Urban Ediscapes          $114.00                                  

Great edibles for a small backyard!!  No need for an additional garden space.  Mix the plants into your new or existing landscape beds.  Need help with a design or installation call 800.236.4242 or contact your local Design Pro Today.

Includes:

•  “Multi-stemmed” Apple (Liberty & Freedom)- 4′ Bare Root
• 10- Mary Washington Asparagus
• 10- Tribute Strawberry
• 3- Crimson Cherry Rhubarb
• 1- Grape  vine of your choice
• Check out our catalog pages for plant information

Shipping & Tax are additional.  Pick-up is available.

Wisconsin Savannah         $150.00                                 

Create a native habitat for all to enjoy.  Great choice native perennials and ornamental grasses.  Provides well established plants for your landscape beds or restoration projects.   Add a #10 Swamp White or Bur Oak to the package for only $119!!  Need help with a design or installation call 800.236.4242 or contact your local Design Pro Today.

Includes:

• 3- Purple Coneflower (1 gal.)
• 3- Liatris (1 gal.)
• 3- Deamii Black-Eyed Susan (1 gal.)
• 5- Little Bluestem (1 gal.)
• Bur/ Swamp White Oak is available- add $119 (#10 container)

Shipping & Tax are additional.  Pick-up is available.

F. x intermedia ‘Courtasol’

Masses of yellow flowers appear well before any leaves in the landscape

One of the first signs of spring is the bright yellow blossoms covering this plant in early April.  What makes this Forsythia even more special in the landscape is its small size and compact shape. Unlike other varieties of Forsythia this one grows only 3’ to 4’ high and wide, making it a perfect choice for that foundation plant or a low informal hedge. Trimmed, it can be a great formal hedge as well.

It is hearty to Zone 4 and blooms well in full sun as well as partial shade. Its glossy light green slender foliage brightens any landscape.  Fall color is a mixed purple, maroon with often shades of red orange to yellow in the interior of the plant.

The First of April Plants to Bloom are the Forsythias

It is a perfect choice for the slope or hillside in that it covers the area and creates a wonderful texture and contrast with other plantings while requiring little care.  For a great head start to spring the stems can even be cut in March, a month before it blooms, and forced indoors to blossom!

 This plant is a must in any landscape!

By Keith Rudolph krudolph@mckaynursery.com

This is a good time of the year to remember where the piles of snow were this last winter. Why? To choose the right plants for that area this spring that would not have been affected by that snow pile. Heavy snow and/ or piles of salt will demolish the wrong plant. Consider hardy shrubs and perennials that die back to the ground or can be pruned low to the ground. Make sure your plant choices are tolerant to salt and heavy urban conditions. 

Good perennial choices include Hosta, Daylily, Sedum and other perennials.  When it comes to shrubs, Annabelle Hydrangea and smaller growing varieties of Spirea are great shrub choices, as they can be pruned down to 6” above the ground if damaged.  Save yourself some headaches and think ahead. You will be glad you did.  Need additional ideas? Take a look at our plant catalog pages or contact you Local Design Pro today!

Perennials & Ornamental Grasses are great choices for landscape beds that experience large piles of snow & salt in the winter.

We Welcome April with open arms this year….

It has been a long cold winter with plenty of snow.   Spring is taking its time coming on, but the spring bulbs and birds let us know it is here.  Are you doing any planting this spring?  Let us help with your design and installation.

Now is the time to get started on the spring yard clean up, if you are so inclined. If not let us take care of it.  Call your McKay Design Pro today for a price quote on Spring Clean Up or Landscape Maintenance package today.   For you do-it yourselfers….Our pruning DVD outlines exactly how to approach pruning, an excellent resource.

We Design for Your Enjoyment.

How do we create award winning outdoor living spaces without you having to invest all of your time in maintenance and upkeep when you should be enjoying your investment?  Outdoor rooms, outdoor kitchens and eating areas, water features (whether it is a simple birdbath, small fountain, or large flowing stream and pond), and lighting, are all hot right now.  The key?  Good design.  A plan with a great design by your favorite McKay Professional is where you start…the best first step you can make!  The right plants in the right spot, a space designed to meet your needs, that it the key.

