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>> Horticulturist at Monches
Farm in Colgate, Wisconsin.
And how many of you have been to
Monches Farm?
Very nice.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
For those of you who haven't,
we're about an hour drive from
here, about 30 miles northwest
of downtown Milwaukee.
We've been growing perennials
for 33 years now.
We grow about 2,000 varieties of
hardy field-grown perennials as
well as unusual annuals and
tropicals.
We also have a gift shop with
antiques, and we do custom dried
floral design and that sort of
thing.
We're on a rustic designated
Wisconsin Rustic Road.
It's really a beautiful drive
out there.
So I'd love to have you come
visit us sometime.
We present our plants in kind of
a unique way in that we plant,
we pot up the plants, we sink
the pot in the ground, and they
stay in the ground there until
they go home with a gardener.
So our plants are all out there
in the sales yard now.
We do cover them with straw for
the winter months.
As soon as things thaw in the
spring, we'll be raking the
straw off, and you will know
that plant has already been
through a Wisconsin winter when
you take it home to your garden.
So what we're going to be
talking about today is common
mistakes beginning perennial
gardeners make and how to avoid
them.
And I hate to start with soil
because I know that for so many
people soil is just a snoozer,
and you kind of lose people
right from the get-go.
But it is absolutely the
foundation of developing a good
perennial garden.
And it's one of the few mistakes
that you can't easily go back
and correct after the fact.
So in planning you garden, it
really makes sense to get the
soil prepared correctly because
you're going to have such a more
satisfactory experience.
No matter how wonderful the
plants are that you put into
your garden, if you don't have
good soil, you're not going to
have success and it's not going
to be a good experience for you.
So, how do you go about figuring
out how to amend the soil?
First you want to know what your
existing soil is.
And the soil is determined by
the underlying bedrock.
And the fact that we have had
glaciation in southern Wisconsin
really makes that kind of a
complicated situation.
I live in West Bend, and on the
south side of town the soil is
very clay and loam and on the
north side of town it's very
sandy.
So don't assume that your soil
is the same as your friend or
your neighbor just because they
live in you proximity.
It really, soil types can vary
greatly within a very small
locality because of the
glaciation.
The basic types of soil that
you'll find in this area are
sandy soil, which these things
are sort of obvious, but the
soil particles are very large so
the roots can grow very readily
through them.
Plants actually love to grow in
sand and grow very well in sand.
The problem is that nutrients
and moisture passes very readily
through sandy soil.
So you need to constantly be
supplementing those if you're
growing in a real sandy soil.
On the opposite extreme, you
have the clay soil, which has
very small soil particles, tends
to hold water, and tends to
become very waterlogged.
It's also very difficult for
roots to penetrate, particularly
when it dries.
It can become almost like
concrete.
But it is a more nutrient rich
soil than the sandy soil.
And the way that you would take
either of these extremes and
make them into the ideal garden
soil, which is loam, would be by
adding organic matter.
Either to clay soil or to sandy
soil, the addition of organic
matter is going to give you your
desirable end soil, which is
loam.
Some people think if you take a
clay soil and you add sand that
makes it drain more readily.
In fact, it doesn't.
It actually worsens the
situation.
So if you are going to bring in
new soil, and this is what we
often do with our beds.
I don't know if I have a pointer
on here or not.
I don't think I do.
But we prepare the garden bed,
and then we actually bring in
and berm up with introduced
soil.
And if you're purchasing soil,
you want to make sure you don't
buy just what is often called
brown topsoil or black topsoil
because a lot of times you're
going to just be buying in what
you already have as your native
soil.
So you really want to buy in a
blended mix.
And if you are working with a
reputable dealer and you tell
them what you're after, they can
help you pick out what that mix
is.
It's going to vary depending
upon who the distributor is.
But, basically, you want soil
that's actually mixed with some
sort of organic matter, some
sort of compost.
We sometimes actually start with
a plant starter mix, which is
usually used for nurseries, to
establish our beds.
And if you are going to be
adding to your existing soil,
you want to bring in organic
matter.
And we have found that the
absolute best compost we can
purchase is what's called
mushroom compost.
And in the Milwaukee area, we
get it from a place called
Certified Products in New
Berlin, but I'm sure it's
available other places also.
It is just phenomenal stuff.
If you mix your organic matter
with your native soil about
one-third to two-thirds, you
till that in, you just get
amazing performance from your
plants.
If you want to know what you
have in terms of nutrient
content and that sort of thing
in your existing soil, the best
thing to do is to take a soil
sample.
And because the soil can really
vary even within your own piece
of property, you usually are
going to want to take a number
of soil samples from throughout
your property and submit them to
the UW Soil Testing Lab.
I didn't print out handouts for
today, but all this information,
you don't have to write down
these websites and stuff because
all this information is
available on our website,
MonchesFarm.com.
