(upbeat music) - Years ago, our daughter and her husband bought a house that was very nicely landscaped.

There were unusual shrubs planted along one side of the house and there was a rock garden area too.

The shrubs along the house were rhododendrons and they bloom so pretty in the spring.

I'm Mary Holm host of "Prairie Yard and Garden" and today we're going to meet a lady that loves rhododendrons plus other unusual plants that she uses to create beautiful and peaceful landscapes.

- [Narrator] Funding for "Prairie Yard and Garden" is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years in the heart of truck country.

Hartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone cooperative, proud to be powering Acira, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yankel Julene in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit whirl education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

And by Friends of Prairie Yard and Garden.

A community of supporters like you, who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of Prairie Yard and Garden, visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(upbeat music) - About 10 years ago, I was on a garden tour and one of the stops was at Gardens of Race Creek.

Betty Ann Addison is the owner and she was so knowledgeable about plants especially rhododendrons and alpine plants.

She had also just purchased an empty lot across the street from her house, which she was going to completely re-landscape.

Come along as we learned about some unusual plants and see how her landscape creation turned out.

Welcome Betty Ann.

- Thank you Mary.

It's just wonderful to be able to introduce my plant friends to my people friends.

- Tell us about your background.

- Well, I grew up in Long Island and you could grow almost anything there.

And I remember the first rhododendron that my mother got, and it was spectacular.

It was an Easter present from my rich auntie.

So I've always wanted to grow rhododendrons.

And when I came out here to Minnesota, they were unknown especially the largely rhododendrons.

So I've been trying for over 35, 40 years to grow things.

And now I have a stable of hardy things and I'm trying to reach out and get some different colors and stuff in them.

- I had somebody ask me what is the difference between an Azalea and a rhododendron?

- Well, there's four different kinds of rhododendrons.

There's the small leaf rhododendron, the PJM the lavender one that you see are bound everywhere and they bloom early.

So they're a nice companion with your Magnolias and things like that.

And then the second kind of rhododendron is a large leaf rhododendron and they're starting to bloom now.

And then there's the Northern lights azaleas, the deciduous azaleas.

They're also called rhododendrons.

So they were in that same family.

The last thing that you would expect is that there are some hardy, evergreen azaleas.

Neither of those four classes hybridized with one another.

So if you're doing hybrids you have to go within those classes.

It's a little discipline, but it's fun.

Rhododendrons and this other green azalea keep their leaves all winter.

So you wanna keep them out of winter sun because winter sun is, it makes a drought situation because the leaves will transpire and they can't get water out of the soil because it's frozen in ice.

So then your rhododendron leaves turn brown and you think of some odd disease or insect or something, but it's not, it's just a drought.

For a lot of the broadleaf evergreens, you want to keep them on the North side of a house or some building or a spruce tree or something like that so that they don't get winter sun.

- [Mary] What kind of soil do they like?

- The one thing that rhododendrons hate is clay, is poor drainage.

You have to plant them in a sandy soil and you can improve it with compost, peat moss and bark.

But if you have clay soil and you still wanna grow rhododendrons, do what they do in Chicago.

They get a big potted rhododendron.

They plunk it right on top of the ground.

And then they fill a berm around it with a bark and peat moss and compost so that it drains.

And it has air, you know, in the soil you have to have just much air as you have moisture in those spaces in the soil.

If you dig a hole in the clay and improve it with peat moss and stuff and then they plunked the thing in there.

It's drowning, it's in a bathtub because the water collects in that hole in the clay.

And the other thing is if you have a slope you can terrace up the slope like this so you have a clay slope.

Then you make a terrace with logs or bricks or stone or something like that.

And then you fill this area with nice puffy chocolate cake soil, you know the kind of humidity black soil.

You can dig your plants up by hand.

And you know it's a little bit of a challenge, but they're worth it.

- Should you fertilize them too or will they get all their fertility from the peat and the bark and everything?

- Well, you should fertilize because they don't get much nutrition from this organic soil.

So we've used this 15, 15, 15 and that sounds like it's strong, but half of that is slow release and we use it on everything.

Everything you see around here, all the shrubs, trees, lawn, flowers, alpines and rhododendrons.

We sprinkle it on lightly in April when the soil is cold and this plants have no nutrition, they can't get nutrition from the soil.

So you put it on lightly and that stimulates growth.

So then by June, the plants are hungry.

They've got new roots, they've got new tops.

So then you can put it on heavy, a little heavier.

