Nursery * Lawn *Landscape & Floral
Join our retail email list below for your chance to win a dozen red roses this Valentine’s Day! Yes you read that correctly!! Just sign up to receive our retail email blasts on in house specials and you could be the winner of a beautiful rose bouquet this year on Valentine’s Day. We will notify the winner February 13th via their email address and they will have to come in to our shop located in Balsam Lake , WI to pickup the bouquet!
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
‘Tis the season to gather and celebrate with friends and family for the holidays! If you’re looking for last-minute gifts, there’s still time to bring holiday cheer with winter wreaths, vibrant Poinsettias, and festive floral bouquets. To ring in the New Year, bring the party to the host with a fun and glamorous arrangement or New Year’s balloons with colorful streamers.
We are open Sat. Dec. 23 from 9am to 1pm. We will be closed Sun. Dec. 24 thru Wed. Dec. 27 and will re-open Thu. Dec. 28. We can be reached by phone at 715-485-3131, by email at info@balsamlakeprolawn, or on-line at www.balsamlakeprolawn.com.
We hope you have a safe and happy holiday!
Winter is nearly upon us, and the winter holidays are quickly approaching! Everyone is changing out their harvest theme for Christmas trees, trading in their cornucopias for wreaths and evergreens. We change from symbols of abundance to signs of a season full of generosity, giving, and the gathering of loved ones.
In the greenhouse industry, winter is a time to celebrate! Festive outdoor patio pots make entrances inviting and welcoming. Cheery wreaths adorn front doors. Garlands trail along windows, framing in outside’s winter scenes while cozy-ing up the inside. Once-empty window boxes are now full of long-lasting spruce tops and winter evergreens. Beautiful and exotic houseplants are in full bloom. We watch in awe as Christmas Cactus, Amaryllis, Cyclamen, and Poinsettias flower.
Decorating for the winter season can be fun and easy! Make up DIY patio pots with a few balsam tips, spruce tops, and flat cedar sprigs. Add Dogwood twigs, winter berry, and birch branches for height and color. Decorate with bows, pine cones, pheasant feathers, or dried hydrangeas for added interest. To stabilize your patio pots from strong winds, we recommend adding a dirt/sand mix to the bottom of the pot and then watering the items in when you are finished.
Stop in for all of your outdoor winter decorations: wreaths, garland, custom-made patio pots, and all of the items needed for DIY patio pots, window boxes, and hanging baskets. We also have fun Christmas ornaments and gifts! It’s time to “Deck the Halls” and welcome the winter season. Hope to see you soon!
We are excited to announce the arrival of a new, easy care Amaryllis!
All set and ready to bloom, this Amaryllis bulb comes mounted on a beautiful birch disc with winter greens, pine cones, and berries. Perfect for the busy holiday season, this amazing plant needs no water at all! This Amaryllis bulb naturally stores all the water and energy it needs to bloom. Simply place the Waterless Amaryllis Arrangement in a full or partially sunny spot in your home and enjoy! The bulb typically blooms for 4 to 6 weeks.
Originally from the tropical regions in South America, Amaryllis is known for its large trumpet-like flowers that bloom as indoor bulbs during the winters in colder climates. The flowers bloom in various shades of red, white, pink, salmon, orange, or variegated.
These bulbs make perfect gifts or to decorate your home during the holiday season! Available for pick up or delivery around November 22 in our retail center at Balsam Lake Pro-Lawn!
*Please note: this new easy-care variety of Amaryllis bulb will only bloom once, unless it is transplanted into a container with soil. Click here for details regarding long-term care for your Amaryllis.
As Thanksgiving approaches, everyone is bustling about with their minds full of holiday planning, family, and turkey. In preparation for this festive day, consider a few of these harvest table setting traditions to welcome your guests and decorate your home for Thanksgiving.