If you go to the latest news
page, there's a link to a three-
or four-page handout that has
all this information on it that
you can print out.
So if you send your soil into
the UW Soil Testing Lab, they're
going to tell you what the
nutrient content is, what the pH
is, and what they would
recommend in terms of additions.
And there are many, many soil
nutrients, but the three that
are considered the primary
nutrients because they are most
used by plants and they move
most readily through the soil
and therefore are the ones that
you most frequently have to
supplement are nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium.
And when you see a fertilizer
bag and it has the three
numbers, 10, 10, 10 or 10, 25,
or whatever, those are what the
three numbers are.
The first number is nitrogen,
the second number is phosphorus,
and the last number is
potassium.
The nitrogen tends to push a lot
of leafy growth.
So that's why lawn fertilizers
will have a high first number.
If you're emphasis is on growing
fruit or on trying to produce
blossoms, usually you're looking
for a higher middle number
because the phosphorus is what
affects that type of growth.
Although, our native soils in
Wisconsin do tend to naturally
be quite high in phosphorus.
And the potassium just sort of
is for overall plant health.
Soil pH is another
consideration.
This, just like the soil type,
is determined by the underlying
bedrock.
So again, in southern Wisconsin
where we have limestone, our
soils tend to be very alkaline.
You get a little bit more
acidity in the northern part of
the state.
And this affects the type of
plants you grow.
Plants that like to grow in a
more acidic soil, just a couple
examples here, rhododendron and
blueberries, are unable to pick
up the nutrients they need out
of a more alkaline soil.
So they do not tend to thrive.
And that's why these plants
you'll struggle to succeed with.
Another thing, and many people
have some awareness of this but
maybe a little bit of
misunderstanding of the plants
that are influenced, sometimes
the flower color can be
influenced by soil pH.
In very, very few plants the big
leaf hydrangeas or the Hydrangea
macrophylla, which are the ones
that can produce the blue flower
heads, those ones will change
color depending upon the soil
acidity.
They'll be blue in acid soil;
they'll be pink in alkaline
soil.
And that's why oftentimes if you
buy one of these at the nursery
and it's blue when you get it,
it may be pink in future years,
if it blooms at all, quite
frankly, because many of them
don't tend to be bud hardy here.
But that does not apply to the
other two species of hydrangea
that you frequently see.
The snowball type, Hydrangea
arborescens and the Hydrangea
paniculata, which is the fall
blooming one.
Those two, they're going to be
white, fading to green or rose
color regardless of the soil
acidity.
But a lot of people want to try
to grow blueberries or they want
to try to get that blue
hydrangea color, and you can
supplement the soils with
aluminum sulfate to make them
more acidic.
But I really think probably the
best approach is to grow plants
that are better adapted the
growing in the soil that you
actually have.
You're almost fighting a losing
battle to try to be constantly
changing the soil pH around that
plant.
It can be done, but it's sort of
a short-term fix.
So moving on from soils, putting
a garden or a plant in the wrong
place.
So the solution to this,
obviously, you want to evaluate
your site and you want to
research your plant selection.
Your site considerations would
be number one, which we already
talked about.
The soil type, the pH, and the
nutrient content.
The sun exposure, the moisture
levels, and then what I'm
calling special considerations.
So, sun exposure, a lot of
people say I don't have full sun
in that spot, thinking that full
sun means that there is not one
bit of shade, it's blasting sun
all day.
Full sun for a plant really
means five or more hours of sun
a day.
So you have a lot more
versatility than I think a lot
of people think and think
they're restricted to shade
plants if they don't have that
really truly full sun all day.
If you have five or more hours,
that is full sun as far as the
plant is concerned.
And three to five hours, partial
shade, two to three hours,
shade, and zero to two hours is
dense shade.
And you really also want to
consider the source of the
shade.
If you're underneath a tree,
depending upon the density of
the canopy cover, underneath a
locust tree, there may be
dappled light throughout the day
down there.
Underneath a maple tree, it's
quite dense, but the worst shade
to try to deal with is that
that's cast by structures or by
buildings.
So on the north side of the
house, there may literally be no
sun that ever hits that spot,
and that certainly becomes a
challenge in plant selection.
Moisture levels, drainage
issues, and access to water.
There may be an area, certainly
this has to do with your soil
type also, but if there's an
area that floods in the spring,
you're going to want to have
plants that can tolerate that,
being submerged for some period
of time.
If there's an area that's very
dry, a slope that drains really
quickly.
But lastly, and I think some
people don't think about this,
access to water.
How readily can you get your
hose to that spot?
It's a lot easier to water
plants that are right in your
foundation planting, but if
you're going to put your
perennial garden way at the back
of your property, you're going
to have to put three lengths of
hose on in order to get to it,
you're probably not going to
water it as frequently as you
really need to.
So think about access to water
also.
