Finke Gardens and Nursery

Spring – the season of possibilities! Each season presents unique opportunities of color and interest. There are so many options to make changes in your landscape, and the design staff at Finke Gardens can help you make the most of your investment. Our approach to design is anything but a standard formula.  Instead of defaulting to an over-used, typical selection of spirea, juniper or Stella d’Oro daylily, we view each project as an opportunity to incorporate well-suited and placed trees, shrubs and perennials

Finke Gardens offers and uses in design many plants with special features that can make your landscape distinctive and manageable.  Consider these options among many others:

• Under appreciated plants – many old-fashion plants have been around a long time for good reasons.  Just because it’s new doesn’t always make it better.

• Plants with special significance or characteristics like fragrance, habitat for birds and wildlife, native and historical.

• Plants with distinctive forms like dwarf conifers and narrow, upright plants well suited to create a focal point or fill a small space that could quickly overgrow with standard selections.

Spring starts for the staff at Finke Gardens in early December – propagating plants, making signs, preparing for spring classes, renovating our website and going to trade shows to find new treasures; all in anticipation our favorite season.  We’re ready to help you get a start on your spring season of gardening activities through our educational classes, landscape design services and the opening of the retail store.

Begin the Design Process

Winter is a good time to consider your landscape.  As you look out into the winter landscape, are there views you’d like to see disappear?  Is there anything to catch your attention or attract the birds?  Has it been years since you pruned the junipers that have now eaten your front windows?  It’s the perfect time to call Finke Gardens to schedule a landscape design appointment.



Retail Store Opens March 23!

The retail store opens for the season on Monday, March 23.  The greenhouse is bursting with beautiful color and bright sunshine so it’s a great place to visit even if it’s too early to plant.  New pots, garden sculpture, fountain and gardening supplies will be on display.  As the temperatures warm up, the outdoor displays of plants will expand.  Visit with our staff to know what can be planted when.

Always Learning More

New plant introductions have always been the signature of Finke Gardens, and 2009 is no exception.  Our website presents information on new plants and ideas for their use in your landscape.  Educational classes are also a great source of information on new plants and solutions for your gardening success.  If you have questions after store hours, find the “Ask Rich” feature and email us your question.  We’re here to help make this spring your favorite season!

• Icy Blue New Guinea Impatiens
• Miniature Licorice Plant
• Oyster Plant
• Purple Oxalis

Each summer Rich and Luann travel to Ball Seed Days in Chicago to choose the latest and best plants to offer our customers.  This year they have discovered several new annuals to be the highlight of your containers and annual displays this coming season.

This great combination features the new Icy Blue New Guinea Impatiens. Enormous light periwinkle blossoms set above compact dark green foliage will glow in a shady setting.  These flowers especially stand out against the rich dark purple foliage of Purple Oxalis.   Oyster plant is a unifying element with spiky lavender variegated leaves in colors that range from almost white to bright purple.  Finally, set off the entire collection with the draping delicate silver foliage of Miniature Licorice Plant.

• Lakeside Spellbinder Hosta
• Praying Hands Hosta
• Blue Mouse Ears Hosta
• Snowdrop Anemone
• Jack Frost Brunnera
• Sweet Kate Spiderwort
• Caesar’s Brother Iris

Finke Gardens is excited to offer many new Hostas this spring.  Hosta are hardy shade-tolerant perennials that provide a lush cover of summer foliage.  Leaves come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, textures, and colors.  By creatively combining these design elements, Hostas are a fun and striking way to enliven a shady space.

Hosta grows best in spots with morning sun and afternoon shade.  Cultivars with gold, yellow, and white leaves will tolerate more sun than the blue leaf varieties.  One of the best features of hosta is that once they are planted, these plants require little additional maintenance.  You can also look forward to spikes of lavender to white flowers that appear in late summer.

We especially love hostas under trees and shrubs and as borders for a shade garden.  They are one of few plants that grow well in dry shady conditions.  This great combination complements Cool Splash Diervilla, a new and unique shrub Finke Gardens is offering this season!

If it is true that opposites attract then Lakeside Spellbinder Hosta is the perfect compliment to Cool Splash Diervilla.  Reverse variegation and a striking centerline showcase the spectacular variegation.  Add Praying Hands Hosta for upright form and Blue Mouse Ears Hosta for soothing balance.  Caesar’s Brother Iris provides vertical grass-like texture and brilliant blue flowers.  Its character is repeated with the lower growing Sweet Kate Spiderwort.  The elegant white flowers of Snowdrop Anemone are showcased in the spring and again in the fall when the plant re-blooms.  As a final element, Jack Frost Brunnera gives this combination year round interest with its evergreen foliage.

New plants are always exciting to consider, but when it’s a plant that fills the void for a particularly challenging site, it can make a gardener’s heart pitter patter.  Add to the gardening excitement that the plant is also VARIEGATED, and full cardiac arrest may be in order.

Cool Splash Diervilla is such the case as it finds its home in part shade gardens and holds up under the dry soil conditions that are often found in shade.  Cool Splash Diervilla has the durability and desirability coveted by the novice and accomplished gardener.  Drought tolerant, fast growing and no taller than 3 feet makes this accent plant for the shade a must-have for the 2009 spring season.

Read more about this plant at Plant Profile:  Cool Splash Diervilla

Kick off your gardening season with new containers!  Find the perfect pot to fit your personal style.  Finke Gardens is excited to offer several new collections this season.

These white containers with dark terracotta rims evoke a romantic feel in the garden.  See how their crisp line and color really showcases the plant combination you choose.  Our staff can help you select plant combinations for a classy or upbeat and truly unique look.
We also love these teal containers that are glazed to look like weathered copper.  For a modern look, try planting them with a magenta or silver plant combination.  There are so many exciting possibilities!  Adding a new container is just the thing you need to punch up your garden this season.

Keep up with current gardening activities through our biweekly electronic newsletter that includes gardening information, seasonal displays, pest problems, classes and special promotions and sales. This earth-friendly communication will soon replace our traditional printed newsletter.

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Bulk Mulch 2009 Fees:

$30.00/cubic yard  Customer Pick up

$36.00/cubic yard  Delivered (5 yards minimum)

If less than 5 yards, add a $36.00 delivery fee.

Delivery must be within 10 miles of the store.

Finke Gardens Mulch Calculator

“Ask Rich” is our way of helping answer your gardening questions.  How-to questions, pest problems,
plant ID, availability questions and request for design services can be forwarded here.  Someone from Finke Gardens will try to answer your question.

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