First Plant Sales of the year: Friday, April 8, 2-6 pm and Saturday, April 9, 9-1 pm (every Fri. & Sat. throughout April and May)
Location: 318 24th St. NE, Cedar Rapids, IA  (2 blocks off 1st Ave.)

I will be selling primarily trees and shrubs at this first sale, more perennials will become available once it warms up a bit. The following plants are available and ready to be planted now. See the Buy page for images & descriptions of many of the plants below.

TREES & SHRUBS  $7-$25
Yellow Curly willow
Coral Bark Curly Willow
Japanese Fantail Willow (Salix udensis ‘Sekka’)
Black Pussy Willow (Salix gracilistyla ‘Melanostachys’)
Giant Pussy Willow (Salix chaenomeloides)
Fothergilla Mt. Airy

BARE ROOT TREES
Trees planted “bare root” often establish more quickly and ultimately better than containerized trees, since their roots grow out rather than continuing to circle (like in the pot). Since these trees have not yet leafed out, there is MUCH less transplant shock, enabling the tree to put its energy into new growth rather than recovery. Bare root trees are also much easier to plant!
Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) 3-4’  $24
Catalpa 2-3’ (Catalpa speciosa) 2-3’  $5
Korean Mountain Ash (Sorbus alnifolia) (no relation to the trees susceptible to the Emerald Ash Borer) 3’ $19
Redbud (Cercis Canadensis) 12-18” $2
Vernal Witch Hazel (Hammelis vernalis) 2-3’ $10

PERENNIALS
Angelica gigas $4-$7
Sedum Autumn Joy $4-7
Purple Sensation Allium $6
possibly more, depending on temps

Also available: Fresh pussy willow & curly willow bouquets.

Thanks for your interest and please tell friends!

Have begun harvesting curly willow branches and wanted to post a shot of these beauties before I have to cut them up into 8″ pieces to make more. Unfortunately I don’t yet have enough stock to be able to use them as ornamental branches, but that is in the works for next year!  As soon as the ground can be tilled, Alan and I are going to do a large scale planting of our most ornamental varieties.  Pictured from left to right are: Coral bark curly willow, Scarlet curly willow, and Yellow curly willow.

I know, it’s about time I posted. Now would be a great time to reflect on the 2010 gardening season, but that’s a bigger topic than I can manage at present! This one will be about yellow curly willow, which I now think I like even more than coral bark curly willow! Time will tell. My yellow curly willows are a little older than than my 2 newer varieties: coral bark and scarlet, and the branches tend to become more contorted in years 2 and 3.
Below I managed to capture yellow curly willow on particularly good day, with great color saturation. I have taken shots on other winter days that barely revealed the stunning color I see through the lens. Notice the different tones: the oldest biggest branches are a dried grass color, next oldest are more golden, and the youngest tips are a coppery orangish hue.

This tree was planted from an unrooted cutting in 2009. It is already 8 – 10 feet tall! Other unrooted cuttings were planted in less ideal places- one in compacted gravel and others in quack grass, and they are much smaller and poorly developed in comparison. When planting any tree always remove competing vegetation (especially grasses since they are water hogs) at least 3 feet in diameter around your tree and add 2-3 inches of mulch.

We have not yet put up a Christmas tree this year. You may remember that last year’s tree was a branch from a pin cherry tree growing in the ditch. After it served our Christmas needs, I cut off a handful of twigs with buds, placed them in water and forced lovely fragrant white blossoms. Sadly, that tree, as well as others I was fond of, were recently cut down by the county brush cutters. Even more sadly, these poor trees posed no threat telephone wires or fences, and were plenty far from road.
In the likely event that we don’t get a tree up in the next 10 days, I will not feel a twinge of guilt: ornaments were hung on 2 outdoor trees last week. Nope, the ugly white wrapping is not part of the ornamentation. It is there to protect the bark of this young redbud from buck rubbing and browsing, an unfortunate reality of country living.

In addition to gold balls, there are now solar lights on this tree (not pictured).