And then to make sure that the buds are forming on your rhododendrons, your lilacs, your crib apples, all of that, you fertilize lightly just before the 1st of August.

Cause that they set their buds this year for next spring's flowering.

The fertilizer I use is granular Mary.

So you sprinkle it around and you put it in a circle around the drip line of your shrubs and trees.

- When should you prune the rhododendrons?

- Well, you don't really have to prune rhododendrons, I mean, you can prune the small leaf ones.

They're easier to prune.

So if they have a long sprout, then cut that down.

But every time you prune a long sprout then it makes five bushes.

So that means five more flowers next year.

So if they're in good light they don't usually and see the small leaf ones, they wanna be in more light, they could be in full sun and then the large leaf would would wanna be in that sheltered spot on the North side.

- Do you have to do anything for winter protection?

- Not if you have the good hardy kinds.

- And you have developed some varieties yourself, haven't you?

- Yes, yes, we're working on that.

They're not ready for release yet for the most part but... - How long has it taken you to work on these that you've gotten them so far?

- 30 years more or less, but now it's geometric.

You do a year, progress goes like this.

So now I have several in waiting.

- [Mary] Now you also really enjoy alpine plants too and that's not something I knew a lot about.

Could you show us some of those?

- I would love to, we'll go up the hill.

- What are alpine plants?

- Well, they're alpine because they grow above timberline in all the mountains of the world.

They all have that small growth because the wind is so severe up there.

You can have a tall waving delphinium on the top of the mountain.

So everything is small and condensed.

- [Mary] What do you use those plants for?

- Well, you see, this is a very narrow spot and by building it up, you have more surface area.

And it's an interesting spot when you're coming home or you're leaving.

You're always looking at this little space.

So instead of just having a swath of grass or three shrubs you can have 150 different kinds of alpine plants.

Well, most of them stay small and they like to have good drainage.

That's the most important part because there's surface drainage from the slope and then there's interior drainage.

So there's a lot of sand and gravel in here and the rocks hold up that soil so it doesn't all wash down.

And of course it gives you a place to step around.

- [Mary] So actually they're wonderful for using in a rock garden then that's perfect.

- [Betty] Yes, that's their main purposes is a rock garden.

- [Mary] Are they hard to grow?

- [Betty] No, no, just...

I thought they would be hard to grow too but they're not just because they're small, they have roots like a football.

- [Mary] So how do you propagate something like this?

- Well, I do a lot in the fall.

I tear off little pieces and put it in flat in my greenhouse and they sleep.

They stay dormant until like January, February, March and as the sun comes up, then they start to grow.

And they'll grow tops and then they'll grow roots and then I can divide them up and put them in little pots.

I like to fertilize them because they have a short growing season.

So you want them to flower a long time.

So you fertilize them and scatter that granular fertilizer over it in April.

And they grow roots down below the drought line because this is a very hot, dry area.

Gets that Southwest wind coming across here.

So down here we have the hottest driest most tolerant plant cactus.

Should tell you something.

- [Mary] and that's even considered.

It can be an alpine plant-- - [Betty] Yes too because it's a small one.

See it doesn't have those great big ugly pants.

And it came from Vail and that's at 9,000 feet and it's very happy here.

And then there's a lot of flax.

See all the different colors of flax.

They're only native to North America.

We liked these Western flax because they grow dent.

They're a weed excluding ground cover which is one of my favorite things.

And then this little dianthus look at this.

And winter and summer, it's a blue carpet.

And then it has these little pink penny flowers on it.

And that will be bloom again.

So even in winter we don't cover this because the plants shrink down.

So this whole thing is like a coral reef.

Everything is condensed.

So you get on these textures and it's interesting.

Winter and summer.

Flax love the Midwest.

So if they're happy, they're in well-drained soil in the full sun.

So this is one of our seed leaves we call Sugar Plum Fairy and that little one or the tiny one, we call that Petty Point.

And then this one was from Germany.

And then see that little Iris that's from Hungary.

- It's so cute, isn't it?

- Yes, it is.

How do you weed all of this?

- On a Sunday morning, I sit there with my little handy hoe and I can sit on the rocks.

I can even sit on the flax if it's not blooming.

(Mary laughing) It's very meditative.

I don't mind.

And we put down a gravel mulch.

And every year if you remove the weeds before they go to seed, you know you don't have so many.

So we used to have worse weed problem, but we keep (indistinct).

