Meet the True Cedars – the Genus Cedrus
Across most of the country, you will see, and probably have in your garden, cedar trees. The name ‘cedar’ was given by the early settlers to several tall evergreen trees they found in…
Discover Our World
Get all the latest insight into the world of plants, from experts.
Gardening with Ornamental Grasses
It has not been all that many years since grass had only one place in the garden – green and mowed weekly on the lawn. It took some adventurous growers and garden designers…
Groundcover Plants for Shady Places
Shady parts of the garden are often welcome in the summer, as cool refuges from the heat. But most plants don’t find them so welcoming. When we put in a new garden it…
Xeric Gardening – 5 Tips for Using Less Water
There is a big push these days to use less water on our gardens. Periods of drought, limitations on city water supplies, concerns about long-term freshwater availability, and increased costs to home-owners –…
Cold Hardy Holly Bushes
Holly is one of the most popular broad-leaf evergreens. It’s deep-green glossy leaves look great in the garden all year round, and the winter bonus of bright red berries really brings color and…
Give Them Room! Spacing Trees Correctly
A drive around any older neighborhood will quickly show you giant trees right up against houses, blocking windows, damaging foundations and drains, and making rooms dark and gloomy. Bad decisions about planting distances…
New & Exciting Panicle Hydrangeas
If you have gardened in colder parts of the country for a long time, you will remember the ubiquitous PG Hydrangea, still seen in many gardens. It’s a standard shrub for later flowering…
Agave & Yucca – Cool Plants for Hot Places
Wherever you garden, even in cooler climate zones, you can have hot, dry areas in your garden. Those places that bask in the sun all day, perhaps with sandy or rocky soil that…
Grow Living Fossil Trees in Your Garden
Most of us grow plants in our gardens simply for their beauty, and that surely is the best reason of all. But many plants also have a story to tell, perhaps of how…
Native Shrubs from Across America
The single biggest trend in gardening over the last couple of decades has been the growing of native plants. An interest in the environment, concerns about the spread of alien species – these…
Native Trees from the Four Corners of the Country
A big trend in gardening is growing native plants. This began with wildflowers, but it has spread to trees and shrubs too, especially with all the alarming stories of invasive species escaping gardens…
5 Steps to the Best Garden Beds Ever
Everyone knows that in real estate the secret is ‘location, location, location’, but many gardeners don’t realize that the secret of good gardens is ‘soil, soil, soil’. That doesn’t mean you have to…
Pollinate Your Citrus Trees for a Bumper Crop
Growing oranges, lemons, limes or other citrus fruits in pots is a popular activity. Planting them in a container means you can grow your own citrus, no matter where you live. They spend…
7 Great Evergreens for Winter Interest
As the first snow settles in northern areas of the country, and the fall colors become a memory everywhere, the smart gardener has by now cut down or dug up their flowering plants,…
Trees in Containers – Perfect for the Smaller Garden. Part 2
When we started talking about growing trees in pots and planters, there was so much to say about choosing a container, soil, planting and pruning, that we never got around to looking at…
Growing Rhododendrons on Alkaline Soil
Rhododendrons, and Azaleas too, are loved by everyone for the brilliance and variety of their spring flowers. Nothing rivals the beauty, range of colors, and abundant display of these plants. Among many people…
Trees in Containers – Perfect for the Smaller Garden. Part 1
Trees have an almost mystical fascination for many people. Their silent lives, spread over decades or centuries, and even millennia, speak to us of survival and endurance. The almost magical experience of a…
Making Compost at Home
These days, recycling is everywhere. We recycle everything from newspapers to car tires. But our gardens give us one of the most worthwhile opportunities around to recycle and get the benefits for ourselves….
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Roses as Landscape Plants
Let’s be honest, roses have a reputation for being difficult. While most people love those big blooms, especially from the flower shop, growing them in gardens has faded from a high-point reached perhaps…
Colorful Hedges for Any Garden
Hedges are important garden features, for privacy, shelter and appearance. Evergreen hedges are always the most popular, since they give protection 365 days a year, and often the need is greatest in the…
Growing Plants on Walls
Finding enough room in your garden for all the plants you want to grow can be a challenge. As well, many gardens have large blank walls of wood, brick or stone, or fences…
Best Plants for the Coast
Gardening in sight of the sea presents special challenges. Most plants are sensitive to salt, which draws water from the leaves and roots by the process of osmosis. However, as the saying goes,…
Thuja Green Giant Guide
Introduction There are many evergreen trees to choose from for the garden, but one of the most useful is the Arborvitae, or Thuja. These soft-leaved, upright trees grow in a wide range of…
Choosing the Right Boxwood for Your Garden
Boxwood is undoubtedly the most functional plant in garden history, as well as being attractive and easy to grow in sun or shade, and in a range of soil types. It has endless…
Get to Know the Hollies
There are a handful of trees and shrubs that most people – even non-gardeners – feel they know immediately. Holly, that popular plant for the festive season, is probably one of them. Everyone…
Protecting Your Hedges In Winter
If you live in colder parts of the country, where winter is a time of snow and ice, fall and early winter are good times to be thinking about protecting your hedges from…
The Complete Japanese Maple Guide
These trees have a reputation for being hard to grow, but this is largely undeserved. With attention given to their location in the garden and some minimal care, they will thrive and increase…
Pruning Leyland Cypress Trees
Leyland cypress trees are great if you want a fast-growing screen. They can be shaped into an excellent hedge, or used to protect your property from the wind or curious eyes. They also…
Growing Leyland Cypress Trees
Leyland cypress (often called leylandii) is one of the more spectacular evergreens, and also a very useful one for gardeners. Its tall, columnar shape and fast growth make it ideal if you want…
Meyer Lemon Tree Guide
Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree Lemonade, lemon chicken, salmon, blueberry coffee cake, oysters, any dish garnish, lemon squares, lemon cakes, key ingredient, and so much more – lemons are an intrinsic part of our…
Crape Myrtle Varieties and Guide
Choosing The Right Crape Myrtle Tree Crape Myrtles are shrubs and small trees that have long been associated with gardening in the South. Their resistance to drought and heat and their brilliant summer…
Your Guide To Poplar Trees
Popular throughout much of the world, the genus Populus, which included about 30 unique species, has become a commonly sighted landscaping tree in the United States. The genus’ species, commonly called Poplars, Cottonwoods,…
The Mimosa Tree Complete Guide
Gardening Tips For The Mimosa Tree The Mimosa Tree is a stunning show of flower bursts, which are often compared to starbursts or fireworks. This small to medium-sized fast growing Mimosa Tree displays…
Guide for The Cleveland Pear Tree
There are hundreds of ornamental trees to choose from when planting either accent trees or colorful tree rows, yet none is quite like the Cleveland Pear Tree. This stunning oval shaped tree reaches…
Your Complete Guide To Magnolia Trees
Buying Magnolia trees online is fast and easy at The Tree Center. Check Out Our Current Specials! White, pink, red, purple, and yellow Magnolia Tree flowers are a thing of beauty in the…