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Yardner
Plants
Lots of
Pictures and no Latin Names |
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This column is for yardeners,
which means that there will be lots of pictures and
almost no Latin plant names. Yardeners, you may
recall, are those homeowners that don’t necessarily
see themselves as gardeners but who love to work out
in their yard. Yardeners’ lawns and landscapes are
generally attractive and colorful--and neat and well
manicured, too. Yardeners probably don’t know the
scientific name of the plants in their
landscape—come to think of it, they often don’t know
the common names of the plants either, but they do
know what they like in a landscape—it should be neat
and colorful. Which is why yardeners win more
“Golden Spade Awards” than gardeners do. (Note to
all you gardeners—you should have listened more
carefully when your mother told you that life isn’t
always fair.)
Yardeners like landscape plants
that:
1) are colorful
2) have a neat
appearance
3) grow healthy
without a lot of fuss
4)
have enough annual maintenance to work up an
occasional thirst (if you know what I mean) but
not ever interfere with a golf date
Not a bad set of criteria, when
you think about it. So here are my suggestions
for any yardeners thinking about adding some plants
to your landscape
Yardener shade trees
Autumn Purple Ash This shade
tree has a clean appearance, and is surprisingly
more soil adaptable than green ash in Wyobraska
landscapes. It’s orange to red fall color is
particularly pleasing to yardeners. |
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Yardener Ornamental
Grasses
Feather Reed Grass.
It’s hard to beat this ornamental grass. Neat 3’
tall clumps of upright green stems topped by wheat
colored seed heads by late July. It’s a striking
garden or landscape plant that’s foolproof to grow.
The only requirement is to cut it back in early
spring (Feb-Mar) because it begins to grow early in
spring.
Feather Reed Grass
Hardy Pampas Grass This plant is a yardener’s pride
and joy. With late summer seed stalks that can
reach 10-12 feet tall, is grass is the tallest of
the ornamental grasses that can be grow in
Wyobraska. It’s a definite accent plant.
Hardy Pampas Grass
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Previous Articles
Fractions March 15
Yardner March 8
Urban
Legends of Trees March 22
Que
Serra, Serra March 29
Grocery Store or Garbage Dumpster Plants April 5
Planning Your Landscape Project April 12
Planting
Cool Trees April 19
Keeping
Trees Alive April 26
Thrillers, Chillers, Spillers May 03
Will
You Still Love Them May 10
Ornamental Grasses May 17
In
Memory of Cedar Trees May 24
Gardening is not Childs Play
Versatile
Viburnums June 6
2006 Articles |
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Autumn Purple Ash in the Fall
Catalpa Yardeners with
existing catalpa trees are snapping their suspenders
right now, because catalpa trees around Wyobraska
are in full bloom. The white flower petals do drop
on the lawn, but yardeners just mow them up—no fuss
to that. Catalpa’s have a nice yellow fall color,
and pods that hang on the tree all winter for great
winter interest. And here’s the best part, the
spring clean up of the pods takes place at the same
time as the spring lawn clean up—usually before the
really good golfing weather arrives.
Yardener shrubs
Shrub roses. That’s right, shrub roses are yardener
plants. Why? They bloom from May to October,
require no more care than any other shrub, and many
of the newly introduced shrub roses retain a neat
growth habit. Here’s some shrub rose names for
yardeners: Winnipeg Parks, Nearly Wild,
Sunrise-sunset, Champlain, Orange
Impressionist. And if you’re a yardener with a
hankering for a climbing rose, try Ramblin Red.
Winnipeg Parks
Shrub Rose Page for more
pictures
Butterfly bush. These shrub
like perennials need to be cut back every
spring—yardeners like to do some pruning—and then
grow quickly back to full size by late June and
bloom all summer. Butterflies love them. Not all
butterfly bushes are winter hardy in Wyobraska, but
it’s such a great yardener plant that most
homeowners just replant another if one doesn’t
survive the winter.
Diablo Ninebark. Yardeners
love red-leaved plants, and there may be no better
red-leaved shrub than Diablo ninebark. Plus this
plant blooms with a whitish-pink blossom in mid
summer, and foliage often develops an orange color
in fall.
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Yardener Perennials
May Night Salvia Bright blue
flowers in late May last through June. Dense
compact plant rarely reseeds. Re-blooms if
deadheaded.
May Night Salvia
Purple Coneflower A garden
favorite, there are now numerous color and size
variations. Originally only a pink flowered plants,
orange and yellow varieties are now available. Does
volunteer some, but usually well within a yardener’s
ability to control
Purple Coneflower
Becky Daisy How can you not
like a flower named Becky. This improved Shasta
Daisy seems to really like Wyobraska. Large white
flowers and a long mid summer blooming period.
Becky Daisy
Russian Sage Most area
“rooshins” are pretty good yardeners, so how could I
not include “rooshin” sage as a yardener perennial.
This tall late summer bloomer has been a long-time
favorite around Wyobraska.
Russian Sage
Goldsturm Rudbeckia
“Black-eyed Susan” to yardeners. This
yellow-flowered perennial is a great summer flower
that also adds winter interest to the landscape,
with its durable, rich brown stems and button-like
seed heads.
Goldsturm Rudbeckia
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