Wordless Wednesday

We've just finished planting over 1000 of our famous Lynden Baskets!

Four Seasons of Color...Really? Part III

This is the third installment in a five-week series of short articles designed to help you bring year-round color to your yard. Planning a landscape can be a daunting task--we hope that this series can help offer some suggestions for planning your yard. Check our blog weekly for the latest installment--and enjoy!  

Autumn can be a bittersweet time of year for gardeners. Even the most enthusiastic of green thumbs is usually ready for a break, but don't let autumn's dreary days bring you down! Here are a couple of plants I use in my garden to add some color and life to my flowerbeds for the season:

Autumn

• Admiration Barberry (leaves turn fiery tones of pink and orange late September through November)
• Coral Bark Japanese Maple (leaves fade to rich golden tones September through October)
• Ornamental grasses (several varieties produce beautiful seed heads in late summer and fall)
• Pink Lemonade Blueberry (green leaves fade out to shades of orange in October)
• Red Dragon Laceleaf Japanese Maple (burgundy leaves color up to bright red in October)

Remember, these are just a few suggestions for autumn color--you'll note that I've left out classics like mums and the ever-popular burning bush. So don't think this is a comprehensive list! I've simply decided that--with my limited space--it works better to make use of other plants. The "four seasons of color" concept is all about finding the right balance for your yard, so unless you have endless space to work with, you'll have to forgo some plants to make room for others. 

Coming up next week, we'll take a look at some great options for your yard that can bring a some interest during that bleakest season--winter.  

Four Seasons of Color...Really? Part II

This is the second installment in a five-week series of short articles designed to help you bring year-round color to your yard. Planning a landscape can be a daunting task--we hope that this series can help offer some suggestions for planning your yard. Check our blog weekly for the latest installment--and enjoy!  

Some great color in early summer!

Summer is a great time to be outdoors enjoying your yard. If you'd like to make the most of your outdoor experience, be sure to plant a few shrubs and perennials that will give you color to admire while you're basking in the sun, enjoying dinner outside or simply mowing the lawn. Here are just a few plants I have in my small yard to add summer color:

Summer

• Admiration Barberry (deep red foliage with gold edging to leaves)
• Astilbe (blooms late spring/early summer with plumes of red, pink and white flowers)
• Dianthus (a variety of carnations in various shades of pink, red and white around the yard)
• Dwarf Asiatic Lilies (bloom late spring and early summer--different varieties can spread out the blooming season)
• Heuchera (truly a four-season perennial; long summer days bring out the richness in shades of all different color tones in the foliage) 
• Hostas (several varieties--leaves offer interest from late spring through early autumn but also bloom in summer)
• Munstead Lavender (blooms in early- to mid-summer, but with light shearing after blooming, will re-bloom late summer)
• Nikko Blue Hydrangea (the traditional blue mophead hydrangea; blooms mid- to late-summer)
• Orange Rocket Barberry (summer warmth brings out rich orange color in leaves)
• Pink Lemonade Blueberry (blooms in late spring give way to pink berries in summer)
• Roses (color choices are endless!)
• Variegated Willow (pink new growth in late spring continues through summer and matures to dappled green and white leaves)

Coming up next week, we'll take a look at a couple of plants that offer great autumn color--and with all the rain we can get around here in autumn, a little bit of bright color may be just what you need for that time of year!

Brighten Your Garden with Early Spring Color

Have you taken a look around your yard lately? After a couple years of unseasonably early spring weather (never mind the fact that last year then decided to go back to winter until June!), this year appears to be a little bit more normal—so far. As I write this, I can see crocuses in bloom in my neighbors’ yards and the tulips I planted last fall are beginning to pop up in my flowerbeds, a welcome sign of spring’s impending arrival. As you start with some gardening around your yard this month, what plants can brighten up your flowerbeds?

Forsythia 'Gold Tide'

One of the first spring-blooming shrubs, forsythia is starting to show off its brassy yellow flowers in yards around the county. Traditionally, forsythia has been regarded as a plant that needs space—even with regular trimming, the shrub grows quite large, so small yards couldn’t properly accommodate it. If you love the color of forsythia but don’t have the space, stop in at Vander Giessen Nursery to check out ‘Gold Tide.’ This low-growing forsythia tops out at just about three feet tall and three to four feet wide. With a good pruning right after flowering, you could easily keep it smaller, too. 

Pieris 'Little Heath' with new growth

Another flowering shrub you should make room for in your yard this year is ‘Little Heath’ pieris. Like forsythia, you’re likely familiar with the larger varieties of pieris (some people call the shrub ‘Andromeda’) planted in yards throughout your neighborhood. With their drooping clusters of flowers in shades of pink or white, they’re another of the first shrubs to show spring color. If you enjoy the look of pieris but again, don’t want the large size, you’ll love ‘Little Heath.’ With variegated evergreen foliage, it provides year-round interest for the garden, and in spring, showy buds displayed since December open to creamy white flowers. Full-grown, it only reaches two to three feet tall and wide. 

