 And here tonight, we have Dr. Todd West, who is the head of the nationally-acclaimed woody plant improvement program of North Dakota State University, and Todd's going to share with us his insights on the best flowering shrubs for North Dakota. So, Todd, welcome to the forums. All right. Well, thank you, Tom. Pleased to be here. Good? All right. So, first, you know, we're going to do a little bit of background information. This is going to seem redundant, kind of dumb, but what's the difference between a tree and a shrub? So, a tree is defined as a woody plant with one main stem, generally 15-foot-tall, having a distinct head, whereas a shrub, we're looking at a multi-stemmed, generally, again, under 15-foot-tall. But then we get into that gray area, especially now with the tree forums, where they're putting all the shrubs on a standard, a single stem, what they call that standard, grafting it up high or training it up high, so we get that lollipop, that shrub on a stick. So, just starting out here, we mentioned springs on its way, so here's one of the first signs of spring, it's for Scythia. Beautiful shrub for about a week of the year. The other 99% of the time, maybe not so good-looking, but now, hey, look at there, now we got a shrub on a stick. So, this is what they call the standards, and a lot of the shrubs are ending up this way now. So, we'll touch on this a couple of times during the presentation. So, why do we plant shrubs? So, we can use it for screen, we can use them for direct traffic, we unify the space, basically the sprinkle effect on the cupcake. We really bring the landscape together. We can save space, we know yards are getting smaller, especially in the urban environment, and so we can fit more plant material in a smaller space. That photograph you see there, you can, in the bottom right, shows that standard, shrub on a stick, kind of an idea, allowing us to fit some really beautiful horticultural plants in a much smaller spot. And then dealing with the aesthetics, we have the foliage, we have the flowers, that's what we're going to be talking a lot about tonight, obviously with flowering shrubs, but then also some fruit as well, because with flowers, we often get some fruit, and we want to talk about that. So, here's a nice landscape bringing things together. The thing that's missing here though is some color. They do have shrubs, they have evergreens, they have deciduous, we have some trees, we have some multi-stem, we have some conifers, you know, there's a little bit of everything here, but not a lot of color, it's all shades of green. And what we want to avoid is the cookie cutter landscape, what we typically get with the builders today, where you're going to get the same three things, you're going to get your one little autumn blaze maple out front, and then nothing too exciting, so we want to avoid that. So some qualities that we want to look for in shrubs, predictable size and form, that's what makes them nice, rapid growth rate, easy transplant and establishment, minimal litter, we want to make sure they're not causing a mess in our landscape. We love gardening, but we don't want to garden too much, right? Resistant to attack by pests and disease, obviously we don't want to bring problems to our gardens. Non-allergenic, a lot of people can be allergic to the pollens, and so we have to be careful with that. Tolerant to the wide range of environmental conditions, again depending on where we have them in our landscape, and then excellent aesthetic features, and we also want to make sure we're not dealing with invasives. So some criteria, function, design elements, site conditions, plant features, tonight's main focus is plant features. So some of those features, foliage, flowers, fruit, bark, I know I'm going over this pretty quick, but we're just going to focus on the flowers tonight. We could talk about these other features, but the main thing really with shrubs is that we kind of want to have a multi-season interest. You know, it's nice to get the flowers, it's nice to have good foliage, it's nice to have good fall color, not every shrub's going to have that, but we try to maximize what we can. So tonight we're going to focus on the flowering shrubs. Now this is just a little bit of insight that I've pulled. Again, these are not going to work in every single condition. They're not going to work in every location through the state, but it's a nice overview and also introducing some, maybe some shrubs that you've overlooked or maybe not have come in contact with. And hopefully some of these will be a review. So this one should be a review. We have several different for Scythia now. We have the NDSU Meadowlark. Northern Sun has also been out for quite a while. Both are really hearty, good choices for us. We want to stay away from the