Julianna's Garden

Julie's garden is under the Basswood trees at the back of our property. The deer often pass by Julie's garden looking for snacks! She likes to choose flowers that the deer don't like.

Visit each family member's garden

Spring photos

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Mandy is waiting for lunch in the birdbath.
The Beauty Bush is a reliable large shrub. Occasionally, during a hard winter, branches die.
Amsonia Blue Star is a reliable and long lived perennial in Minnesota.
The tree peony is completely hardy in southeast Minnesota.
Blue Woodland Phlox
Walkway in morning sun.
Martigon Lily leaves (wild lilies) appear early in spring. This bulb was planted 13 years ago and has very slowly multiplied. It should be divided since it hasn't spread much of late. It is a consistent bloomer and is a lily that does well in the shade. Martagon lilies live longer than most hybrid Asiatic Lilies. The downside is that the avarage cost per bulb is about $15.00. They will seed themselves after some winters and provide more bulbs.
One of the first plants to appear in spring, Ligularia Desdemona is an excellent plant for shady areas and clay soil. It is hard to kill and it seeds in a very mannerly fashion to provide transplants. It gets droopy in bright sunlight.

Summer photos

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The Monarda or Bee Balm is a long lived plant that no garden should be without. It is low growing in the spring (did it make it through the winter or not?), but has a growth spurt before blooming. This red version is probably Gardenview Scarlet and is a standout when in bloom for about 3 weeks (the one in the picture happens to be a double flower). It needs to be cut back after blooming and unfortunately, leaves a hole in the garden for the rest of the season. It doesn't like to be crowded by other plants.
Close up of the Virgin's Bower Vine flower, also known as Wild Clematis. It is a nice vine that is completely hardy here in Minnesota. I reseeds all over the garden so be careful. It grows in all sorts of conditions.
Ligularia japonica is a different kind of Ligularia. Planted in very moist ground it will spike up to 6 feet and spread over 3 feet. It is completely deer resistant.
Red Monarda or Bee Balm is a nice plant when in bloom. It is rather uninteresting in spring and after blooming it needs to be cut back to keep tidy. In bloom it is a stunning plant, attractive to bees and highly resistant to deer. Marshall's Delight (light pink in color) is the most fungus resistant of the cultivated varieties, while the wild Bee Balm - purple in color and taller than the cultivated Bee Balm - is immune to fungus.
Turtle head - chelone obliqua. This is a wonderful addition to the Johnston Honey garden. It is very adaptable and grows in most any soil, including the clay that predominates here. It is very shade tolerant and deer resistant. It tolerates drought and wet soil equally well. Hotlips is a popular version of Chelone, but don't be fooled by the new comer. The Obliqua is still the one to grow!
Hydrangea Tardiva tree form. This is a great shrub, either as a tree or clump. It blooms late in summer when the perennials have given up. The dried blooms persist into winter. It needs wire protection in Fall from the scraping of buck's antlers. In winter, without wire, the deer tend to nip at the branches but nothing too serious. You would probably want to trim the branches in late winter anyway.
Hydrangea Tardiva tree form. This is a great shrub, either as a tree or clump. It blooms late in summer when the perennials have given up. The dried blooms persist into winter. It needs wire protection in Fall from the scraping of buck's antlers. In winter, without wire, the deer tend to nip at the branches but nothing too serious. You would probably want to trim the branches in late winter anyway.
Don has worked hard to establish an attractive mid summer perennial garden. The mainstays of this garden are the rudbeckia goldstrum, ironweed, wild sunflower (Jerusalem Artichoke) Heliopsis helianthoides (Oxeye Sunflower) and Chelone. A scattering of annual Impatients also helps.
Rudbeckia Hirta (foreground) and Hydrangea Pink Diamond (background). R.Hirta is a relatively short lived perennial that seeds freely. This particular variety seems longer lived than most R. Hirta. The leaves are thinner and enlongated compared to the longer lived Rudbeckia Goldstrum. The Pink Diamond Hydrangea is a great shrub, fully hardy in zone 4, and consistently produces large blooms in mid summer. The blooms last into late fall and provide good winter interest. It is of only passing interest to deer, but rabbits like to eat the stalks when the snow is high (it needs a low wire cage for protection).
Dahlias bloom late in the summer. Shown here is the dinner plate dahlia Mrs. Eileen. Dahlias need to be dug up each fall or new bulbs planted each spring. Don hasn't have much luck with over wintering; finding a dry room with a steady temperature of 35-45 degrees in Rochester during the winter is difficult. It has been easier to simply buy new tubers each year. Dahlias need to be watered and/or mulched to promote growth. They are somewhat attractive to deer, but an ocasional spray with Hinder will effectively deter them.
