What happens in Winter?

Hi there,

The question always comes. What does Midwest Groundcovers do in the winter? Well, there isn't just one answer to the question, but one of the major things we do is trade shows. In order to look great at our trade shows, we need plants to be forced. Enrique Rodriguez and his staff do a fantastic job of forcing plants for the show. With all due respect to the other plant forcers out there, Enrique is at the top of the growers list.

Here is Enrique with the Jeepers Creepers(R) plants. He has been doing this for only four years now, and the Midwest Groundcovers booth looked great once again. Thank you Enrique for always making us look great in the winter time.

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One of the other houses with plants in it. What's difficult, is that us marketing folk, are always asking for more. So plants need to be in separate houses so that in one house, we can make Buddleia bloom, and in another, we can keep the Phlox divaricata laphamii from becoming spent too soon. The following three plants are also in the heated houses.

I was born and bred a foliage fan. The foliage needs to look good as it's the primary piece of the plant that will be there all season. Who needs flowers? Now, clearly I'm sort of kidding. Here to the left is Hosta 'Liberty'. This has been a great selling plant for us, and has performed admirably in the landscape. It is even planted on a west facing wall and it does not burn. It does however fade a little.

Heuchera 'Miracle'PPAF

This has been quite the exciting Heuchera for us this year. The pictures we've seen show dark, brick red with a yellow margin. The picture to the left is the most colorful I've seen the plant. I first thought we had the wrong thing, but then I was delighted to hear that these Heuchera were color changing Heuchera. Marvelous!

Heucherella 'Alabama Sunrise' PPAF

This is the best of the bunch from Terra Nova. This has some great color all year long. The red shows from emergence to frost. And here in Illinois, it has been showing great color even in the winter. The -20 degree temperatures I'm sure haven't helped, but at least they are covered with snow to keep them sort of warm. You can't beat this for a part shade container!!! And we have them in #2 sized pots!!!

This will possibly be the last post of the day. I hope you've enjoyed. Stay warm and have a great day!