One of the first flowers children learn to draw are tulips. A few curved petals, a stem, and two pointy leaves. There are some beautiful tulips that look just like those simple drawings, but others differ greatly. Some look like peonies or roses or carnations. Others look like no flower you’ve seen before. ‘Queensland’ is [Continue]
Mid-summer is a good time to take a look around your yard and garden and decide what you like and what you don’t. Go out to the street and approach your home from both directions, pretending to be a visitor. What do you notice first? Is there a plant that is too big, a container [Continue]
The colors of the late summer garden are mostly brilliant purples, reds, oranges and yellows. Turtlehead is an easy-to-grow perennial plant native to our area whose late summer flowers provide a serene contrast to all that intensity with creamy white blooms. The Latin name for turtlehead is Chelone glabra. “Chelone” is the Greek word for [Continue]
The Perennial Plant Association has chosen butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, as its 2017 Perennial Plant of the Year. You might wonder at the choice of a plant with “weed” in its name, but this beautiful plant is anything buy weedy. It is a versatile plant that is at home in both formal landscapes and more [Continue]
Edelweiss, Edelweiss Every morning you greet me. Small and white Clean and bright You look happy to meet me. Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow Bloom and grow forever. Edelweiss, Edelweiss Bless my homeland forever. Many of us are familiar with the song “Edelweiss” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1965 musical “Sound of [Continue]
The entryways of plant nurseries, grocery stores, drug stores and department stores are filled with beautiful pots of chrysanthemums in an array of gorgeous fall colors. Soon all those pots of mums will migrate to front porches, decks and sidewalks throughout the area. Don’t be quick to buy the biggest most spectacular plants [Continue]
For many people, fresh cut grass, watermelon, sweet corn and birdsong are the smells, tastes and sounds that epitomize the word “summer.” I’d add the sight of zinnias blooming cheerily in my garden to that list. I’ve grown zinnias every year since I planted my first garden over 30 years ago. My mother gave me [Continue]
Jack Frost will soon make his appearance and you won’t want to let your many months of work in the vegetable garden go to waste. When frost is imminent, harvest all tomatoes both red and green, all peppers no matter how small, and all the beans, cucumbers and zucchini that are still producing. Cut tender [Continue]
Scores of mums are shouting from door-side displays at every big box store in town this time of year. Mums are short-lived, if they survive at all once out of their pots. The native plant counterpart that provides a much longer lasting splash of fall color than that of mums are the asters. Asters do [Continue]
Scores of mums are shouting from door-side displays at every big box store in town this time of year. Mums are short-lived, if they survive at all once out of their pots. The native plant counterpart that provides a much longer lasting splash of fall color than that of mums are the asters. [Continue]