Ann Acheson

November 28, 2022

From a recent Roy Diblik YouTube video. The screenshots speak for themselves!

Ann Acheson

November 28, 2022

I’m a great fan of Roy Diblik and I love it when he posts a new video. During the season, the videos are of him going out and about, showing plants, looking at gardens old and new and interviewing some of the people he runs into. There have also been a few of presentation made at Northwind by him and by others. All are very interesting and the production values are really quite good while still keeping the down-to-earthness of Roy.

He recently posted a video of a trip he made to visit a garden he had worked on in Virginia, and he did a video tour through parts of the existing (mature) garden in addition to showing what revisions he was going to make.

Roy Diblik’s finger pointing to Amsonia hubrichtii ‘Butterscotch’

Besides my usual awe in looking at the gardens he designs, I was introduced to yet another Amsonia hubrichtii cultivar ‘Butterscotch’. So beautiful! I must find it!

The white-flowering ornamental grass is Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘White Cloud’ (Muhly Grass)

So yet another Zone-pushing ornamental grass to covet - ‘White Cloud’ Muhly Grass - maybe even more beautiful than the more familiar pink-flowering Muhly Grass!

Ann Acheson

August 26, 2022

Midwest Groundcovers - One of the wholesale nurseries I wish I could shop at!

Ann Acheson

August 26, 2022

I first heard of Midwest Groundcovers a number of years ago from a lecture given by Roy Diblik at NYBG. He mentioned them as a source for native plants and they had a list on their website of native plants that I printed out and carried around in my notebook for a few years. Fast forward to the COVID years, where connections to horticulture, plants, and "normality" was available mainly through webinars and YouTube presentations. Midwest Groundcovers turns out to have a Winter Lecture series that I've watched for the last 2 winters that turns out to be quite interesting.

This is what Midwest Groundcovers says about itself on its website:

Growing & Propagating Over 20 Million of the Finest Wholesale Plants in the Midwest
Although Groundcovers are our specialty, Midwest Groundcovers’ plant offerings include Evergreens and Broadleaves, Deciduous Shrubs, Perennials, Ornamental Grasses, Vines and Native Prairie, Wetland and Woodland species. We are leaders in the Green Industry in partnering with landscape architects, landscape designers, green roof and plant professionals to create inspiring planting combination solutions. Experts in plants for Midwestern durability and sustainability for over five decades.

Unfortunately for me, they don't do mail order and Irvington NY is obviously not in their delivery range. But if I lived near enough, I would buy everything from them.

Their Nursery includes the Midwest Natural Garden that was established in 2011. It was originally a planting by Walter Stephens, called The Natural Garden, founded in 1953. Stevens populated the original garden with a variety of native species that he rescued from being destroyed by a development project. Nearly 60 years later, Midwest Groundcovers purchased the property and has kept the integrity of the local ecotype plants and the original native stock plants and seed beds. In 2016, conservation work and site development began under the consultation of Restoration Ecologist Jens Jensen from Jensen Ecology. Sections of the 29-acre site were graded and a series of step pools installed to reduce erosion and direct stormwater into the pond. A vegetative bioswale and wetland area were added to capture sediment and “clean” the water for irrigation use. A selection of native plugs and prairie seed mix was planted on the pond’s edge for pollinators. In 2017, controlled burns were begun to assist in managing invasives and non-natives. We continue to restore on-site, existing natural areas and develop new ones. Habitats include woodland, prairie, wetland, and a stream restoration.

Midwest Natural Garden is a production nursery site and is not open to the public.

They grow many different species of Carex as well - and have planted a "Carex Classroom" so that people can see what the different Carex species look like. I imagine this is a very valuable resource, since Carex are fairly new to the Trade, there are so many of them, they actually have a wide variety of habits and foliage, some are best suited to specific niches and many of us (me) have no idea what most of them look like except from pictures.

The Carex Classroom is designed to help educate specifiers, ecologists, landscape designers and plant experts on the nuances of the many species available.

Here are some of the plants that Midwest Groundcovers horticulturalists found exciting in 2022.

