… Q. I have a small garden pond with hardy waterlilies, some grasses and fish. How do I keep the pond from freezing this winter? A. Cover the pond with a sheet of plywood, and insulate it with an additional layer of leaves or straw. A small commercial pond heater will also help keep …
Type: Plant Info
… Sweet abelia is a Korean native shrub with pink buds opening to tubular white blooms in late spring or early summer. The flowers are tubular, with five flaring petals that start with red buds that open to white. It is prized for its fragrance and may be used as a hedge. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… The white fir is a western North American native with flat, up-curved silver-blue needles that can grow to 75 feet with a 25-foot spread. It should be allowed to grow in an open, full-sun location so the branches … has paler silver-blue needles than the species and has branches that grow more thickly. With time, it may develop upward-facing cones that start off a dark murky gray-blue. White firs …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Beautiful five-to-nine-lobed leaves emerge early. The plant grows 7 to 12 feet in height with a slightly narrower spread. Use the Japanese maple as a specimen plant. May and June bring … The samaras, or winged fruits, mature in fall and turn a rich red. Foliage is gray-green with white margins, sometimes with a hint of pink. White portions of the leaves turn scarlet or magenta in the fall. This …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… The Bismarck palm, with its huge silvery pleated fans and silvery blue sheen, it one of the more striking palms. … climates, including Southern California and Florida as well as Brazil. At maturity, with enough heat and sun, it can reach 60’, but that takes 100 years. As a container plant, … very difficult to transplant this palm without killing it. Note: There is also a Bismarck palm with green foliage for a more traditional look. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Masses of large lavender flowers with a maroon lip and golden throat accented with maroon nectar guides are a 'wow' factor and when the strong fragrance that only Cattleya … the plant is a show stopper. Cattleya orchids grow and flower best in bright light conditions with high humidity and frequent misting of the foliage and roots. Plants under artificial lights …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… is a novelty or anemone-type dahlia. The pincushion-like flowers have numerous crimson petals with orange tips, with a ring of drooping pale orange petals. It has a bushy habit, reaching over three feet tall with numerous branches. Dahlias like warmth and can be planted when all danger of frost has …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Cytisus × praecox 'Allgold', also known as Scotch broom or Warminster broom, is covered with canary-yellow flowers topped with a pale yellow flag on a shrub maturing at 6 feet in height and width. Classified in the pea family, this species has flowers with a heavy fragrance that not everyone finds pleasant. Not reliably hardy in the Chicago area, …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… pink in alkaline soils. The mophead inflorescence consists mainly of showy but sterile florets with a sprinkling of fertile florets around the outside. It grows 3 to 4 feet tall, blooming in June until fall with bright green foliage. It blooms in mid summer on new wood, and later in the summer it will … the plants can be sited in a sheltered location and given a good mulch and/or covered with burlap for the winter. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… yellow color in autumn. A hybrid witch hazel, ‘Pallida’ becomes a vase shaped large shrub with a spreading habit and ascending branching. It will eventually reach a height of 9’-12’ and retain an attractive shape with pruning after flowering in spring. The highly fragrant sulphury yellow flowers with a reddish-purple blush at the base perfume the garden from January into March. The medium …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
