Autumn color with ornamental kale

It’s time to start thinking about kale—fall is here and that means winter is right around the corner. We need to lay a foundation of color that will get us through those dreary cold months that are on the horizon, and ornamental kale has the chops to do it. This is a winter survivor that just gets better looking the colder it gets. 

‘Silver Bush’

During the Christmas holidays this year you’ll notice a new component in a number of our arrangements—‘Silver Bush’. Take one look and I think you’ll see why we were drawn to this unique plant. Normally to get foliage like this for our winter designs we need to bust out the silver spray paint.

‘Mammoth® Daisy Dark Bronze’

Now, if that ‘Key Lime’ mum last week struck your fancy it’s safe to say that you’re a mum enthusiast—I think we all are this time of year. Unfortunately, many of the décor mums we use in autumn displays have been bred to be scarecrow arm candy; they’re colorful but not very hardy. Instead of being planted in landscape beds most sit in pumpkin-side pots and wind up being discarded at the end of the season.

‘Daisy Lavender’

Mammoth® mums are different—they’re perennials and they’re big. These plants completely fill the pot, with the classic mum dome of color over the top. Unlike many décor mums, Mammoths® perform exceptionally well in landscaping beds, coming back dependably year after year with even more flowers.

‘Daisy Quill Yellow’

You can expect these mums to reach about 2–3 feet high with a spread of at least 4 feet—large enough to create a dense, bushy hedge if you plant them close together. They were developed by breeders at the University of Minnesota to be hardy down to -30°F, so they easily survive our Cincinnati winters.

‘Daisy Coral’

As you can see, Mammoths® match or surpass décor mums in flower power; however, don’t let all those pretty daisy-style blooms fool you—these plants are tough. Over the years we’ve planted them in the worst soil we could find—all hard and clay-like near some broken concrete—and they came back like gangbusters. True to the Mammoth® name, with each successive year we see more flowers than the year before and we never need to deadhead. 

Keep in mind, it can be difficult to find Mammoths®—few growers choose to carry them because they don’t pack, stack, and rack onto standard carts easily like their decorative counterparts. We have a fondness for these garden mums—they remind us of days gone by—so we continue to grow them for those who share that sentiment. It’s interesting to note that butterflies are Mammoth® fans as well.

Pretty yet tough—a mum for mum enthusiasts

We have the following Mammoth® varieties shipping in the 8-inch pot: 

‘Daisy Coral’—coral pink blooms with yellow centers

‘Daisy Dark Bronze’—russet-orange flowers with gold centers

‘Daisy Lavender’—rich lavender-rose blooms with yellow centers

‘Quill Daisy Yellow’—bright yellow, quilled daisy flowers with yellow centers and unusual spoon-shaped ray florets

Some options for shade

Last week we talked about our display bed for full sun, but shade tends to be more challenging when it comes to landscape design. Over the summer, we experimented with varying degrees of shade in several of our display beds so let’s take a look at a couple of them to see what kind of options are available.

Here’s a garden that’s playing off the purple and orange color palette of another one nearby, but this bed has a little more shade to it. Only at about 3:30 in the afternoon does it start getting sun and therein lies the problem: it’s the hot sun, so this is a hard bed to fill—it’s had shade all morning.