I am lucky to have a large garden space and so I have the luxury of being able to dedicate some of my beds to a single perennial species. Dianthus , alone in a small bed, can be pretty as the foliage is neat and forms a weed- suppressing mat above which the pretty, little flowers are held aloft. I have a bed of only pure white German iris that I love for its purity and conformity. And one year my pink Japanese anemones took over a whole bed on the side of my yard, outside my fence, so I just let...
Aug 21, 2025•2 min
In her book The Once and Future Gardener, Virginia Clayton provides examples of articles that were published in popular American gardens magazines between 1900 and 1940. One article by Helen Wilson focused on spire-like flowers. She also called them "steeped flowers" evoking the image of a church steeple pointing heavenward in an English village. In high summer in our gardens, we can use red-hot poker flowers, sometimes called torch lilies, to provide erect spikes. They are members of the Lily f...
Aug 14, 2025•2 min
I recently admired a beautifully planted curbside garden in full sun with a lovely color palette. Right in front were lavender creeping phlox, and behind those was the low-growing cranesbill geranium ‘Rozanne' and low-growing perennial salvias with purple flowers. Behind these low-growing plants were taller Russian sage with its grey foliage and blue/lavender blooms. They were interspersed with Caryopteris ‘Lil Miss Sunshine', which has chartreuse foliage and blue flowers. It blooms mid-summer t...
Aug 07, 2025•2 min
Moya Andrews talks about euphorbias. The genus Euphorbia is large—about 2000 species—and there is great variation between forms. Some plants look a bit like cacti, and many of the species have flowers that are actually bracts. Many of the plants are tropical and sub-tropical, though some members of this genus survive well in temperate regions. At the holiday season we see many poinsettias, native to Mexico; they are the best known euphorbias in commerce. They are imported or are grown in cold re...
Jul 31, 2025•2 min
Moya Andrews talks about Corydalis. Many of us have seen a ferny plant with tiny yellow flowers growing on walls and in cottage gardens in England, where it self-sows enthusiastically. This plant is Corydalis (kor RID ah liss), and it grows from rhizomes. It resembles the habit and form of Bleeding Heart, and it likes similar growing conditions. It has delicate lacy-looking foliage and racemes of spurred flowers in the spring. There are about 300 species of Corydalis, both perennial and biennial...
Jul 24, 2025•2 min
Moya Andrews reads a poem about ajuga, a.k.a., bugle weeds. Ajugas are perennials that are commonly known as bugles or bugle weeds, and there are about 40 species in the genus. Ajuga reptans (reptans means creeping), is often used as a ground cover that carpets the ground with glossy rosettes of spoon-shaped leaves and spikes of violet-blue flowers in late spring. Cultivars with variegated foliage are less vigorous than those with green or bronze leaves it seems. It is hardy zones 3-9 and prefer...
Jul 17, 2025•2 min
Moya Andrews talks about bellflowers. Campanulas, or bellflowers to use their common name, are plants with bell-shaped blue or white blooms, and they range in height from ground-hugging dwarfs to plants that grow to 6 feet. A gardener who plants a number of different types can have bloom for most of the summer. Varieties and Growing Habits They need a moderately rich well-drained soil and full or partial sun. C.persicifolia is the popular blue peach leaf, and the white equivalent is ‘alba’. Thes...
Jul 10, 2025•2 min
There are roughly 900 species of salvia, which is the largest genus in the mint family. The common name is sage, and the genus includes annuals, perennials, and sub-shrubs. Remember that sub-shrubs have the woody base of a shrub and soft top growth. When pruning a sub-shrub such as sage or lavender, do not cut into or injure that woody base. Salvias have tubular flowers with two lips and are ancient plants, which were probably taken to England by the Roman legions, as the name is derived from th...
Jul 03, 2025•2 min
Moya Andrews talks about marigolds. I used to be quite a snob about flowers that grow so easily that they seem to be growing everywhere. For instance, I used to be quite dismissive about marigolds, as I disliked the smell. It took me years to realize that many commonly grown flowers, in addition to being pretty, possess other reliable characteristics, such as drought and heat tolerance and resistance to pests. After failing with zillions of more finicky plants that died as soon as a heat wave or...
Jun 26, 2025•2 min
Moya Andrews talks about nasturtiums. Nasturtiums are annuals that grow well from seed. The genus is Tropaeolum (trop EYE oh lum), which is from a Greek word meaning “to twine,” as some nasturtiums will climb on a support. Tropaeolum minor was first found growing in Mexico and Peru and introduced to England in 1574. The English called the plant Indian Cress because the leaves tasted sharp. The peppery taste and characteristic scent led to the name “nasturtium,” which is from the Latin word meani...
Jun 19, 2025•2 min
Moya Andrews talks about balloon flowers. Balloon flowers have unique buds that look round and full of air just like a balloon and so their common name is descriptive. The genus name comes from 2 Greek words “platys” meaning broad and “kodon” meaning bell, and members of the Platycodon genus usually have blue flowers, but there are some varieties that are white or pink. Balloon flowers belong to the Campanula family because when the blooms open the petals flare out so that the bottom of the flow...
Jun 12, 2025•2 min
If you want to see a well-behaved garden, visit one that is about 3 years old. Three years is about the time it takes for plants to settle in and grow a bit. But it’s not long enough for most plants to get out of hand and start moving around. Even in the first seven years or so it is usually still possible to see some semblance of the original design that the gardener intended. Actually, though, I once read that most gardens need to be redone about every seven years. Unfortunately, I read this u...
