Sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) is a native tree species found primarily in the southeastern United States. It is renowned for its graceful form, fragrant flowers, and glossy green foliage, making it a beloved choice for gardens throughout its range.

Sweetbay magnolia is a medium-sized tree that averages heights of 10-35 feet, depending on growing conditions and variety. Its narrow, oval-shaped leaves are dark green on top and silver-gray underneath, creating a striking contrast when rustled by the breeze. In late spring to early summer, the tree produces creamy white, lemon-scented flowers that stand out against the foliage. These are followed by cone-like fruits that attract birds and wildlife.

Sweetbay is often overlooked in favor of its popular cousin, the southern magnolia.  But, as the name implies, the southern magnolia can be affected by the mercurial Michigan weather.  You could miss a whole season of blooms if the conditions are not right.  But the Sweetbay avoids this with a later bloom.

In conclusion, Sweetbay magnolia is an enchanting plant that deserves a place in any garden or landscape design. So why not consider adding one of these captivating trees to your plantings and experience their unique charm firsthand?

With Boxwood still in limbo I thought I would give a refresher on some plant substitutions that have been flyin’ out the door as a replacement.

I would have to start with Ilex glabras – seriously! I would have considered these an underused plant, but their time has come to step out in the world! “Inkberries” are hardy to a zone 4, not too bothered by wet feet, and can take part shade. They are not as deer-resistant as boxwood but are on the ‘least browsed’ list. Ilex glabra do not like our alkaline soils and to look their best with an acidic fertilizer applied. (Our alkaline soils are why they get yellow.) They are also salt tolerant. Straight Ilex glabra gets rather leggy and is known to sucker. However, the newer cultivars are an improvement in both leafing all the way down and less suckering (…they say no suckers but… I don’t always believe what they say.)

Even “Mugos” have seen a resurgence. Pinus mugo prefers full sun but is light-shade tolerant. Of all the evergreens it is the one that gets the least winter burn. They will tolerate our heavier soil but prefer something a little sandier. Pinus mugo is also deer-resistant and tolerates salt. Nothing new and fab but some tried and true ones are available…

Globe shaped Thuja occidentalis have been moving up the popularity ladder for the last several years. The Globe “Arbs” have some newer well-behaved cultivars (not that the older cultivars are not well-behaved!!). Thujas will take our alkaline soil as well as wet soils. They prefer full sun but will take part shade.

Gardening enthusiasts are always on the lookout for unique and visually striking additions to their landscapes. And many homeowners love to be the ‘Joneses’ rather than keep up with them. An inimitable tree that stands out for its beauty and distinctive characteristics is Heptacodium.

Heptacodium miconioides (also known by the original species name, jasminoides and commonly known as Seven Son Flower) is native to China. First introduced to the West by the plant explorer E. H. Wilson in 1907, it would be mostly forgotten until the 1980s when additional seeds and cuttings were brought to the Arnold Arboretum. Most modern Heptacodium in North America can be traced to this shipment. Considered to be rare in the wild, this tree has been gaining popularity in gardens worldwide due to its elegant appearance and unique blooming habits.

In addition to its ornamental value, Heptacodium holds cultural significance in its native China, where it is often planted near temples and sacred sites. The number seven is considered auspicious in Chinese culture, hence the name "Seven Son Flower."

The Seven Son Flower is an excellent special-order option from Christensen’s. While it is gaining in popularity, we do not stock this variety (yet). However, we are happy to bring in what you need, just ask!

You may ask, 'Why?' or perhaps “Do I need a Hallmark card?" No cards are required. And, ‘Why?’, Well, because peonies are about to bloom! Which peonies? – ALL the PRETTY PEONY!!

I have written a lot of articles in my life, but I do not usually jump up and say me, me, me please, pick me. But an article about PEONIES?!? – Yes, please. They have always been my favorite. The flower is massive, and the fragrance is sweet (it is also one of the few smelly plants that does not give me an instant allergy headache!). I cut them and enjoy them inside by the bucketful. I may end up with a few ants indoors – but who cares, it’s worth it for peony flowers! And, well, they are just ants.

