Time to Fix Up Your Gardens

So far 2011 has been a year unto its own. Many similaritie to last year. Loads of rain early and a traditional Midwestern heat wave and drying up phase that started 2-3 weeks ago, depending where you are around here.For you gardeners that got rained out in the Spring, now is a great time to come out to the nursery. Do not lose a year because the weather was bad and not conducive to being comfortable. Start growing something now! Plant something for 2011. August is almost here!Get that garden straightened out that has been on that long to do list before the grow season is over. If you need some fresh ideas consult with John or Shawn. All of our designs are one of a kind. There is no canned approach to design here its all custom.

Perennials are growing great. Even though the weather has been hot, Hostas have not suffered much, if any margin burn. Cimicifuga Brunette is looking awesome too if you need something unusual for the shade. We have a dynamite crop of Japanese Anemones per usual. If you are not growing these great plants you should start! Japanese Anemones bloom in the late summer and Early Fall. They live and do best in part sun part shade type environments in average soil. Whereas the mum is the plant for the sun in the fall the Anemone is its counterpart for the shade. We have been getting back into feeding the birds. An often overlooked aspect of feeding the birds is having plants that give the birds shelter like the Fat Albert Blue Spruce. We have an awesome selection of these trees right now in 15 gal containers. These plants are tipping out close to 6’ feet and have great body. We find more bird nests in these trees than any other tree we grow.Native trees and bushes like the Serviceberry help feed the birds with the berries they produce. Fall color is superb with the Service berry trees. Oranges, reds, and yellow highlights make these trees a garden spectacle in the Fall. In the Spring the Serviceberry is loaded with white flowers. There are not many three season trees out there. Serviceberry has it all though!!We started growing a new variety of Gaillardia this year called Frenzy. We were really hung up on a older variety called Tizzy. When sources of that plant dried up we decided to give Frenzy a try. So far it has bloomed pure red. No orange as seen in the promo photographs has been observed at this time. This is nice because true red is actually hard to get in the often pastel world of perennials. There is a new Gaillardia we are trying to get a hold of next year called Moxie. Where do they get these names??We have been doing some rehab work on the gardens this summer as well. Earlier this year we had to take down a big Weeping Willow that provided a lot of shade for one of our older gardens. When that came down it was instant sun garden!! We have put a lot of cool stuff like Vitex in these gardens. Many of the new additions to these gardens have been bird and butterfly plants. We are trying to give the butterflies something to stop and get food while on their travels. We suggest you plant some too. There is no beauty like a butterfly’s beauty. It might just be me but I think there so much fewer butterflies than when I chased them through old farm fields as a child in the late seventies. Those and lightening bugs. Anyway do what you can to help the wildlife in your own yard. You may think about popping into the nursery to pick up a butterfly house or even a bat condo aka bat house. Here’s to a great rest of the grow year!! Shawn