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Finding Common Ground with Native Landscaping
In the gardening off season now, you have a chance to think about the big picture of what you want for your landscape. Consider a plan that resonates with the general public by finding common ground...
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A Native Shade Garden
In Kansas, the benefits of shade are obvious. If you step outside on a summer afternoon, you will quickly move under the canopy of a large shade tree. The sun can be intense. We love the shade that...
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Are Native Plants Really Drought-Tolerant?
I love prairie plants and I encourage people to use them in their landscapes. Native plants have so many excellent qualities. I see their benefits in the plantings we have throughout the Arboretum....
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The Bees’ Needs: Garden Tips for Creating Habitat
Last month the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was added to the endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This bumble bee use to roam the vast grasslands of the Midwest,...
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Six Native Groundcovers That Thrive in the Sun
As you think about your native landscape, taller plants are easier to plug into the design. There are more choices from which you can add diversity, color, texture and habitat. These taller layers...
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Growing Berries in the Backyard
Berries are my favorite addition to the production garden – they are the perfect topping for ice cream and yogurt and make delicious pies! But they can be expensive to source from the grocery store and...
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Partner Perennials
As the weather warms up and perennials begin to sprout I find myself in the gardening mood! Whether filling in gaps in an existing garden bed or planting up a new area, knowing which plants will look...
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How to Create a Beautiful and Sustainable Garden
With growing season and FloraKansas on the horizon, we have been asking a few questions of ourselves over the past few months about native plants. Certainly, we have seen the benefits of using native...
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Do Native Grasses Help Pollinators?
I love native grasses. Grasses make dramatic focal points when mixed into garden beds or planted individually. They pull the landscape design together and provide movement within the garden. Over the...
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How to Create a Rain Garden
During a typical rainstorm, water is removed from your roof through downspouts and drains. Then the water runs off your lawn, which may have been treated with pesticides and fertilizers. This water...
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The Social Network for Plants
One of the landscaping trends for 2018 is the idea that plants are members of a complex social network. No, they are not on Facebook, Instagram or tweeting about the conditions on their side of the...
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Predator Gardens
Pollinator gardens are the current craze, and rightly so! Pollinators of all shapes and sizes are desperately in need of good quality habitat. But it’s not all beautiful butterflies and buzzing bees –...
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What Are The Benefits of Hedges?
As you design your landscape, one of the first questions to consider is the need for screens and hedges. Do you need to block an undesirable vista or define an area? Do you need to line a path or...
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An Annual Dilemma
A recent September Dyck Arboretum trip to Kansas City and the home of Lenora Larson spurred for me a dilemma regarding landscaping with non-native annual plants. I have typically spurned the use of...
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The Trade-off Plants Make to Survive
Gardening is a learning process. I have been working at the Arboretum for nearly 25 years and I am still learning new things. Wildflowers and grasses, as it turns out, live in communities. They grow...
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Inspiring Landscapers
This Saturday, February 24 at our Native Plant Landscaping Symposium, 10 inspiring landscapers will share their native plant gardening stories. A common thread of these landscapers/gardeners (I use...
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Design Essentials For Small Gardens
One of the takeaways from last Saturday’s Native Plant Symposium was that every garden is different. Each landscape takes on the unique vision of the owner. It is cared for with love or neglect and...
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What is the Key to Native Plant Happiness?
One of the questions we get every year at the FloraKansas Native Plant Festival, is “why didn’t my ___ come back this year?” It is a great question. Every year at the Arboretum, we ask the same...
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Can A Shade Garden Be Created In Kansas?
“I have shade in my yard, what can I grow?” We get this question every year at our FloraKansas Plant Festivals and I admit it is a challenge to come up with plants that will thrive in shade. The...
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10 Lessons for Urban Native Plant Meadows
Katie Kingery-Page I heard a great presentation this last Saturday entitled “10 Lessons for Urban Native Plant Meadows” by Katie Kingery-Page, Kansas State University (KSU) faculty member in the...
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