But the production crew does not stop there. No, they have added Itoh Peonies to their production list. A totally different animal than an herbaceous Peony. Itoh’s are a cross between an herbaceous peony and a “Tree Peony” (they are known as “Intersectional” Peony – in case you were wondering). Why would you ever want that – well Itoh’s form a semi-woody stem that is able to hold up the huge flower (both come from the “Tree” Peony (Peony sufferticosa), and it also has and produces herbaceous stems – so if it dies to ground no problem. I have several at home. I do not cut them back until spring and then only to the buds on the woody stems. Every year they get bigger and bigger as new herbaceous stems join the 'club'. Believe it or not, they look more and more fab every time I see them. The easiest to come by is 'Bartzella'. It has a semi-double to double yellow flower that can be 6-8” in diameter. ‘Morning Light’ has a semi-double fuchsia flower. On the upside the plant flowers for longer period as side shoots will also flower and the colors cannot be found in P. lactiflora. (there aren’t even semi vigorous yellows in herbaceous Peony.) The foliage is very clean and lasts all year and when it blooms it is covered with flowers not only on the top but also on the sides. The only thumbs down I would give the Itoh cultivars is like a “Tree” peony the flowers are not cuttable. Vase life is only hours!

I can’t let you go just yet because although I no longer have much to do with perennials and even less on production I know a secret. There are – are you ready for this – “Tree Peonies” in stock. Yeppers. True “Tree” peonies are a rare find. They are incredibly hardy with massive flowers held up by woody stems. The group we have is an “assorted” color collection. But it doesn’t really matter because they are, well, not only Peonies but they are “Tree” Peonies and……. IT IS PEONY MONTH – YEAH! 

As we enter our second season under the box tree moth quarantine, it’s time for an update on the restrictions. The short version is this…

The majority of our customer base CAN once again PURCHASE Boxwood from Christensen’s Plant Center.

If you need more details, keep reading…

If you are planting outside the 12-county quarantine area, you can still purchase from us, but they will need to be direct-shipped and some restrictions may apply. Talk to your Christensen’s representative about your options.

As a dedicated wholesaler of nursery stock catering exclusively to contractors, we know that the past year has been challenging for landscape professionals and business owners in our industry. The fluctuating zone has brought significant distortion to the market dynamics of this beloved shrub compelling many to seek boxwood alternatives.  While we do not wish to see the box tree moth spreading, the larger quarantine area does allow the business of boxwoods to return to a normal pace.  

We invite you to take advantage of the increased availability of boxwoods at Christensen’s. Our commitment to quality and compliance with state guidelines ensures that you receive healthy, robust plants for your landscaping projects.

For more information, Michigan State University has set up a website dedicated to the box tree moth. It includes articles and recommendations, along with contact information for experts on this subject.

Spring is upon us and we are selling through our mulch at a mind-boggling pace. Hardwood mulch is incredibly popular with homeowners and contractors alike, but have you considered that there is an alternative? What if I told you that this aesthetically pleasing alternative not only suppresses weeds and smells good, it even inhibits several common pests?

Cedar mulch is all of these things!

Mulch, in general, helps the soil retain moisture by preventing rapid evaporation. It acts as a protective layer, keeping the soil temperature stable, and providing insulation for plant roots.

The reddish-brown color of cedar mulch adds visual appeal to garden beds, walkways, and around trees. It complements shrubs and ornamental plants beautifully and can create inspiring contrast to accents on a home or commercial building.

Property owners and maintenance crews may find the battle with persistent weeds is much easier to win with cedar mulch, homeowners may enjoy a landscape that is easier to manage and maintain.

These compounds have been tested for efficacy against gnats and are even available extracted as a pesticidal spray for indoor plants.

Good morning, Minions, and welcome, once again, to another episode of the Chronicles of your favorite Cap’n.  It has been some time since your Cap’n has made an appearance in these articles, or on other social media sites for that matter. So it’s been requested, or rather encouraged, from “The Man With The Big Mustache” to possibly pull The Cap out of his state of semi-retirement, which really means I’ve had a dreadful case of writer’s block, and I don’t get out as much as I used to and observe weird situations or other comical scenarios to which I get to insert my twisted sense of humor for your entertainment. 

Basically, it’s me calling someone dum…. Errr… questioning an individual’s state of intelligence, at that particular moment, using as many drawn out adjectives that are normally infused with a vulgarity or four, and sometimes other random humorous zingers just to help us all get a laugh out of any given day.  This time around though… I gotta try something different...

CAP’S FIRST VILLAIN:  THE HELLSPAWNED BARBERRY.