hybrids, the ex-intermediate. They don't have the bud hardiness for us. But again, these are going to be larger shrubs. And with any of the for Scythias that are not on the standard, that shrub on a stick, we really want to put them in a location where they can shine early in the spring with those flowers and then fade away. Because it is what I always say, it's a shrubby shrub. It's not the most attractive shrub once the flowering is done. The nice thing is it does tolerate deer. It's very prune tolerance. You can shape it. So it does have some good qualities, but a bigger shrub and not a lot going for it once it does finish flowering. And again, here's back to that same picture of the Northern Sun on a standard. So allowing you to maybe control it a little bit better, keeping it into a better size. Unfortunately, though, it needs some good staking to develop. Because again, it wants to be a shrub. It also can sucker, too. So it's a little bit more maintenance than just planting it and forgetting. Potentillus, a lot of potentillus out there. Great thing about them. Long season of flowering, very low maintenance. Doesn't require much water, tolerant to deer, tracks butterflies. A lot of good things going for it. Here's a pretty popular one that's still available in the market. Again, an NDSG release. I don't want to focus on just that tonight. But just kind of look at some other ones. So there are a lot of different colors available. Pink beauty. I don't know if the color is showing up across the state there. But the pink, it actually is a really nice pink. From what I'm seeing, and maybe it's just the light in my eyes, but it doesn't look as pink as what I think it should. And what a better way to go is with mango tango. It's just fun to say. Hey, I got a mango tango. But a really nice orange. And then the happy face is a newer potentillus. That's a nice white. So again, we don't have to be stuck with the same old yellow potentilla. We can use a lot of different colors. They're very florific. Bloom time, again, even past frost in a nice protected spot. Rotodendron. University of Minnesota has done a lot of work with the Northern Lights series. Again, we have to be a little bit weary on the hardiness component here. Zone four wouldn't really go probably a zone three with these. Also, they need good drainage. They can't handle the wet feet. There's a lot of root diseases. So we want to get them up where they can get drainage out of a kind of raised bed. But again, nothing really can beat a nice rotodendron. The Canadian artist series Rose. There's several of them. This is my favorite. I really like the Campfire Rose. Their breeding rose is now to be a lot less problematic. More disease resistant, a lot less work. Don't have to worry about hardiness. This one's hardy to zone three. What I like about it is the color change. It starts out in a tighter bud, more of a yellow. And as it opens up, it turns into a yellow pink and then eventually we'll go to a pink and it's supposed to resemble a Campfire. It's a very, very attractive rose. Again, with a lot less maintenance of our traditional roses from the past. And also boasts that will attract hummingbirds. Wigila. This is again another one where you could do zone four. If you're in a zone three, I would be a little hesitant, maybe in a spot that's more protected. But there's a lot of new ones out. This is kind of one of the standards now is red prints. Really nice dark red color, medium sized shrub. We're looking at, well, medium to large, five to six foot. But really nice accent and it blooms during the summertime. So that's one thing I like to do when I landscape is, you want that spring flowering, like our Forcithia, where it'd be more of a backdrop when other things are not flowering, get that wow. Then when it's done, it kind of fade away and then you get the forefront moving in throughout the season. And Wigila, long bloom time all through the summer. French lace is a little bit smaller one, four to five foot. Again, they also attract hummingbirds, really nice long bloom time. Minuet, beautiful color. It's kind of a two tone, the lighter kind of pink in the inside. So really, really nice, kind of almost reminiscence of a lilac, so you get your nice early lilacs and then you can move into the Minuet if you really like that more lilac, traditional lilac color. Chokeberry, who doesn't want a chokeberry, right? That sounds so great. That's why in the nursery trade, they're called eronia now. But again, multi-season interest. The flowers, they're very subtle. They're white, not really wow in your face. But what's great is that they do produce an edible fruit and thought I had another picture of it. Nice edible fruit that you can mix, not really eat by itself, but it is really healthy, high in antioxidants, makes a