The Kansas Peony is a gorgeous, award winning, flower. It will bloom for 7-10 days in late spring to early summer. Enjoys full sun but doesn ’t mind a slight shade. This flower is mostly pest resistant, but you ’ll have to watch out for diseases like peony wilt. It ’s low maintenance, but you may want to trim dead flowers for the best experience and be sure to trim the vegetation after it has died in fall. Plant it in a rich well drained soil and you ’ll have a jaw droppingly colored addition to your garden, that you can cut for use in vases.
The Double Play Blue Kazoo Spirea is a low-maintenance deciduous shrub that will add a subtle beauty to the area around it. The delicate white blooms of summer are gorgeous, while the myriad colors of the leaves are wonderfully unique until they turn into a terrific shade of red for the fall. It loves full sunlight and well-drained soils but can handle light shade and an assortment of soil conditions just fine. It’s perfectly suited as a low hedge, or as a background piece around other plants. Pests and disease rarely bother the plant, so it’s perfect for planting without worry. Make sure to deadhead the flowers, and provide some pruning here and there, as it only flowers on new wood. Learn more here.
The Raspberry Wine Bee Balm is a wonderful perennial that grows best in full sun to half sun/half shade. It doesn ’t mind getting wet but doesn ’t do well in dry conditions so make sure you keep it watered in the dog days of summer. With a long blooming season, from early summer to early fall, this red flowered plant is one that grows quick and easy, so much so that it can take over flower beds in the South with long growing seasons. Make sure you split it up every few years to keep your other plants happy, and you can give away the removed portions, or plant them in other areas. It maxes out at 30 ” tall, and the leaves can even be added to teas for extra flavor. The deer and rabbits won ’t bother it, and the pollinators in the area will love them.
The Pink Sparkles Crabapple will attract pollinators with its gorgeous pink blossoms all through spring, with fruit that remains into winter for the wildlife.
Growing to about 14 ’ tall and 10 ’ wide this is a great tree to add color to your yard in both spring and fall. Disease isn ’t an issue for this species, so don ’t worry about that, but do make sure it gets full sun
Photo courtesy of mckaynursery.com
The Blue Point Juniper is a sturdy choice of evergreen. It can handle most soils but doesn’t like high moisture. It has a low spread, only 4′-5′ on average, but grows to 12′ tall in the right conditions. It is somewhat slow growing though, with a growth rate of about 6 € a year. Use this drought-resistant disease-resistant tree to block out noise and nosy neighbors, or just to have a beautiful tree to look at. Make sure it gets plenty of sun.
