This Summer's Trend is Color in Mendota Heights-Area Gardens

The economy may be giving some people the blues, but local gardeners are finding ways to chase them away—with reds, oranges and bright greens.

Nursery managers Nicole Harich, owner of the on Sibley Memorial Highway and Noelle Mortensen from Southview Garden Center in West St. Paul said that this summer, the foremost gardening trends they’ve seen with their Mendota Heights customers are bright colors for decorative pots, bird baths and other garden accessories.

“The biggest thing is people buying pretty, bright-colored things to make them happy,” Mortensen said. “Especially popular are these darling little handmade pottery mushrooms, called ‘Shroomyz." The Shroomyz are used as color accents on lawns and in gardens.

Both managers agree that the big trend this year for flowering plants have been the hydrangeas—perennial shrubs with large flowers that bloom from mid-summer through the fall.

When the weather turns cold, hydrangeas flowers dry naturally on the plant making them attractive, even during the winter. Dried, they can be used to make Christmas decorations and wreaths.

The new look in hydrangeas is also lots of color, with the biggest sellers being the "Vanilla-Strawberry" hydrangea with a mix of bright pink and white flowers, the "Great Star" with large wavy windmill flowers that fade to pink and "Limelight," a late-summer bloomer with bright, lime-green blossoms. “They also grow and fill in pretty quickly. We carry bigger plants so there’s instant gratification,” said Harich.

In addition to hydrangeas, said Mortensen, gardeners are choosing anything with a red leaf, like the Minnesota-hardy barberry and weigelas. Gardeners are also looking for flowers with a long bloom time so the color will continue through the growing season.

The down economy has also caused a spike in the popularity of fruit and vegetable gardening, especially organic gardens. 

“Blueberries are becoming popular,” said Harich. “They have pretty flowers in the spring and berries in the summer. People are growing  heirloom tomatoes and zucchinis.

"It’s part economic, but part of it is that people want to know where their food is coming from and what’s on it. There’s been a lot in the news about pesticides, so people feel safer eating things that they know about.” 

Mortensen says that raised-bed gardening is usually more trouble than it’s worth. “Raised beds,” she said, “(are) trendy. But, the real reason to do raised beds is if the soil is poor or rocky and you need to haul in good soil to fill the beds.

"Most soil in Minnesota is good growing soil. There’s really no better place for your vegetables is to plant them right into the ground.”

For those who don’t have much garden area or who don’t want to put in a lot of time or effort, Mortensen said that many herbs, flowers and vegetables like peppers or tomatoes can thrive in pots.

“That’s the trend with seniors, who many not have the ability or garden space. But, there are young folks who are too busy to garden. They can water a pot instead of putting in lots of time in a garden,” she said.

Harich said that she sees a trend for next year toward unpretentious garden designs with fewer plants. “Some years it’s a tropical and abundant feel, but I think that next year the style might be simpler.”

Mortensen says that she’s for anything to get people started in gardening as a hobby but doesn’t think of herself as a serious gardener concerned with perfection.

“The really good gardeners I know are people who don’t get all wound up if something they try doesn’t work. They know that Mother Nature has her hand in it, too.”