1. Allegheny Viburnum (Viburnum rhytidophylloides ‘Allegheny’)

This plant works great when you need a large shrub to add structure to the back of a bed or as a screen in the back yard.  it is not tidy enough to be used as a specimen plant or in any highlighted position With care it can grow to 12 feet tall in less than 5 years.  I have several planted as a screen against a shed in my backyard and I have pushed them hard – but they are over 15 feet tall in just 5 years. 

The shrub has thick 6” leaves that are thickly textured and beautifully colored.    It has a surprising delicate white flower that persists for Most of May and then ripen into bright red fruits by October.  I call it semi-evergreen because about 1/2 the leaves stay attached for most of the Winter.

This is one of my favorite plants and I recently used it in a  very fun project that turned out very well (despite the quality of the photographs).  These will grow beautiful and provide the perfect screen for this deck and offers an alternative to the overused juniper and arborvitae.  

 

2. Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana)

Magnolias often come and go as peoples favorite plants.  However, this one has and always will be my  favorite for planting in Kansas City landscapes.  It is better suited than many for our zone and grows luxuriously well.  My favorite form is when it is grown as a multi-stemmed shrub.  It has a striking upward growing habit that gives it a strong architectural presence and lends itself well to be a focal plant in landscape planting. 

I have two of these planted as pillars on the front corners of my house.  They have performed very well for about 4 years now and have grown taller than the roof of my raised ranch. 

3. Hardy Banana  ‘Musa Basjoo.

The Hardy Banana plant is a plant that grows VERY well in Kansas City.  I have had them growing at my house for going on 4 years and a customer has had them successfully growing for over 8 years. 

These pictures show them growing in my yard in early July.  By September they had pushed leaves higher than the roof of the porch you can see there.  That is approx 18 feet high. 

Although these look very tropical they are easily grown  even in our unpredictable KC winters.   They will die back to the ground in the winter and begin to grow again in the spring.  The more protection you give them the bigger they will get the following year because you will protect more of the plant – giving it a head start on next years growth. I try to protect several of the biggest plants so they will grow as large as possible the following Spring.  I protect them by building 4’ tall  cages around them and filling them with leaves.  This si the secret to really big plants.  However, even unprotected plants will reach 10’  

Another bonus – they reproduce madly.   You will easily triple your number of plants every year as new pups sprout around the base of the mother plant.

4. Walker’s Low Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii)

I would choose this plant as one of my all time favorite perennials to use as a llandscaper.  Not because of how showy it it or how rare it is  or for any ONE attribute.  Rather,  because it has so many very good uses and it has never let me down.

This plant has small bluish green leaves that are highly fragrant leaves that smells like mint.  The plant grows in a mound about 1 foot high and 2 feet across.  however after its first season in the bed you will not be able to tell its shape because it will have spread through runners and be taking up much more space than that.  In fact this may be the only time I would not use catmint – is if you need it to stay perfectly contained because it is so hardy and likes to spread.  The flower begins blooming in June.  If about 3 weeks later you shear off the old blooms you can easily extend its blooming into late summer.  The blooms are a pale lavender and spread across the plant like a purple mist.

It was named Perennial of the Year in 2007 for its versatility and hardiness.

5. False Indigo (Baptisia australis)

I have been in love with this plant since the first time I saw it in full bloom when driving past a very neglected garden in the middle of July.  Everything else in the garden had died including what looked like remnants of stella d’ oro’s and some poorly placed care-free roses.  I quickly took a mental note and the next time I was at my favorite nursery I bought a couple plants. 

I was not immediately impressed.  The plant just stood there for the entire season.  The next year it was about the same.  But, by the third year it had really taken off and is now one of the plants people always notice when they walk around and see that part of my garden.

Baptisia has since proved its worthiness in many designs and ahs often become a favorite plant to use in landscape designs.  It does have it quirks though.  Number one – it is a plant that you have to plant and leave it alone.  it does not transplant well once it is established in your bed because of it unique rooting structure (which is also responsible for its durability.  Secondly – I have found it is incredibly sensitive to any kind of sprays.  In my incessant meddling I am always trying things that will supercharge my plants. During one of these ‘experiments’ I was spraying a mixture of compost tea and iron on  few plant in my garden around the Baptisia – and it turned black over night – the entire plant.  The plant recovered fully – but it took a while.  I have since learned that any foliar spray will have varying degrees of the same effect.