great smoothie. They're actually better tasting after frosts. They get a little bit sweeter, but amazing, really great red burgundy fall color. So again, this is a nice one for ed escaping. Buttonbush, now this may be one you're not familiar with. Again, this is Hardy Zone 4, maybe 3B in a protected spot. We have this out at our abstract research station doing very well. And really distinct flower, having that white flower where it looks like, almost like Sputnik from back in the 60s with the space program. But it has all the flower parts sticking out. It will produce a red fruit. And again, you get a really nice long season with it. It can be used as cut flowers. It's a smaller shrub, three to four foot. There's several different cultivars. One I'm showing here is Sugar Shack. And that's the one again that comes in a little bit smaller than the species. Coral Berry, this one, the trademark is Proud Berry. And again, it's Hardy to Zone 3. This is one where the flower is really not that exciting. It's fairly small, it's kind of a whitish pink. Smaller shrub, it will be wider than it is tall, about three to four foot, four to five foot spread. But what's nice about it is that it has really showy fruit. So again, later in the season, when everything else is done flowering, you still have that color in your yard and not just the green. They're also deer resistant. There's a close up of the fruit. It's really cool. It's this purpley white color and just doesn't really look natural, but it's a beautiful, beautiful, persistent fruit. Northern Pearl Bush, Cultivar's Northern Pearls. And it gets its name because of the flower is a nice solid white, just a very pure white. And the petals are fused before it opens up, so it looks like a white pearl. Larger shrub, six to eight foot, just as wide. And extremely tolerant to variable soil types and also drought tolerant. So that's another nice aspect too. So really nice, pretty subtle white flower. And that's what I always look for too, is to have a diversity in color and in styles. So here's just a little bit of a close up. If you look on the right picture, you can see kind of central right where the buds are that tight round kind of pearl look to them. They will open up to be a little bit more flamboyant, but really nice, nice, pretty white. Any of the pionicle hydrangeas. You know, becoming very common now. A lot of work and selection has been done on them. For us here, they do very well. Hardy Zone Four, again, once you get into zone three, you know, maybe a little protected spot. But a lot of different colors now. Here's Diamond Rouge, really, really pretty, a deep kind of magenta color to it. Four to five foot tall. Not really a spreader, more than upright, which is really nice. What's neat about it, and here you can see the color, this is a lot like what we were just talking earlier, where like with the campfire rose, where it does a color transition. And so you can see where it's coming out kind of that white. And then it will fade into a deeper color, because the flowers that we're seeing are actually sterile. They're not true flowers. And that's what's great about the pionicle hydrangeas, is that they have really long flower life, because they're not true flowers. And so they don't have the process of creating seed. So they're there long term, and can be a really good asset to our gardens. Incredible is an arborescence. Slightly different species than the Panicle, but again, does very well. Hardy Zone Three has those big mop heads, which can be a little bit on the messy side, come the next year, because you're gonna wanna do some deadheading to kind of remove all that. But wow, what a show. Look at this hedge, just amazing. But again, super variable when it comes to soil types, very low maintenance. But again, the flowers that we're seeing are sterile. So they're really persistent. Here's just a photograph showing how large it is. So you can see in scale with a person's hand. And that's why they call them a credit ball, just because they're so incredibly big. A winter holly, or winter berry holly. So here we actually have a deciduous holly. There's several different cultivars. This one I think is kind of funny. It's berry poppins. Again, very adaptable, can handle wet locations, which is nice, because again, we don't always have a perfect yard. And so it's nice to have plants that will do well in the dry. Some of them will do better in the wet. This is also a native, which is also nice, because we really want to encourage natives to help out our pollinators. It does require a male to pollinate, because one thing about the name winter berry, you would expect then a berry. Because the flowers are kind of subtle, not too exciting, but it's the berry that really is. So you have to make sure you get a male to get the