Plants getting Cooler!

Hello again,
In 14 years in this business, I've never seen a spring kick into full gear this fast. It was rapidly approaching the acceleration of a Dodge Viper. And then...we get frost. This should come as no surprise to any of us, as this is quite typical of this time of year. It's just hard to take after weeks of summer like temperatures in March. While the heat may have sped up the flowering times of Amelanchier, Magnolia, and Forsythia, the cool has slowed down the likes of Crabapples and Redbuds. Hopefully we can continue to enjoy their sweet scents for longer than normal.
Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'
Jack has become a yearly topic for me on the blog, and it's because I think he's great. For years, we were always concerned about the price tag that gets attached to this plant. Liners are pricey. However, it has proven to be worth every penny. Green foliage, frosted white, with brilliant blue flowers. It likes dry shade but yet can handle some sun if properly watered. In our gardens, I've tried mixing it with Aster divaricatus or now known as Eurybia divaricatus and they behave very well together. They both prefer some shade, and bloom at opposite sides of the growing season which makes it a more lasting combo.
Mazus reptans
This is one of my new favorite groundcovers. It's not "new" by any sense of the imagination, but new to me. We've carried it for many years and I always had trouble keeping it alive. It was at the bottom of a slope, and I believe the moisture run off was killing it. In the pictured area, it is between a rock and a hard place, otherwise known as pavement. It is super dry right here and not the greatest of soil. Yet here it performs excellently. A little frost this morning didn't deter it from having a great day either. This one only grows an inch or two tall, and does most of it's flowering right now. Some sporadic blooms will come later in the season but may not make you ooh and ah. Just a nice mat forming groundcover for those tough areas. Here it is in half day sun and shade.
Dicentra spectabilis
I have a soft spot in my heart for bleeding hearts. This has always been my moms favorite flower. This year, they started to bloom much earlier than normal. But the cold came right after they began so the flowers have stayed. For all the mothers out there, this hearts for you!

Exochorda Snow Day™ Surprise
I have to admit that I don't know a lot about this plant until now. I really like it. It's a very interestingly shaped flower. The shrub grows 3-4' tall and wide. The habit seems to be very rounded, which is an improvement over the straight species. It says in the literature that the plant can grow in full sun to part shade, but our Pearlbush seems to like more sun if available. Branching on this plant leans a little toward the sunny side of the garden. This is currently just a trial for Midwest Groundcovers. If you are interested in us growing this plant, please send a note and ask for it. We love to know the demand.

Thanks again for reading. I hope everyone is enjoying a successful April. Until next time, have a great day!

Plants that make you Double Take™

Hello again,
I've long disliked the genus Chaenomeles, or Flowering Quince. I never mastered the pronunciation of the genus and never liked the color of the flowers. Even more, I didn't like the fact that they were free of leaves during the summer. It seems as though things are about to change. While perusing the nursery in Virgil on Tuesday, I was stunned by the profusion of flowers tightly gripping the stems of this new brand of Quince. Double Take™ Quince made me do just what the name says. And the brand makes it easier for me to pronounce, which I like as well. Here are the three varieties that we carry.
Double Take™ Orange Storm was the first that made me look. Blooms covered the plant from top to bottom. The color is very eye catching even at the time of year when all blooms are engaging. In speaking with Gary Knosher, the President of Midwest Groundcovers, he mentioned that they didn't loose their leaves last year which is a special bonus.





Double Take™ Scarlet Storm
This was my favorite of all the blooming plants in the nursery. These plants were covered with blooms once again. Fully opened on young and old plants, this one looks like a real winner. I can't think of anything at this very moment that blooms with such brilliant red color at this time of year other than Tulips. It would be stunning to pair this plant with a Forsythia Show Off™ for early spring color. The fiery combination would surely attract visitors as they are both superb plants.

Double Take™ Pink Storm
I really like it when new breeding leads me to a genus that I would have stuck my nose up at in the past. Proven Winners® Colorchoice™ Shrubs has done just that with these three Chaenomeles. This is closest to the color I remember from past Quince. There were only a few blooms on this plant, so if you want to extend the bloom season of Quince, you can plant this one with one of the others.



Forsythia Show Off™
This has been such an early year for Forsythia, and while most are bloomed out, this one is still hanging on. The picture was taken on March 19th, way before they normally bloom, and it was by far the nicest Forsythia in the ground that I saw. The Landscape Design Association visited us on the 22nd, and many took note of how nice this plant looked. I heard from the group, "I don't like Forsythia, but that could change my mind." We gave a couple away to the audience, so hopefully people will remain interested.

As spring continues to fly by, we should all take a second to realize we may not ever see Pears and Redbuds blooming at the same time again. Serviceberries and Forsythia and Chaenomeles all in bloom at the same time. While it is definately shortening the flowering woody season, I have to remember what a non-industry person said to me last week. Crabapples were in full bud in front of her office, with Amelanchier, Pyrus, and Cercis canadensis in full bloom. She was a lady in her late 60's, and she couldn't understand why it worried me. She said, it's so beautiful Kevin. Why can't you just see that and take it for what it's worth. Someone telling me to stop and smell the roses!?! Wow. She's right. It's amazing. Soak it in. Until next time, have a great day!

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!