by GardenLover | Nov 13, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
Which is fairer – fall foliage or fall fruits?
By Teresa Woodard
As I visit a few Midwestern gardens this fall, no doubt, the colorful foliage steals the show. But, as I take a closer look at trees especially now that their foliage is disappearing, I’m especially drawn to those with lingering colorful fall fruits. They definitely add another element of interest in the fall landscape and also offer a valuable food source for birds and wildlife.
Here are seven trees and shrubs with fall fruits to admire and possibly add to your backyard:
- Crabapples (Malus): Yellow and red fruits hang on through the winter feeding a host of cardinals and robins in our front yard.
- Dogwood (Cornus): The American varieties (Cornus florida) boast both colorful fall foliage and attractive white berries while the Japanese varieties (Cornus kousa) offer nubby red orbs that are even edible for humans.
- Deciduous hollies: Two native shrubs, winterberry (Ilex verticillata) and possumhaw (Ilex decidua) lose their leaves to display branches laden with berries in winter.
- Hawthorne (Crataegus phaenopyrum): This ornamental landscape tree is noted for its white flowers in spring and orange-red fruits in autumn and winter.
- Beautyberry (Callicarpa): When I first saw this shrub at an arboretum, I was amazed by its bright purple fruit clusters. For Midwestern climates, try a hardier variety like Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Issai’
- Spicebush (Lindera benzoin): As I remove honeysuckle from our woods, I’m adding these native shrubs which have much more nutritional fruits than their invasive counterparts.
- Chinese fringe tree (Chionanthus retusus): Profuse fragrant white spring blooms give way to olive-shaped fruits that turn deep blue in fall and serve up a good treat for birds and wildlife.
by GardenLover | Oct 1, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
Photo credit: Circleville Pumpkin Show
By Michael Leach
The Midwest may lack dramatic rocky spires of the West or the endless vistas along ocean shores. But our open countryside, wooded hills and forests make kaleidoscopic spectacles themselves in autumn that make aspens and white sand seem little more than monochromatic bores.
Many Midwest pumpkin-centric events are already past but others lie ahead. (Please check pumpkinnook.com)
One of the biggest and oldest is the Circleville Pumpkin Show (OH) show, Oct. 16-19.
Weigh-in at Circleville Pumpkin Show
Started in 1903 as a way to help city and country people come together, it stretches eight blocks in the town, about 30 minutes south of downtown Columbus. Rides, food booths, games, craft vendors, and pumpkins by the thousands, including the champions that can weigh about half a ton.
According to Pumpkin Nook, there’s the Sitllwater, MN, Harvestfest and Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off Oct. 12; and two events in Wisconsin, the Mishicot Pumpkin Fest Oct. 19 and the Nekoosa Giant Pumpkin Festival Oct. 5
Other fall fruits are celebrated at the Chicago Botanical Garden with its Midwest Fruit Explorers Show & Sale Oct. 19-20. Stars of this show include apples, pears, paw paws, grapes and kiwis. Tasting and information on growing fruit planned. Apples, cider and more for sale.
Another plant — hops — takes center stage at the Missouri Botanical Garden Fest-of-Ale Oct. 18 6-9 p.m. It’s the 6th annual celebration of local beer.
True, the season brims with necessary and optional garden chores, but don’t spend all your time working. Savor this season by taking frequent breaks in the garden, and walking in nearby parks, botanical gardens, arboretums, forests or country lanes.
by GardenLover | Aug 27, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
Who art thou, o aster?
By Debra Knapke
Back in 2003 Neil Diboll of Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin called it the Aster Disaster. Not to bore you with the minutiae of name changes of plants, suffice it to say: in 1994, it was determined that the asters of the New World (ours) are different from the asters across the oceans. The New World asters were found to be more closely related to goldenrod (Solidago), fleabanes (Erigeron) and boltonia (Boltonia) than the species in the genus Aster. Thus began a series of name changes that are accepted by most, but not all, in botanical and horticultural communities.
We are adjusting to this name change in the horticultural and landscape worlds, but not without some angst. You are now seeing the newer genus names in the magazine articles you are reading and on the tags that accompany the asters you are buying. The majority of the asters that we encounter in print and in the garden center are now in the genus Symphyotrichum – aster was so much easier to spell! – with a few in Eurybia. 
At the Ohio Botanical Symposium in April, attendees had the chance to further understand the name changes and “walk” through a key for the native asters in Ohio. In the tricky after-lunch slot, David Brandenburg showed how to master the native asters. His handouts included a comprehensive aster chart and a pictorial key drawn by an extremely talented artist, Sigrid Neilsen. Both her key – free download – and her beautifully illustrated book on native asters are available on her website:
Will the common name change? Probably not. To quote William Shakespeare: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
by GardenLover | Jul 3, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
Red crocosmia, white hydrangea and blue cornflowers
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom’s shield and hope.
~John Philip Sousa
by GardenLover | May 29, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)– The Herb of Remembrance
By Debra Knapke
What is it about rosemary that is so compelling? Its deep, woodsy, piney fragrance? The blue flowers that open in June/July and in December just before Christmas? Its 8-10’ by 8-10’ shrubby habit in zone 7 and warmer climes? All of the above?
Before the mid-80’s I only knew it as the slightly piney, grassy herb that was in a jar. I remember when I first discovered the plant and realized that dried rosemary was a poor substitute for the real thing. Rosemary vinegar, oil, pesto and butter are a few of the ways that rosemary is added to the food I make.
In the garden, I have tested different areas in an effort to discover the perfect microclimate where rosemary might survive our supposed zone 6 winters. Most cultivars can survive 10°F temperatures and a few can survive colder winters: ‘Arp’ and ‘Madeline Hill’ are two selections that can take 0°F and live. For the past two winters much of Central Ohio has experienced zone 7 winters. Both ‘Arp’ and ‘Barbecue’ came through with flying colors. The survivors are in full sun, well-drained areas that are out of direct winter winds.
Over the Memorial Day weekend I was able to spend a lot of time in the garden. I weeded, watered, fertilized – with compost tea – and planted. While planting rosemary I thought about its well-known meaning in light of the weekend and the true Memorial Day of May 31st. I remembered. And silently thanked all who have guided me in my garden and my life.
by GardenLover | May 17, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
By Michael Leach
Summertime is coming and that means house and garden tours, a wonderful chance to see how other people live and garden.
Tour hosts are to be greatly commended for spending countless hours and perhaps almost as much money to make their private retreats available for public viewing. Throughout the Midwest, communities large and small have garden tours, often benefitting a worthy cause.
On the national level, a series of tours support the Garden Conservancy’s goals of saving and preserving America’s exceptional gardens for public enjoyment and education.
Several Garden Conservancy Open Days are planned in the Midwest. Locations include:
June 8 St. Louis Area 
June 22-23 Erie County (PA)
June 23 Chicago’s North Shore
July 21 Chicago’s Western Suburbs
July 28 Chicago’s North Shore
