Attract butterflies and hummingbirds with Columbine!

With beautiful bell-shaped flowers, Columbine is an excellent garden perennial with many colorful hybrid varieties to choose from. Its distinctive, bell-shaped, spurred flowers, bloom from mid-spring to early summer. Columbine self-seeds prolifically giving you many volunteer seedlings. With a wide choice of hybrid varieties, colors range from light pastels to bright yellow, red, orange and purple selections. The plant’s foliage has an attractive lacy appearance. Intricate little flowers, they are most commonly a combination of red, peach, and yellow but …

branches with pruning shears

Pruning Shrubs in the Dormant Season

Most people think of landscape maintenance as exclusively a warm-weather activity. It’s an understandable assumption as it’s easy to see what needs to be done when you are outdoors, enjoying the beauty of your landscape. However, when cooler temperatures bring you indoors, out of sight should not mean out of mind when it comes to your shrubs because the best time to prune many of them is actually in the dormant season, when plants are not growing.     Why? …

Plants that attract Hummingbirds

While Hummingbirds are attracted to red, they will feed from any color flower that has nectar. Annuals and perennials, vines, shrubs, trees, bedding plants and hanging plants: you can choose from all these categories in selecting flowers for attracting hummingbirds. Since there is such a dizzying array of plants that will help you achieve your goal, here is a list of the flowers, shrubs and vines that are commonly used to attract hummers. Flowers Bee Balm Digitalis Cardinal Flower Delphinium …

Tax time and hummingbirds go together!

In Michigan, April 15th is not only tax day but it is also the time to put out our hummingbird feeders. Although the hummingbirds we see in April will probably continue on their way up north, putting out feeders will help feed them on their way.  The hummingbirds that choose to nest in our area usually arrive around Mother’s Day. Being ready for these flying jewels is essential to keeping them coming back. Since there are not a lot of flowers …

Amaryllis

Amaryllis make an unforgettable Christmas gift or an amazing decoration for your home. Following are a few basic steps that will reward you with a fantastic show. Choose a pot approximately 2 inches larger in diameter than the bulb and several inches deep. The bulb relies on adequate water and nutrients, so soil mix is important.  We recommend an airy soil mix like our Wenke Blend. This will allow appropriate water drainage. Place your bulb in the soil with the …