Monday, December 23, 2013

Bill's Favorite Native Plants: December



Allen, Sterling & Lothrop's nursery manager Bill Kennie has been working with the Falmouth Open Space committee to help eradicate invasive plants from the Maine landscape. Bill believes that it is very important to include native species in ornamental landscape gardens. Indeed, the more native plants a garden has the better--native plants are typically low maintenance, they provide food and shelter for wildlife and are visually in keeping with our native "wild" landscape.


Carya Ovata                                        Shagbark Hickory

Height: 60-80’                                    Spread: 60-70’

If you’re looking for a large stately tree with gorgeous shag bark (hence the name Shagbark Hickory!) then this could be for you.   It has a long straight truck that reaches for the sky.  It is fairly slow to get established but it is very strong once it does. It will also drop nuts that wildlife will enjoy.  Prefers well-drained, loamy soil but is adaptable to other soil types.  This is a tree that you plant for future generations!
 

Monday, December 16, 2013

Seed of the Month: Dwarf Cosmos



 Dwarf Cosmos


Dwarf Cosmos are annuals that combine the beauty and color variety of standard-sized cosmos with the ease of shorter flowers: no need to stake, no worries about shading other plants. With dead-heading, cosmos will last all season long. Dwarf Cosmos come in a variety of vibrant colors: rose, crimson, white & pink.
Cosmos are so named because of their ordered and uniformly lovely appearance, which brings to mind the orderly beauty of the “cosmos,” Greek for order, or ornament, and – by extension – world, universe. The antithesis of chaos.