Early to mid-April is a perfect time to start to enjoy your springtime flowers. Way before Dahlias, summertime annuals, and asters, the breath of selection of spring blooming perennials is dazzling but there are definitely favorites that I enjoy year after year. Columbine The sheer variety of shapes and colors of Columbine flowers has always …
Continue reading "Springtime Pretties-What You Should Be Planting for Spring Color"
Who says you have to plant your containers in May after the danger of a final frost? I have plants in my containers all year long and start in early March after pulling out Christmas greens using the long list of early spring flowers that can tolerate and love chilly weather. There are so many …
Continue reading "Cold Loving Spring Containers"
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"
Sunny yellow blooms fringed with a green ruff green poking through snow is my first sign that spring has sprung. Eranthis hyamalis, or Winter Aconite, in the buttercup family, is a spring ephemeral, which means that it is a short-lived plant above ground with a burst of blooms, then disappears, remaining under ground until next …
Continue reading "Winter Aconites-Harbinger of Spring"
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"
A bulb that blooms in the fall? I get a lot of puzzled looks when I try to explain Autumn Crocus or Meadow saffron. Not really a crocus, but actually in the lily family, it resembles the spring flowering crocus but the flowers are larger and chalice-shaped instead of stiffly upright. The similarity to a …
Continue reading "Autumn Crocus-Fall Super Star"
One of the main reasons that I grow flowers in my garden is for the fresh cut flowers. Blooms to bring in by the arm load and arrange in buckets and vases, is the reason that I slave hours in the garden. Buying fresh cuts from a florist or grocery store isn't the same as …
Continue reading "Top 12 Cut Flowers"
One of the main reasons that I grow flowers in my garden is for the fresh cut flowers. Blooms to bring in by the arm load and arrange in buckets and vases, is the reason that I slave hours in the garden. Buying fresh cuts from a florist or grocery store isn't the same as …
Continue reading "Backyard Blooms-Top 12 Cut Flowers"
Planting bulbs in pots now in the fall ensures that you will have pots of flowers to enjoy in the spring outdoors.
Black flowers bring excitement and drama to the garden and can transform flower borders and containers from the expected to the extraordinary.