Pickerus Impalemus Maximus

      Instead of grabbing it by the pot, as ya should always do, he grabs it by the hair instead.  

CAP’S SECOND VILLAIN:  THE DEMONSEED YUCCA PLANT

Painimus  Inmybuttimus

Now you may be asking, “Cap’n, what purpose does this plant have even though you want to launch a missile at them?”.  Simple:  They are nearly indestructible. Full sun? No problem.  Shady area?  They don’t care.  Lack of water? No problem. Nice flowers? Yep…for about 3 days until the wind snaps them off. Deer resistant?  Yep, even deer hate them. Nice foliage? If variegated green and yellow works for you, then definitely.  Basically, this is arguably the best low to NO maintenance plant in Michigan. Throw these into a blank area as a filler item, and you’ll have something to look at for years to come, just keep in mind that once you plant them, you’re probably going to be stuck with them for eternity.  For me personally, the plastic pots that they come in should be encased in concrete and stored here at the nursery in Block 36.  For those of you who don’t know where Block 36 is when you visit us:  that’s our drainage pond that’s about 15 feet deep. In my opinion, that’s the perfect place for them to exist.

CAP’S PRIMARY ARCH NEMESIS:  THE EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS

Toomanyus Eyeballius

                Minions, I don’t fear many things. Snakes, clowns, enclosed places, heights, politicians, elevated mortgage rates, mimes, you get the idea.  I can coexist fairly enough with all of those common problem children, but your Cap’n does have a weakness, and the vast majority of my fellow coworkers (they’re Minions also, btw) and just about everyone that asks “Where is the Cap’n?” on social media knows exactly what it is: 

FRIGGIN’ SPIDERS!

                Ladies and gentlemen, evolution was having a VERY angry day when these creatures came into existence.  Maybe a meteor hit us that day, I don’t know.  I find them to be, arguably, the most brutal organism on Planet Earth. An old friend of mine that I worked with here for a long time asked as to why I have this hatred and fear of a little spider.  I then proceeded to tell him my point of view on these over-legged, over-eyeballed, and sometimes furry nightmarish monsters.  I just gave myself chills, and I haven’t gotten to the story yet. 

Picture this:  You’re a bug flying along looking for something to munch on during your few weeks of living when all of a sudden:  You stop abruptly.  You are stuck on a sticky web that you didn’t see.  Then you turn your head only to see an unidentified object with 8 eyeballs, 8 legs, and a couple of ginormous fangs speeding towards you, and there’s not a thing that can be done.  Well, if you’re in this scenario, at least it’ll be over quick, right?  Ohhhhhh Hell No! It bites you, but only paralyzes you.  THEN these evil, vile, sneaky trappers from Hades decide to start crocheting... with sticky thread…that originates from their ass… all over you.  Congratulations!  This abomination just turned you into a sweater. Thanks, Martha Stewart!  So now here you are: paralyzed, stuck in a web, you’re wearing a sweater in the middle of summer, feeling somewhat humiliated, and you’re not dead yet.  How can this get worse?  Along comes Demon Child again for a little snack… and you’re the snack.  Instead of hammering down and finishing you off like an 800-pound person at an all-you-can-eat buffet, it instead decides to sip on you like a Slurpee…for days... and during this whole time, the freakazoid is only getting LARGER. And hungrier.

                Fun stuff, right? Here’s some more for ya:  Some spiders have some pretty wicked poison to boot. Think about that:  A spider can cause significant damage to, or even kill, a PERSON with ONE BITE.  Wanna hear another fun fact?  DID YOU KNOW that the Daddy Longlegs spider is actually one of the MOST venomous spiders?  Fortunately for us, their fangs are so small that they can’t puncture our skin. With the way evolution goes, how long is that going to hold up?  I may be on my 104^th life by then, but it’s something to think about.  Anyhoo, I finished my story with my coworker, and I seriously think that I made him gain arachnophobia through my ramblings.  I did notice that he dusted the corners of his office a bit more often.

