Spring perennial bloomers are easy. There are so many great spring performers that you always have something blooming all spring long with little effort. Fall can be a little trickier to have a constant parade of colorful bloomers and I always am looking for new candidates and old favorites. One of the all time favorites …
Continue reading "Stars of the Fall Garden"
Garden mums have been on my mind for a while with the many ones I see in full bloom right now. Forget the ones in a large plastic pot that you set on your front porch and throw away when it is a dried desiccated plant corpse. I am talking about the mums that grow …
Continue reading "Garden Mums"
An under-used and under-appreciated perennial in the U.S, Tricyrtus or Toad Lily, is gaining in popularity. Uncommon beauty, late-season blooms and wonderful adaptability to shade, give the toad lilies a place in just about any garden. Called toad lilies because of the spotting like a toad, these beautiful flowers thrive in moist deep shade to …
Continue reading "Hairy Toad Lily – Gem of the Garden"
If you have deer visit your garden and want some color in partial shade or sun, consider planting Calycanthus floridus. A wonderful, easy-to-grow shrub, Carolina Sweet Shrub features strongly fragrant dark red flowers in early summer. The show doesn't stop there; the leaves often turn a nice shade of yellow in the fall. Carolina Sweet …
Continue reading "Carolina Sweet Shrub-Another Deer Proof Shrub Addition"
Surprisingly, many gardeners and non-gardeners alike don't know about one of the best early flowering shrubs around - Witch Hazel, Hammamelis x intermedia. Fragrant, long blooming, maintenance free and deer resistant, I am always surprised that it isn't more widely planted. The winter flowering Hazels - Hamamelis x intermedia hybrids are crosses between Japanese witch …
Continue reading "Witch Hazel – An Underused Winter Blooming Shrub"
Porch pots are an old fashioned way to decorate a deck, porch, or other entrance to greet people with something colorful during the fall and winter season. Burning bush, dogwood, viburnums, hydrangea flowers, and other fall colored branches are available for the taking along road sides or your property. Foraging in the Wild Burning bush …
Continue reading "Foraged Foliage & Berries For Fall"
Halloween is scarecrow making time and I had the opportunity to create one with some friends and enter into Ladew Gardens 'Garden Glow'. Our Monkton Garden Club had unlimited space to work with, but we had to make sure it looked good both in the daytime and nighttime. Lighting was accomplished with many strings of …
Continue reading "Garden Lady Scarecrow"
It is time to start thinking about your fall holiday table and entertaining for Thanksgiving. Here are some ideas below. If you want to see me decorate for the fall season with pumpkins, succulents, and other naturals, come see me at The Baltimore County Cockeysville Library in Maryland, where I will be creating and demonstrating …
Continue reading "Easy Fall Centerpiece Ideas"
Halloween is around the corner and people are starting to decorate with the many types of pumpkins available at the farmer's market. The past 10 years have seen an explosion of all kinds of colors, sizes, and shapes of pumpkins, but I am in love with a diminutive one, which actually isn't a real pumpkin, …
Continue reading "Pumpkin On a Stick"
Having Thanksgiving at your house? Whipping up a table centerpiece now will save you a lot of time on Thanksgiving Day. Living on a pretty large property (2 acres), is a lot of work with weeding, pruning, mulching, etc. The chores are endless. But it is all worth it when I look out my window …
Continue reading "Easy Thanksgiving Centerpieces"