Farm junk has so much appeal. All of the pieces below were fished out of the scrap metal pile at our local landfill. I have already drilled holes in the bottom of this feeder, which I will obviously fill with plants in the spring. Right now I’m thinking succulents.

What are these- gears? sprockets? I will likely suspend them from tree branches. They could also look good nailed to a rustic shed.

This last piece was not hard to place, since vertical accents are always needed in the garden.

Here’s the same bed as in the previous post in its less boring spring attire. My plantings even in their first season never have as much blank space as this one. I was exercising much more restraint than usual since dealing with almost exclusively shrubs rather than perennials. Seeing this much mulch makes me cringe. And these blank spaces became problematic in summer when dandelions and other tough weeds with taproots moved on in. I guess what I’m trying to articulate here is that when this bed does get a makeover I’m reverting to my usual style, i.e. no blank space, I can always subtract later if needed. The peonies will stay as they are extremely difficult to move- might set them back 3 years. The Snowmound Spirea can get packing as far as I’m concerned. I am nostalgic about its blossoms- the scent recalls childhood memories of growing up in an old neighborhood full of hedges of these. I would love to have a hedge of these somewhere. We certainly have the space to have a hedge of these somewhere. But I can’t for the life of me figure how to successfully integrate a feature such as a hedge around here. Sounds dumb but seriously, here’s the dilemma: In 2009 I planted a hedge of lilacs in a remote part of our property. It’s really supposed to be a “lilac walk” since for a stretch of about 50 feet you can walk in between 2 lilac hedges. Here’s what I did wrong: you can mow in between the lilac hedges but not on either side of them due to their placement. So quack grass, being the thug that it is, has fully encroached on one side of them and has managed to take hold in between each shrub as well. The planting looks like hell since some stands of the grass are taller than the shrubs. I have every reason to believe that in time these lilacs will grow in spite of the less than ideal conditions and eventually shade out the quack grass. Lilacs are tough that way. But I never would have knowingly done this to them. Every year we become a little wiser to the challenges our site presents. Back to my original train of thought. This is one reason I am reluctant to plant another “hedge”. The other reason has to do with the fact that a hedge is a straight line and I haven’t yet figured out how to work with straight lines. Another prime candidate for removal is Weigela, which I will probably dig out before the Snowmound Spireas since it has even LESS appeal when not in bloom. In their place I will very likely install Physocarpus Dart’s Gold, Physocarpus Coppertina and perhaps a Fothergilla. At the back to one side is also a beautiful little Redbud tree that is thriving- my favorite of the 6-7 odd specimens we’ve started here, and strangely the cheapest from a questionable big box source (note to self to post about potbound trees). I would never attempt to move even a small tree that is thriving and besides the tree isn’t causing any problems. The true problem is that there is a lilac that blocks our view of this lovely tree. I just hate the thought of moving that lilac-  Charles Joly with deep purple blooms – but I know it can take it. Worse case scenario- we may be sacrificing a year or 2 of blooms. So where do we put these poor out of favor shrubs? I guess I’ve got the rest of winter to mull it over.

This planting is boring for 3/4 of the year and action simply needs to be taken come Spring- no further denial or lamenting. If this bed were located on a remote edge of the property, I could let it go. But since I have to look at it day in day out through a double glass patio door….I’ve concluded that life is just too short. The problem: the bed is comprised mostly of green-leaved shrubs that offer little or no interest after they’ve bloomed. No fall color, no interesting twig color, not even an extended bloom period. The sum of the parts equates to too much green too much of the time. The chance Cleome seedling did help break up the green a bit. But come Fall, leaf drop was actually welcomed. What went wrong: this was my first attempt at making a bed using primarily shrubs. It was our second year gardening out here in the country, and by this time we were fully aware of the challenges of dealing with the evil quack grass that covers every unshaded inch of our property. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this invasive grass, it spreads via thick white stolons and will quickly move into and take over a new bed, choking all the other plants out. On our land there is no digging a new bed. As we learned the hard way, this only further encourages this thuggy monster since each tiny piece of stolon remaining in the soil will sprout a new clump. If you want to make a new bed around here you have to shade out the quack grass with 5 oz. landscape fabric or cardboard followed by many layers of organic matter. A planting of tough woody shrubs seemed like perfect candidates at the time. They would expand quickly and take up more space than a perennial, casting a bit more shade, and their extensive woody root systems would hold their own against the ever impending threat of invasion. I was not wrong. The shrubs I planted did all these things and have even thrived. I simply planted the wrong combination of shrubs. It must not have occurred to me at the time that I would be looking at boring green leaves with little or no variation in hues among them for 3/4 of the year.

