When your Itoh peonies have finished blooming, cut the spent flowers or seed pods off down to the first healthy green leaf. Doing this helps your plant get a stronger root system and more, larger blooms the following year. Do not cut the leaves back. In fall, cut the Itoh peony down to soil level, although some people like to leave a couple inches above ground with good success. This should be done after the first hard freeze when the foliage starts turning yellow. At this time you can apply a small amount of low nitrogen fertilizer such as bone meal, fish emulsion or others. Apply only around the drip line, not the center. Discard the old stems.
By doing a little work you can often get some perennials to rebloom by removing the spent flowers before they set seed. Once seed has set, it is probably too late for a rebloom. Two methods done for a rebloom are: 1) Cutting the entire plant, flowers and foliage back by 1/3 to 1/2 after most of the flowers are done blooming. Do not wait until they seed even if this means cutting off some new flowers. 2) Deadheading. There are two ways to deadhead. If the flower stem is soft you can just pinch the flower off. If the flower is on a stiff stem, cut the stem back to where a new set of leaves is formed or at least half way down. After you have done this, give the plant a small amount of fertilizer that has the middle number the lowest, (example 5-10-5) and water it. Below is a list of flowers that usually will rebloom.
Cutting Back the Plant: Nepeta (cat mint)
Salvia (sage)
Tickseed (Coreopsis)
Cranesbill (hardy geraniums)
Scabiosa (pin cushion)
Gaillardia (blanket flower)
Achillea (yarrow)
Helenium (sneezeweed)
Note: Deadheading will encourage more blooms on any plant because by removing spent flowers you are now giving more energy to the plant to produce more blooms.
When we plant for pollinators, we all win! Trees Today Nursery has many, many pollinator plants.
We want to help you bring your garden to life this summer with happy bees, butterflies, and birds.
Enter Monrovia’s Bee A Winner Pollinator Plant Giveaway for a chance to win a free pollinator-friendly plant from Monrovia.
To enter, visit monrovia.me/bee. Be sure to select Trees Today Nursery in the list of participating locations. The entry period ends June 14.
Don’t miss your chance to enter the Grand Prize Giveaway for a $500 Monrovia shopping spree at our location! Just take a picture of our Bee a Winner display, post it on Instagram with the hashtag #BeeAWinner, and mention @MonroviaPlants in your post. For more details and entry options, visit Monrovia.me/win.
Winners will be selected by random drawing and announced the week of June 15. Visit our store to collect your 1-gallon pollinator-friendly plant from Monrovia if you are one of our lucky winners!
Those of you who planted Itoh peonies a couple years ago should now be rewarded with 3 foot mounding bushes and lots of huge blooms. It is not uncommon to have over 50 blossoms on a three year old plant. Yes, they are expensive but they should easily last over 30 years if planted in the right conditions. These peonies have sturdy stems so they do not flop over in rain and wind. Also, because they do not bloom all at once, you will have blooms for 3 to 4 weeks. Flowers are huge, 5 to 9 inches across. The colors range from white to yellow to peach to red with various shades in between. Maintenance? Very little which consists of cutting the plant back in late fall to 2-3 inches. The shrub keeps it green leaves and looks good through out the season. The photo below of Itoh peonies was cut on May 21st.
Crab apple trees are Spring! Most of us love spring as it is such a wondrous site to see the green, green grass and all the different colors of crab apple trees blooming after our long winter. Crab apple trees range in shades from white to dark pink. Some do not produce berries, some will drop their berries in fall and some hang onto their berries into winter, which is wonderful food for the robins when they arrive. Crab apple trees might be in a pillar form and some may spread and even some that will stay short but spread, like those in a Japanese garden. Gradually crab apple trees are arriving at our nursery. Following is a photo of a Showtime crabapple that was taken on April 16, at our nursery.
If you click on any of the following crabapple trees you will be taken to our site describing that tree. If you are interested in a particular tree, please call our office at (608 783-7333) to verify that we have it in stock.
Spring is here and with that comes one of the first flowering trees of the season, Magnolias. Magnolias bloom profusely in April with either pink or white flowers. At Trees Today we have the Royal Star Magnolia in stock now. Stop in today while they are blooming and still in stock.
