In fall, we planted 100 orange and blue tulips in the outside nooks and crannies of the rock edging.  We had a cedar home that was stained a burnt orange color so I thought those colors would look great.  So you can imagine that I was surprised in spring to see red and purple tulips blooming.  Just in case you are wondering, I did not get a refund from the catalog company when I expressed my concern of the mislabeled colors.  The smaller yellow-green shrubs are Stephanandra incisa crispa.  The foliage turns a brilliant reddish orange in fall and it has small white spring flowers.  The grass is Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster.’  It is a feather reed grass that has a nice vertical look.

You can see that the Stephanandra only was able to turn a yellow fall color last year.  I wonder if it was because of the dry hot summer we had.    On the right is the Physocarpus opulifolius ‘ Mindia’ or Coppertina.  This ninebark is easy to manage as you can trim it to the desired height you need.  The new foliage emerges as a copper color then turns to a rich red in summer.

To the right of the ninebark is Hamamelis intermedia ‘Diane’ Witchhazel.  This small tree has red flowers in spring and in fall has the most amazing leaf colors.    At the end of the bed is a Pinus cembra ‘Klein’ or Silver Whispers Swiss Stone Pine.  This compact evergreen is a slow grower and will only get 10-12′ tall by 6′ wide.  I am anxiously waiting for the 3″ violet-blue cones yet.

The small lime-yellow shrubs are Deutzia gracilis ‘Duncan’ or Chardonnay Pearls is great for part shade and in spring it has pearl like buds that explode into a shower of white flowers.  Along the front of the bed, I have planted eight Heuchera ‘Caramel’ Coral Bells.  The apricot tones of the leaves are almost year round for this perennial.

Another evergreen in this bed is Abies koreana ‘Aurea’ or Golden Korean Fir.  This is slow growing but will get rather large so I don’t know how long I will be able to keep it in this bed.  I know I shouldn’t plant something that I will need to move in the future but it was one of the plants I had to have and this was the only spot I had open at the time.  The soft lemon yellow needles were a great with the Chardonnay Pearls and the Dream Catcher shrubs.  The Kolkwitzia amabilis ‘Maradeo’ or Beauty Bush Dream Catcher has copper colored new foliage with auburn stems and then golden yellow leaves which looks great by the large orange rock.

This is the large weigela shrub that I’m glad the previous owners planted.  I am guessing it is the Red Prince Weigela shrub.  Near that shrub is a dwarf  Canadian Hemlock or Tsuga canadensis ‘Horsford Contorted.’  This part shade shrub has an unusual branching pattern with it’s twisted and contorted branches.  It will only get about 3′ tall and wide.

There are two others types of plants in this bed .  To the right is the Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake’.  The large oak-like leaves have great brilliant crimson color in fall and who can resist the large white flowers in summer.  This hydrangea likes part sun and get 4-6′ high and wide.  There are also eight hardy perennial Geranium ‘Rozanne’ with brilliant violet-blue flowers that bloom all summer along the back of the bed.  That plant was the 2008 perennial of the year.  Things I learned from this garden include:  if you move a perennial in the middle of the summer, you have to water it often or you end up buying another one;  remember to prune the flowering shrubs after they flower or you wouldn’t have blooms next year if you prune too late in the year; and this is one of the easiest landscape beds that I have to maintain as the majority of the plants are shrubs.

Getting creative at last weekends succulent workshop.

Well I think spring has finally sprung…..now it’s time to get down to business!  This weekend is our kick off to Spring: our Annual Spring Open House.  And this year it’s extra special as we celebrate 30 years in business!  (I can’t believe how fast time flew by!!)  We’ve transformed our showrooms and filled them up with pots, silks, outdoor furniture, lanterns, home accessories and even some new snacks (including my favorite Peanut Butter Caramel Corn!)  On top of that, our trees, plants and shrubs have begun to arrive.  (Better late than never!)

I’m hosting 3 workshops this weekend so I’ll be all over the place but hope you’ll join me for at least 1.  First I will be teaching a ”simple and easy” Rose Care Workshop  using a product that’s been very successful in our rose care maintenance.  The workshop is this Saturday at 9 am for you early birds.  You will be given a container of the rose care product for the 20.00 class fee to begin right away!

After that I’ll be discussing the fundamentals of landscape design during Landscape Design Basics at 10 am and 1 pm …..this is open to anyone with problem areas or new yard development. We will have the class indoors in our new class room area.  Bring your notepads!