The Cornucopia: The cornucopia (aka the ‘horn of plenty’) is the most common symbol of a harvest festival, meant to represent the abundance of Earth’s harvest (thanksgivingday.org). Filled with flowers, small squash or pumpkins, leaves, berries, acorns, pinecones, pomegranates, and other fall harvest goods, cornucopias make an excellent main statement for your Thanksgiving table. If your table is too full of food for an arrangement, add it to the kids’ table or as a side table display for your appetizers or pies.
Baskets: Big or small, round or square, low or high, a natural fiber basket full of autumn’s bounties makes for a beautiful table display. As a multi-purpose gift for a host, baskets can later be used as simple decorations or as unique containers for fruits, vegetables, breads, and other household items.
Fall Arrangements: Unique autumn containers such as pumpkins, wooden crates, or birch bark vases add a festive flare to table displays. Create an arrangement with pillar candles, succulents, and house plants for a long-lasting home decoration.
Whatever your traditions are, we hope you have a safe, wonderful, and happy Thanksgiving! We are grateful for your support of our local business and look forward to working with you this holiday season!
*Please note, we will be closed Thursday, November 23 thru Sunday, November 26. We will still check phone messages and take floral orders during that time! Call us at 715-483-3131 or order flowers on-line 24 hours a day at www.balsamlakeprolawn.com.
From September to November, the gardening world is bombarded by big, blooming Chrysanthemums (aka “mums”). When giving or getting this fall favorite, there’s always one big, looming question: Will this mum survive the winter?
The answer is a bit more complicated, and it depends on the type of mum you have. Many garden centers and florist shops in the Midwest sell Chrysanthemum varieties commonly known as “Fall Garden Mums” or “Florist’s Chrysanthemums.” These mums are mostly annuals suited for zone 5 to 9. As we are zone 3 to 4 with variable climate conditions, there is no guarantee Fall Garden Mums will survive in our zone. But, some people have had success and their Fall Garden Mums come back year after year. We like to say, “You can always hope. Plant it and see!”
The Pelee Mum is another variety commonly sold in garden centers and florist shops . This mum is strictly an indoor plant! The Pelee Mum features 2 to 4 inch, bi-color blooms with daisy-like petals of deep red turning to yellow toward the center. This compact plant makes a great indoor display to brighten a home or office in the fall.
If you are looking for a perennial mum, you are best to look for a variety in the Mammoth series. Developed by the University of Minnesota as a cold-hardy cultivar mum, a Mammoth Mum is a more reliable option. Click the link to learn about these hardy mum’s! https://mnhardy.umn.edu/varieties/flowers/chrysanthemums
If you are giving or getting these fall favorites, be sure to check the tag to determine whether your new plant is an annual, perennial, or indoor plant!
Chrysanthemums, sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteracea. They are native to Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center diversity is in China. They were first cultivated in China back in the 15th Century. Carolaus Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist, named this flower using a combination of two Greek words, Chrys(gold) and Anthemon (flower) meaning golden flower. There are countless horticultural varieties and cultivars.
You most commonly see them as a blooming plant in the fall seasons. But as a fresh cut flower, we receive them all year long- colors and varieties vary from season to season. Chrysanthemums are some of the most popular flowers in the floral industry, standing just below roses, tulips and lilies. With around 13 types of this mighty bloom, the possibilities for floral designs are endless!
Chrysanthemums are most commonly used in funeral arrangements, as it still remains a symbol of grief. White mums with greens and other blooms, like lilies, express sympathy for the departure of someone dearly loved.
The cut flower is able to survive up to 2 weeks in a vase. Unfortunately, the leaves of this flower die faster, so removing them from the stem ensures a longer lifespan. According to some studies performed by NASA, florists mums help reduce air pollution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study
Watch for our blog next week when we discuss the florist variety mum and the garden mum.
The Green Industry & Equipment Expo is this week, and a team of our crew members are on a road-trip to Kentucky for the nation’s largest trade show for the lawn and landscaping industry.
Our guys will explore a 20+ acre outdoor demonstration area, where they can test new equipment and discover handy new tools. The indoor facility is the equivalent of 47 White Houses with over 850 exhibits to visit! The team will network and learn the latest trends in turf management, landscaping, hardscape design, and installation.
