How to Choose a Flowering Dogwood Tree
Flowering Dogwood Trees are among the most spectacular flowering trees there are, and they are top choices for any garden. Grown as a lawn specimen, planted as background trees for your garden, or…
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The Basics of Tree Trimming
In our previous blog, Should I Trim My Trees? we talked about how to look at a mature tree and decide if the time has come for some trimming. On a larger tree…
Dark Foliage in the Garden – Use it Effectively
Everyone is using colored leaves in the garden these days – colored something other than green that is. Perhaps it is precisely because green is so ubiquitous that there is an eternal fascination…
Rebloom or Encore Azaleas – Which Should I Grow?
Evergreen azaleas are among the most attractive and colorful flowers we can grow in our gardens. It used to be that spring was the season for them, and they brighten our beds and…
Eastern Arborvitae – the Tree for Cold Seasons
North America is a vast land, and the seasons are very different, depending on what climate zones you are. This seems obvious, but when it comes to gardening, that variation means making different…
Trees and Shrubs for Winter Bloom and Berries
Most gardens look their best in spring and early summer. That is when the majority of plants flower, so is easy to have flowers then, and if you don’t plan your planting, you…
Everything You Need to Know about Cityline® Hydrangeas
As more and more of us live in towns and cities, gardens get smaller. For many, a balcony or terrace is all the outdoor space we have available to grow plants and get…
Fringe Flowers – Everything You Need to Know About Loropetalum
I remember well the first time I saw a red Fringe Flower bush. Even as a pretty knowledgeable gardener I was blown away, so I understand why this plant has become such a…
How to Choose the Right Boxwood for Your Garden
Boxwood bushes are garden standards – evergreen bushes with many uses, from the traditional boxwood hedge to less formal shrubs in modern gardens. Because they have such a well-known name, new gardeners can…
Which Spruce Tree Should I Plant?
For most people, a ‘spruce tree’ is a silvery-blue pyramidal tree on a lawn in front of your house, that is also good for a Christmas tree. Very true, but there is a…
Understand the Many Types of Roses
About one billion rose blossoms find their way into florist shops around the world, and in America alone about 30 million are sold on just one day – February 14. These specialized blooms…
The Garden In August
The peak month of summer is also the pivotal month in the gardening year. Although a tradition has developed that puts spring as the time to get your garden going, a far better…
July in the Garden
When July rolls around, that first flush of spring flowers is over, and even some of the early summer plants are finished too. If you haven’t planned ahead you may be looking at…
Grow Your Own Nuts
When we think of ‘home grown’, it is usually vegetables, or fruit, that most people think of. Yet there is a valuable food – nuts – that is often overlooked. Yet nut growing…
Junipers – Tough and Rugged Evergreens
Junipers can be confusing plants when you first start gardening. Someone will casually say, “It’s a juniper” when pointing at almost anything from a tall tree or a narrow, upright shrub, to something…
Understanding the Cypress Trees
In everyday talk around our gardens, we often talk about cypress trees, but that name seems to cover many trees that look very different from each other. So what is going on with…
What to Do in Your Garden in June
When you start gardening, the biggest lesson is knowing what to do when. Good timing gives you plenty of blooms in their seasons, and makes planting go smoothly, with plants developing quickly. It…
Kick Start Your Garden this Spring
In a perfect world we would walk out into our spring gardens and be surrounded by beautiful flowering shrubs and trees, with a lush, green lawn, and the promise of another perfect gardening…
Design Your Garden – Part 3
In this series of blogs, we have been looking at a different approach to designing your garden. Forget about drawing plans, and work instead right on the ground, thinking out your garden right…
The Eternal Charm of the Flowering Dogwood Tree
In the spring garden, two flowering trees stand out – the flowering cherry and the flowering dogwood. Both have their fans, but while for flash, perhaps the cherry wins, nothing can match the…
Flowering Shrubs for Planters and Boxes
With smaller gardens, town homes and condominium living so much more common, many would-be gardeners find themselves with not much more than planter boxes and pots to work with. When most people think…
The Tough and Colorful Barberry
Would you like to have a garden with bright color for months and months, but your soil is poor, your winters cold, and you don’t really have much time available? If that sounds…
Spring Care of Houseplants
As spring returns to the outdoor world, spare a thought and a moment for your houseplants, which at this time are usually looking a little sad, after months of low light levels and…
Shrubs for Planters, Pots and Boxes
With the gardens of new homes getting smaller and smaller, and particularly with more and more of us living in town homes and apartments, there is a lot of interest in growing plants…