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…
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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…
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…
Get to Know the Quince
If you haven’t smelled the fruit of the quince, you have missed out on something beautiful. These strange hard fruits are renowned for their perfume, and were first used in the Middle East…
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…
The Perfect Substitute for Boxwood – New Hollies
Boxwood is definitely one of the most iconic garden plants there is. Most people recognize it straight away, and those clipped hedges are a symbol of the organize, formal look for gardens. Start…
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…
Bushel & Berry® – a Fantastic New Way for Everyone to Grow Berries
Nothing beats a bowl of berries – fresh, juicy, tangy and sweet – delicious! If you are a berry lover, nothing truly beats the taste of berries fresh from the bush, perhaps still…
Aronia – Meet a New Healthy Berry That’s Easy to Grow at Home
If you are out front of the latest health trends you may have heard already about the Aronia, or Chokeberry. These small black berries are being widely promoted for their powerful antioxidant content,…
William Penn Barberry – A Beautiful Little-known Shrub
Sometimes the stories of our garden plants are as interesting as the plants themselves and knowing them adds to the pleasure of growing them. Just like getting to know your neighbors enriches your…
How to Grow Perfect Rhododendrons and Azaleas
Almostall gardeners agree that there is nothing so beautiful as a garden with rhododendrons and azaleas growing in it. But often the first attempts are disappointing, and these plants are often relegated to…
Miniature Roses Come to Town
Most gardeners have some idea of the main groups of rose – hybrid teas, floribunda, climbing roses, and so on – even if with new varieties those old borders have become a little…
Smoke Trees for Smaller Gardens
Tough, vigorous and beautiful, the Smoke Tree – Cotinus coggygria – has been a reliable garden shrub for a very long time. Whether you go for the original green-leaf version, or the very…
Fairy Tale Lilacs make Garden Dreams Come True
Plant breeders are dreamers – they dream of plants that will be closer to our ideals, and they want to give us beautiful plants to fill our own garden dreams. Northern gardeners dream…
Double-Acts – Flowering Shrubs with Good Fall Color
Creating a rich and fulfilling garden can be tricky and it takes some thought and planning. There is a basic principle, though, that can really help you build a garden that is interesting…
Growing Peonies – the Belles of the Northern Garden
Southern gardeners have their azaleas, magnolias and camellias, and if you garden in the north you might feel deprived. Don’t, because you too have a plant that rivals and even beats those favorites….
March in the Garden
What happens in your garden in March depends on where you live. In colder zones the answer will probably be, “Broken promises,” with warmer, sunny days that turn cold at night and then…
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…
Grow Versatile Tree Roses in Your Garden
There are many kinds of roses – Hybrid Tea, Floribunda, Landscape Rose, and many more – but the same rose can come in different ways too. Typically, they are grown to produce stems…
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…
The Taming of the Mountain Laurel
Across the hills of a large part of eastern North America, carpeting the forest floor beneath trees, growing on slopes, or edging streams, grows the mountain laurel. Found all the way from southern…
The Story of Lilacs
Lilacs hold a special place in gardens, and in the hearts of garden lovers. Praised by poets, they spell ‘home’ to many of us, with their old-fashioned charm and their association with older…