                “Cap’n, I want to obliterate every spider on the globe now!  They’re Brutal! They’re Evil! They can be deadly! Some are ENORMOUS!” How can they POSSIBLY have a purpose?”  As much as I hate to say it, we do need them.  Why?  They eat bugs, maybe like that damn Box Moth that’s causing some havoc around Michigan lately. It’s Nature's Insecticide!   As much as I want to stomp, drag, and smear them 6 feet underneath my boot, I do realize that if they don’t take out bugs, then our industry will suffer from various forms of insect contamination, damage, infestations, ect.  Sure, we can spray chemicals all day long, but the

 from arachnophobia.  After you walk through arborvitaes, get a face full of web, and notice that a fearsome, nightmarish creature with more eyeballs than you is staring back at ya, I have no problem making an appointment.

Sargent and Sargent Tina Crabapples are two of the most unique and reliable ornamental trees you can find. They offer beautiful colors year-round, are very low maintenance, and are great for wildlife. These Crabapples are extremely versatile, they can be used anywhere from focal points in gardens to lining driveways. Due to their dense and spreading growth habit, they can also work well as a privacy screen.

Sargent Crabapple’s growth habits make them unique. With dense winding branches that spread wide from the tree, they can provide a large canopy. If left unpruned branches may grow all the way to the ground providing a more shrub-like appearance. Sargent Tina is the smaller of the two varieties, they will grow to a height and width of about 5 feet. For this reason, they work better as an ornamental focal point in smaller landscapes. Sargents can grow to a height and width of about 10 feet.

Beautiful year-round, these crabapples both start with pink buds in the early spring that open to bright white blossoms covering the whole tree. As their flowers begin to drop they reveal a dense canopy of dark green leaves. The leaves will turn shades of gold in the fall before dropping and revealing a beautiful winding branching structure. In the fall the tree will also produce bright red fruits that are very attractive to birds and can persist into the winter.

Both varieties prefer full sun, regular moisture, and require minimal pruning. When planted the trees require regular watering until established. Once established they are relatively resistant to drought, insects, and disease. Pruning in late winter to remove dead, damaged, or unwanted growth is the best practice. This is also when it is easiest to see the full branching structure of the tree allowing you to shape and alter its irregular spreading growth habits.

If you would like to learn more about crabapples, check out Jacob's article from last year, Don't Worry, Be Crabby!

There’s something to be said about impeccable customer service. If you take a “customer is always right” attitude when servicing your clients, you start from an excellent place with a servant’s attitude. Something that, frankly, in this day and age, isn’t as common as it used to be. Many of the most highly regarded business recommendation books carry some level of that advice.

"We don't want to push our ideas onto customers, we simply want to make what they want." Laura Ashley

However, there is an argument to be made that merely satisfying your customers is not the best answer for industries that rely on creativity. And even if you think landscaping isn’t a creative field, it is… or it should be. I often think of two famous quotes when I think about a customer survey or a focus group. Henry Ford supposedly said, “If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” And Steve Jobs said, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

We often see the same version of landscaping repeated street after street, city after city. In some cases, regulations make the similarity mandatory. In other cases, efficiency of production has created matching homes, since they were all built and landscaped almost in an assembly line fashion.

There are many reasons to diversify your customers’ landscapes.

• Diversity prevents mass devastation – Think of Boxwood blight or Emerald Ash Borer
• Diversity encourages mental stimulation for everyone involved, from the designer to the homeowner, to the passing neighbor that’s sleepy on their commute.
• Diversity increases diversity. With different landscapes come different habitats and food for creatures. You can see this in the bee population… diversity gives the pollinators more food at different times of the season with more opportunities to pollinate and it can create honey variations.

Over the years, mass production has increasingly whittled away at the natural diversity of everything from grocery store selection to fashion to transportation.

Having made the case for a wilder version of landscape, I also realize that some customers will not love a creative landscape. They need uniformity and a basic level of landscape.

The difficult dilemma is finding those customers who don’t know they’re waiting to be delighted by the unexpected.

Note: I do realize the irony of quoting Henry Ford, the same man who successfully implemented the assembly line and said, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black” in an article about creativity.

A few weeks ago, I got to go out to Oregon and visit several nurseries to see their selection. It was very cool to see the variety of plants that they can grow that we can’t. Geographically, we’re almost straight across the country from each other with our southern borders hovering around the 41-42° North parallel line. We are zone 5 and they are zone 8 or 9 depending on where along the coast you are. It was amazing to hear that they can potentially gain up to 12” on a Japanese maple in one growing season or to see 4.5’ emerald green arbs that they say in a few weeks will be nice 5-6’ arbs. It was a very busy trip as I saw 10 different nurseries in 4 days, but it was totally worth it.