And finally, my Easy Tree & Shrub Care Workshop will go over preventive ways to protect your viburnums, amelanchiers, crabs, ash trees and many more valuable plants in your yard.  The workshop is Sunday, April 28 at 1 pm…. a container of my favorite tree care product is included in the 30.00 workshop fee.

Give us a call to save your spot: 920-893-8700.  Click here to see our entire schedule of workshops – I have a few more coming up yet this month.

We have popcorn popping in Plymouth this weekend and snacks at our Menasha store.  Stop in for color, inspiration and celebrate the arrival of Spring with us! Hope to see you (and the sunshine!!) this weekend..Mike

- Posted by Mike from his iPad

This vignette has Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’ and ‘Albo Striata’ (Japanese Forest Grass and perennial plant of 2009) along with some garden art that I have collected.  These grasses have brilliant foliage that cascades around the large rock.

A few years ago, I added 50 Hyacinth bulbs in yellow and fuchsia.  I should be seeing them come up soon.

I designed the garden to have flowering plants in pinks, yellows and purples.  These Helleborus orientalis (Lenten Roses) get about 16-18″ tall and blooms persist over two months.

This Syringa (Lilac) bush is the only shrub left from the original landscape bed.  My husband loves lilacs so we had to keep this one.  The blooms smell wonderful.

Tiarella cordifolia (Foam Flower) has marked foliage, light fragrance and elegant flowers.  These were planted in a group of three.

Nine Alchemilla mollis (Lady’s Mantle) perennials were planted around several large rocks.  I had these plants in another area that turned out to be too sunny and dry for them.  They are much happier in this location.  I love the way the morning dew drops rest on the leaves.  This plant makes a great ground cover also.

There are three of these Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger’ – Tiger Eyes Cutleaf  Staghorn Sumac in this bed.  Here they are with their yellow, orange and scarlet fall color hiding their fuzzy covered branches.  The deeply cut leaflets drape downward, giving it an oriental look.  This plant grows to be about 6′ tall and wide.

One area of the bed has lots of sun so I planted five Stachys ‘Pink Cotton Candy’ (Betony) with it’s wands of cotton candy pink flowers that stand attention above the foliage (I think we had a lot of winds before I took this picture as they seem to be falling).

These are a few others plants that complete this garden:

3 Hemerocallis ‘Dragons Eye’ – Pink Daylilies

3 Cimicifugs simplex ‘White Pearl’ – Bugbane with burgundy leaves

3 Hydrangea paniculata ‘Quick Fire’ – Shrubs with white flowers that turn dark pink (almost red)

3 Each of Ligularia ‘Britt-Marie Crawford’ & ‘The Rocket’ & “Desdemona’ – yellow flowers – some daisy like and some plume like and some have burgundy leaves

1 Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’ – St. Johnswort Shrub – beautiful yellow flowers and unusual seed heads in fall

3 Juniper ‘Gold Coast’ – evergreen shrubs for winter interest with a golden color

3 Aruncus dioicus (Goat’s Beard) – has showy, creamy-white plume flowers

3 Heuchera americana ‘Green Spice’ (Coral Bells) – purple vein leaves with white flowers

1 Paeonia – Red Tree Peony – the flowers are gorgeous and every year it produces more flowers than the year before

The things I learned when planting this garden – it pays to take the time and money to amend the soil.  After the weed barrier was removed, we loosened the soil and added a lot of compost.  After planting, we installed about 3″ deep of double shredded hardwood mulch.  Every couple of years I continue to top dress with mulch as over the years it breaks down and enhances the soil.  Plant 3 to 5 of each perennial so the impact of the flower color or foliage is greater.  Since we have two ash trees in this landscape bed and I anticipate that they may not live much longer,  we planted a Fagus sylvatica ‘Spaethiana’ – European Beech with purple foliage.  This tree will get 40-50′ tall and will give me the shade that will be gone when the ash trees need to be cut down.

I picked up a new book called “The Inspired Gardener – What makes us tick?”  It has insightful sayings with beautiful pictures.  Today I am drawn to this one:

In the spring, at the end of the day; you should smell like dirt. (Margaret Atwood)

Return to Week 1: 13 Gardens, 13 Weeks »

This guitar playing frog is serenading the Astilbe ‘Rhythm & Blues’ and Astrantia ‘Abbey Road’ plants.

The vine climbing up the trellis is the Clematis ‘Radar Love’ and next to the music sign is Hemerocallis ‘ Bama Music.’  The clematis has drooping yellow flowers that turn into shining silver seed heads and I have three on trellises making a nice backdrop for this garden bed.

