Garden Writers Association Region III Meeting

 

Greetings everyone!  It has been an incredibly busy season here at the nursery with no end in sight.  We’ve been fortunate to have cooler temperatures so far this spring and summer and as a result, I’ve been really productive with gardening and landscaping projects at home.  I hope you’ve had the same luck!

Garden Writers Association Region III Meeting

The Garden Writers Association (GWA) Region III Meeting was held in Michigan this year.  Attendees toured three sites throughout Michigan:  Lake Cliff Garden, Walters Garden and Spring Meadow Nursery.  It was a beautiful day filled with beautiful gardens and good company!  Here at Spring Meadow Nursery, attendees enjoyed our garden center featuring many of our newer plant introductions, a Hydrangeas Demystified presentation by Tim Wood, a tour of our extensive trial gardens, and dinner.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Best, Mark 

Plant of the Week: Lo & Behold 'Ice Chip' Buddleia

We were with our friends from Prides Corner Farms earlier this summer and gave them some grief about the horrible winter they had been through. Hey, it's not often that folks in West Michigan get to watch winter storms on the news and think, "Wow, they're getting it worse than us!"

Anyway, this week the last pile of snow in Boston was officially declared to be melted. For real - piles of snow in July. I've seen snow in July above the snow line, and in the U.P. (which is kind of one big snow line), but that's pretty crazy for a coastal city.

To celebrate this happy day I bring you a much nicer bit of summer iciness: Lo & Behold® 'Ice Chip' Buddleia (butterfly bush). It's a little plant - just 18-24" inches tall - and flowers earlier than some of the other Lo & Behold® varieties. Sometimes white flowers don't get a lot of love, but I think 'Ice Chip' is a great choice for pairing with brightly colored annuals or the dark foliage of a plant like Spilled Wine® Weigela.

The Lo & Behold® butterfly bushes are wonderful little plants that bring color and fragrance to summer gardens without littering the landscape with unwanted seedlings. They will bloom from midsummer to frost without deadheading. What's really fun about them is that they challenge us to think about Buddleia in a whole new way. Most of us are used to thinking of butterfly bush as a really big, kind of awkward plant to be stashed in the back of a mixed border. You want the fragrance and the butterflies, but the plant itself was often not much to look at.

These plants are different - cute little mounds of blooms that stay tidy and totally deserve placement at the front of the border. Unlike older varieties, they make a great mass planting. Face it, no one needs a mass planting of 'Pink Delight'.

We do recommend that they be planted as early in the season as possible in northern climates so they have time to establish before winter. Also, pay extra attention to the soil: it really needs to be well-drained. Putting it where the plow truck is going to drop a ton of heavy Boston snow in winter isn't a good idea, either.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

California Spring Trials (CAST)

It’s been a whirlwind since I started back in March.  Shannon and the rest of the team have been wonderful as we transition job duties and I get up to speed on projects. 

I was lucky enough to make it to CAST this year and am so glad for the experience.  It was a stellar event, the weather was beautiful (except for the sunburn…ouch), and the Proven Winners team was incredibly welcoming.  It was great meeting some of you during the week!

We had an excellent display of shrubs throughout the week but here are a few of the crowd favorites.

Tiny Tuff Stuff™ hydrangea – This one really stole the show.  It came as no surprise to me, because it instantly caught my eye.  It’s a real beauty, with flowers so delicate and refined that it seems strange to call them tough - but they are.  I just picked up a couple of these for my yard…very excited to see them grow and bloom this summer. 

Kodiak® Black bush honeysuckle (Diervilla) – I’ll be honest, at first, I wasn’t a fan of this guy until I realized it had all of these traits – native, drought-tolerant, deer-resistant, and thrives in sun or shade.  Pretty impressive, if you ask me.  It’s a real stand-out with is dark-burgundy-black foliage in spring and autumn with bright yellow flowers in summer.    

Jazz Hands® series – This was very popular among our southern folks.  We had all five varieties of this Loropetalum (Chinese fringe flower) series at CAST.  Ranging from Jazz Hands® Mini, a ground cover with pink flowers, to Jazz Hands® Bold, the largest of the series topping out at five feet high, with flowers three times larger than the other varieties.  I can’t forget to mention the other varieties…Jazz Hands® Variegated, Jazz Hands® Dwarf Pink and Jazz Hands® Dwarf White.  It’s a neat plant…I wish I could grow it here in Michigan. 

With the weather finally warming up, I’ve been bagging leaves, expanding beds, spreading mulch, and most importantly…beginning to plant.  I hope everyone has had a chance to get outside and work in the garden. 

Best, Mark