Featured Plants!

The Red Horse Chestnut, also referred to as Red-Horsechestnut.
This tree is a cross between a Red Buckeye and a Horse-Chestnut.
This small tree has red blooming flowers, and reaches a height of 30’ as well as a spread of 30’ wide.  Zone 5 hardiness, so great in central Illinois. This picture was taken in a customers yard recently this month in late May. We planted this tree about 15 years ago as a small container starter tree.  It can tolerate slight filtered shade of larger trees, as long as it is getting 4 hours of sunlight.  It requires good drainage in the soil as well as a slightly acidic PH. 

Owning a garden center for many years as I did, selling Lilac’s one after another on Mother’s Day weekend, I gotta say my favorite was and still is ‘Miss Kim’ Lilac, and better yet was ‘ Miss Kim’ Lilac on a standard!
That being said, nothing ever beat the lilac bouquets from an old fashioned common purple lilac. The problem, the blooms are always getting frozen off year after year, and not lasting that long. This year they were awesome blooms. The weather is so important to a plant!
The advantages of some of the hybrid species, like ‘Miss Kim’ ‘Pink Profusion’ or ‘Dwarf Korean’, is that they bloom almost a month later than the old fashioned common white or purple varieties. There is such a better chance for the blooms of the newer varieties to last so much longer, into the later spring, when the windows are open, and you can really enjoy the fragrance of the lilacs.
The ‘Miss Kim’ Lilac, is by far the “best ever” for fragrance to this day in the nursery and landscape market, for color, fragrance, and longevity of the blooms.
The only difference between the Miss Kim’ and the ‘Miss Kim’ on standard, the latter is a small bush form on a stick, or a very small tree, basically a lollipop form. “On standard” means the top part has been grafted on a stem from an old fashioned lilac plant!
‘Dwarf Korean’ and ‘Pink Profusion’ are good varieties as well, but lacking the amount of fragrance, and the latter being pink in blooms. Don’t let the name dwarf fool you by any means, as the ‘Dwarf Korean’ as well as the ‘Miss Kim’ both are about 5-6’ in height and spread at maturity.
Tips for most healthy plants include proper fertilization and trimming of course. I like fertilome tree and shrub food on a yearly basis, to provide the proper nutrients for a blooming plant. I also recommend pruning the plant back right after the old blooms start to fall off. Remember the old fashioned variety blooms on second year wood and stems, so I am a little more selective of my amount pruning. Mulching as well as normal maintenance for all plants as usual, plant in a well drained soil and full sun to avoid powdery mildew, and other diseases.

The Knock out line of roses is a win win for everyone. I have been planting there line of roses since they were introduced over twenty years ago. They continue to work year after year perfecting their line of roses and there’s not much left to do, but it will be exciting to see their new miniature rose due out.
One of the reasons it’s one of the favorites, the double red knock out rose produces flowers from spring to frost producing never ending color throughout the landscape and garden. If planted in full sun, they are relatively low maintenance. Here are a few tips to help you keep award winning blooms:
First and most importantly, plant in full sun. Six hours minimum.
Second, make sure you plant in good soil. Almost every plant requires good drainage, so if you have mucky wet clay soil, dig a fair amount wider and a deeper hole and refill with good soil and peat moss. Stay away from potting soils and wet bagged products that just dry out and get hard and clumpy.
Third, I prefer to use mulch around my roses, even when I plant them in a commercial or residential landscaping jobs. I try and put a little ring of mulch around them. This helps keep moisture in, weeds out, and assures me that the weed fabric is not to close to my plant, choking out the plant and roots.
Fourth, fertilization. I don’t recommend fertilizing them with much at all, until they are actually producing buds and are blooming. If you purchased your rose during Mother’s Day or the normal season, it was probably in full bloom. However, I still recommend waiting a few weeks, after planting it to start fertilizing it. When I do fertilize them, I use Fertilome Systemic Rose food. Too much of the wrong fertilizer and you will get vegetative growth and no blooms. This line of roses is virtually problem free of pest and diseases, but this will help assure your rose is healthy and keeps problems minimal.
Fifth, the knock out line of roses, are really winter hardy in central Illinois Midwest. I have never seen aknock out rose freeze out, except a few where a downspout was discharging on one, and a few where the customer didn’t get good enough drainage in wet heavy clay soil. I always trim my roses back to 12” off the ground in early spring, after all chance of hard frosts are over, usually around Mother’s Day. I remove any totally dead canes, down to the green, and no need to deadhead these, as they are pretty self efficient once planted, but like any flower, if you deadhead (fancy word for removing old or spent flowers), you will get more blooms. I don’t do much in winter, but you can spray wilt Pruf after Halloween this helps from desiccation ( fancy word for plant drying out). I also add 3” of mulch around my rose, this helps keep moisture in, and wood is a good insulator as well.
I hope these tips help you keep endless bouquets of roses in your landscape and garden for years to come!

The catmint of the mint family, is related to Lamb's Ear (Stachys), Lavender (Lavandula), Bee Balm (Monarda), and catnip as well as many other species.
The catmint has over 250 varieties ranging in flower colors from a pale lavender, to pink, and all the soft color shades in-between.
This drought resistant plant, requires full sun, (at least 6 hrs.), and is fairly disease and insect resistant. Catmint will give you long lasting blooms from late spring well into the fall, if you give it good drainage.
A versatile plant in the landscape is also best used in mass plantings and as a border plant. One of the downside to this plant is the aggressive nature of it, so allow for plenty of room when planting it. One suggestion of mine is to use an edging or bury a large nursery pot to keep this aggressive beauty contained.
The catmint plant attracts hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. The range in size varies from variety to variety , with the lowest in height being around 8" ("kit Cat"), and the tallest around 48" ("wild cat") , and a spread of most of them being around the 3 feet wide range.

They reach a height of about 3’ and the same on spread.

The species are native to warmer climates like the Carolinas, Tennessee and Alabama. If you aren’t lucky enough to live in those warmer climates and want to give one of these beauties a try, here are a few tips that will help.

Like all Rhododendrons and Azaleas, they like acidic soil. I usually add a little aluminum sulphate to modify the soil when planting. Desiccation is a real problem, (this means they have a tendency to wind burn real bad), so I try and plant them in a protected area, on the east or north side of the landscape bed where they are out of winter winds that dry them out. I cover the plants with mulch after planting them, this is a good way to help keep moisture in the roots and it helps them from not drying out, as well in the winter. I also use a plentiful amount of sphagnum peat moss with really rich organic topsoil when I plant them. If you have wet mucky compacted clay or hard soil make sure you remove that, as Azaleas and Rhododendrons require good drainage also. 

Most of the “Lights” Azaleas are hardy and do real good in our climate. I find they do best where they get filtered amounts of sun light as I mentioned before, so plant them on the east or north sides of your house.