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Cornus kousa “Champions Gold” Dogwood

ShaneCultra — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:03:27 +0000

This is a pretty hard to find dogwood but we were lucky enough at the nursery to get a few of these this year. We took these photos last fall and you can really see the beauty of this variety. Inner leaf pink with the striking white leaf background. Cornus kousa “Champions Gold” is one of those special dogwoods that if you can find one you should certainly think about adding to your landscape.

Now This is a Potting Shed Or Maybe Just a Pot Shed

ShaneCultra — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:01:34 +0000

Was over at a friends house and stumbled on a little area off the back of her barn. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Can’t imagine how many years it took to collect all these pots.

Striptease Hosta Sports: My Favorite Hostas

ShaneCultra — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 03:16:23 +0000

Striptease is by far my favorite hosta of all the hosta varieties. It’s not as much Striptease itself but the sports and varieties that have come off of Striptease that make it so special. What makes the Striptease sports different is their ability to grow in full sun. Yes full sun. They need a little more water than normal if they’re grown in full sun the coloring is that much more pronounced and the cream turns a bright white. Below you can see how white Gypsy Rose will get if grown in full sun. If you are thinking of growing hosta in full sun you need to look for white leaved hostas. The more white in the leaf, the more sun it can take without burning.

Another great sport is pictured below. This is ‘Hanky Panky’ and it grows like a weed. The leaves are pretty variable but have an incredible blend of lime green, dark green, cream, and white. This photo shows a little sun burn and the transition between green to white edges.

Here is a complete list of all the Striptease sports available I’ve found so far. I have over 20 of them and working my way down the list.

‘Alan Titchmarsh’
‘Blue Striptease’
‘Blue without You’
‘Gamma Ray’
‘Glen Ray’
‘Gypsy Rose’
‘Hanky Panky’
‘Harlot’
‘Jelloway’
‘Juha’
‘Kiwi Dotterel’
‘Kiwi Full Monty’
‘Kiwi Tease’
‘Lady Godiva’
‘Lapdance’
‘Let Me Entertain You’
‘Mata Hari’
‘Math Man’
‘Mithril’
‘Naked Lady’
‘My Passion’
‘Outer Limits’
‘Patricia the Stripper’
‘Peepshow’
‘Pole Cat’
‘Risky Business’
‘Rusty’s Fine Line’
‘Silver Eagle’
‘Snake Eyes’
‘Sneak Peak’
‘Strip Poker’
‘Strip Search’ s’Alan Titchmarsh’
‘Blue Striptease’
‘Blue without You’
‘Gamma Ray’
‘Glen Ray’
‘Gypsy Rose’
‘Hanky Panky’
‘Harlot’
‘Jelloway’
‘Juha’
‘Kiwi Dotterel’
‘Kiwi Full Monty’
‘Kiwi Tease’
‘Lady Godiva’
‘Lapdance’
‘Mata Hari’
‘Math Man’
‘Mithril’
‘My Passion’
‘Outer Limits’
‘Patricia the Stripper’
‘Peepshow’
‘Pole Cat’
‘Risky Business’
‘Rusty’s Fine Line’
‘Silver Eagle’
‘Snake Eyes’
‘Sneak Peak’
‘Strip Poker’
‘Strip Search’
‘Stripped Naked’
‘Stripper’
‘T-Dawg’
‘Tassels’
‘White Bikini’
‘White Line Fever’
‘Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’
‘Stripped Naked’
‘Stripper’
‘T-Dawg’
‘Tassels’
‘White Bikini’
‘White Line Fever’
‘Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’

Echinacea Pow Wow Wild Berry: An Exciting New Introduction in Coneflowers.

ShaneCultra — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:52:09 +0000

ECHINACEA purpurea PowWow Wild Berry is a new seed variety of Coneflower that is a 2010 AAS Flower Award winner. It’s a variety released by breeder Jian Ping Ren, Phd a PanAmerican breeder. According to Ren, “As we were evaluating a large field of Echinacea, a vibrant color immediately caught our attention, and all plans to breed a ‘standard purple’ coneflower flew out the greenhouse windows. The color of PowWow Wild Berry was so strong that we chose to focus our complete attention on it. In addition to the amazing color we concentrated breeding efforts on PowWow’s shorter, bushy and very well-branched habit and free-flowering nature. We’re thrilled with PowWow Wild Berry, and are happy this All-America Selections award-winner has been well-received.”