Proper planning is the main ingredient for any great landscape.  Anyone can pick up a few plants and stick them in around the foundation, but creating an incredible design with hardy plants, sited properly, to perform for years to come – you really need to call your local McKay design professional.  Are you ready to update your home?  We are ready to help.  Whether it is just an addition of a perennial color border, an ediscape planting, a few fruit trees, or perhaps a new outdoor kitchen — or maybe a complete renovation by removing old plants arranged in an old fashioned design.  Lets us create for you a new complete updated design that you can enjoy for years to come.  We come right to your home, meet with you to find our your needs and likes, have the plants delivered for you to install — or let us come and do the work for you — whatever your budget allows.  We have local design professionals throughout the Midwest to help you.

Perennials & Grasses

Early April is a great time to divide established fall blooming perennials (spring bloomers best left until later in summer).  The more aggressive perennial plants need to have the clump size reduced to maintain good healthy plants.  Now is a great time to dig a portion to share with a friend or neighbor.  Prune back any brown dead top growth on all perennials, and then divide if necessary, blow or rake out any of last year’s foliage from those plants in case there is diseased foliage.  They grow fast as the sun warms the soil so the sooner the better.

Prune back all ornamental grasses now.  The grasses have performed their winter duty, so cut last year’s foliage down to just several inches without cutting deep into the crowns.  Cool season grasses will begin growing now in warmer sunnier microclimates.  The Warm season grasses also need to have last years foliage removed too, but they will not start to grow until the soil temperatures have warmed up considerably – sometimes not until early June in some areas.

Your Landscape Beds

Freshen up mulch beds by lightly raking or scratching up the mulch and spread out evenly around your plants.  Where necessary, add additional mulch to help preserve soil moisture and reduce weed growth.  Some like to use pre-emergent herbicides in the beds, and others will prefer not to.  Pre-emergent will prevent weeds from growing up through the mulch.  Be careful not to use around plants it is not labeled for use on.

Roses

We get so many calls each spring that go something like this: “My roses are all dead!”  I just want you all to know that most all roses will die back to the mulch line in many cases.  Rose canes that are exposed to winter will die back, but remember that our own root roses will re-grow from the base.  Prune back roses that will bloom on new wood down to 6” or so, and pull back the mulch away from the plants if you had prepared them properly last fall.  For climbing roses and for roses that bloom on last year’s canes, you can shorten up or remove any broken branches now before they start to leaf out.

Vines

Prune back Clematis vines down to 12-18” or so.  Clematis wood is very brittle and splinters easily so wear heavy gloves to prevent getting splinters in your hands.

Shrubs

Finish up renewal pruning any older Aronia, Dogwoods, Honeysuckles, Privets, or Viburnums by removing the thickest and oldest stems down to the ground and allow the nice young stems to remain.  The young stems you leave can be shortened up as well.

Prune repeat blooming Spiraea varieties can be cut back to a nice tight mound of stems as they respond with much vigor and violent amounts of bloom.  (Deadhead the first set of blooms to give way to another later in summer and sometimes again in fall.)

Prune Hydrangea Annabelle and arborescens types down to just a few inches and then don’t touch with the shears for the rest of the year.  Prune back All summer Beauty and Endless Summer (and all other Hydrangea macrophylla types) just enough to remove the dead portions of the stems, but allowing the green parts to remain and then don’t touch after that.  Prune back all Hydrangea paniculata types (like PeeGee -both tree and shrub form, Limelight, Pink Diamond, Tardiva -both shrub and tree form, and Unique).  All of these woodier types can be pruned back to any size, but the once they start to leaf out do not touch them anymore as the blooms come from the new growth.

Trees

Oak trees should no longer be pruned anymore this year until they go dormant again.

