Butterflies flying above a meadow filled with native wildflowers… It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? That is what I thought when I tried planting wildflower seeds for the first time… I remember checking daily the area planted months before, where nothing grew, while weeds appeared abundantly….
Well, last spring must be remembered by all those people who had large buds withering right away on them and collapsing on the ground… Those who started their perennial plants developing beautifully in April, and then by the beginning of June found only soft mushy…
There’s something in the morning air that makes me know it’s time for September planting — dewier grass, golden and soft sunlight rather than white and blinding, soil that, when you finally break through to it, still carries the warmth of the summer sun while…
Not a thing in the garden looks as if it is dying yet. And that is how the illusion is created. The pelargoniums continue to flower. The coleus brags in colors. The salvia is as tall as it has never been, and looking from the…
Most gardeners sow foxglove, hollyhock, and sweet william in spring, right alongside their annuals. That’s exactly why so many of them never bloom. These are biennials — sow them in spring, and all you get by autumn is a rosette of leaves and a long…
I’m so excited because my English lavender is starting to bloom right now! Soon my garden will fill with its intoxicating fragrance, generous flower spikes and loads of bee, butterflies and other pollinators! If you too have this magical shrub in your garden, then you…
The moment those towering delphinium petals drop, your hands probably itch to grab the pruners and slice that fading stalk right down to the dirt. I completely understand the craving for a spotless flower bed. But taking a sharp blade and shearing a hollow botanical…
Did you enjoy your ball-like decorative allium blooms this year? From white to burgundy via blue and all shades of purple, from small to 12-inch large, their inflorescences are hard to miss in a garden… But my real question is: do you want another spectacular…
Why do some lilacs completely steal the show every spring? Is it because of some secret fertilizer? The perfect soil? Or maybe they just like the neighbor’s garden better than yours? Whichever the reason, if your shrub gave you nothing but a quiet mountain of…
Cutting into a plant for the first time… it can feel wrong, almost like you are damaging something you’ve waited months to grow! I can hear you… “What if I ruin it?” you are thinking. But wait! This is exactly how many of us gardeners…