Re-blooming Shrubs

Ok, now for the shrubs:


Leptodermis oblonga has been incredible. It looks similar to Common Lilac with lavender flowers and dark green foliage. The blooms are smaller clusters and the leaves are quite a bit smaller than Lilac, but it has bloomed the entire summer, and the leaves have held perfectly.



French Lace Weigelia was cut back several weeks ago and has rebloomed nicely. The foliage is bright green and soft yellow variegated, and frames the rich pink flowers nicely.



And now a sample of the roses. They are all still in full bloom:

New Dawn Climbing Rose has a large, pure white bloom.



So far the Drift Series has been living up to all of the claims. All of the varieties we carry have been blooming all summer and we have trimmed them up here and there only for a neater look in the pot. The faded blooms just fall off as the new buds emerge. They seem like a relatively maintenance free rose. The varieties we carry are Pink Drift (above), Red Drift, Coral Drift, and Peach Drift. They are all low-growing, compact groundcover roses.



The Carefree series have also worked well for us. Carefree Spirit is new for us this year and has a flower similar to Home Run with deep red petals and a pure white eye. It is a shrub rose and gets 4-5' X 4-5', but has small, shiny leaves.

Production

We have been having a pretty good season for growing perennials, grasses and roses. Here are some examples of what we are growing here on the yard.

Walker's low finished very fast this year and is already on the gravel ready to go. It is such a nice, low growing plant that can cover a large area with profuse purple flowers all summer.



This is one of our production houses. (Actually this picture was taken a couple of weeks ago) Filled with daylilies, Black-eyed Susan, Catmint, Yarrow, Sedum and Salvia. Most everything in this house has finished and is ready for planting.



Two miles down the road we have a production and holding yard called Ranchito. We plant roses and grasses at this location. The combiation of heat and sun really makes them shoot up and look beautiful.



Little Blue Stem was one of the first of the grasses to root and finish and it filled out so quick. It has a very upright habit with colorful foliage that turns orange red in fall. It is a prairie plant that does well in our hot dry summers.



Karl Foerster Feather Reed grass always blows me away. It was up and blooming before anything else was even starting to root. The flowers are such a pretty, soft pink and turn to light brown for the entire summer and fall.

A Muddy Spring Day

There is so much going on out here at the nursery that I cannot decide on a specific topic...so, here is a mix of some of the beautiful things that are blooming or have outstanding foliage.

Golden Spirit Smoke Tree (shrub form)

Corinthian Linden
The flowers of Lindens have always fascinated me, they are like nothing I have ever seen before...Amazing!



Climbing Carefree Sunshine Rose



Brite Eyes Climbing Rose
The spider thought he was tough and tried to eat the camera.


Home Run Rose


Forever and Ever Peppermint Hydrangea


Moonshine and Angelique Yarrow

Thank goodness for some green

We had a few warm days and the plants are starting to green up a little. This is what the Pink Drift Roses in the hoop house look like this week, even with the cold.







This is an example of rabbit damage on Burning Bush. The white spots along the stem are chew marks where new buds should be. I think the plants will still be ok, they will just take a little longer to leaf out.


This is what they should look like at this time of year, full of buds and ready to leaf out.



Finally, this is a photo of one of my favorite spring flowers....


Maples. If you look out over the tree blocks when the sun is shining, you can see the red showing up. It looks especially nice against a bright blue sky.