Evergreens

Prune evergreen shrubs like Japanese Yews and Junipers if necessary, but not any Pine trees (Pines will be trimmed by candle pruning in May).  You may have noticed some winter burn on some of these items.  The foliage on these stems that has turned brown may not remain on the plant, but the stem that holds those brown needles may produce new buds which will make new growth so just wait a bit to see what is actually dead and which stems are still alive.  Boxwood is showing some winter burn where the more exposed plants were sited.  Boxwood prefer winter wind protection.  Sometimes branches that the snow melted off and the rest of the plant remained covered, those exposed parts were damaged.  Just wait a bit and see which branches start showing signs of new bud development before cutting it all off.

Lawn

Rake your lawn if you already haven’t, and do a first short mowing to eliminate all of the brown dead grass blades from last season, but then set your mower height to 2” or a bit higher for the rest of the summer.  Some snow mold and perhaps vole damage is evident.  Raking and the initial short mowing will help those areas fill in.  You may want to wait to re-seed when the soil warms up if necessary.  New lawns love to have a shot in the arm with a starter fertilizer.  Older established lawns can be fertilized this month too, but not usually until they have started to grow.  If you did a late fall application you may want to wait until Memorial Day.  If you have broadleaved weeds, use a weed and feed product about mid-April, or when the dandelions become active.  If you had crabgrass last summer, you will need to put down a pre-emergent herbicide product just before the Lilacs bloom (late April or early May in our area).  Don’t put it down too early or it may not work when the seeds begin to sprout.  Just before the common lilacs bloom is an excellent timing note to remember when you want to prevent crabgrass.  We have been hearing radio ads from the big box stores to put it down now, but it is too early.

Ediscapes

Newspapers and magazine articles are promoting green and sustainable and many are “returning to the garden”.  This trend will continue, and not just during a slower economy.  Have your local McKay Design Pro help turn your yard into an “Ediscape” by incorporating small fruits and veggies in your shrub and perennial borders.  An easily accessible kitchen garden close to the patio is a great place to plug in a few easy to grow herbs and a tomato plant or three.  Maybe you want a much larger garden.  You can start to plant cool season crops as soon as the soil can be worked.  Tomato seeds can be started indoors in another week or so if you are so inclined.

Small Fruits and fruit trees are still selling wildly.  Be sure to design in an area that will best site these plants for the best fruit production.  This year we have container grown Blueberries for the first time.  We are also offering bare root strawberries 25 per bundle only $1 per plant.  Strawberries make great groundcovers in your landscape too.

Do you have an existing asparagus bed?  So many times, quack grass and other perennial weeds creep into this bed robbing you of production from your bed.  A simple solution?  As soon as the weeds in the areas green up, and prior to the asparagus sprouts begin to emerge, spray the area withHi Yield Killzall.  Killzall will kill anything that is green, spray when it is dry and it won’t rain after application (can be sent along with your plant order, or we can send it ups to you home).  It will selectively eliminate anything green in the bed, and allow the asparagus to grow without competition.  Planting new asparagus?  Get them while we have them, as they are selling fast.  Nice #1 grade bare root plants are productive in a short period of time.  Early planting is best.  Three varieties remain; ‘Viking’, ‘Mary Washington’ (many) and ‘Purple Passion’ (few).  Get them while they last.

McKay Nursery would like to hear how you are celebrating Earth Day this year!!
McKay Nursery Company is celebrating Earth Week from April 22-29.  During that time, friend us on facebook and tell us how you and/ or your organization is pitching in to save the planet.  At the end of the week we will choose our favorite entry.  The winning entry will win a free tree!!  In addition, we will donate 1 of 3 plant packages to your community organization.  Plant packages will be a choice of Native Plantings, Eco-Explorers or Ediscapes.  For more information, follow our blog at www.mckaynursery.com under “Green Tips,” and follow us on facebook.

