 |
|
If you haven’t visited Oakcrest Gardens yet, your best gardening surprise of the season still awaits. Southeast of Glenwood, Iowa, we’re a manageable 30 minutes from downtown Omaha. Yet we’re far enough out of the city to be what we like to call ”a little bit wild.” Come see our display gardens and the plants we have for sale. A backdrop of rural countryside, nestled in the Loess Hills, surrounds our acreage. Even if you don’t take any plants home, we promise you won’t be disappointed. Maybe you’d like to see combinations of plants that do well in the shade. We have more than 50 varieties of shade perennials alone, many of which you might otherwise see only in books. We spend time searching out the unusual. Or maybe your landscape is a tricky mixture of full sun and part shade and nothing seems to quite work like you hoped it would. Our gardens will give you dozens of new ideas, and the confidence to pull off a stunning display of your own. We love to hear about our guests’ unique challenges. John has been growing and selling plants for his entire career, and operating from Oakcrest for 13 years. Phyllis joined the operation nine years ago, but has been growing plants successfully since she was four years old. Chances are we’ve struggled with some of the same challenges here that you face in your own garden and can save you several seasons of frustrating trial and error. Plan to look around our two acres of display gardens, production gardens and greenhouse for as long as you like. We’re unique in that we think of the people who come here more as guests than just folks we send home with plants. If you have time, listen to the wrens and look skyward at the old growth burr oak, hackberry, walnut, serviceberry and ash. We’re especially proud of our hosta fields. John and our part-time staff invest 40 or more hours a week keeping it perfectly weeded. The combination of Loess soil and decayed oak leaves that they grow in can’t be duplicated anywhere. Best of all, you choose the plant you want and John will dig it up for you on the spot. When you take it home, you have a mature hosta to enjoy this year, not at some point two or three years from now. We do understand budgets, though. If you’re not ready to invest in a full-sized hosta, we’ll provide smaller, yet generous, divisions that do well, too. After you’ve taken in the hosta fields, stop again to listen to the birds. Then wander over to the greenhouse. On your way, you’ll see sunny display gardens and pass through the area we call “the corral,” where a previous owner kept horses. The greenhouses overlook hundreds of lilies right now, and are home to dozens of unusual perennials that you can take home in pots. Even at mid-summer, our plants are showing the benefits of having been carefully looked after—they still look fresh and they have well-established root systems. We want to make sure guests go home with plants that will do well in their gardens. We get so busy that sometimes we forget to notice the view of the southeast Iowa countryside. But our guests bring a fresh outlook and remind us to take notice of the beautiful setting in which we are able to provide a unique experience for gardeners of all types. The plants are for sale. The view isn’t, but we’d love to share it with you.
See you soon. |
| This is a shade garden with some east sun in the morning and a little west sun in late afternoon. We call it our “Half & Half garden. It contains a mixture of plants that like full shade, half shade, and full sun. |  |
 |
One of our Hosta Production Fields |
| Hosta Production Field Number 2 |  |
 |
Hostas growing in one gallon containers in our Hosta House |
| John and Phyllis inside one of the Shade Houses |  |
 |
Phyllis and John in the Perennial Production Fields |
| John will dig a Hosta for you from the Production fields |
 |
 |
The plant you receive will be a generous, healthy division |
| John is careful to pack plants with extra T L C |
 |
|
As the previous photos show, our Nursery grows Hostas both in containers and in the field. Containerized plants are one gallon size, unless noted. Our field-dug clumps will usually be larger- sized plants which need to be re-planted as soon as you receive them. Soaking the roots in a bucket of water for an hour or two helps them become re-established in your garden. Container- grown plants can be allowed to wait awhile before being planted, as long as you water them daily . At this time, we can ship potted Hostas or divisions. We cannot ship huge, full-grown clumps. Please visit the nursery to see the lovely, full-grown Hostas we can offer you. A list is available upon request. Just email us at Phyllis@oakcrestgardens.com and ask for the Mature Hosta list. The benefit to our customers is that you receive a healthy, two year old (or larger) Hosta that is ready for your “instant garden”. These plants have healthy, well-developed root systems, allowing the plant to grow better for you and establish itself more quickly in your garden.. We also carry a complete inventory of perennials for both shade and sun. For example, for the 2003 growing season, we will offer 26 different Hardy Ferns, many varieties of Heucheras (Coral Bells), and several hard-to-find perennials for sun or shade. We constantly search for new, unusual, and HARDY plants that will perform well in your gardens. Look for our list of “New Plants” found on this web site.
|
 |
Perennial Gardens and Nursery 22871 Kane Avenue Glenwood, Iowa 51534 712-527-4974 Free Call from the Omaha area |
 |