What to do about shade? This is becoming an increasingly urgent question in the Johnston Honey gardens as trees, especially Autumn Blaze Maples grow larger. Here is a work in progress. Hosta need to be protected by regular spraying of Hinder. Ligularia dentata 'Desdemona' is a must for the shade. It likes lots of water but is tolerant of drought and is deer resistant. It blooms in mid Summer when shade gardening becomes boring. Seedlings appear each Spring and are easy to transplant.
Musk Mallow (Malvaceae) is considered a wildflower. It is a nice albeit untamable plant. It blooms all summer long and seeds readily scatterig thoughout the garden. It comes in lavender and pink. It has a very long root and is difficult to pull from the garden.
Annabelle Hydrangea is a Minnesota favorite. It is hardy and low maintenance. It tolerates a fair bit of shade. It provides winter beauty, but needs to be cut to the ground before Spring growth starts.
The Stella D'Ora Day Lily is tough to beat. It provides the backbone for summer gardens, but blooms longer than all the other Day Lilies. It is a favorite of commercial properties because it is attractive yet indestructible.
It is hard to beat Annual Impatients for shady gardening.
Snakeroot or Bugbane (Cimicifuga Racemosa) is a wonderfully reliable plant for partial shade and poor soil. It is also very attractive to bees as can be seen here. Seedlings appear after certain winters, neatly spread out around the parent and these are very easy to transplant. It takes 3-4 years for the plant to become established but then it just never goes away.
Rudbeckia Goldstrum or Black-eyed Susan Coneflower is the backbone of the mid-late summer garden. It is the perfect plant! It is completely winter hardy, drought resistant, tolerates a fair bit of shade, stays forever in one location but seeds just enough to provide additional plants, transplants easily, blooms hard for at least 2 months when little else is in bloom and even provides some winter interest.
Rudbeckia Herbstonne is a nearly perfect perennial plant. It is deer resistant, bee friendly, disease tolerant and well behaved, not to mention very hardy and easily divided. It grows to about 7 feet and looks good from early Spring to mid Fall.
Joe Pyeweed Bartered Bride is a 8 foot giant that keeps coming back year after year. It is slow to appear in the Spring, but is a blessing in the garden in later summer. Bees swarm to this plant for a relatively short lived feast lasting about 2 weeks. Henry Hudson roses are to the right and Kim's Knee High Purple Coneflowers are in the foreground.
Clematis Jackmanii is the easiest large flowered clematis to grow. Clematis may develop wilt (likely a fungus) and die during the summer or they may not survive the winter. These problems are more likely to occur with the large flowered clematis.
Marshall's Delight is an excellent variety of Bee Balm or Menarda. It blooms for about 3 weeks, and then should be cut back. It spreads by root, but is not invasive. Unlike many other varieties of Bee Balm this variety is very resistant to fungus.
Clematis are a must in the Minnesota garden. A few types are sure to come back, while quite a number succumb to wilt, a deadly viral disease, and winter kill. These are 2 reliable clematis, probably Earnest Markham (red, forefront) and Ville de Lyon (burgundy, background). Jackmanii varieties and Eloile Violette are also very reliable plants.
Persicaria polymorpha or Giant Fleeceflower (or White Dragon) is a great plant for the garden. It grows to 5 feet, requires no care, and is fairly deer resistant. It is hard to find (White Flower Farm has it), although this one originally came from Bachman's Nursery, which no longer carries it. It seems to tolerate a moderate amount of shade as well.
Asiatic Lilies are the finest flower in the garden. However, only a few varieties thrive and multiple with minimal care and indifferent soil. They don't like to be crowded and fungus can be a problem. Some of the most reliable Asiatic Lilies can be bought at Sam's Club and planted in the Spring. It seems like the more highly hybridized the bulbs are, the less perennial they tend to be.
Weigela Polka is one in series of reddish colored dance Weigela. This one seems to be a little hardier than the standard Weigela like Red Prince. Early blooming and worth having in the garden.
A very nice red shrub rose, likely Cuthbert Grant. Like all shrub roses, old stalks are more susceptible to winter kill, so either plan to severely cut back every 3-4 years if there has not been a harsh winter in that time, or prune out the older stalks in early Spring (more time consuming).
Harrison's Yellow shrub rose is a fine specimen plant. It reliably blooms for about 3 weeks and is consistently covered in yellow blooms. It is very hardy and seldom suffers from winter dieback. However, it may need to be cut to the ground every 4-5 years, as the stalks of older shrub roses tend to be more suseptible to winter cold and fewer blooms occur. This rose is a little more resistant to deer than most.