And special considerations could
be many, many things, but some
of the most prominent that I run
into, number one, high winds.
We do tend to get a lot of high
winds running across what used
to be the prairie here in
southern Wisconsin.
So plants that have sort of
tender stems that might not
withstand those winds, you want
to have sturdy stem perennials
for a windy site or possibly
some sort of screening.
Areas where kids or dogs are
running.
If there's going to be a lot of
foot traffic, you definitely are
going to want to pick plants
that can take a little bit of
abuse.
And salt runoff, if it's next to
a walkway or a driveway and
you're going to have salt
running off, you really want to
consider, number one, there are
products that you can use,
different alternatives for
deicing besides salt.
But if you are going to be using
salt, you may want to select
plants for those areas that have
higher salt tolerance.
And we do have a number of
special use lists on our
website, again MonchesFarm.com.
It's a this and that page, and I
did put a link to that page on
our latest news section also.
If you want to access some of
these lists, these are lists of
plants that are salt tolerant,
plants that are drought
tolerant, plants that will grow
in a wet site, perennials.
Another common mistake is
planting invasive plants.
How many of you know what the
plant is that's in that picture?
Well, this is what's called
Lysimachia clethroides or
gooseneck loosestrife.
Now, we all know of the pink
loosestrife as an invasive
plant, actually illegal to grow
in this state.
That's Lycknis salicaria.
It's actually a completely
unrelated plant, but they just
happen to have the same common
name, and we're going to talk
about botanical nomenclature
later also.
But this is a beautiful plant.
It has that kind of gooseneck
shaped flower.
It's really very pretty lovely
cut flower.
And when I was first introduced
to this plant, I was told, oh,
it's so great because it weaves
the garden together.
Well, indeed it does.
[LAUGHTER]
And I think a lot of times
people, when they start out
gardening, they're really drawn
to some of these plants that
tend to be invasive.
And I think there's a couple
reasons for that.
Number one, a lot of times
beginning gardeners start out by
obtaining their plants at plant
exchanges.
And there's a lot of nice plants
at plant exchanges, but you
really need to be knowledgeable
about what you're acquiring
there because a lot of times the
reason the plant is at the plant
exchange is because that person
had a whole bunch of it in their
yard.
And so a lot of times there's
some not really great plants at
those plant exchanges.
Plus, when you come into the
nursery and the plant that most
appeals to you is the one that
just looks so gorgeous and big
and full and healthy in the pot,
well, again, those oftentimes
are the plants that are very
aggressive.
And these are kind of the catch
words you'll want to look for in
signage or in catalogs are
vigorous, enthusiastic, or
eager.
You might want to steer away
from those plants.
[LAUGHTER]
And this plant that we're seeing
here in the pot, this is taken
at Monches Farm.
This is a plant that we sell.
It is actually a plant that I
really like.
It's called a mountain mint,
Pycnanthemum.
It's actually a native prairie
plant.
But you see what it's doing.
It's trying to leap out of the
pot, and you can see that's how
it's going to grow.
Many members of the mint family
do grow this way.
So it's a fine plant, but you
need to have an awareness going
in of what the behavior of that
plant is going to be and do you
want that in that site.
There are two kinds of plants
that can be invasive.
One are plants that run from the
roots like this, and the other
are plants that seed.
And I actually find the plants
that seed a little easier to
deal with because if you get in
there and you dead-head them,
you don't have so much of that
issue.
Plus, you can pull out the
seedlings.
These ones that run can really
be terrible because they get
into your other perennials and
they're coming up 20 feet away
and I have a little more of a
problem with those.
But just as with the plant
exchanges, be a little bit
cautious about generous
neighbors who are sharing things
with you because oftentimes it's
the plants that they have way
too much of.
And when you go to the nursery,
try to shop at nurseries that
have knowledgeable staff that
can help you with your plant
selection.
And there's lots of wonderful
nurseries represented here at
the Garden Expo so it's a great
starting point.
Another mistake: buying all of
your plants at once and not
remembering about the change of
seasons.
And I see this a lot.
People come in, they decide
they're going to put in a
perennial garden so they come in
in May, and they buy all the
really pretty plants in May.
Well, what are you going to
pick?
You're going to pick all the
plants that are blooming in May.
So you're going to have a really
nice garden in May, you might
have a nice garden going into
June, but there's absolutely
nothing going on in July,
August, September, October.
Most perennials, in exchange for
them living year to year, bloom
for two to three weeks.
Some of them will bloom as long
as six weeks.
Those are the really long
blooming ones.
So you really have to make sure
you're selecting plants that are
going to be blooming over the
course of the entire season.
And here's just looking at the
same garden in different seasons
to see how things change over
the course of the season.
You want something going on
throughout the season.
So, how do you get away from
that mistake?
Number one, give yourself a few
years to build your garden.
You don't have to plant it all
that first year.
That way you can experiment with
plants.