Heather 'Kramer's Red'

For additional early spring color—and really, color all winter long--a third can’t-miss plant is ‘Kramer’s Red’ heather. Older varieties of heather tend to spread out quite rapidly, and in doing so, often die out in the center, leaving bare, ugly branches. ‘Kramer’s Red,’ however, grows much more slowly and keeps a tight, mounding form, making it a vast improvement over older strains. Add to that the fact that ‘Kramer’s Red’ blooms from November through April and this heather becomes a standout plant in any garden.

While you’re outdoors this month starting on some planting in your yard—and it is safe to plant shrubs and trees now—don’t forget to take a close look at the condition of your lawn. With winter comes moss, and no doubt your lawn has at least some for you to deal with. Hit the moss hard with generic ferrous sulfate. Moss Out and other similar products can do some good, but nothing kills moss like straight ferrous sulfate. One customer who recently purchased a bag from us reported back to me that he spread it on his lawn mid-morning, and by early afternoon, his lawn was entirely black with dead moss. Remember to follow up moss killing with a dose of Super Sweet lime to discourage re-growth; additionally, now is also a good time to do your first fertilizing of the year. Stop in at Vander Giessen's to get our recommendation for the right fertilizer for your lawn. 

Regardless of what kind of spring weather we end up having this year, now is the time to get started again with yard projects outdoors. Stop in at your favorite local nursery to see what great new plants are in stock and get help finding the products you need for a healthy lawn—and here’s hoping for a beautiful, pleasant spring season ahead!

Wordless Wednesday

'Cherry Star' calibrachoa--sure to be a hit this year!

Four Seasons of Color...Really? Part I

This is the first installment in a five-week series of short articles designed to help you bring year-round color to your yard. Planning a landscape can be a daunting task--we hope that this series can help offer some suggestions for planning your yard. Check our blog weekly for the latest installment--and enjoy! 

One rule of gardening I'm a big believer in is creating four seasons of color in your yard. When my wife and I bought our home a couple of years ago, the previous owner had a great selection of perennials and deciduous shrubs in the yard, but not one evergreen. We moved in in October--and within two weeks after we moved, the yard was completely bare.

'Magic Carpet' Spirea

Now, I'm not saying she had it all wrong--no, during spring and summer she had a lot of color to enjoy out her windows. But for just about half of the year, there was nothing but bare branches and empty flowerbeds to look at. So how can you create a garden with four seasons of color?

Evergreens are a great way to add at least a measure of life and color to your yard throughout the year. You don't have to go hog-wild in doing so, but by adding at least one or two--with varied colors, textures and shapes to keep it interesting--to each of your flowerbeds, you'll create a sense of structure in your beds year-round.

My yard is pretty small, and so I don't have a lot of room to work with for planting in my beds. But I have been able to achieve four seasons of color. Here's some of what I have to enjoy (broken down by seasonal interest):

Spring

• Baden Baden Rhododendron (dwarf shrub with blood-red blooms in mid-spring)
• Burning Hearts Bleeding Heart (dwarf bleeding heart with lacy blue foliage and deep red blossoms)
• Grace Ward Lithodora (true blue flowers in mid-spring) 
• Hino Crimson Azalea (ruby red flowers in April)
• Irish Gold Yew (evergreen with beautiful yellow new growth)
• Kramer's Red Heather (deep rose flowers from winter through mid-spring)
• Little Heath Pieris (variegated evergreen with white flowers late winter followed by red new growth)
• Magic Carpet Spirea (rusty-red new growth in spring followed by pink flowers late spring)
• Mother's Day Azaleas (bright red flowers in early May)

As far as plants that offer spring color, this is really just the tip of the iceberg. From hellebores to spring bulbs to all kinds of other rhododendrons, pieris and azaleas, the choices are endless. Next week I'll offer a few suggestions for summer color, both in blooming flowers and foliage interest. As we get started with a new season of gardening, it's an exciting time of year. Stop in at Vander Giessen's to see what's in color right now and get great suggestions for what would look nice in your yard!

Wordless Wednesday

"Fanciful Gardens" have arrived! Great dwarf and miniature shrubs for containers or rock gardens.

Here We Grow Again!

Springtime has arrived at Vander Giessen's! Our first loads of shrubs and trees are arriving, and the plants look great! Check out our wonderful selection of heathers, hellebores, nandina, rhododendrons, azaleas, bareroot fruit trees, periwinkle, and a lot more. New stock is rolling in daily, so be sure to check out our Facebook page for the latest information and pictures of what's coming in--or just stop by if you can't wait for our latest updates.

Just some of the great color available now at Vander Giessen's!