6 Common Perennials to Divide this Fall
Autumn is a great time in the garden, there are asters, goldenrods, and sedums blooming, pumpkins and mums adorning the porch, and all the trees have put on their fall splendor. Autumn is also a great time to divide, plant, and move perennials in the garden. While the garden is starting to go from amazing […]
Kansas Gardener’s Garden August-September
Part 3 of my gardens. The saga continues…. This is the Monarch Waystation in late summer, full of rudbeckias and garden phlox and grasses. The double-flowered rudbeckia variety is ‘Hortensia’ from my grandmother’s garden in Cloud County, KS. The tallest grass in the middle is switchgrass ‘Dallas Blues’, one of the first things I ever […]
Best Border Plants for Your Garden
Now that fall is here and plants are on sale across the nursery, remember Grimm’s Pink Flag Sale, we can talk about how to put in borders along your garden beds. Over the years, I have experimented with many different plants for borders, from groundcovers to squatty perennials to annuals. I like to use the […]
Plant Perennials (and Trees) Now!
Autumn is finally here with the advent of some much wanted and needed cooler temperatures, and lovely fall rains. When the weather cools down to daily temperatures in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and the night-time temperatures stay around the 50s, then it is the best time to plant most of our perennials, shrubs, grasses, […]
Bellflowers for Your Garden
In many parts of the country and even in other countries, many plants have been trialed and tested by gardeners and horticulturalists alike. However, here in the central Great Plains, many nurseries and gardeners take for granted our own unique growing situation and use plant recommendations that may not belong to us. With extreme temperature […]
Natives Spotlight: Willowleaf Sunflower
In 2016, I was introduced to a new native sunflower, new to me anyways. Willowleaf sunflower (Helianthus salicifolius), was growing in the prairie ditches on my was to an event in Ft. Scott, KS. Back at Grimm’s, we ordered some ourselves and planted a few plants around the office. Let me tell you, this plant […]
Natives Spotlight: Aromatic Aster
The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum puts out its Great Plants for the Great Plains each year. In 2019, they selected Aromatic Aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) as its perennial of the year. This shrubby type aster is a wonderful addition to the garden or landscape. The native aromatic aster can be found across the Great Plains, Midwest and […]
Natives Spotlight: Woolly Verbena
As a member of the Kansas Native Plant Society and the Plant Resources Council, I get the pleasure of helping to choose the native plant of the year for Kansas. We selected Verbena stricta, Woolly Verbena for the 2019 Native Plant of the Year. This verbena is one of my all-time favorite natives, being one […]
Bluestar for the Garden
Selecting perennials for the garden can be a difficult task given the number of species and the amazing number of cultivars per species. It would be easy to be a collector of certain species, there are over 1200 daylily varieties alone! In several species: echinacea, hosta, iris, peony, dahlia, and others; there may be over […]
