Category: shrubs and trees

06 Oct 2011
October 6, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden maintenance, Plant health, shrubs and trees

Warning to Twin City Homeowners: Water your grounds well this fall

Since our monsoons of early summer, there has been a drought in the general Twin City area.   For well established plants there generally shouldn't be much concern....as yet.   For newly planted woody plants and perennials regular watering......that is reliable water availability is essential for survival. A prolonged period of drought has about the same effect on woody plants regardless of soil type.   Plants will wilt and die  sooner in sandy soils.   They also recover sooner,...

Read More >>
29 Sep 2011
September 29, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping

The Trouble with Trees

What is a 'tree' to the general Minnesota  public?    Most people would not think of defining it, answering something like "a woody perennial plant usually of fewer than five upright stems".  If asked, most people will answer, "an elm".....or "a maple" or 'oak'.....not thinking that a White Pine and Colorado Spruce are also trees.    So is a redbud and a pagoda dogwood, and even a winged euonymus, which is usually sold as a shrub at your...

Read More >>
09 Sep 2011
September 9, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin shrubs and trees

A Listing of Ten Terrific Conifers for the Twin City Landscape Garden

The most important woody plants for any Minnesota  landscape garden are  the  conifer evergreens.  If you were to ask most Minnesotans, the garden aware or not, what the longest landscape season in  Minnesota might be, they would be confused, hesitant, unsure how to answer, rather than think first and reveal the answer everyone knows....WINTER! In fact our Minnesota winter is equal to all of its  other landscape seasons, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, combined.    Here in the Twin Cities...

Read More >>
01 Sep 2011
September 1, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin perennials, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping

Fall is a Good Time to Plant

Yes, Autumn is a good time to plant.....especially in September.  I admit I prefer Spring as the best time for planting most of the more permanent garden material.   One can better view when something is going wrong with spring planted material. I usually don't recommend landscape gardeners go hunting for bargains when  looking for  principal plants, the most important trees and shrubs of your landcape picture.    Yet, let's admit it, most of us who are "taken"...

Read More >>
29 Aug 2011
August 29, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin garden seasons, Plant health, shrubs and trees

September is Fall for Evergreen Conifers Too!

........and this year September is arriving a bit early for my Swiss Stone Pines......the interior needles are beginning to turn yellowish.  Autumn begins June 21st or is it the 22nd now with the beginning of the shortenning of the day.  Our Northland's deciduous trees are already  working on cutting  off their today's leaves.   Nearly all will be dropped by November 1st, year in and year out. Some of us are lucky enough to grow white oaks...

Read More >>
02 Aug 2011
August 2, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping

Summer – 2011: Hot….Humid….Wet….and Mosquitoie

Fellow Vikings and foreigners to our Northland.....This summer is the closest to the tropical in my gardening lifetime.   Hot, humid, wet and tons of mosquitoes....not a winning season for us who 'work the soil', but the formula sure works for plants.    I expect to see dinosauers any day now coming out of the jungle. At least there are no tsetse flies.   Just plenty of Japanese beetles. Throughout the summer of 1988 there was more heat,...

Read More >>
17 Jul 2011
July 17, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, perennials, shrubs and trees

The Week of the Hot Weather Which has been WET

We in the Twin Cities landscape gardening world  have had a hot and wet several weeks following a very short Spring.   It was only one year ago our world was blessed with one of the most beautiful landscape garden seasons I can remember.......An early Spring....warm April, cool May, and a Summer of nothing general to have worried about.   Plantings with irrigation systems did exceptionally well making plants exceptionally healthy......and then November 13, 2010 visited and...

Read More >>
14 Feb 2011
February 14, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin garden seasons, shrubs and trees

Forsythia Will Be Blooming in Six Weeks

That's right.   Somewhere around April Fools Day the forsythia shrubs will be fooling everyone by showing off their  bright shocking yellow color.  The big one in size on the market these days is usually "Meadowlark"    This and many other of the larger forsythias which are sold in our climate zone four, usually can withstand a relatively cold winter and manage to bloom well.   However, even though these plants are  thoroughtly root hardy here, some may...

Read More >>
14 Feb 2011
February 14, 2011 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin Pruning, shrubs and trees

Schedule for your Rose “Family” Tree Prunings in February and March

As we have mentioned before some of our favorite flowering and fruiting trees here in the Northland are members of the Rose family.....Anything "Prunus" , the plums, pears, apricots, and cherries, and "Malus" , the apples and crabapples.  Add to this list the Mountain Ashes, Sorbus, and the Hawthorns, Crataegus.   There are a number of shrubs in the Rose family as well, cotoneaster and ninebark, for example, but their value in the garden rarely rises...

Read More >>
28 Oct 2010
October 28, 2010 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, Ground Covers, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

A Few Words About Autumn Color in the Landscape Garden

The Landscape Garden is more than what most people consider to be garden.   It is an enclosure to enter, stroll though, walking the paths up to and passed plants which might appear sculpture at one look, and framing after a few paces along the path.  Envision a private woodland with windows and openings where beautiful forms or colors can be seen and beautifullly displayed. Benches in the distance  entice  visitors to find the path to a resting...

Read More >>