Wild Berry is a compact form that appears to have more blooms in year one and two than previous seeded varieties of coneflower. You should start to see this in finished one gallons (or similar sizes) throughout the United States and Europe in 2011. Pow Wow is a series that will also be available in white.

Height: 16-20 inches

Width: 20-22 inches

Bloom Color: Pink to Light Pink

Bloom Size: 3-4 inches

Zone: 3-9

Light: Part Sun to Sun

Flower Time: Mid to Late June until September

Venus Fly Trap: How To Take Care and Feed One of the World’s Coolest Plants

ShaneCultra — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 02:25:15 +0000

The Venus Fly Trap is a plant that every kid in the world wants to own. A plant that is “alive” and eats things that lands in it’s mouth. What kid doesn’t like to feed his plant meat? As fun as the Venus Fly Trap is, there are some tricks and tips to keeping it alive and healthy.

Growing Venus Fly Traps

The Venus Fly Trap is used to growing in a bog with soils of little nutritional value and thus feeds itself through the traps. This also mean don’t pamper it. It doesn’t need fertilizer and special care that other plants desire
It needs a humidity level of 50% or more. Plants are often sold in plastic boxes to help trap humidity. If it doesn’t a plastic bag over the pot will serve the same purpose
You can also creative humidity by placing a pan of water underneath the plant but make sure to keep the plant out of the dish as you don’t want the plant to soak up the water
A terrarium can be built out of plastic pop bottle for one plant or an old fish tank if you have many plants
A Venus Fly Plant needs a lot of indirect light. At least 10-15 hours. A south side window or a florescent light will do the trick. The plant does not like direct sun or really hot conditions so make sure to keep everything indirect.
Don’t water your plant using water out of the faucet. Only use rainwater or chlorine free water

Feeding Venus Fly Traps

Despite your want and desire, don’t feed your plant more than once or twice a month. It will be perfectly happy on this amount of food
If you really have to watch it eat then limit your feeding to once a week or even once every ten days
Never feed your plants hamburger or other protein based meats.
Springing the traps with your fingers or a pointed device zaps the energy from the plant that could possibly weaken the plant and even kill it.
Live insects is a the preferred food of your plant but a dead bug can be fed if it didn’t die from bug spray.
Catching a live insect and cutting it into small pieces is an easy way to feed your plant
Crickets and grasshopppers will feed on your plant so make sure the feeding is one way

Don’t Worry When Your Plant Goes Dormant

Black leaves are a sign of stress, often too humid. Make sure to trim them off
Your plant will go dormant for 3 months, usually during the winter, and will lose all it’s leaves. Leave it alone during this period. Keep it cool (50 degrees or so) and on the drier side
When your plant is active keep it constantly moist and much warmer 70-90 degrees.

There you go. The secrets to your success with a Venus Fly Trap. Drop us a line if you have troubles growing one. Maybe we can help.

Here’s a little video on What NOT to feed your plant.

Pole Apple Trees: Columnar is the New Trend in Fruits

ShaneCultra — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:55:23 +0000

Growing your own fruits and vegetables has become a hot trend over the last few years but homeowners that planted their fruit trees are learning a hard lesson. Even dwarf varieties can get to be a pretty big plant. That problem has been solved. Introducing what is going to be the hot new plants over the next decade. Pole apples. All the fruit of a broad apple tree but it grows straight up. As a bonus, the first few years as the tree is developing you’ll still get a few apples but they’ll be some of the largest apples you’ve ever seen.

Some of the apple varietes coming on the market are

Colonade Golden Sentinel- A yellow variety with a delicious taste

Colonade North Pole – A red type similar to Red Delicious

Colonade Scarlet Sentinel- Another Red Variety

These pole apples can be grown in containers as well but don’t expect more than 15-20 apples per year if grown in a container. We’ll give you more photos and info as we grow more of these apples this year. Greenleaf Nursery and Stark Brothers are introducing new varieties in the coming year so we’ll make sure to keep you posted on all the new varietes.