You can buy one or two of this.
And ideally they say, well, you
want to have sweeps of plants.
You want to have three or five.
That's fine and ultimately
that's true, but I think when
you're really starting out it's
not a bad idea to buy one of
these, one of these.
Put them in, see how they grow
in your area, see how you like
them, and see how they thrive
and if you want to add to them.
So do give yourself a number of
years.
Allow yourself to fill in the
empty spaces with annuals those
first years.
Sometimes people, and I'm going
to talk about this too, they're
very purist.
No, we only want perennials; we
don't want any annuals.
Well, some annuals really are
very flamboyant, and they
necessarily partner better with
some of the more subtle beauty
of perennials.
But there are a lot of really
nice more sort of understated
annuals that will combine nicely
with your perennial garden.
So think about filling in your
spaces those first few years
with those annuals.
Shop throughout the year.
So go to the nursery in May, but
go again in June.
Go again in July.
Go once a month, once every six
weeks, and buy a couple of
plants that are blooming during
each visit so that you know
you're going to have something
blooming every month of the year
in your garden.
This will only work if you go to
a nursery that's actually, like
Monches or any other higher
quality perennial nursery, where
they're actually kind of growing
the plants in situ and you're
being able to see how they
behave.
If you go to the Kmart, you
don't know.
They brought that stuff in.
You don't know if it's actually
blooming on its regular
schedule, etc.
And, excellent, go to garden
tours and botanic gardens.
Botanic gardens are great
because they have a lot of
signage with a lot of
information.
But garden tours are possibly
the best because you're, at a
botanic gardens they have paid
staff that are out there taking
care of the plants.
They're obviously going to look
their best.
When you go to another home
gardener on a garden tour,
you're seeing what's actually
growing in a home gardener's
backyard in your area, and
what's looking good.
You can talk to the person about
their experience.
Garden tours are really
fantastic.
And we do publish a list every
summer of garden tours in the
Milwaukee area on our website.
And include bulbs.
Bulbs are a great way to extend
the season to the extremes in
both directions.
Starting as early as March with
things like the snowdrops.
And this is called glory of the
snow.
This also oftentimes comes right
up through the snow in March and
April.
A couple of scenes we're going
to look at here where you think
what would you be looking at in
that garden if those bulbs
weren't there.
And the answer is nothing.
It would just be brown earth.
So here are the winter aconites
and the Puschkinia.
This is probably early April.
And this whole area that you see
there, that's all Corydalis
bulbosa.
It's a bulbous type of
Corydalis.
Many of you may be familiar with
the yellow blooming one.
This one has a lavender flower.
Most of these bulbs then go very
quickly dormant.
So they're completely gone by
the time your perennials come
up.
So they just give you a whole
other season of color.
Another advantage to these
really early season bulbs is
that this area, the leaves
aren't out on the trees yet.
So this area will be a shaded
area during the growing season,
but it's sun in the spring.
So you can get a lot of color
very, very early in the season
in what you might think of as
your shade garden where you're
not thinking you can get a lot
of color because it's sun at the
time of year when these plants
are actively growing.
And again, just think of that
scene if you didn't have that
bulb there.
It would just be brown earth.
Crocuses, of course, we're all
familiar with.
Now, going to the other end of
the season.
This is surprise lily.
It has a number of interesting
common names.
Surprise lily, resurrection
lily, naked ladies.
What it does is it comes up in
the spring with green strap-like
foliage, which many people don't
even notice.
They don't even know the plant
has leaves because it's at a
time there's a lot of other
things going on in the garden.
And then in the fall, late
summer, early fall, it has these
tall stems that come up with
these amaryllis type flowers.
And just as with the early
season bulbs, this will grow in
quite a bit of shade.
And it's just really a fun
plant.
And it's nice to have, sometimes
the gardens are starting to look
a little tired as you get later
in the season.
It's nice to have something
fresh and new coming up that
late in the season.
This would be August into
September.
And it partners, because it will
grow in the shade, it partners
real well with hostas, and if
you interplant it with hostas,
it will come up through the
hosta foliage, and we do have a
beautiful big hosta at the farm
with one of these planted
underneath it.
And people are always asking us
in the autumn what that variety
of hosta is.
[LAUGHTER]
And another one that's really,
really late, this is well into
October, is the Colchicum.
It's often called autumn crocus,
but it's not in fact a true
crocus.
Again, it comes up with the
green leaves in the spring, and
then those die down.
There's nothing there in the
summer so you might want to mark
this and make sure you're not
putting your spade through it.
But this plant just has these
beautiful, and they're large.
The flowers are about this big.
So they look like a crocus, but
they're quite large.
And they're really spectacular
at that time of year when
everything else is kind of
slowing down and getting ready
to quit and this is coming up
fresh and new.
A couple years ago I had a gal
come in and she said, you know,
I'm really disappointed in you
guys.
