City gardens inspire home planting
If you want some ideas about flowers to plant at home that will endure the vagaries of Lincoln’s climate, check out the Strolling Garden in Antelope Park.
The garden, just north of the formal rose garden currently under renovation, features many varieties of hardy shrub ro-ses that are disease-, pest- and drought-resistant and require little pruning or special care.
You’ll find the Easy Elegance series of roses, which have very showy blooms in many colors, ranging from creamy white and light pink to magenta and deep red. The garden also has many varieties of Knock Out roses, which are among the easiest to grow shrub roses, in both single- and double-bloomed varieties.
Many of the roses on display there also can be found in medians and park plantings all around the city, said Mark Canney, a planner with the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department.
Interspersed among the 55 varieties of roses are more than 150 different kinds of perennials, chosen to present a parade of blooms from spring through fall.
“We never use fertilizer or bug spray” in the Strolling Garden, said Steve Nosal, city horticulturist. “It’s a test garden for plants that are very low-maintenance. It’s a gift to the city, to show people what will grow here.”
Many of the low-maintenance perennials on display there can be found throughout Lincoln, in streetside plantings and other places that are difficult to irrigate.
Two very hardy examples are Walker’s low catmint, with its purple sprays of blooms and sage-like scented leaves, and its more petite cousin Kit Kat, with shorter flower stalks and a more compact growth pattern.
Other flowers in the garden that thrive without extra water or fertilizer include bellflower, Russian sage, several types of rudbeckia, yarrows, gaillardia (blanket flower), sedums, perennial geraniums, coneflowers, many varieties of daylilies and a wide range of ornamental grasses that are native or adapted to the Great Plains.
Later this month, labels will be installed throughout the Strolling Garden so visitors can take notes of plants they might want to try planting at home.
Another place to get good ideas about drought-tolerant plants is the Waterwise Landscape Garden adjacent to the Lincoln Water System Service Center at North 27th and Fair streets.
That garden, developed by the Mayor’s Water Conservation Task Force, includes many native grasses and wildflowers as well as other species adapted to Nebraska’s climate. Brochures on waterwise gardening are available at the service center desk and at local nurseries.
The Downtown Lincoln Association, which cares for 66 blocks of street plantings in central Lincoln, is also developing a demonstration area of low-maintenance perennials.
On 13th Street between R Street and Lincoln Mall, existing plants are being replaced by native and adaptable species that are drought tolerant and will save watering costs, said George Pinkerton, maintenance director for DLA.
The new plantings are being installed through a grant from the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, he said.
The demonstration plantings will replace more typical streetside shrubs and flowers, such as roses, cotoneasters, fragrant sumac and spirea, he said.
The new plants include grasses such as Little bluestem, Autumn red miscanthus and several varieties of switchgrass, goldenrod, asters, blanketflowers, Missouri primrose, Pasque flowers and butterfly milkweed, to name a few.
The plants will be labeled, and photos and descriptions eventually will be available on the DLA Web site, www.downtownlincoln.org.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.
The garden, just north of the formal rose garden currently under renovation, features many varieties of hardy shrub ro-ses that are disease-, pest- and drought-resistant and require little pruning or special care.
You’ll find the Easy Elegance series of roses, which have very showy blooms in many colors, ranging from creamy white and light pink to magenta and deep red. The garden also has many varieties of Knock Out roses, which are among the easiest to grow shrub roses, in both single- and double-bloomed varieties.
Many of the roses on display there also can be found in medians and park plantings all around the city, said Mark Canney, a planner with the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department.
Interspersed among the 55 varieties of roses are more than 150 different kinds of perennials, chosen to present a parade of blooms from spring through fall.
“We never use fertilizer or bug spray” in the Strolling Garden, said Steve Nosal, city horticulturist. “It’s a test garden for plants that are very low-maintenance. It’s a gift to the city, to show people what will grow here.”
Many of the low-maintenance perennials on display there can be found throughout Lincoln, in streetside plantings and other places that are difficult to irrigate.
Two very hardy examples are Walker’s low catmint, with its purple sprays of blooms and sage-like scented leaves, and its more petite cousin Kit Kat, with shorter flower stalks and a more compact growth pattern.
Other flowers in the garden that thrive without extra water or fertilizer include bellflower, Russian sage, several types of rudbeckia, yarrows, gaillardia (blanket flower), sedums, perennial geraniums, coneflowers, many varieties of daylilies and a wide range of ornamental grasses that are native or adapted to the Great Plains.
Later this month, labels will be installed throughout the Strolling Garden so visitors can take notes of plants they might want to try planting at home.
Another place to get good ideas about drought-tolerant plants is the Waterwise Landscape Garden adjacent to the Lincoln Water System Service Center at North 27th and Fair streets.
That garden, developed by the Mayor’s Water Conservation Task Force, includes many native grasses and wildflowers as well as other species adapted to Nebraska’s climate. Brochures on waterwise gardening are available at the service center desk and at local nurseries.
The Downtown Lincoln Association, which cares for 66 blocks of street plantings in central Lincoln, is also developing a demonstration area of low-maintenance perennials.
On 13th Street between R Street and Lincoln Mall, existing plants are being replaced by native and adaptable species that are drought tolerant and will save watering costs, said George Pinkerton, maintenance director for DLA.
The new plantings are being installed through a grant from the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, he said.
The demonstration plantings will replace more typical streetside shrubs and flowers, such as roses, cotoneasters, fragrant sumac and spirea, he said.
The new plants include grasses such as Little bluestem, Autumn red miscanthus and several varieties of switchgrass, goldenrod, asters, blanketflowers, Missouri primrose, Pasque flowers and butterfly milkweed, to name a few.
The plants will be labeled, and photos and descriptions eventually will be available on the DLA Web site, www.downtownlincoln.org.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.
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