Want Easy Plants? Use hostas!

8 varieties of hosta available at Vander Giessen's!

If you're looking for easy plants to use in a shade or morning-sun garden around your house, you've got to have some hostas. Available in dozens--no, make that hundreds--of colors, textures and sizes, hostas are a gardening genre of their own.

In my backyard at home, I have a very shady area made possible by the large chestnut tree just over the fence in my neighbor's yard. It's a beautiful tree, really, but when my wife and I moved into the house, I quickly discovered two problems: 1) The tree drops more than its share of leaves in the fall; and 2) it's tricky to get much of anything to grow in the shade it provides all summer long. So what did I do? I made a hosta garden!

Think about it--hostas give you great, vibrant color even in the shadiest of locations, and at the end of the season when the leaves collect under your trees, you can rake up the hosta foliage right along with them. The flowerbed in my backyard has never been easier to clean up since I planted hostas back there. I just wait until they've died down in the fall--about the same time deciduous trees drop their leaves--and voila, I make one fell swoop through the bed with my rake and avoid having the tedious job of picking leaves out of shrubs as I rake.

If you've never considered the possibility of dedicating a whole flowerbed to hostas, just check out the numerous and beautiful varieties of hosta you can find at Vander Giessen's. You'll love the beauty of the foliage they provide through summer and the ease of cleanup each autumn.

Wordless Wednesday

In bloom now: Bonanza Deep Orange Marigold (NEW this year!)

Unique Plants to Enjoy This Spring

April is a great month to get your spring garden projects underway. Despite the continued cool, wet weather we’ve had in the last month, plants are waking up from dormancy and temperatures are warm enough to plant any shrubs, trees or perennials.

'Valentine' dicentra

Most spring-blooming plants look their best in sunny weather. Rain just has a way of making even the hardiest bloomers look soggy. Not so with bleeding hearts, however. Dicentra—the botanical name for “bleeding hearts”—is a great plant to enjoy even in the rain. And this year, there’s a brand-new variety you’ll want to find a spot for in your garden. ‘Valentine’ is a full-size dicentra with true red flowers—a departure from the pink blooms of older varieties. Along with the red blooms you’ll enjoy deep red stems and dark plum-green foliage.

A second brand-new plant that works well in even the smallest gardens is ‘Tiny Gold’ dwarf barberry. True to its name, ‘Tiny Gold’ tops out at around 18 inches tall and wide; the small size of this gold-leafed variety means you’ll never have to deal with pruning back overgrown, thorny branches. If yellow isn’t your color, last year’s introduction called ‘Admiration’ is a great alternative. With bright red leaves finely edged in gold through spring and summer, it turns neon pink in autumn. Additionally, like ‘Tiny Gold’ it stays small, maturing to just two feet tall and wide.

'Snowkist' Dwarf Hinoki Cypress

In the worst of the rainy season, which—let’s be honest—around here is spring, fall and winter (and sometimes parts of summer), the best-looking plants in the yard are evergreens. With always-there foliage, conifers add structure and balance to the other seasonal and deciduous plants you may enjoy. But just because they’re “always there” doesn’t mean evergreens have to be never-changing or boring. Take, for instance, ‘Snowkist’ dwarf Hinoki cypress. This slow-growing dwarf isn’t just green—the tips of branches out in the sun turn an eye-catching creamy white. 

Another unique conifer sure to brighten your yard this spring is ‘Jean’s Dilly’ dwarf Alberta spruce. Like other Alberta-type spruce, ‘Jean’s Dilly’ (pronounced “John’s Dilly”) exhibits bright green spring growth, albeit later than other strains. Unique, however, is the size and shape of this plant from its cousins. ‘Jean’s Dilly’ is a very slow-growing strain with a much tighter, narrower form than the standard Alberta spruce. Excellent for small planting beds or even containers, you’ll want to check out this remarkable shrub this spring.

Now, if you enjoy gardening with edibles—and specifically growing strawberries—check out the new ‘Puget Crimson’ strawberry this spring. This late-season strawberry boasts large, sweet, deep red berries and heavy yields. Whether you plant a row in your garden this year or pick up an oak wine barrel or cedar planter so you can enjoy them on your patio, don’t miss out on these great berries. 

Finally, April is a great month for taking care of maintenance in your yard and garden. For vegetable gardens, rototill or spade mushroom compost into your soil for greatly improved crop yields. Around your house, spread bark in your flowerbeds to keep weeds down and moisture in, and fertilize shrubs with Jack’s ClassiCote or Crystal Green slow-release fertilizers for balanced feeding all season long. 

