Most of your landscape will go dormant this winter which means that it is a perfect time to prune your trees and shrubs, both for their health and to maintain their shape, if necessary. Whispering Springs Nursery has tips for you on the plants that you should and shouldn’t get your clippers out for when the weather turns cold.

Fruits

North Georgia is wine country. Many people have grapes growing in their backyard, whether for wine making or just for fun, and the benefit from a healthy dose of pruning in the winter. Training the plants to develop a main stem with several lateral arms is best for their health and production. Prune close to the lateral arms to produce the best fruit later in the year. Your amount of pruning should be relative to the amount of growth the particular grape variety typically produces.

Blue berries and other bush berries produce best on stems that are three years old or less. Each winter, cut about a third of the oldest stems off at ground level to encourage new growth.

Your deciduous fruit trees should be pruned midwinter. You’ll be removing some of the blooms, but allowing more light into the plant to produce a better crop of fruit. To prevent disease while pruning, dip your garden shears into rubbing alcohol.

Roses

Leave your roses to fend for themselves until after their spring bloom. This is the only time that they should be pruned to prevent damage.

Hydrangeas

Most veteran gardeners know that hydrangeas bloom on old wood, so if you prune them in the winter or early spring you’ll be removing flower buds. The best time for pruning is before midsummer, unless you’re growing an Endless Summer Series in which case the timing of your pruning is less critical because they bloom on both new and old growth.

Summer-Blooming Trees and Shrubs

Crape myrtles, butterfly bush, and potentilla produce their flowers on the new growth from the current season. This fact means that winter is a great time for pruning while the plants are dormant. You can even cut them all the way to the ground in late winter and they’ll still bloom in the summer.

Do you have a question about how to prune a particular plant in your landscape? Give us a call at Whispering Springs Nursery in Jasper, Georgia. We’d be happy to talk you through what your plants need from you this winter. Or, schedule us to come out and take care of your landscape maintenance for you and all you have to do is appreciate your freshly trimmed plants!

When it comes to landscaping, your yard can look drab in the late fall and winter if you haven’t planted accordingly. Many times, this happens to novice gardeners in the Jasper, Georgia area because they don’t know how to choose plants and shrubs that look beautiful year round – with or without flowers. Whispering Springs Nursery carries all types of shrubs, bushes, and trees that look great all year, and add color to your landscape with their beautiful foliage.

Right here in the Big Canoe area, we have a large population of deer – as you probably know. To keep our landscapes intact, you must be careful to choose plants that hopefully the deer and other wildlife will ignore in favor of more delicious indigenous species. The wine and roses weigelia is a great option that will add interest to your landscape through the fall and the deer don’t seem to like it very much. It has dark purple foliage from spring to fall and is speckled with pink flowers in the spring and summer. It also holds up well to drought.

Barberries are beautiful, but thorny. You don’t want to plant these bushes in front of anything that you’ll need to get to on a regular basis like a propane tank or electric meter. The ‘Rose Glow’ barberry has purple foliage that is splashed with pink and white. There are many other types of barberries with various colored leaves, and you can surely find one that matches your landscaping theme.

A few other options that look great in your landscape all year long are: Spirea, beautybush, dappled willows, and the variegated false holly. Take a picture of your Jasper, Georgia landscape and bring it with you to Whispering Springs. We will help you pick out the perfect plants to take your yard from drab to fab! Feeling overwhelmed? We do professional landscape design and installation too! Just give us a call to set up a consultation.

Img: Spirea via Flickr.

When it comes to Fall planting you will hear over and over again recommendations to plant pansies and violas. If you didn’t know better, these beautiful, cool season flowers would appear exactly the same to the uneducated eye. Whispering Springs Nursery in Jasper, GA wants to let you in on the secrets about this flowers so you can know the difference, and make an educated decision when you go to plant them in your pansy/viola flower beds this weekend.

Pansies

Pansies have bigger blooms than their viola counterparts, but they also have fewer blooms. They take a bit longer to spread, but are certainly cold hardy. We have some experience with the new variety of Wave Pansies and we have mixed reviews about them. While they will explode in the Spring, spreading up to two feet wide. They look beautiful if planted in a container, trailing over the edge and spilling out a cascade of color. This year, the breeders have introduced even more colors in the Wave variety, as last year there were only two colors to choose from. The problems we’ve seen with the Wave pansies is that if they are not planted correctly at the right time in the Fall, they grow too leggy and fill freeze in the winter. While they will come back in the Fall, it defeats the purpose of planting cold weather hardy pansies in the first place.

Violas

If a client asks us which we recommend, we will always lean towards violas. While the general public tend to choose pansies because they have those larger faces, violas have more blooms, perform better, fill in faster, and look better earlier than pansies.  The ‘pansy’ name is way more common in the market than violas, but Whispering Springs Nursery encourages you – the educated consumer – to reach towards violas for your landscape. They are proven to perform better in your landscape every time!

Img via Flickr.

