Flowering Evergreens for Year-Round Interest
Winter is a time when the garden is quiet. Few shrubs or trees bloom, although in warmer areas there are a number that do – the fascinating Paperbush (Edgeworthia) for one. But for…
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Holly Berries for Every Garden
As fall arrives, and the holidays are just a short few months away, red berries in the garden start to look like a great idea. There must be a million pictures out there…
Japanese Maples for Fall Color
Fall color is one of the great highlights of the year. Tourists come from around the world to see the colors of eastern North America, and almost everywhere, as the summer comes to…
Grow the Ideal Lemon, Wherever You Live
If you can only grow one citrus tree, the lemon is the ideal choice. It takes a lot of oranges to make a pint of juice, and not everyone loves grapefruit, which anyway…
American Boxwood – More Versatile Than You Thought
When most people think ‘boxwood’, they picture clipped balls or low hedges. But there is so much more to boxwood. This is an ideal time to plant some, so it’s also the perfect…
Fall – the Ideal Season for Planting Trees
With Labor Day just around the corner, we have reached the traditional end of summer – even if, in some areas at least, hot weather will continue through September. There is nonetheless a…
How to Choose a Shade Tree
When you move into a new home, especially a newly-built home, the garden is often left, while you settle into the house. That is only naturally, but there are two things that you…
Modern Twists on the PG Hydrangea
If you live in colder parts of the country, the chances are good that you have seen the PG Hydrangea, even if you didn’t know what it was. This plant is a true…
Top Drought Resistant Trees and Shrubs
With summer in full swing, and many people on holiday, plants in the garden can suffer in the typical dry conditions at this time of year. This may not be an exceptional summer…
Butterfly Bushes for Every Garden
The Butterfly Bush, once a favorite plant with children for the hordes of beautiful butterflies it attracts, has had some bad publicity in the last few years. Beautiful as it is, these plants…
Some Interesting Evergreens for Gardens
Gardeners fall into two camps when it comes to evergreens – those that love ‘em, and those that hate ‘em. Some people find them boring, since they don’t flower, and mostly keep their…
Summer Care of Japanese Maple
Everyone loves Japanese maples, with their diversity of leaf color and form. Some are upright, some weeping, while some cascade elegantly over rocks and walls. Leaves may be green, or the coveted rich-reds…
Tips on Placing Shrubs in Your Garden
Planting shrubs is the best way to create form and structure in your garden, and working with a selection of different ones, both evergreen and deciduous, and large and small, is the way…
Time to Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs – Part Two
Last week I started discussing the pruning of spring-flowering shrubs and trees, but after diverting into the choice and use of pruners, delayed finishing the conversation till now. So let’s get back to…
Time to Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs – Part One
Now that spring is behind us, and summer has officially begun, don’t leave the pruning of your spring-flowering shrubs any longer. Ideally it should be done immediately after they flower, so for next…
Bring Lots of Color to Your Summer Garden
It sometimes seems that garden writers are obsessed with the ‘off’ seasons in the garden. There are endless blogs on flowers for spring, color in fall, how to have winter interest, but summer…
Dramatic Vertical Garden Accents
When organizing the layout of plants in your garden, making the best and most exciting arrangement you can is the key to making the ordinary look extraordinary. Most plants are basically rounded, and…
Hydrangea – Queen of the Shade
Almost every garden has shade – and even if it begins as sunny, once trees and large shrubs develop, shady areas are almost inevitable. We can treat shade in two ways, as a…
Basic Care of Houseplants
Bringing living green inside your house is a great way to improve your indoor space. Not only do plants add that special something to your rooms, softening the sharp angles of furniture, and…
Where Do New Plant Varieties Come From?
When we look at the huge range of different trees and shrubs available for our gardens, we take it as a given that something new is always coming along – the latest variety…
Understanding Shade in the Garden
When choosing plants for the garden, the words shade-tolerant, or grows in shade are regularly seen. The true situation with shade is a little more complicated than that, and a better understanding of…
Fir Trees – An Attractive Alternative to Spruce
In colder areas, spruce trees are a common sight, and they are widely used in landscaping. Despite their beauty, the fact that they are so widely used can make them slightly boring options….
Plants for Early Spring Blooming
At this time of year, we look anxiously for the beginning of spring, especially those of us who live in cold areas, where April is merely the month when all the snow finally…
Tips on Pruning Shrubs and Flowering Trees
The succession of flowering shrubs through the seasons is a large part of the beauty of a garden, bringing interest to every part of the year. Yet in many gardens the shrubs are…