In between rain showers, this month is an excellent time for watching your garden burst once again into color. Stop at Vander Giessen Nursery this month to see what’s looking great and pick up some plants and supplies for a productive season ahead.

Wordless Wednesday

'Sedona' Coleus

Extended Hours are Back

Spring is here--and so far, it's looking like we're going to have a nicer spring than last year. Hooray! As you gear up for another great year of gardening, we're extending our hours to make it easier for you to get the plants and products you need. Through mid-June, we'll be open later on weekdays to serve you. Our hours are as follows:

Monday-Friday 9:00-5:30
Saturday 9:00-5:00

As the weather warms up, we welcome you to stop by and check out our beautiful selection of Lynden Baskets--planted and grown right in our own greenhouses--as well as a full assortment of annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees and the supplies you'll need to keep your garden looking great!

Four Seasons of Color...Really? Part V

This is the final 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 out our blog for the previous four installments--enjoy!


Over the last month, we've covered all four seasons with ideas to provide color and interest in your garden. Hopefully you've gleaned a few ideas that can help with planning your yard to extend color beyond just spring and summer.

'Rheingold' Cedar

Often, evergreens are thought of as drab, boring shrubs, and sadly, given the settings many people see them in, I understand that sentiment. Like the story I told in the first installment of this series, some people tend to swing too far in the opposite direction of the lady my wife and I bought our house from--they go to all evergreens, and all plain old green ones at that. But here are a few options that I've chosen for my yard to add interest and structure:

Evergreens for Year-Round Color

• Blue Star Juniper (beautiful gray-blue evergreen foliage)
• Dwarf Hinoki Cypress (bright green new growth in spring; slow-growing shrub adds unique texture to garden)
• Dwarf Korean Fir (slow-growing, compact shrub with very tight foliage and silvery new buds in spring)
• Helleri Japanese Holly (very dwarf evergreen shrub that creates a low mound just a foot tall)
• Heuchera (really a perennial, but holds its leaves year round for great color in any shade of the rainbow!)
• Irish Gold Yew (brightest in spring, but golden needles add color year-round)
• Rheingold Cedar (small tuffet of golden foliage that turns bronze in winter)
• Sky Pencil Japanese Holly (boxwood-like leaves with narrow, upright growth--great for adding height to a small space)
• Slowmound Dwarf Mugo Pine (extremely slow-growing mugo pine grows to just 1-2' in 10 years) 

This year, we're excited to begin working with Iseli Nursery at Vander Giessen's--and if anyone knows about great options in evergreen color, they do. Check out some of what they carry at Vander Giessen's, or for some inspiration, check out the Conifer Lover's blog. 


We hope that this series has given you a little bit more insight into how to create a four-seasons garden at your home. Certainly, there are hundreds of other options in plants you could use--and be brave, try some out!--but if you're running stuck wondering where to begin, we hope to have been some help. Stop in at Vander Giessen's to learn more about four seasons of garden interest or to see some of these plants for yourself--and have fun!

Four Seasons of Color...Really? Part IV

This is the fourth 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!  

Winter--that wonderful time of year when you can put away your hoe, rake and garden gloves and kick up your feet indoors. No mowing to worry about, no weeds to pull...and often, nothing to admire out your window. It's sad, really, that some people forget to plan for winter color--after all, with short days, long nights and an abundance of rain, it's the time when you could use the most help to stave off depression!

'Sango Kaku' Coral Bark Japanese Maple

Admittedly, there aren't a lot of options for winter color in your yard--not compared with spring or summer. But there still is plenty you can do to make the winter season interesting in your flowerbeds. Here are a few plants I've chosen for my yard that do just that:

Winter

• Coral Bark Japanese Maple (branches turn bright red after first frost and hold color through winter)
• Heuchera (perennial that holds its leaves through winter; leaves turn to purple, red, and orange shades in cold weather)
• Kramer's Red Heather (buds open in mid- to late-November and bloom through winter)
• Little Heath Pieris (variegated foliage stands out in bleak winter weather) 

Like I've said before, these lists are not at all comprehensive. Other variegated plants like 'Goshiki' vareigated false holly would be a great evergreen addition to your yard to enjoy in winter. And speaking of holly...well, like I said, there are plenty of other options. Check out what winter-interest plants might work in your yard with a visit to Vander Giessen's!


Next week, we'll wrap up with a great list of not-to-be-forgotten evergreens for your yard. Some of the plants I've listed for each season are evergreen, but don't miss out on the plants in next week's list--you'll need them to provide structure to your yard and help create the balance you're trying to achieve.