6.  Little Henry Sweetspire (Itea Virginica)

This shrub is a great plant that fits into almost every kansas city landscape in some part.  In order for a plant to become a favorite of mine, it has to be versatile, tough and at least interesting in all season.  Sweetspire does this.  It is deciduous shrub that can grow up to 5 foot tall in a roughly globular fashion.  There is a very similar variety call Little Henry’s Sweetspire that is nearly identical – but more compact.  This shrub has two times of the year that it is a knockout.  One time is in early June when it shows off its long beautiful blooms.   It is equally beautiful in the fall when the foliage turns into a striking shade of crimson…and…the leaves persist well into mid winter.  

7. Drift Roses (Rosa ‘Meijocos’)

I will have to admit that although I hate to admit it I do love Knock Out Roses.  I was one of their first big proponents and had a bush that was kind of secretly handed to me before they were publicly being sold.  However, in the last 10 years they have become victims of their own success and are now way over planted and used in every subdivision entrance, every front yard bed and around every park sign.  Now I feel a little guilty when I  reach out for the knock-out rose once again for the customer that says they want low maintenance year-round color.  There just is not another plant that can match up in those situations – unless – you were looking for something smaller.

From the same breeders who gave us the knockout rose we now have the Drift rose.  This is essentially a groundcover rose (around 3 feet high) with all of the great benefits of the knockout rose, but in a  smaller package.  It blooms from early spring until the first frost, it is disease resistant, and it is extremely cold hardy. 

I find it works great to line a walkway with when you do not want the height offered by a knockout rose.  It can also work great planted at the edge of a rocky wall.

 

I am going to continue this list – so check back soon – or better yet sign-up here to get regular updates.

Kansas City gardeners can breathe a sigh of relief that we did not reach the forecasted lows last of week of -20. For many years, we have been lulled into thinking that we may have shifted into zone 6. However, it only takes one very cold night to ensure that we are truly a zone 5 area. The plant hardiness zones are based on the average lowest temperatures for a 10 year period. We are about to reset those zone maps if we approach -20 degrees. Plants are rated to their zones based on laboratory tests as well as the experiences of growers in the fields. Plants rated as hardy to Zone 5 generally survive low temperatures of -10 to -20 degrees. Zone 6 plants are only expected to survive to -10 degrees.

Of course, zones are only part of the answer to how your plants will during this cold snap. Zones define large areas, but not small microclimates that exist around your home. If your plants lie in a low lying area or out on a windswept plain, they are going to have considerably more exposure to cold temperatures than if they are nestled in a protected courtyard, along a south facing wall or on the wayward side of a hill.

That being said, many plants in Kansas City are going to suffer from this cold. Dan Simmons of Show-Me Horticulture and I were talking about what effect this could have on plants. We both agreed that a few of the standouts are plants that have started being popular at retail nurseries lately despite being unproven (or proven poorly) to thrive with very cold winters such as this years. A few plants that are going to be strongly affected are southern Magnolias such as Bracken Brown Beautys, crape myrtles, azaleas, rhododendrons and other broadleaf evergreens. These are all plants better suited to Zone 6. They may have done quite well in Kansas City the last several years, but will be well-tested this winter to see if they have enough protection to survive the extremes.

Even a few proven plants will still be stressed. Boxwoods, yews, and many broadleaf evergreens will likely show some damage come next spring from the prolonged cold weather combined with dry winds that we have experienced over the last several weeks. Another group of plants that will very likely show some signs of stress will be some of the ornamental grasses such as the ornamental fescues, the Japanese Silver grasses and the fountain grasses. Some of the larger trees such as Zelkova, Golden Rain Tree, dogwoods and redbuds could suffer some superficial damage to outermost branches as well.

