DON’T PANIC: Nothing’s wrong, and they’re not all dying in unison, I promise. Though we commonly call them “evergreens,” conifers such as pine, arborvitae, spruce and Hinoki cypress (above) lighten their load of old needles in late summer and fall, with a show of yellowing or browning that can scare a gardener at first. [read more…]
trees & shrubs
when inner conifer needles turn yellow or brown
October 8, 2012 By 15 Comments
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12 trees and shrubs for great fall foliage color
October 6, 2012 By 25 Comments
IF I’M A PROSELYTIZER FOR ANYTHING, it’s for the idea of a 365-day garden, no matter where you live. A Margaret-ism: The garden never closes (even if your local garden center does part of the year). Woody plants—trees and shrubs—in particular can really brighten the fall. So while they’re heating up (and while even the garden center’s still open), I’m recommending some easy-care favorites you may want to tuck into your home landscape, too. [read more…]
my top conifers for year-round garden beauty
October 2, 2012 By 26 Comments
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CONIFER, the “beautiful one” to your eye? I could only narrow my list down to 10, plant-mad person that I am, but with hints of the winter landscape in the cooler air, I’m thinking of just how important evergreens are. [read more…]
aralias: why i grow these big, beautiful plants
September 18, 2012 By 12 Comments
‘THANK YOU,’ SAY THE BIRDS, “these are delicious.” And they are delicious to look at, too–especially as fall comes on, with all the giant heads of bird-attracting purple fruit and in some cases (such as Aralia spinosa, above) incredible fall foliage color, too. Do you grow any aralias (sometimes called spikenards) in your garden yet? Some of my favorites you may wish to consider adopting, too:
- Aralia spinosa, the devil’s walking stick (a small suckering tree, above);
- Aralia cordata, a giant herbaceous perennial, and Aralia racemosa, a native Eastern perennial, also size-XL;
- Aralia elata, especially the variegated forms.
aesculus parviflora, my 4th of july fireworks
July 3, 2012 By 21 Comments
I DON”T THINK THERE’S A SHRUB that I love more than bottlebrush buckeye, or Aesculus parviflora, and even in a year when everything else has been off schedule, it remembers to shoot off its own form of fireworks right around the Fourth of July. Read more about this massive, summer-blooming Southeast native and its even bigger, later-blooming cousin ‘Roger’s Strain’. As if the summertime pyrotechnics were not enough, their gold fall color is similarly astounding, all 20-by-15 feet of it. Pow!