This planting started out as a big eyesore. We had had some work done on our septic system and heavy earth moving equipment had left this area looking like a construction site- a right muddy mess. I believe the plan at time was to hurry up and plant some perennials and put down some mulch before the weeds came to reclaim the space. And I don’t believe this plan was executed that first season. The following spring I put down landscape fabric everywhere to smother the quack grass and perennial weeds that had colonized there. I decided where the main paths should go and laid down bark mulch and covered the areas to be planted with straw. There were a few meltdowns involved with the quantity of bark mulch and the amount of schlepping this required- 3 truckloads? I planted a few things here and there but there was no overall plan. There never is. My approach to planning new plantings is usually along the lines of overplanting with whatever and dealing with the consequences later. This approach has resulted in some very nice looking plantings believe it or not! However, after visiting the Oregon Garden where I was introduced to a new style of gardening- primarily trees, shrubs and groundcovers, and a few flowering perennials but certainly not the ones that look like hell after they are done blooming!- I had a plan of attack for this area. This bed even in its infancy out competes all our others in terms of multi-season interest. Throughout the season there are a few blooms here and there but no lush flower displays. Yet it looks good all the time, especially now in late fall.

November 2010

August 2010

July 2010

May 2010

I have not posted in eons, this time I have a reasonable excuse. I am recuperating from what at first seemed to be a nasty stomach flu. Upon further investigation it was confirmed that I had a protozoan infection, more specifically Giardia. I am slowing regaining my energy but still far from my usual vigor. A setback like this sure makes me appreciate my normal healthy state and wonder how I could ever take it for granted. Why all those hours spent lying on the sofa when I could have been whooping it up out in the garden?

Here in our parts, we can never bank on a stunning Fall foliage show every year like people living in the Eastern US can. Last year was an exceptional one for Fall color in Eastern Iowa, and this year holds much promise. Look at what this little dogwood tree is doing (most likely one of six odd dogwoods native to Iowa. Can’t be sure which, any ideas?). This little guy has earned himself permanent real estate in this bed.

Below is the new planted multi-stemmed Princess Diana Serviceberry tree. This is one of my wiser purchases of the year  (unwise purchases include but are certainly not limited to several pricey varieties of purple leafed Actea, whose foliage has looked like absolute hell all season). Why plant a Serviceberry? Sumptuous orange leaves in Fall, fragrant white blooms in early Spring, and edible berries in June! More plants around here should be forced to pass the 3 season interest test before being allowed to grow here.

Late August is a bit of a let-down for many gardeners, myself included. Here in Eastern Iowa zone 5, blooms are few and unless you have Cosmos planted in abundance and plants with Fall interest, this may well be the end of the season. I’d like to share with you some of my favorite late summer bloomers. We’ll start with this lovely pink Japanese Anemone acquired from  a generous member of my plant swap group.

Next is Angelica gigas (Korean Angelica), in her full glory.

And now on to Limelight hydrangea, the best and only hydrangea worth growing in my opinion. It has been reliably packed with huge upright balls year after year. I ripped out 3 Nikko blues this year- not one single bloom after 3 years.

Pictured here  blue vervain (Verbena hastata) grown from seed this year and already blooming away. It is almost indistinguishable from hoary vervain (Verbena stricta), which I also grow. In the background is the lovely Hopi-Dye Amaranth, an annual that sows itself everywhere.

Cleome is another annual that seeds itself with abandon. But it is very welcome here this time of year.