My friend made musical note garden stakes to add to this garden.  I found the guitar at a local hobby shop.

The yellow flowered perennials are Coreopsis ‘Jethro Tull.’  The flowers are mostly pink, yellow and blue in this theme garden.

The perennial on the right is Stokesia laevis ‘Blue Danube’ or Stoke’s Aster.  It blooms sky blue flowers in summer.  I found this plant while visiting a garden center in Missouri on a bus trip with the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society.   Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’ grass is behind the frog.  Other perennials include:  Campanula – Bellflower, Echinacea ‘All that Jazz’, Hemerocallis ‘Sing-A-Long’ and Hosta ‘Dancing Queen.’

In gathering the pictures for this garden, I noticed I did not have many with the perennials actually blooming so this year I will have to take more pictures.  This garden is located on the east side of our garage and it may not get enough sunlight and moisture so I may have to consider removing a large evergreen that is nearby or maybe moving this garden to sunnier location.

Theme gardens are fun to create and add your own personal touch to make it yours.  There is always room for one more perennial in this garden so I would love to hear if you know of some other plants – annual or perennial with musical names for me to add to this garden.

Continue to Week 7: The Ally Mae Garden »

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This Metasequoia glyptostroboides – Dawn Redwood is one of my favorites.  The soft bright feathery green leaves turn bronze in fall before dropping.  The shreddy reddish brown bark is great for winter interest.  Watch out for the size on this one as it can get 70-80′ tall and 30-40′ wide.  I look forward to watching the emerging needles in spring of this deciduous confier.  There are smaller cultivars of this one (‘Miss Grace’ – weeping form and ‘Silhouette’ – narrow form, ‘Jack Frost’ – variegated) if you don’t have room in your backyard.  Be prepared for your neighbors to think your tree has died when the needles fall off of this confier in fall.

I picked this cute little weeping Norway Spruce – Picea abies ‘Pendula’ at the well known nursery Rich’s Fox Willow Pines Nursery in Woodstock, IL.  It will grow 6′ in 10 years and can be staked or left to grow as a groundcover.  It is a conversation piece in this garden.  The new growth is brightly colored and soft.

Everyone visiting my garden love to touch this soft two tone curled up needles of the Abies koreana ‘Horstmann’s Silberlocke’ – Korean Fir.  This conifer also produces unusual violet-blue cones.

This small shrub looks like it has dreadlocks with it’s wild mop-like needles.  The Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’ – Western Red Cedar grows 3-6″ per year and in ten years will be 3′ tall and 2-1/2′ wide.  The first time I saw one I knew I had to have it!

Originally this Abies balsamea ‘Piccolo – Dwarf Balsam Fir was planted in the Music Garden.  Somehow it just didn’t look right among all the perennials so I moved it to the Conifer Garden.  This will get 1-2′ in ten years so it looks great in the front of the garden near some large rocks.

The first time I saw this type of Pine was at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Gardens in Kohler, WI.  When you look at the end of the branch, the needles with their yellow bands look like a Dragon’s Eye so that is probably why it is called Pinus densifolia ‘Oculis-draconis’ – Dragon’s Eye Pine.  It is a unique addition to any garden.

The addition of this Pinus strobus ‘Blue Shag’ – Dwarf White Pine was acquired on my birthday a few years ago.  The soft texture and blue-green color looks great in large rock gardens.

Bright silver-blue on the undersides of the needles and green on the top of this flat topped conifer make this a very colorful bicolor dwarf spruce.  It also produces reddish-purple cones when it becomes mature.   It’s name is Picea bicolor ‘Howell’s Dwarf Tigertail’. It will get 4′ tall and 6′ wide in 15 years.

Here is a small section of the conifer garden on the east side of our lot.  Right now there is no room to add more evergreens (darn) but soon I will have to consider moving some that will get too big for the area.  I know I should have thought of that when I planted them but then the garden would have looked too sparse for me.  Last year we removed the lower non-attractive branches on the large spruce trees and planted pachysandra (groundcover) beneath one and solomon’s seal under the other one.  We did this to another spruce on the north lot line and planted hostas beneath.  This look improved the tidiness of the spruces.  There is little maintenance in this garden except for occasional weeding and adding fresh mulch every other year.  I’ll be back next week for another garden tour in my series.

Continue to Week 6: The Music Garden »

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Click here to view upcoming workshops >>

Mike posing for a quick photo while working on a wreath in the 80's.

Flashback: Michael was 17 years old when he started making wreaths in FFA.

