Knowledge and resources about plants and planting are so vast they can be overwhelming. The best approach is to take advantage of information based on your areas of interest and then seek the guidance of a plant professional. Your local nursery or garden center has inspired people ready to offer advice.
The daily June $64,000 question for garden center horticulturists is: Why didn’t my ___________________ (forsythia, lilac, hydrangea, spirea, weigela) bloom this spring? If you dropped more than one species on that blank line, read on to get a handle on what’s amiss in your shrub border, and get a leg up on flowers for next year.
Properly planting trees is one of the best investments you can make for the long-term health of your trees. When done properly, your plants will flourish and cause less heartache in the future.
There’s an old gardening piece of advice that says “the key to growing a great plant is to put a 50-cent specimen in a $5 hole.” This is no myth! Get your money’s worth by planting a tree correctly and caring for it while it grows.
Just as the days are their darkest and winter begins, the Christmas cactus starts to bloom. The radiant petals of pink, red, white, or yellow are a highlight of the holiday season, and keep blooming until mid-winter.
The word lawn comes from the Middle English word launde, which meant a clearing in a woodland. It referred to those peaceful and serene meadows that you may encounter when hiking through a forest.
It’s easy to treat poinsettias like another Christmas decoration, one to put on display wherever they look best, and then kindly put away—or discard—when the holidays are over. But these festive plants are as alive and eager to grow as any of our year-round houseplants.
Winter is hard on new trees and many have died because of harsh conditions the season brings. Even trees planted for a few years can succumb to the many problems winter’s savage temperatures.
As kids, many of us made lots of great memories thanks to the towering trees around us. We remember the tire swing in the backyard of our childhood home, the trees we’d climb while camping at the lake, or the family picnics in the shade of a giant oak.
Happy, healthy plants start with the roots and soil care, amending at the time of planting and mulching thereafter.
Junipers, Yews, Boxwoods, Pines, Hemlocks — you name it in the evergreen family and chances are you’ll find what you need here to keep your evergreens happy, healthy, and beautiful.