Hot new plants are always fun to try.  We have new plants to offer every year. Check out our new website, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

McKay Nursery Company’s Keith Rudolph describes a few of the many different varieties of lilacs that our company grows and sells. There are so many different colors and flowering times that we cannot even begin to tell you! So why not get your own sweet smelling and showy lilac selection by contacting our McKay Landscape Pro! Call 800-236-4242

I love November. The days are now short, it’s cooler and windy, and many days we don’t see much sun. When we do see the sun, we sure appreciate it that much more. Build a nice fire and get some good “slow food” going in the house and a warm apple pie on the counter…mmmmm…isn’t November great? There are some opportunities to get some nice weather yet … and you will need to take advantage of those nice days to finish up those last few chores in your yards – so don’t put those tools away just yet!

Spring flowering bulbs can be planted right up until the ground freezes. What an excellent way to usher in spring with an entourage of spring flowering bulbs. Be sure and check out our availability online. When planting spring flowering bulbs, be sure and read about each variety so you know how deep to plant them. Typically, the larger the bulbs, the deeper they will be planted. What you want are these bulbs to produce new roots now (right after you plant them) and right before the ground freezes up. These new roots will best be formed if the bulbs are watered to settle the soil around the bulbs. Bulb food really should be applied for the best and largest flowers, but not necessary. Fertilization of spring flowering bulbs can be done next spring right after the flowers have finished blooming. There is such a multitude of colors and sizes of tulips and daffodils, and the combinations are endless. Plant them in drifts (as opposed to planting them singly) for a dramatic effect in your landscape. Not sure how or where to plant them? Be sure and ask your local McKay Representative how to attain the best results.

Fall color on some plants is still very showy. Many of the Spiraeas are still outstanding. Even today in our fields, ‘Magic Carpet’ Spiraea fall color is almost electric red and burgundy. How about ‘Flaming Mound’ Spiraea–have you used that one yet? Its fall color is orange, red and burgundy and still very active. Many Oak trees hold their leaves on the lower third of the trees, and the fall color is still very showy. Remember that brown is a color too…and there are lots of browns creating tons of interest right now. Look at how the different shades of brown contrast with the color of cedar siding or shingles. Ornamental grasses have great winter color too. The Norway Maple types (Emerald Queen, Emerald Lustre or Deborah) have shown tremendous, clear yellow fall color this year. Some years if the cold comes on quickly, the fall color is minimized on those plants, but not this year. The ornamental Pear trees (‘Cleveland Select’) are showing tremendous fall color – a myriad of yellow, orange, red and purple. Typically that is the latest tree to color up.

Look at your landscape. What do you see at this time of the year? A few fire engine red ‘Biokovo’ Geraniums, some red fruit on the Viburnums maybe…Now throw some ornamental grasses behind that, punch it up with some red twigged Dogwoods, and some evergreen to back that up and …voila! Throw a floodlight on that for Christmas this year for a nice, natural approach. Is your November landscape showing lack of interest? Get that local McKay Representative over to see how we can help. A good design has interest in all 4 seasons. Make sure to include some evergreen in your landscapes for winter interest, too.

Protect your young trees and new plantings from animals and sunscald. Balled and burlapped trees that were shipped from McKay to you this fall, came with white plastic tree guards on them. Those may be left on the trunks for the entire winter until next March. Any young trees that have a thin bark will benefit from the brown paper wrap applied from the bottom up (to shed the water away from the trunk). Sometimes, fruit trees, crabapples and Prunus family plants will benefit from wrapping the trunks with hardware cloth or metal screening to prevent mice and other vermin from eating off the bark on those plants. It pays to protect your new investment of plantings around your home. Maybe you have huge rabbit populations? Chicken wire may be something you will want to try to prevent the rabbits from eating new, younger shrubs. I think you can pass on protecting your Spiraeas, as you have to prune them back in spring anyway….so maybe the rabbits can do some of the work for you.