- [Mary] So the gravel that's in there is not just for drainage but it's also a mulch that you use for these plants.

- [Betty] Yeah, you shouldn't see bare soil.

- When it comes to the alpines, what are some of your favorites?

- I have so many favorites, but Mary I want you to look at all these different hens and chicks because anybody can gro hens and chicks.

Look at this one is gray and that one is ruby.

And look at those little tiny guys over here.

It's just like a little carpet of little marbles.

They call that plush carpet.

- [Mary] And you don't often think of the hen and chicks as being an alpine type of a plant?

- [Betty] Well, that's where they grow.

They grow that form because the wind would take off the tops of the plants.

So that gets the most sun to the crown.

Again you wanna use the North side of a rock to put your special plants there so that their roots are cool and they'll go down underneath there, see?

So the farther up you go, the more shady the more cool it is in this garden.

So we have cactus and dianthus and everything, sedums all down there by the mailbox.

I call those mailbox plants.

Then you go up here and you can have little forget me nots and other little buttercups and things like that.

The first thing I want you to know is that there's a channel between the back of the rock garden and the fence so that the dirt is not piled up against the fence to rot it.

You have to always give the fence air.

So you can't see that, that's rock but it could be concrete block or anything like that.

You wanna protect that fence because we built the fence about 12, 14 years ago and it gives us privacy, it makes us focus on what's important.

- [Mary] I see in your backyard that there is such a a beautiful array of plants there, and it seems like it's such a haven and would it be possible to go there?

And have you explained how you have handled the landscaping there to create that beautiful place?

- I would love to, I'd love to.

Serenity is what it's all about.

(upbeat music) - I have a question.

I'd like to grow some evergreens but I don't want something that will get too large.

What varieties do you recommend?

- You know, most people plant the spreading junipers, use or some of the smaller arborvitaes but there's many other great landscape evergreens that grow very well in Minnesota.

Right next to me here is a bird's nest spruce.

This is a dwarf form of Norway spruce.

It's just as Hardy as the large Norway spruce.

It gets to be a huge tree.

It's planted in windbreaks but it stays very small it only grows two or three inches a year and just keeps this nice rounded shape, a dark green color, doesn't winter burn.

It's just a really nice, perfectly hardy, small plant that required virtually no pruning in the home landscape.

We're here at the dwarf conifer collection at the Minnesota landscape Arboretum.

And in addition to the birds nest spruce we have dwarf forms of white pine and red pine even some of the spruces and firs.

And these are all in a group of grafted conifers.

Somebody found that initial plant in a nursery or a forest and realized that it was a natural dwarf and took small twigs off that original plant and grafted them onto a normal rootstock of the same species.

And it's a little more expensive because they take longer to grow and you have to do the grafting.

But the result is you end up with these nice small plants that are really well suited for areas near your home or in a townhouse or in a small lot, something like that.

You get all the hardiness and beauty of a full-size evergreen, but with a naturally compact form.

- [Narrator] Ask the Arboretum Experts has been brought to you by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, dedicated to enriching lives through the appreciation and knowledge of plants.

- Betty Ann.

This is an absolutely beautiful oasis here in your backyard.

How did you achieve this?

- Well, I was very lucky when I first bought the house 50 years ago.

It was scooped out.

The original person was a cabinet maker.

So he knew spacial things.

So all the other yards are like this.

And then they fall off and a cliff to Rice Creek, but he scooped it out.

But unfortunately 60 years ago all they had was that Shaley rock.

And so it was crumbling.

And so when I closed my big nursery, I had a big nursery and they had these big boulders and I brought them in on the side of the house with a skid loader.

And then I had a small clam on tracks here and he placed all these rocks in three days.

So it was a labor of love.

This is a long narrow lot, and it's stepped on four levels.

So there were very few trees here left.

This was 12 years ago.

We had this weeping white pine over here.

But we needed to balance that because we're framing the view.

So you look at the creek, see, you know, look.

So I picked this Serbian weeping spruce as a powerful balance to the weeping white pine because that will never get wider than six feet but it's still strong, you see?

So you have that as a frame and then you're concentrated down there.

And I know you like my wooden fence.

So we built that because we were looking at three backyards because of the arrangement.

So we built a fence to kind of mirror the fence over here.

So that again gave you focus.

Then you see those two birch trees, there at the top of the hill.

When you have two things it announces this is something important.

This frame's something important.

So that's the steps to go down.

Trees are nice.

They read as a group.

You have trees for relaxation period.

