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Signature
WyoBraska
Plants |
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In my previous two columns on
landscape styles I explained how landscape styles
developed more from the lifestyle of the countries
or regions from which those styles originated than
from the native plants of those countries or
regions. Because landscape styles are more about
lifestyle than “style of plants” it’s very much
possible to create almost any of those
well-recognized landscape styles like English
garden, Tuscan, or Santa Fe, right here in
Wyobraska—using plants that like to grow in
Wyobraska’s climate and soils. In fact, many of
Wyobraska’s signature landscape plants—evergreens,
summer flowering shrubs, grasses, and perennial
wildflowers—are key ornamental plants in most of the
stylish landscapes and gardens pictured in those
glossy architecture and gardening magazines.
If you think I got hit on the
head by some flying debris in Monday’s tornado and
still haven’t recovered my senses, think again. And
look again at those pictures—you’ll see evergreens,
ornamental grasses, summer flowering shrubs, and
perennial wildflowers—all signature Wyobraska
landscape plants.
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Previous Articles
A
Loooooong Winter
March 10
Just Dirt
March 18
Horse Manure & Hot Air
March 25
Mulch
to do this Spring
April 01
Creating Long Term
Tree-lationships
April 15
Spring Blooming
Shrubs & Trees
April 22
New
and Improved
Nebraska Arbor Day
April 29
A
Normal Spring
May 6
The Winter of Eight Moons
May 13
Adding Style to your Landscape
May 20
Adding Style to you
Landscape Part 2
May 27
Summer School
June 3
2009
Articles
2008 Articles
2007 Articles
2006 Articles
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Evergreens—Whatever
landscape style you are trying to create around your
home, there’s no getting around the fact that your
home is located in Wyobraska—and after this past
winter, I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that
winter can be a long season in this region. That’s
why starting your planting plan with evergreens is
always a good idea. My favorite Wyobraska evergreen
is the juniper tree, commonly called cedar trees or
upright junipers. This plant fell out of fashion
about 20 years ago, because it was overused as the
sheared upright evergreen in every residential
landscape through the middle of the last century.
But thankfully, these plants are making a return to
landscapes as the full sized evergreen tree that
they really are. When they aren’t sheared into
little balls or rockets, they are tough, durable,
scenic, mid-sized evergreen trees—and there’s a spot
for one or two of these native evergreen trees in
almost every landscape, regardless of style. Other
evergreen tree options include pinion pine, limber
pine, Austrian pine, and bristlecone pine(—but only
if you’re the patient type). There’s a long list
of evergreen shrubs for that winter color in
smaller form, including mugo pine, globe blue
spruce, swiss stone pine, and any of the numerous
shrub form junipers.
Ornamental grasses—It
goes without saying that grass is a signature
Wyobraska plant. And just like we humans have our
“celebrities”, grasses have their celebrities,
too—in the landscape profession we call them
“ornamental grasses”. These are really just
individual specimens of any number of species of
grass from around the world that have been selected
for excellent ornamental interest and cloned to
eliminate the genetic variation that makes some
plants ordinary looking and others “celebrities”.
Because most ornamental grasses remain visually
interesting in the landscape at least through early
winter, I like to place them in locations in the
landscape where they are readily seen in that
season. Most of the widely sold ornamental grasses
thrive or at least grow tolerably well in Wyobraska
landscapes and gardens. The list certainly
includes feather reed grass, switch grass, little
blue stem, hardy fountain grass, most miscanthus (a
Japanese ornamental grass), and hardy pampas grass.
Summer flowering shrubs—For
adding prime season (summer) color to any landscape
style in Wyobraska there’s a great selection of
summer flowering shrubs from which to choose.
These plants range in size from 2 feet tall to 8
feet tall, with a complete range of flower or bloom
colors and styles. They will give that “ripped
right out of the pages of the gardening magazine”
look to your landscape, and have you trying more
next year. At the top of a fairly long list is
hardy shrub roses, followed by butterfly bush, blue
mist spirea, hydrangeas, elderberry, ninebarks, and
weigela. Locate them in your landscape where they
can be enjoyed in the summer time—but resist the
urge to skip the evergreens and ornamental grasses,
because in winter these plants have limited visual
interest. My rule of thumb is that regardless of
your landscape style, don’t have more than one third
of your landscape plants be from this category.
Trust me, that’s enough to fill your summertime
landscape with color.
Finally, use some of those
great perennial wildflowers to add that
signature element of dynamic change through the
growing season to your stylish landscape. From
basket of gold in the early spring, to Penstemon and
Salvia in late spring, to coneflower, Rudbeckia,
daisies, bee balm, yarrow, and Russian sage through
the summer, and asters in the fall, there are many
great well-behaved perennials that will give you
that dynamic seasonal change through the spring and
summer in a stylish, but low-maintenance landscape.
Whatever your favorite
landscape style, there are signature Wyobraska
plants that can help you make it a reality in your
own landscape.
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