Your warm weather plants are just about done for the year. What are you going to do in your landscape or container garden to keep the color going throughout the winter months? Plant a selection of annuals! Pansies are the go to choice when it comes to adding color in the winter months, but primroses are gaining in popularity. Whispering Springs wants you to know more about this versatile plant so you can add it to your collection.

Where to Plant

Primroses are technically considered a perennial, but because they often don’t make it through the hot summers – especially here in Jasper, GA  – they are more often treated as an annual. They prefer to be planted in a semi-shaded area in loamy soil, but will also tolerate average to poor soil conditions. If they are planted in a particularly moist, shady environment, they might hold up throughout the summer.

Choosing a Primrose

The primrose family consists of about 400 varieties. They have dark green, crisp leaves and brightly colored flowers. They don’t mind rain and they won’t be attacked by slugs either. Some common species include fairy primrose, German primrose, and English primroses. Some stand tall, near 8 inches, while others stay closer to the ground, blooming on stems that are only 3 inches long.

In addition to primroses and pansies, if you’d like to add a wider variety of colors and selections to your winter landscaping, select ornamental kale, snapdragons, and calendulas. We’ve got lots to choose from here at our Jasper, GA garden center, so we hope to see you visiting soon!

As we’re sure you’ve heard, Fall is prime time for planting. Now is the time to make any hardscape additions to your landscape such as trees and shrubs. To help make your Jasper, Georgia landscape design a success, Whispering Springs has some tips for you on the best way to plant trees. 

If your tree has a root ball that is wrapped in burlap, determine if the burlap is natural or synthetic. Natural burlap repels water and should be removed from the upper portion of the root ball. If the burlap is synthetic, it should be removed completely so it does not restrict root growth.

When you dig the hole for your trees, it should be equal to or slightly lesser than the height of the root ball. Do not disturb the soil at the bottom of the hole. Make the hole two to three times wider than the root ball, giving the roots space to spread and grow.

If you notice that the roots have “circled” around the root ball or container that the tree was planted in, it is best to cut about 4 slices into the root ball, each about 1-2 inches deep. This promotes new root development.

When you’ve gotten your new tree or shrub in its hole, backfill the soil, making sure that you brake up any dirt clods first. Fill the hole halfway and tamp the soil, then fill the rest of the way and tamp again, ensuring that there are no air pockets.

Make sure that you are completely watering your new tree for the next several months. It needs 2 gallons of water per inch of trunk diameter every day for two weeks, then ever other day for two months, and finally once a week until it has become established.

Right now at Whispering Springs Nursery we have a wide selection of trees and shrubs ready for planting in your Canton, GA landscape. Come pick some out today and we’ll be happy to deliver and even install them at your Jasper, Georgia home!

Img via Flickr.

Whispering Springs Nursery was established in 2000 by the Grno family in Jasper, GA. James Grno heads up our landscape division and brings with him his many years of custom carpentry and woodworking experience.

There is no landscape design project too big or too small for Whispering Springs and James Grno. We specialize in woodland gardens and great landscapes that blend into the natural environment, while adding to the beauty of your home, office, or neighborhood. As a skilled carpenter, James can build you something beautiful that brings your dreams to life. He has experience with arbors, pergolas, decks, fences, gates, benches, and screens.

Why Add Custom Woodwork to Your Landscape?

Adding a custom creating to your landscape makes your design one of a kind, and adds a dynamic element into your design. A bench allows you to interact with your landscape while you sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the birds sing in the morning, or enjoy a book on a cool, Fall afternoon. Designing a pergola or arbor not only adds architectural structure to your landscape, but will also give your vines and roses something to climb on to show off their blooms. Fencing can be both serve a purpose of keeping animals in and/or provide a decorative accent to the border of your landscape or property line. Adding a deck to your home will improve the appearance of your house and will add a new entertainment space to your yard.

Have you been dreaming of a custom carpentry creation for your landscape? Call us at Whispering Springs Nursery in Jasper, GA and tell us about your ideas for your landscape. We’d love to help you come up with the perfect landscape design!

After you have finally raked your last leaf and pruned your last perennial, it will be time to put away all of your garden tools. Rather than just throwing them into the garden shed and leaving them to rust until next year, Whispering Springs Nursery in Jasper, GA has three tips on how to best store your tools this winter. 

Precision Pruning

Your pruning tools should be put away clean and freshly sharpened. This will prevent rust build up over the winter and will give you fresh tools to start gardening with in the spring. Before stowing your shears, thoroughly clean and oil them. To sharpen the blades, you can either use a knife sharpener, or simply slice through a sheet of sandpaper a few times.

Shiny Shovels

To keep shovels and trowels looking new, scrub off all of ht e rust and mud with a wire brush. When you are ready to store them, first tip them in a bucket of sand mixed with a little lightweight machine oil to preserve their sharp edges and protect against rust damage.