berry. So here's just a shot of those persistent berries. With berry poppins, they're more of a red. There are other cultivars that are yellow. So here's berry heavy gold, and then little goblin gold, which is sold more as a orange, even though it kind of looks reddish, but it's on that orange side. Ninebark, we know does really well. Hardy Zone 3 has no problems really whatsoever, no maintenance, can basically plant it just about anywhere. It is native, lots of different colors now with the purple foliage types to the green, to the gold foliage types. This is a new one that's out called Tiny Wine. It's kind of competing against Little Devil, but again, given us some smaller plants to be able to mix in as well. So this is three to five foot tall. So again, the flowers are kind of subtle, but it really is more all about the combination of the flowers and that foliage color with that purple foliage. Spirea, we know there's a million spireas, but there's a new one called Double Play, Double Play Big Bang, you know, well it's like too much of a name, but two to three foot tall. So it's a nice little compact plant. What's cool about it is that the foliage when it emerges out is more of an orange, kind of golden color, and then it will fade off into a green, and then the flowers are this really nice pinkish purple, which is kind of standard for Spirea, but it's the foliage as it emerges out in the new season that really gives it that bang. Lilac, we can't go without talking about a lilac. Here's Prairie Petite Lilac. This is awesome. Only three to four foot tall, and it's been documented three foot after 25 years. So this is a common lilac that will fit anywhere. Great fragrance, very florific, just beautiful, beautiful little lilac, track butterflies, hummingbirds, fits just about anywhere. So here's just a close-up of the flowers. Traditional lilac, it is a common lilac. And then we have a lot of the hybrids. Here's Bloomerang, which is a repeat bloomer. You know, again, we wanna get as much money, or much bang out of our money, and here we can get a nice re-bloomer. Super fragrant, another new one, scent and sensibility, really super fragrant. It's in the same line as Bloomerang, but it doesn't have as good of repeat bloom, so it's not being sold in the Bloomerang line. But you will get some repeat bloomers out of scent and sensibility, but it is a really super fragrant lilac. And then my favorite, why do you need to improve a lilac when we have dwarf Korean lilac? Beautiful lilac, prune tolerant, planted just about anywhere as long as it doesn't stay wet. And super florific and really, really fragrant. And here's just a shot of it now as a standard. They're trained them up as standards, and you can't go wrong with that. So with that, those are my quick overview of some shrubs. All right, thank you, Ty's. Excellent, I tell ya, I got the spring fever looking at those pictures. Those are spectacular. I love it. Okay, we got some questions already coming in, and Keen coming, everybody. How about you mention Holly, Ilex? Yeah. Did you see that's native to North Dakota? I don't know if it's actually native to North Dakota. It's native into Minnesota. Okay. See, and that's the one thing we always have to worry about with the term native. You know, is it really, is it native to North Dakota, is it native to the regions, is it native to the US? And so we have to be careful with the term native. Okay, but at least it's, at least nearby native to say that. How about the persistence of those winter berry fruit? Anytime you have fruit that's persistent, you always have to be careful, because the catalogs will say they'll be there all winter long, but we know better that wildlife, once they find them, they'll be gone. So they'll be there a while, but again, we are also helping promote our wildlife as well with food source. So eventually they will find them. So are they gonna be there for Christmas? Ah. Holly decoration? Potentially. It depends on who finds them. It has a smooth leaf or a holly leaf. No, it's more of a smooth leaf. There is a serrated edge, but it's not like our typical holly leaf that we're used to. Because a smooth leaf holly, when you bring it indoors, the decoration, that means the man is in charge of the house. Oh, interesting. Because you have come here. I did not know that. Just wondering if that was safe to bring in my house. How about is coral very edible? Good question. I should probably know that, but I don't. Is it persistent? It is, and again, it's the same thing where eventually I see lilac, while life will find it. How about, can you recommend any shrubs that have a nearly constant bloom? If you want constant bloom for the longest, yeah, the hydrangeas, because they have the sterile flowers, potentilla, really long bloom time. How about the rose, you