There’s no getting around it: At this time of year, the garden is starting to look tired. Foliage is tattered and sun faded, flowers are flopping, everything looks a bit haggard. But one plant is just now coming into its own, the ever tropical-looking Castor bean. This plant will surely catch your key from across […]
It’s been a great year for dahlias here. Who am I kidding? It’s been a great year for everything in the garden, but the dahlias are appreciating our lovely summer as much as anything. A few have been unfairly (in my estimation, at least) targeted by slugs, but for the most part they continue to […]
I first saw Eupatorium capillifolium ‘Elegant Feather’ late last summer at a baby shower. I spotted it from inside the house and ran out at my first opportunity to give it a closer look. It looked to me like a soft, feathery evergreen and I had to seek out the landscaper who planted to gardens […]
Vines can be misunderstood members of the plant world. We want them to grow quickly but not too quickly. We want them to grow in places where nothing else will grow, except there’s usually a really good reason nothing else will grow there. We want them to boldy grow up structures but to respect those […]
I have never been great at following rules. I’m not saying I’m a great rebel, but there has always been a part of me that wants to do the opposite of what I’m told to do just because. Perhaps this is why I don’t always follow conventional garden wisdom. It certainly sounds better to frame […]
No surprise, I had a harder time narrowing down the list of cool new perennials than the annuals or shrubs. I can see all of these eventually finding a home in my garden. 1. Baptisia ‘Lunar Eclipse‘: There are a ton of new baptisias on the market, but this is the one I’m really in […]
A couple weeks ago, I shared some new annuals for 2016, and today I’m sharing new shrubs that look interesting. Some affiliate links have been used. 1. Petite Pillar Dwarf Boxwood: Plant producers are smart to be working on new boxwood introductions because I still think it’s the single hottest shrub of the moment. This […]
