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A Garden-Worthy Perennial: Threadleaf Bluestar
Amsonia hubrichtii, the threadleaf bluestar, is one of my favorite plants. It was not well known among gardeners until the Perennial Plant Association named it the 2011 Plant of the Year. The species...
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False Indigo: Beautiful Baptisias Reach for the Sky
Every spring I marvel at the changing landscape, especially prairies that have been burned. A seemingly lifeless and brown prairie is turned black by fire and reduced to ashes. This important process...
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Scott’s Top Ten Sun-Loving Plants for Spring 2015
One of the themes this spring for planting is diversity. By planting a diversity of wildflowers and grasses in your garden, you will attract many different forms of wildlife, including pollinators and...
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Shade plants worth trying
There is always that area in your landscape that is shaded. These areas can be frustrating, because they don’t grow turf well leaving the soil bare. Here are a few good shade plants to spruce up that...
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Favorite Penstemons for the Landscape
Penstemons are beautiful spring blooming wildflowers that provide incredible color and attractive forms. I have been convinced through trial and error that some plants are more garden worthy than...
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Plant Profiles: Butterfly Milkweed
As I drove through the Flint Hills this week in late June, there were orange dots among the prairie grasses that caught my eye. Few plants found on the prairies of Kansas are as readily recognizable...
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Native Plant Alternatives for Three Common Non-Natives
One of the great things about native plants is that there is so much diversity found in the prairie. From wet to dry, sun to shade, clay to sand, there is a plant for every place in the landscape....
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Which Trees Should I Plant in Kansas?
The best time to plant trees and shrubs is in the late fall and early winter before the ground freezes. With proper watering and maintenance, newly established plants will get settled and acclimated to...
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Three Native Sedges Made for the Shade
One of the toughest areas to grow plants is in dry shade. There is a smaller plant palette that grows in these harsh conditions compared to more sunny locations in your yard. Root competition really...
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Silphiums: Four Pillars in the Tallgrass Prairie
2015 seems to be the year of the genus Silphium in the arboretum. In recent years, I can’t remember them looking so bright or growing so tall. With the spring and summer rains these sun-loving,...
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Asters: Autumn’s Crescendo
Mention fall blooms to most gardeners and they think of chrysanthemums. Blooming in September and October, “mums” are the major source of color in most late-season gardens. Another group of...
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Spring Flowering Native Plants
I love changes in the seasons. The dawn of spring, however – giving forth increased warmth, a variety of distinctive earthy to sweet smells, green and colorful sights, and sounds from many species of...
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Wonderful White Wildflowers
Our greenhouse is finally filling up, and what a sight! Little green sprouts are popping up in their pots, eager for more warm weather. By the time our plant sale rolls around the greenhouse will be a...
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Katie’s Plant Picks: Mint Family
Working in the Arboretum greenhouse is a terrible temptation. I love my perennial garden at home and I never stop adding new specimens, so our selection of natives and adaptables this year is a...
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Native Plant Combinations for the Landscape
Many people who visit our FloraKansas Plant Sale are very interested in converting their gardens to using native plants, but they often are unsure of which plants to put together and in what...
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Plant Profile: My Run-in With A Texas Buckeye
There are some experiences we will always remember and others we need to be reminded of from time to time. One of those experiences happened for me with the Texas Buckeye near the Arboretum parking...
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Plant profile: Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea)
Several years ago as I was preparing for our fall plant sale, I noted that I had a flat of 32 golden alexanders (Zizia aurea) ready for the sale. I went back three days later and could not find the...
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Trees for the Bees
Are native wildflowers the only plants that bees love? I knew the answer to this question is no, but needed a reminder. The other day as I was giving a tour at the arboretum. We had stopped next to a...
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Shrubs for Bees
A well-designed garden has many different forms, colors, heights, bloom times and textures. Plants are integrated in ever-changing combinations that should be appealing to us and the wildlife we are...
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Trees For the Kansas Home
At last year’s fall plant sale I convinced my father to plant some oak trees around his house where older shade trees are nearing the end of their lives. I told him to think ahead ten years: when the...
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