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do to protect your plants now. If your plants went into the winter relatively healthy and unstressed they will have a much better chance of survival than if they were stressed already. Newly planted plants will have a harder time than older, more established plants. The snow that is insulating the ground is the biggest protection we have right now and this can be bolstered if you are inclined to pile snow around the crowns of your most valuable plants. Another option that can be helpful is to build a windscreen around broadleaf evergreens to help protect them. Lastly, to help plants bounce back as much as possible, give them a good slow soaking of water as soon as the ground thaws and repeat at least monthly throughout the winter. This will help immensely as your plants begin to heal their wounds.

This spring will be quite revealing as we learn a lesson of what plants truly are able to survive Kansas City’s coldest temperatures. We will be better gardeners if we observe and learn from what nature teaches this week and choose plants that will thrive in Kansas City even during when it is at its coldest.

If you have any questions, please feel free to visit me at www.HamonsLandscaping.com or posting questions as a comment to this blog post. I enjoy talking to other plant lovers and answering any questions you might have.

Frost coming to Kansas City Landscaping

Many of the plants we love to plant in the fall are chosen especially because they are fairly frost tolerant. Flowers such as pansy, kale, ornamental cabbage, Hardy Mums are all frost tolerant and can extend the beauty of your garden by several weeks. A complete list of frost tolerant plants

Your lawn will not be so strongly affected by the frost. Its correlation with lowering soil temperatures will have an effect but the actual grass tissue will likely not be harmed by the frost in any way. The only caveat to this is that if you walk on frosted turf you can damage the grass blades and they will turn brown if conditions are just right. This is because when you step on the turf while frost is on the grass, you can explode the frozen tissue causing it to die away. This is just cosmetic damage but can stay visible for a long time until next Spring when new growth replaces the killed tissues.

My primary suggestion when dealing with fall frost is to allow nature to decide when its time for this years growing season will end — knowing some seasons will be longer and other will be shorter.

This year, Kansas City Landscaping has seen a Spring that was more gradual than in past years.  This has been good for the plants and lawns in Kansas City .  Consistently cool Kansas City temperatures with only rare and short warm-up have allowed us to gradually slip into Spring and avoid the landscaping pitfalls of moving too fast.  Landscapers like slow springs because very few plants have been hurt by April freezes this year and although it has been fairly dry the plants have faired well.  However, gradual will soon give way to rapid growth as soon as we get some heat.  Lawn Mowing will soon be the most common weekend chore for most Kansas City homeowners. 

Blue Grass and Fescue lawns have thrived in this slightly cooler temperature.  They have been growing laterally and down for the last several weeks.  The imminent heat will spur rapid upward growth – we will soon be mowing VERY often!

One of the negatives of this low soil temperature ahs been for any new spring lawn seeding.  The grass has not grown much at all if any.  That is again due to cooler than normal soil temps.  This may not be a great thing for Spring seeded lawns since it simply will not have the time needed to grow before summer heat sets in.  However, if my inside sources at NBC Action News are accurate, we may have a cooler than normal Summer which would be good for all of Kansas City’s lawns. 

This spring has been a landscaper in Kansas City’s dream.  All the plants are doing well with mild temps and ample rain.  The only negative so far has been that all the rain has made it nearly impossible to do landscaping or lawn care work.  It is just been too wet.

As Charles Dickens would have said “It has been the Best of Springs – It has been the Worst of Springs”

I have great news! Crabgrass has been eradicated from the state of Kansas. Absolutely annihilated — every single plant! Not a single plant growing in anyone’s yard anywhere in the state or Kansas City. Ok — here is the bad news, this is not a result of any miraculous event or secret government work. Instead, since crabgrass is a warm season annual, it all died after the first hard frost.

However, there are literally billions of small crabgrass seeds laying in wait for the soil temperature to rise to 55 degrees for 10 consecutive days. Each crabgrass plant in your yard last year produced upwards of 180,000 seeds and flung them into the air. Even if you didn’t have a single plant in your yard last year — your neighbors did and they generously shared their crop of invasive weeds with you — guaranteed. Don’t worry though — you can outsmart the crabgrass and keep it from ruining your otherwise pristine yard. Here’s how.

The battle against crabgrass is two pronged. One uses chemical warfare to initially suppress the onslaught and the second uses good cultural practices to make your lawn uninviting and able to fight off the crabgrass gremlins before they get a chance to grow.