Fall photos

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Anemone Robustissima - this is the one Anemone that seems to tolerate Minnesota's winters. Not completely hardy, but acceptable. Does well in moist, semi-shaded conditions.
Don grows Dahlias for their impressive size and late summer/fall beauty. There are thousands of names plants, which means little once they start to bloom. The dinnerplate variety are huge and need staking. The bulbs need to be dug every fall after the first frost and stored in wood shavings in a cool (40-50 degrees F) spot.
Of all the shrub roses, The Fairy blooms the most. It is also long lived as long as it is covered each fall. It looks like this most of the summer and unlike all other shrub roses, it doesn't take a rest.
Arendsii Acontium finally bloom in late October. This shade tolerant plant will survive several frosts before finall succumbing to winter. It is one of the first perennials back up through the newly thawed ground in spring. This plant is truly a 3 season perennial for the shade. It is poisonous if eaten (animals seem to know this without testing the plant first).
Aster October Skies. This is a great plant that keeps coming back year after year. It is resistant to fungus and grows up early in the year, looking good even before it flowers. One plant can take up a lot of space.
Aster Bluebird is very resistant to fungus. It stands about 2 feet high and occasionally seeds itself so that new plants can be obtained. It is not invasive. It is an excellent fall plant. However, it needs to be protected from the deer.
Autumn Blaze maples. These trees showed more color than most maples in the fall of 2004, but even this color is muted compared to a good fall foliage. These are soft, fast growing maples, prone to limbs breaking off if not pruned correctly. Branches should have an L shape as they exit from the trunk, not a V shape (these break easily). Also, the tree should be pruned at an early age so that a main leading trunk develops.
Fall Fiesta sugar maple. This is a new release from Bailey's Nursery in St. Paul. Even in the poor fall year of 2004, the colors were more vibrant than other sugar maples. It also grows faster than the older sugar maples. Remember that bucks love to rub the velvet off their antlers on young maple tree trunks in the fall. Be sure to wrap the trunk with a 4 foot high piece of chicken wire. This will expand with trunk growth, so if put on loosely, you won't have to keep replacing it. This tree has a bigger piece of welded wire around the trunk left from when it was a smaller tree and the lower branches needed protection from marauding deer.

Winter photos

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Yellow Hosta are deer resistant.
This oriental lily tolerates some shade, but too much shade will lead to a gradual decline in plant vigor. The Sunburst locust tree overhead provides light shade, but a nearby Autumn Blaze maple is quickly growing and the shade is increasing.
Hyacinths grow reasonably well in Southern Minnesota. In contrast to this lonely individual, they need to be planted in groups to maximize appeal. Their scent is terrific. Deer like to snack on them.
Washington Hawthorne tree retains it's berries well into winter.
Winter scene.
The Amur Maple retains it's leaves in winter.
Amur Maple stand along the split rail fence. These small trees can be a treat, but some varieties, including these often fail to turn bright colors in the Fall. Flame Amur Maple provides consistent Fall show. Amur Maples tend to widen over the years, and require a lot of pruning to train 4-5 main trunks. It is not uncommon for one or two trunks to die only to be followed by a rapidly growing replacement branch.
The Merrill Magnolia is a wonderful small tree for Minnesota. It grows to about 30 feet, is very well behaved, has yellow leaves in the fall, and needs very little pruning. It's buds are formed in the Fall and must survive the winter to bloom.
Johnston Honey Jar

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