Mike arranging flowers in the early 90s.

Flashback: The Wreath Factory broke ground on the first building at the current Plymouth location in 1993.

Jeff, co-owner of The Wreath Factory, is showing off one of Rochelle's designs from the mid-90s. This is when the entire store was our current office space - just a 1 room building with a small (by comparison) showroom. Boy how things change!

Flashback: Michael’s first landscaping vehicle was a Chevy Blazer.

We built our first showroom back in 1993: a quaint 1,000 square feet to showcase wreaths, gifts and other garden accessories.

Flashback: Duane Gumm was Michael’s first employee.

Jeff showing off some boxes freshly printed with The Wreath Factory logo.

Flashback: In the early days, the logos on all the bags and boxes were done by hand with a screen print.

"The Shack" as it came to be known. This is where Mike started making wreaths in the early 80's with his friends and family as his helpers. No heat or running water!

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About Flashback Friday: We’re posting fun photos from the vault every Friday to celebrate our 30th year in business.  Have some great photos from the early years to share?  Email them to info@wreathfactoryonline.com.

And leave a message for Mike & Jeff below if you wish. Enjoy!

Above is the landscape bed before we changed it by removing all the honeysuckle shrubs (they were starting to get leggy) after seven years to make room for more interesting and colorful plants.  Many visitors commented that they thought that garden was our neighbor’s so we moved the fence to the back of the bed instead of the front so it looked like it belonged to us.  I decided to add hydrangeas, ninebarks, weigelas, flowering crab trees and many colorful perennials in yellow and pink to give it more color.  In changing this garden, we changed the name to “The 50 Garden” to correspond with the number of perennials, shrubs and trees in this landscape.  I think in my quest for variety and color there are quite a few more than 50 right now.

The Echinacea purpurea ‘Double Pink Delight’ and ‘Bravado’ were added in groupings of three near the three Weigela ‘Shining Sensation’ shrubs.

The shiny, burgundy foliage of the Weigela also looks great with the Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’ pink flowers and Rudbeckia “Henry Eilers’ unusual yellow flowers.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Abetwo’ (Incrediball Hydrangea) is a great backdrop for the Liatris spicata Gay Feather.  Yes, the hydrangea flowers are large!

Three large Malus ‘Red Jewell’ Crabapple trees were planted for their spring blooms and winter berries.  In choosing a crabapple tree, look for disease resistance, persistant berries (for winter interest) and fall color.

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The other Hydrangeas I had to have was the Hydrangea paniculata ‘Vanilla Strawberry’.  The multi-colored, large flowers are vibrant placed in front of the Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Seward’ – Summer Wine Ninebark with it’s purple leaves.

I look forward to the pink seed pods from the Winterberry Pink Lady Shrubs and the yellow leaves in fall.  In spring there are many white and yellow daffodils.  Baptisias, Blue Muffin Viburnums, Gold Leaf Tansy and Hollyhocks  fill in the areas between the crabapple trees.

The challenges with this garden was removing the ten honeysuckle shrubs and then planting three larger trees.  We broke our garden cart moving the balled and burlapped trees to the side yard for planting.  My husband was also not too happy about moving the split rail fence.  We called digger’s hotline often when adding the larger shrubs/trees to this garden.  It took a few years for the hydrangea shrubs to flower generously.  The large spruce tree at the south end of this garden tends to shade some of the sun loving perennials so they are not doing as well as their counterparts on the north end.  This garden out of all our gardens has probably seen the most changes in ten years.

Continue to Week 5: The Conifer Garden » 

Return to Week 1: 13 Gardens, 13 Weeks »

I was having problems with small fruit trees popping up in the garden bed and due to the aging trees not very successful fruit production.  So over the years the trees were removed leaving the trunk of one of them to do something creative with soon.

The Berberis thunbergii ‘Atropurpurea Nana’ with it’s burgundy foliage looks great with the pink flowers of the peonies and salvias.  The Crimson Pygmy Barberry; however, did not stay 1-3′ tall like nursery tag said.

The old-fashioned variety of Dianthus barbatus – Sweet William started from seed in their shades of pink add lots of color to the garden.

I also started a collection of white, lime green and pink coneflowers.  Some varieties I have include:  Echinacea purpurea ‘Coconut Lime’, ‘Milkshake’, ‘White Swan’, ‘Pink Poodle’ and “Green Envy’.

This Hibiscus syriacus – Rose of Sharon Shrub blooms later and because of the height makes a nice border for the bed.

