An easy to grow, soft textured fountain grass, Pennisetum 'Karley Rose' will give you months of light pink blooms that are great for floral arrangements and beautiful accents in the garden, but aren't attractive to deer.

This Pennisetum is more cold hardy than the straight species (Pennisetum orientale) and blooms earlier than other varieties like 'Hamelyn'. The rose-pink blooms appear in early summer and continue on until frost. Once the blades and blooms dry out to an autumnal tan, the silhouette remains pretty in the frost of winter. Cut this grass back in early spring, as new growth begins to emerge. Aside from that, there is no special care for this drought tolerant, deer resistant grass.

When in bloom, 'Karley Rose' tops out at about 3' tall and 24-30" wide. ‘Karley Rose’ is easy to divide, to create a graceful, massed effect in your garden. It looks great backlit by early morning or late afternoon sun and pairs nicely with Sedums, Echinaceas and other large-flowered perennials. Full sun or light shade and well-draining soil is best – the one thing ‘Karley Rose’ doesn't like is wet, boggy soil.

This North American native prairie grass cultivar is a true performer. Many ornamental grasses don't start blooming until late summer, but ‘Blonde Ambition’ starts flowering in early summer and its blonde, horizontal, eyelash-like blooms persist well into winter. 

Anyone who has visited Shooting Star Nursery knows that we love our ornamental grasses, and Bouteloua ‘Blonde Ambition’ remains one of our very favorites. Its narrow blue-green leaves would be reason enough to like it, but what really makes this grass stand out is its flowers, which start out chartreuse colored and fade to a lovely blonde shade.

It performs well in various garden locations, from well-drained clay to drier sandy soils. At a super useful size of 2-1/2'-3' tall to 3' wide, you can plant it en masse, or use it as a single specimen to contrast with flowering perennials. We like to plant it with other sturdy perennials like Agastache, Eupatorium, Echinacea, and Nepeta. It also combines well in mass plantings with other native grasses like Sporobolus, Schizachyrium, and Muhlenbergia.

 ‘Blonde Ambition’ is very cold hardy and is quite drought tolerant, but can also handle regular watering. Like most ornamental grasses, it is deer resistant and wintering songbirds enjoy eating the seedheads. We like to leave it up all winter as the stiff stems can hold up to snow and provide interest and texture in the winter garden. In early spring, when you see new growth emerging, you can cut back the old stems to about 3" above the soil line and scratch out any old growth. Bouteloua is also reported to tolerate being near Walnut trees, where most plants cannot thrive.

For those of you who are not already familiar with Amelanchiers - aka: Serviceberry, Juneberry, Saskatoon (they have a LOT of common names), let this serve as an introduction to what might well become your new favorite shrub/small tree!

Serviceberries are one of those rare plants that provide year-round interest here in the Rogue Valley. In the spring, this charming member of the Rose family is covered by clouds of white flowers that are a big favorite with pollinators.

Summer brings truly delicious blue-black berries (hence the name Juneberry) that taste like a cross between a blueberry and an apple, and are as popular with birds as they are with humans.

The fall color of Serviceberries – especially ‘Autumn Brilliance’ – rivals maples for color and intensity. And even when they drop their leaves, the branching pattern of Serviceberries provides nice visual interest in the winter garden.

They’re also relatively carefree and easy to grow, and do well in full sun to light shade with average water. Most Serviceberries are somewhat drought-tolerant at maturity, and will only need deep watering once or twice a month during the summer.

Shooting Star Nursery regularly carries three varieties of Amelanchier:

 'Autumn Brilliance': We are absolutely in love with this plant! It works well as either a small single-trunked tree or large multi-trunk shrub, reaching about 15’ to 20’ tall and wide at maturity. As the name suggests, ‘Autumn Brilliance’ puts on a truly spectacular show of color in the fall. 