Over this 3-day expo, the crew will also partake in the many classes, seminars, and guest speaker sessions. The crew will discover techniques to improve business processes, while learning about industry growth and changes. These educational experiences will help our team expand their knowledge and expertise.
We are so excited for our team to enhance their training, and be able to apply their new skills to install/maintain quality lawn and landscaping for our valuable customers!
Click here to watch a quick clip to learn more about this Green Industry event!
Fall clean-up is all the rage and hub of activity lately – we’ve been blogging about it, our customers are asking about it, and our crews are preparing for it.
Today, we will focus on leaves and lawns: we’ll discuss best practices for fall leaf clean-up and lawn care, while describing the importance of these practices to maintain the health of your lawn and garden.
Leaf Removal – Turf: When leaves fall and accumulate on the lawn, they prevent sunlight from reaching the grass, creating brown and/or dead patches in your lawn. Leaves also maintain moisture, and while some moisture in your lawn is good, accumulated leaves can trap moisture in your lawn resulting in fungus issues. Remove all diseased leaves, like those with apple scab or leaf spot, to avoid re-infecting your trees and new leaves the following year. Rake or blow leaves off your lawn.
Leaf Mulch – Garden Beds: As mentioned above, leaves maintain moisture and decompose quickly creating a rich, organic material. When used as a mulch in your landscaping, leaves add important nutrients to soil, prevent weed growth, retain soil moisture, and acts as insulation for soil and plants over the winter. Shredded leaves make the best mulch you can then use around trees and in gardens. Many people are concerned about oak leaves, which are relatively acidic. According to the University of Minnesota Extension, oak leaves decompose more slowly than other types of leaves and are best used for mulch or compost. Their slower rate of decomposition makes them well suited for use as mulch (www.extension.umn.edu).
Lawn Care: In addition to removing leaves from your lawn, mow your lawn short (around 3 inches) to prevent fungus problems. To maintain the health and vitality of your lawn, apply a fall fertilizer (Winterizer) to your turf. This ensures turf roots remain healthy and allows the lawn to store food for winter. It also replenishes the nutrients used up over the summer and allows the plant to re-estabilsh itself after heat stress. Most importantly, the energy stored from fall fertilizer promotes better spring green-up the following year.
To cut or not to cut, that is the question! Autumn brings about a number of important, and sometimes mind-boggling, questions regarding fall care for perennials and shrubs. Do you cut back those straggly daylilies? What about those grasses? In today’s blog, we will discuss what to cut and what to save!
Grasses: If your grasses are tall and stately with feathery tops, you might consider saving them until spring. Many grasses provide beautiful winter interest and natural habitat for birds and wildlife. Shorter or unruly ornamental grasses can be cut in the fall, late winter, or spring. If you choose to keep your grasses through the winter, be sure to cut them back in the spring. Clear debris from the centers of the grasses to encourage new growth.
Sedum: While sedum lose their foliage in the fall and can look rather gangly, the remaining blooms are snow-collecting platforms that turn to billowy, pillowy snow puffs in the winter. If you just can’t stand the look of sedum sticks in the fall, go ahead and cut them to the ground once the flowers die.
Dogwood Shrubs: Many varieties of Dogwoods can become huge and overgrown. You can reshape your dogwoods in the fall to keep its size more manageable. However, the twigs of Dogwood are found in shades of deep red, crimson, and yellow and make a wonderful, colorful addition to brighten a winter garden. If you do cut your Dogwood shrubs in the fall or early winter, be sure to keep the twigs for winter arrangements, window boxes, or outdoor patio pots with pine boughs and pine cones!
Hydrangea: Now is the time to cut your Hydrangea blooms for floral arrangements and for dried flowers! Pruning your hydrangeas varies for each type of Hydrangea shrub. Before you prune, find out what kind of Hydrangea you have to ensure the health and re-bloom of your shrub!