What most of us would really like to accomplish in our garden designs is big waves of color from spring through fall – and longer if we can manage it.  •  Trouble is – most of the plant world refuses to cooperate. If you can find a perennial that will obligingly emerge in spring and then bloom its …

Almost everyone agrees that spring is one of the most beautiful seasons in the garden. But I've often wondered why so many people associate gardens and gardening only with spring. What about the beautiful daylilies, Asian and Oriental lilies, butterfly bushes and hydrangeas of summer? Who could …

Have you ever noticed how each season seems to have its own set of colors?  •  Winter, of course, is in shades of white, gray, dark green and brown unless you've been clever enough to plant hellebores or shrubs with brightly colored berries and twigs.  •  In spring, it's the yellow and green of …

I swear my gardens must be Irish. As St. Patrick's Day approaches, it is certainly clothing itself in green everywhere.  •  And why shouldn't my garden be Irish on St. Paddy's Day? Isn't that the one day when the whole world becomes Irish? When, proud as I am of a name that shows its Dutch …

While in general bulbs are easy plants to grow, they can be difficult to understand, simply because there are so many different types. We have spring bulbs and summer bulbs, and then we have tender bulbs and hardy bulbs. And to confuse matters, not all of the so-called summer bulbs are tender and …

Ask the typical person about flowers and love and they will start talking about roses. And yet when you think about it, you have to wonder why. Roses have thorns (at least most of them – and almost all of the long stemmed ones associated with romantic gifts.) There has to be a less painful way to …

Every year the nursery industry introduces new and improved plants. They are variously described as bigger, hardier, more compact, more disease resistant, with new color breakthroughs, etc., etc. Did you ever wonder what happens to the “old” ones from last year? Of course, the ones that performed …

Epimedium Rubrum  •  Periwinkle  •  (Vinca minor)  •  Creeping Phlox Collection  •  Cote d' Azur Pinks  •  (Saponaria ocymoides)  •  Lamium  •  'Anne Greenaway'  •  Chameleon Flower  •  (Houttuynia cordata)  •  Potentilla  •  'Fire Flames'  •  Hardy Geranium Sanguineum  •  'Album'  •  Hardy …

If there's one refrain gardeners sing too often it's "You should have been here last week," or "You should have come next week." It seems like no matter how the garden looks, something special has always just gone out of flower, or won't bloom until after our garden visitors are gone.  •  This is …