FREE Garden Catalog 2013 Premier Edition

Our first ever Premier Garden Catalog is now available – for FREE!

Our spring catalog is loaded with glorious photography and problem solving plants for your perennial garden.

Check out our fantastic new varieties including Chris’ amazing Hellebores and SunSparkler Sedum varieties.

CLICK HERE and order your FREE copy today!

Rhamnus makes a moderate size hedge or background plant in a sunny to partly shaded site

Remember the first perennial garden you personally designed?  Mine was a rich riot of color with Daylilies and Rudbeckia.  But it was boring – I had achieved a solder like lineup of plants with similar heights.

Add Highs to your Lows with Vertical Elements

So what now?  I realized I needed some height along with different sizes and shape to gain balance and flow -so I added a few vertical plants namely Miscanthus and was really happy with the results.

Rhamnus Fine Line®

In the past few years, I discovered a wonderful vertical plant called Rhamnus Fine Line®

The soft ferny foliage compliments many shrubs & perennials

that combines the texture of an ornamental grass with Zone 3 hardiness.  Rhamnus grows around 6 feet and the fact that it only gets around 24” wide – you have a perfect complement to any border in a sun to partly shaded site.

Unlike a Miscanthus, Fine Line® does not need to be pruned down to the ground every spring – it just flushes out with fresh new ferny like foliage which can be trimmed to any shape.

Planting

The soft ferny foliage is so lovely when planted in groups of 3 or more.  It makes a terrific background plant and a medium sized Hedge Plant.  Try it with Knock Out Roses, Buddleia Blue Chip, or other moderate size shrubs.  It also makes a terrific container plant with season long interest Rhamnus is 98% sterile so it is noninvasive.  Fall brings on a brilliant gold color.

Vertical plants such as Rhamnus help to conceal unsightly objects such as air conditioning units.

This deer & drought proof deciduous shrub is a delightful medium sized vertical plant in almost any size garden.

SedumSod - 15 x 20" Color mat of Sedums for instant color virtually anywhere!

SedumSod™ gives you a speedy and simplified approach to gardening and its beautiful anywhere!

Within minutes you can turn an unsightly area in your garden into a tapestry of color with easy to grow drought-proof Sedum color mats.

Sedums are the ultimate perennial!  They have minimal water needs and a shallow root system that make them ideal to use in a sod-like mat.  Light weight mats installs in seconds!  Simply place in an area that gets a minimum of 4 hours of direct sun a day.  Fully adaptable to the harshest of conditions – summer heat, wind & little water!

Up to 13 hand selected groundcover Sedums were carefully selected for growth, color and beauty in your garden or projects

Both Chris & I have customized this unique blend of up to 13 varieties of groundcover Sedums that you won’t find anywhere else!  Our pre established sod mats measure 15” x 20” and are comprised of the right balance of soil & Sedums varieties.  The polyester fabric easily removes for quick installation in any landscape!

I’ve had so much fun with these mats! I have decorated my front entry door with them, used them as a centerpiece on my patio table – even hung them up!  The ultimate test was when I left mats on hot asphalt driveway where they received no water and they never looked the worse for wear.

Ideas on how to use SedumSod™

• Small scale lawn replacement
• Groundcover at the edge of a hot, dry bed
• Banks and slopes
• Plant in cracks and crevices
• Areas inhospitable to other plants
• Living wreaths, dog & bird house roofs, dish garden
• Decorate patios and front entryways
• Creative DIY projects
• Instant splash of color – anywhere!

SedumSod™ is the most colorful mat you’ll ever want to own. No fuss, no muss and say goodbye to gardening hassles!

View our VIDEO

Easy sun perennial combination for a small space or container garden

Here is a sun perennial combination idea for your garden with 3 easy to grow garden plants

For season long interest I like using perennial plants that will give me 3 seasons of foliage color.

I love the new cherry red SEDUM  (Sunsparkler) CHERRY TART and pairing this with the blue foliage of FESTUCA for a front of the border planting.

For long season flowering color, I added COREOPSIS STAR CLUSTER which grows up to 15″ – so plant in the back). Star Cluster picks up the deep red color in the center.  Another alternative to Star Cluster would be a yellow flowering Coreopsis such as Creme Brule or Moonbeam.

All these perennials are easy to grow in full sun and well drained soil while providing season long interest in your perennial garden.

What would you combine Sedum Cherry Tart with?

Hellebore is a drought & deer proof groundcover for the shade perennial garden

Have you ever noticed how poorly some plants do beneath trees and tall shrubs? Tree roots can easily zap away moisture and nutrients leaving anything under planted looking weary & tired.

Rather than fight with it, select from a group of care-free plants that can take dry shade conditions and have minimal requirements when it comes to nutrients & moisture.

I particularly love Hellebores for this.  When I planted seven of these early spring flowering ground covers last fall I thought I’m not sure if they are all going to make it.  I dug pretty hard to get in between a few tree roots and there wasn’t a lot of soil for me to work with.  I added some topsoil, mulched and watered well and to my amazement they all made it through next spring.

I do like planting spring flowering plants such as Hellebore in the fall. Plants still grow in the fall because soil temperature and moisture levels are usually at a level that promotes rapid root growth needed to sustain plants through the first critical year in the landscape.  So by spring I’ll have larger more established plants and more blooms to enjoy that first year.

Hellebores is a terrific solution if you have dry shade in your perennial garden.  In addition to the beautiful spring flowers, hellebore is the perfect deer resistant shade plant with evergreen foliage which provides year round interest.