Protecting all roses for the winter is very important. I just recently read an article that said the Knock Out roses did not need protection, but for most of the area that we ship to, I think it’s a good idea to protect them – especially for newer plantings. A great way to protect your roses is to be sure to purchase (or reserve) some organic mulch. Save it until later in November – usually I say after Thanksgiving, and that seems to be a good rule of thumb. What we want to have happen BEFORE you cover your roses is to have several good killing frosts, and maybe even have the ground start to freeze prior to covering them. Once you are ready, mound up about a foot of mulch right over the bottoms of the stems. DO NOT PRUNE IN FALL, but leave the tops up until spring. That is all you have to do! I am not a fan of rose cones, but if you have those Styrofoam things, you can use them – but only if you first cut off the tops of the cones to allow the canes to stick out and water to enter and escape.

You can treat your ‘Endless Summer’ Hydrangea exactly as suggested above for over wintering roses, as they really need almost 3 full growing seasons to become established enough to take our winters better. Endless Summer are the Hydrangeas that are pink, and blue when in acid soils. They are nice plants that are a bit fussy the first couple of winters. Use the mound of mulch to help them through the first couple of winters so they start stronger in spring. Again, wait until after Thanksgiving though…. you want the ground to have started to freeze first.

Protecting your broadleaved evergreens or newly planted evergreens from winter burn should be done now. Late November is a great time to apply an anti-desiccant called Wilt-Pruf® sold on our website. Order now, and apply later this month on a calm day when the plants are dry, and temperatures are still above freezing. It helps plants like Rhodendrons, Boxwood and newly planted evergreens which continue to transpire water from winter burning. One final watering on all evergreens (new or established) before you put your hose away for the year is always a great idea too.

Keep your lawn mowed until it has stopped growing. I always like to keep it a bit shorter to get it through the winter. Sometimes overly puffy or thatchy lawns are more susceptible to rodent damage. It is probably too late to apply herbicide to your lawn, but a dormant fertilizer can still be done. Mowing also keeps the leaves shredded. Leaves that are not shredded will mat and can damage the turf beneath and it’s also a great way to take care of them. Shredded leaves are a great addition to your vegetable gardens too.

Late November is a good time to prune many deciduous plants. You will remember that we suggested you not prune in October, as is it just a bit too early. Now that the foliage is gone and you can see the form of the plants, it becomes less of a guessing game as to the branches that should be removed. You can renewal prune older, overgrown shrubs now by removing the oldest, tallest stems out to the ground, and allow the nice young branches to remain on plants like Aronia, Cotoneaster, Alpine currant, Dogwoods, Hazelnut, Honeysuckle, Ninebark, Potentilla, and Viburnums. You can also wait until spring on these plants. Spring flowering plants like Forsythias, Lilacs, and Mockorange should not be pruned until they are done blooming in spring – then cut back at that time. If you cut those plants now, you will be removing the spring bloom. Some shade trees can be pruned now, too. Ash, Crabapples, Hackberry, Hawthorn, Linden, Poplar and Willow are all candidates for fall pruning. Other trees like Alder, Birch, Nut trees, Elm, Honeylocust, Oak and Maples – you should wait until next year to prune. Watch the newsletter for the best time to prune these plants, please. We have a Pruning DVD that may help some folks with pruning also.

Lastly, remember that for any new landscape, renovation, or update, please start with a great new design from your local McKay representative. Good design is so becoming, adds much more value, and becomes quite obvious as your new landscape is completed. Maybe you know of someone who is moving, looking to improve their landscape, or maybe only looking for a rose bush or a new tree?…we have gift certificates available! What a great gift to give! Green gifts are all the rage, so why not treat your friends or family members to a living gift of live plants delivered right to their door at the proper planting time. We have many plants that are available as bare root (no soil on the roots, and dormant) that are boxed and shipped across the country. Bare root plants are an excellent value, and are easy to handle. We can also ship container grown plants in #1, #2, or #3 containers in specially designed boxes that ship UPS across the country. If you are sending someone in many parts of MN, northern IL, or most anywhere in WI a gift certificate, please know that in most of those areas, we can ship large balled and burlapped trees as well, right on our own trucks. Gift certificates are an excellent idea for an occasion. Your gift can be plant specific (a particular rose bush or specific cultivator of grape vine) or you can choose a specific dollar amount to be used toward a new landscape….the choice is yours.