Here is another Rose of Sharon in pink along with cosmos, ornamental grass, penstemon and tamarisk.

In touring the Rotary Gardens, I admired their obelisks painted in bright colors.  My friend made me one and I painted it lime green for the morning glories to climb.

This is the Tamarix ramosissima ‘Summer Glow’ Tamarisk that gets 8-10′ tall and creates pink flower panicles.  When I gave garden tours last year this was probably the one that most asked “What is that?”

This is the flower of the Sambucus nigra ‘Eva’ or Black Lace Elderberry.  I love the dark Japanese maple-like foliage.  The elderberry shrub was named the 2013 Herb of the Year.   This particular shrub gets 6-8′ tall and wide.

Other members of this garden include:  Eupatorium purpureum – Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia davidii ‘Peakeep’ – Butterfly Bush, Hydrangea paniculata ‘Pink Diamond’, Dianthus deltoides – Maiden Pink ‘Brilliant’, Viburnum dilatatum ‘Henneke’ – Cardinal Candy Viburnum, Sorbaria sorbifolia – False Spirea and for winter interest Pinus flexilis ‘Vanderwolf’ Pine Tree.

Challenges for this garden include the Cardinal Candy Viburnums did not produce a lot of the scarlet-red berries that I was hoping to see in late fall, the mini fruit trees that still pop up time to time as these do not pull out easily, the suckering of the False Spirea causing it to spread, the Yucca plant that never goes away even though I dig it up every year and the long distance that I have to drag the garden hose when it needs water.

Next week I will show you “The 50 Garden.”   I spent two days at the Garden Expo in Madison and after seeing a presentation on Annual Grasses, I will need to add these to my gardens!  I also bought miniature plants and decorations for the terrarium garden I will be creating.

Continue to Week 4: The 50 Garden » 

Return to Week 1: 13 Gardens, 13 Weeks »

This phlox was given to me by a garden club friend so I can not confirm the cultivar name.  My goal was to have lots of phlox in shades of pink and white for this special garden.  Over the years I have added Phlox paniculata ‘David’, ‘Nicky’ and ‘Red Riding Hood.’  These as most of the plants in this garden attract butterflies.

About ten years ago, I planted one Siberian Iris ‘Christmas Wish’ and this has had over eight divisions.  I planted these in between the Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ below.  The long green leaves also look good at the base of the hydrangea plants.

These very large hydrangeas have bloomed profusely for years.  The lime green blooms turn white then pink.  They are planted in front of a large spruce tree and the differences in texture is very attractive.  I also planted some Monarda hybrid ‘Petite Delight’ in front of them for a splash of pink.

The Chelone ‘Pink Turtlehead’ plants also look great next to that large spruce tree.  This perennial blooms late summer for times when our gardens are coming to an end.

I originally saw this Bottlebrush Buckeye shrub at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens near the Thai Pavillon.   This shrub can get 8-12′ tall and 8-15′ wide so leave plenty of room for it.  I love the palmate leaves and unusual flowers.  The yellow fall color adds a backdrop of color to this garden.

The white fragrant flowers of the Seven-son that bloom late in August and exfoliating bark of this large shrub/small tree drew me to acquiring this one.  The sepals change from green to dark red at the end of the season. The botanical name is Heptacodium miconioides and it gets 15-20′ tall.

We needed a path so we could get to our compost bins in the back and my husband installed this last summer, of course after I dug up some plants that were quickly spreading.  Before the path, it was like going through a jungle to get to our bins.

This is little Makenna enjoying the phlox in her garden.

Here is a side view of this special garden.  I also have three Physocarpus opulifolius or Little Devil Ninebarks planted behind the phlox.  This has turned out to be one of my favorites in the garden.  The shrubs are 3-4′ tall and 3-4′ wide and the dark burgundy foliage goes great with pink.  There are also two peony shrubs with pink flowers and lime green flowers.  Since they are new in 2012 I am not sure how they will look yet.  I was looking for something that bloomed earlier than the phlox so I would have more color in early summer.  Problems or opportunities with this garden – creeping Charlie has found it’s way into this garden, the phlox spread more quickly than I thought so I had to transplant some already and keeping the neat edge between the grass and the landscape bed has proved to be more maintenance than I thought.  In trying to control the creeping Charlie weed, my husband accidentally sprayed the Monarda so I had to purchase some more.  From now on, when spraying near prized perennials, we will be using a piece of cardboard to protect the plants.

Continue to Week 3: Delaney’s Garden »

Return to Week 1: 13 Gardens, 13 Weeks »