Show Me Smart Gardening with an Ahhh Natural Flair using these top ten Missouri favorites

#1 Shining Blue Star ·

#2 Aromatic Aster ·

#3 Blue Wild Indigo ·

#4 Purple Poppy Mallow ·

#5 Yellow Coneflower ·

#6 Wild Ginger·

#7 Eastern Bee Balm ·

#8 Wild Quinine ·

#9 Wild Sweet William ·

#10 Celandine Poppy·

You can view these doorstep worthy natives during the growing season at:
Missouri Botanical Garden’s Kemper Center For Home Gardening- Martha Love Symington Missouri Native Garden area
Shaw Nature Reserve Home Gardening Area,
Powell Gardens (I enjoy Powell Garden’s blog )
The Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center Campus

To purchase these plants consult Missouri’s Grow Native Buyer’s Guide

KTRS 550 Inside Out Show Saturday February 21

Hosta ‘Sparkling Burgundy’

Per John Shea's on air request we will be chatting about blue Hosta. I do have some favorites, all of which are on display at Missouri Botanical Garden- either at the Kemper Center for Home Gardening or on the north end of the Garden near the daylily collection. This is a good way to become familiar with hosta cultivars that retain their vigor in our Midwest heat. The flower beds have been amended and do have irrigation.

I must say that frequently our hot humid summers and too much sun exposure can take a toll on many of the "blue” hosta. When this happens, the waxy coating melts which results in a less impressive representation of the blue shades these beauties can produce.

Typically any of the blue selections are more resistant to slugs than the more common green leaf hosta with thin foliage. Regardless of color or variety- when you are chosing a hosta, look for thick leaves. Also don't forget many hosta actually have attractive flowers- some of which are fragrant and all appear to be attractive to hummingbirds, despite the fact that they are not red. My favorite for blooming is H. 'Sparkling Burgundy' which I saw when I was teaching at Ronna's wonderful nursery Idyllwild Gardens, in Savannah, MO.

Ronna is very interested in sharing details with her customers and so was still trialing it and deciding whether to carry it at the nursery. She only had the one at the time, which was nestled at the base of a large shade tree with a few ferns. A tough spot for any plant but it was in full flower and putting on a grand display!

Although hosta is not a Missouri native, it does not appear to offer any threat of invasiveness in the lower Midwest, in fact a few lack the required vigor necessary to deal with our heavy soil and variable weather.

My personal favorites are:

Hosta Hosta 'Betcher's Blue' – reminds me of Belcher Homes - Great Green Builder!
Hosta Hosta 'Birchwood Parky's Gold' -my favorite gold hosta to compliment the blues. When I cared for it at the Kemper Center for Home Gardening, it was under the 'Forest Pansy' Redbud tree across from the front door.
Hosta Hosta 'Fragrant Bouquet' –very slow- very pretty
Hosta Hosta 'Lemon Lime' – very fast- perfect gold edgerto contrast with the blue-I used it while teaching and designing for Wine Country Gardens in Defiance, MO
Hosta Hosta 'Sagae' * my star hosta featured in "How To" article in ST. Louis PD
Hosta Hosta sieboldiana 'Elegans' -
Hosta Hosta 'So Sweet' - very fragrant- fresh sheen to every leaf!
Hosta Hosta 'Sparkling Burgundy' – fell in love with this at Ronna's nursery, Idyllywild, in Savannah MO
Hosta Hosta (Tardiana Group) 'Halcyon' - POM
Hosta Hosta (Tardiana Group) 'June' POM - A personal reminder of a dear friend and mentor, June Hutson, supervisor of the grounds at Missouri Botanical Garden's Kemper Center for Home Gardening.

I also like some of the standards such as:
hosta ‘Regal Splendor’
hosta 'Krossa Regal'
hosta 'Blue Angel'

Landscape Design with Missouri in Mind Workshop

A few of the Missouri native plant suppliers attended an after hours workshop on internet communication opportunities with Dave Tylka and myself. This shows such dedication!

All were in attendance because of a two day workshop for professionals as well as gardening enthusiasts sponsored by the Grow Native program.

Devin and Merv’s pages coming soon!

For contact information now visit these links: Prairie Hill Farm
Missouri Wildflowers Nursery

This was a wonderful practical application workshop sponsored by Grow Native that focused on natural communities, matching plants to property conditions, establishing a prairie plantings as well as tree selection.