I can't believe that you have
artificial flowers out in the
garden.
[LAUGHTER]
And this is a double blooming
form called waterlily.
A mistake: not checking the
hardiness zones.
The USDA plant hardiness zone.
Each plant is given a rating in
what zones it's hardy in.
Basically, we in this area are,
in Madison you're probably four
and in Milwaukee we're five.
So you want to know is that
plant hardy to that zone.
We write all of our own signage
at the farm, and we do try to
indicate the hardiness, but some
plants, and we grow most of our
plants, but some plants we do
buy because we can't get these
great, big tropical plants.
We can't grow those to maturity
in a financially realistic way
in our climate.
So we buy in a lot of these
tropicals from the west coast.
And they come in with tags in
the pot.
They're oftentimes a picture
tag, so we'll leave that tag in
there.
And the customers will read it
and it will say perennial on it
because it is perennial in
California where it was grown.
But if you look closely, those
tags will also, they always will
have the zone on them.
And it will say perennial zone
eight.
Well, then you know it's not
going to be perennial here.
But that's a really common
mistake people make, especially
when you're shopping at the big
box stores.
You see the tag, it says
perennial, and so you think it's
a perennial.
Well, it is, but it's not
perennial in Wisconsin in zone
four or five.
Mistake: weeding out perennial
plants and nurturing weeds.
With perennials it can be
challenging because they're not
blooming all the time like an
annual.
You do have to kind of learn
what they look like and know
that's a desirable plant.
That's another advantage of
building your garden a little
bit slowly rather than putting
everything in all at once.
If you take your time, you put a
little bit of this and a little
bit of that, you kind of get to
know those plants as you grow
with them.
But there are other ways you can
deal with this.
A really good solution is
labeling plants.
Labeling your perennials as you
put them in.
If you're planting a number of
them, label at least one so that
you know that plant that looks
like that is supposed to be
there.
And there's a number of ways to
label plants.
You can just put the little
plastic tag that came with them
in their pot in the ground next
to them.
That will work, certainly for
the first season.
But we really like these zinc
garden labels.
And there's a number of ways to
use them.
What I like best are these
little handheld label makers.
They're basically like a
miniature laser printer.
And if you get the clear label
with black on them and then they
have an adhesive on the back,
you'll get a label that looks
like this here.
It's a really professional
looking label, and many of them,
these can last up to a decade.
They really last forever.
If you have a laser printer at
home, you can print these on
your computer.
But most of us have inkjet
printers.
If you have an inkjet printer,
as soon as it gets wet that will
run off.
You can also write on these zinc
tags with any type of permanent
marker, whether it be a Sharpie
or a paint pen.
They have permanent pencils.
But no matter what you use to
write on them, they always fade
on the front.
So what we do if we're going to
have to write on them, we write
on the back too so that once
that front fades, you've still
got it written on the back, you
know what it is, you can rewrite
it on the front again.
And then you may want to know
what the five or six most
problematic weeds in your area
are.
I could have a whole talk on
Wisconsin weeds, but the only
one I'm going to specifically
talk about is the garlic
mustard.
The garlic mustard is a biennial
plant, meaning that the first,
it lives for two years, the
first year it puts up its
foliage, does not bloom.
The second year it comes up,
then it blooms, sets seed, and
the cycle starts over again.
It's a very, very problematic
plant in Wisconsin and
throughout the Midwest.
It's completely wiping out some
of our native woodland
vegetation areas.
So if you have it on your
property, you do need to make an
effort to get rid of it.
When it's in the vegetative
state the first year, you can
apply herbicide to it.
Although it does require
frequent applications.
A single application won't kill
it.
Or you can pull it.
When it's in the blooming year,
when it's in the second year,
you need to pull it and you
can't, even if you pull it real
early before the flowers have
all set, it's very adaptable.
That's usually how weeds become
weeds.
They're very adaptable.
It can set seed, if you pull
that plant and through it aside
to dry, it looks like it's dead,
it still can set viable seed.
So you need to bag and remove
these plants.
Either burn them or bag them and
get them off the property.
The garbage men will take them.
You do need to label them
invasive plant material, and
they'll take your black bags of
these.
So don't pull it and throw it on
the ground the way you can with
most weeds.
It was introduced intentionally,
as many weeds and exotic animals
that become problematic are,
because it's an herb.
It has a garlic flavor to it.
You can eat it.
It's actually quite tasty.
So if you want to harvest it in
its first year stage when the
leaves are young, just as you
would want to harvest most
edible plants, in an area on
your property that you know has
not been sprayed with
herbicides, you can make a great
pesto out of it.
And we have a recipe on our
website, again on the
This and That page.
Then if you want to have an idea
what some of the other really
common weeds are, there's lots
of great websites out there.
I just did a quick search and
this is one that I found that I
thought was very well done for
identifying weeds.