But if you wanna make something stiff and important and announcing, then you put a pair of them.

And then you have their framing, something important.

And then also when you came around the edge and you first saw my backyard, the path was going in back of my house and it was facing that board fence over there.

Well, that would be a pretty boring beginning to your feelings.

So we built a garden in front of that wooden fence and it's raked down.

It looks more or less level, but it's built up in the back with old concrete blocks and then the garden is raked down.

So then when you come around the corner of the house the first thing you see are the flowers and then a nice weeping conifer.

So then it turns you towards the birch trees.

And then if you keep looking around then you'll see the pond over on your left and then you meander down.

You have to tell people which way to go in your yard.

Once you're down in their second level, then you wanna have a feeling of enclosure.

So you see we've used these blue flax and they step up.

So they bring the color down and it flows around and you don't see any corners here because when you have a corner, your eye goes to that corner.

So you always plant something interesting and formless so that your eye goes around, just like in a painting.

You don't want it to stop over here.

You want your eye to go all around the painting.

So this is like art, you know?

- How did you decide the layout of the beds here?

- This was fun, you know?

When we first built it this was a big square, a big rectangle of grass.

I said, let's lay out island beds.

So we took hoses and we made these islands so that they flow.

And you know, there's no straight one.

I learned long ago from Beverly Nichols that you multiply your property by dividing it.

Well because if you saw your whole property at once, yeah, why bother going to the end?

But if you have to look around, "What's around that bend.

It's disguised a little bit.

So those are the little tricks you use.

And of course you want everything in scale.

That's the other thing.

See this is a dwarf maple tree.

That's a dwarf Janella maple.

And it was a seedling on a door dwarf.

I planted out a hundred seeds from a dwarf maple and I found three.

So I called this Cloud Prune.

Cause we prune it next week.

We're going to make little poofs.

So it'll look like a Japanese garden bonsai.

This one is a little more tractable and see it's in the shade.

See the nice trunk.

That's what you want.

You want to trunk that strong trunk.

You don't want a bush.

And then at the top of the waterfall, that's Too Tiny.

(both laughing) So that's 25 years old.

- [Mary] No.

- [Betty] These are all 25 years old.

So I love dwarf conifers.

That's the other thing we alternate conifers and flowering conifers and flowering.

If you look all around here.

So, and with the rocks, we have a garden all year.

You know, we have flowers to decorate things at certain times and they come and go with the seasons.

But all year long, it's interesting to come out here see the leaves on the rhododendrons, you know on the shape of the rocks and the dwarf conifers.

Of course, they give you a source of strength.

What I don't like in a garden is this stuff, you can't have your fence or your house or anything like that.

You gotta settle it in.

We have dwarf shrubs like that golden barberry.

We have dwarf new gold Pines.

People say, "I don't like gold."

But you know what?

You scatter the gold like spots of sunshine all around your garden.

And it brings it life, brings it together.

And it's just more fun.

So we have almost an acre here and we have almost an acre across the street.

It gives us a lot of joy and we try to improve the soil and make it a peaceful place.

So Mary, I wanted to tell you about the soil across the street.

Because when I bought it nine years ago, it was hard sand and it was full of weeds and everything like that.

So we brought in wood chips and you cannot believe how much free wood chips we got from my tree trimmer, 20 truckloads, because I learned years ago from a man at McAllister, two feet of wood chips, nothing can come through two feet of wood chips.

(Mary laughing) Now, you know, it'll shrink down to a foot and then it turns into beautiful soil.

So if that's the way to conquer your weed problem and improve your soil in a hurry.

- [Mary] I noticed even in your lot across the street, you've used tree branches as edging.

- [Betty] Yes and they last a long time.

And what else could you use in a woodland situation?

You can't use plastic and can't use rocks and your want people to stay on the paths, you want to keep off the plant, but you want him to see the views.

- [Mary] This is absolutely beautiful.

We are in the midst of the city and we really can't tell, it is so peaceful and serene back here.

Thank you so very, very much for letting us come out and share your beautiful yard.

- It was my pleasure all the way.

Thank you for introducing this kind of gardening the way you do, all the things you do.

Thank you Mary.

- [Narrator] Funding for "Prairie Yard and Garden" is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years in the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering a Acira, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yankel Julene in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit whirl education retreat center and a beautiful prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota and by Friends of Prairie Yard and Garden, a community of supporters like you, who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of Prairie Yard and Garden, visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(upbeat music)