As the final presenter, I had the opportunity to showcase the most doorstep appropriate Missouri natives for cultivated spaces.

For a list of the plants I discussed contact me at maryann@maryannfink.com . As soon as I have a few minutes I will post my handout here on my webpage!

Visit these website links to learn more about these environmentally focused people:

http://www.grownative.org/about/events.asp
http://www.grownative.org/buyers/
http://www.grownative.org/documents/landscapedesign_agenda.pdf

Speakers: Greg Gremaud-MDC
Keith Jackson
To reach John Pinkowski or other specialist in the region click here
For contact information for Yvette Amerman and other members of the Executive Council for the Missouri Community Council click here

http://mdc.mo.gov/areas/neast/ Information on Northeast Regional Office campus

Dave Tylka , author of MDC books and pamplets- ( to read my favorite butterfly host information click here: http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/Documents/8274.pdf )

KTRS 550 Inside Out Show Saturday Februrary 14th

Tradescantia- The Genius of Genus- There are large, small, sun / shade, tropical, pereinnal and annuals, pink, white, blue, purple, violet and rose in the spiderwort family!
There is also a wide variety in foliage, different colors, varigation, fuzzy and shinny leaves as well!

We decided to go ahead an have an on air chat about last week's Plant Of The Week, Zigzag Spiderwort because there was some technical difficulties last week with calling into the station.

Adaptable for sure- this group of day flowers can be controlled by simply removing the clusters of spent flowers. When there is no more new flowers opening, simply remove the whole stem close to the crown at the base of the plant, leaving the rest of the foliage intact.

Be careful to note when your flowers are open. Because these plants are light and day sensitive so there are times when the flowers are closed but the cluster is not finished blooming yet. Wait till the time you know when you usually have flowers open and watch for a few days, if no open flowers are visable for a few days- it is probably finished and time to remove the finished flowers.

Some members of this group get very worn looking foliage after they have finished blooming. Best remedy is to trim all the foliage close to the base and let the whole plant resprount. By fall there is all new growth evident looking fresh and ready to be noticed!

If you mass plant any member of this genus and do not control reseeding- you may have more area dedicated to this genus than you planned. It has been my expereince that removeal of seedling plants in the spring is not difficult but time comsuming when there is much else to do. I do not recomend pre-emergents as they will prevent germination of any seeds from any plants. I recomend "hands-on" managment! To be energy efficient- I remove the problem before it is a problem by planning a trim back during the season.

KTRS 550 Inside Out Show Saturday Februrary 7th Plant of the Week

Zigzag Spiderwort (Tradescantia subaspera-Dayflower family /Commelinaceae)

This Missouri native is a relative of our familiar cultivated perennial. It commonly stretches to full and willow-like 3' height. The foliage is grass-like with only slight branching and the central stems appear to zigzag as they connects with the alternating leaves. These strap-like leaves are sometimes as much as 12" long and nearly 2" across, but more often only half this size.

Zigzag Spiderwort blooms gently in the shade for several weeks mid-summer. Each individual flower lasts only a single day (hence the botanical connection with other “day flowers”). Because this woodland beauty keeps attractive foliage all season long. Consider its clean strappy foliage as a texture shift in the shade garden and the violet-blue flowers as the bonus!

For those with exceptional imagination consider this: the petite clusters of sleepy 1” violet-blue flowers have soft feathery puffs in the center of each flower which could function as an easy to reach feather duster for our magical woodland fairies that work so hard to keep the forest tidy when we are not watching! (By the way they are my only approved forest cleaners as they know exactly how much to do)

(thank you to Scott Chitwood for the pretty image)
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KTRS 550 Inside Out Show Plant of the Week January 31 2009

Blackhaw viburnum At Home

Viburnum prunifolium is a Missouri beauty that has been perfectly at home in cultivated spaces for many years. Although she does not like soggy soils, she performs equally well in full sun or part shade and is naturally moisture adaptive. She handles periods of drought and extended heat without a fuss.
She can either be trained to a well formed single trunk form that fits nicely in courtyard situations or be allowed to thicken into an upright multi-stemmed shrub. She balances herself at a height of 12-15' tall with a spread of 6-12', which is a fairly impressive banquet situation for song birds. As an established tree she may reach skyward with her flower and fruit offerings to a height of 25'or more.
Black haw has nice clean foliage, attractive flowers, beautiful no-mess edible fruit, and a respectable display of fall color. Prune minimally if at all to avoid removal of the fruit and flower buds forming for the following year.