Flowers are one of the best antidotes to the icy winds of winter, and growing a houseplant that buds and blooms inside while all is dormant outside is particularly satisfying. This winter, as an alternative to the brightly blooming azaleas, chrysanthemums, or traditional holiday plants, consider growing a clivia plant. Clivia miniata is a wonderful flowering plant. Elegant and imposing, it’s …
Type: Plant Info
Description: The most common year-round woodpecker at the Garden is frequently spotted-especially in the McDonald Woods and Barbara Brown Nature Reserve. Even on the coldest day in winter, you might see or hear a Downy Woodpecker give its whinnylike call in the woods at the Garden. This hardy, adaptable bird is built to get food left by other birds that leave town for the winter. Woodpeckers can …
Type: Birding
Unusually mild weather might cause some buds on flowering shrubs to bloom prematurely. These flower buds will not rebloom in spring, but there will be enough of the unopened buds to flower at their appropriate time. Forsythia, viburnum, flowering quince, weigela, and magnolia will often bloom sporadically during warm periods in late fall or early winter. Continue to cut branches for forcing …
Type: Plant Info
Topiaries, whether formal or whimsical, large-scaled or edible, can be a fascinating addition to most garden spaces. A plant familiar to many gardeners because they have either grown it, eaten it, or admired it as a tiny topiary is the versatile herb, rosemary. Rosmarinus officinalis is an evergreen shrub hardy to zone 6. In its native Mediterranean environment, it can reach 6 feet, but in …
Type: Plant Info
… can only find cow and horse manure through retail sources. Consider the source before you buy! Search out an organic, hormone-free source or farming operation if you'd like to add manure …
Type: Plant Info
… sachets. This traditional craft makes an attractive gift as fresheners for dresser drawers. Buy the small decorative cloth bags to fill and tie with a pretty ribbon; or if you’re crafty, …
Type: Plant Info
“The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades—these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts.” —Anonymous lines found on an old tombstone in Cumberland, England "While life lasts." This can be a very brief moment in time for a spring ephemeral. In that narrow window of time between thawing ground and the leafing out of the tree canopy, …
Type: Plant Info
A container garden can be as simple as a window box overflowing with annuals, as playful as a tub filled with tomatoes, or as romantic as an antique urn laced with roses and baby's breath. Choose a style to make your own! Versatile and Beautiful On decks and rooftops, container plantings bring life, color, and softness to hard edges. Close to doorways, they welcome visitors with texture and …
Type: Plant Info
In summer, gardening requires plants with three key qualities: low maintenance (it's hot out there), heat and drought tolerance (ditto), and brilliant color—the brighter the better. Zinnias fit the bill on all three counts. And more. In fact, they're one of the best flowers that smart gardeners can put to work in their gardens. Zinnias are planted in nearly every one of our 27 display gardens. …
Type: Plant Info
There’s still plenty to enjoy in the garden in August and September. Later-blooming perennials, annuals, and shrubs can provide color for weeks to come. And many of their blossoms offer nectar to migrating butterflies and ruby-throated hummingbirds. Here are a dozen good-looking, late-season wonders for your garden. Butterfly bush (Buddleja) Butterfly bush is a magnet for flower-feeding …
Type: Plant Info