From Midwest Groundcovers Webinar January 21, 2022 “21 Plants for 2022”

Spigelia marilandica ‘Little Redhead’ (Common Name: Indian Pink)

Spigelia is underutilized in the landscape due to limited availability, but it's poised to make an explosion in popularity. Why? It's a very versatile perennial-it grows naturally in either sun or shade. This perennial can be found growing in the wild in woodlands and along streambanks throughout the Eastern United States. It's wildly popular among wildflower enthusiasts and highly sought after.

'Little Redhead' is a superior selection of the species, vegetatively propagated to ensure uniformity. Dark red tubular flowers with yellow interiors are produced above top of an upright clump of dark green, wedge-shaped leaves. This genus requires good drainage to thrive, so do not plant in areas with standing water. Full sun - part shade; 24-28 in tall X 20-24 in wide. Rabbits eat it.

Tricyrtis formosana ‘Autumn Glow’ (Common Name: Formosa Toad Lily)

Impressive variegation is what sets this toad lily apart from older cultivars. Per Tony Avent, it boasts the widest yellow leaf margins of any variegated Tricyrtis he’s grown.

Orchid-like, reddish purple to blue violet speckled blossoms appear from late summer into early fall in the north, midsummer in the south. It has attractive dark buds and is slow-growing. An excellent perennial for adding late season color to the shade garden.

Dianthus X ‘Paint the Town Fancy’ Series (Common Name: Pinks)

The Paint the Town Series cultivars are prized for their bright colors and increased heat tolerance. Flowers appear in early summer, and a quick shearing after flowering will encourage them to rebloom in early fall. This is the perfect size to edge the front of the sunny border and use in combination containers.

'Paint the Town Fancy' produces 1", single, rosy fuchsia flowers with a red eye and serrated petals. Flowers completely cover the plant when it's in peak. It has glaucous blue foliage that stays clean and tolerates heat very well. Midwest Groundcovers considers this to be an improvement over ‘Firewitch’. It needs good drainage.

Aquilegia EARLYBIRD™ Purple Blue ('PAS1258487') EARLYBIRD™ Series (Common Name: Columbine)

A series of early flowering Columbine from Kieft Seed. There are several cultivars as seen above.. These are compact plants with lots of flowers and strong colors. 9-11 in tall with upward-facing flowers. Will naturalize. They also have excellent potential as cut flowers, lasting up to 2 weeks in a vase.

Allium X ‘Big Beauty’ (Common Name: Ornamental Onion)

‘Big Beauty’ has lovely wide gray-green foliage that is very showy - bolder than other alliums when it comes up in spring. Large soft pink flowers bloom July - Sep and are 2.5 in diameter. This is a really nice foliage plant as well as a beautiful flowering plant. Takes heat and drought and performs over a long period. Seed heads hold up well to snow and ice. 18 - 24 in tall

Cotinus coggygria ‘Winecraft Gold’ (Common Name: Smokebush)

Leaves emerge orange, turn golden yellow and then mature to chartreuse. It flowers with pink “smoke” plumes. It has a dense oval shape; good branching structure; much more “regular” habit than many other smokebush varieties. Not very susceptible to leaf burn. Beautiful fall color with tones of orange/yellow.

Helleborus X Frost Kiss ‘Molly’s White’ (Common Name: Lenten Rose)

This is a great performer in the landscape. It has silvery-green mottled foliage and a huge number of clear white flowers that are fairly upward-facing. It will bloom in the first year and will fill out quickly. Compact habit; 12-18 in tall.

Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora ‘Firelight Tidbit’ (Common Name: PG Hydrangea)

A dwarf form of ‘Firelight’. It’s shorter than ‘Bobo’ at 2-3 ft tall. Flowers turn a deep righ red color in fall. Gets a fantastic purpley-orange fall foliage color.

Ann Acheson

December 29, 2017

Roy Diblik - "They share the space unselfishly"

Ann Acheson

December 29, 2017

He had already inspired me with his book "Know Maintenance Perennials" but I had no idea how wise, cool, down-to-earth, innovative, knowledgeable, hilariously funny - shall I go on? - he is until he spoke at our NYBG LDSA meeting in December. All thanks to Hanna Packer - shout-out to her expertise; visit her website www.hannapackerdesign.com

He talked to us about Plant Communities, and somehow it ended up being about human communities as well. A plant community will thrive only if it has all the building blocks, including good soil and a diversity of plants to support a wide variety of insects. Living and dying roots are what regenerates the soil. "Remnant prairies" (untouched soil) have 18 - 24 species of plants per sq meter - all thriving and occupying their niches happily and benefitting each other. They share the space unselfishly. So it should be with human communities as well.

