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!

Piet Oudolf - Second Phase

Hello again,
The second phase of the Piet Oudolf planting is finished. Gustavo and Fakundo have been working hard on this garden.

This week we again removed the Panicum 'Dallas Blues' from the garden. In its place, we will be planting Eupatorium 'Little Joe'. Also another area where Epimedium x rubrum was planted before, we will be incorporating Zizia aptera. Originally, we had tall Hamamelis vernalis in the garden. They were removed a couple years back, and now there is more sun than there used to be. So to give them some protection, the Zizia will provide some shade for those plants. At my request, we will keep the Epimedium there because in combination with the Muscari that bloom in spring, it is stunning.

Other weeds have been removed this week, such as milk thistle. This has been a little bit of a problem this year. They were about to bloom, so I had to take the guys from a different area of the gardens to remove them before they set seed. We don't want to have a perennial issue with this. Plants that we are waiting on for this section of the garden include Monarda bradburiana, Gillenia trifoliata, and Geranium soboliferum.




Thanks again for reading, and hopefully next week, we will have more excitement in the garden. Until next time, have a great day!

Piet Oudolf Garden Changes

Round one of the renovations to Piet Oudolf's garden are about to begin. I'll be a little more specific about what's about to happen in today's blog. Several varieties are coming out of the garden for various reasons.

Eric and Fakundo are working hard on the removal of Panicum 'Dallas Blues' and Salvia 'Amethyst'. These two plants are coming out because for one reason or another, we no longer sell these varieties. 'Dallas Blues', especially in production was a magnet for rust. We love the look of the Panicum, so we are replacing it with Roy Diblik's introduction, 'Northwind'. 'Northwind' will give the same verticle element to the garden that 'Dallas Blues' has without the rust. Salvia 'Amethyst' left our product line because of a lack of sales. It is a great looking plant, but if sales cannot support it, it goes away. In this case, Salvia 'Pink Friesland' will replace it in the garden. It will be a little bit shorter, but that will work in this instance.

In this part of the garden, Limonium latifolium is being removed. I'm waiting on some plants for the back part of this garden where more of this plant resides, but I don't have the replacement yet. In the section that has been emptied, we will be planting a small number of Geranium 'Brookside' and Heuchera 'Mocha'. Limonium left our product line, because the more and more we tried to promote the plant, the less and less we'd sell. Hasta la vista Limonium.

In this area, Eric is working on an area that will have Veronica 'Eveline' planted. The Limonium had reseeded in most of the garden, so he's removing parts of it from all over. In it's place will go the Veronica. The other difficult plants in the garden that are being removed are Coreopsis tripteris and Aster novae-angliae. Neither of these were ever intended for the garden, but reseeded from other locations.




Another interesting thing happened when walking through the gardens. When Piet first showed up, we talked about removing all the Tradescantia from the garden. Then we found this wonderful combination of Tradescantia and Zizia aptera. Both of us were impressed by this combination, so we plan on using it in another location. While the picture here is of Tradescantia ohiensis and Zizia aptera, we will be using Tradescantia 'Concord Grape'. This picture was taken at Nelson Lake a couple days after Piet visited, reaffirming to me, that this is a "natural" combination for the garden.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to read. I hope you enjoyed the first round of changes that we will be making. Stay tuned for many more. Until next time, have a great day!