Jun 05, 2025•2 min
Although non-native, lilacs are a much-loved and well-behaved import to North America.
May 29, 2025•2 min
There are about 70 different types of phlox, both short and tall. The short ones are used as groundcovers, and their palette is made up of the cool colors.
May 22, 2025•2 min
Most of us, including those who are not space challenged, like to experiment with plants in containers . It is like playing at micro gardening. The drawback of containers, though, is that as we water them the nutrients in the soil leach out. Therefore, we need to start by filling our pots each season with a rich growing medium and follow through with regular feedings during the summer. Slow-release granules are often used for this purpose. Also some gardeners say it is good to mix a little compo...
May 15, 2025•2 min
Amy Stewart, in her book Flower Confidential , says that florists practically invented Mother’s Day. It was actually invented in 1908 by a woman named Anna Jarvis who wanted the celebration to be on the second Sunday in May because it was the anniversary of the death of her own mother. “Crowd it and push it,” she urged florists, noting that May was a month when flowers are plentiful and therefore cheaper. Florists jumped on board, and Jarvis’s idea worked as people saw it as a chance to honor th...
May 08, 2025•2 min
Many of us who love to grow tulips in our gardens have visiting deer who love to eat them. It seems to be such a violent death for a bud or flower. The poet E. J. Scovell, when she wrote the following poem in 1991, must not have had deer in her garden because she describes a more gradual demise. Here are some excerpts of her poem: I would, if I could, choose Age, and die outwards as a tulip does; Not as this iris drawing in, in-coiling Its complex strange taut inflorescence, willing Itself a bud...
May 01, 2025•2 min
Deadheading spent booms on plants is important, especially with perennials. Many modern annuals have been bred so that the plant will keep blooming without deadheading. Wave petunia was the first annual where breeders managed to achieve this, but now it is rare for any type of petunias to need deadheading. However, this is not the case with perennials, where deadheading makes the plants bloom longer. Otherwise, many perennials will waste their energy producing seeds. After a main stem has finish...
Apr 23, 2025•2 min
The genus Sidalcea is made up of species from western North America, and the best of the species is Sidalcea malviflora, so named because the flowers resemble mallows. The scientific name is actually a combination of two related plant forms, “sida” and “alcea,” because it resembled both the mallow and the hollyhock. The most used common names recently are miniature hollyhock and prairie mallow. Other common names in the past were checkers and checkerbloom because of the alternate placement of th...
Apr 17, 2025•2 min
The scientific name Sidalcea is actually a combination of two related plant forms, “sida” and “alcea,” because it resembled both the mallow and the hollyhock. Common names are miniature hollyhock and prairie mallow. Other common names in the past were checkers and checkerbloom because of the alternate placement of the flowers on the stem.
Apr 17, 2025•2 min
Globe amaranth has the botanical name Gomphrena globosa and adult butterflies love this pretty annual. The little round flower heads bloom for a long time in the sunny summer garden and into early fall and dry beautifully for winter bouquets. The pink and orange varieties are especially striking and hold up well in a vase, especially if only one bloom is cut per stem. Fortunately, they have long stems so that is useful for many types of flower arrangements.
Apr 10, 2025•2 min
Cimicifuga racemosa, commonly called bugbane, black snakeroot, or black cohosh, growing wild and planted it in his Pennsylvania garden. He then sent seeds to his friend Peter Collinson in England. The Native Americans told the colonists to use it to treat fevers, lumbago, rheumatism, and snake bites with a medicine made from the roots. Its common names became bugbane and squawroot. The leaves are coarse and toothed, and the plant produces clumps of leaves, as well as tall, slender racemes of del...
Apr 03, 2025•2 min
The plant variety that produces double flowers is Saponaria ‘Flora Pleno’, which is pale pink and white with a delicate scent. Common names are soapwort and “bouncing bet.” The plant spreads a lot, as it will grow almost anywhere and is often found along railroad tracks and even in dust heaps. In gardens, it is best confined to the outskirts not the main flower borders. My advice is that it is best grown only in pots.
Mar 27, 2025•2 min
Sara Coleridge wrote this poem in the 1800s. "January brings snow, and makes our feet and fingers glow. February brings the rain and thaws the frozen lake again. March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil....
Mar 20, 2025•2 min
If you have a garden, you probably enjoy displaying your flowers in your home. I have many small vases and bottles with narrow necks, so that I can pop just one or two flowers into them. When I come indoors after my morning walk, I usually bring what I call my "Flower of the Day." It is the flower that has really caught my eye that I want to look at close-up.
Mar 13, 2025•2 min
You may like to try drying your end of summer flowers in your microwave.
Mar 06, 2025•2 min
The best way to air-dry most flowers is to hang them upside down in bunches in a dry dark place for 1-3 weeks. Take the leaves off the stems and bind 6-10 stems together tightly with rubber bands.
Feb 27, 2025•2 min
n 1906, Beatrix Potter acquired a farmhouse in the Lake District of England. Her new house and garden became incorporated into her stories about the famous characters in her books, such as Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Tabitha Twitchet, that still delight children today. She delighted in the plants that her neighbors gave to her: roses, hollyhocks, and phlox, and the fruit trees and vegetables growing in an informal way among the flowers. She blended the practical with the beautiful. There was a long fl...
Feb 20, 2025•2 min
Even as early as the 15th century in England, a time when gardens focused mainly on plants used in medicines and for cooking, there were a few plants grown because they produced beautiful flowers.
Feb 13, 2025•2 min
The poem "Glory of the Garden" by Rudyard Kipling.
Feb 06, 2025•2 min