‘Spring Flurry’ has more of an upright tree form (28’ tall by about 20’ wide) than Autumn Brilliance’. It has a strong, dominant central leader and is a great choice for a small street tree: low maintenance, abundant spring flowers, and nice fall color too.  is generally available in tree form. 

Our native western serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) is a bit smaller than the two cultivars listed above - generally reaching about 12' by 6' at maturity - and can be found growing right here in the Rogue Valley and surrounding areas. They bloom and fruit about a month later, are easy to care for, and are excellent wildlife-friendly plants: the berries are heavily visited by a variety of pollinators, birds love the berries, and the plants also provide nice nesting sites for songbirds.

Anyone who’s ever visited Shooting Star Nursery knows how much we love our ornamental grasses, and this week we are highlighting one of our favorites that is (undeservedly!) less well-known than some of its flashier relatives like Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’. 

Calamagrostis brachytricha – also known as Korean Feather Reed Grass – is a truly lovely ornamental grass. Plants reach about 3’ tall and 2’ wide at maturity, and are topped with foot-long feathery pink inflorescences in late summer. These blooms last on the plant throughout the winter, and also will hold up nicely in cut flower arrangements.

Korean Feather Reed Grass prefers a bit of afternoon and moderate watering in order to look its best, and will also tolerate clay soils. It’s also fairly deer resistant, and wintering birds will enjoy eating the seeds (which are sterile, so they won’t spread throughout your garden).

Like most other ornamental grasses, Korean Feather Reed Grass is lovely on its own, but it really shines when you combine it with other plants – especially fall-blooming perennials like Asters, Solidago, and Rudbeckia. It works beautifully in a mixed border, alongside a water feature, or even just softening the sharp edges of a building. For a real visual treat, plant it where it can be backlit – either by the morning sun catching the droplets of dew, or by the afternoon sun enhancing the rosy glow of the bloom.

During the winter months, the inflorescences turn a tawny gold; providing a nice visual interest in the winter garden – especially when frost crystals cover the inflorescences on a crisp January morning. Leave these blooms on throughout the winter, and cut the plant back to a few inches tall in early spring once the new growth begins to appear.

This modest little groundcover happens to be one of our most popular perennials! Veronica ‘Georgia Blue’ adds a generous splash of rich cobalt blue to the edge of any garden or container planting.  

Dainty deep blue flowers with white eyes begin blooming as early as February and are heaviest in April. If you deadhead plants once the first flush of bloom is finished, you can easily extend their flowering season into early summer. The flowers are also attractive to a variety of pollinators including butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds.

Besides the blooms, the best part about 'Georgia Blue' is that it remains evergreen; with leaves turning lovely shades of burgundy in the colder weather. 'Georgia Blue' is a great companion to early spring bulbs - especially daffodils and species tulips - and can mask the untidy foliage bulbs leave behind as they fade.

This Veronica is a great choice for spilling over the edges of walls or out of containers, or as a densely massed groundcover. Plants will get about 6" tall and spread between 12-24" wide. 'Georgia Blue' will tolerate full sun to part shade and can even take a little drought; but looks best with moderate water and good mulch.

'Georgia Blue' has proven deer resistant in some gardens (Jacksonville, Applegate Valley) in the Rogue Valley but not others (Griffin Creek area of Medford), so try it out first. It looks great planted next to purple toned Euphorbia, Black Mondo Grass, Mahonias, and other broader leaved shrubs and perennials, or as a fill between stepping stones – as you can see in Shooting Star’s Demonstration garden.

Shooting Star also regularly carries these other Veronicas:

Veronica ‘Waterperry’ and Veronica ‘Whitewater’ both have similar growth habits to ‘Georgia Blue’. ‘Waterperry’ is a softer, lighter blue than ‘Georgia Blue’ and ‘Whitewater’, as the name suggests, is a lovely clear white.

Veronica pectinata: Also known as Woolly Veronica, this Veronica is more drought-tolerant than the others and is also lower growing (to about 2”).