Sunrise Landscape Designs

Fall is here and it’s a great time to plant spring flowering bulbs!  Tulips, Daffodils, and Hyacinth are always favorites and for obvious reasons!  However, there are some beautiful bulbs available that are easy to find yet rarely used. 

Fritillaria – a tropical looking bulb that can get about 2’-3’ tall and the flowers hang down with spiky green on top reminiscent of Dr. Seuss!

Tulip Varieties – opening a bulb magazine, you can find pages upon pages of tulip varieties.  From feathered flower petals to red striped leaves you can find it all. 

Allium – From the onion family, this bulb is very deer resistant.  Alliums send up a ball of color on a tall stem.  The largest variety (globemaster) can reach 4’ tall and the flower ball is 10” diameter.  This makes quite a statement!  After the flowers fade, spray paint the flower heads for a couple more months of color!

When choosing bulbs, be sure to choose the right bulb for the spot.  If you have deer or rabbits, look for deer-resistant bulbs.  Otherwise they will have a nice feast come spring!  When planting the bulbs take note of the planting depth and bulb position.  A sprinkle of bulb booster always promises a nice spring show.   If the bulbs are particularly tender, extra bark over the bulbs will protect them in winter.

Is it ever going to stop snowing? We are all longing for the warmer, sunny days of spring but are you ready for it? To me, it seems like spring is the fastest season of the year! We need to prepare so when it finally gets here, we are ready.

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN . . . Look outside at your yard right now. Do you have a four season landscape? In other words, does your landscape look good year round? Even though many plants are dormant right now, there are many beautiful plants and structures to decorate the landscape in the winter too.

Conifers are an obvious choice for winter interest and they come in many sizes, shapes and colors ranging from shades of green, blue, and yellow. Trees and shrubs can have decorative bark like the red or yellow twig dogwood. Some plants hold their ornamental fruit late into the season. Ornamental grasses also look beautiful standing up in the snow in the winter time.

Structures that can be left outside for the winter could include an arbor, gazebo, fancy bird feeder, water feature, boulders, or statuary. If your landscape is lacking appeal right now, plan to add some of these items to your area during the upcoming growing season.

We have had such a warm and sunny fall this year but winter is just around the corner. It is time to get those last chores done in the garden. Here is a short list of outside jobs to focus on.

1. Cut back to stubble the perennials that do not look good over the winter. (Leave the Butterfly Bush up until spring.)

2. Disconnect garden hoses from the spigots and drain the water from them.

3. Pack up any herbicides, pesticides, or other items that will be harmed if frozen. Store in a sealed container inside.

4. Put away any garden art that could be harmed with the colder temperatures.

5. If you have a water feature, remove the pump and store for the winter.

Get busy now while Mother Nature is still being kind to us!

No doubt you’ve all heard the tale that you can predict the severity of the oncoming winter by observing the stripes of the wooly bear caterpillars. Is it just a myth, or is it true?

As the leaves turn to their fall colors, start checking the wooly bear’s bands of fuzz. The broader the black bands, they say, the colder will be the coming months. Since Colonial times, Americans gauged the bands as they stocked their larders and gathered fuel for the winter.

Scientists say the wooly bear caterpillar’s stripes are worthless predictors. There is no research to point out a connection between them and winter temperatures, but the fascination of the wooly bear weathermen endures. By the time real winter sets in next January they will be curled away, fast asleep, and nowhere to be found.

LIGHT FROST WARNING! It doesn’t seem possible for the chance of frost to be coming already but in the northern part of Michigan they have already had frost and sleet. Keep an eye on the low temperatures so you can cover any annual plants you want to keep.

If you don’t want to save your vegetable plants, pick any remaining crop that is sensitive to the frost and let it ripen inside. Cover all flowering annuals and all tropicals. I use double layers of old sheets, towels, pails, cardboard, newspaper (if it isn’t windy) or anything you find that will cover the top of the plants without crushing them.

We still have a lot of pleasantly warm days ahead to enjoy our gardens so it might be worth the effort to cover your plants for a little while. Be sure to uncover them in the morning when the temperature warms up a bit.

Fall-blooming bulbs are every bit as easy to plant and grow as spring-blooming bulbs, yet they remain unfamiliar to many gardeners. Garden centers rarely offer them so you will probably have to order them by catalog or online. If you need a source let me know. Plant a few, and you’ll be hooked. Your garden will be the talk of the street when the Colchicums bloom, because your neighbors will want to know what trick you used to get those “giant Crocuses” to bloom out of season. Choose a site in full sun to partial shade with average, well-drained soil.

Some of us have had more rain than others this summer, but here in Rockford, we have had very little. With such high temperatures, even the trees are struggling and show burnt or yellowing leaves. I always go over watering advice to my new landscape clients and we are going to review it now because watering is not easy and it is so very important.

The best way to water trees is to lay a hose end near the tree trunk and let the water trickle into the ground for 15 -30 minutes. With sand, a sprinkler might work better to water all of the roots. This method works well for large shrubs too. You want to get the water to the bottom of the root ball. The idea is to encourage the tree to develop a deep root system so it can eventually take care of itself. In the hot weather, water new trees 2x/week. Trees 1-5 years old; 1x/month. As the temperatures cool down, cut down the watering schedule too.

Now that we have had a wonderful spring rain, it’s time to pull weeds. The roots need to come out too or the weed will just come back stronger next week.

Frost warnings are almost past for our area; May 31 is the safe date for no late frost. I have slowly started putting my annual flowers and tomato plants in already to get a jump on the growing season. I only plant the ones I know I can cover quickly if a killing frost is predicted. To cover them, I have used old sheets, newspaper (weighted down with stones), or buckets turned upside down over the plants. You can be creative as long as it keeps the plants under cover. Watch the weather report for temperatures to dip at night. Most annual plants cannot survive below 32 degrees but some of the tropicals do not even like it below 50 degrees.

We all eagerly await the first spring blooms to appear but do you have them in your garden? If you would like to have beautiful spring flowers bulbs next year, now is the time to plan. Look at your landscape right now and decide which areas you would appreciate some early color. Now write down the location and what color and height of bulbs you want there. In late summer, order your bulbs and plant them in the fall.

If you have bulbs already and they need to be divided, it can be very difficult to find them when it’s time to get the work done. Get some wooden popsicle sticks from a craft store and poke them half way into the ground at each bulb location and you will have no problem digging them up in the fall.

The daffodil and tulip blooms look pretty sad lying underneath a fresh layer of wet snow. These plants are used to cold weather and even though the blooms may die off with this snow, the bulbs should come back just fine next year. If they haven’t budded or bloomed yet, they will just wait until the temps. warm up and then they will start growing again.

If you had Hostas, Daylilies, or other perennials coming up already, they are going to look ratty from the burn of the extended cold temperatures. Any foliage that is above ground right now will probably turn brown and crispy and that will need to be cut off to tidy up the plant. You can either do it now or wait and cut off what turns brown over the next couple of weeks. If you have to cut off a lot of foliage, it will cause skimpy looking plants for the entire growing season. However, next year, they will come back fuller than ever.

Enjoy a preview of spring by forcing a few branches of Forsythia, Pussy Willow, Cherry, Plum, or Crabapple. Cut 1 to 2 ft stems, and submerge them in tepid water overnight. The next day, re-cut the stems on a diagonal, and also make some vertical cuts through the base, to encourage water uptake. Put the stems in a vase of tepid water in a bright room away from drafts or direct heat. It usually takes several weeks for the branches to bloom, although Pussy Willows usually force more quickly.