For our October design issue, we asked local landscapers their favorite plant, flower or tree in their own yard. Check out what St. Louis professionals pick to beautify their gardens.

Create an ornamental effect in your landscape with a specimen plant. Serving as the focal point in a particular spot, specimens bring dramatic impact.

Chamaecyparis Reis Dwarf
“Unique and a bit unusual is a good way to describe the Chamaecyparis Reis Dwarf, one of my favorites. This conifer has foliage that is a dark, rich green with short contorted branching. “ Jim Graeler, Chesterfield Valley Nursery.

As you begin to fill in your garden, consider these blooms for full sun, full shade and partial sun. Your garden will be lush and beautiful in no time.

Full Sun
“One of my favorite sun plantings is the scavola. I like the prolific bloom and color that scavola exhibits. It also helps that it is extremely durable and easy to grow.”
Jim Graeler, Chesterfield Valley Nursery

In the past eight years, Carol has taken the small, 50-by-70-foot space and filled it with 12 small specimen trees, flowering vines, lush shrubs, perennials and annuals, all set out in curvaceous, boxwood-edged beds that line three sides of the landscape.

Gardening apps that will leave you more time to stop and smell the roses.

Local landscape experts share their favorite varieties of seasonal bloomers.

Crocus
The Crocus can have intense yellow and purple colors, mix in nicely with other plantings, require little to no maintenance and, of course, they are among the first flowers to show up in the spring.
Richard Poynter, Poynter Landscape