Gold Japanese Maple: ACER palmatum ‘Shidawa Gold’

ShaneCultra — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 04:25:35 +0000

Acer palmatum ‘Shidawa Gold’ is a witches broom at Raraflora Nursery in Australia that originated off Aoyagi. The leaves are very similar in color and shape but Shidawa Gold only gets to approximately 6 feet in height. Grown for it’s pea green winter bark and spectacular yellow fall color, this selection is a rare treasure. Makes an excellent japanese maple bonsai. There have been some issues with leaves burning in direct sunlight but this often can be the case with any japanese maple, especially light green leaved varieties. Picture is taken during October and shows the brilliant fall color.

Height: 6 feet

Width: 5 feet

Spring Leaf Color: Lime Green

Fall Leaf Color: Yellow

Zone: 6 to 9

An Evergreen With Gorgeous Fall Color: PINUS (Pine) contorta ‘Chief Joseph’

ShaneCultra — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:47:32 +0000

If you’re looking for spectacular fall color then you need to check out this new variety of limber pine called ‘Chief Joseph’. During the spring and summer this Pinus contorta doesn’t appear much different than other limber pines, a light green to green needle cast and soft look. As the temperatures cool the true beauty of this plant comes to the surface. It becomes a conifer that will be the center of your winter garden. The bright glowing yellow color lasts all winter long until it reverts back to the spring color. We spotted this beauty immediately as we exited the car at a nursery in Oregon. It’s been a tough find at the local garden centers but we’ll do our best to edit this post with places that have it for sale.

Type: Dwarf
Common Name: LodgePole Pine, Limber Pine
Height: 6 feet
Width: 3 feet
Zone: 5 to 9

Growth Rate: 2 to 4 inches a year with slowing growth rate after 10 years

Perennial Of The Year 2011: Amsonia hubrictii

ShaneCultra — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:01:12 +0000

Amsonia hubrictii has always been a favorite of perennial gardeners across the midwest and southeast. This year it might be a little harder to find than usual because the Perennial Plant Association has chosen it as the Perennial of the Year for 2011. With the honor usually comes hot sales. Last year we noticed a shortage of the plant due to the increased use in mass planting in commercial and government plantings.

Amsonia is a great plant for several. One, it’s very easy to grow and tolerant of harsh conditions. Two, the flowers are attractive and abundant. Third, the foliage is airy and has nice appeal even without flowers. A finally, it has a fantastic bright yellow fall color that draws your eye from long distances. Our advice is if you want to add this plant to your garden this year then you will want to pick up this plant at your local garden centers early.

Height: 3 feet

Width 2-3 feet

Bloom Color: Light Blue

Zone: 5-9

Light: Part Sun to Sun

Deer Resistant

Like Black Petunias? Ball Horticulture Thinks You Do. Introducting Black Velvet, PinStripe, and Phantom

ShaneCultra — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:00:26 +0000

The hot new petunia this year at all the trials were the new petunias from Ball Seed. We had the privilege of growing all three of these in trials and we weren’t disappointed. We went to the OFA tradeshow at Ohio State and the feelings were mutual.

The color in the all black variety “Black Velvet” was rich, dark, and consistent. Phantom’s great contrast of yellow to black made a visual impact from 10 feet away. Finally, Pin Stripe, although not consistent in every flower had an interesting look to it. Some of the middles had a light purple, almost pinkish center and others had a slice of yellow. I will say that although they showed some vigor, we didn’t think it was nearly as vigorous as a normal wave petunia. It did much better in pots than it did in the ground. Some of the other trials we saw in the ground exhibited the same growth rates. The worst growth rate was at the Conservatory at Ohio State were they didn’t give any extra water to the plants. They looked as if they were planted yesterday even though they had been in the ground months.

Our suggestion is to try these new petunias. The make excellent container plants and mix well with pure white petunias and other contrasting light colored flowers. Look for them at all your local garden centers in 2011