Fall is around the corner. Time to plan your bulb orders!

Pick up some brochures the next time you're in and get your customers thinking about spring color!!!

Any special

The Connecticut Tree Protective Association will have their summer meeting Thursday, July 19th, 8:30 - 4 pm at The Farmington Club, in Farmington, CT.

Dedicated to the advancement of Arboriculture by promoting, among other things, proper methods and practices in the field, this meeting will have four interesting lectures to choose from including 'Diagnosing Tree Problems - the art of guessing' and 'Tree Injection and Bark Sprays'. It's a full day with some great food included!

Click for more information and to register CTPA.org.  

l-r: 'Bowles Golden', 'Ice Dance', C. glauca, C. stricta and C. pensylvanica

Common name

Sedge

Varieties:

Carex elata 'Bowles Golden' Graceful clumps of thin, bright gold foliage bloom in May. Needs moist soil in full sun where it will have the best color.  Tolerates somewhat drier conditions in part shade. It will grow about 2'x2'. 

C. morrowii 'Ice Dance' 12" tall with white variegation ½" wide blades. Foliage is crisp and neat. Evergreen clumps spread nicely.

C. glauca (C. flacca) Blue Sedge is an evergreen clumping grass with a steel blue color, 9-12". Spreads slow and steady forming a nice groundcover for full sun to light shade. Very drought tolerant.

C.stricta (Tussock Sedge) Rich green, fine textured, evergreen

foliage 3' x 3'. Tolerates standing water. Native.

C. pensylvanica (Pennsylvania or Oak Sedge) Bright green, narrow arching, semi-evergreen blades 10" long, native  to eastern North America. Durable species  tolerating sun and shade. It can even become a mowable groundcover! Native.

Carex best attributes

Considered by Rick Darke to be "too little known and too little used in the garden". The flowers are not very significant, but the foliage easily makes up for that.  Soft arching blades range in color from green to gold to blue and even variegated. Great as a groundcover, garden accent, window boxes and pots. Also a nice choice for modern landscapes. 

Cultural requirements

Sun to part shade.  Many can tolerate wet feet but will also grow in drier conditions. Generally speaking, deciduous Carex should be cut back in spring and evergreen/semi-evergreen varieties should be cut back occasionally in late spring to clean up older foliage.

Pick up a copy of Rick Darke's Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses and read about each individual Sedge. It's an interesting guide and guaranteed to give you lots of  ideas and the desire to have more grasses! 

Thanks Liz! 

"There is a lot of conflicting info on the web regarding fertilizing boxwood. What is the correct fertilizer to use, how much and how often?"

Submitted by Lise from Outdooor Environments

Sea of Boxwood

Mark answers:  It is not so much the kind of fertilizer you use as it is the conditions in which the boxwood have been planted and 
the pH of the soil.

The pH should be 6.5 to 7 with some literature claiming up to 7.5. This will assure the fertilizer is available to the plant.  So if you have been using something that acidifies the soil you probably have pH range that is well below 6.5 and the plant can't get the fertilizer. The only way to know the soil's pH is to do a soil test. (We have brochures from UCONN and the Ag. Experiment Station explaining the proceedure and where to send the samples. We also have soil probes if needed so as not to disturb the beds too much.)

Next, and this is a big one, Boxwood are shallow rooted plants. They do NOT like being planted deep especially in heavy, wet, clay soil. These conditions limit oxygen getting to the roots and thus the plant cannot carry on respiration (the process of burning sugars to release energy needed for growth) always plant a little high in these soils (after you make some attempt to amend them) remember you can always add water but you can't add oxygen if they are deep in a clay soil.

If they are planted properly Boxwood benefit greatly from a little mulch as it helps cool the roots. But excessive mulch and leaf debris from clipping and shearing can lead to fungus cankers rotting the bark and phloem and mice or voles chewing the bark and phloem off, in both cases leaving dead branches that are unsightly flags.  

Helenium x 'Mardi Gras'

Here's a list of great looking perennials - in stock and in good supply - ready for your next job!

Agastache (Anise Hyssop) 'Black Adder' Deep purple buds open to light violet flowers. Full plants are blooming now!

Alchemilla mollis (Lady's Mantle) Velvety leaves and chartreuse flowers filling their containers.  

Heuchera x 'Caramel' (Coral Bells) Full plants loaded with awesome two-toned leaves.

Helenium x 'Mardi Gras' (Sneezeweed) is budded and blooming. Get ready for a long show!

Hemerocallis 'Mauna Loa' (Daylily) Budded and blooming with large orange flowers.

Lobelia 'Monet's Moment' (Cardinal Flower) Budded, blooming, and full in their pots. Hot pink spikes last a while, especially when pinched back to encourage lateral blooms.  

Nice shot Heather! 

A great opportunity on our PC grown Blueberries! The high-bush (V. corymbosum) have great fall color in addition to the obvious berries. Plant multiple cultivars for best fruit production.  The low-bush (V. angustifolium) tolerates poor, dry soils, has good fall color and produces the small "Maine" blueberries. V. x 'Top Hat' combines the two species growing into a dense plant that will grow about 20" with yummy berries and fiery fall color. Buy 5 or more and receive 10% off!

Continued specials on:

Cherry Laurel - B&B 'Otto Lyuken' and 'Schipkaensis' 10% off.

Magnolia 1 - 10% off, 2 or more - 20% off. 

Stop by either yard, mention this email and receive 10% OFF  

Valid: Sat. July 14th - Fri. 2oth     

*Price is net. No further discount applies. 

Deciduous Trees
There's a great selection of trees in both yards - majestic Maples, lump Birch, flowering Cherries and much more!

Fagus sylvatica 'Red Obelisk'
 (European Beech)

Metasequoia glyp. (Dawn Redwood)

Stewartia pseudo.(Japanese Stewartia)

Styrax japonica (Japanese Snowbell)

Taxodium dis. (Bald Cypress) 

Butterfly Bush

Deciduous Shrubs

Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) In full bloom and complete with butterflies!

Clethra x 'Hummingbird' (Summersweet)

Hydrangea arbor. 'Annabelle' (Smoothleaf Hydrangea) and the others seen at the top

Hydrangea m. (Bigleaf Hydrangea) 'Endless Summer' blooming

H. paniculata 'Limelight', 'Quickfire' loaded with long-lasting bloom.

Rosa Knockout family!

Broadleaf and Specimen Evergreens
A good selection of Boxwood, dwarf conifers,  Japanese Holly and Inkberry. Need a specimen Pine on a standard? Take a look at our 'Tanyosho' Pine! 

Houses and houses of blooming perennials

Perennials 

Stop by either yard and see a riot of color and texture - design your own perennial border a la Monet's Garden!

Tropicals

50% off all Tropicals! (does not including Cannas)