It's the National Gardening
Association.
Again, all this information is
on the handout.
>> Which handout?
>> The handout that you can find
on our website.
And mistake: not considering
native wildlife.
We have, I imagine you have it
here, certainly in the Milwaukee
area, a tremendous problem with
deer.
And rabbits vary from year to
year.
Their population really is very
cyclic.
Down in the bottom is some
tulips.
We don't do tulips at all
anymore because they're such a
good plant.
They're really, really tasty.
And we've even had customers
that have had their dogs dig up
their tulip bulbs and eat them
because they really are good.
[LAUGHTER]
The solution is planting deer
and rabbit resistant plants.
And you'll find a list, again on
our website, on the this and
that page, but as a basic rule
of thumb, the plants that the
deer and rabbits don't like to
eat are plants with silver
foliage, plants that are very
highly scented, so most herbs or
members of the mint family they
will not like to eat.
As a general rule, they don't
eat Allium, the ornamental
onions, although we have had
years when they have done that,
and plants that are toxic.
And those are the ones you
probably wouldn't know off the
top of your head so it's handy
to have a list of those things
like the Digitalis or foxglove,
the Helleborus, the lenten rose,
the Aconitum are plants that are
actually toxic, and the animals
know that and they don't eat
them.
If there are certain plants you
love and you want to grow
despite the fact that you know
that deer like to eat them, then
you might want to consider
spraying repellents.
Most repellents that are on the
market are effective, but they
have to be reapplied frequently.
Most of them tend to be rather
on the expensive side, and the
active ingredient, if you will,
in most of them is egg.
So you can actually make a very
effective deer repellent
yourself for free.
And this recipe, again, is on
the handout.
But it's just eggs, milk, oil,
and used hot chili oil just as
that extra taste deterrent, and
dishwashing liquid which makes
it stick to the foliage.
You have to let that ferment.
What I do is I save the empty
milk carton with just that
little bit of milk in the
bottom, add the rest of the
ingredients, and just fill it up
with water, set it some place to
become fragrant for a week or
so, and then I screen it through
a little sieve and then I put a
nylon stocking or something on
the sieve and pour that into my
sprayer so you don't get any
lumps that are going to clog up
your sprayer.
It smells really terrible, but
that's the idea.
And it's very effective, and it
usually lasts a couple of weeks.
It does last through rain.
Deer are deterred mostly by
scent, rabbits more by taste.
So it's the hot pepper element
that is effective for the
rabbits.
So if it's rabbits you're trying
to get rid of or trying to
discourage, then you want to
make sure and include that hot
pepper element.
Mistake: being too much of a
purist.
I kind of touched on this before
with I only want to do
perennials, I don't want to have
any annuals.
A lot of times people will come
in starting out, they only want
pastel flowers.
That's very, very common with
beginner gardeners.
They don't want any yellow, any
orange.
And a lot of the longest
blooming plants, actually a lot
of the longest blooming
perennials do have yellow
flowers.
And when I start, I was a huge
daylily collector for many, many
years.
And at one point I had about
400 varieties of daylilies in my
garden, and I wanted all the
pastels.
That's what I wanted.
I wanted cream and pink and
lemon, and somebody gave me as a
gift an orange daylily.
And I thought, oh, but I put it
in my garden and I found I kept
looking at that place where that
orange daylily was.
That's where my eye was drawn.
And then I shifted, and now I
have a lot of those really
vibrant colors because they
really add a lot of zing to the
garden.
If you just have a garden that's
all pastels, it's not exciting.
It's not fun.
And also, all white.
So many have all white.
They can't have anything that's
not white.
So be creative.
Let yourself experiment and try
some other things.
Don't lock yourself in to what
your original idea may have
been.
Mistake: needing to have the
latest new thing and believing
everything you read.
[LAUGHTER]
Horticulture, marketing of
horticultural plants has changed
dramatically over the last
10 or 15 years.
And now there's many, many
plants on the market now that
are patented so that every
purchase of that plant the
originator gets a portion of the
proceeds.
So there's incentive for
constantly introducing new
plants and patenting them and
marketing them.
And what happens as a result is
that a lot of the really great
old time plants get crowded out
of the market because people are
clamoring for the plants that
are seen advertised all the
time.
And there's multimillion dollar
advertising campaigns for some
of these plants now.
So have an awareness of that,
and do realize too that they
think the gardener wants
something new so they're going
to try to be constantly
introducing something new.
And many of these plants are not
necessarily better.
And a lot of times there will be
a lot of noise made about a new
plant that comes on the market,
and they tend to be very
expensive when they first come
out.
I say wait.
You don't need to have it the
first year.
Let you neighbor or your friend
be the first one to have it, and
then watch and see what happens
because a lot of these plants,
they're not even around three
years later.
They just disappear because they
don't turn out to be really good
garden performers.
So, be patient and be a little
skeptical.
