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!

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!