Another impressive Little Blue Stem is 'Blue Heaven'. This one grows about 4' tall and sways with the slightest breeze. Reds and oranges abound, this beauty will be appreciated by the hardest to please. In summer, foliage is steely blue and matches well with orange flowers from Daylilies or Geum.

Gentiana 'True Blue' I wish my picture would do this plant justice. But it seems very difficult to capture the color blue that these actually are. Regardless, this stunning fall bloomer grows to 24" tall and wide with a somewhat cascading habit. We had these in containers this year and they presented like a nice "Spiller" would.

Allium 'Ozawa' 'Ozawa' is one of my favorite plants this time of year. It seems like I wait and wait for it to look amazing, and when it finally starts to bloom, it never fails to impress. As you can see in the picture, the honeybees love the late season pollen that these produce. And who wouldn't love that color in the front of the shade border.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this blog. Don't forget that it is perfect timing to plant some bulbs. Give us a call, we still have some great varieties available. And while the fall colors last, enjoy them. Until next time, have a great day!

Fall Colors in Illinois

Hello again,
Fall is the time for forgotten flowers and fabulous foliage. I think that fall reminds most people of Asters and Chrysanthemums. For me, while I find them both beautiful in their own right, I find that Anemones are the most stunning. This years avoidance of frost has allowed our Anemones to flourish.
Anemone 'Pamina'
This is growing in full shade below a 50' tall Picea abies, Norway Spruce. In this deep shade, it is also forced to live with strong drought conditions. Other plants that have done well under this tree include Brunnera and some Boxwoods. Otherwise, it has proven to be a difficult area to get things to grow. I had previously tried Geranium maculatum with little success. 'Pamina' grows 24" tall and similar width. This is something difficult to beat for fall flower.

Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'
This Anemone is also growing here showing off her cheery white blooms with yellow stamens.
Also known as "Windflower", these blooms dance around the tops of the plants with the slightest breeze. Bumblebees still visit the heavy pollen producing flowers if the temperature remain in the 70's like we are seeing these last few days. This is a little taller than the 'Pamina', growing to 30" tall but remaining around 24" wide. Imagine this mixed in a bed of Carex 'Ice Dance' and watch the combination of variegated foliage from 'Ice Dance' blend ever so nicely with the flowers of this gem.

Aster laevis and Aster novae-angliae
In one of our native garden spaces, these two plants have provided a fantastic fall display. Neither plant were actually installed here, but they existed in other parts of the garden and reseeded here. I am quite impressed how they have come together to form a picture reminiscent of a Monet painting. This just proves that sometimes nature is the best landscape designer.

Corylus americana
Finally a little fall color to finish the blog. American Hazelnut has become one of my favorite plants for fall color. Oranges, yellows and reds mixed into one plant and growing up to 15' tall combined with some funky looking nuts, this has so many fun things to look at. In spring the catkins are interesting as well making this a true 3 season plant.

Thanks again for reading the blog. Until next time, have a great day and enjoy the amazing weather we are having!