Growing Peaches on Walls – Espalier Fruit Trees
Who doesn’t love peaches? Melt-in-the-mouth, buttery, sweet and fragrant – nothing beats that bite into a ripe peach, and no ripe peach tastes like one you grew yourself and just picked, still warm…
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Get all the latest insight into the world of plants, from experts.
Shrubs for Exciting Ground Cover
Every garden has spaces beneath the plants where the earth can be seen. These areas attract weeds, and they lose water to the air, drying out your plants faster. They also look boring,…
Kathleen Meserve – the Holly Lady
Plant breeding is one of the few areas where amateur, hobby gardeners have made at least as much of a contribution to the plants we grow as professionals – and sometimes even more….
Neem Oil will Kill Your Garden Pests
When you start growing plants – indoors or outdoors – it doesn’t take long before you see a few creepy-crawlies on them. That isn’t reason to panic, because most insects on plants are…
Louis Boehmer, the Man Who Sent Us Plants From the East
“Never heard of him!”, did you just say? That’ not surprising really, as few people have. But Louis Boehmer was responsible for the arrival in Europe and North America of many of our…
Climate Change and Your Garden
Much of the world has been looking in alarm at recent events in Texas. No lights, heat or water for days for millions of people doesn’t sound like America. We can point the…
Victor Lemoine – the Lilac Man
Especially for gardeners in colder zones, lilacs are classic flowering shrubs no-one would want to be without. Their large heads of fragrant flowers are a delight, and available in a wide range of…
How to Understand The Labels on Your Plant
If you are having trouble knowing what to call that latest plant you just put in your garden, you are not alone. Many gardeners love their plants, and might even see them as…
Trees and Shrubs for Alkaline Soils – Part 2
A couple of weeks back we started this two-parter on choosing plants that will grow well for you if you have alkaline soil. If you are looking for some suitable trees, or are…
5 Ways to Make a Beautiful Garden with White-flowering Shrubs
It doesn’t take long, once you start gardening, to start thinking about color. Yes, it is very important to arrange your beds using interesting shapes – a blend of vertical, rounded and horizontal…
Jean Iseli – King of the Conifers
The world of conifers is an enormous and diverse one, from the many hedges of Green Giant to the tiniest miniature collector’s tree, and from towering redwoods to flat groundcovers – there is…
Trees and Shrubs for Alkaline Soils – Part 1
The Right Plant in the Right Place is a slogan that you will often hear from professional landscape designers and horticulturists. It’s a simple principle, but one often ignored in the rush to…
The Weeping Willow
In today’s global world we can easily make the mistake of thinking that international trade is something new and exciting, that ‘we’ recently discovered. How wrong we would be! The volume may be…
December in the Garden
As the year winds down – and what a year it has been – this is the time to bring things to an end, and also to make new beginnings. We have said…
Ping Lim – a Rose Breeder for Today
Older generations of gardeners who love roses might know the name Sam McGredy. One of the most famous rose breeders of the last century, Irish-born Sam, who was the fourth breeder in his…
Winter Protection for Roses, Hydrangeas and Other Shrubs
With winter settling in around us we are turning up the heat and bringing out the duvets. Gardeners are casting an anxious eye on those border-line shrubs they planted in the now-distant spring…
Nothing Says ‘Holidays’ like a Citrus Tree
I’m fortunate. I spent years living in zone 3, but today when I look out my window I see golden balls hanging from a green tree in my small yard. No, I haven’t…
5 Hot Plants for Your Xeric Garden
Who can forget the fires in California? Nature is telling us something, and we need to listen. If the future turns out as dry as it looks now, for big parts of the…
November in the Garden
There are two schools of thought among gardeners about November. One group – perhaps the majority – see it as a time to gaze out on a fading landscape, relishing the special beauty…
Mary Gibson Henry – A Great American Gardener
Those who don’t garden can see it as a soft option in life – after all, what could be challenging about ‘playing with plants?’ Yet many gardeners have been adventurous trailblazers, and the…
Plastic Plants are Taking Over
I was in a store recently and spotted a tray of nice-looking cacti over by the window. I was pretty surprised to find, when I checked them out, that they were made of…
October in the Garden
In cooler zones the mosquitoes are gone, trees are ablaze with color, and with luck there will be an Indian summer. In warmer areas the warmth may linger, but nights will be cooling,…
Spacing Hedges – Let’s Get it Right
Hedges are important components in just about every garden. In cities and suburbs they give privacy and a calm background to your garden, screening out neighbors, traffic noise, and unsightly views. In rural…
Why Does My Holly Tree Have No Berries?
There is no doubt that holly bushes are super-popular, not just for their dense, glossy foliage, but especially for their bright red berries, that brighten the holiday season. Yet in garden after garden…