But lets move on to some of Roy Diblik's wisdom that I managed to capture:

You have to get to know the plants. It's not "fair" to the plant to ask it to do what you want it to do - you should find out what it wants to do and where it wants to be to thrive."

P.S. this is how we should treat people as well!

Pachysandra, vinca, euonymus etc are the "default landscape -

he grows 32,000 sedges in his nursery and uses a mixture of sedges as ground cover

Turf and boxwood" landscapes have no pollinators, no birds.

You don't need mulch, organic amendments, fish emulsion etc - Everything you need falls from the trees in autumn and all the soil needs is roots living and dying.

Thugs" are opportunistic - if you disturb an area they will take over - that's simply their nature

You have to put a plant community together in a way that eliminates agricultural weeds. If you can reduce the light reaching the soil to below 1000 ft-candles (or better, below 200 ft-candles) then weed seeds won't germinate.

Contractors are being paid to keep bad from getting worse

A plug will equal a 1G container in 5 weeks

Ornamental grasses sporobulus, seslaria, schizachyrium as the "grout" between the plants. For example, Allium 'Summer Beauty' and seslaria live together fruitfully (not competitively)

He usually uses a balance of 60:40 grasses:flowering plants

Seen below: pictures of Roy Diblik's matrix plantings at the Chicago Art Institute, Chicago's Shedd Aquarium and the Lurie Garden

Lurie Garden Chicago - the interplay of sun and shadow and the colors of the grasses, with the amsonia just beginning to turn its bright yellow autumn color, is mesmerizingly beautiful to me.

Roy Diblik at the birth of the Lurie Garden

Roy Diblik says: "Learn about 20 plants in depth, then gradually learn another 10 or 20 - that's all you'll need"

He creates "quilt patterns" - each module is interchangeable and they can be mixed and matched

Geranium 'Magnificum' from Roy Diblik's Nursery

The composition of your design sets up the plant community but also creates spirit and emotion

Allium, Calamintha, Stachys and Echinacea

He gave us info about some of the plants he uses: (I mostly tried to capture his own words)

Carex flacca ('Blue Zinger') is an example of a carex that quickly covers ground and can take some foot traffic, but when its crown touches another crown it stops spreading
Monarda bradburiana prefers avg to dry soil (unlike some other monardas)
Salvias love to mix with one another but they can't survisie getting watered 3 times per week
Don't use Salvia 'May Night' because it doesn't rebloom. Instead use Salvia wesuwe that reblooms constantly
A combo he likes: Geranium sanguineum, allium cernuum and ornamental oregano
Covering the growing points of perennials with wood mulch kills them
Northwind has an Echinacea tenneseensis hybrid that tolerates clay soil
Sporobulus and sedges are very natural-looking in a woodland garden; also mixtures of sedge and Geranium macrorrhizum in shade
Commercial prairies that are started from seed usually end up being 5 native plants living together. It will take 15 years to get a diverse/"real" prairie with 18-24 species per sq meter

Words of wisdom: "Sedges give you the opportunity to outsmart weeds"

One plant he mentioned that I hadn't known was Gillenia trifoliata (also Porteranthus trifoliatus). Common name: Bowman's Root (Also known as Indian Physic or American Ipecac; sounds lovely!). Bowman's Root is an easy-to-grow native for bright shade or partial sun and it tolerates tree root competition well as long at it has a nice layer of organic mulch. Bowman's Root is lovely in a mass planting where its lacy white flowers can shimmer in a light breeze. It makes a nice filler - think Gaura for shade! A compact, rounded plant, it is topped in late spring with ethereal white flowers growing in a few loose terminal panicles, with red petioles and mahogany stems. Clean, disease-free foliage often turns deep bronzy red in fall and contrasts beautifully with the more typical oranges and yellows in the perennial border. Interesting form and unique seed heads persist into winter. Great for cut flowers!