Bushes, Bushes, and More Bushes

I was beating around the bush today and thought I would tell you about it…

To clarify what I mean by bush or shrub- 6-8′ is the top range for most of the cool varieties. Low range would be 12-18″ for these plants. I am not trying to be Mr. Obvious, I hear a lot of confusion in regards to the term shrub, bush and tree. To some people the words are inter-changeable.

Now the cool stuff we are growing consists of, but is not limited to the following:

Weigela ‘Carnival,’ has three tone flowers from white to rose. Flowers in masse and is always asked about when in bloom. Grows to 5′ but can be maintained at 3-4′ easily.

Calycanthus has very unusual red flowers that look like a miniature magnolia in the middle of the summer. Outstanding subtle and seldom seen! Calycanthus is also a native plant that adapts well to our average soils.

Fringe tree also known as Chionanthus virginicus flowers with clusters of unique, linear, dangling white fragrant flowers. This plant can grow to 20′ if never pruned, but can be maintained at 8-10′ with no trouble at all. Ahh the smell of this plant in the middle of the summer is just wonderful!

Forsythia ‘Kumson’ is a plant that blooms in the spring with clusters of bright yellow flowers. The thing that makes it unusual is the very fine skeletonized variegation. Kumson will grow to 6′ tall.

We are starting to grow Hypericum or St. John’s Wort again after giving it a break for the past few years. We have a variegated variety called Glacier, a variety with an orange seed head called Pumpkin, another variety called Red Star that gets a red seed head, and a variety with a white seed head. The seedhead appears after the plant had bloomed awhile. The contrast between the seed head and the clusters of bright yellow flowers is amazing. These plants flower all summer and into early fall. Outstanding!

We love our Hydrangeas! We have a new dwarf variety called Hydrangea paniculata Little Lime that flowers prolifically with flowers that come out a lime white green then turn to white and then fade to pink. This plant will grow to four feet tall or so and is very well suited for residential plantings. As the name suggest the plant is a dwarf form of the legendary Limelight cultivar which we are growing as well. If you are a hydrangea enthusiast we are also growing Hydrangea p. Vanilla Strawberry, Incrediball, Quickfire, PeeGee, and we even have Hydrangea Vine!

We have a seldom seen shrub called Leptodermis that makes a great substitute for Spirea. Leptodermis flowers continuously with lite purple flowers from June to frost. It is quite unusual and very hardy. It grows to 30″ or so.

Our shrub selection is not limited to these plants. There are many more. I would like to invite each and every one of you out to the nursery to check out our selection of shrubs this year.