We thank you for your business, and wish you good luck with your new plants from McKay Nursery Company. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday! – Tim Flood

1. Buy several bags of mulch to hold until its time to use them (later in November)
2. Don’t trim plants back this fall at all!
3. Wait until plants have been exposed to several killing frosts and/or foliage begins to color or drop.
4. If using rose cones, cut off the tops of the cones so the plants will stick out of them(Rose cones are not necessary, and if used incorrectly without cutting vent holes, the plants underneath can and will rot.)
5. Just before the soil begins to freeze (early to mid November), add soil from other part of the yard to the base of the plants, or add the mulch you purchased earlier to the base of the plants to form a mound of about a foot. You can also add marsh hay or leaves over the tops if these mounds, but not necessary. Watch for rodents throughout the winter months.
6. In spring, if cones were used, remove the cones and once new growth resumes, then is the time to cut back these plants down to healthy green stems down as far as 5 or 6inches. Pull soil and/or mulch away from the crown of the plants and watch them grow.

*Climbing roses (Blaze, Bright Eyes, Fourth of July, Golden Showers, Climbing Carefree Sunshine)(these are non hardy climbers) plus Ramblin’ Red (which is a red rose, hardy to Zone 4, which can be left up over the winter, or treated as suggested below).

1. Dig a trench near the base of the plant about 6-8″ deep.
2. Do not trim these plants
3. Wait until plants have been exposed to several killing frosts.
4. Gently pull the canes down to the trench you dug earlier as best as you can without breaking the canes off, and cover them with soil to fill the trench. You might need to use a brick or weight to help hold the canes down. You should also build a mound over the base of the canes (like the hybrid roses above).
5. In spring, just as these plants will start to begin growing, gently remove canes from the trench and put in the upright position once again. Flowers will be born on these canes that you protected over the winter. Once these canes have produced flowers (usually in June),these canes that just finished blooming can be removed down to the ground to allow new shoots to grow and develop from the base (these new shoots are the canes that you will be protecting the next fall). By removing the oldest flowering canes, it allows you to bend these younger canes over to bury much easier. You also maintain good young healthy canes, which produce the heaviest bloom.

There are three climbing roses that are perfectly hardy in our area and do not need to be protected during the winter months. Rose Setigera (the Prairie Rose is not a true climber,but is treated the same), William Baffin pillar type rose, and Ramblin’ Red, our newest selection from the same man who introduced Knockout Rose. This one you may want to winter protect the first winter just to get it through they first year in good shape. These roses are great plants for training on fences, arbors, pergolas, or posts. The key is to remove the oldest wood after the June bloom and allow the nice young shoots to come up from the base to replace the stems you cut out. Any questions can be directed to the nursery.

Maintaining a healthy, environmentally beneficial lawn requires proper maintenance techniques, from mowing and watering to fertilizing.

When Should You Fertilize Your Lawn?
The most effective time to apply fertilizer to your lawn depends on where you are geographically located and the type of grass you have. The best time to fertilize warm-season grasses is mid-summer; for cool-season grasses, it is late spring or early fall.

What Type and How Much Fertilizer Should You Use?
Lawns within each geographic or climatic region of the country are different. By contacting your state’s agricultural extension agency, you can learn procedures for conducting a soil sampling and analysis to determine your lawn’s fertility needs. At the very least, ask your local lawn & garden retailer which fertilizer is best and when it should be applied.

Proper Application
To assure uniform coverage with either a broadcast spreader or a drop spreader: Adjust the spreader application dial to one-half of the fertilizer bags’ recommended setting, and make the first application in an up-and-down (vertical) pattern, covering the entire lawn. Begin the second application immediately, in a left-to-right (horizontal) pattern covering the same area again.