Before you can fight the enemy — you have to know the enemy. Read the rest of this entry »

Look out your window. Do you see the millions of gasping, choking organisms yelling for help? You didn’t do it on purpose, but slowly you have contributed to the painful suffocation of your prized Kansas City lawn. The incriminating activities have seemed innocent enough; children playing on the lawn, weekly mowing, and diligent fertilization. However, the traffic of people and mowers has compacted the soil and eliminated all of the small spaces found throughout healthy soil. Without these spaces, oxygen has not been able to penetrate into the root system of the grass. Additionally, the use of chemical fertilizers has dramatically reduced the amount of living microorganisms naturally oxygenating the soil. To verify that your lawn suffers from compaction problems, take the largest flat tipped screwdriver you have and push it into the ground. If it does not go down at least 3” with ease, then your lawn is in serious trouble. Luckily, you don’t have to continue to watch your lawn suffer. You can give it CPR and revive it with core aeration.

To core aerate your lawn, Read the rest of this entry »

The stage has been set for a fantastic year of growing grass in Kansas City. The mildwinter temperatures have been ideal for the fescue and bluegrass lawns in Kansas City. Soil temperatures have stayed mild and precipitation has been adequate to allow the grass to grow roots through the winter. With the right care this spring and summer, your lawn could look its best ever. Through my experience, I see certain mistakes repeated each year and regretted by Kansas City gardeners.

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FERTILIZING KANSAS CITY LAWNS

Managing the fertility of your lawn can be deceptively complex.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s early spring and we are all biting at the bit to get outside. If you are like me, you are grasping at anything that even remotely looks like its green or growing. This is no doubt why you so anxiously picked up this magazine – looking for spring.

One important thing with which you can busy yourself right now is deciding how you are going to care for your lawn.

1) Mow and fertilize by yourself.

2) Mow yourself and have your lawn professionally fertilized.

3) Have your lawn professionally mowed and fertilized.

The right option for you is determined by many variables and each option should be considered to decide which would allow you to most enjoy your lawn.

1) Mow and Fertilize yourself. This option is great if you are a tinkerer, one who likes to be out in your lawn several days a week and to be in complete control of each detail. This option allows you the freedom needed to attend to each detail of your lawn. If you have the time and the expertise, this can lead to a wonderful lawn. This option is the cheapest, if you consider your time very cheap. However, even if you consider your free time at a modest amount of $15-20/hr, this option can easily end up being the most expensive of all the options when you consider the time involved. Additionally, the resources available to you are much more limited and expensive than to a professional.

2) Mow yourself and have your lawn professionally fertilized. This option is best for the homeowner who enjoys spending some time in their lawn, but does not have the time available to research and study proper fertilization and the science behind turfgrass maintenance. However, by mowing the lawn on a regular basis you can still take pride in providing the primary care of your lawn. This allows somebody who specializes in turfgrass to do the work that requires the expertise and allows the homeowner to do the hard “work” of mowing.

4) Have your lawn professionally mowed and fertilized. This option is ideal for the person who values their free time very highly. There are several reasons someone might choose to have their lawn professionally maintained. The primary reason is that they work hard at something at which they are experts and would rather spend a small portion of their time doing extra work for which they get paid and pay a lawn care expert to work in their lawn. For instance, one of my customers is a nurse. By simply working two extra hours a week she was able to pay me to take care of all her lawn and flowerbed needs. Yard work usually took her 4 or 5 hours a week, so she gained 3 hours of leisure time a week and her yard looked better than ever thanks to my helpful touch!

It is important to consider the pros and cons for each of these options when you plan how to care for your lawn. The value of time, money and expertise all play into what’s best for you.

If you decide that mowing or fertilizing yourself is the best plan for you, make sure to do your research. There are a multitude of products from which to choose in regards to both fertilizers and weed controls. When you buy fertilizers, you have to be careful and look past the advertising. I have found that when shopping at the big box stores, the more expensive fertilizers tend to have the cheapest products inside. Oftentimes, you are paying more for the ink on the outside of the bags than the product on the inside. However, if you do your research and know what to look for on the labels you can find quality products.

