Home Landscape Garden
This Display Garden showcases plants, shrubs, and trees that serve specific purposes in a home landscape, taking into consideration sizes of mature plantings, water control requirements, a desirable color palette, and being bee/butterfly/pollinator friendly.
Plants were chosen for their unique foliage and shape to create year-round interest. To avoid the need for trimming or mowing around individual plants and to conserve water resources, group plantings into beds and islands, and mulch them well.
This garden also includes a Solitary Bee House, used by beneficial non-aggressive pollinators like mason bees as a place to raise their larvae.
The majority of the trees and plants in this Home Landscape Garden were planted in 2018, letting you see how they mature. Mother Lode and Daub’s Frosted Junipers, added in 2023/2025, are an example of how to augment a landscape with drought tolerant, ground covering plants which do well in poor soil. Notice the dark and dramatic ‘Night Embers’ Stonecrop which is a pollinator/butterfly friendly, rabbit resistant, drought tolerant Sedum, added in 2025.
Visit the U of MN Extension website for information about selecting and Caring for Trees and shrubs, as well as Landscape Design resources on how to create functional, easy to maintain, environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and aesthetically pleasing landscapes. Another excellent resource is the U’s bulletin The Best Plants for 30 Tough Sites.
Plant list
A pink sparkler spirea – Spiraea betulifolia ‘Courisp’
B autumn stonecrop – Sedum “Carl”
B1 autumn stonecrop – Sedum ‘Night Embers’ / B2 stonecrop – Sedum ‘Back in Black’
C Norway spruce – Picea abies ‘Gold drift’
D little devil ninebark – Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Donna May’
E creme brulee potentilla – Potentilla fruticosa ‘Bailbrule’
F crabtree – Malus ‘Bailears ‘Ruby Tears’
G berry white hydrangea – Hydrangea paniculata ‘Renba’
H admiration barberry – Berberis thunbergii ‘Admiration’
I Amber jubilee ninebark – Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Jefam’
K campfire rose – Rosa ‘CA 29’
L fiber optics buttonbush – Cephalanthus occidentalis ‘Bailoptics’
M kalm st johnswort – Hypericum kalmianum ‘Cobalt n gold’
N strawberry sundae hydrangea – Hydrangea paniculata ‘Rensun’
O diamond rouge hydrangea – Hydrangea paniculata ‘Rendia’
P parkland pillar birch – Betula platyphylla ‘Jefpark’
Q allium – Allium sativum
R bird’s nest spruce – Picea abies ‘nidiformis’
S sundrop spirea – Spiraea ‘Bailcarol’
T creeping sedum – ‘John Creech’
U salvia – Salvia divinorum
V prairie smoke – Geum triflorum
W magnolia Centennial Blush
X shining sensation weigela – weigela florida ‘Bokrashine’
Y little bluestem – Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Standing Ovation’
Z Mother Lode Juniper – juniperus horizontalis ‘Mother Lode’
ZD Daub’s Frosted Juniper – juniperus chinensis ‘Daub’s Frosted’
Home Landscape Garden map
