Annuals and Perennials Articles
Walking Through Wildflower Gardens
A few years ago I took one of my sons camping in the Wasatch Mountains near our home. It was early in the spring and after hiking until dark, we set up camp in a small meadow. In the morning we realized the opposite end of our small meadow was covered with wildflowers. As we ate breakfast and the sun lit up our camp, the wildflower colors really came alive. I decided the difference in …
Fantastic Plant Combinations
If the ground isn’t frozen solid where you live yet (SORRY CHRIS!), fall is a good time to nab some perennials on sale to fill out the garden and get a jump-start on spring. While at the Garden Writer’s Symposium I picked up the new book Perennial Companions by Tom Fischer with photos by Richard and Adrian Bloom. It is totally inspiring. (FTC disclosure: I guess I was “given” this book for free. If by …
Plant a Halloween Garden!
Halloween is coming! Fortunately for us gardeners, Mother Nature has several scary plant species worthy of boos and scares. From flowers shaped like eyeballs to grass stained with blood, you’re sure to find a frightful plant to set the tone of Halloween.
Are you ready? Here’s a little garden’s worth of spooky delights to showcase for your trick or treaters!
Spiderflower
Spiderflower, or Cleome, is a perfect start to the Halloween garden. What’s Halloween without spooky …
Who Decides what’s Pretty?
I’m back from the Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, NC. It was, as per usual, a great time! This year, in particular, I talked with a wider cross-section of garden professionals including writers, lecturers, photographers, illustrators, retail owners, plant breeders, tv personalities, publishers, and so on and so forth.
Here’s Where I Play Eye Doctor
I went to the eye doctor a few weeks ago so that I could order some surfing sunglasses. When you go to …
Pump up Your Perennial Garden this Fall!
Now is a perfect time to plant perennials. The summer is winding down, the evening temperatures are cooling off, and plants are transitioning from flowering (reproducing) to stockpiling nutrients and energy for the winter. Most garden centers are trying to clean out their nurseries, and mail-order catalogues are getting rid of excess stock before moving it up to the next sized pot. That makes the fall a perfect time to find great …
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: May 2009
Today is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! Each month on the 15th day, rain or shine, bloggers from around the world take pictures of everything blooming in their gardens, and showcase it for everyone to see. You can go on a little virtual garden tour by visiting Carol over at May Dreams Gardens. Be sure to add your blog to the list!
Here is what’s …
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! April 2009
Carol, over at May Dreams Gardens, started the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I am now looking forward to this as one of my favorite days of the month! It is kind of like a virtual garden tour. You can go around to all of the garden blogs and see what is blooming in your friends’ gardens all over the world! Another good thing about bloom day: It is always the 15th of the …
What I Can’t Live Without
I’ll turn 30 on April 24th. I’ve been gardening since I was three years old. I remember picking green beans with my parents at their first house. I remember calling Asiatic lilies “bubblegum flowers” because I thought they smelled like gum. I remember dumping sand from my sandbox in my mom’s flower bed, telling her it “improved drainage.”
I had my very …
Gardener’s Bloom Day: March 15
There is a Meme (a blogging theme) for Gardener’s Bloom Day. It is always the 15th of the month. I am not sure who started it or why. However, I always enjoy seeing everyone else’s blooms. I am never organized enough to write a bloom day post of my own. There’s a lot in bloom in my garden right now, though, and it all seems to have a theme. Here is my bloom day collage:…
Garden Tour: Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Whenever I travel, I always enjoy visiting Public Gardens. I used to manage public gardens, so I got lots of great ideas for the garden where I worked at the time. Now, I just enjoy the superb horticulture, and the opportunity to get lots of pictures to share with people. I interned at the Marie Selby Botanical Garden in the spring of 2000, and I had not been back since. I was thrilled to see …