If you were fortunate to plant some hellebores last year, you should be enjoying their blooms now or shortly. They are also called Lenten Roses because they usually have buds or blooms during the Christian season of Lent. If possible, plant them so you can look out the window and see the blooms.They are a shade plant, however in winter they like sun. One of the best ways to achieve this is to plant them under a tree so the leaves shade them in summer but in winter the sun shines through the tree limbs. Mulching the plant in winter is also beneficial. After they are done blooming, prune the bloom stalk to the ground which encourages the plant to produce new growth. They are hardy to Zone 4. Our nursery carries hellebores, but they may not be in stock all the time and occasionally we get other varieties. Unfortunately we do not have photos of the three that we will be carrying, however if you google them you will see photos. They are: Frostkiss Cherisa, Frostkiss Glenda’s Gloss and Frostkiss Vibey Velevet.
We are your one stop shop for all your spring yard needs. Whether you are freshening up your garden beds, looking to create new beds, or are newly establishing or over-seeding your lawn, we have all the supplies you need to complete that to-do list.
Materials we carry:
La Crosse Seed Earth Carpet Grass Seed: A premium mix for the Midwest! We have several mixtures available depending upon the sun and shade ratio that your yard receives.
EZ Straw: This product is a favorite of contractors and homeowners alike. Easy application for either small or large areas; once it is wet it adheres and covers seed and soil until grass germinates.
Straw Blankets: For those particular areas that require extra support we also have straw blankets in 8’x112.5′ and 4’x50′ sizes.
Landscape Fabric: Our premium 20-year Ty-par is the best in the business! Sizes that we carry include: 3’x50′, 3’x100′, 4’x100′, 4’x300′, and 6’x300′. On top of the fabric, we have all the accessories to accompany the job, pins, stakes, and nails.
Landscape Edging: We carry several options when looking to create a border in your landscape. Poly edging is available in 20′ sections, bullets edgers come in tan/brown, brown and charcoal. But, if you prefer a natural look, stone lawn edging is also carried in our bulk goods area.
Household Pesticides: Whether you are treating rust on your fruit trees, fungus on asters or bee balm, or treating Japanese Beetles, we have the pesticides you need to keep your plants happy and healthy. Stop down and speak with our staff to find the right products(s) that will work for your needs.
Bulk Rock & Mulch: We have a HUGE mulch and rock selection for the region! Our mulches include; shredded bark, wood chips, cedar mulch, and colored wood chips (red, gold, dark brown). Our rock options include washed limestone, base rock, river rock, and granite. If you are looking for natural steppers, flagstone, lawn edging, we have it!
BONUS: We have equipment on site to load your truck and/or trailer!
If you always wanted a meadow garden you may have discovered they can be difficult to achieve. If you follow some of these suggestions in this article, you may find that the new modern meadows are pretty easy to achieve. I have always wanted a garden meadow but usually selected plants that did not perform as well as I hoped they would. However, this year I will be excited to try some of the plants suggested. Remember, we are a zone 4 or in some areas a zone 5. Most of the plants suggested are easy to grow, like Max Frei geranium, Ornamental grasses, Russian sages, Joe Pye eupatoriuim, and others. These modern meadows do not happen in a year, but by year 2 they should be looking pretty good and will flourish in years to come. A plus benefit is that these plants are pollinators, and great butterfly and bird attractors. Bear in mind that soil conditions will play an important part of your meadow. Staff at Trees Today will help you select the plants that will work best in your meadow.
Perhaps this year you would like to change the way your gardens look. Then now is the time to think about changing the design of your gardens. There are so many ideas available. Searching the internet and looking at Pinterest for ideas are good places to start. Also take a look at Monrovia’s design trends. Just click on design
If you would like to have more quality apples on your tree, then you need to prune your tree properly which will improve the quality of the fruit through better air flow and sun penetration. It is recommended that you never remove more than 1/3 of the total canopy in a single year. Click on the red text to see illustrations and learn more about pruning apple trees