mentioned this? The rose has a series of flushes. It's not a one-time flush. I agree. It definitely has a series of flushes. That's such a great rose. Yeah, it looks great. Okay, how about do any of these shrubs work under a north-facing bay window, like shady? Well, I mean, there's some that will do the part shade. Nothing that's gonna handle extreme full shade, because any time you're looking at a plant that's in a really, really shady spot, you're gonna work, problems are gonna come out with it being leggy. It's gonna grow out. You won't get as many flowers. So you're gonna compromise a lot of the good qualities of that plant. So maybe an evergreen. Yeah. How about hydrangeas? Hydrangea could definitely take shade, yeah. How about will the hydrangea penicillata rendia turn color even without an acidic soil? Yeah, that's nice with penicillata. So that's a very good question, because the big leaf hydrangea is susceptible to our pH, so with high alkaline soil, it won't turn that nice blue, it'll stay pink. With the penicillata, it's not dependent upon pH. So the color that you buy is the color you get. Okay, that's good. And I've got some hungry gardeners out there. How about that Proudberry? Was that a coral berry? Coral berry, yeah. Is that edible? Yeah, I should have looked up all the edible things. I didn't realize I was gonna be so excited about edescaping. They're starving out there. We need to do a talk on edescaping. Edible, that was last year. Oh my goodness. We were eating coral berries. I don't know, I've never eaten a coral berry. How about aronia? They said that makes it good smoothie. Yeah, aronia, you've really gotta mix it with something to make it really palatable. Again, there's that edible versus palatable. It's really stringent, really bitter, but really healthy. So mix it in with some ice cream and yum yum. Okay, how about, when would you prune a Korean lilac? Well, with any of the lilacs, you wanna make sure that you can prune when you need to prune, whenever you have time to prune, but if you're gonna prune a lilac, realize that it's gonna be on the last year's wood. So if you prune it, you wanna prune it right after flowering. Because then you get that new growth that comes in, you enjoy the flowers, you get the new growth, which will then set the flower buds for next year. If you prune it before flowering, you're gonna miss out. Right, same with persitia, that's another one. Yeah, persitia, same way. Wait till after the yield of flowering. Yeah, but the best way to prune a persitia is right at the base. Yep, maybe a little rounder too. Yep, just kidding. Can you recommend a flowering shrub that would do well as a privacy hedge? Oh boy, depends on, do you want it all year round? Cause with our deciduous shrubs, obviously they're gonna lose their leaves, cause even for persitia, you can shape it into a nice privacy hedge cause of its size. But it's gonna lose its leaves, but it's fairly dense. If you're looking for a privacy screen, you might wanna look more evergreen. Or how about like, would arrow wood viburnum? Arrow wood, yeah, but again, same thing. Once it loses its leaves, it's not as dense. Yeah. Are any of the newer nine-bars less susceptible to powdery mildew? Well, that's what they're trying to really breed into. Cause I know the little devil is supposed to be more tolerant of powdery mildew, a little more resistant. So the newer varieties, that's what they're saying. Again, you wanna make sure you keep them in spots where there's gonna be good airflow. How about that button bush? Oh, wow, these people are so hungry. Button bush. Don't eat it. Don't eat a button bush. You're okay. Yeah, you know, that is a good thing to say, Todd, right, like don't, unless you're sure. Unless you're sure. No, the button bush, it's such a unique flower that it's just, it's a good conversation. And like I said, it makes a nice cut flower too. And you can really wow your friends with something that they've probably not seen. I never saw a flower. How about which of the lilacs suckers the least? Ooh. Or maybe which one to avoid. Yeah, which one to avoid. That's a good question. I mean, because that's kind of what they're there for. You know, one thing several years ago, I had a chance to go over to Poland. And the coolest thing I saw over there was a common lilac trained as tree form. Now they had to maintain the suckering but actually trained it as a tree. It was gorgeous. But yeah, you're gonna be dealing with any type of suckering on the lilacs. You know, and you just have to deal with it. That's right. Okay, can you fertilize a hydrangea to get blue color? Not necessarily fertilization, but you're gonna have to do soil modification with acidification. But that's again, that's with your big leaf, not your penicillota. Penicillota, you can't