TWO CLASS SESSIONS FULL OF YOU visited yesterday to talk about container gardening, but for those who didn’t take the workshop in person, a recap seemed in order since it’s that time: everything into the pots! [read more…]
annuals & perennials
What's an annual? Well, anything you use seasonally for "color" or drama, whether it's technically an annual or not. Find my favorites here, along with the perennials I rely on in my 25-year-old garden.
missed the workshop? container-garden 101
May 21, 2012 at 11:17 am
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a plant i’d order: stylophorum diphyllum
May 5, 2012 at 6:55 am
I BROUGHT THEM HOME (WITH PERMISSION!) from Wave Hill, the public garden in the Bronx, a couple of decades ago: a few delightfully fuzzy, fat seedpods of celandine poppy from plants that brightened the perimeter of their famed Wild Garden. Stylophorum diphyllum has been a bright, shiny companion ever since in my shady and semi-shady borders, a native American wildflower that animals don’t eat; pests don’t chew, and that doesn’t get diseases. [read more…]
2 becomes 200: how to divide trillium
April 22, 2012 at 9:41 am
I DON’T RECALL HOW I FOUND THEM—maybe it was while fixing something, or painting the house all those years ago. But for some reason I was down at ground level, peering under the floor of the front porch, and there they were, in near-darkness: two tiny trillium plants. I rescued them, and you know how it goes when a plant thanks you for your help: Now I have hundreds, thanks to those first two, and to a tip handed down from a great gardener about dividing them when they’re in flower. Yes, like right now. [read more…]
a plant i’d order: jeffersonia diphylla
April 18, 2012 at 3:58 pm
IT PUSHES UP OUT of the ground all crazy-colored and not green, the way some of my favorite early-arising native woodlanders do presumably to disguise themselves from hungry awakening herbivores. And then Jeffersonia diphylla, or twinleaf, proceeds to distinguish itself in other ways, too. Put it right alongside the pathway so you can appreciate all its aspects up-close: [read more…]
beloved conifer: prostrate japanese plum yew
April 15, 2012 at 10:06 am
I KILLED, OR AT LEAST MAIMED, ITS UPRIGHT COUSIN. TWICE. But the prostrate-growing Japanese plum yew, Cephalotaxus harringtoniana ‘Prostrata,’ just keeps happily stretching its legs—and arms—on my back hillside. A handsome, heat-tolerant conifer that creates a sprawl of semi-glossy green groundcover in the shade…even though it’s many times wider than any book or other reference promised. More of a good thing, I guess you could say, and also deer-resistant. [read more…]
need great groundcovers? who doesn’t!
April 9, 2012 at 8:59 am
IF IT EVER RAINS PROPERLY here, I know what I plan to do: divide and conquer! (Conquer beds, that is, with divided-up groundcovers.) A recap of some favorites that I rely on:
giveaway: q&a with broken arrow’s adam wheeler
March 9, 2012 at 5:19 pm
WHAT I MISS MOST about my Martha job: I had other garden geeks as colleagues, and the chance to talk plants nonstop. These days I pester people like Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery in Connecticut instead. The latest in my series of nursery and seed-company Q&As: a chat with Adam about everything from outstanding wildlife shrubs and underused hydrangeas and magnolias; to using variegation in the garden, growing giant pumpkins and more. Plus: a chance to win one of two $25 Broken Arrow gift certificates I’ve bought to share with you. [read more…]
peony-planting time (and time to buy a coral one)
October 20, 2011 at 7:46 am
MAYBE YOUR PEONIES DIDN’T WOW YOU this season, or maybe their foliage is all nasty-looking if you’ve been having an ultra-wet year like I have. Or maybe you’re just thinking of adding some (hint: pick a coral-colored cultivar). It’s peony planting and transplanting time, and also time to make sure a thorough cleanup is on the to-do list, to reduce the overwintering of troublesome fungal issues. “When the Normally Tough Peony Fails to Bloom” walks you through the possible problems (and recommends where to shop for new beauties, which I see from the nurseries’ email newsletters are offering free shipping or sale prices right now). Remember: Think coral.
zone pushing: overwintering, in 2 podcasts
October 18, 2011 at 8:46 am
IT WILL SOON BE LAST CALL around here, though an Indian summer has lulled me into inattention to some about-to-be-urgent chores. My houseplants have been indoors since an early scare last month, but there are miles to go before the garden’s tender things sleep. A two-part podcast and some links to help you on your way to overwintering tender plants–in case you, like me, didn’t get ready last month when we sounded the first call. [read more…]