Gear Down Gasoline Engines

When the cold weather strikes, you won’t be likely to use any of your gas powered garden machinery like weed eaters or lawn mowers. To keep them ready to run, winterize the engines by running them until they are empty, or you can fill the tank with gas and add fuel stabilizer. Remove the spark plugs, pour a teaspoon of oil into the cylinder, turn the engine over several times, and replace the spark plugs.

Plants are what makes the garden beautiful, but you’d never get them in the ground with out your favorite trowel, and they’d be looking wild without a good pair of shears. Use these tips from Whispering Springs Nursery to keep all of your garden tools in great shape until they are ready to come out and play again next Spring.

What are you favorite bulbs to plant in the Fall?

It’s the time when days are getting shorter and the temperatures are getting cooler. Your garden will soon be seeing its last of summer flowers and it will be time to start checking things off of your Fall garden clean up list. This is Whispering Springs Nursery’s list of top ten things that we like to do in our Fall gardens before they are put to bed for the winter:

1. Add leaves and grass clippings to your compost pile.
2. Before the first frost comes (usually mid to late October for our region) dig and harvest all of your veggies. Place any green tomatoes on a shelve in a cool area so they can ripen slowly.
3. Mulch your roses and tender perennials with peat moss or straw to help prevent winter damage.
4. Stake any newly-planted trees to help them get through their first winter.
5. Pull up annuals and prune perennials
6. Do final raking of leaves and make a to do list of projects for the spring.
7. Remove old fruiting cane of berry bushes. Prune grape and blueberries.
8. Give all of your plants a good drink, especially your trees. Just because it’s cooler, doesn’t mean they don’t need moisture!
9. Shop for your favorite bulbs. Make sure you choose a variety that will bloom in early, mid, and late spring.
10. Plant hardscape and give the trees and shrubs time to become established before having to weather the summer heat.

Did we leave off one of your big Fall garden “to-dos”? Leave it in the comments below! Or, come by Whispering Springs Nursery in Jasper, GA and tell us about it! We’d love to help you with your Fall gardening and planning for the Spring.

Squirrels. Squirrels everywhere! They are in the trees, on your bird feeders, and in your birdbaths. You’ve even taken precautions against the cute, but still annoyingly pesky critters and bought “squirrel proof” bird feeders that had virtually no effect. Up here in Jasper, GA, Whispering Springs Nursery knows exactly how you feel about these rodents, and we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves to help you keep them away from your precious bird seed.

squirrel eating from bird feeder (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5-7-9

Believe it or not, squirrels actually do have limits as far as how far they can jump up, over, or drop down. According to wildlife biologists, squirrels cannot jump more than 5 feet off of the ground onto a baffled feeder, and they are reluctant to drop down more than 9 feet. So, when placing your feeder, try to put it at least 7 feet from a tree or house and make it at least 5 feet tall and you will eliminate many squirrels ability to even reach the bird seed.

Soda Bottle

Despite their best acrobatic efforts, a simple soda bottle placed around the wires leading to your bird feeders will deter even the most graceful of squirrels. As your furry friends climb along the wires to the bird feeder, they will hit the soda bottle and roll right off! Keep in mind the first rule though, and make sure the feeder is at least nine feet below their nearest drop off branch or roof.

Slinky Trick

Threading the post of the bird feeder stand through the slinky will give the squirrels a downward ride every time. Attach one end of the slinky to the bottom of the feeder and when the squirrels try to climb up the post to the feeder, they will ride back to the ground on the slinky every time.

Cage in Your Feeder

A small sized wire mesh – like hardware cloth – will be perfect to protect your feeders from the squirrels. It will be large enough to allow the birds in, but small enough to keep the squirrels and big bully birds out.

Try out these anti-squirrel methods on your bird feeders – either one or all of them – and let us know what kind of success you have. You should be able to finally enjoy watching the birds feast on you feeders, and make the squirrels go back to watching from the trees.

The days are growing shorter and as soon as the time changes on November 3rd, the sun will be going down at nearly 5:30 pm leaving us with several hours of darkness before we are all actually ready for bed. So during these dark evening hours, don’t let your landscape go unappreciated. Whispering Springs Nursery can install a low voltage lighting system to highlight your beautiful home and landscape, even in the dark hours of the mornings and evenings.

When you’re ready to install lighting in your landscape, your first decision you have to make is where do you put it? Here are a three ideas that you should keep in mind when you plan your outdoor lighting at your Jasper, GA home:

1. Make it Eye-Catching

   When your neighbors pass your house, you want them to stop and take a second look at the beautiful place you’ve created. Approach your landscape from a creative direction, and try to make the light accentuate the most unique features of your home.

2. Guide Your Way

   Landscape lighting not only creates beauty, but of course also serves a purpose. Adding lighting to the foot paths around your home and your from your driveway to your house will help you get in and around your house with and early sunset.

3. Mix and Match Your Style

   Using different types of lighting helps create interest and avoid a monotonous appearance. If you use lights on stakes, you can simply pull them up and move them around each year if plant growth has blocked the light.

Whispering Springs Nursery would love to help you create interest in your landscape with the perfect lighting. Give us a call today to schedule a design consultation!