How do you know when you read
about some plant that's supposed
to be great how much of a grain
salt you should take what you're
reading with?
Well, there are some
organizations, this is the
Wisconsin Nursery Association.
Well, their goal, obviously, is
to sell plants.
We want you to buy plants.
That's what we do for business.
But we also want you to buy a
really good plant that you're
going to love and be successful
with so you come back and buy
more.
And so the Wisconsin Nursery
Association each year picks a
perennial plant of the year and
a woody plant of the year, and
these tend to be really
fantastic plants.
Their selections are excellent.
So any plants that an
organization like this is
promoting do tend to be
something that's worth
considering.
And we do have a list of the
Wisconsin perennial plants of
the year on our website.
Also, the Perennial Plant
Association, which is a national
organization of perennial plant
growers, each year select a
perennial plant of the year.
Their criteria are suitable for
a wide range of climatic
conditions, low maintenance
requirements, relatively pest
and disease resistant, ready
availability in the year
promotion and multiple seasons
or ornamental interest.
Those are all great goals, and I
would say for the most part the
plants that they select really
meet those qualifications.
And the perennial plant of the
year are usually really, really
good choices.
And, again, you'll find a list
on our website of those plants.
The All American Selections,
the difference between the
All American Selections and the
other two we just talked about
is the other two they can pick
from any plant.
These could have been plants
that have been on the market for
years and years.
All American Selections do tend
to be, they're new
introductions.
The grower will provide these
plants for evaluation.
But they're being evaluated in a
very objective way.
It's an independent nonprofit
organization that does not
advertise.
And they're putting them through
these trials.
So where do you go to see these
trials?
You can actually go and look at
these plants being trialed at
these various locations nearby.
And it's really very interesting
because you can go and they'll
have a huge bed of all different
Salvias or all different
petunias or whatever it might
be.
And you can compare them
yourself and see which ones are
blooming most heavily, which
ones are sprawling all over the
places, which ones have nicer
habit.
It's really nice to have these
trial gardens open to the
public.
And then the American Garden
Award, and usually these, at
like Boerner Botanic Gardens in
Milwaukee, these trials are
there, and you can actually
vote.
As a visitor to the gardens, you
can vote, and you're determining
which ones are going to be
getting the award.
Now, on the flip side of that is
the Proven Winners program.
You see the wording here: Proven
Winners is the leading brand.
And their reason for existence
is they want to have unique high
performing plants, but they want
to market the plants.
And so it's a brand, and this is
what we receive in the mail from
the Proven Winners program.
Expect your customers to ask for
blah, blah, blah, whatever it
might be because we're going to
advertise it.
And they spend a lot of money
advertising these plants.
And sometimes it can be
difficult to tell the difference
between advertising and
editorials.
So just maybe try to look
carefully when you see something
in a woman's magazine, a big
full-page thing about a plant,
is it an ad or is it actually an
article?
And if it's an ad, maybe let
that plant prove itself before
you go out and invest a lot of
money in it for your garden.
Mistake: not using botanical
nomenclature.
What is botanical nomenclature?
It's binomial nomenclature,
meaning bi, which is two, and
nomen is name.
So every plant has a common
name, like we were talking about
the loosestrife, where there are
two plants that both have the
common name loosestrife, but
they're completely unrelated
plants.
So one is Lythrum salicaria; the
other is Lysimachia clethroides.
They each have a genus and a
species name.
And to understand how that
works, a genus would be like the
equivalent of your last name.
So if you're Alice Smith,
everybody in the Smith family
may share certain
characteristics that you can
tell that's a Smith.
But you're Alice Smith, that's
the specific name or the species
name.
That describes you exactly.
Alice Smith is the only person
that fits that exact
description.
And so if you know the genus and
the species name, you know that
you're asking for exactly the
right plant.
If you read about some plant or
if you go on a garden tour, oh,
I really like that, and they
say, oh, well that's a cupflower
or something.
Well, can you tell me, do you
have any more information than
that?
Do you know the scientific name?
Because if you go to the nursery
and you ask for the cupflower,
who knows what that is.
You're going to know exactly
what you're talking about if you
have the genus and the species.
And just the genus isn't going
to do it because say this is
Phlox.
Well, there's all different
types of Phlox ranging from the
tall garden Phlox
to low Creeping Phlox.
Well, say okay, it was a
Creeping Phlox.
Well, there's two entirely
different plants that are called
Creeping Phlox.
The one on the top is Phlox
stolonifera, that's a woodland
ground cover.
And the one on the bottom is
Phlox subulata.
That's a rock garden plant for
full sun.
They're both called Creeping
Phlox.
Just to complicate the issue,
the one on the bottom is also
called Pinks, and Pinks is the
common name for Dianthus or
carnations.
So that's why it really does
behoove you to know these
scientific names.
