Hydrangea care involves control of sunlight, adequate moisture and proper pruning. These tips for growing hydrangea bushes will help you get the most out of your plants. The size of the flower heads, alone, make hydrangeas a favorite perennial among gardeners. Cutting fresh hydrangea blooms gives you terrific cut flowers that last a long time. They …
Outdoor Plants
Do you like Bluegrass music with a side of daylilies? If you do, you’ll enjoy this virtual tour of the daylilies at Wildwood Farms in Floyd, Virginia. Located just 42 miles from Roanoke, VA and very close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, you will find Wildwood Farms. This general store features live Bluegrass music from …
If you like the look of cottage gardens, you’ll love purple coneflowers (echinacea purpurea). These tips for growing echinacea will have butterflies, birds and bees flocking to your garden in droves! This easy care perennial draws insects and birds to it, making sure that neighboring plants will have plenty of pollinators all season long. This coarse …
Autumn Frost Hosta is one of my favorite hostas. The leaves have blue green centers and wide yellow margins around the edge. By summer time, the margins will turn a creamy white. It’s a slug resistant hardy perennial that comes back year after year. Variegated hostas really pop in any shade garden. This variety has …
The Wellfield Botanic Gardens in Elkhart, Indiana are like a living museum with art, nature, and structure all coordinating beautifully. The waters of Christiana Creek stream through the gardens, which are a combination of nature, art and hardscaping that is sure to delight. The Botanic Gardens feature 36 acres of lush gardens against a backdrop …
If you want to attract both butterflies and bees to your garden this year, try growing liatris. This perennial corm flowers in mid summer with a blast of flowers that are a magnet for them. I have 10 garden beds around my home and I’m always interested in growing perennials of all types since they come …
Pink flowers are soft and romantic looking in a garden bed. They are often seen in cottage gardens and there are so many varieties of them that it’s hard to pick favorites. I am a romantic at heart. One would never think it to look at me. I’m a rugged girl and my nails usually …
If you enjoy vegetable gardening, you may have heard about heirloom vegetable seeds. These are vegetables grown from heirloom seeds which are an open pollinated variety of seeds developed prior to 1940. There are many advantages for growing this type of vegetable. Experts vary in their definition of heirloom vegetables, but typically they will agree …
Growing melons such as cantaloupe and honeydew require a few things: plenty of sunshine and lots of room to grow. We tend to think of edible gardens as those that grow vegetables but there are also many fruits that can be grown just as easily at home. There are several types of melons that are right …
Shallots are starting to be seen in grocery stores more and often lately. What are shallots? Like onions and garlic, shallots are a member of the allium family. They are a cold hardy vegetable and, like onions, are easy to grow. Their flavor is richer and sweeter and they are very versatile in recipes. This …
This gorgeous succulent arrangement started out life as a wooden drawer meant for tools of some sort. The upcycled junk gardening planter got a new coat of paint, some TLC and a few succulent plants and offsets and now looks as though it had been intentionally designed for the job. If you love succulents as …
Forsythia bushes have a wonderful arching habit will makes them a great focal point when planted in a large garden bed. All shrubs need pruning, but what do you do when you have totally overgrown forsythia shrub? It’s either time for hard pruning or renovation pruning for them. Rejuvenating forsythia gives them a new lease …
Today we will visit Hahn Horticulture Garden in Blacksburg, Virginia. Garden tours are one of my favorite things to do when I am on the road. I love touring Botanical Gardens that I have not previously visited and sharing details and photos of them with my readers. This Horticulture Gardens are set on 6 acres of …
Ever since it was established in 1970, people around the world take part in Earth Day Activities as a way to celebrate National Earth Day on April 22. This day is now a worldwide event where more than 1 billion people take part in a day of action. Here are some things that you can …
Growing Cilantro is quite easy as long as you take care to keep it away from the hottest heat. Love it or hate it, cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) is still one of the most popular herbs for kitchen gardens . Cilantro is a staple of Mexican and Asian cooking. It makes a great garnish and is best served …
Echeveria Neon Breakers is a Renee O’Donnell hybrid of the succulent Pink Frills crossed with an unknown parent. It is a drought tolerant succulent with green leaves that have pretty pink frilly edges and deep margins. Succulents like echeveria are drought smart plants that are super easy to grow, easy to repot, and make fantastic …
Hosta Minuteman is a delight in a shade garden with its deep white margins. It makes a great container plant and will stand out against other plain green hostas in any shady garden spot. This plant is one of the few hostas that don’t mind more sun as long as you take care to keep …
These tips for preparing spring flower beds will make things much less hectic when the warm weather arrives in a few weeks (or months!) Spring is just around the corner and daylight savings on the horizon, we’ll soon be wanting to start planting for flowers and vegetable gardening. The weather is so cool now, and …
Growing Columbine – aquilegia in your garden will reward you with delightful dangling bell shaped flowers that come in almost every color of the rainbow. This hardy perennial is easy to grow and much sought after by many gardeners. Since they self seed readily, you will never be without them once you have them planted. There is …
Plants, vegetables and trees can grow into the most amazing shapes. These oddities of nature show that twists, bends and outgrowths can turn an ordinary plant into something that looks totally different. This inspiration for this post came from a morning breakfast jaunt. After breakfast Richard and I were driving around and we came upon …
Pruning forsythia requires some basic knowledge of how the plant is meant to grow. Forsythia flowers give us one of the first splashes of color in early spring gardens. But to get that color and a well shaped shrub, it’s important to trim forsythia bushes correctly. Check out this article for more information on forsythia …
Liriope Muscari Variegata is an evergreen perennial that easily spreads to form a deep carpet of grass-like plants that makes a great ground cover or border plant. This form of liriope aptly has the common name “variegated lilyturf.” Variegated liriope is less invasive than the normal variety. Keep reading to find out how to grow …
This list of 15 bulbs to plant in fall will make sure that next year gets started with a burst of color with very little effort on your part. If you enjoy the beauty of spring-blooming bulbs, it takes a bit of early planning to get that look in your garden. I’ve also included lots of …
Kalanchoe millotii is a member of the crassulaceae family. It is a n ornamental succulent plant that is native to Madagascar. Since it is not particularly cold hardy, it is grown as an indoor plant in most areas of the country. Keep reading to find out how to grow this fuzzy succulent. Succulents like kalanchoe …
If you like growing indoor plants that have an exotic look, why not try growing Sago Palms?. This plant makes a great choice for those new to houseplants since it prefers drying out before you water it again. A sago palm tree – Cycas revoluta – is easy to grow indoors as long as you …
How well do you know your flower bulb types? Do the words bulbs corms rhizomes tubers and bulbets seem like Greek to you? Read on and you find out what you need to know to be a bulb expert. Flowering bulbs are some of the easiest plants to grow. Some of the spring flowering bulbs, …