My Favorite Fall Combo

When asked what was my favorite plant combination, I asked, "At what time of year?" So they gave me this time slot! If you are a customer of ours, each week we send out an email blitz with specials and each week we have an employees favorite plant combos. Two of the plants below are my favorites any time of the year, but the Liatris is mostly special now!

Liatris aspera
Butterfly magnet, when it's a little warmer. Now, it's an upright exclamation in the garden. This plant grows to 4' tall and prefers to be in dry to slightly moist soils.

Calamintha nepeta ssp nepeta
This has been a favorite since the day I laid eyes on it. Flowering from late June until frost, Calamintha nepeta ssp nepeta is a blooming machine. Flowers are incredibly attractive to honey bees, so for the faint of heart, be careful. I am however allergic to bee stings, but love to view them hard at work. They've only gotten me once in seven years when I shake the plant and watch them fly. This particular variety is sterile so it won't reseed all over the garden. And furthermore, when temperatures drop at night in the fall, flowers turn light blue.
Geranium 'Rozanne'
When I first started working at Midwest Groundcovers, I was not a perennial person. In fact, I thought this Piet Oudolf guy was crazy for ripping out our shrubs and groundcovers and planting a garden entirely of perennials. "There is no way this garden will look good", I thought. December that year, Geranium "Jolly Bee" which no longer exists, was still blooming. I soon changed my mind and became a perennial plant geek. The bees never got the memo either, and still love 'Rozanne' even though she changed her name. They may not be as jolly, but they are working hard on Rozanne.

Sorry for the quick blog, but it has been a busy week! Until next time, have a great day!

IGIA HOPE

Last week, the IGIA HOPE group came to Midwest Groundcovers to tour and learn from our company. If you are not familiar with HOPE, it stands for Horticultural Occupation and Professional Experience. Top students from local community colleges travel to 7 locations a year and learn from these companies what they may or may not want to do in their careers. We were their first stop this year. Here are some of the things we did.

I was the tour guide for this segment. I think it's always interesting to see it from a different perspective, so I like people to see what I see. Here, we learned the entire process of how an order makes it from nursery ground to vehicle. It was an eye opening experience for some. As a former customer, I never had any idea how large the nursery was. When you get a chance to peruse all the acreage, you realize, "That's why it takes so long to get my plants!"

On the second day in Virgil, there were several opportunities to learn. Here, Bruce Zierk is teaching about our state of the art greenhouse. Some of the feedback from the event expressed the surprise by how many gadgets and settings there were to make sure everything is running correctly. In this greenhouse, we are able to produce amazing plants for Bud and Bloom and other items for early spring sales.
Here, Kevin Donnelly trekked us up to the top of the mountain of pine fines. Here we are checking the temperature to make sure things are ok. On a 70 degree day, the mulch was a "cool" 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Kevin said that was cooler than normal.

Overall, it was a fun two days for the tour guides, and hopefully the students felt the same. To the students, thanks for coming out. We really enjoyed your enthusiasm and excitement for all things Midwest. Until next time, have a great day!

Piet Oudolf Design Phase IV

Hello again,
A real quick one this week. We have began our forth phase of the Piet Oudolf designed garden. In this phase, we remove our large hedge of Panicum 'Dallas Blues'. It wasn't a design flaw that required this removal. But we've since removed 'Dallas Blues' from our product line and therefore it gets removed from the garden. Roy Diblik's introduction, Panicum 'Northwind' will take its place. Also being removed are the Sanguisorba 'Red Thunder', that we all like. The problem with this plant, is that the Japanese Beetles like them even more than we do.

Along with 'Northwind', we will plant Sporobolus heterolepis. To some peoples dismay was the removal of Phlomis tuberosa. This plant, while beautiful, had become a nuisance in the garden. I was constantly removing seedlings. And if you are familiar with Phlomis tuberosa, you know that having a lot of seedlings like this isn't a good thing. It's a BIG plant. From the same area, Inula magnifica was removed. This was part of the first installation. It also moved around a little, but not too bad. Just never really did anything for anyone here. We never wanted to grow it, and through many tours, nobody ever once asked what it was. To me, that was an indicator of a plant that is not necessary for the product line. In their place will be Liatris pycnostachya and Echinacea pallida. Some Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frei' will be interplanted with exsisting Coreopsis 'Golden Showers'. Eupatorium 'Little Joe' is also coming into this section, replacing some of the aforementioned Sanguisorba.

This has been a fun project this year, and there is only one more major phase to complete. Then we'll wait for the plants we don't grow until next spring. Until next time, thanks for reading and have a great day! Happy Labor Day!

Garden Phlox for Landscapers

Hello again,
Here at Midwest Groundcovers, LLC, we are growers of fine plants for the midwest. We are pretty good in my estimation at making plants look great in containers so that landscapers, garden centers, and rewholesalers get outstanding plant material. For Phlox, we've gone through a myriad of changes over the years with many varieties going in and out of our product line. Now, we have several varieties that look outstanding in the ground. These garden Phlox that have excelled are three of the most eye-catching plants in the landscape today. Some have made the blog before, and some haven't. But as a collection, they can make your yard look superb. Without further ado, here they are!
Phlox paniculata 'David's Lavender'
This one has been posted in the past. Now, I'm a big fan of Phlox 'Blue Paradise'. And while it's colors are more intense than 'David's Lavender', the plants don't even compare. The foliage of this one is super clean, and I have it in part shade. No mildew to be seen, whatsoever. On nearby plants, they are covered.

Phlox paniculata 'Lord Clayton'
We've had several reds in the past. The best selling was the 'Starfire'. Those plants would be destroyed by powdery mildew by this time. 'Lord Clayton', on the other hand, is more than just marketing. Brought to you by Plants Nouveau, this red flowering, dark-leaved variety, is visible from afar. I have it planted in the landscape next to a white flowering Euphorbia corollata, and the combination is stunning.

Phlox arendsii 'Baby Face'
This has also made the blog in the past. This plant in the phot has already been in full bloom, yet it has a complete set of new blooms coming right now. It has outperformed many other highly touted Phlox in the garden. While initially, I trialed this plant as a recommendation for a pink version of 'Minnie Pearl', but it clearly is not. It blooms later and longer, but it still has the great disease resistance.

That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed! Until next time, happy planting. Have a great day!

New for 2012

Hello again,
Things have been busy around here in August. I've been working on pictures for our 2012 catalog and that has consumed most of my time. But I thought I should share some of the new for 2012, and let you know that we have these two available now in bloom!!!

Hibiscus 'Cranberry Crush'
This is our regal dark red variety that has been looking great in the nursery for a week or so. The plants are not yet in full bloom, but are getting close. It's a nice time to get them to a garden center or, in your significant others garden. They look great and have a massive eye appeal. This one gets 3-4' tall and 4-5' wide according to the breeders.

Hibiscus 'Jazzberry Jam'
Jazzberry Jam gets a little bit bigger than its friend 'Cranberry Crush'. Growing 4-5' tall and 6-7' wide, this beauty gets big and bigger. Large dinner plate sized blooms are the star, but clean dark green foliage enhance the color of the flowers. We've carried Hibiscus in the past, but now we are trying again. These should be great sellers in the garden center, or just what the kids needed as a back to school gift! Maybe you should send one in with your child to give to their teacher!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to spilling the beans on some of the other new plants for 2012 in the coming weeks. Until next time, I hope you have a great day!