And when you get down to the
species level, so that's Phlox
paniculata, the tall garden
Phlox, that species name can
actually tell you information
about the plant itself.
It's usually in a language you
don't know.
It's either Greek or it's Latin
usually.
But you can learn what some of
these names mean, and it
actually tells you some
characteristics of the plant.
So in this situation, Phlox
paniculata means the flower, it
flowers in a panicle.
The flower is in the form of a
panicle.
But alba is white.
Atropurpurea would be purple.
It can even tell you about the
growing conditions.
Let's see palustris, if the
species name is palustris, that
wants to grow in a wet area.
Most of them are just
descriptive, the other ones that
are on there.
But you really can get a lot of
information out of the name.
It can be quite interesting to
begin to understand what these
names mean.
So you've narrowed it down to
Phlox paniculata, even if you
went into the nursery and said I
want Phlox paniculata, there's
probably well over a hundred
different varieties of Phlox
paniculata.
So you really want to know also
the cultivar or the variety
name.
In this case, Phlox paniculata,
Shockwave.
That's this variegated one.
But there's any number of named
varieties of cultivar, which
means it's a variety that was
developed by plant breeders is
what a cultivar is.
It's shown in single quotes like
that.
Mistake: selecting a plant
solely on the basis of its
flowers.
We all do this.
It's just human nature.
But it really, and this is
another reason that it's good to
sort of take your time
establishing your perennial
garden and maybe not invest in
huge waves of one thing until
you find out how you like its
performance.
You also want to consider what
its foliage, habit, form, and
texture is going to be because
the vast majority of the time,
other than that three to four
weeks that the plant is
blooming, that's what you're
going to be looking at.
You're going to be looking at
the foliage and the habit and
the texture and the form.
And so you want that to be
attractive.
And there are a lot of
perennials that really are very
attractive through the whole
season even though they're not
blooming.
One of my favorites is this.
This is a dwarf form of the
Baptisia australis or false
indigo called minor.
And it has a really pretty
flower in the spring, but then
also it just has that beautiful
habit throughout the season.
It's just a really good garden
plant.
If you are going to pick plants
based on their flower, you might
want to select those that are
going to bloom for a really long
period of time.
And there are some perennials
that will bloom six weeks, even
more, but they are few and far
between.
We do have a list on our website
of perennials that bloom more
than six weeks, but the one on
the right here, this is Salvia
verticillata, purple rain.
That is a great Salvia.
If you dead-head that, that
blooms all season.
It's a different species than
the Salvia most of you are
probably familiar with.
At the top, that's Corydalis
lutea.
We saw in an earlier slide that
Corydalis bulbosa.
That was that carpet of purple
early in the spring.
That one goes dormant.
This one blooms in deep shade
in soil with no nutrients
from June until hard frost.
It's one of the longest blooming
perennials.
>> What was it called again?
>> It's Corydalis lutea.
In the middle, that's
Calamintha, Montrose White.
That picture was taken in late
October.
That's been blooming since June.
And you want to be a little
careful with the Calamintha
because you only want to get the
sterile varieties.
Montrose White and there's a
blue one called nepetoides,
subspecies nepetoides.
Those are the sterile ones.
Some of the other varieties,
well we learned the hard way,
Blue Cloud and White Cloud,
they seed all over the place.
And then the plant on the left
that's Nepeta, Souvenir d'Andre.
And Nepeta, Souvenir d'Andre
Chaudron, and it's one of my
very, very favorite plants.
It blooms all summer.
Hummingbirds love it.
We can't get it anymore.
We can't find it anywhere.
Fortunately, we do have some
stock we're going to be able to
take cuttings from.
But the wholesaler that we used
to buy it from, they said we got
rid of it because it had too
long of a name.
[LAUGHTER]
And then, of course, the plant
that it's partnered with there
is a really great plant that
blooms all year.
[LAUGHTER]
And it grows in sun or shade,
and it doesn't even require
watering.
[LAUGHTER]
And mistake: falling for a
picture of a pretty face.
I did take these pictures off
the Internet, and I don't want
to imply that these are not
great daylilies because I don't
know anything about these
particular daylilies.
But what I did is I just looked
for really incredible looking
daylilies.
And if you saw that picture in a
catalog, you would say, wow, I
want to have that.
But what do you really know
about it besides that's what one
flower looks like?
And there's so much more to know
about a plant.
And we do grow about 400
varieties of daylilies at the
farm.
So if you can go and you can
actually see that plant, ideally
in a garden situation, and this
is where going to the botanic
gardens or going to the garden
tours is great too, you're going
to see not just the individual
flower but you're going to see
how many flowers are on that
plant, how well branched are
they, how are they distributed
on the plant, what does the
foliage look like, etc, etc.
All these things that are really
important considerations
for having an attractive
and satisfying garden plant.
And so that is what I have to
show you in terms of the slides.
And thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]