Research is also necessary when selecting a lawn care company. Just like bags of fertilizer, you have to look past the flashy advertising and see what is offered. A high quality lawn service starts and ends with the person doing the applications. The person needs to have a large well of knowledge in order to be able to diagnose and pamper your lawn’s every need. They should be fully licensed and insured and they should readily provide you with references of satisfied customers.

The signs of spring are there – let them help lead you to the best way to enjoy your lawn!

Water — the life blood for trees, flowers and shrubs and is exactly what Kansas City gardeners pray for more than anything else.  EXCEPT when it comes down and freezes on the branches, leaves and trunks of the trees in our landscapes.  Then it becomes a massively destructive force.

The victims are predictable, elms, silver maples, birches, Bradford pears and willows.  These are some of Kansas City’s favorite landscape trees — but they are on a landscaper’s hit list.  There wood is brittle and their growth structures is suspect.  They cannot withstand the mighty weight that ice puts upon their branches.

If your trees have major damage, your first course of action is to make a decision. IS THE TREE WORTH SAVING?  Look at what the damage is.

Is it major damage to an already weak tree?

Will the aesthetic value of the tree be ruined permentantly?

Will the damage make a weak tree more prone to disease and future damage?

The costs of major repairs can be the same as removing a tree altogether.  Kansas City has a plethora of UGLY trees dotting our streets and landscapes from past years growth.  Many of these trees, even under the care of a certified arborist, would not be able to saved and would have been better off if cut down and replaced with another high quality tree that would add to the homes value and looks.

Remember – -the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago! The second best time is today!The next question to answer is – Can you handle the repair y0ourself? Small limbs can be easily repaired with pruning shears or pole-loppers provided they are within reach. Otherwise you will have to climb a ladder up into the tree. Unfortunately – more people are killed from ladders and tree climbing in the United States than are killed skydiving – so this can be more dangerous than you might expect. Power tools should NEVER be used from a ladder since this compounds the danger incredibly. Some repairs you might consider doing yourself.Broken limbs – These should be removed back to the next major branch. Do not leave branch stubs – they lead to decay and disease.Broken tops - For trees with tops broken out, remove the snags to the next major interior branch. Generally, this will be a major fork. Avoid topping the tree to allow small side branches to grow out and continue the tree’s height growth. These branches will be weak and prone to breakage.

If the bark has been stripped from the trunk of the tree when it the ice broke the limb then cut any ragged edges off the trunk. Take care not to pull any extra bark off the tree. Cut any loose bark away with a sharp knife in the shape of an elongated football standing on it tip.

To avoid doing further damage to the trees as you cut it then this 3 step procedure should be used when cutting any heavy branches off of the tree. The first cut is made on the underneath side of the branch about 18 inches out from the trunk. The cut should be approximately half-way through the branch or until its weight first starts to bind the saw. The next cut should be made on top of the branch about 1 to 2 inches in front (toward the end of the branch) of the bottom cut. Continue cutting until the branch drops free. The last cut removes the remaining branch stub from the trunk. The cut should be made from the top of the branch at the branch collar. The collar is the slight ridge where the branch attaches to the tree’s trunk or another major branch.

Trees with split trunks or major limb forks may possibly be salvaged if the split is not too extensive. Repairing this type of damage will involve a cable and brace technique that should be left to a professional tree service. Some small to medium-sized trees may have been uprooted. It may be possible to straighten these trees and brace them with guy wires. Do not attempt this unless one-half to one-third of the tree’s original root system is still in the soil and the remaining exposed roots are relatively compact and undisturbed. Before straightening the tree, remove some of the soil from beneath the root mass so the roots will be placed below the existing grade level. Attach two to three guy wires to the trunk and anchor the wires 10 to 12 feet away from the tree. Corrective pruning to help improve the shape of damaged trees is best done now. The tree will respond quickly this spring if it has not been severely damaged. Take care not to remove more than one-third of original branches. This will severely retard the tree’s growth in the spring and may damage it beyond recovery. Treatment of the trunk and limb wounds with tree paint is not necessary. In fact, research shows that painted areas can lead to increased rot and decay due to trapped moisture in areas where the paint cracks open. You may want to fertilize your tree this spring with a good quality tree fertilizer now to encourage new growth in the spring.