change that color. So when you buy the hydrangea, you gotta be sure of the species. You want the big leaf hydrangea and you have to have it super acidic to turn it blue. So the best thing would be, if you want that really nice blue hydrangea, you need to make a raised bed. So that way you can modify that soil and keep it modified. You sink it in the ground into a regular bed. It's gonna be really hard to modify and stay modified. I always thought peat moss is good for that role. Peat is really, really good helpful. But it's gonna be a lifelong battle. You're better off just trying to go with something else. Did you mention barberry bushes? You know, I did not talk about barberry at all. And because you're anti-barberry or I just didn't give you enough time. Not anti-barberry, but I don't think a barberry when I think of a flower in shrub. That's a good point. But it's a good one for directing traffic. If you want people not to cut through an area, plant barberry. That's right, keep the neighbors dog out. How about the Canadian Explorer series of roses? Are they still available? Yeah, they are. I know Jeffrey's Nursery is one of the releasers with the Canadian series if you go to their site. So anybody who buys through Jeffrey's should be able to get them. Doesn't Bailey Nursery still? I think Bailey's, they should. The thing with Bailey's is that they're developing more of their own lines of material and they're dropping other people's lines of materials. You know, I'm gonna throw in my own question there because there's so many cool plants that I used to like that. Someone we've never seen before, but what would be your strategy? I get really inspired to have one of these coral berries. You know, what would be your recommendation how they can make that happen? Should I go to my nursery right now and tell them I want to have this specific cultivar of coral berry and then they can order it from Jeffrey's or Bailey's? So don't wait for them because it may not be there. Exactly, don't wait for them. You know, it is that double end or double-edged sword is that, you know, they're gonna push what they think you want and then you also need to go in and tell them what you want. So now's a good time to do that. Now's a great time to do it. Proud berry is not edible, we hear from Oliver County. Oh good, thank you. Here you go, don't eat it. Can you make our recommendation? What type of shrubs do best when they're exposed to a lot of wind in a part sun environment? Well, I mean anytime when you're exposed to a lot of wind you just want to make sure that they're staying well watered. You know, I'd focus on ones that are more drop tolerant because you're gonna get a lot of drying out with that wind on the leaves. Avoid any evergreen, your dwarf evergreen shrubs because they'll burn up in that type of situation especially in the winter time, obviously, but just make sure you get good moisture. And to make a soil acidic. Sulphur? And there's other acidifiers. Yeah, but sulfur is the best method. So Todd, another inquiry, how come you didn't mention mock orange? You know, I was gonna include mock orange, but again that's another one we're dependent upon cultivar. A lot of the cultivars are zone five. We have zone four and again that was on that iffy and I was like, well, so yeah, I was gonna include it but that was the one that I kind of took out because of time. Okay, where's Jeffery's nursery? Jeffery's nursery is a wholesale nursery up in Manitoba. So they don't sell directly to the public, but a lot of the nurseries in our area here buy from Jeffery's. How about this gardener in Morton County has some buried lions and can you, what shrub can you plant that does not root too deep? Is that really a concern? I wouldn't really be too concerned with that because with shrubs they do have a fairly shallow root system and you shouldn't have any issues really. How about, is endless summer, is that a small leaf I drained? That's a big leaf, that's a macro phyla. It turns blue. Yep, so we have that on campus and it's a beautiful pink. Even though it's a little bit too early. God, we're just power pack full of questions here. Oh, a town or nursery does not buy from Jeffery's. I saw that pop up. You need to go to a garden center. Also, I should say, this presentation is archived. So, and we'll get it on the internet in a day or two. So I'm sure you want to see it again and share with your friends in case you missed something. Also, please download your handouts, all this good information is there. What else, my executive producer, did I miss anything here? Do you think we got it licked here? Okay, Todd, all I gotta do is say thank you, that was a great presentation. We really appreciate it. And we're gonna take a quick five minute break and move on to the next talk, everybody. All right.